To say things at school the rest of the week was awkward would be a major understatement.
Finn had refused to really acknowledge Rachel in glee club which lead to unneeded tension to an already anxiety ridden team, and to make things worse, Kurt had let Rachel's pending audition slip during Thursday's rehearsal. This, of course, only served to make Finn more angry with her and put more stress on New Directions.
And to top it all off, Rachel still hadn't spoken to Jesse since she had hung up on him Tuesday. She was aware that she would have to stop ignoring his texts and phone calls soon, especially since it was now Friday, and she had yet to respond to one. Even the ones that inquired about her health and well-being.
His voicemail had left the biggest mark, though.
"Hey, Rachel. It's me... again. Um, I'm not really sure what's going on or why you're not answering the phone, but it'd be really great if you called me back. You're not sick, are you? If you are I hope you get better soon. You might want to keep rehearsing your lines, though. I'm really excited to hear how much better you've gotten when you come back. And uh- Okay, look, I'm just going to say it. Did I do something or say something to make you mad at me? 'Cause if I did, I probably wasn't thinking, and I'm really sorry. I – uh – I really miss talking to you, and I've got some things I want your opinion on. So, if you could just call me back, send a letter, morse code, throw out a smoke signal, or send a carrier pigeon, that would be great. I guess I'll let you go... Sorry for the lameness of this message. Talk to you later... I hope..."
That had been left Thursday night, and Rachel still hadn't worked up the courage to dial his number. Though a few times she had gotten six – nine if you count the area code – digits in before flipping her phone shut and finding a new distraction. Frankly, Rachel wasn't sure if she'd find the courage anytime soon, or even before she had to leave for LA in three weeks. There were just too many thoughts and emotions plaguing her thoughts to consider.
Of course, a rational side of Rachel knew that you couldn't just avoid someone until you saw fit. Truthfully she should have been expecting what was to come that afternoon as she stood at her locker after post-school glee club gathering up the books she would need to take home. She was the only one of the team left in the school, so she gathered her things quickly and headed to the parking lot expecting to see her lone car sitting in one of the far off parking spots. Boy was she wrong...
The entire glee club – excluding Finn, Rachel observed, was surrounded around a small area of space. Without even glancing at the silver sports car or listening to the smooth tenor voice that was politely answering questions from her peers, Rachel knew what – or who – they were gathered around. Jesse.
Deciding to let her presence be known to her clearly distracted teammates, Rachel settled on what she thought would be an appropriate greeting.
"Jesse!" she called with a perfectly measured amount of enthusiasm. New Directions broke apart slightly to turn and face her. As they did they formed a small gap where, as Rachel had predicted, Jesse came into view. He stood with his normal confident stature. His hands were tucked into the pockets of his artfully roughed-up blue jeans. The sleeves of his navy blue button up shirt were rolled neatly to reveal his fit forearms, and the Ray Bans he had been wearing when they met rested in front of his eyes. The casualness of the outfit was balanced by how much Rachel knew it had to have cost and the leather dress shoes he seemed to wear with everything.
When he spotted her, he smiled and removed his sunglasses as he carelessly threw them into the drivers seat through the open door of his car.
"'Bout time you got here," he said with a lazy grin. Rachel felt her heart beat speed up, only serving to confirm the feelings she had for him.
"Dramatic entrances are kinda my thing."
"Should've known," Jesse laughed, and suddenly the rest of New Directions felt as if they were intruding upon something private. One by one they trickled off to their cars feigning a nonchalance about being in the presence of a movie star. Finally, only Kurt was left. He walked past Rachel on his way to leave and whispered a suggestive "We'll talk about this later." into her ear before he, too, left the parking lot leaving her and Jesse alone.
Jesse's smile dropped slightly, but his tone remained mostly light. "I'll meet you at your house?"
"Yeah," Rachel nodded and offered her own small smile in return before walking off to her own car.
When they both arrived at the Berry residence driveway, Rachel led the way to the front porch and unlocked the door to the empty house. Jesse followed her inside, and after insuring her that he didn't want anything to eat or drink, they sat down on the living room couch. Without warning, Jesse leant towards her and placed his hand on her forehead.
Confused, Rachel asked, "Jesse, what are you doing?"
He removed his hand and answered her, "Checking to see if you have a fever, which you don't. I don't see in broken bones, I don't think you have amnesia, you don't seem to have any life-threatening illnesses-"
"What are you getting at?" Rachel asked, although she knew.
"I'm not getting at anything," he said innocently. "I'm merely pointing out all the reasons that you could have called me back."
"I'm sorry," she apologized and a strong bit of of sincerity was attached to her words, but still the more stubborn, drama-craving side of her was a tad mad at him for seeming so upset over something she had only done because of something he had said.
"I was really worried about you," Jesse frowned. Rachel detected a bit of agitation in his tone, and she found all the pent up emotions from the past few days come out in her next retort.
"Well, I'm sorry. I didn't know that calls from your only friends meant that much to you."
Jesse stared at her blankly for a second before registering what she had said. His eyes widened and he bit back with an equal amount of disdain, "Please. You know as much as I do that I like talking to you everyday. And, quite frankly, you like talking to me. I don't understand why you couldn't just call me, text me, or something."
"I got all of that from your voicemail," Rachel mocked.
"Oh, so me checking on your well-being is comical now?"
"Only when the day before you practically spelled out to me the little value you place on our 'friendship.'"
"Stop saying it like that!"
"Saying what how?"
"Friendship like it's some dirty word. That's what we are Rachel, we're friends. I thought we established that, but maybe you're right. I mean friends call each other. Friends don't let their friends leave twenty-some-odd messages without returning any of them. Friends-"
"Why are you so worked up over this?" Rachel bit out.
"I told you already-"
"You were 'worried' about me," Rachel scoffed before he could finish. "I don't buy that anymore than I'd buy one of Noah's stupid 'Bro Rules.' So why does it really matter? I was going to call you!"
Both of them were standing by now. Rachel wasn't sure what exactly it was that was making her provoke him like this, but after spending the past few days at the bottom of her emotional state, it felt good to poor some of the confusion and under-surfaced anger on someone else. Surprisingly, fighting felt relieving. Fighting seemed to be just what she needed right now.
"It matters because I care about you!"
"Oh, really?"
"Yes, really. Is that really so hard to believe?" Jesse asked incredulously. He, too, wasn't sure where all of this snarling was coming from, but for some reason he couldn't find it in himself to stop it.
"It is when only three nights ago you were denying any chance of ever having any feelings toward me other than the general platonic ones of friendship."
"Is that what all this is about? You were complaining about how Finn couldn't except that you only wanted to be friends with you! I was trying to support you. I was telling you everything I thought you wanted to hear!"
"Oh, so you were lying to me?"
"No-"
"Acting, then?"
"No! I wasn't lying and I wasn't acting. I meant what I said. We're friends. Best friends, even. At least we were this time last week. The bottom line is that you're yelling at me over something that I didn't know would make you mad. If it really upset you this much you should have – Oh, gee... I don't know – Called me!"
Their breaths were coming out staggered, and both of them held fierce looks on their faces. Neither seemed ready to back down, so Rachel kept going.
"I'm not your girlfriend. I'm not obligated to call you every five minutes."
"I never said you were my girlfriend," Jesse frowned. The last statement had caught him off guard, but he didn't let the edge slip from his voice.
"Exactly," Rachel shrugged. "Which brings me back to why you have no right to be so-"
But, Rachel didn't get to finish her sentence because suddenly two arms grabbed her by the waist and pulled her against a solid chest who's heart was beating rapidly like those that have been fueling a fight often do. The lips of the aforementioned closed over hers, effectively ending their argument. For now...
Chapter 12? Done, done, and done.
The following message has been approved for all audiences who don't mind minor spoileresque info:
Don't get too terribly excited... They're not exactly together yet. Let's just say that Rachel and Jesse will be walking a very thin - if not dangerous - line for a little while... If you catch my drift.
Thoughts?