The sun was shining brightly on that hot summer day. Kurt Hummel was driving his beloved Lincoln Navigator to the mall for some well-deserved shopping. He turned the music on, and began singing along to Lady GaGa's Alejandro while thinking about how his life was turning out.

It had been two weeks since the William McKinley glee club had lost at Regionals, and now the final school exams were over as well. Kurt had the whole day to himself, and that made him very happy. Things were better at home; Finn was finally getting more comfortable with the fact that they had to share the same bedroom. He had also apologized for that dreaded day when they had a huge fight. In fact, the two of them were now closer than ever. Finn was in a relationship with Rachel Berry for the second time, and often confided in Kurt. It did sting a little, since Kurt had had feelings for Finn for a long time, but he was actually glad that it allowed them to bond. Kurt had once and for all accepted that he could never be with Finn the way he wanted, but he still loved him very much, and would keep doing so as a friend.

At the mall, Kurt went to the Guess store. It wasn't exactly his taste, but he knew his best friend Mercedes had her eyes set on a leather purse she had seen there, and her birthday was the following week, so Kurt had decided to buy it for her. As he was browsing men jeans, plugged to his iPod, the purse tucked under his arm, he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around, startled.

"Kurt Hummel."

Much to Kurt's surprise, Jesse St. James was standing in front of him. Kurt quickly pulled his earbuds off.

"Jesse St. James. I'm surprised you even remember my name."

"Don't sell yourself short, Kurt. You're quite hard to forget."

The taller young man was smiling his usual cocky smile. He was wearing a designer t-shirt and dark boot-cut jeans. Kurt thought he looked strikingly handsome, but he quickly brushed aside these thoughts. He was the enemy, the star of Vocal Adrenaline. Kurt just couldn't think he was hot. Evil? Yeah, definitely. But hot? No way.

Kurt gave Jesse his most bitchy look. "What do you want from me?"

Jesse laughed. "Calm down, Adam Lambert. I saw you, and I thought we could chat for a bit. Is that so wrong? After all, we used to be in the same glee club."

"Yes, before you ran back to Vocal Adrenaline because, quote, we never really accepted you. And at about the same time, Rachel found out her mother is in fact the coach of your glee club. Weird coincidence, isn't it?"

Jesse's smile grew even larger. "You're even cleverer than I thought."

Kurt couldn't help but blush a little, flattered. Maybe Jesse was evil, but the fact remained that he was popular and, well, older.

Kurt forced himself to seem exasperated. "Really, Jesse, let's stop this right here. What could we possibly have to say to each other? We have nothing in common."

Jesse leaned closer to Kurt. "That's where you're wrong, Kurt Hummel. We have a lot more in common than you think."

Kurt recognized that strange sparkle in the eyes of the star of Vocal Adrenaline: lust. The young man's heartbeat went faster.

"And just what do you mean by that?"

"You know exactly what I mean," Jesse answered, leaning even closer. Their foreheads were almost touching. "I'm gay."

They looked into each other's blue eyes. Kurt could feel the electricity between them.

"Is that creep giving you any trouble, Kurt?" a girl's voice asked.

Kurt jumped back, startled. They both looked towards the entrance of the store and saw Mercedes walking up to them at a fast pace.

Without waiting for Kurt to answer, she pointed her finger at Jesse. "You stay away from my boy Kurt, you hear me?"

"No offense, Mercedes, but I think Kurt's old enough to decide that himself." Jesse was still smiling, but much to his surprise, Kurt could see a hint of disappointment in his expression.

"Oh, puh-lease. Kurt doesn't want anything to do with the Vocal Adrenaline douche-bag-in-chief. So back off, 'kay?"

Jesse raised his hands as a sign of surrender. Then he looked at Kurt one last time, smiled and… winked.

"What the heck did he want from you?" Mercedes asked as Jesse exited the store. She obviously hadn't seen the wink; otherwise she wouldn't have asked that question.

Kurt was still too stunned to answer properly. "He… I… um… let's talk about this later, okay? Wanna go to my house?"

Kurt furtively dropped the purse and pulled Mercedes out of the store, giving one last look to the spot where the unexpected meeting had taken place.

"Oh… my… god. Jesse St. James is GAY?"

The two best friends were lying comfortably on floating lounge chairs in Kurt's huge above-ground pool, each holding a virgin strawberry daiquiri in a plastic cup.

"That's what he told me. But in all honesty, I don't think we can trust anything that comes out of that boy's mouth."

"Why did he tell you that, anyway?"

"I don't know…" Kurt was glad he was wearing sunglasses so his embarrassment wasn't too apparent. "I kind of think he was coming on to me."

Mercedes laughed. "What?"

Kurt got offended. "Insulting much? Is it so hard to believe that a handsome young man would try to seduce me?"

"Sorry, Kurt. You know that's not what I meant. It's just so unexpected after, you know… Rachel."

"I know. Sorry." Kurt replied with a much friendlier tone. "And you're right. I knew he was faking that relationship with Rachel, but if Jesse really is gay, then I have no idea how he managed to pull that off. Just the thought of being in a relationship with that girl makes me sick."

"Do you think they… you know…"

Kurt raised his D&G sunglasses to look at his friend. "What, had sex? I don't know, and I have no interest in the matter. All I know is that I dread the day I'll walk on Finn and Rachel in my bedroom."

They chatted some more after that ("What were you doing at Guess anyway?" "Me? Nothing."), just lying in the sun. They didn't hear the tall dark-haired teenager who climbed on the swimming pool's deck.

"Hey, guys."

Kurt and Mercedes both looked up to see Finn, grinning in his swimsuit. Kurt's heart stopped for half a second. No matter how many times he had seen the taller boy without a shirt on, it always did things to him. That smirk, however, was not a good thing.

"What are you doing here, Finn? Aren't you with Rachel?" Kurt asked.

"Nope, she's got ballet lessons. I heard you guys and I thought I'd join you! I hope you don't mind."

"Don't you DARE!" Kurt shouted.

But it was too late. Finn stepped back a bit, then ran to the edge of the deck and jumped in the water, holding his knees close to his head. The result was just what he had hoped for: Kurt and Mercedes were now soaking wet.

"You… you bastard!" Kurt said, half surprised and half mock-offended.

"Oh, you are SO getting it, white boy!" Mercedes added.

They both got off their lounge chairs and proceeded to thoroughly splash water in Finn's face. The friendly battle went on for a while before the teenagers decided to call it a day and went inside the house for dinner.