St James.
This was all St. James' fault, Rachel thought bitterly to herself. If it wasn't for him she wouldn't be in this ridiculous predicament. She huffed audibly to herself which made the other girl in the room smirk.
How did Jesse always seem to manage to get her into these ridiculous situations? Here she is in a room with her high school nemesis in nothing but a thong ….thanks to her ex boyfriend turned best friend.
XXXX A few hours ago
"Rach you look like crap."
"I knooooooow." Rachel examined herself closely in the mirror. While she was still in excellent physical shape: tanned skin, lean as always, toned legs that went on forever, but one look at her posture and her true state of anxiety and exhaustion was beaming through. She was, simply put, exhausted. She was standing slightly slumped with her shoulders hunched and bags the size of Sue Sylvester's ego was forming under her eyes.
Rachel winced at her own haggard appearance but put on a brave face anyway.
"What can I say? This is the price you have to pay for fame! The new choreographer, while amazing, is absolutely insane! We've had five twelve hour practices this week. This is on top of my full load at Julliard and giving singing lessons. And while I've been steadfastly been preparing myself for the rigors of academics and performing for many years… well I'm human and I don't bleed red bull."
She stopped and thought about it for a moment. On second thought, with the amount that she'd been consuming to just keep up with everything, maybe she might. She shook her head at her own silliness and finally took her eyes from the mirror to look at Jesse. To her surprise the boy was wearing a concerned look on this face.
Since their break up via egging five years ago the two had reconnected after he graduated from UCLA and came to New York to be a starving performer. They'd run into each other at an open casting call for a new play a little over a year ago. It was awkward at first but their mutual respect for the other's talent and Rachel's penchant for forgiving people allowed their friendship to blossom. Both had realized that in even in high school they had been too alike to work as lovers, instead they settled for be each other's family. Neither had any siblings and has adopted one another. Since they reconnected they'd develop a much more playful bond that mostly consisted of them teasing each other.
Jesse was genuinely concerned for his little diva sister. He'd been trying to get together with her for weeks. He knew that she had to be exhausted when he invited her out to see a musical he'd gotten tickets for and she actually turned him down. Rachel Barbara Berry had turned down tickets to see a show. It was unheard of and he said as much to which she just sighed and promptly had to go back to rehearsal.
Jesse frowned and surveyed Rachel and announced. "That's it. You haven't had a day off in months and you are taking the rest of the day off with me." He paused momentarily for his petulant little sister to interrupt and as she wound up to declare her displeasure with his declaration Jesse put a hand up to her mouth and silenced her. "No excuses" he continued. He fixed her with a glare, daring her to speak.
Rachel hesitated for a second under his withering glare, but, she decided, if she could withstand the death looks of Quinn Fabray and one Sue Sylvester she sure as hell wasn't going to let a look from Jesse stop her. Besides, he looked more like an angry puppy than anything else.
"While I greatly appreciate your concern, I simply cannot take today off! As you have mentioned, today is my first day off in weeks and as such my errands have not been performed in as much time. I have laundry that's piled up to the ceiling." She stopped and opened the door to her room, showing the boy exactly how dire her home life situation was. "I've been purchasing new clothes because I haven't had the time to do laundry! And this" she pointed to her kitchen that was full of empty Red Bull cans and various take out containers, "is definitely not going to be sanitary much longer. I fear something will start growing soon and if it grows and somehow gets into the Red Bull it might become some supercreature that I will be able to get rid of." She finished dramatically and pouted. "As much as I'd love to spend the day with you, as you can see I simply cannot." When she scheduled lunch with her best friend today she certainly was looking forward to it but was also glad to have some time to tend to her neglected apartment and clothes.
Jesse cursed inwardly. She thought his older brother powers would have been able to get her to agree without any issue. He took a mental note to go work on his glare. Clearly he it was not yet quite formidable enough.
The boy sighed but an idea struck him and he smirked. He was going to have to appeal to her curiosity.
"Okay, Berry I'll make you a deal, as clearly you need someone to take care of your diva ass." He gestured to the girl, who was now slumped against the doorframe.
Too tired to respond Rachel just looked up at him and raised a eyebrow, waiting for his offer.
"You come out with me for lunch, as we planned and we'll go out for my little surprise, which I promise will only take a little over an hour and I will help you put back together the shambles of your apartment." He added in the last bit because, let's face it, she needed it.
The diva's eyes widened when she heard the word "surprise" and immediately perked up. She loves/hates surprises. "Soo…" she said in a manner that was supposed to be sly, "where are we going?"
"For lunch?" He put his index finger to his jaw and faked contemplation. "I was thinking that vegan café down the street and then…"
"Then where?"
"Then onto your surprise, duh!"
She sighed. "Are you really not going to tell me?"
"You'll find out soon enough! So we got a deal or what?"
"Of course, you had me at surprise."
Hook. Line. Sinker. "Good, because I had already made the arrangements earlier this week." He added mysteriously.
XXX
Jesse was starting to regret his decision to try to keep the spa appointments he booked a secret. All throughout lunch it was like the every conversation led back to the same question: "so where are you taking me?" At least the girl was positively giddy fantasizing up all the possibilities. She was absolutely the oldest twelve year old he'd ever known.
"So it only takes about a little over an hour, we have to go across town, and you had to make arrangements for it." Rachel recapped for the fifth time. "C'mon, Jess, how about just one more itty bitty clue?"
He scrunched up in face in thought and decided it couldn't hurt. They'd be there in less than an hour anyway. But he also couldn't resist having some fun with her while he was at it. "Well…what the HAY" he drawled because he knew exactly how to put the girl on edge. She was literally sitting on the edge of her seat waiting for his response. "Some people think it's fun and relaxing touristy thing to do while in NYC while it could be considered exploitation by others..."
Her jaw dropped for a second and looked angry. "St. James! Please do not tell me that we are going to horse ride in Central Park. Do you know the living conditions of those horses!" she huffed indignantly, shooting daggers at the boy.
Jesse chuckled. "Berry you are so predictable! I only worded it like that to make you think and dear, seeing as I know you're a SUPER vegan, what makes you think that would be my surprise? Don't worry, by the end of our little outing your super vegan card will be intact."
"The vegan police are everywhere you know. Us super vegans are inspected twice a year to make sure that we don't have another leather or other tortured animal byproducts." She deadpanned before busting out in laughter. "Fine. I'll drop it. Happy now?"
Xxxx
"Oh my god St. James, I can't believe you think that I'M the dramatic one. You want to blindfold me?"
It hadn't been part of the original plan but the thought of prolonging her wait was irresistible. "Hm, how about we make it interesting. If you can guess the activity by the time we get there, I'll help clean your apartment AND do your laundry. If you don't then you owe me a favor that shall be named at a later time."
She took a minute to think about it but there really wasn't anything to think about. She was Rachel Barbara Berry, of course she would figure it out. "Challenge accepted" she said with as much bravado as she could muster.
"The quicker you get it on the quicker I can tell the cabbie the address." She bounced around nervously in the cab with a bandana tied around her eyes. He'd had an extra one in his bag from his morning dance class.
"Ok so you're not taking me on a carriage ride in Central Park."
"No."
"Ice skating at Rockefeller?"
"No."
"It's not a show of some sort because what kind of show only takes a hour… but it's something that's supposed to be relaxing… it better not be some sort of cooking class."
"It's not…"
And so it went on and on for the next 15 minutes, she got more and more animated with increasingly outrageous scenarios. "…OH! Did you get us spots in that yoga class that Barbara Streisand does? How did you ever manage! I heard that was just a rumor!"
"No Rach, I actually did check that out and it was just a rumor. Remind me later though never to try to surprise you ever again. In any case we're here!" He paid the driver and guided her out of the cab and inside an opulent building.
Being blindfolded her other senses were all on overdrive. She could hear the water trickling. The air was lavender scented and there was light music being played in the background.
"Ok any last guesses before I take off your blindfold?"
"Please Jesse. Of course I know where we are. We're at a yoga center!" she proclaimed triumphantly. She removed her own blindfold with a flair. "Damnit." She immediately said but before Jesse had a chance to respond he had himself an armful of Rachel Berry. He squeezed her tightly and beamed.
"Thank you so much Jesse! A nice massage is exactly what I need! Oh I can't wait!"
"I'm glad you like it Rach. This is supposed to the best place, I booked you a masseuse with a background in kinesiology to make sure she gets all the knots out before your big debut. Oh and, since you lost, you owe me one. Anyway let's go check in."
After they check in, two masseurs come to get them: a handsome tanned man with rippling arm muscles and a blonde girl that looked vague familiar to Jesse. They both had clipboards and were walking towards them looking down at the sheet on the clipboard. A second later he heard a gasp coming from the girl next to him. Oh. That's when he recognized the girl was none other than Quinn Fabray, the really scary pregnant chick that went to McKinley with Rachel.
Rachel roughly grabbed his arm and out of earshot of the two people waiting for them. "Jesse, that girl made my high school life a living hell through sophomore year. I will not let her touch me!"
"But Rachie…" he whined.
"No, you take Quinn, I'll take the man with the enormous arms."
"But you're not even into men! No, the handsome Adonis is mine! Besides, she was okay to you your last two years!"
"Icy indifference is hardly 'okay.' I thought this was supposed to help me relax!"
"Look, the girl is a professional. This place had really high ratings. Let bygones be bygones"
"But-"
Jesse didn't want to play this card so early but he didn't want to waste any more of his time without having that man touch his body.
"Fine. You remember that favor you owe me from losing your challenge today? Well, you're going to let me go off with my Rambo and you're going to get Quinn. C'mon Rach, doesn't everyone deserve a second chance? Look at me and you."
Rachel grumbled something that sounded like "yeah… this is totally great" and the pair walked up to the two masseurs who'd been waiting for them.
When Rachel and Jesse got close enough, Quinn finally figured out who she'd be working on today and she did a double take. Wait. What's Rachel doing with St. Jackass? Wait. Rachel's my 2 o'clock? Oh crap. I've been had my jaw hanging for almost a minute.
Professional. She thought to herself. She had to stay professional. Get it together!
"Hello, Ms. Berry. You will be with me today and Mr. St James. You will be with Hugh." She gestured to the other man.
"Come with me!" Quinn said a little too brightly as she led Rachel into a private room. "Great. Now, here's your robe. I see your order here is for a full body massage so just take all your clothes off except for your underwear and I'll be back in a minute to give you some privacy." Quinn said with the most official voice she could muster. This was definitely going to be a long hour she thought to herself as she exited the room.
Inside the room Rachel was having her own melt down. She was blindly doing what she was told until she was standing in just her underwear and realized that she was wearing a lace thong under her jeans today. This was literally her last pair of clean underwear, which is why she needed to stay in today. Oh crap. Now Quinn was going to see her and rub her down in her 'I'm going to get lucky tonight underwear.' Crap. This is going to be a long hour she thought to herself as she lowered herself onto the massage table...wait, is this table heated or is it just me?