Chapter 2

As they left the school Cooper turned to Blaine, raising an eyebrow. "What's up kiddo?"

Blaine frowned. He remembered a time when he didn't tell Cooper anything; that was when he still resented him for leaving. But Cooper was here now, and he wasn't going anywhere.

So Blaine told him everything. About Kurt. About the glee club. About his profession. And everything that Puck told him. Blaine just couldn't understand why someone would do something like that. Just sell their body like it's nothing. And even so, and even though Blaine spoke to Kurt for less than a minute, he still felt something for him.

Cooper looked lost in thought for a moment. Then he said, "I know this great coffee place."

Blaine sipped his coffee. He looked at Cooper questioningly. Cooper sighed. "I used to be a porn star."

Blaine spat out his coffee. The girl at the next table shot him a dirty look.

"W-what?"

"L.A. is expensive! My tiny one room apartment cost over $900. I went there with almost no money, no job experience, and no degree. I had to do something to feed myself."

Blaine's head was spinning. He felt a little sick too. "What about mom and dad? Couldn't you just have asked them for money?"

Cooper shook his head. "You know how they felt about my decision about being an actor. They gave a little money after graduation and that was it. They weren't going to help in anyway. I guess it was their way of trying to teach me a lesson. But I was young, and I didn't want to give up my dream just yet. Not for them. So I did what I had to do."

"Cooper…" Blaine had a thought. "Was it with men or women?" Blaine knew for a fact that Cooper wasn't in the least bit gay. But would he?

Cooper winced. "At first it was with women. Then I quickly realized I would be paid a whole lot more if I did gay porn. A whole lot more." Cooper emphasized.

Blaine looked like he was about to cry. "Hey, come on now, Blaine. It wasn't as if I was raped or something. It was completely consensual." Cooper assured Blaine.

When Blaine still looked like a kicked puppy, "Listen, the only reason I telling you this is because I know a bit of what your friend is going through. I know what it's like to be so in deep in money troubles that you'd do anything. You don't understand what that's like, and I don't ever want you to. And if he's anything like me, he's not going to let anyone help him. All your friend needs is someone to be there for him, and not judge him. It's the one thing I never had."

As an afterthought Cooper added, "Just don't try to look me up on the internet. My hair was horrible back then."

The drive the rest of the way home was quiet. Blaine just didn't know what to say. Both Cooper and Kurt were worth so much more than what they did. He couldn't ever imagine giving away something so special for a few dollars. He couldn't wrap his head around the fact that someone could be so desperate to do that.

Blaine's parents had died a little over five months ago, killed in a car crash. They were never close, especially after he came out to them, but he knew that in their own way, they loved him. They babied him, definitely. Gave him everything that he wanted.

When they died, Cooper dropped everything in LA and came to live with Blaine in Lima. He had managed to get a job as a music teacher at the local elementary school. Cooper and Blaine inherited their parent's house in Lima, which helped them save a lot of money.

His parents were well off, but both brothers found out about the huge gambling debt their father had raised. Cooper and Blaine weren't poor in any means, but they had to be thriftier than Blaine was used to. Eventually they realized they couldn't afford Dalton anymore, if they still wanted to live comfortably.

But Blaine could deal with going to a new school. He would make new friends. It was Cooper that sacrificed everything to come take care of him. Cooper had a life in LA, he was becoming successful. He left all of that for him.

As Cooper drove him to school the next day, Blaine squeezed his hand. With that gesture, he told Cooper, he accepted him, including his past. Cooper looked grateful.

Then, as he walked to the entrance, someone grabbed him.

Blaine spun around and saw a group of jocks smirking at him. "Hey new fag, we didn't get to give you your welcome present yesterday. Why don't we give it to you now!" Blaine closed his eyes. He had forgotten that this sort of thing happened at public school. The bigger boy dragged him to the dumpster. Blaine cringed as he realized what was going to happen.

"Hey!" Someone called out. "Leave him alone." Blaine turned and saw Kurt. The jock's eyes widened, and he dropped Blaine. The group scattered.

"Are you alright?" Kurt asked as he straightened out Blaine's cardigan. Blaine nodded, too confused for words. Those guys seemed afraid of Kurt.

"Sorry about them. They're jerks. They didn't hurt you, right?" Kurt looked satisfied when Blaine nodded. Well I'd better go."

Kurt walked off, leaving Blaine thoroughly confused.

Blaine waited until lunch, and then headed off to the auditorium, where, sure enough, Kurt was practicing. Blaine headed softly to the stage and sat next to Kurt.

Blaine replayed in his mind what Cooper told him yesterday, about Kurt needing someone that wouldn't judge. He decided to try and be Kurt's friend. But he couldn't accept that what Kurt was doing was his only option. He just wanted to understand. And eventually the other boy would let him help.

"You really do have an amazing voice." Blaine said, after Kurt sang his last verse.

"Why thank you." Kurt smiled at him. "It's something that I've been working on."

That smile. Everything Blaine might have had planned to say to Kurt disappeared from his brain.

"Are you sure there's no way you can return to glee? I-I mean it's really a shame to not use that voice to perform in public. If the Warblers had someone like you in the group, then we—I mean they would win every competition. I'm sure the New Directions would too. And you could let someone help you, and you can join again…" Blaine rambled.

"Puck told me he told you why I can't be in glee anymore." Kurt interrupted Blaine's rambling. Blaine reluctantly nodded.

"Then you know what my priorities are." Kurt turned to leave. "Besides, even if I did want to join back in, they wouldn't want me."

Blaine groaned. He was going about this all wrong. He was doing the exact thing that Cooper told him not to. "Wait. You don't have to go. I just wanted to talk. To get to know you! I'm sorry."

Kurt hesitated. "Please," Blaine implored. "I just want to be your friend."

Kurt sighed, and walked back towards Blaine. "Sorry. I just already have enough with Finn trying to "help" me. I'm not going to stop. I have to do this."

"I know, and don't take this the wrong way… but why? Can't you just get a regular job? I'm not trying to stop you, I'm just curious."

"I've tried that… but it's not enough. My dad's in the hospital, and while he's there, there's no one running his tire shop. The business was already in trouble before he had his heart attack. Greg, my dad's best friend, watches the store while I'm at school, but I can't make him run the place for me. I can barely pay him enough as it is.

"And then the hospital bills kept piling on, and Carole, Finn's mom, had pretty much abandoned me—not that she had any responsibility over me, but I was alone. And sometimes the store needed a replacement part and there wasn't enough money to buy it."

Kurt sighed. "No one was going to hire a kid to work after dark. So that's where my second job came in. The shop… that was my dad's life. And if he ever woke up, and found that his business, his home, and his kid were all gone, that would be enough to give him a second heart attack. It's just…he's always been a great father; I've got to take care of things for him. I owe him that much." Blaine suspected that Kurt didn't say much of this to anyone.

"Wow." Blaine said, not knowing what else to say. "But- but what about family, or a teacher, or another adult? Surely someone noticed what you're going through, I mean you're living alone, for crying out loud! You're just a kid!"

"I don't really have any other family; everyone else just thinks I'm staying with a friend. And I usually do. Puck tries to help a lot. I stay with him sometimes. But I can't let anything help me financially. I can't be anyone else's burden."

Blaine frowned. But someone should help, he thought to himself. At least Cooper was over eighteen when he started doing…what he did. But Kurt was just a kid. Didn't anyone care?

"I'm fine, really." Kurt tried to assure Blaine. "I do what I have to do. It's just another job. It's just sex; nothing I can't handle. Really. Can we change the subject now? Please?"

Blaine shook his head and sighed, feeling helpless. Then he relented. "Okay. Say, why were those jocks afraid of you? I mean, no offence, but you aren't exactly intimidating." He motioned to Kurt's thin frame.

Kurt laughed. "That," he replied, "is a really long story. But you know, I'm gay."

"Yes, I suspected…" Blaine said, not knowing what that had to do with anything.

"Well, they would make my life a living hell because of that. And they just got worse when my dad ended up in the hospital. So I had to get them to stop. It was them or me, you know? So I chose me, and I made them stop." Kurt grinned.

"But how?" Blaine asked again, as the bell signaling the end of lunch, rang.

Kurt smiled mysteriously. "A whole lot of blackmail. Puck's a genius at that. I'd say it worked. I'll tell you about it one day." Kurt winked at him before he turned and left.

...'Who the hell was this guy?' Blaine thought.