Before school on Monday morning, Finn appeared at Blaine's locker.

"Hey, Finn. Feeling better?" Blaine stuffed a few books in his bag and shut his locker. He stepped back so he wouldn't have to look up so much to meet Finn's eyes. It wasn't that Blaine was short; Finn was just a good six inches taller than him, and sometimes it made things awkward when they talked.

Finn smiled and nodded. "Yeah, much better. Thanks." He gripped the strap of his backpack to keep it from falling down. "I just wanted say thanks for filling in for me at Sectionals. From what I hear, you and Rachel kicked ass on that stage. The glee club couldn't have won without you."

"It was no problem. You were still missed, though."

"I wish I could have been there. At least I still have regionals and nationals to look forward to, right?"

"Definitely. And this year, we'll bring home the big trophy."

"Hell yeah, we will." He held up his fist, and Blaine smirked, bumping it with his own. After a few seconds, Finn continued, "Sorry to, uh, change the subject, but I just really need to say this because Kurt's my brother and I just...I look out for him, you know?" Blaine was confused, but nodded and let Finn speak. "So...I know you and Kurt are serious. I like you. I think you're really good for him. I'm trusting you not to hurt him or anything because you're his first boyfriend and I'd hate to see him get hurt."

"You have nothing to worry about, Finn. I love Kurt. I think we're pretty stable."

"Oh, okay. That's...that's good," he stammered. "Thanks again, Blaine." He walked away just as the first bell rang and a rush of students filled the hallway.

After school, Blaine had gotten into his car when he realized he left his English book in his locker. He ran back into the building to get it. The hallways were almost empty now; all the students had either gone home or to their extracurriculars. As Blaine turned the corner to go to his locker, he saw Dave Karofsky coming down the hallway and towards him. When he noticed Blaine, his face turned cold.

Blaine kept walking, trying to stay to the side and avoid eye contact with the jock. Karofsky, however, held his gaze. When Blaine got to his locker, he pushed him hard against it. There was another bang as his head slammed against the metal.

"Listen, bitch," Karofsky's face was inches away from Blaine's, and his hand was to his throat. Blaine choked for air, trying to wrench Karofsky's hand away, but his efforts were fruitless. He had a steel grip against Blaine. "You think you can just come here and prance around the hallways with your fucking fairy boyfriend like you own the fucking place? You may wanna tone it down a little, or me and the rest of the team may have to do something about it. Got it?"

Blaine couldn't speak, so he nodded. "Good. I'm glad we're clear." Dave let go of Blaine and stepped back as he tried to breathe. Just when Blaine thought he would walk away, he stepped up to him again. Blaine's arms instinctively flew up to defend himself, but Karofsky only pushed him a bit. "And if you tell anybody about what I did to Kurt, trust me when I say you'll regret it." Blaine mustered up the courage to look him in the eye, and the look he saw on Karofsky's face made his blood run cold. The phrase "if looks could kill" came into Blaine's mind. But all Karofsky did was turn away and storm down the hallway, and Blaine was left shaking in both shock and horror.

When he got home, he went straight to his room and dialed Kurt's number on his cell phone. He answered on the first ring.

"Hey, Blaine."

"Kurt?" Blaine tried to sound calm, but he was breathing hard, and had begun pacing around his room.

"Yeah? What is it? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm...no, I'm not, actually."

"Do you want me to come over?"

"No, it's fine. I just need to talk to you."

"What's wrong?"

"After school, I went back to my locker to get my English book...and Karofsky came up to me."

"What? Oh my God, Blaine, are you okay? What happened? Did he hurt you?"

"I-I'm fine. He told me we needed to stop 'prancing around the hallways' and tone it down or something. I just—it was just terrifying. The look on his face..." Blaine trailed off. "And he told me not to tell anyone about what he did to you. Like I was about to."

"Are you sure you're okay? I wish I could do something about it. Maybe we can go to Mr. Schue or Figgins—"

"No. I don't want to make a big deal out of it. What if that just makes him hate me even more? I don't want to cause trouble."

On the other end of the line, Kurt sighed. "Fine. But if anything else happens, we're telling Mr. Schue."

"Okay. I'm sorry to bother you. I just needed to talk to someone."

"Blaine, don't worry about it. I know how you feel." There was a pang in Blaine's heart when he remembered that Kurt had gone through this every day for weeks without telling anyone about it, and that even when he did,

no one even cared to help him. "Thank you for telling me. I would have been even more upset if you kept it a secret. Remember what you told me when we first met?"

"What?"

"Refuse to be the victim, Blaine. Stand up to him. Have courage. You need to take your own advice for this one."

"Thank you, Kurt."

"Of course. I love you."

"I love you, too." He hung up and fell onto his bed. Kurt was right. He wouldn't let Karofsky control him like some kind of puppet. He had to stand against him.

Kurt and Blaine met at the Lima Bean the next morning.

"The thing about Karofsky is that he can be so unpredictable sometimes," Kurt said. "You never know what he'll do next. It's the worst feeling in the world...and I guess I'm not helping much, am I? I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I decided to take your advice about taking my advice. If he does anything today, I'll confront him. That's that."

"But...I'm worried about you. I don't want to see you get hurt."

"I get why you'd be worried. The minute anything happens, I promise to let you know, alright? It'll be okay." He took hold of Kurt's hand. Kurt opened his mouth as if to say something, but shut it and looked down at his cup.

"What is it?" Blaine asked.

"Okay, I know this is horrible timing, but I've been waiting to ask you for days." He looked at his boyfriend. "Blaine Anderson, will you go to homecoming with me?"

When Blaine didn't answer and only stared, looking surprised, Kurt added, "If you don't feel comfortable with it, I totally get it. We don't have to go. We could have a movie night. Homecoming isn't a big deal anyways."

"I'm really sorry, Kurt," Blaine told him. "It's just that...after what happened with Karofsky...I don't really..."

"Blaine, it's okay. It really is. We'll just stay home. To be quite honest, I'd take a night alone with you over homecoming any day." Kurt smirked teasingly. Blaine lost any and all ability to speak. All he could do was smile back and hope he wasn't making a fool of himself.

The first half of the school day went relatively well. Blaine and Karofsky didn't cross paths once, and Kurt glued himself to Blaine, watching over him all morning to make sure nothing happened. The only thing that put a damper on their day was when Kurt got slushied by one of the hockey players, but luckily Kurt keeps an "emergency outfit" in his locker at all times.

Unfortunately, the afternoon didn't go as smoothly.

Blaine had gym class for sixth period. After Mr. Howard made do countless push ups, sit ups, and laps around the gym, he was exhausted, but it almost made him forget about Karofsky and his bullying.

So, when he was done changing, he was shocked when he found himself, once again, pushed against the lockers. There were maybe five people still in the room, but once they saw Karofsky, they cleared out without looking back.

"Guess I didn't make myself clear enough yesterday, did I?" Dave spat. "You think I don't see you two, holding hands and making heart eyes all day? It's tiring to look at. I'm sick of it."

"Why are you doing this? What did I do to you?" Blaine asked. "If you're trying to be intimidating, it's not working. I won't let you keep shoving me into lockers like this. You don't scare me."

"Shut. Up!" He slammed his fist into the lockers.

"No." Blaine protested. "I refuse to give in to you. Kurt and I have just as much a right to be who we are as you do. I get what it's like for you. I know how it feels to be afraid of being who you really are. But trust me: bullying people isn't going to help anything."

Karofsky refused to listen. "I said stop talking!" He raised his fist and punched Blaine hard in the mouth, causing him to fall to the cold floor of the locker room.

"Why are you doing this?" Blaine got up again and punched back. Screw being civilized and talking things out. If Karofsky thought he was going to get in the way of him and Kurt, he was wrong. Blaine wouldn't let him. Karofsky pushed him against the lockers again, harder this time. He grabbed his shoulders and pushed him to the ground. Blaine tried to use his hands to break the fall, but he was too late and heard a snap in his left wrist. "Fuck you, Anderson." Dave kicked him in the stomach, and Blaine cried out in pain. Blaine thought he was done, but then Dave crouched over him and punched him once—no, wait, twice—more in the face. Then he boy ran, and Blaine was left alone in the locker room, afraid to move, clutching his wrist in pain. He sat there for at least fifteen minutes, wondering what he was going to do and not wanting to get up. But the next class would be coming into the locker room soon. He had to get out.

He managed to get up using the one good wrist he had left for support, and quickly left the room. As he walked into the hallway he saw students walking towards the locker room. He tried to be nonchalant as he strolled past them and the rest of the students, but his lip was bleeding, and he knew that they saw it. But, of course, no one bothered to ask if he was okay. He walked to the nearest bathroom and wiped the blood off of his face. His wrist and stomach were killing him, but there wasn't much he could do about it for now. There was no where to go. Back to class? There was still blood pouring out of his lip, and he couldn't move his wrist. There was nothing he could do but wait. He took a paper towel and, holding it to his lip, exited the bathroom.

He walked down the halls, unsure where he was going. When he realized he had no idea where he could go, he stopped. Students continued to walk around him as they filed into their classrooms. When the hallways were empty, he was struck by an idea and began to walk again, this time knowing a place where he could be alone and safe. He contemplated texting Kurt, he knew that was what he promised to do in case anything happened, but he was in the middle of class and didn't want him to worry.

When he finally reached the choir room, he opened the door and entered the silent, empty classroom. It was strange not to see it alive with the sounds of the glee club singing or discussing songs or even jabbing insults at each other. It was like it lost some of its magic.

He took a seat at the piano and played a few notes absentmindedly. His heart sunk when he realized his broken wrist would keep him from playing almost any instrument until it was healed. There was one instrument, however, that he didn't need any hands for.

So at first he began to hum, no song in particular, just random tunes that he created in his head. Then he sang, softly and quietly.

I walked across an empty land

I knew the pathway like the back of my hand

I felt the earth beneath my feet;

Sat by the river, and it made me complete.

It was the song he had sang to Kurt when he decided to transfer back to McKinley last year. He considered it one of his favorite songs. There was just something about it, about the lyrics and the way the original artist sang it, that just gave Blaine this indescribable feeling, even more so after he had sung it to Kurt.

And if you have a minute why don't we go

talk about it somewhere only we know?

This could be the end of everything

So why don't we go somewhere only we know?

Out in the hallway, the school bell rang, indicating the end of the day. Glee club wasn't for another fifteen minutes, though, so he kept singing and repeated the chorus.

"That was really good." He turned around to see Rachel standing in the doorway. She turned on the lights, and Blaine's eyes took a few seconds to adjust.

"What are you doing here?" Blaine asked.

"I'm always early..Blaine, what happened to you?" Noticing his bloody lip, she strode to him, carefully putting her hands on his face to examine the cut. "Who did that to you?"

"It's nothing. Not a big deal."

"Blaine, it obviously is. Your lip is hurt and by the looks of it, your eye is worse." What was wrong with his eye? It couldn't have bruised that quickly, could it have? "Come on, sit down." Rachel grabbed his left wrist to pull him to the piano bench, and Blaine winced in pain. Rachel looked down at his wrist, and then at his face. "You need to tell me who did this." she pleaded. "I can keep it a secret. But we need to do something about it."

Blaine sighed. "It was Karofsky."

"What?" Rachel exclaimed. "Well, I guess I'm not that surprised. But why? You need to go to the nurse. You should go home and rest..."

"No, no, I have to talk to Kurt...where's my phone...?" He fumbled around in his pockets with right hand, but couldn't feel his phone there. "I think I left it in the locker room. I'll go get it." When he began to walk away, Rachel stopped him. "The football team is probably in there for practice. I'll have Finn see if he can find it. Kurt will be here any minute." She fumbled around in her bag for her phone. SOS, she texted Kurt. Choir room, ASAP. She then texted Finn to ask him to look for Blaine's phone.

"We can't let him keep getting away with this," Rachel said. "He can't keep hurting you and Kurt and everyone else. I think you should go to Figgins."

"I don't know, Rachel. Kurt said that if anything else happened, we would go to him, but I really don't want to cause any more trouble."

"Wait...Kurt knows about this?"

"...Karofsky..." Blaine fished for the right word. "...confronted me yesterday."

"And by confronted you mean..."

"Rachel."

"Please, Blaine, just tell me. I want to help you. I won't let him get away with hurting another one of my friends."

His heart warmed at the mention that Rachel considered Blaine a friend. Of course, they had that duet at Sectionals together and he supposed they bonded a bit over it, but it was nice to hear the words out of her mouth. He could trust Rachel. "After school yesterday, he shoved me against the lockers and told me that me and Kurt need to...I don't know, 'stop being so gay' or however you want to put it. And he told me not to tell anyone about what he did to Kurt last year."

"But then he hurt you today."

"Yeah. I didn't even do anything...he just came out of nowhere. It was sixth period."

"You've been hiding in here for an entire period?"

"Only maybe fifteen minutes. I spent the rest in the bathroom trying to get my lip to stop bleeding. Does my eye look that bad?"

"No. You can barely tell. It's just a little red right now but it'll definitely leave a bruise later." Rachel nodded towards the door. "Come on. Let's get you to the nurse. I'll tell Kurt to meet you there." He linked her left arm with Blaine's right arm and walked him to the nurses' office.

Kurt looked both ways across the hallway, searching for Blaine. He was usually at his locker by now, where they always met up to go to glee club together. He waited a couple more minutes before deciding to go to the choir room by himself. Blaine's teacher is probably holding the class for an extra five minutes for some ridiculously stupid reason.

He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He had a new text from Rachel, telling him to get to the choir room as soon as possible. He had begun to walk faster and was almost to the choir room when he got another text.

Nevermind. Get to the nurses' office.

So he changed his direction to meet Rachel there and began to panic. Why did Rachel want him to go there? Did something happen to her?

When he finally reached the room, he found Rachel, looking perfectly healthy, sitting on one of the plastic chairs they had available. He was only confused for a moment, because then he saw Blaine on the bed. His lower lip and right eye looked swollen.

"I called your parents, sweetie," the nurse said, coming back into the room. "Keep putting that ice on your eye. You'll have to go to the hospital for your wrist." Blaine put an ice pack back over his eye and muttered "Thanks." The nurse left the room, and Kurt, Blaine, and Rachel were left alone. Rachel excused herself and smiled comfortingly at the two of them before leaving the room.

"Did Karofsky do this to you?" Kurt took a seat on the bed next to Blaine, who nodded. "Yeah," he said. "It was him. He came up to me in the locker room and hit me."

While Kurt was absolutely horrified, he couldn't say he was surprised. He'd tried to avoid this as best he can. Maybe he wasn't good enough...he could have done something...

"Stop. I know that look," Blaine said to him. "This wasn't your fault."

"But I could have done something to stop it."

"How? You couldn't know that Karofsky would come into the locker room after my gym class and attack me."

Kurt was silent for a moment. He knew Blaine was right. "Fine. You win this one, Anderson. But we have to go to Figgins tomorrow."

"Okay."

"I'm sorry you had to go through this."

"It's not your fault, Kurt."

"I know, but...still. I'll stay here with you until your parents come, okay?"

"Thank you."

Kurt kissed Blaine's forehead. "You're welcome."

"We'll be there soon. Thanks." Mary Anderson hung up the phone, got her coat and purse, and rushed to her husband, who was lounging in front of the television. "We have to get to Blaine's school. He's hurt. They said somebody beat him up."

Her husband, George, didn't move. "Good. Any faggot son of mine needs a good beating every now and again."

"George," Mary warned. "Please." George may not accept Blaine, but he was still their son. Mary had no problem with her son being gay, and she didn't understand why her husband couldn't look past it and at least talk to him every once in a while. Now was the perfect chance. It was one of the rare times when the entire family got to be together. This weekend, the parents' work schedules said they were both off, a vacation much needed for both of them.

"I'm not coming, Mary."

"He could be hurt badly."

"He got what was coming to him."

She starred at him in disbelief. She didn't understand how someone could be so cruel towards their own child. "I can't believe you. Blaine is our son. How could you treat him like this? Like he's some kind of animal?"

"Our son is dead to me." His face and voice was completely empty of any kind of emotion.

"And you're dead to me," Mary retorted. "I want you to leave this house."

Mr. Anderson stood up from his seat. "Excuse me? Whose name is on the mortgage? Who pays for half the shit in this house?"

"Then Blaine and I are leaving. I can't take this anymore, George. I refuse to live like this. Blaine needs to be in a better environment. This isn't good for him or me. You're a cold, heartless bastard and I don't want you around Blaine."

For a few seconds, George just stood there, staring at his wife. Then suddenly, without a second thought, he raised his hand and slapped her in the face. He drew his hand back and watched as his hand print appeared in red on her cheek. Mary refused to show any kind of weakness to him. Her face remained strong the entire time. "Goodbye, George," she said as she turned around, grabbed her keys from the table, and walked out the door.