Third period. It was had become Kurt's mantra sometime in the middle of the night. There had been no phone call. No knock on the door. He kept himself logged into his AIM all night on the off chance Matt might possibly log on. In an effort not to seem like a stressed out whack job, he had limited himself to exactly two Facebook postings that seemed distressingly similar. There was a very long talk he had with himself around midnight that showing up outside the Rutherford house might work in a movie but here in the real world it would lead to a very unpleasant conversation at the Lima Police Department. In the end, Kurt convinced himself that by third period everything would be fine, that he was worried for nothing and his ever increasing doomsday scenarios for Matt were just the stuff of far too many badly made Lifetime movies.

Because at third period, Matt was going to walk through that door and offer one hell of an explanation as to what exactly happened last night.

Unless he had completely lost his ability to read people (and he refused to believe that had actually happened), there was as good of a chance of him landing the cover model of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition as there was for last night to go well for Matt. Every time he had attempted to close his eyes last night, the stern angry expression of Mrs. Rutherford would return to him. And then he would wake up shivering. He had been bullied, taunted and tossed into dumpsters for most of his academic career and nothing scared him as badly as that look had

There was always the off chance a miracle happened. Mercedes had pointed out more than once last night he had been convinced his dad would desert him and look how wrong he had been. But his dad had admitted to getting used to the idea for years, and it was still a work in progress with them. For example, Kurt knew there was no way his dad would ever want to know even the short version of what went down last night. Just a short he had broken up with Sam and then after an acceptable time period let it be known he was seeing someone else.

He winced a little as he thought of Sam, not for the first time that day. Since it probably wasn't a good idea to break up with one guy while you were planning to leave the second another guy called you, Kurt had decided to take the chicken's way out: avoidance. Thankfully Finn didn't ask too many questions and just nodded at Kurt's request to tell Sam (if he called, although Kurt wouldn't have blamed him if he didn't) he wasn't home. If Finn thought it was strange, he never said anything and since Carole and Dad hadn't come down to ask him what was going on, Finn clearly hadn't mentioned his request to anyone either. Clearly, he was going to owe Finn. Maybe not in the realm of spending an entire evening making small talk with Rachel but still he would owe him big.

Glancing up at the clock for what felt like the twentieth time, Kurt noticed there was just a minute left until the bell rang. The class Matt had before this was just across the hall. He was normally here by now. Taking a breath, Kurt kept his eyes trained on the door, running all the possible legitimate reasons why Matt wouldn't have already slid into class. He could have stayed to talk with the teacher. He got called to Principal Figgins's office. Somehow Ms. Pillsbury found out and he was sitting in her office. Mike had caught him in the hallway and they were discussing some new dance steps to demonstrate to glee tomorrow. Coach Tanaka had called him down to discuss the odds of next year's team winning more than one game. There were hundreds, hundreds he reminded himself, of reasons, legitimate reasons why Matt was running late. It didn't mean Matt wasn't at school at all.

He had to keep telling himself that for the rest of third period as it became blindingly obvious Matt wasn't going to come in with an excuse slip and sit down next to him with an apologetic smile. Matt was somewhere in the school. He was here.

And Kurt knew exactly who he had to ask.

As part of his strategy to avoid being shoved into lockers or even worse, the disgustingly filthy janitor's closet (which one would assume would be at least a little clean with all the cleaning products stored there but one would be so completely mistaken), over the past almost two years Kurt had figured out the quickest and least obstructed ways to get from one end of the school to the other with almost no intrusion. He had always been a naturally fast walker but his recent months with the Cheerios had only increased his pace. Being greeted by Santana's sneakered foot in his face was all he needed to learn to get to his mark quickly or suffer the consequences. So when properly motivated, Kurt figured he could make it from one end of McKinley to the other in under three minutes.

He was properly motivated.

Seeing the object of his search exit the chemistry lab, he yanked on Mike's sleeve to grab his attention. When the tall dancer turned to look, confusion on his face Kurt simply stated "I need to talk to you."

Mike shrugged. "Sure dude. What's going on?"

"Alone. I need to talk to you alone." Kurt stressed. Until he knew for sure Matt had confided in Mike, he wasn't about to blab Matt's secret anywhere Jacob Ben Israel might wander by.

"Ok. Cool." Mike indicated Kurt to follow him down the hall. As they neared the stairway, Mike veered off into the newspaper office. Keeping the overheard lights off, Mike closed the door behind them as Kurt filed in. "So what's so important?"

"Where's Matt?"

"Didn't you just have class with him?"

"He didn't show. He did come to school today right?"

Mike tilted his head, puzzlement written all over his face. "How would I know that? You see him more often than I do these days."

Kurt shook his head. This wasn't making sense. "You didn't come together?"

"Why would we? My car's out of the shop and I have a dance class after school. Why would Matt want to be stranded here or begging for a ride?"

"So you haven't seen him? He didn't come to your house last night?" Kurt began to pace. If Matt hadn't gone to Mike's, then where the hell was he?

"Why would Matt come to my house last night?" Mike questioned. "What is going on Kurt?"

"It's nothing. He's probably just sick." Kurt lied. "I tend to get carried with the drama in my own head. Nothing. It's probably nothing."

"I don't think so. You clearly thought I would know where Matt is. Is something going on? Why are you so freaked out about where Matt is?" Mike leaned his lanky frame against the door frame, preventing Kurt any shot of an exit. "What's going on?"

"It's nothing. Probably nothing. Just something was off at his house last night when I left and I figured if anyone would know what was going on it would be you. You're his best friend. But I'm over-reacting and there's a reasonable explanation why Matt skipped third period. However there won't be a good explanation for why we're late for fourth so we should just go."

"Something was off last night?" Mike questioned. "Off how? Off with Matt? Off with his parents? His brothers?"

"I think maybe he and his mom got into it after I left." Kurt hedged.

"Did he tell her?"

The question stopped Kurt in his track. "Did he what?"

"Did he tell her?" Mike repeated. "Him admitting he's gay probably would set her off. Mrs. Rutherford can be great but she's a bit old school."

What the Prada had he just heard? Kurt shook his head and stared at Mike, as the dancer looked to be thinking over the situation in his mind. "Excuse me? You…you...you know?"

"Of course I know." Mike shrugged his shoulders. "He is my best friend."

"But…but he said he hadn't told anyone….well his sister but still…."

"He didn't tell me but it didn't take a genius to see how uncomfortable he got when the talk turned to girls and who was hot. Or that he only ever repeated who I said was hot. Or the fact the only girls I know for a fact he's kissed are Brittany and Santana. And Brittany's made out with you so…"

"So all this time you knew and you never told him?"

"It wasn't a big thing to me. And if he wasn't ready to tell me that was cool. Matt's still my boy and all. When he started hanging out with you all the time, I figured he was getting ready to tell someone and wanted your advice."

Well advice would have been a lot easier, Kurt sighed. Deciding an abbreviated version was best for now, Kurt looked into Mike's eyes. "She knows. She kicked me out and that was the last time I saw or heard from Matt. I told him to call me later if he needed to but he didn't. I thought he might have come to see you if things went bad and needed a place to stay….but apparently you haven't seen him."

"No." Mike closed his eyes. "Ok. We're not going to panic. Things might have just gone late last night and he's at home asleep. Mrs. R can talk so I imagine she had tons to say. There was probably some praying too. We'll just keep texting him and calling his cell. Eventually he's bound to answer. I'll stop his house after school if he doesn't show up by sixth. He's around, he's just laying low."

"Right. Just laying low." Kurt repeated hollowly, not believing a word of Mike's rationalizations. They all sounded good, even reasonable, but he couldn't escape the feeling that none of them would be proven correct.

And judging by the look in Mike's eyes, the other boy didn't believe them any more than Kurt did.

"Who else knows?" Mike asked suddenly. "About Matt not being here?"

"Mercedes, Quinn, Tina and Artie have probably noticed by now." Kurt admitted. "Probably the entire team will be wondering by the end of the day."

"Sooner if Rachel notices. Thankfully Matt has Mr. Schue last period or we'd already be dealing with insanity. The last thing that would help is the entire club showing up on his doorstep. "

Kurt nodded. "We'll just tell them if no one's heard from him by tomorrow we'll meet during lunch at the choir room. Surely by then we'll know what's going on."

"Yeah. We'll know then."