A/N: Slightly AU. Bad Reputation, after Run, Joey, Run, Finn confronts Rachel in front of the entire club, and she fights back. See what comes out of that!
Disclaimer: Roses are red, Violets are blue, Do I look like Ryan Murphy to you?
As the song ended, Finn looked over at Puck, who was staring at the screen shaking his head. Then he looked over at Jesse, who had been doing the same thing, and their eyes locked while they gave each other looks of disgust.
"Well, why don't we just, um, take a moment to really absorb what we've just watched." She said with a huge smile on her face.
"This is garbage!" Finn yelled.
"Finn!" Mr. Schue defended, halfheartedly.
"No! He's right! First of all I need to trust my instincts more because I had a feeling when we were shooting that, that it was not gonna be good!" Puck stated.
"Why didn't you tell me they were in this, too?" Jesse came forward, "I thought you and I were going out! Being triple cast with two other guys to play opposite your girlfriend? It's mortifying!"
"It was a-an artistic statement!" Rachel argued.
"No it wasn't," Finn said somewhat angrily, "It was you tryin' to look like you had a bunch of guys fighting over you, so you could stop looking like..some kinda outcast, and be seen as some..hott, slutty girl singer." He walked over to her, "How could you do this to me? To all us guys? Is your stupid reputation more important than your relationships?"
"Excuse me? We probably wouldn't even be in this stupid scenario if you hadn't been so obsessed with your own reputation and broken my heart!" She didn't care that the whole glee club (which included Jesse) was listening. "It's not like you didn't like me! You told me about 10 times when you were with Quinn, you said I was "really awesome" about 5 times, and you kissed me 3 times!" This caught Quinn's attention, and even though they were broken up, she gave him 'the look'. "I thought that when you 2 broke up, that you'd finally stop keeping it a stupid secret!"
Everyone in the room had a different look on their face. Mike and Matt shared the same look: just plain shocked. Brittany was playing with her hair, Santana had her arms crossed looking bored with all of this, Quinn just looked a little hurt that he'd done that to her while they'd been dating, but she did something much worse, so she just pushed this aside. Mercedes and Kurt were getting ready to spread this news. Artie and Tina just shook their heads. Puck just didn't care, he was slouched in his seat, arms crossed, looking over at Quinn. Mr. Schuester looked somewhat shocked, otherwise, he was disappointed. And lastly, Jesse, who hadn't exactly known just how much history these 2 had, had his jaw somewhat dropped, eyes somewhat wide.
Rachel continued, "But NO, you had to find your "inner-rockstar", wherever the hell that term came from, and you just ditched me!" Now Mr. Schue felt guilty and responsible for all this. He'd been the one to tell Finn to find this "inner-rockstar". "Then I find out that you went out with both Santana and Brittany! I mean, honestly, who does that, besides Puck?" Puck and Santana share a knowing smirk.
"Then you tried to get me back after you thought I actually broke up with the one guy that actually liked me and wasn't embarrassed to be seen with me! If only you didn't care so much about your own reputation, we'd be together right now, instead of me and Jesse, because I know you like me. Maybe that make out session in the car 2 days ago wouldn't have been an accident! It would've been normal! So don't you dare tell me about relationships&reputations!"
At that make out session comment, Jesse gasped.
She just looked at him at this point and he wasn't thinking so he blurted out, "If I really liked you all that much, why would I have slept with Santana?" And immediately, he regretted it. Rachel let the tears that had been gathering in her eyes flow freely. She ran out of the room, not sure where she was running TO. The whole room gasped and Mr. Schuester just sighed and sank in his seat. "Oh God...what did I do? Oh God Oh God oh God!" Puck looked over at Santana proudly. She had taken Finn Hudson's virginity.
"I only said that because I was hurt she did it with Jesse." Finn said quietly after.
Jesse was the first to speak after that, "No, Finn, we didn't. She didn't think it was right for "the team". Or at least that's what she said. I don't even know anymore, but the only reason I came here was to tell her that Coach Shelby is her mom. And I moved here so.."
"So..what? I was right! You were here just to break her heart."
"Well, it was intended..."
Finn almost punched Jesse in the stomach, now he was at fault. "What exactly was your "plan" for her? She trusted you! Sh-She felt loved by you! You were the only one that hadn't hurt her, and you were going to do what, exactly?"
"I was going to call her up to tell her to meet me in the parking lot. When she got there, the whole team would come out and egg her. Did I mention she's vegan?"
"You don't plan on still doing that, do you? I mean, honestly." He started out defending her, but ended in telling everyone in the club his feelings towards her, "She's not a bad person. She just wanted to be accepted after I was such an ass and chose my stupid reputation over her! She just wants to be loved... She's a beautiful girl, with a beautiful voice. Every time she's around me, my heart stops. Oh God, she's so beautiful, I feel like I'm flying whenever I look at her. She's like an angel sent from heaven. She has a heart of gold, and yes, is misunderstood a whenever I'm close to her... you don't want to know that part." He said blushing. There were some aw's and some ew's. "Please just answer. Are you still planning on egging her?"
"After this? I don't know. I mean...I actually started liking her. As much as it hurts me to say, she's in love with you. That's the only reason I was mad about the video."
"Yeah, right, St. James. Rachel Berry loves ME. What kind of stupid ass trick are you trying to pull now?"
Jesse sighed, "When she was getting ready in the bathroom for 1 of our dates, I was looking in 1 of her drawers labeled "Playbills"... but playbills weren't the only thing I found in there. It was her diary. I wanted to see what she thought of me, if she liked anyone else, whatnot. There was a lot of stuff about you, but one entry caught my attention.
Dear Diary,
I love Finn so much, it hurts. I feel like collapsing every time he talks to me. He's so hott and his voice is amazing, When I'm with him I feel like myself. If he didn't care about his reputation so much, I should hope that we'd have had sex by now. I feel bad I'm just stringing Jesse along with me. But maybe Finn will get jealous and one day, run up to me, pick me up, and kiss me senseless? Yeah, like that'll ever happen. No other guy makes me feel this way. Puck and Jesse stupidly believed I wouldn't put out because I either wasn't ready or he hadn't sung a solo. Yeah, that's true. Oh, God, I love him so much, I'd give up Broadway for him! If he didn't break up with me for his stupid reputation, I'd probably think we're soul-mates. I think I should break up with Jesse ASAP. I just don't feel anything with him. I ALMOST MADE OUT WITH PUCK LAST WEEK trying to get him to be in Run, Joey, Run! And that's just not right. And lastly, once again, if you ever read or hear this, I love you, Finn Hudson. Forever&Always.
-Rachel
Finn was appalled that Jesse had kept that entry in his pocket. What was he going to do, burn it? He took the piece of paper, hoping Jesse hadn't been shitting him. He hadn't. Everything he'd read was on the paper, in Rachel's writing.
He ran out of the classroom in search of her. He saw her car still in the parking lot, and checked to see if she happened to be in it, but she wasn't. He looked in all the possible places she might be.
Then he went on the roof, to maybe see if she was walking anywhere in Lima, but found her sitting there, crying and saying stuff like, "Why can't he just like me?" and "Right person? Yeah, I really don't think Santana was the right person. I'm the right person! You should've freaking had sex with me! Not her!" and one thing that really caught his attention "Ugh stupid Jesse doesn't think I already know that he and Vocal Adrenaline are going to egg me in 2 weeks! I mean, honestly. If he's going to rip out one of the most important pages of my journal, I feel I am SO ALLOWED to rummage throughout his! And seriously, what high school boy has a journal? What male has a journal at all?"
He went over to her side and just sat next to her for a few minutes. They looked at the sunset until he finally spoke, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for choosing my reputation over you, I'm sorry for sleeping with the devil, I'm sorry for yelling at you about anything, because in all truth, you really didn't do anything wrong. I'm sorry for everything I've ever done to hurt you." He was rambling at this point, "Because you're not supposed to do that to the people you care about. Hell, who am I kidding. I love you, and you're not supposed to hurt your soul-mate that many times. The one person that actually knows you and accepts you for wh-"
"Why'd you sleep with her?" She was so confused.
"I was jealous of you and Jesse, and Santana was trying to get me to lose my virginity to her. I told her I liked someone and was trying to make that work out, but she said, 'Who? Rachel? She's dating that Jesse kid from Vocal Adrenaline.' I didn't want to believe it, but when you told me it was true, I was vulnerable. I'm so sorry I got mad at you at all for that stupid video."
"Just... how it happened hurt me so much. It would've been one thing to tell me in private, but in front of glee club and my boyfriend? It goes without saying that he's my ex at this point."
"I thought you completely hated me...I mean yeah, we had that make out session like 2 weeks ago, but you're a really good actor." She started crying. "I just care about you so much, you're my best friend, even if you did pick your rep over me."
"Nice try, but you and I both know you more than "just care" about me." She gave him a confused look. He handed her the sheet of paper.
"Where did you get this?" She started crying out again.
"Jesse was talking about how he was only mad at the video because you're in love with me. I thought he was trying to confuse me or something, that a girl like you, could never even consider loving a guy like me. Especially after what I did to you, more than once. So he read this to the whole club, and I just wanted to say... I am really, truly sorry, because you're not supposed to hurt the woman you love like that." He started walking away when she burst into tears again.
He turned back around and fell on his knee so he was eye level with her. "What's wrong? What did I do? I swear, I'll fix it! Is it something I sa-" She crushed her lips onto his and started crying harder.
"Finn, it's okay, did you not just hear yourself?"
"Oh God, what did I say, now? I'm apologizing ahead of time, what did I say?"
She started laughing. Right about the same time it actually started raining. Like seriously, how does it rain just randomly like that?
"What's so funny? I'm not kidding, I'm sorry and-!"
"And you love me. And I'm laughing because you said it like you've been saying it for years." After that comment, he picked her up and kissed her senseless, just like she'd wanted him to do in the diary entry.
"I love you, Rachel Berry." He said as he kissed her again.
"If it makes you feel any better, the whole time I was with Santana, I was imagining it was you." At this, she smiled. Yes, Finn Hudson was definitely her soul-mate, she could feel it in her heart.
Just like in the movies, he picked her up bridal style, and started making out in the rain. She couldn't believe this was happening. "You too bye the way."
"Huh?"
"I love you, too, Finn."
"Aw Rach, I love you too...too." At this they both started laughing. "But that's really a shame..."
"Why?"
"Because when you didn't say it back right away, I was kinda hoping it would be like... a new challenge. The "Get Rachel to Say I Love You" plan." He said smiling.
"I have a feeling I have a better idea..." she said coyly as she started kissing his neck, then up to his ear, next was his pulse point, and finally his lips.
"I like the way you think!"
"You better, and you'd also better get used to it. It'll be happening a lot more lately." She said with a smile in her tone. "I love you."
He looked into her eyes and the next thing he said, he was sure of, "I love you too."
THE END
A/N 2 I know, I know, it was probably terrible. I just had this on my mind for a long time and felt I needed to write it.
