Forever Has to Start Somewhere

Chapter 26: Sexy

"It's not funny, Jesse!"

"I would beg to differ," Jesse wheezed between laughs. "Brittany still thinks storks deliver babies and Finn and Mercedes thought cucumbers could cause STDs."

Rachel huffed and stamped down the urge to stomp her foot. "Ms. Holiday had us put condoms on vegetables and Noah wouldn't stop making fun of me for how quickly I got it done! It was mortifying."

"Why?" Jesse questioned. He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. It wasn't working very well. "You've never been shy about our sex life before. You practically jumped me in front of the glee club when I surprised you at Thanksgiving and Kurt has literally dragged us out of my bed before."

"Shelby was in the club room with us!" Rachel said.

"Your dads aren't exactly ignorant to what we're doing when I stay the night," Jesse pointed out. The sudden, serious turn in the conversation had sobered him a bit. "Why's it any different with Shelby?"

"My dads have known me my whole life. They know what kind of person I am. Shelby is still forming an opinion of me."

"I thought you didn't care what Shelby thought of you?"

"I don't care how she feels about me in regards to being my mother. However, she's still my glee coach! If Shelby thinks I'm some sort of whore, she might not give me any solos!"

"Whore?" Jesse's lips turned down. A deep frown etched into his face. "Rachel, I'm your boyfriend. We've been together almost a year. No one with any sense would see you as a whore for sleeping with me."

"Ms. Pillsbury's been married for four months and she's still the president of the celibacy club."

"Ms. Pillsbury is a mysophobic in love with a man who isn't her husband," Jesse pointed out. "And the celibacy club at your school is a joke. The only student member is Quinn who was pregnant last year and cheated on her boyfriend this year."

"Jesse!" Rachel chided. There was an amused lit to her voice that made it clear she was objecting based on principle whether than actually caring that Jesse was pointing out the flaws of her main tormentor.

Jesse took a deep breath. He pushed the hand not holding his phone through his hair. "Rachel, seriously what's going on here? Because I'm having a hard time believing that this is actually about Puck teasing you for knowing how a condom works."

There was a long pause before Rachel murmured, "So maybe I still care a lot about what Shelby thinks of me. I want her to see me as someone she regrets letting go of."

"I guarantee you that she already sees you as that person," Jesse said, thinking about the conversation he'd had with his former coach before Sectionals. He let out a soft sigh before adding, "I think the problem here if that you're trying to separate your mother from your glee coach and that's not going to happen. She's always going to be both of those people. You just have to learn how to balance those people."

They went quiet.

After a moment, Rachel said softly, "Things are so much easier when we have these conversations in person."

"It is easier to calm you down when I'm actually near you," Jesse agreed. "Luckily, I'll be there for regionals next week so I can calm you down from whatever disaster inevitability pops up."

"Oh don't say that," she groaned. "You'll jinx us."

"Mmm. Alright, tell me more about this sex ed lesson then."

"He asked your dad to do what?" Adam demanded. He was sitting at his desk in his dorm room, a half written essay on his laptop in front of him. He'd been writing it right up until Kurt had told him the latest event in his and Blaine's friendship.

Kurt gave a soft sigh. "He asked my dad to talk to me about sex."

"He told you literally two days ago that you weren't sexy and now he's worried about you having all sorts of crazy gay sex?"

"Apparently," Kurt said. Adam heard papers being shuffled on the other end. "My dad brought me all these...pamphlets."

"Oh my god, why do you even like this kid?" Adam wondered. "He tells you he doesn't like you and than flirts with you all the time. You tell him something makes you uncomfortable and he goes out of his way to put you a situation that involves it."

Kurt gave a small hum. "Nobody's perfect, Adam."

"Yeah, but there are plenty of gay guys out there who would treat you better than he does."

"Like who?" Kurt said with a snort.

Adam had a split second to think about how bad a decision he was making before he blurted out, "Me."

There was a brief silence before Kurt echoed, "You?"

"Yeah, me," Adam agreed. His mouth felt like it had been filled with cotton, but he pushed through his discomfort. "I like you Kurt. A lot."

"You like me?" Kurt repeated. "But you never-"

"I'm your friend first and foremost," he interrupted. "I just want you to be happy. You were so into Blaine that I didn't want to get in the way just because I started having feelings for you, but he's an idiot who clearly doesn't realize how amazing you are. And god, Kurt, you are so amazing. I don't know how he could possibly think you aren't sexy because your absolutely gorgeous and I don't know how he isn't in love with you after spending all that time with you because you've got an absolutely lovely personality. You're so kind, not to mention witty and intelligent."

"You really see me like that?"

"I've never lied to you before. I'm not about to start now."

"I don't know what to say?" Kurt said after a moment. "I mean, I've thought about what it'd be like to date you before but I never thought it was a real possibility."

Adam leaned back in his chair. He stared at the ceiling above him. "I'll be here for you even if you're not interested, but please at least give it some thought?"

"Yeah," Kurt murmured. His soft was soft. "I will."

"Brody and I were going to come down with Jesse for Regionals since spring break starts the week after," he said. "We can talk then?"

"That sounds great."

He chewed gently on the inside of his lower lip. He said, "I know I made this conversation awkward, but I'd still like to hear about the rest of your week. What's happening with glee club and that substitute?"

"Oh, well, I think she and Mr. Schue are going to end up screwing by the end of the week. He did this incredibly sensual tango to Kiss with Ms. Corcoran, but he couldn't take his eyes off Ms. Holiday."

"So, I almost joined the celibacy club today," Rachel declared.

It took Jesse a moment to process the information. When he had, he floundered for a moment before asking, "Do you want to talk to me about something?"

"Lauren, Santana, Brittany, and Artie all joined after that performance of Afternoon Delight," Rachel said. "None of them are celibate so I thought it would be okay for me to join as well."

"So that Shelby would think you were?"

"Uh huh."

Jesse let out a soft sound before pointing out, "You said almost though."

"I found out Ms. Pillsbury quit so she could fix her marriage and Quinn's taken over. I wasn't too pleased with the idea of being under her thumb."

"Understandable."

"I thought about what you said when I was on my way home," Rachel said. He made a sound to urge her on. "I almost agreed to something I knew would be a huge lie just to impress Shelby and I hate that. I don't like the kind of person I turn into when I'm trying to get her attention. It reminds me too much of what I was like when I was chasing Finn."

"What exactly are you going to do about it then? You can't just find a new mother who is more talented and better looking."

The light laugh that Rachel let out brought a smile to Jesse's face. This whole sexy thing had wound her so tight that most of their interactions that week had involved her venting and him trying to calm her down.

"No, I can't," Rachel agreed. "I want her to regret letting me go because of who I am, though, not because of who I pretend to be. So, I'm going to stop trying to impress her and just be...me."

"I am all for that plan, given that I absolutely adore you, but are you sure you can?"

"I think I can at least try," Rachel said. "And if I'm struggling, you'll be there for me."

"Absolutely."

En: Hello! I know it's been a while, but I took a small break (literally a week) in order to recharge and get things flowing again.

So on the note of the actual chapter: I honestly was planning on just torturing Adam through a few weeks of Klaine relationship? But then I rewatched the episode and was like "god blaine is really really dumb" and this ended up happening.

Also, does it seem like Jesse has too many breaks too close together? I write this fic as if the weeks the episodes came out were the weeks the events in it are occurring - placing this chapter the week of March 8th and the next March 15th which is around spring break time for a university according to google (a little late actually given that spring break is the week after regionals not of) - but since Glee took several small week or two breaks around this time it seems as though everything has happened very quickly? Let me know what you think.

Review and favorite/follow if you enjoyed!