"I make you want to light yourself on fire?"

Her voice is small and all he can hear is the anguish she projects. He jolts and turns to see her sitting down on the risers where practice had been earlier that day.

"What are you doing here?" he asks instead.

She shrugs, her small frame enshrouded in his letterman jacket, and stands. She slips the jacket from her body and leaves it on a chair.

"I came to see you," she tells him truthfully, "I was here for the practice, listening to how you guys were doing. I heard what you said."

Seeing her take off his jacket, his heart breaks.

"Good luck," she whispers, walking past him.

At the door, she pauses, one hand resting on the doorknob; and turns her head slightly.

"You know, just once, I wish something in my life had gone right. I wish I hadn't fallen in love with you."

He's frozen where he stands as she walks out on him. He feels like he can't breathe when he sees his jacket lying on the chair. She's had his letterman jacket for almost a month; since they started dating, and never took the damn thing off unless they were at school. He'd told her the flat out truth about Quinn and she'd accepted it, but had kept telling him that he should tell Finn.

He can't let her walk away from him, he can't let this end. Without her, he's back to being the jackass he used to be and he doesn't want to be that guy again. He grabs the jacket from where she left it and books it out of the practice room to find her. He looks around the hallway and sees her at her locker, putting on her jacket and putting her books in her bag. He's silent as he makes his way to her, startling her when she shuts her locker and sees him standing there. The tear tracks down her cheeks make him feel like the scum he cleans out of pools and he knows he needs to find a way to make it up to her.

"I'm sorry," he says softly, "I didn't mean it the way it sounded. I was just trying to keep up appearances."

She shakes her head, "I don't want it to be that way anymore," she whispers.

"Please—" he starts, but she interrupts him.

"I can't do this anymore. The sneaking around, hiding my life. I can't. I love you. But I can't."

There are tears falling down her cheeks again as she leans up and kisses his cheek. Her heart is heavy when she pulls back, and she can't look at him anymore. Its those three little words that are his undoing.

"You love me?" he asks, hands clenching around the jacket he still holds.

She looks at him longingly.

"Of course I love you," she answers in a voice so soft, he has to strain to hear it.

"Why?"

She's surprised at his question, though she shouldn't be; because she asked herself the very same thing when she first realized it.

"Because I've seen who you can be," her hand is over his heart, "I didn't fall in love with the jock; or the jerk. I fell in love with Noah."

"Then don't leave me," he whispers.

But she shakes her head, "I can't lie anymore. And more importantly, I don't want to. I deserve to find someone who's not ashamed of me."

"I'm not ashamed of you Rachel," he tells her.

"Have you told your mom you're dating me?"

He shakes his head and opens his mouth, but she's not finished.

"I told my dads. They want to know why they've never met you. Do you know how hard it was to explain? It sounded stupid even to me. I want to be with you, I do. But I want to be able to hold your hand, or hug you, or kiss you in public without you worrying about what your buddies would think. I wish you would realize that their opinion doesn't matter, so long as you're happy," she shakes her head, her hand sliding down his chest to hang at her side, "Until that can happen, I don't see how we can work."

She turns to walk away when she feels his hand close over her arm gently.

"I've lost a lot in my life," he says lowly, "If I lose you, I go back to being the jackass who throws Slushies on people," he slowly turns her to face him again, "Please. I swear we can make this work."

"As a secret?" she whispers.

"No."

She looks up at him and he reaches around her, putting his letterman jacket over her shoulders before pulling her close.

"I'll pick you up and drive you in tomorrow. And we'll let what happens, happen," he leans his head down but pauses a hairsbreadth away from kissing her, "And by the way, I love you too."