Thank you for your reviews last chapter. I warn you, the road to St Berry love is never easy! And how good was episode 6! Can't wait for the mini- gleeks! :O R&R please!
Jesse walked along the characters, a happy swagger to his stride. He paused by his locker, but turned his attention away from it when he saw a mass of brunette hair storming down the corridor.
"Hello Rach." He called to Rachel, smiling. "When are we practising our duet again?" He asked with a smirk.
"We're not." Rachel told him. "I've pulled us out of the competition. I went to Mr Schuester this morning."
"What?" Jesse said, confused. "Why?"
"Because I feel our working relationship will be awkward due to current events." Rachel began, having rehearsed in her mind what she would say. "What I agreed to the other night was wrong and I feel it has made our situation difficult. We can't work together under the current circumstances."
"What do you mean?" Jesse asked. "I thought you agreed to…. You said you wanted to be with me." He said, struggling to hide the hurt in his voice.
"Well, I didn't mean it." Rachel told him briskly. "We aren't meant to be together, I'm with Finn. Whatever you think we shared, it was a mistake. I have no idea how you managed to convince me to do that with you in the first place. Anything I agreed to afterwards was just said due to the recent high. It was a mistake, and I'm sorry if it effects you in any way." She finished.
Jesse just stared at her in shock, before managing to pull together a show face. Indifference now, pain later. That was the rule of the show face.
"Well then." Jesse said, carefully monitoring the tone of his voice. "I accept if you don't wish to have a secret relationship, but I don't see why that means we pull out of the competition. I never expected you of all people to give up a chance to win, no matter what the situation."
"You really think we can work together with awkwardness?" Rachel asked sceptically.
"No, but that just makes the achievement of winning even greater. And we will win if we enter. I never imagined the situation where Rachel Berry would give up the chance to win a competition, however minor." Jesse replied.
"Yes, but I never imagined that my ex boyfriend would trick me into sleeping with him whilst I was dating another boy, the same ex boyfriend that egged and publicly humiliated me." Rachel hissed, glaring at him.
"I tricked you into it?" Jesse asked, changing his show face to one of amusement. "You were pretty willing."
"I was probably drunk still." Rachel said, still glaring daggers at him.
"You're speaking absolute rubbish and you know it." Jesse replied, his voice low and dark with venom. "Anything you did, you did willingly and you loved every single second of it and I bet you'll soon be begging for more." He told her.
Rachel shook her head, her own show face nearly slipping.
"No Jesse. You kid yourself all you want, but you're wrong. I. Love. Finn." She said, and began to walk down the corridor quickly, in fear of her acting skills being rendered useless.
"You keep telling yourself that." Jesse called after her.
"Now, as we had a drop out of our competition, who wants to provide the first of our five entries to the duet competition?" Mr Schuester asked his club.
"Hold up." Artie said, looking confused. "Who pulled out?"
"Rachel pulled her and Jesse out of the competition." Mr Schue told him, and the aforementioned couple received odd looks from everyone else.
"Why would you pull out of the competition?" Mercedes questioned.
"This is an extremely unusual thing for you to do." Kurt added in, sensing a good chance to find out some gossip.
"I pulled out for reasons that should be obvious to you all." Rachel replied, giving them distasteful looks.
"Still not over the egging incident?" Kurt asked bluntly.
"Something like that." Rachel said, avoiding Jesse's eyes, as he stared at her with a slight smirk.
Finn saw Jesse watching Rachel and put a protective arm around his girlfriend. She gave him a small smile, but whipped her head round when Jesse spoke.
"I'd like to re-enter us in the competition please Mr Schuester." He said quietly.
Rachel stared at him wide eyed, but made no comment. Mr Schue looked between the pair.
"You okay with that Rachel?" He asked her.
"Of course she's not!" Finn broke in, receiving a glare from Jesse.
"I didn't realise Rachel needed you to speak for her now." He said coldly.
"Well, her answer is obvious. If she pulled you out, she doesn't want to take part." Finn replied. "Got a problem with that?"
"Yes actually." Jesse told him, standing up. "See, I think Rachel's her own person and doesn't need her dumb boyfriend breaking in the conversation at random points."
Finn stood up too, only a few inches taller than Jesse. They began to walk towards each other, almost as if they were in a stand off. Jesse knew physically, although he was stronger than he looked, he probably couldn't win if it got violent, but he knew he could use his arguing skills to get one up on Finn.
"What did you call me?" Finn said, glaring at Jesse.
"You heard. I think you're dumb. And also a pretty awful boyfriend." Jesse replied honestly, smirking.
"I don't think you can really talk about being a good or bad boyfriend, considering all you did!" Finn replied angrily.
"Fair point, however, I know that a guy is supposed to love their girl as they are, not try and change them." Jesse responded calmly. "Look at her. The fringe, the lack of animal sweaters, the fact that she has no drive or determination anymore... She's not Rachel anymore; you're changing her unnecessarily and that is being a bad boyfriend. And where are the abrasive comments, the perfectionism that verges on annoying. The things that make her her."
"Those things aren't traits to be proud of! I know they are to you… but I'm helping her change for the better!" Finn was getting annoyed now, and Jesse could see it. Jesse swaggered forward slightly, smirking.
"Are you saying your girlfriend isn't perfect as she is?" Jesse asked, smirking as Finn played easily into his hands.
"What- no, I- I didn't say that!" Finn said, giving Rachel a panicked look, receiving a questioning one in return as she let Jesse's words get to her. "I mean- she's improving! It's a good thing!"
"The thing you're supposed to love the most about your girlfriend is all the bad parts." Jesse replied, making Rachel remember a conversation she'd had with Mr Schue. "You should love her unconditionally."
"I do! Shut up!" Finn shouted, deciding that it would be easier to hit Jesse than fight him verbally. He stepped forward, wanting nothing more than to smash the smirk off of Jesse's face, and Jesse stepped forward, daring him. But then Rachel intercepted.
"Sit down. Both of you." She commanded. She didn't stand up, she didn't move, but both boys froze and looked at her. "Sit down please." She told them.
Jesse shook his head. "Why should I take commands from you?" He asked challengingly, smirking at her. Rachel turned her attention to Finn instead.
"Finn, please." She begged, eager to break up the fight. She took his hand as she tried to drag him down. "Sit down, be the better man."
"Yeah Finn. Be the better man." Jesse said, grinning, testing him.
Finn lunged at Jesse, breaking his contact with Rachel, but Jesse swiftly stepped aside. Finn would have tried to get at Jesse again, if Rachel hadn't stood up and went to Finn.
"Finn." She said his name warningly. "Come sit down." She begged again.
He let her guide him back to his seat, then sat down with his head in his hands. The rest of the club were staring in shock, Jesse still standing up. Rachel stared at him, giving him a pleading look not to say anything. He just walked up to her, shoving on a show face.
"What has he done to you?" He asked, allowing some confusion to seep through his mask.
"Jesse, please don't." Rachel replied in a quiet voice as Finn looked up.
"This isn't you, Rachel." Jesse said, causing Rachel to feel shivers when he said her name. "This isn't Rachel Berry."
Rachel looked up, meeting his eyes, and he saw something change in them. He saw the measured feelings be overtaken by pure emotion. Rachel stood up suddenly.
"Don't you dare try and dictate what is me and what isn't me!" Rachel told him angrily, advancing on him. Jesse began to walk backwards slowly, hands raised, shocked by the sudden mood swing. "How dare you! After all you did and all you've done, you come here telling me that I'm not being myself!"
Jesse frowned and stopped walking. "You know I'm speaking the truth. You're not you any more. You're not the girl I used to know." He retaliated.
"Well maybe I don't want to be the girl you used to know Jesse." Rachel shot back at him. "Maybe I don't want to be the girl who bought all the lies, the girl who dreamed of stardom and got eggs in return. Maybe I don't want to be that gullible little girl anymore, the little girl you left heartbroken in the parking lot." Her voice cracked slightly.
"Rachel, pl-" Jesse started, but Rachel cut him off.
"Why do you care Jesse! Come on, tell the world! Let the whole club know, tell us the reason you care. Say the words, then maybe I'll listen!" Rachel shouted, verging on hysterical.
Jesse stared at her in shock. He tried to say the words, but years as a soulless automaton had set him in his ways. He wanted to say those three little words, but with everyone watching him, expecting him to break the silence, he couldn't. Rachel gave him a triumphant look.
"Can't you say it Jesse?" She taunted. "Just a few little words, it's not so hard." She teased, both her and Jesse glaring at each other. Rachel scoffed. "Didn't think so. And that's where you lose Jesse. That's where you're different."
"I don't know who you are anymore." Jesse said quietly, looking at her honestly.
"You don't know who I am anymore?" Rachel asked, disbelieving. "Well guess what Jesse. Thanks to your little acting exercise, I never knew who you were."
That hit Jesse like a slap in the face. He only just managed to keep his expression neutral, turning on his heel and storming out of the room.
The room stayed silent, and Rachel sat down, in a slight daze, everyone trying to make sense of the recent events. Quinn got up and left the room, much to the club's surprise, and Rachel, ashamed of her actions and not being able to bare everyone's stares, quickly followed suit. Mr Schue decided to break the silence.
"Well, uh, guys. How about I give you all some time to talk about your, uh, duets." He said, and the group immediately turned inwards and began muttering amongst themselves, with Kurt and Mercedes taking the prime spots. Finn didn't move, just sat on his seat, staring straight ahead whilst the other members of the club debated the meaning of what had just happened.
Well, lots of angst in that chapter! I did have another bit planned, but it got a bit long, so I'll put that in the next one. This took quite a while to write, it just wasn't working, so tell me what you think. R&R please!