The Running Back

Chapter 16

Rachel hated the idea of Quinn having dinner with Jesse. Sure, it wasn't Quinn's idea and it wasn't like they were having a romantic dinner or anything like that but that didn't mean that Rachel had to like the idea or even be okay with it. She could just imagine it; Jesse and his smug face bragging about his many accomplishments. He didn't even have that many, although many of the ones that he did have involved beating Rachel. Of course some of those wins were due to cheating.

Honest.

Maybe Rachel didn't have any definitive proof but she had experienced too many coincidences while completing with him to believe that everything had happened purely out of chance. There was one particular contest where Rachel was certain that Jesse had stolen her performance and made it his own. Rachel was forced to come up with a whole new routine, and despite having plenty of backups Rachel didn't have enough time to prepare. Her performance was still amazing; it just wasn't enough for her to win.

And due to her experience with him Rachel felt it was necessary for her to give Quinn a call after dinner to ensure that he didn't completely ruin her day. She waited an adequate time, simply lying in bed with Quinn's Cheerios jacket wrapped tightly around her. Rachel hadn't taken it off all day, nor did she have any plans of taking it off anytime soon. She'd probably take it off before she went to sleep... maybe.

Anyway, Rachel decided to call Quinn. It took two and a half rings before she heard Quinn pick up. "Hey, girlfriend." Rachel's lips curved upward as she heard those words. It was like music to her ears. But despite her joy, Rachel couldn't hear the same amount of joy in Quinn's tone.

"Bad dinner?" she guessed.

"Am I that obvious?" Quinn forced out a laugh. "It wasn't that awful, I guess." "Yeah?" Rachel was quite sure if believed Quinn, but she wanted to hope.

"Yeah. I did have to sit next to that douche, but he at least acted polite." Rachel could just see Quinn rolling her eyes. It was hard for her to imagine Jesse ever acting polite, unless he was in fact acting; which he more than likely was. "But let's not talk about He-Who-Will-Not-Be- Named, okay? How was your evening?" They ended up talking for hours and Rachel went along with Quinn's wish of not discussing Jesse St. Jerkface. She didn't even want to talk about him anyway.

Instead they ended up talking about what they wanted to dress up as for Halloween. Rachel wanted to reuse her Elphaba costume and have Quinn as her Galinda. Quinn on the other hand wanted to dress up as Harley Quinn and have Rachel be her Poison Ivy. She also had an alternate suggestion of Rachel dressing up as Catwoman in case thought that a Poison Ivy costume would be a bit too revealing, but Rachel sure that Quinn just wanted to get her into a skin-tight suit. Rachel liked her idea better, but she wasn't at all opposed to what Quinn had in mind. They still had time to make up their minds though, and as long as they wore matching costumes Rachel would be happy.

During previous Halloweens Rachel had always tried to convince Noah to wear complimentary costumes. She was always careful about what she chose so that they wouldn't appear to be boyfriend and girlfriend, but most times Noah refused... or at least he would initially. It was never too hard for Rachel to convince him to play along. One year she even got him to wear tights when they dressed up as Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, or as Noah called Rachel, Tinkerberry. That had been a fun night, a funny one as well. Rachel remembered bumping into Quinn during Noah's Halloween Party.

Quinn was dressed up as Blossom of the Powerpuff Girls. She looked particularly adorable due to her oversized bow. Rachel had been too shy to compliment Quinn, but that didn't matter at the time because Quinn had told Rachel that she looked cute. In retrospect though, Rachel started tow wonder if cute was the only word that Quinn would have used to describe her that night. Rachel's costume was kind of small; her legs were on full display.