Two chapters in one day! Sorry about the delays in updating but school has been keeping me really busy, though I did have two hours to write today. I have big plans for this story so hopefully you will bear with me!

Chapter 3

If there is any indication that her therapy is working, Rachel thinks, it is the fact that she just deferred to place and time. No way could she have made a scene in the NYU admissions office when she's not officially in the school yet. She makes a mental note of the rant she wants to unleash on Dr. Grey once she gets back to Ohio. Her ex-boyfriend, who she thought was in California, had just become her tour guide to her dream school.

She really hadn't imagined that she would see him again so soon after their relationship ended, and she is completely unprepared. She hates being unprepared for anything, but especially dramatic conversations. She prefers tailored scripts or performances: the perfect song, lots of irony, or perfectly measured out bits of sarcasm. She thought she had years to prepare for this particular scene.

But, here she is, standing in the narrowest elevator she's ever been in, leaving the only safe harbor she has in this city, with Jesse St. James as her protector. She has a total of almost four hours to spend with him before she has another escape.

It irritates her more than anything that he is acting as if nothing is wrong, that her presence doesn't bother or surprise him in the least. It's his show face; one she knows well, in all its incarnations. He seemingly is viewing this encounter or tour or whatever the hell this twilight zone is she walked into as an extension of the performance that was their entire relationship. No more, she determines. It's not fair that he gets to do this again.

So, when he pulls open the door for her and follows her out to the fall-hued quadrangle she had seen from Allie's office, she decides that it's the time and place for them to have it out.

Before she can open her mouth to draw his attention to her, he pulls her bag over to an empty bench, leans it against the arm and sits down. He drapes his left arm across the back of the bench and uses his fist to support his chin. He's looking at her as if he can read her mind. He doesn't say anything because he is waiting for her to speak.

She takes her cue.

"What are you doing here? Was your full ride to UCLA another one of your lies? Just to get me to like you and trust you? To be impressed by you? Seriously, Jesse. Was there anything you told me that was the truth?" She has more questions, but those seem to cover the basics.

She's not being particularly quiet, but there aren't that many people around due to the cold, and she likes this vantage point because she's taller than him and he's looking up at her.

It takes him a while to answer.

"I transferred here late in the summer. I turned down UCLA because I wanted to be in New York, near Broadway. Allie helped me a lot with the details. Not many people back home know, and I didn't think you would care to know."

He looks like he's about to say something else, but thinks better of it. She chooses to ignore the fact that he hasn't exactly answered a good number of her questions. She still wants to know the extent of all his lies.

Some of them she has figured out on her own. Some of them were glaringly obvious once he cracked the egg on her forehead. And some of them, she goes back and forth on, trying to convince herself they were actually lies.

She doesn't understand how he could have lied about the way he felt about her when he had been able to finish her sentences, or when sometimes they both had glanced up at the same time during glee rehearsal to share a secret smile, even from across the room. She doesn't understand how he could have faked the more intimate parts of their relationship: the kisses that went on for hours, or the entire Saturday they had spent in his bed, reading parts of their favorite books to each other and listening to music, even though she had the felt the hard, physical evidence that he had wanted to do so much more. On the days she isn't being overly cynical, she can't manage to convince herself that it had all been a lie.

But how does she get answers to any of this from him? She feels the momentum in her drain and her first instinct is to lash out and hurt him.

"I wouldn't have cared. Finn and I started dating right after Regionals and I haven't thought about you much." She pauses to judge the impact of her words on him. Maybe its wishful thinking, but she thinks he seems wounded by what she's said.

"I just wish I had some forewarning that you were going to be my tour guide, I've been waiting for this a long time and I don't want anything to ruin it," she finishes lamely, and she hears just how unconvincing her explanation is because her volume has dropped significantly.

He nods at her, and mumbles out a "Sorry," but she's not exactly sure what he's apologizing for.

"So, what's on the tour? I want to see everything and we only have a few hours," she tries to put some excitement in her voice and starts fumbling with the map in her hands.

"Um, well. I guess I'll take you by the main quad and all the classroom buildings there. But I think you'll be most interested in the theater department. The stage is incredible … and they have these private music rooms with every instrument imaginable… and there is this corner of the 4th floor that has amazing acoustics that you'll want to try out, especially since you want to be Evita … and the music library. Plus there's this really cool basement café that I know you will love because they have a really good vegan selection and they're pretty cheap. The atmosphere and the music are really cool too. They have a baby grand in the corner for impromptu performances and John Legend performed there once." The passion increases in his voice as he speaks, and she can tell that he's thought about this, about what he wants to show her.

She suppresses a smile because many of those things are circled in gold Sharpie on the NYU prospective student guide that's in her bag. She had hoped that she was going to be shown around by someone who would be willing to indulge her need to see it all. But she won't let on how much he's pleased her.

"Okay. That sounds fine."