forever fades away

prologue

Finn Hudson tried, for the fourth time in the last two minutes, to move his arms from where they were resting on his chest, to crossed behind his head, once again coming out unsuccessful. Every fiber of his being protested against any movement, screaming out in pain if he took too deep a breath.

“I thought that training camp would get easier.” Drew, one of his teammates said from the bed next to him. “I mean, it seemed rational. The longer we were here, the more we get used to being pushed...but no. I think this is the sorest I’ve ever been in my entire life.”

“I hear you, man.” finn said, unable to even turn his head to the left to look at Drew when he was talking to him.

Finn still couldn’t believe he was here. It all seemed like a dream. The really good kind that you have and you get really excited about, but then you wake up and it didn’t happen. At least not to you.

Everything had happened so suddenly too. It seemed like just yesterday he was celebrating actually making it onto his college basketball team.

As long as finn had been alive, he had been in love with basketball. He and his father used to sit and watch games together every chance they got. Finn played basketball on his junior high team, and his high school team, always playing the position of shooting guard.

Some of the best moments in his life had to do with playing basketball. He’d even met his girlfriend, Rachel Berry, while playing basketball his freshman year. He remembered the day as if it were only yesterday. He and his best friend, Michael Guerin, were at the park shooting some hoops, trying to nail their lay-ups and rebound shots, determined to make Varsity by following year. Finn had done a particularly nasty job with one rebound, missing the basket entirely and sending the basketball flying in the direction of a girl sitting under a tree reading.

Finn had yelled for her to watch out, and she’d looked up just in time to catch the ball before it bounced into her nose. He’d run over to make sure she was ok, and all she could tell him was that he would have made the shot if he were following through properly. He’d laughed it off and told her that he’d been playing basketball long enough to know what was wrong. To which she argued that if he knew what he was doing wrong, and had been playing basketball long, he would have corrected it already.

She’d introduced herself as Rachel berry, but told both of the guys to call her Rach or just berry. She explained that she’d just moved to town a week before. She left, shortly thereafter, telling them she really did need to be getting home. As she walked away, she yelled at them to keep focus and follow through, to which they both rolled their eyes...until thirty minutes later, when they’d actually listened to her. Neither of them had missed a shot the rest of the day.

Finn caught up with Rachel the next day at school to thank her for helping him. She told him anytime he needed help she was there for him. Before he knew what he was doing he asked her to go out with him that weekend, and she’d agreed. Ever since, they’d been inseparable.

They’d finished up junior high and high school together, both opting to go to the same college. New Mexico State University in Las Cruces since it was only three hours from their hometown of Roswell, New Mexico.

For Finn, freshman year of college was a blur, as was most of his sophomore year. Except for one particular event from his sophomore year, which will be forever engraved in his memory as one of the moments he’ll never forget as long as he lives.

The New Mexico State basketball team had made it to the championship, and was up for the title. The whole game was one big adrenaline rush, as both teams were very equally matched. Most of the time, they were tied, only for one to get a point or two ahead before the other team would come back and tie it up again.