as far as friends go

chapter 23

"Oh my g-g-gosh."

Rachel's entire backyard was rearranged. In fact, the only way that she knew it was her backyard was because she was standing at her back door. Surprise was most definitely evident on her face as she tried to find the right words to spit out.

Everything was breath-taking. The little backyard that used to be a swing set, trampoline, grass, and the 3 big oak trees in the back was gone. Now, standing on the side of Finn with a dumbfound face, she looked out onto a place that looked like something she'd find in her dreams.

"W-w-wow. Is this all for me?" she asked, looking up at Finn who hadn't taken his eyes off of her yet.

"Of course it is, Rach. Do you see anyone else around here who's completely stolen my heart?" He asked, holding out his hand for support on her lower back as she hopped down the three stairs that led to the backyard.

Placing her hand over her chest, Rachel gave Finn a grin showing that she was touched.

The first thing she notice when that back door opened a few moments ago were the lights hanging from the three oak trees that were in a line surrounding her backyard. The lights shown beautifully, almost replacing the light the gray sky above them projected. Along with those lights, hung thousands of tiny jars from the branches of all three trees. These jars contain many different colored flowers. As they got closer, Rachel could now tell that they were different colored roses. The colors Rachel noticed hanging in the trees ranged from colors like orange, yellow, and even lavender. Her heart fluttered in her chest as she took in the most beautiful sight she had ever seen.

Another thing that took her breath away was a long walkway, made of what looked like white satin. On the white satin lay-out, red roses were scattered along the pathway, ending where the pathway ended, which was at the foot of the largest oak tree, between the two smaller ones. She also noticed that there was a guitar leaning on it's stand next to the middle tree. There was also a decorative chair waiting at the end of the walkway, considering her flaw in the walking department. Seeing everything, she then knew with all of her heart that something important and monumental was going to happen. This moment of realization took her heart from fluttering to a beat going lightening speed over and over again.

Astonished, she turned to Finn who was smiling down at her. He hoped that she couldn't tell that he was nervous. Today, this moment, could either go one of two ways. Either everything turns out great and the both of them are filled with love and bliss, and just pure happiness. Things could also take a turn for the worst, leaving Finn completely brokenhearted. Every time he thought about what was happening right now, he always jumped to conclusions and skipped over the positive outcome, falling straight to the negative one.

Although his whole entire brain was covered with fear and fright about what was going to happen in the next few moments of his life, he saw that smile she flashed him. A simple smile from the love of his life could chill every bone in his body. That's when he remembered exactly why they were standing here in the first place. Taking a huge deep breath, he tried to clear his screaming mind and wipe away his sweaty palms. Slowly, he walked to where Rachel was and gently placed her small, fragile hand in his larger one. He chuckled a bit when she jumped, being pulled out of her trance.

"This is gorgeous, Finn. How'd you have time to do all of this?" she asked, smiling sentimentally at him.

"When you were...um...away, my mom told me to try and focus on something other than what was going on. So, i started planning this. Then, once we got here i ask your parents, Burt, and Blaine to help set it up in private. I waited till you fell asleep each night and came over here and helped put it together with them. Let's just say we were up pretty late. Do you like it?" he asked, looking down at his feet.