Thanks for the reviews, guys! I've been sooo busy but I made some time to write a little somethin' somethin'. I'm still jetlagged believe it or not, so sorry if this might seem strange in some places, you know, writing-wise. And sorry for separating Jesse and Rachel but they need some drama. Aaaand, it's AU but still based on what really happened so, sorry if it's breaking your heart… But believe me, it was probably more painful writing it than reading it! Ok, I'll stop apologizing now. And don't worry – I'm a hardcore St. Berry fan, I wouldn't dare to even think of separating them for good :)

EARLIER THAT MORNING.

Jesse woke up, feeling much more optimistic than the day before. Last night he had been at Quinn's and they brainstormed ideas about Regionals and he was pretty proud of what they'd come up with. They couldn't beat Vocal Adrenaline from the technical perspective, so they would have to put everything on the emotional one, they would have to touch the judges and show them that they are just as passionate about winning was everyone else, and just because they might not be the absolute best, they still tried their best.

Suddenly Jesse's phone rang.

"Hello?" he said groggily.

"Jesse, good morning! Did I wake you?" Quinn said.

"Uhm, not really. Is there any particular reason you're calling me so early?"

"Yeah, my car battery is dead and my parents are already gone. I was hoping maybe you could give me a ride to school?"

"Oh… absolutely." Jesse replied.

"Great, thank you so much. How about we grab some breakfast along the way? You know, as friends.." Quinn said.

"Sure, I'll be there in half an hour." Jesse said and hung up. He quickly hopped out of bed and hit the shower.

Quinn lived between Jesse's apartment and the school, so he could just pick her up along the way. He arrived in front of her house about 31 minutes later. Damn, he loved how precise he usually was.

"Hey!" Quinn said cheerfully as she got into Jesse's blue Honda.

"Hello. Hello, hello." Jesse replied, singing along to the Beatles song that was on the radio at that moment.

"I love this song. I'm so glad we did it for Sectionals." Quinn said.

"Yeah, there's nothing better than the Beatles… So, off for some breakfast? I wanted to talk to you about some of the dance moves. I don't think Puck will be able to keep up with some up the steps we came up with. You know what a bad dancer he is." Jesse said, as they drove off to IHOP.

"Oh, I think that if someone works real hard with him, he'll be ok. We'll put him in the back just in case."

Once they had reached IHOP they had already changed their before thoroughly planned last number. They made their way inside and took a seat. Quinn looked at Jesse and could tell what he was thinking about. Rachel. It would be a lie to say it didn't make her jealous or mad but she was determined to be a good friend for Jesse, if he needed her, she'd be there.

"Everything alright?" She asked.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just still a little sleepy. I need some coffee."

"You know, Jesse, it's ok if you want to talk about her. I can take it."

"Talk about who?" Jesse said, taking a sudden interest in the menu.

"You know who. Rachel. I know it might seem a little awkward but I want us to be friends. And friends talk about what's bothering them." Quinn replied.

Their waitress interrupted them. After they ordered, much to Quinn's surprise, Jesse continued the conversation. It seemed he just needed to get it off his chest.

"It's not bothering me. It's killing me, actually. It's driving me crazy, it's so hard not to think about it and her all the time. I'm trying to accept what happened and let it go."

"Well, it hasn't been that long, you just need time. Time heals all wounds."

"So I hear. But until then I don't know what I'll do. I just need to keep myself busy." Jesse said.

Quinn smiled and put her hand on his. "If you're ever not busy, I'm just a phone call away."

Jesse tried to give a sincere smile back. He appreciated Quinn's concern but it wasn't her he wanted to keep him company. But the person he really wanted would never be there for him again. Though in it was nice he had someone to lean on, maybe he could get used to Quinn, she was pretty awesome in her own way. She was no Rachel, but no one could compare to Rachel, she was one of a kind.

After their encounter with Vocal Adrenaline in the auditorium, New Directions were really put in a funk, except for Jesse and Quinn, strangely. It took Jesse everything in him not to give up, he was way too stubborn for that.

"Jesse and I have come up with a few good ideas, so come on, let's get to it!" Quinn said to the team.

All she heard in reply was a mumble. Suddenly, Jesse's phone rang. It was Rachel. Of course he hadn't deleted her number yet. There wouldn't be much point in that anyway, he knew her number by heart. At the sight of her name flickering on his phone, his heart almost jumped out of his mouth. What did she want from him? He had to pick up, or else it would seem he was afraid or purposefully avoiding her, seeming like a coward. Jesse was also extremely curious as to why she was calling, she had seen him only a few minutes ago.

"Hello?"

"Meet me in the parking lot."

And she hung up. What was going on? Jesse felt a little hopeful; maybe Rachel had changed her mind and wanted him back. Maybe she decided that she really did love him and was ready to take another try. Or maybe she just finally was ready to face him and tell him what happened. Jesse made his way out of the choir room and walked out to the parking lot. There he saw her, standing there, alone. She had changed out of her Gaga costume and to her standard dark blue Vocal Adrenaline costume. She waved at him and gave him a huge smile. Jesse was so relieved to see this, he started to run over to her. He completely forgot about his stubbornness or the hurt she had caused him, if she was standing there, inviting him closer, that was enough for him and he would take what he could. Jesse had already imagined how this would all play out, he would dramatically run over to her, pick her up in his arms and spin her around, then once he'd put her down she'd apologize to him and tell him she loved him and they would kiss and it all would be very romantic and would make for a good movie. Well, ok, maybe a mediocre movie.

As he got closer he realized Rachel's smile turn into a frown, which started to confuse him. He stopped about 10 feet away from Rachel. Suddenly, about 8 other Adreninites came out of nowhere and one by one they started to throw slushies at him. He covered his face with his hands as the shock of the cold goo being poured all over hit him. Jesse St. James had never been so unprepared for something in his life. This by far was to most mortifying experience he had ever had. And the fact that he was being slushied wasn't the fact that hurt the most. It was the fact that Rachel Berry was the one leading this. What had Jesse done to deserve this? Except the fact that he kept his identity a secret for a while, he had never done anything to hurt Rachel or mistreated her or anything of the sort. After Vocal Adrenaline were done with their raid, Jesse took his hands away from his face, sliding them over his head to clear the top of his head from the large amount for slushy that was on it. During this time Rachel had gotten a slushy of her own but it was still full.

"We hear there's nothing you hate more than being slushied, St. James. We just wanted to help you overcome this "fear"." Giselle said sarcastically. Jesse only gave her a slight glance but he mostly was just staring at Rachel with a sad look that simply screamed "Why are you letting them do this to me?" But it was true, there was not much Jesse disliked more than getting a slushy in the face. It was absolutely humiliating, he wouldn't wish that upon anyone. Though right now he might wish it on those who just committed this act of "kindness". Jesse didn't often get slushied, maybe once a month but that still was more than enough. This way mostly because his dad was a teacher and the jocks were in Mr. Schues' class, so they couldn't mess with him that much. Puck and Santana got slushied weekly, the others a bit less. For some reason McKinley jocks thought that was a good way of showing that they're cooler than others.

Then Giselle looked over at Rachel. "Do it, Rachel."

Rachel had the most tortured look on her face. It seemed she might burst into tears any second now. She looked at the slushy, wishing it would just come alive and eat her or something. If there was ever a time Rachel couldn't put on a show face, this was it. Never had she had to try so hard, after all, she's only human, as much as her mother would wish her to be more like a robot. She really didn't want to do this, she already felt so bad for betraying Jesse in the first place. She felt bad about lying to him that she didn't love him. She felt bad for breaking up with him so suddenly. She felt bad that she allowed herself and him to get dragged into this. She just felt pain bad. But she knew that it would be best for Jesse to think she's a soulless bitch, then he would get over her faster. It would be easier if he thought there was no chance of reconciliation, he wouldn't think "what if" as much and he'd move on faster. Rachel had already seen how he had started to move on, which she tried to remember at this moment, hoping it would give her motivation to get on with this.

"Are you with us or not?" Giselle continued. She might have been one of Rachel's best friends but when it came to Vocal Adrenaline, nothing could stand between her and that trophy. And if Rachel couldn't humiliate the other team like usual then she was jeopardizing their whole team. No way could Rachel Berry have really fallen for this guy…could she?

Rachel pulled herself together and understood what she must do, she couldn't chicken out. Damn peer pressure! She slowly walked up to Jesse, holding the slushy tight in her right hand.

"Do it. You've done worse to me." Jesse nodded and looked Rachel right in the eyes. Jesse also understood that she needed to do it, for the team. She was their leader and if she'd back down…well, let's just say it wouldn't be pretty. Plus, she had already broken his heart, what more could she possibly do to hurt him more. Jesse felt stupid for being so gullible moments before, he should have seen that it was a trap. But he was so hoping it would turn out different that he took the risk and went out to meet Rachel. And now she was about to pour a slushy on him, while looking him in the eyes. Without a word, Rachel stretched up her short hand over his head and let it slowly drip down his face. The worst part was that it was a berry slushy, which took her back to their first date and how they were both covered in berries, maple syrup and egg. Who would have thought it'd come to this? Why was life so unfair? "Sometimes you have to do what you must, not what you want." Shelby would often say.

"I loved you." Rachel thought but couldn't bring herself to say out loud. After that she went on cursing the heavens silently. And then Vocal Adrenaline stepped in their Range Rovers and left, leaving a slushied Jesse St. James all alone in the parking lot, humiliated and heartbroken. That wasn't what he had expected at all.

Almost instantly the rest of New Directions was running towards him. They had seen the whole thing from inside the school. They were of course spying on Jesse, they noticed he got a suspicious phone call and had vanished outside (actually they noticed mostly because like 2 minutes had gone by without him saying something totally obnoxious), so it didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened. They had been debating whether they should interfere with what was going on but someone no one really had the guts to actually go and face Vocal Adrenaline, especially after they had just performed in their auditorium and totally blown everyone away. They still hadn't recovered from that.

"What the hell was that?" Quinn exclaimed, handing Jesse a towel she had gotten from who-knows-where.

Great, now Jesse was even more humiliated, now his whole team saw him covered in slushy and had seen him get rejected once again. He didn't speak, there was not much he could say. He just felt as if there wasn't a single thing in the world he could do right now.

"Ok, now that's enough! We HAVE to get them back, and HARD!" Matt said.

"Yeah, Jesse's one of us, we're the only ones allowed to humiliated him." Tina added.

"Oh, we will..." Quinn said with a devilish look on her face.