Chapter Ten
A/N: Okay, so apparently not too many people enjoyed Chapter 9. That's unfortunate, but I like the way it went. I hope people like this chapter a little bit more.
Kurt walked into school the next day in a bad mood. He kept replaying the moment in his head where Jenny ran out of his house looking on the verge of tears. His dad and Carole wanted to know what happened, and he told them, but he could tell they were siding with Jenny, so he didn't bother to stay and wait for them to make him feel bad for badgering her. Kurt's phone rang. Blaine's picture appeared on his screen. He sighed and decided to answer it to find out what he wanted.
"Hi Blaine." Kurt didn't sound excited at all.
"Kurt, hi. How are you?" He asked.
"I've been better, thanks for asking. Was there any reason in particular that you phoned?" Kurt got straight to the point. Blaine jumped on it.
"Actually yes. I was wondering if you had talked to Jenny last night?" Blaine waited on baited breath to hear what Jenny may have told him. Kurt's eyes bugged out a little.
"What do you know about Jenny? Why would you be asking if I talked to her?" Kurt snapped. Blaine had nothing to do with Jenny. He couldn't figure out why he would be asking about her. There was an uncomfortable silence on the other end of the phone. Clearly, Blaine caught Kurt in a bad mood.
"I was just...um..." Blaine tried to figure out how to tell him.
"Ummm?"Kurt pushed.
"Jenny came here to talk to me yesterday." Blaine blurted out. Now it was Kurt's turn to be silent.
"She told me she was running some errands." Kurt couldn't believe he just caught her in more lies.
"Well, it wasn't a total lie. When you phoned, we were in the middle of talking." Blaine tried to help.
"Oh great. So you were talking about me. Isn't that fantastic. Just so you know, I'm not a huge Jenny fan right now. There are things that she's lying to me about and won't tell me and now I just caught her in another one. She didn't tell me she was going to see you." Kurt huffed. He was starting to get a migraine. Blaine was thinking on the other end of the line.
"Actually, she is very good at lying. It made me kind of uneasy." He admitted.
"What do you mean?" Kurt actually wanted to hear what Blaine had to say for the first time during the conversation.
"Well, when she was here and you phoned, she just changed the subject so easily. There didn't seem to be any panic when you asked her where she was. She just changed the subject. Then when she was leaving, she almost got me in trouble for not reporting to the main office and she completely lied to my teacher without even batting an eyelash. Apparently Jenny is now my sister." He let that sink in. "Lying just came way too easily for her and it sort of bothered me." Blaine admitted, although he tried to redeem Jenny in Kurt's eyes a little bit. "But she really did help me out when we talked." He hadn't even realized he opened a can of worms until the words were out of his mouth. Kurt took a deep breath. He was pretty interested to hear what they were talking about.
"And what did you talk about?" He asked. Blaine started to panic on his end of the phone, but he remembered what Jenny said about not being scared or giving him some ridiculous answer because it would push him away.
"Can we maybe get together for coffee after school? I think it's something I need to tell you in person." He attempted.
"That depends. Are you going to start explaining things and then just wind up humiliating me again?" Kurt leaned against his locker.
"No. I owe you an explanation and I will give you the real one, even if it isn't enough for you, I will give you the whole explanation." Blaine's palms were getting sweaty at the prospective of telling Kurt the truth.
"Fine. I just can't do it after school today. New Directions is having one last long run through since Sectionals is on Saturday." Kurt wanted to see him, but there was no way, owing to the fact that it was Friday.
"Can we go for coffee after Sectionals then?" Blaine decided it was a good thing that he didn't get nervous around big shows, otherwise he would be a basket case during the show knowing that he had to see Kurt afterwards.
"After Sectionals sounds good. Anyway, I have to go, my classes are about to start." Kurt checked his hair in his mirror one more time."
Kurt sat down in his seat, not really looking forward to seeing Jenny, not even to badger her more. He was still reeling over the news that she drove all the way to Dalton and didn't even bother to mention it. A tiny little voice at the back of his head told her that he hadn't given her a chance to talk last night. He told that voice to shut up because she could have told him when she was on the phone with him. She could even have told him before she left to drive there.
"Hey Kurt." Mercedes smiled, taking the seat next to him. "Hey listen, I'm glad we talked yesterday. You were right. I really wasn't giving Jenny a fair chance." She turned to talk to him. He gave a short derisive laugh.
"I'm starting to think you were right. Apparently things have changed a lot since we were little. Just because we were best friends seven years ago it doesn't mean we still are." He rubbed his temples as he told her all about the night before.
"So let me get this straight, she couldn't even give you a straight answer about not wanting to move in, she's keeping something from you about her past that apparently your dad knows about and then she lied to you about going to Dalton?" Mercedes tried to sort it all out. Kurt nodded. "Girl's got some issues." Kurt laughed. The stress was really starting to get to him. Class had already started before he realized that Jenny hadn't shown up for class.
By lunch time, she still hadn't shown up, which ruled out running late for school. He decided to text her.
I talked to Blaine today. I can't believe you lied about going to Dalton too. What else aren't you telling me? Is that why you didn't show up for school today?
Jenny's phone vibrated on her bed next to her. She picked it up and read the message. It answered her question as to whether or not Kurt was still mad at her, but at least he talked to Blaine, which was a good sign. She didn't want to lie to him anymore, so she just didn't respond. Jenny let her head fall back on her pillow gently. Her father had been in a bad mood when she came home the night before and she definitely felt his anger.
Kurt didn't get a response from her. He decided to go with the image of her sick and sleeping in his head rather than just not responding so that he didn't have to be any more angry. He was walking to his next class, wondering about the huge mess he called his life. Someone grabbed the back of his neck and squeezed.
"Hey Kurt. Where's your little friend today?" Karofsky whispered in his ear. Kurt didn't respond, the pain in his neck was too great. "Maybe she's still stuck in the locker I shoved her in yesterday." Kurt's eyes widened.
"What?-" He tried to talk.
"That's right. She threatened me so I made sure she knew she couldn't mess with me. You better learn from her. If you tell anyone what happened, I'll make sure you can't tell anyone anything ever again." He shoved Kurt to the floor and stepped over him, walking away. Kurt rubbed the back of his neck. He had no idea Jenny was being bullied too aside from that one incident in the hallway on her second day. He tried to figure out when Karofsky had the chance to get to her yesterday and the only thing he came up with was when he was in glee club. Suddenly, a snapshot appeared in front of his eyes. Jenny standing at the classroom door with Mr. Schuester yesterday when she came to get the keys to his car. She did look slightly rumpled. Kurt picked himself up off the floor and set out to find Mr. Schuester.
"Hola Kurt!." Mr. Schuester smiled, sitting at his desk in his Spanish classroom, waiting for the class to arrive.
"Hey Mr. Schue, I have a question for you." Kurt placed his hands lightly on his desk.
"Is it about your Spanish homework?" He propped his feet up on his desk and put his hands behind his head.
"Actually no. It's about yesterday. When you got to the the glee club, you were with Jenny. Where did you meet up?" Kurt bit his lip.
"It's funny you should ask. It was kind of odd. I was walking down the hallway to glee and found her stuck in a locker. She needed me to let her out." Mr. Schuester shrugged. Kurt looked at him in disbelief.
"And you didn't think to ask why she was in a locker and needed you to let her out?" He asked him.
"Well, I did. She said it was a long story." Kurt's eyebrows gave a quick pump. Why wasn't he surprised that she didn't tell the truth? "What's going on Kurt?" Mr. Schuester asked, sensing something more was going on.
"Nothing. Thanks Mr. Schue. See you in glee club." He turned on his heel and left. He pulled out his phone and called Jenny.
Jenny watched her phone light up with Kurt's picture. She contemplated answering it, but she was just too tired, so she just watched as it finally went dark again and a minute later.
Kurt couldn't believe she wasn't answering her phone. Her voicemail kicked in.
"Jenny, you better be sleeping with your phone on silent because I've texted you and now I'm phoning you. Why didn't you tell me Karofsky stuffed you in a locker yesterday? What the hell else am I going to find out? I can't believe how awesome you are at lying. I guess that's one thing I didn't know about you." Kurt hung up, shaking his head. Jenny watched as Kurt's picture lit up her phone with a voicemail icon.
After glee club, Mr. Schuester made his way back to his apartment building. It had been an exhausting day, but they were completely ready for Sectionals. They were going to kill it. He stepped into the main lobby to get his mail. He groaned loudly. They screwed up his mail again. He was getting mail for the apartment right under him along with his own. He hated going to deliver that guy's mail. He was loud and obnoxious and always yelling at someone. He had put in several complaints to his landlord about him. With slow movements, he forced himself to get off the elevator at the floor below him and walk down the hallway. He looked at his watch. It was almost seven thirty. Hopefully he wasn't interrupting his dinner or anything. He didn't feel like getting yelled at. He heaved a sigh and knocked on their door.
After waiting a minute, he didn't get an answer, but he could hear the tv blaring. He tried again.
"Sir," He knocked. "I'm sorry to bother you, but I got your mail again. I would slide it under the door but one of the envelopes is too thick-" The door opened as wide as the chain lock would allow. He was shocked into silence.
"Jenny?" Was all he could manage. Jenny's eyes widened and she grabbed the mail from his hand, slamming the door closed in his face. After a minute, he realized what happened. He started pounding on the door again. "Jenny? Open the door! Why weren't you in school today?" He continued knocking.
Mr. Schuester was the last person Jenny was expecting to see. She was thankful that she was just about to leave for work which meant she already had her makeup on. He couldn't see any bruises. She went back into her room and threw her mail down on her bed, noticing the thicker envelope was from her brother. She didn't have time to look at it though, she had to get to work. She couldn't go out the door in case Mr. Schuester was still standing there, so she heaved her window open and slid out onto the fire escape, closing her window again. Jenny walked quickly down the street, heading to work and thinking about how everything was going wrong and all at the same time.