Trust her luck to find Jesse waiting for her by her locker; they couldn't avoid him in their path. Rachel paled and silenced as Jesse started to approach. In a way she was thankful for Kurt's presence, without him she would have had to face Jesse on her own.
He chuckled as the two divas walked closer. "Don't tell me you won Prom Queen Kurt?" asked Jesse gesturing to the tiara that Kurt had forgotten about wearing.
He shrugged trying to side step the curly haired singer but failing. "Yes." he replied curtly. "Look, I'll explain it to you later but Rach just wants to get home and so I am taking her."
His eyes moved on to Rachel who was now cradling her cheek, her head bent to avoid eye contact. "Rach, I am so sorry about what happened in there." he started suavely. It hadn't been Jesse's fault however he believed that apologising might just put him in her good books.
"That's all very good and well but maybe you could apologize later, we kind of have to get going."
Jesse ignored Kurt and continued with his pre-prepared speech. "It's just that Hudson kid; I don't know what he was thinking. Well actually, I do know what he was thinking. How stupid does he have to be to believe that you would take him back when he came with somebody else?" he laughed.
Automatically Rachel came to Finn's defence. "He's not stupid." she murmured defiantly.
He just shrugged. "Whatever, look maybe I could take you home, I could apologize thoroughly and-"
Kurt had had just about enough of this. Jesse was not helping Rachel's mood, in fact he was probably worsening it. He pushed his way past as powerful as he could and pulled Rachel past him. They were in the car park before Kurt apologized. "I'm sorry he was just really getting underneath my skin." he said. It was no secret that Jesse was not a welcome returner.
Rachel really didn't mind.
They both got in and buckled their belts. Kurt knew that Rachel didn't want to be asked what had happened and so he dodged the question as he started to reverse. They were onto the second song of the "Wicked" soundtrack before he couldn't avoid it anymore.
"Are you going to tell me or not?" he asked, his eyes losing focus on the road but concentrating on Rachel whose shrunken frame was slumped in the seat beside him. Trails from past tears would not be obvious to anyone else but he could see where they had fallen and he knew that it was serious.
"It's not important." she stated, still refusing to make eye contact.
He shrugged and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel in time to the music. "It's important to all of us if Quinn has said anything to you." Rachel froze at the mention of Quinn's name, how did he know?
"She hasn't said anything to me." Well it wasn't her words that had hurt Rachel, she had grown used to the bitterness that she received it was the action that hurt her.
He raised an eyebrow as he flicked the indicator. "Well she's sure done something to you and undoubtedly my dumb step-brother has done something too, probably unknowingly though." Kurt smiled gently. Kurt was somebody who Rachel could trust but she didn't want to ruin his night, it had been a good prom for Kurt and she didn't want to involve him in her troubles. "Sorry about that fight before though." Rachel had insisted that she was fine although a bit shell shocked which was why Kurt was sure that it was not the cause of the crying.
"You don't have to keep on apologizing." Rachel stated and Kurt shrugged, he felt like he should be apologetic that he had not had a bad night with her.
"So are you going to tell me?" Kurt asked again as the next track started.
She shook her head slowly, "There's no point."
"Of course there is point Rach; I'm worried about what has upset you! Do you honestly want me to be worried about my best friend?" Normally, Rachel would have been happy about being classed as Kurt's best friend, he and Mercedes had welcomed her unexpectedly, but now she was just tired.
Still, she felt guilty for keeping quiet, it was polite that he was missing out on part of his night to run her home. "Well it was Quinn." she admitted sheepishly, now gauging Kurt's reaction before revealing the whole story.
When Kurt arrived home (well past three in the morning) nobody was awake apart from Finn who had been staying up for any news on either Quinn or Rachel. He had messed up, big time. Kurt had been giggling to Blaine (who had been allowed to stay over on the condition that Kurt stayed on the couch) but when he clocked eyes on Finn's anxious pose the laughing stopped and he stiffened.
"Hey, how was the rest of prom?" asked Finn smiling as if he was interested in Kurt and Blaine's antics.
Of course, Blaine was completely naive to the fact that he shouldn't be talking to Finn because Kurt had promised to not share the story with anyone else but now he wasn't sure if he could hold it back from Finn. "Great," he chirped. "Kurt won prom queen!"
"Prom queen?" asked Finn. Well now at least he knew to avoid Quinn for as long as possible, she would be in an absolute sour mood not like he wanted to be in her company anyway.
"Yes." Kurt said sullenly. Blaine turned at the sudden change of tone but of course Finn was most surprised.
"What's up dude?" Finn asked as Kurt led Blaine upstairs. Kurt didn't answer. It took all the will he had not to shout at Finn about what a mess he had made of the night for Rachel and that his deranged bitch girlfriend had assaulted the innocent girl all because of him. He only held it back because everybody was asleep and he had promised Rach and he didn't want to upset the poor girl even more, if that was possible.
He had left her in the safe hands of her fathers with the promise that he would return in the morning to check up in her and a quick kiss of reassurance on the forehead. Rachel had smiled faintly and waved Kurt off as he headed back to McKinley with one thing on his mind.
When they were in the privacy of Kurt's room Blaine asked whether he was okay. Kurt sighed: "I'll be fine; it's Rachel I am worried about." Blaine nodded his head, knowing not to ask, and shared a chaste kiss with him before heading to get changed.