The Hummelberry apartment had gained a guest the week of Rachel's graduation from Julliard, a face he had gotten used to seeing over the course of their three years of living together, despite the fact that he still wasn't sure why he agreed to let him stay. Perhaps for Rachel's benefit and the fact that she needed help perfecting absolutely everything and while Kurt had been her first choice, they knew it would end up messy and the guest was on his roommate's level, anticipating her wishes before she had even thought about it. Jesse St. James was the perfect person to have around in Rachel's times of great stress when Kurt couldn't handle her diva tantrums himself. This week was one of the more particularly difficult ones.
Kurt watched as the scene in their living room unfolded before him. Jesse was lounging on the couch, halfheartedly reading the script Rachel had thrust into his hands as she paced around the room on the phone, her tone becoming increasingly more distressed as she stressed with the caller – Finn – on the importance of his being in New York with her these last couple of days of her college career. She growled furiously as they hung up, the phone getting flung onto the couch, narrowly missing Jesse's outstretched leg by a couple of inches.
"He's not coming" she said a few moments later as the two watched her, waiting for the excuse Finn had given her. "He forgot to book a flight because he's going to a baseball game and doesn't want to drive here afterwards because he'd be tired." The brunette ran her hands through her hair in anger, expecting some sort of agreement from the two men before her. Jesse looked up from the script, a blank expression on his face.
"Rachel, you don't expect me to believe that you didn't see this coming nor that you actually think that this is even worthy of being performed in front of your family members, let alone your peers, do you?" He asked, putting the paper on the table and raising an eyebrow at her.
Rachel opened her mouth to retort to both comments but closed it instead, fuming silently. Kurt on the other hand approached her and placed his hands on her shoulders. He looked at her firmly in the eye and sighed.
"As much as I hate to agree with him, he's right. That script is terrible." Kurt would address the issue concerning his step-brother at another time when Jesse wasn't occupying their couch. "You need to relax, your last performance is for fun and then you graduate and are done forever. Then your presence on Broadway can finally happen." He continued, steering her to a chair.
"Kurt, this is my graduation. He's missed all of my other performances and I forgave him for that, but this is one of the most important days of my life and he won't be here." Rachel looked at him through sad eyes, a habit she had when she wouldn't let a more important subject drop. "I've been to as many of his games as possible, but he can't be here for this." Kurt sighed and looked back to Jesse who had a smirk on his face.
"Forget about Frankenteen for a minute, Rachel." Jesse said, not bothering to remove the smirk for the sake of her. "I'm here and that is all that matters." A glare was shot his way as he said this, followed by a frown. Although she wouldn't admit it, Jesse was right, he had shown up despite the fact that he was in the middle of a run as Marius in the Hollywood Bowl's production of Les Miserables. In fact, as she would remind herself later, Jesse had shown up to many of her performances for school, no matter the prior commitment he had made in California whereas Finn could not manage to even to make the drive to attend her graduation. A groan of frustration came from the chair as the brunette stalked to her room, slamming the door shut. Jesse chuckled slightly, pleased to see that her storm outs were still present.
Rachel reemerged from her room in time to greet her fathers, though her irritation at Finn's lack of prioritizing wasn't on the surface, Jesse could see through the cracks in her show face that she was still feeling it. He made a mental note to speak to Rachel's choice of boyfriend the next time he happened to see him about what his indifference was doing to her. As the group talked over dinner, Jesse couldn't help but notice that at random intervals, Rachel would check her phone before dropping it back in her lap or on the table in frustration at no sign of a message from Finn.
The day after Rachel's graduation (in which Finn did not show up to even surprise her), there was a knock on the door of the apartment. With Rachel in the shower and Kurt running around about the city, Jesse was the only one left to answer the door. Finn, expecting to see Rachel thrust the bouquet of flowers he had bought as an attempt at an apology at Jesse before realizing that the other boy was not Rachel. Finn's face contorted from confusion to angry in less than ten seconds as he pushed past Jesse and into the apartment.
"Where's Rachel?" he asked, not bothering to wait for an answer as he pushed open the door to the bathroom.
"Jesse! I'm- Finn?" the shower stopped and the door to the bathroom was shut, though the words were far from muffled. Finn was shouting, Rachel trying to shush him so anyone outside of the bathroom couldn't hear and denying every accusation he threw at her. The first of not telling him that Jesse was in the apartment she shared with his brother which was followed quickly by her not telling him that she still talked to that 'asshole'. Rachel tried to protest but Finn blazed on, accusing her of lying and cheating, the latter causing him to slam his fist into the door. By now, Rachel was shouting back, her voice shrill with anger and hurt as Finn accused her of these things. She swore up and down that she told Finn that Jesse would be staying with her and Kurt and that she had told him that she still talked to Jesse and that she would never cheat on him.
Finn would hear none of this as he stormed out of the bathroom and back into the living room where Jesse was pretending to read a magazine, as if he didn't hear a word of what was going on in the bathroom. Rachel had followed Finn out, her eyes brimming with tears as she pleaded with him to listen.
"Why should I listen to you? When were you there for me?"
"I went to as many of your stupid football games as I could and you couldn't even make it to one performance, let alone my graduation. How dare you accuse me of cheating on you and not being a supportive girlfriend, what in your mind spells that as cheating?" she asked hotly, refusing to let the tears fall down her cheeks.
"Jesse only showed up because he's trying to take you from me. He's been trying the whole time you two have been supposedly talking. What about that can't you see?" Finn replied, glaring at the third person in the room.
"Finn, I think you and I need to talk about this man to man." Jesse said calmly, not putting the magazine down.
"Fuck off, St. James."
"First of all, if Rachel wanted to cheat on you, she would have. If I was even remotely concerned with taking her from you, I would do it and I would be successful, but there's a double edged sword, the mere fact that I'd be able to sway Rachel into my arms wouldn't be me stealing her as much as her deciding she was done with you." Finn opened his mouth to say something but Jesse continued, turning the page. "Where were you when she called crying about an audition she feared she had royally screwed up? Where were you when she came out after her first show expecting to see everyone she cared about? In the amount of time you two have been together, Rachel has been to more than half of your events where as you have failed to show up to one. I live over 2,000 miles away and yet when you don't answer her calls or calm her fears, she turns to me because I understand and I've been there for her every step of the way."
"I've been busy!"
"Busy with not realizing you've got an amazing thing going for you. You have a supportive girlfriend who would do anything in the world to make you happy and sacrifice doing things with her friends to spend a few hours with you while you couldn't be arsed to make a trip to see her once. It looks to me that you don't know what your negligence does to her. Rachel is a woman, she's not a doormat, not for you, not for me, not for anybody, but for some ungodly reason, she allows you to walk all over her when she deserves to be treated like a goddess."
"I wasn't busy with ignoring her!" Finn growled, his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides. "I was-." He stopped and looked over at Rachel who was standing between the two men looking helpless. "I was looking for the perfect ring." Rachel's eyes widened as the words left Finn's lips.
"Finn…you were going to-."
"Explain every other time you missed one of Rachel's events." Jesse said, cutting her off and finally standing up. "I seem to remember Kurt saying something along the lines of you going to hang out with Puck on the night of her first performance, being too tired to go to any of the others." Jesse's arms were crossed smugly over his chest as he fixed Finn with a lazy stare. "And all of the others were about the same caliber. A game, you forgot, you were tired. But this one, you were looking for the perfect ring to propose, I'd assume."
"Jesse" Rachel said quietly with a shake of her head.
"I'm almost done, Rachel, I will gladly let the two of you finish your argument in peace." Jesse turned back to Finn. "And knowing Rachel, she would have accepted your proposal. She would have put herself in a relationship where the support was unrequited and quite frankly, she would not be happy. She wouldn't realize it right away, it'd be after you missed a complete run of one of her shows, couldn't attend the Tonys with her for the third year in the row, maybe even forgot an anniversary or two. But she'd notice, she'd brood, and then the ultimate decision of leaving you would come. She'd talk about it for hours to Kurt, maybe a couple other friends, me, if your marriage would allow us to remain friends, and we'd all tell her to do what she thought was best. Of course she'd be devastated, trying to figure out where it went wrong but she'd get out, find herself once more and come back stronger than ever. But that's only if she accepts it now. You do need to stop walking all over her if you expect to even get an answer." He walked over to Rachel and placed a kiss on the top of her head. "Call me later, Berry and let me know if you're marrying that tool."
Jesse had settled himself in a corner table at the Starbucks by the Hummelberry apartment when his phone buzzed, a picture of Rachel lighting up the screen of his phone. He ignored it as it rang, waiting to see if she'd leave a voicemail or just call back almost immediately. The buzzing stopped only to resume seconds later, Rachel's picture once again taking up the screen. Lazily, Jesse picked up the phone and before he could even utter a word, the woman on the other line spoke, five simple words that caused a smirk to appear on his features.
"I hate when you're right."