A/N: Pure speculation. Title from song by Something Corporate. Thanks for reading and enjoy.
And I'm better off without you,
And I think it's what I want.
- Click Five
Rachel Berry's world does not implode when she discovers the truth about Jesse St. James.
It is shocking, she knows, and later she will wonder why exactly she does not spontaneously burst into tears when she walks into that imposing Vocal Adrenaline auditorium (she is curious and awed, even if she won't admit it – and she won't) and accidentally overhears the boy she thought she might love discussing her in rote, businesslike terms, as if she is nothing more than a transaction that has yet to be completed.
She takes a deep breath. Wow. That was entirely too long of an explanation for such a single, uncomplicated moment.
(A moment she will never forget, to be sure, but she figures that's beside the point).
The point really is, she does not go screaming, careening out of that vast, unquantifiable space. No, she does not run up onto that fabled stage and slap her first real boyfriend across his lying face. And no, most importantly, she does not make a scene. (It is completely uncharacteristic of the girl who wants to be a Broadway star, and she pinpoints this moment as the beginning of her downward spiral).
She does not even try to talk to him.
She just walks out of that auditorium, calmly. Her chest is not even heaving. And she gets in her car, and she sits there and writes him a note, short and fierce and yet entirely unconvincing and placid. She even includes a gold star, because it's not like she didn't see this coming. (They were entirely too good to be true).
And she drives to his house, adhering completely – and then some – to all the speed limits. She walks swiftly, determinedly up his front steps and drops the note in his mailbox. She walks away.
She doesn't look back.
fin