Rachel could honestly say she was less than surprised at Kurt's sudden bitterness thrown in her direction. Now that rehearsals were fully under way, Blaine and her had been spending most of their time together. Though, much to Rachel's dismay, they still hadn't done any of the kissing required of the two main leads-whether this was intentional or not, she wasn't sure.
"Maybe we should find you a boyfriend," Kurt said one day, practically perched on top of Blaine as they sat around waiting for Artie to tell them what they'd be working on for the day. She had become used to his passiveness, though Blaine looked a little apprehensive about it.
"I'd rather focus on getting back to New York," Rachel replied as she reviewed her script for the ten thousandth time. It wasn't that she needed too-she didn't even need a script period-but it calmed her down from the stress of everything else.
"But maybe if you had a boyfriend-"
"She said she doesn't want one Kurt," Blaine snapped, and Rachel fought back the smile that threatened to take over her face.
"Well then," Kurt said simply, pursing his lips as the three silenced themselves. "Are we going to go out to Breadstix tonight?" he asked quietly, turning to speak to Blaine, though Rachel watched them cautiously.
"Well, um," Blaine stumbled, and Rachel wanted nothing more than to inform Kurt that no, Blaine would not be joining him for dinner because he would be far too busy rehearsing with Rachel to spend time with his actual boyfriend. She kept quiet, however, waiting for Blaine to answer Kurt. "I kind of already promised Rachel we'd rehearse tonight?" he finally said, his voice raising at the end as he looked guiltily at Kurt.
"But you practice all afternoon," Kurt stated, Rachel still sitting next to the pair, flipping to another page of her script. "You practice together all afternoon, every afternoon," he continued, now turning his glare towards Rachel. "How much rehearsal do you really need?"
"We want to make sure this performance is perfect Kurt," she said calmly.
"You've already played Maria before. I'm sure your performance will be flawless," Kurt argued back, his eyes narrowing.
"Every Maria is different," Rachel retorted, "Especially when it's with a new Tony." Kurt looked ready to retort, instead snapping his mouth closed and storming off without another word, Rachel going back to her script and singing Tonight under her breathe, Blaine letting out a deep breath behind her.
"I cannot stay!" Rachel said, fully engrossed in the role of Maria as they paced around Blaine's living room, his parents out at a faculty dinner of some sort. "Go, quickly!"
"I'm not afraid," Blaine replied, just as engrossed in Tony as she was in Maria. If she let herself think about it, he was her perfect Tony-and she had told him as such on several occasions, often causing him to blush and stutter out a quiet 'thank you'.
"They are strict with me, please," Rachel pleaded, and this-this was the point where they were supposed to kiss. Blaine hadn't questioned why she wanted to practice this scene, hadn't even said a word about it, and while she saw a flicker of worry behind the façade of Tony, he leaned forward and placed a small kiss on her mouth regardless.
It was even better than she had predicted, even if it was short, his lips against hers momentarily took her breath away, but then he was speaking again, "Good night," he said quietly, and she tried to remember her next line.
"Buenos noches," she finally replied, waiting for the line that was sure to turn her crush into an obsession, waiting to hear him say I love you, because she knew she wasn't going to take it as Tony saying it to Maria, but as Blaine saying it to her.
"I love you," a voice called out from behind her, and she whirled around in surprise to find a taller boy, a year or two older than them, Blaine's disgusted sigh not going unnoticed by Rachel.
"What are you doing here?" Blaine asked, completely ruining the scene just as Rachel was about to continue on.
"It's my house too," the boy smirked, and Rachel connected the pieces quickly-this was the elusive Jesse, the older brother who was somehow supposed to be more talented than Blaine. He walked over, grinning at Rachel, offering a hand. "Jesse. Jesse St. James," he said, and she timidly took his hand in hers, shaking it quickly, somehow intimidated by him in a way no one had ever done before. It was almost like she was starstruck, which was ridiculous.
"Jesus Christ," Blaine groaned from the other side of her, and Rachel only felt slightly bad as she let out a giggle. "When are you going to stop using fake names again?"
Rachel looked a little confused as she glanced between the two, and Jesse shrugged, his eyes focused on Rachel. "Okay, so it's Schuester, but St. James is a better stage name, is it not?" he asked, slinging an arm around Rachel's shoulder, causing her to flush a bright pink at the contact.
"It does sound better," she admitted, knowing deep down that he didn't really care about her opinion, but he grinned at her as he started leading her away, leaving Blaine behind them, Rachel turning to give him an apologetic glance before introducing herself and letting Jesse get to know her better.
Rachel's plan with Jesse was simple: use him as a device to get Blaine jealous enough to realize he wanted Rachel for his own. She figured the rivalry between the two alone would be good enough to set him off, and sure enough, the next day at school, Blaine had taken to ignoring her. When she tried to ask him about it, he muttered something about ditching him before storming off, Kurt appearing at her side a moment later.
"I hear Jesse is back in town," Kurt said quietly, and Rachel just sighed. "He always gets a little more tense with his brother around," he frowned, still watching where Blaine was now slamming his locker closed down the hallway. "I'm sure once Jesse leaves for college again he'll calm down." But Rachel could hear the undercurrent of worry in his voice, that maybe Blaine wouldn't calm down, and a part of her felt slightly bad for abandoning Blaine for Jesse when they were supposed to be rehearsing.
But then she remembered that this was what she needed, for Blaine to realize they were supposed to be together. If she waited for him to come to it by natural means, it might have taken forever.
"Now, I know we've been skating around the kissing," Artie stated later that day at practice, and Rachel raised an eyebrow at his statement as Blaine shuffled awkwardly next to her, "but we're going to have to make sure that it seems legitimate too, so this time-just go for it Blaine," he said, and Blaine frowned but nodded, his eyes flickering to where Kurt was hiding in the corner of the stage. She didn't roll her eyes, much as she wanted to, instead snapping her fingers in front of his face to focus him.
They went through the lines, so well-rehearsed by now that they didn't need the scripts, and when it came time for the kiss, Blaine didn't even hesitate.
Rachel had suspected he was a good kisser, but the real thing was so much better, and while it was a little more Rachel-and-Blaine oriented than Tony-and-Maria oriented, with an undercurrent of jealousy and claiming than of new born love and romance, she still was practically speechless when they broke apart.
Artie let out a low whistle from his spot in the chairs, saying something about how he definitely cast the right Tony and Maria, and Blaine looked just as confused as she was sure he felt. She was going to say something to him, though she wasn't sure what yet, before Kurt stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind him loudly.
"I'm sorry," Blaine said quietly, just to Rachel, and she couldn't do anything more than let out a small sigh of exasperation as he ran after Kurt, calling his name.
Then again, if he hadn't, she might not have liked him as much.
"So according to a very loud fight that took place in my living room this afternoon, I think it's sufficient to say that you and Blaine make a pretty good Tony and Maria?" Jesse asked later that night as they dined out at Breadstix. Rachel nodded, frowning slightly.
"Yeah, Kurt apparently wasn't pleased with the…intensity, I suppose, of our kiss," she shrugged, breaking the breadstick in her hand into smaller and smaller pieces.
"I believe his exact words were 'you kissed that whore like you've never kissed me'," Jesse smirked, and Rachel couldn't even bring herself to be hurt at Kurt's accusation.
"Well that says a lot about their relationship," she replied dryly instead, and Jesse let out a small laugh.
"I have no idea how my brother puts up with Kurt," Jesse said with a shake of his head. "The kid is a giant pain in the ass."
"I've heard the same about you," Rachel countered, and Jesse didn't even try and deny it.
"I let my talent be the number one thing about me," he answered, and she realized that was what she did more often than not. "I didn't feel the need to be nice to those around me who were clearly subpar compared to me, and I was the only reason anyone ever won a competition. And Hummel has always been incredibly insecure, if there's even the slight bit of competition he goes insane," Jesse explained with a shrug.
"I'm hardly competition," Rachel lied with a dramatic eye roll.
"I think we both know that you are," Jesse said quietly, and when Rachel was about to question him further, their waiter arrived and broke the moment.
"Stay away from him," Kurt snarled as he walked by Rachel the next morning, and she let out a short laugh, not bothering to cover it up.
"Excuse me?" she questioned, and he stopped to face her, his blue eyes fierce as they glared at her.
"Stay. Away. From. Blaine," he repeated.
"I think that'd be a little hard to do, since we're stars in the school musical. Unless you made him drop out, which wouldn't surprise me," she said off-handedly, ignoring his raise of an eyebrow. "Newsflash Kurt, if I wanted your boyfriend, I'd have him by now."
"Stay away from him," Kurt said one last time, starting to walk away.
"You know what?" Rachel called out, not bothering to lower her voice even though the hallway was becoming crowded. "I don't think I will. I think you could use a little competition. See if you actually deserve what you have, because I don't think you do." He turned to stare at her, eyes wide in shock, and she just shrugged before turning and heading in the opposite direction.
