"Whoa," Blaine's voice called out as Rachel ran past him, trying to find a quiet space to clear her head. "Rachel, what's wrong?"
"Nothing!" Rachel called out, trying to maneuver past him as he grabbed ahold of her arm, stopping her efforts. "Blaine, please just let me-"
"Are you crying?" He asked, his hand dropping down to grasp hers, concern and worry coloring his voice. "Rachel, come on, tell me what's wrong."
She didn't look at him, focusing instead on the ceiling above them, trying to regain her composure. This wasn't how she had planned to be proposed to, in her high school auditorium to her high school boyfriend. She loved Finn, she did, but he wasn't the love of her life, and to suggest otherwise-even she knew at 17 that it was unreasonable. "Finn asked me to marry him," she finally said in a quiet voice, noting how wide Blaine's eyes went at the news.
"What did you say?" Blaine responded, his voice just as quiet and steady, as if he was holding back from speaking his mind on the matter.
"I said I'd have to think about it," she answered honestly, her eyes locking with his as he let out a low breath.
"What's there to think about?" he asked her, his voice quiet. She was ready to give him a stock answer, but this was Blaine-her Blaine, much more so than Kurts' Blaine these days- and he deserved the truth.
"I love him," she told him. "But I don't know if I love him enough for that."
"You don't," Blaine answered for her, a slight blush crawling over her cheeks as she broke his gaze, feeling overwhelmed by just how serious he was being with her. "If there's even a doubt in your mind, then you don't Rachel. You're never-you know exactly what you want, and what you don't."
"Not all the time," she replied, voice small. There was a time she thought she wanted Blaine, or more so that Blaine wanted her, and sometimes-like now, for example-she was reminded of that. But it would pass as soon as Finn took her in his arms, or Kurt appeared and linked hands with Blaine.
"Rachel, you don't love him enough to do something this rash so young," he countered, and this seemed to infuriate her slightly.
"But what if he's my soulmate, Blaine? We've been through so much and to throw it all away-"
"You'd be throwing away even more if you said 'yes', Rachel. You'd be throwing away the girl I've heard about, who once managed to sing a 'fuck you' song to the quarterback of the football team and have everyone on her side. The one who once slapped the same guy for leading her on, the one who just months ago was reminded that Broadway was your soulmate." She frowned, her gaze towards their shoes as she took in his words. He was right, of course, because he read her better than anyone.
Much better than Finn.
"I didn't even know you knew about half of that," she said quietly after a moment, a small smile forming on her face.
"Kurt filled me in," Blaine explained, returning her grin with his own.
"Thank you Blaine," she whispered, standing on her toes to kiss his cheek, only to land her lips on the side of his mouth. Their eyes widened in surprise at the other, Blaine freezing under her lips, but he didn't say anything as they parted, simply squeezed the hand that was laced with his own.
"You're welcome," he assured her, his voice quiet before squeezing her hand once more and turning to leave. "Just remember- you're better than this." She knew, deep down, that he meant so much more than the surface let on.
That maybe, he felt so much more than the surface let on.