AN: First, thank you for all of the wonderful feedback this far! I appreciate it! Hope you all are having a wonderful week. :) Second, wow! I apologize if anyone was notified of the last update like five bajillion times. I had to make one edit, but then ff doubled the notifications for some reason. Anyway, hopefully that doesn't happen again!

Disclaimer: I do not own glee.

Ch 13. Avoidance

Kurt spent the next week moping and finding ways to avoid seeing Blaine. He wasn't so cruel as to not take his calls or texts, but he just couldn't see him. Not yet. As much as Blaine had been crushed by Jeremiah's rejection, Kurt was crushed by Blaine's lack of (romantic) interest in him. It didn't matter that he'd never expressed to Blaine how he felt, he just expected Blaine to know. Which of course, as Mercedes tried to remind him, was irrational. But whatever.

So because he was avoiding Blaine (and by default Wes), he avoided the Lima Bean and tried to stick to just drinking coffee from the maker at home. He was so distracted that his homework grades were slipping a bit, and he wasn't quite sure how to get this under control. He was careful not to attract the attention of his family with these changes in his behavior, but they still noticed. And asked where Blaine was, and why they hadn't seen him around more. He made up something about him being busy with the school stuff.

"Kurt, you have to stop with this moping," Rachel declared on day three, accosting him at his locker. "It'll ruin your singing."

He blinked at her, and turned around to walk in the other direction.

"Seriously dude, who do I have to go beat up?" Puck asked when he learned that Kurt's behavior was due to boy troubles.

He ignored him.

"Hey porcelain," Santana called to him in the hall, "you look like a little girl whose favorite Ken doll married Barbie instead of you."

He ignored her too.

"You may not know this, but I'm pretty handy with a nail file," Quinn confided to him as they sat together in Lit class.

"It's true," Sam smirked, leaning back to hear their conversation better.

He tilted his head in confusion.

Quinn shrugged. "You know, in case you need to break into a locker or a car… or a dorm room… and like deface it or something."

He smiled, but remained silent.

The attempts to throw him from his melancholy came in all shapes and forms, from Britney bringing him a giant stuffed teddy bear to hug to Tina asking if she needed to teach him the trade of scaring people with vampirism. None of it worked. Even Karofsky seemed to notice his down-trodden spirits.

"Hey homo, did that school-girl outfit wearing fairy of yours break up with you?"

He followed this with a slam into the nearest locker. It hurt so much that he had to bite back a cry of pain. Kurt sat on the floor for several minutes and stared blankly at the passing students.

"Get up, Porcelain," a rough voice said from above him.

He looked up to see Coach Sylvester standing next to him, lips curled into a sneer.

"Why?" he asked quietly.

"Are you questioning me?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. "Up, now, and come with me to my office."

He considered ignoring her, but the look on her face told him that that might be an act akin to suicide. So he got up and followed her quietly back to her office.

"Sit," she said.

He did.

"Drink this," she said, shoving a cup of coffee into his hands. "You obviously have not been drinking enough coffee."

He did.

"Did I or did I not tell you to come to me with your problems?" she questioned dangerously.

He swallowed.

"Umm. You did, but this is more of a personal issue, Ms. Sylvester."

"Coach."

"I'm sorry?" he asked, tilting his head.

"It's coach to you. And it looked a bit like bullying when Karofsky shoved you into that locker a few minutes ago."

"Oh," he said. "Well yeah. That was bullying, but it's not really any worse than normal. I'm just… I'm just having boy troubles."

Well that was awkward to say out loud to a teacher.

"Your grades are slipping," she snapped out.

"What? How would you even know that?"

"I know everything," she reminded him. "Your grades are slipping and this is not acceptable. You got a B on your last physics assignment."

"B is average, and the fact that you know this is creeping me out a bit."

"You need to rejoin the cheerios. It'll keep you busy, get your mind off of that stupid hobbit, bring up your social status, and help you keep your grades up. Plus it'll help me win another national championship."

He was baffled. She wanted him back on the Cheerios?

"You know why I quit," he said with a shrug. "I'm sorry, but I'm not interested in rejoining the cheerios. I'm sure you can find another almost equally talented person to help you win nationals."

"Porcelain, I don't want to, but I will destroy your reputation if I have to. You won't have a choice but to rejoin my cheerios."

"… I really don't have a reputation to speak of. So if you're thinking of trying to turn my friends against me or something, I don't think you'll get very far. You've never been successful in any of your schemes against glee club."

"That is categorically untrue. Porcelain, I'll make you head cheerio. Just come back to me and be my minion again."

He snorted. "No thanks, I'm not into stabbing my friends in the back."

"Last chance porcelain," she said, eyes dark.

He frowned. What was going on in that head of hers?

"No thanks," he repeated. "Was there anything else that you wanted to talk to me about?"

She growled at him.

"No. Get out of my office."

He stood, and stopped at the door.

"Thank you for noticing what I'm going through," he said, not looking at her. "I'm not sorry for not rejoining the cheerios, but you're still my favorite teacher in this rotten place."

She rolled her eyes at him.

"Well, thank you porcelain. I'm touched. But I'm still going to destroy you. Now get out."

He did.

As he walked down the hall toward his next class, he vaguely regretted not getting a pass from her.

Up Next: Kurt has an awkward run in at the Lima Bean, and a confrontation.