What's Broken

glee_angst_meme: Kurt breaks a nail.

It's one of those days where Kurt had not moisturized properly the night before, and his morning's gone to hell to make up for his untimely lapse in skin care. Kurt learned his lesson in middle school with presciption acne creams; the worst mistake that people with acne make is to assume that they are people without acne as soon as the pimples go and it's a matter of time before you're hideous again.

In the interests of passing as an attractive human, Kurt does not grab his bagel or his low fat mocha.

Without the perk of sugar or caffeine, Kurt forgets to twist his body so that he doesn't land on his kidneys when the jerks lob him into the dumpster. While Kurt's aware that he doesn't necessarily need both kidneys (he considered selling one for this Balenciaga tote), he's really damn sure that having kidneys is like having parents- you want both and it screws you up inside when you don't.

With an ominous ache in his back, Kurt takes a longer time to clamber out of the dumpster, and he rips his dark wash jeans going out. Unfortunately, he had the trays of rotting pulled pork to break his fall, and sacrifices twenty minutes of his first class period to change clothes. He opts for his last emergency button-up since raising his arms over his head angers his muscles. The shirt brightens his eyes, the way that his smile never could.

He doesn't even get to the lunch period before someone discards their milk shake. Down the front of his shirt. The milk shake isn't even cold as it runs down his stomach and pools in the light wash jeans he'd changed into.

"Hey look fellas! Hummel creamed his pants!" The senior jocks high-five each other over Kurt's head, forming an Eiffel Tower.

Kurt doesn't waste his time mocking them for the phallic connotations on their methods of homophobic intimidation. He's just grateful that he doesn't have to get the smell of slightly sour milk out of his hair.

He doesn't even turn two fucking steps to the ladies' room before he's attacked from behind. He jumps as though struck by lightning, as the cold water bites into his sore back muscles. He can feel a cramp on his lower left back, and wonders if that is his kidney whimpering.

Kurt makes a joke to himself that if he'd been slushied before hitting the dumpster, he would have had the sugar overload necessary to keep his kidney out of harms' way.

He's back in the dark wash jeans which sustained a tear (but doesn't stink like rotting overcooked meat) and wearing a turquoise wife beater. Tina loans him a slashed up black shirt and a studded belt, so he works it.

Two flimsy layers doesn't cushion the hot spot on his lower left back when Karofsky thrusts him right into the locker handle. Without even looking at Kurt, the bully abruptly yanks his hand from Kurt's top, and Kurt's too winded to toss out an appropriately cutting remark about Karofsky's B.O., as well as trying to ignore how his left kidney wants to divorce him if he doesn't catch a fucking break already. Kurt doesn't get too upset when a new tear appears on Tina's borrowed shirt; the shirt was slashy to begin with.

Glee Club has been canceled today, something about Mr. Schuester's wife's lawyers. Kurt assures himself that he didn't want to sing his heart today, because it's feeling somewhat wrecked and Rachel would interpret that as a sign of weakness or something.

"Kurt Hummel, what's going on?"

At the sound of a guy's voice, Kurt tenses, and then he has to grip his locker door because it's a guy who's nice to him and he's too close for Kurt to put in eye drops to hide how red his eyes are.

"Hey," Kurt says. "Glee's canceled, because Schue's ex is a bitch."

"Oh, that's why?"

For someone who prefers his classmates more cerebral and less idiot, Kurt quietly swoons over the lost look he can see in his mini-mirror. The only reason he doesn't collapse on his watery knees into a smitten puddle of goo is because he's not looking directly at the other boy's face.

As soon as Kurt thinks it, his defense tactics go to hell, as the boy of his affections abruptly sticks his face right in front of Kurt's. It's pretty obvious to Kurt that the boy is messing with him and sneaking a look at Kurt's mirror all stealth-like. Kurt doesn't have time to throw his shields up because he's being scrutinized.

The attention on his possibly crestfallen face makes him go red for reasons less related to suffering.

"You alright, buddy?"

Kurt gets an arm around his shoulder when he takes too long to deny his feelings. It's a friendly gesture, from months of camaraderie, but to feel someone's warmth without getting burned from it revives a part of him that was starving.

When he's pulled into a hug, Kurt can't stand it anymore. He refrains from the waterworks, but he feels on edge, like he's jumping up and down on a crack in the Hoover dam.

"Fine, you don't have to say. I get it. You wanna help me with Spanish homework?" He sounds so adorably hopeful that Kurt barks out a quick laugh and flicks his finger briefly under his eye before pulling out of the hug.

"You know me," Kurt says quickly, to distract his friend from anymore suspicious wiping motions. "Broke a nail, ruined my mani. If you say another word, I'll damn you to hell. In Spanish, Ebonics, and, more recently, sign language."

"You're a funny dude, you know that?"

Kurt knows that he's "funny" because somewhere down the line, it's more worth it to cry over appearances than the wreckage within.

A/N: Don't own glee. Or a Balenciaga piece. Boo hoo hoo.