you belong with me

chapter 18

"They don't trust you," Rachel said as she pushed the pasta around on her lunch tray with her fork. "And they weren't very happy with my decisions either." She looked up at Finn sadly. Now that everything was out in the open she moved from her usual lunch seat to a new table with Finn next to her. "They kept telling me how you're just going to end up leaving me and stuff like that, I know you won't hurt me, but they're pretty sure that you will."

"I don't doubt them for distrusting me. I was pretty crumby to them in the past," Finn replied. "Hopefully they'll come around soon."

"Sooner rather than later would be nice," Rachel said. "I just want all of us to be together again."

"Hey, how about we go out on a date tonight, to get your mind off of all this. Just you and me, and maybe dinner?" Finn asked.

"That sounds wonderful," Rachel replied, looking forward to spending an entire evening alone with him. "Did you have a specific date in mind or will I be surprised tonight?"

Finn smiled, "You'll be in for a surprise. Don't worry, it'll be great, it being our first real date and all."

"Well I can't wait to see how Finn Hudson treats his lady," Rachel giggled. She looked up from her lunch tray just in time to see Kurt coming their way to sit with them.

"Good afternoon, love birds!" Kurt sang as he sat down with the couple. "You two seem to be the center of attention. Santana and Puckerman can't stop looking over in this direction."

Rachel looked up at Santana and Puck, only to see them look away just as they made eye contact. "I figured we'd get some looks from them," Rachel said, looking back to Kurt. "They're convinced that this is all going to blow up in my face."

"They'll come around," Kurt replied. "You said that you all used to be such good friends, right? And once they see that things are actually working out with the two of you, I'm sure they'll be willing to reconsider things."

"Yes, with time I'm sure it'll work out," Rachel agreed. She decided to change the subject, "Did Finn tell you what he did this morning?"

"No…" Kurt said, his eyes moving from Rachel to Finn. "What happened?"

"Oh, I just quit the football team," Finn replied like it was no big deal.

"You seriously quit the football team? I thought that you loved football! Does Carole know?" Kurt said, as shocked by the news as Rachel was.

"I do love football," Finn said, "but it's not worth it if Karofsky's in change. And I talked over it a little bit with mom, but I didn't tell her that it was a done deal yet. I can still play football, just not for the school team."

"As long as you're happy with your decisions," Kurt said, starting to eat the lunch that he had packed from home.

After lunch was over Finn walked Rachel to her next class. "Am I allowed to hold your hand now?" Finn asked her as they walked down the hallway.

"I suppose," she replied with a smirk. She grabbed a hold of his hand as they walked. "Now that everything's out in the open, I don't see any harm in extending that openness to you."

"Well, I'm glad," Finn said. "And I'm also glad we're finally able to do this." He motioned down to their hands.

"Me too. I wish I had never moved away. We could have been doing this the whole time," Rachel said. "Could you imagine how different things would be if I never moved away?"

"Really different," Finn replied. "So much happened in that time period, and not just the friendship changes between us and Santana and Puck. My mom got remarried, I joined the football team, and Santana… you know, switched teams. They say that it takes one different move to alter an entire chain of events. Who knows how different our lives would be."