Coming Together...

“And that’s everything I know,” Kendra said with a shrug moments before biting into the last corner of her sandwich. Then, with a finger to her chin and a mouthful of bread, she added, “Although…was there another brunette…?”

“Yeah, Madison,” Kurt sat at a right angle to the older brunette at the dining room table, weary from having listened to every minute detail about Shawn’s life and past, or at least everything he’d revealed to Kendra, which happened to a lot. “We already know about her.”

“I can’t believe someone just left this sandwich sitting on the counter,” Kendra remarked, licking her lips. “Shawn is odd. He doesn’t like to let people in, but he’s also not afraid to tell them about himself. Except for me, or at least, that’s how it used to be until she came along and messed everything up.”

Kurt knew the 'she' that Kendra was referring to was Victoria, the tall blonde in the next room, and by messed up she’d meant that Shawn lured her to an apartment and fucked her into submission. But Kurt didn’t blame Kendra for thinking badly of Victoria. Having spent that much time around Shawn, it wasn’t surprising that her perspective was all out of whack. Like a car that wasn’t running as smoothly as it should, her engine just needed a little re-tuning.

“Even with you, it seems like a control thing, don’t you think?” Kurt posited simply. “When he thought you could be trusted, he freely shared information with you, just enough to make you feel wanted or needed, but I don’t think he’d have liked it if you tried to get personal on your terms.”

“No…I remember one time, the last time, I came to his home and accidentally ran into his parents. There wasn’t a problem. They were civil, and Shawn introduced me, but it was very formal and stilted. When he got me alone again he was livid. He accused me of planning it, trying to meet his parents to **** us to date again and banned me from ever coming to his house again,” Kendra said, her eyes watery, before shaking her head, and shaking the hurt from her voice. “But that’s just Shawn. He puts up walls, but you can’t **** through them. You have to let him bring them down.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t think anything you’ve told me will help. I had considered calling his bluff with his dad, but it does sound like his family would rather avoid the scandal and would probably rather deal with his punishment themselves.” Kurt leaned back and folded his arms. “But that’s just a temporary fix. In time, he’d be back.”

“Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.” Kendra pushed the plate away and leaned on the table with her elbows, her arms stretched out, hands clasped. “Lately though, Shawn has been keeping things from even me, so even I don’t know what his next move will be.”

“No, you’ve been a great help. I…we really appreciate it. It probably wasn’t easy for you to come here,” Kurt reached out and placed a hand on hers. “But thanks to you we’re aware that Shawn knows Victoria has been caught and that we know the truth. By now he maybe even suspects that she’s turned against him. It’s not your fault I’m at a loss with what to do with that information.”

“Well, I do know one thing: Shawn won’t give up that easily. Even if he has lost, he’ll want to punish her, and you…” she bowed her head slightly and swallowed. “And now, probably me too.”

“Hey now, I won’t let that happen,” Kurt assured her, scooting his chair closer to hers. “I’ll think of a way to put an end to this. If I can do that, I’ll protect both Victoria and you.”

“The worst thing is I don’t even know what I want. I feel it in my bones, that if I could, I’d just run back to him. From the moment he banished me, I’ve felt lost,” Kendra whimpered. “Unanchored. Adrift. I didn’t even mean to come here. I was just driving and found myself heading in this direction.”

He shushed her and lifted her chin, so she would look at him eye to eye. “You did the right thing.”

Those words seemed to have a profound effect on Kendra. He could physically see the tension alleviate from her neck and shoulders, the weight just being shed from her body. The confirmation settled her nerves, but it showed how much she was willing to trust Kurt that she believed his reassurances. Sitting side by side, hands on hers gazing at each other’s face, the most natural thing seemed to be to kiss. He felt that he should. He saw Kendra wet her lips and took that as a pretty good sign that, yes, he should.

Victoria’s face came to mind and Kurt began to wonder whether she would consider this cheating. Not that he and Victoria were dating, but he had promised to protect her. And hadn’t he just promised Kendra the same thing? Victoria might see that as a betrayal, a sort of sleeping with the enemy, especially if he sealed the deal with a kiss, or more. Then there was Chloe, who warned him not to sacrifice his own happiness just to do the right thing. So, the question became, ‘what would make him happy?’ He didn’t even know. His cock twitched in his bottoms, but he already knew what would make 'it' happy.

“Hey, have either of you seen my-” Ashley stopped mid-sentence, not because she’d caught sight of the pair eye-fucking each other, but rather because her own eyes had descended upon the plate and put two and two together. “You fucking ate my sandwich!”

“If you wanted it why did you leave it on the counter?” Kendra asked, withdrawing her hands from the table.

“And why do you look like you just ran a marathon?” Kurt turned in the chair, looking up and down at the petite blonde, her pyjamas clinging to her skin, shiny from dried sweat.

“I…I was doing Brandon a favour,” Ashley looked away, her cheeks already flushed so her embarrassment didn’t add much. “And then I fell asleep for a bit. But it was MY sandwich.”

“Well, you snooze, you lose,” Kendra smirked and leaned back.

Kurt could sense a fight brewing between the girls, so he swivelled from the seat and stood, between them. “Calm down. I’ll make you another sandwich, okay?”

“You bastard. Did you know?”

Brandon stormed into the room so fast his footsteps echoed behind him like thunder after a flash of lightning. He stepped right up to Kurt and grabbed the older teen by his shirt, his powerful quarterback body almost lifting the other boy off his feet. He had a face like fury, his eyes burning with hatred and betrayal and he was staring directly at Kurt. The other teen suddenly knew what it felt like to be a deer in the headlights, caught in the path of an persistent, unmovable **** and, panicking, could think of no way out of his current predicament.

“Uh…know what?” Kurt stammered, though he was quite certain he knew.

“That Madison fucked Shawn,” Brandon said, shaking Kurt as if he could cause the truth to loosen and simply fall out. “You told me you didn’t know who she fucked.”

“I didn’t. At least I didn’t when you asked last night,” Kurt hesitantly explained, causing Brandon to growl, showing that it was of little comfort to the football player. “I only found out this morning when Victoria told me, I swear.”

Ashley put her hands on her hips. “You mean to tell me that I fucked Trent for nothing?”

Brandon ignored her, shaking Kurt roughly again. “But you knew. You’d been tracking Shawn all night. You were with Victoria and she went there to meet him. You expect me to believe you knew all that and you didn’t know about Madison and Shawn?”

“We…we got there too late. I had my suspicions because Madison said she went to trick Shawn into telling her what happened to Victoria at the apartment, but when we found her Shawn had already high-tailed it out of there,” Kurt elaborated hastily, caught between telling Brandon everything he knew and trying to save his own skin. “I didn’t know for certain and I didn’t want to alarm you if it wasn’t true.”

“Alarm me? That piece of shit fucked my sister. I’m going to kill him,” Brandon said, raising his fist. Right after I kill you for keeping it from me.”

Brandon made to punch Kurt but found his arm unusually laden. He looked and saw Ashley’s petite form hanging from his fore arm, and lower down, arms wrapped around his bunging bicep, Kendra tightly restrained him. It took the complete effort of both girls to keep Brandon from bringing his fist down upon Kurt’s face. He shook his arm, trying to free himself.

“Get off,” Brandon ordered, swinging his arm back and forth.

“Not until you’ve calmed down,” Ashley insisted.

“Your sister is the one who fucked him,” Kendra noted, reapplying her grip on his arm. “Go confront her about it.”

“You’re not helping,” Ashley glowered at the brunette.

“I already heard it with my own ears from her,” Brandon briefly shut his eyes, trying not to hear Madison’s moaning voice comparing Victoria’s fingering technique to Shawn’s. “I couldn’t believe it. I had to come and confirm it. Confirm that everyone has been lying to me. AGAIN!”

“This isn’t a conspiracy, Bran,” Ashley said, trying to sound soothing even as she gripped his forearm. “I didn’t even know about this until you came in here shouting about it. You don’t think I wouldn’t have told you something like this when you made a deal with me to keep Madison away from Trent?”

“This is exactly what we were trying to avoid.” Kurt grabbed Brandon’s wrist, trying to pull himself free. “You getting angry and swearing to **** someone isn’t productive. It’s not going to change what happened.”

“No, but it’ll make me feel better and that’s a start,” Brandon argued stubbornly.

The quarterback tried to shake the girls loose again, but this time found them heavier and stronger than before. In fact, another arm, from somewhere, had snaked up under the outstretched arm that held Kurt and Brandon found himself being quickly dragged apart from his quarry. Looking further over his shoulder, he could just make out Zack’s face, the dark haired teen having grabbed the larger boy in a half nelson, while Heather helped the girls hold back his other arm.

“What the fuck is going on?” Heather asked. “We heard the commotion from all the way down the hall!”