"So... who's Claire's boyfriend?" Rachel asked, as she and Jesse left NYADA heading towards her subway station. They walked hand in hand, the sling of her bag on his opposite shoulder, as well as his backpack.

After they had talked, they had gone in search of their friends, but apparently Claire and her boyfriend had decided there were far more important places to be at than in NYADA waiting for Jesse and Rachel. Which, while fair, left Rachel a little disgruntled that Claire had become oblivious to her existence the minute she was around her boyfriend. (Rachel ignored the fact that she herself hadn't told Claire in any shape or form that she was going off to talk to Jesse.)

And, OK, maybe Claire had sent her a text message telling her she was leaving that Rachel hadn't noticed until she and Jesse left the theater.

It still would have been nice to be notified in person.

"His name is Tom." Jesse informed her, answering her question.

"Did he tell you about Claire and Amy?"

"Not a lot, just that Claire was bummed about having her arm twisted into something. He didn't elaborate much." Jesse admitted.

Rachel had no such qualms, and told him everything she knew about what had happened. If anyone could understand the complexities of the situation, Jesse would be one of the few. As he had attested to just a while ago, he had been unable to just turn his back on his Vocal Adrenaline teammates, even though he had previously admitted to having loathed a lot of them.

Jesse was sympathetic, but he had to admit that it had to suck for someone like the other girl (Janie? Janet?) who had been so close to tasting the spotlight in NYADA and had it swept away from her, right into the hands of a ringer. And he told Rachel as much.

"I know," Rachel conceded, agreeing with him on that point, "but she didn't need to tell everyone who'd listen her interpretation of what happened."

"Some people like to play the role of victim," Jesse shrugged. "She was the understudy and she didn't get consulted on being replaced, even if it is for just one performance. That has to sting a little."

"Maybe."

"Rachel, some people don't get a lot of opportunities to shine. And some people just want their moment in the spotlight." He reminded her. "Take us, for example. We know we'll have other opportunities, that's a given, but when someone - anyone - tries to take our spotlight away, we may not like it, but sometimes we have to allow it to happen, or, like in this case, the choice gets taken away from you. It's not always pretty, and in some cases, we may even be forced to take action, or some might even say drastic measures, to take that spotlight back."

"Like emotionally blackmail your show choir into giving you the solo since you weren't able to even go on stage for Sectionals?" Rachel theorized, although Jesse suspected Rachel was speaking from experience.

"Or tell your show choir director that your female lead has Crohn's and get her demoted to the chorus." Jesse concurred.

"Wait, who has Crohn's-"

"The point is," Jesse swiftly interrupted, as if Rachel hadn't spoken, "this other girl - Janet? - she needs to feel at least a little better about having to concede lead status to someone else. If what you're saying is true, and Claire didn't have a choice, then it ultimately won't matter."

"But people are saying negative things about Claire."

"I doubt she isn't used to it," Jesse noted. "You don't become the best without leaving a trail of jealous rivals in your wake."

"If only it were that easy to ignore."

Jesse smiled. "I think we both know how lonely it really is at the top."

Rachel returned his smile with a weak one of her own. "It shouldn't have to be."

"Which is why you find people who can be right there with you." Jesse shared. He paused, and smiled wryly. "This conversation got really sad."

"The whole thing is a little depressing, I admit." Rachel agreed. "Anyway, I told Claire I'd join her at her rehearsals with the rest of the troupe, so she's sure to have at least one person in her support system."

"Sometimes one is all you need," Jesse said dryly.

Rachel hummed her agreement. After a while, she asked, "Is Tom also in AMDA?"

Jesse laughed at Rachel's seeming single-minded focus. "No. He's not into performing, really. But he plays guitar in a band."

"Are you two in a band...?" Rachel pressed, curious, but also because she felt like she was pulling teeth in getting information from him.

"No, no." Jesse shook his head. "I actually haven't seen them play."

"Okay, but how do you know him?"

Jesse shrugged. "We're working together on one of his projects."

This was going nowhere.

Jesse glanced at her, saw her apparent frustration at having her curiosity unsatiated, and had to smile. "I don't know what to tell you, Rachel. We met to work on something together, and we've only just started hanging out socially. And, as I said, I also only just found out the girlfriend he almost never mentions is the same girl you're dancing with, and, really, he never really talks about her much. Mostly, you know, the shows they see and to complain about her taste in music. Does Claire Beaumont really like ambient and alternative music as much as he implies she does?"

Rachel rolled her eyes. "She said she once created an entire ballet on Portishead's Dummy."

"That's..." Jesse paused, and eventually admitted, "I don't know who that is."

"They're a group. And, I didn't either." Rachel admitted. Although she subsequently studied up on the group's discography after Claire's admission, to get a clearer idea of what drove Claire. After listening to said album, she had wondered what had driven Claire to identify so strongly with such depressing songs.

"What's he like?" Rachel finally asked. "Tom. What's he like?"

"He's... a nice guy. I mean, he's into a lot of things. Music, for one. Movies. He used to be a film major in NYU, before he dropped out to do something else. Right now I think he's in CUNY, and we met through a friend of a friend, because Tom needed someone to do voice-overs for a project he's doing. And before you ask, it's because his voice sounds like someone going through puberty when it's recorded. I'm not even lying." Jesse told her, smiling. "He's born and raised in Vegas, and grew up on Law and Order and Martin Scorsese, so he's always kind of thought New York was his spiritual home."

Rachel paused, and stopped walking to turn and face Jesse, who had immediately stopped walking when she did. "Why didn't you want to tell me you were attending AMDA?"

Jesse blinked, surprised at the sudden change in topic. Then again, he really shouldn't have been surprised that she wasn't so easily going to let pass that he had kept such an important fact about his presence in New York from her. "I didn't want to talk about it yet."

"And you want to now?"

"You really want to talk about this?"

"I know we were talking about starting with a clean slate, but..."

"Okay." Jesse nodded, acknowledging that there were still some things they needed to cover before they really could start clean. He took a deep breath and sighed. "The truth is, to talk about AMDA is to talk about how and why I got here, and I tried to avoid that as much as I could when we were just being friends."

"You got into a pretty prestigious performing arts school, I think that's a pretty big deal." Rachel reminded him.

"It is, and I'm grateful, but..." Jesse paused, before changing tack. "You know how I told you that I'd imagined us taking New York by storm together?"

Rachel nodded.

"When we were here for Nationals, I decided I couldn't just be a show choir consultant. I mean, I knew I'd be great, and I already had offers from other show choirs floating around, but that wasn't what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. UCLA wasn't meant to be my thing, but I knew, deep down, I was going to get back on stage. After you and Finn screwed up your chances at Nationals, I had to start rethinking my plan, because we obviously weren't going to be getting back together for your last year in high school and, to be honest, I kind of went on a screw-you audition process campaign."

"A what?" Rachel asked, although she was sure she had heard him correctly.

"I hit the audition circuit." Jesse explained. He chuckled wryly as he tugged her arm and led her to a nearby apartment building, sitting them both down on the front steps. He turned to her as he expounded on his narrative. "I really wanted to get hired, just to have something to shove at you, for having picked him."

Rachel sighed. "Jesse..."

"I wanted to prove you wrong." Jesse admitted, smiling weakly. "I didn't get hired - obviously - but the experience taught me a few things about auditioning for a real Broadway show, and what it's like to live in New York, and it gave me something to think about."

"Which is why you chose to coach Vocal Adrenaline," Rachel noted, remembering what he'd told her earlier about the cost of living in New York.

"That's one. I also needed to have something artistic and competitive to put on my résumé." Jesse related. "But I learned that a lot of the guys in auditions knew each other, and some guys got into ensembles or got further in the audition process because they knew some other guy in the cast or crew. And I realized, even if I was making a living in Ohio, I needed to have that kind of 'in'. Not to mention, my lackluster performance in UCLA could be seen as a black mark, and I needed to remedy that impression. So, I applied to some schools in New York."

"Even if you knew I'd be coming here, too?"

"That was pretty much both a pro and a con," Jesse conceded. "But New York's a big city, and considering some of the things you were posting on Facebook, I was beginning to wonder if you were as intent on getting to New York as you once had been."

"I know it may have seemed like that..."

"What's important is that you're here now." Jesse assured her. "But for me, at the time, I was... I needed to get out of Ohio, and New York was the only option I had that I could realistically achieve."

"Why not tell me?"

"Because it felt like..." Jesse let his voice trail off, trying to figure out how to say what he wanted to adequately express what he'd felt without possibly offending her. "I chose to go to New York, to AMDA, for me. And at the time, every time you'd ask, it felt like to tell you was to give you access to a life I was trying to build, separate from you. And at the time, you seemed like you were too hung up on Finn for me to risk letting you in that much."

She didn't even bother to protest, because she knew it was probably close to the truth. Until very very recently, she had been reluctant to completely let go of the high school fantasy of getting happily-ever-after with the most popular boy in school. Instead, she gave voice to the question that had surfaced ever since Jesse had made his opening statement in the NYADA theater. "What made you decide to tell me now?"

Jesse gave her a faint smile. "Cards on the table."

Funny, that he would use the very phrase she had thought of when describing their earlier encounter.

"I realized that if I wanted you to trust me, that I had to return the favor: I had to be honest, and I had to be able to trust you with the important things." Jesse continued. "So you had to know."

"You looked like you were going to walk the plank, when you asked if we could talk." Rachel commented.

Jesse acknowledged his earlier hesitation with a slight nod of his head. "It was... I didn't know how it was going to go. It's had me worried, which is why I figured we needed the time - I needed the time to give it a lot of thought."

Rachel smiled weakly. "What took you so long?"

Jesse chuckled softly. "I spent a year dealing with the fact that you so very nearly became someone else's wife. And you send me a text message out of nowhere saying you wanted me back in your life, then just weeks later show up one afternoon saying you want to give our relationship another shot? It's a little hard to grasp sometimes that you can actually get what you want."

"So you didn't need to break up with someone?"

Jesse gave her a confused look.

"You said you were dating someone." Rachel reminded him.

"I said I was dating." He corrected. "In a general sense."

"Oh." Was all she managed to let out, unsure as to how she should react to that.

"Yes. Oh." Jesse grinned, seeing the expression on her face.

"So you really just..."

"Wanted to think things through?" He finished for her. "Yes."

"And the flowers?"

"Flowers?"

"On Valentine's Day, you bought red roses for someone."

"Right." He laughed. "I bought thirteen, and we both know that means friendship."

"But-"

"It was for a friend, I promise." He assured her. "Not romantic, at all. She would probably rather eat nails than be accused of dating me."

"That's awful."

He shrugged.

"Pink and white means friendship and purity." Rachel reminded softly.

"Together it means love based on mutual respect and friendship." Jesse told her.

Rachel stopped, as his words and meaning sank in. "Oh."

"Yes, oh."

Rachel recovered, and gave him a meaningful glance. "Our reconciliation didn't have to be so confrontational, you know."

"On the contrary," Jesse countered. "We've dealt with some pretty heavy blows in our relationship, Rachel. You can't say some things didn't make you want to scream and yell at some point."

"Of course, but..." Rachel shook her head. "That doesn't solve anything."

"Not all the time," Jesse agreed. "But you're entitled to those emotions, and sometimes just letting it out is all you need."

Rachel glanced at him. "Am I to suppose that some of those things you said have been in the works for some time?"

"That would be a smart assumption," Jesse disclosed. He smiled. "And don't say you disapprove, I saw a glint in your eye at one point in that undertaking."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Rachel thinly denied.

Jesse smirked. "Fine, don't admit you enjoyed directing some anger at someone."

"I admit nothing."

"Would you, if I told you acknowledging that anger is essential to Bohemian Rhapsody?"

Rachel stalled from answering because, well, he had her on that point.

Jesse exhaled. "We were friends on Facebook, Rachel. We didn't talk much last year, but I followed your year as closely as I could. And it was immensely frustrating to feel like a helpless bystander who could only watch what was happening, but I also couldn't help but feel like you were content floundering, as you seemed to had been."

Rachel looked at him, unwilling to say anything, because while she had begun to realize how bad so much of her senior year in high school had been, she wondered what it had seemed like to other people. She knew Quinn had hated being on the sidelines and had tried to talk her out of it, but she'd been unwilling to listen. Most others seemed content to watch her life unravel like a bad reality TV series.

"You were so angry at me, when I came back from UCLA, but you were also so quick to forgive me." Jesse observed. "I was relieved, immensely, at the time, but since then I've wondered if maybe I should have wanted you to be more expressive of that anger so that it would stop haunting the two of us."

Rachel let out a small laugh of incredulity. "You wanted me to be angry at you?"

"Anger is an interesting catalyst for honesty." Jesse pointed out.

Rachel shook her head. "It's pointless to hold on to such negative emotions."

"Anger doesn't have to be negative." Jesse argued.

"How can anger be positive?" Rachel challenged.

Jesse shrugged. "It drives you. Anger gets to the heart of things, it reminds you of what's important. There's no appealing to the softer side of anger. Anger is a core emotion; you don't have to like it, but you need to acknowledge it." He gave her a wan smile. "Anger is a reminder that you care enough to want to be heard."

Rachel shook her head, and got to her feet. "I don't like this conversation anymore. I expect my boyfriend to be more positive than all this."

"I thought I was proving anger can be positive," Jesse countered, getting up anyway, and they continued their walk towards Rachel's subway stop.

Rachel cast him a measuring look. "Were you ever angry at me?"

Jesse grinned. "So much."

"You're grinning."

"I'm not angry now."

"You better not be."

"You called me your boyfriend."

Rachel shrugged. "If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck..."

"I imagine dates are essential, to being your boyfriend."

"I always knew you were smart."

"And duets, of course."

"Of course."

Jesse smiled warmly at her. "May I have the honor of your company on Friday night?"

"So far away?"

Jesse laughed. "We're still meeting during the week, Rachel. Friday night is a formality."

"What are we doing Friday?" Rachel asked excitedly.

"That would be telling." Jesse teased as they came to the stairs that led to the station. He handed Rachel her bag. "Keep me posted, I imagine it'll be an interesting week for you with this whole deal with Claire. Just remember I'll be a phone call away, and if it's very necessary, give me up to thirty minutes to get there."

Rachel smiled at him. "Thanks, Jesse."

"Oh, and Rachel?"

Rachel, who had been about to head down the steps, turned back to face him.

"We're doing a lyrical study of Bohemian Rhapsody." Jesse told her. "Be prepared."

Rachel narrowed her eyes at him. "You're going to enjoy this, aren't you?"

"Guy on a budget, Rachel." Jesse reminded, grinning.

"Cheap thrills." Rachel finished the thought, smiling back. "Don't be a jerk and try not to enjoy this too much."

Jesse's grin grew, and he stepped back, holding his arms out in a gesture of feigned innocence as he sang out, "take me baby, or leave me."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Guess I'm leaving."

"Kiss, pookie." Jesse's grin was absolutely mischievously evil at that point, seeing the look of mortification on Rachel's face as he quoted the line well off the song arrangement.

She chose not to take the bait, instead retaliating with the actual line that followed. "I'm gone."

His laugh followed her down the stairs, and she didn't dare turn around to let him see the smile that grew on her own face.