So, this new chapter is a little bit longer, but not by much. No music yet, but perhaps there will be. I know nothing about comics, sorry, my good friend Google helped me with that part. Don't take anything I say about geeks too seriously, I love nerds, they're awesome, and this just was necessary for the plot and such. So, no hard feelings? Anyway, enjoy the chapter! Oh, sorry for the cliche phone talk with Mercedes, I couldn't resist!

"And then she was all like, 'Oh, no you didn't', and then she was like 'oh, yes I did!'. Kurt? Kurt? Are you even listening to me?" Mercedes was starting to get annoyed with her best friend. Kurt had been zoning off all day, and even though being scattered around your crush made sense, him and Jesse were sharing the same planet, not the same room. "Look, Kurt, you've been acting really strange lately. You know, distract, kind of like Rachel." The gears in Kurt's head started to turn, and he mentally smacked himself. No, there was no way he could make this a supernatural thing; in this world, vampires and werewolves were myths. Besides, he was pale as it was, so an undead guy might be unflattering to his complexion. No, it had to be a coincidence that he experienced the same emotions Rachel did when in contact with Jesse. And that all of those local disappearances started around the time he started dating Rachel. "Hey, did you hear about Ms. Pillsbury's mom?"

"What, no, what happened?" Mercedes then went into an extremely detailed retelling of what the 5 main press releases had stated so far. She said what show the couple were watching when the event occurred, the cardigan brand the old man croaked in, and even the brand of tea he was drinking that happened to be poisoned. The one thing that nobody could explain was where Irma Pillsbury had gone off to.

"The tea went to testing, but whatever poison that was used couldn't have been gotten by Irma. The woman almost never left the house, and this couldn't have been made locally. People think it's somewhere kind of distant." Kind of distant. Like where Jesse went. "Kurt!"

"Sorry, just- OK, promise you won't think I'm totally insane?" Mercedes made a noise that technically meant 'yes', but screamed 'if it's embarrassing enough, and not traumatizing, half of McKinley will know by tomorrow'. But Kurt had to tell somebody, so this was his only shot. "Well, there was this boy-"

"Oh my god!"

"-when I was 6!"

"Oh."

"Yeah. So, I was 6, and we met the day of mother's funeral, and we were friends ever since. Then, one day, when he was curling my hair-" Mercedes' loud chortling could be heard from Kurt's receiver, annoying him quite a bit. "Cut it out! Anyway, he burned me, then kissed my forehead." Mercedes immediately stopped making any noises of any kind. This was the part Kurt could always rely on her for; honesty and compassion. She only ever really joked when she thought nothing was going on, so it seemed as if the story actually caught her attention for once. And considering Kurt once talked on the phone for three hours about how Finn's ass felt when he slapped it during 'Push It', moments like this were few and far between in the friendship. "I come home from school the next day, ready to play, and I get a note saying he left town. But, get this. I had a hunch of sorts-"

"Oh, honey, don't, we all know where your hunches end up!" Mercedes just couldn't help herself. The boy could delude himself far too easily when it came to things like this. Sure he hated pure fantasy, but he still couldn't distinguish what was real and what was not. He was never going to be a stereotypically romantic comedy lead.

"Wait, 'Cedes, it gets good. Really good. I saw Jesse in the parking lot, then shouted out to him, 'Hey, Charlie!'. And he turned around."

"That doesn't mean-"

"Then he admitted it, and gave me the note he wanted to give me when he moved away." Mercedes gasped quietly. Kurt was... right? Which meant-

"Oh my god, I guy likes you! Baby, I'm so happy for you! This is so huge, we're-"

"No, 'Cedes, because nothing has changed. He's still with Rachel. And he even said he doesn't want me to get involved in 'this', whatever that means. 'Forgive me, and move on'."

"Oh, that's sweet, that means he cares about you. I bet he's dark, brooding and tortured, not open to love, but one lucky guy will show him what he's missing out on." Mercedes little ode to classic love was slightly nauseating, but Kurt definitely got what she was saying. He had been dreaming of the exact same thing half of his life. Who didn't? But he couldn't help but wonder that if Charlie/Jesse wanted him to back off, what was it that he was hiding? It had to be pretty dark if after all they had been through, Charlie was still willing to throw it all away. "Hello? Earth to Kurt?"

"Oh, sorry." Kurt was pretty much done with this phone conversation. He just had to know what was going on with Jesse lately. Minus Finn's one show of affection in the hallway, which meant practically nothing, Charlie was Kurt's only memory of a nice boy doing something for him. They did just about everything together, but by no means was Charlie what some would call 'girly'. He was sweet, caring, but also rough around the edges. He liked looking nice, but never followed handbooks or silly rules, one thing Kurt felt he could always learn from him. This was Kurt's best friend, really his first love. He had to go through with this. Kurt had to know what was going on; so, when in doubt, there was only one place he knew he could go. "Hey, 'Cedes, meet me in the mall in twenty minutes!"

The mall was like an oasis in a sea of Lima Losers. Sure there were some places that could only be described as tacky and tasteless, but for the most part, it was the only place where outside influences were appreciated. They had gotten their first Versace store just a couple of months ago, and the Louis Vuitton had become a regular stomping ground for Mercedes and Kurt, who knew all of the employees by name. It was often when you could be yourself in this town, and people respected you for it, but here, everyone loved how fashion savvy Kurt was. The pair of best friends were walking around the mall with low fat smoothies in hand, and whenever they were in bad form, they always knew the one place to go.

"Geek central. Signs that there are even lamer kids at school than us." And as much as Kurt hated to say it, it was so true. Somehow, the mall had managed to get an action figure store, video game store, comic store, and novelty shop to all be within the same strip, causing the perfect alignment of total geekiness. Kids like this reminded Kurt that there was no way he was in the subbasement of popularity, because he had to be several levels above these people. Mercedes loved seeing the older guys with protruding guts and bleached blonde affairs strut around this section, as they always did, and even sometimes buying toys of the racy variety from the speciality shop (Kurt could never get the image out of his mind). But Kurt didn't just like making fun of these people; sometimes it was refreshing to see these people act so true to themselves. So what if they, at there core, were totally geeky and unfashionable, because at least they were genuine, right? So, regardless of exact reason, Kurt and Mercedes were hovering around this section, looking for a victim for their harsh fashion critique. "Hey, Kurt, why don't you just go into the comic book store, look for some geeks, and I'll check out the figurine shop for some nerds of my own. Good luck!" Kurt always felt a little guilty scoping out for ugly people, but at least he wasn't saying that to their faces, like Coach Sylvester. So, trying to be as subtle as possible, Kurt flipped through some random comic he couldn't recognize the plot of.

"You know, I never would have pegged for an Aliens fan." Kurt jumped up in complete alarm at some stranger talking to him. Who the hell did this guy think he was, a total geek striking up conversation, with his stupid comic book knowledge, witty judgements, and- and wow. Kurt wasn't sure if this guy was a victim of body swapping technology, but it was a miracle the guy didn't torch the place; hot didn't begin to describe how smoking he was. He brushed his wavy hair off of his forehead, smiling at Kurt, as he tried to come up with something to say.

"Uh, I like Aliens, they're all... extra terrestrial and stuff?" The boy just laughed at Kurt, and Kurt tried desperately hard to see the humor of falling flat on his face in front of mystery hot guy. Mercedes was not going to be impressed to hear this story.

"I'm Wes. And, apart from being a little flustered, you are..."

"Kurt." Kurt wisely left out the Hummel, because while this guy seemed nice enough, that's usually how the horror movie always started. Things were getting complicated in his life enough lately to need to add abduction to the list.

"Kurt. Well, I wouldn't believe any of that stuff in the comic about aliens, total garbage." Kurt was now truly confused. Was this just shameless flirting? His smile said so, but there was almost an underlying confidence that said something... more.

"Oh, really? So, professor, what do you think I should know about aliens?" Wes beamed back at the boy, happy to see him with a little more confidence then he first suspected.

"Well, there is a really vicious breed stalking the mall today. But don't worry, they never go after two guys who have already made plans to go for dinner tonight." Kurt wasn't exactly sure what to say. It wasn't a dream pick up line, if anything, it was pretty desperate, but what was he supposed to say. Sorry, hot stuff, my crush when I was six is back in town with a girlfriend, I have to go stalk him? So, Kurt figured, it was time to fight the aliens.

"Well, let's make sure we stay completely safe, then, won't we?"

Duh-duh-duh! Looks like Kurt's found a new squeeze. Don't worry, Kurt and Jesse will have their time together. But Wes knows a lot more about real aliens then he's letting on... sorry, forget the lame cliffhanger. Until next time!