Peeling back the Layers
Chapter 7
Morning sickness had soon subsided and her stomach had swelled slightly. People will know soon, she thought.
She lay on her bed, with Jesse, who was gently caressing her stomach.
"How far along are you?"
She swallowed, "Four months. People will know, Jesse. People will start asking questions."
"What're you going to tell them?"
"I was thinking—will you pose as the father for five months?"
"Rachel—"
"I know that it's a lot to ask, but I really can't tell people what happened. I will tell the adoptive parents."
"And that's what you've decided? To adopt?"
Rachel nodded.
"Jesse…if it were in another situation I probably would keep it. I don't want a child with me as a reminder of what happened. A reminder of how I was abused and taken advantage of. No. I couldn't bear it. Let the child be happy with parents who don't care about the physical reminder."
"Rachel, I understand, and if you really want me to, then of course I'll do this for you."
"Thanks, Jesse!" she exclaimed as she curled into his embrace.
The next day, Quinn came up to her.
"Rachel—your shirt."
The one she had chosen for the day was tight fitting. It showed off the outer curve of her growing stomach. She had chosen it on purpose, to make it more obvious—to maybe have more people guess rather than have her explain it. She had been wearing a big sweatshirt all day, but took it off for glee.
"Yeah."
"Was it from—"
Again she confirmed.
"But it's a secret."
"It won't be for long. You're already showing!"
"No," interrupted Rachel. "I mean how I got pregnant is a secret. We're telling people that it was Jesse. That it was consensual."
"But don't you think that people will feel bad for you, and they will sympathize with you if you tell them the truth?"
"But this wasn't a ploy to become everybody's pity party! This is serious, and I don't want to seem even more vulnerable than I already am."
"I get it, Rachel. I know what you'll be going through for the next—five months, is it? you'll need me by your side."
"Thanks, Quinn." The two linked arms and walked to the choir room for glee.
Rachel stood in front of the room and looked into the crowd of teenagers who were staring at her like she had risen from the dead.
"No fucking way." Said Santana, who received an annoyed look from Will, who did not appreciate language like that. "Rachel Berry got knocked up the first time that she had sex?"
"Hey, I got pregnant the first time that I had sex!" retorted Quinn. "And how do you know that this is the result of her first time?"
"Because it's Rachel fucking Berry. The queen of chastity! There's no way that she's slept with a guy before this."
Finn looked mortified. Rachel had slept with somebody before him? Sure he lost his virginity months ago, but that didn't give her the right to lose hers, did it?
"Who's the baby-daddy?" asked Mercedes.
Rachel looked over at Quinn, who nodded reassuringly.
"Jesse St. James."
The New Directions looked shocked at Rachel's declaration and Finn was the first to speak.
"I can't believe that you're doing this to me! sleeping with him!" Rachel looks at him shocked.
"We're not going out! There's nothing that you can say that could stop me from sleeping with him. I love him."
All the sudden Rachel notes that Quinn is getting really pale and that she realize what Rachel said in her declaration she genuinely meant.
Finn decided to voice his unwelcome opinion again.
"If he felt the same way about you, then why isn't he here?"
"I don't have to take this I'm leaving."
Rachel turns and rushes out of the choir room and in her haste going down the hallway she slams into none other then Dave Karofsky.
" Watch where your going freak."
Karofsky leers at her looking her up and down when he see's the slight swell of her stomach he mutters "slut"and walks off down the hallway. What Rachel saw was that Finn watched the whole confrontation and didn't step in to help her. Rachel turns around and scowls at him and stomps off with her cell phone to her ear asking Jesse to pick her up.