forever fades away

chapter 42

Finn had woken up around noon, hobbled into the kitchen to get some food, and had been camped out on the couch for the past three hours watching TV. 

He couldn’t find anything on the television worth watching, so he finally turned it off. He sat for a few minutes, bored out of his mind before he decided to get up and look around. He wasn’t sure what time Rachel would be home, but he hoped it would be soon. 

He grabbed his crutches and pulled himself up off the couch. Once he was steady, he made his way into her office. He dropped down into the chair in front of her workspace, setting his crutches off to the side. 

He picked up various things, paint palettes, fabric samples, and sketches of rooms. He couldn’t imagine doing this for a living. He couldn’t even decorate his own house! He’d had someone come in and do it for him. 

He picked up a notebook that was off to the side, trailing his fingers over Rachel's delicate handwriting that covered the page. He flipped through it, finding list after list of things that needs to be accomplished. He’d never imagined that this much went into decorating a house. 

“Well, if your employee hadn’t screwed up my fabric order, I wouldn’t have had to call her at 7:30 AM, I wouldn’t have had to yell and she wouldn’t have cried.” Finn turned at the sound of Rachel's voice as she walked into the diningroom and set her stuff down on the table. Finn had no idea how she managed to stay on that damn phone as much as she did. “I don’t care. If the fabric isn’t here by tomorrow, then my boss will be calling you, and trust me, you’d really rather deal with me, than her.” 

Rachel walked into her office, pinching Finn on the cheek before she reached over and grabbed the notebook he’d been looking through a few moments before. She grabbed a pen off the desk and started writing furiously on the pages. 

He leaned back in the chair, taking in the whole scene. Rachel walked around to the other side of the desk, picking up the fabric samples. “No, that’s not the fabric I ordered! If I get the wrong fabric, I’m screwed! What do you mean its not your fault! Of course it is! I have, written down, in my notes in front of me the EXACT fabric I ordered, and what you’re telling me you sent me is not right! Well, you better figure it out! Yeah, whatever. Bye.” 

Rachel snapped her cell phone closed, tossing it onto the desk and letting out an angry sigh. She glanced up at Finn, who was looking at her with his eyebrows raised. “Tough day at work, dear?” 

“Please don’t be cute.” Rachel whined, bracing an arm on her desk to reach down and pull of her shoes, letting them fall to the floor. “Nothing went right today. I swear to you, everyone is out to make my life hell.” She reached into her purse, pulling out a hair tie and securing her hair on top of her head in a knot. “What are you doin in here?” 

“There was nothing on TV, I was bored out of my skull and I hadn’t explored in here yet.” Finn told her. He picked up some of the stuff littering her desk. “How the hell do you manage to do this?” 

“I honestly don’t know.” Rachel shook her head. “In a few years, they’re going to have to have me committed, because the way things are going, I’ll be insane by then.” She glared at her cell phone as it started ringing. She reached across the desk to recover it from where it had landed a few moments before. “Hello? Yeah. Hey, what’re you doin? Nothing, I just got home from work. It was hell. Yeah, pretty much. Ok. Yeah. Ok. Hold on.” Rachel moved the phone away from her ear and covered up the mouthpiece before she turned to Finn. “Are you hungry?” He nodded. “What do you want?” 

Finn shrugged. “I dunno. What’s in there to eat?” He asked, hitching his thumb over his shoulder towards the kitchen. 

“Nothing. I haven’t been shopping since I got home.” Rachel sighed. “Pizza sound ok?” When Finn nodded, she moved to leave the room, stopping at his side. “I’m going to go order it on the house phone. Here.” She held out her cell towards him. “Its Isabel.” 

Finn smothered a groan as he took the phone from Rachel. He knew Isabel was just going to nag him about not doing too much, taking all his medication and all that kind of stuff. He really wondered sometimes if Isabel didn’t think that she was his mother. Sure, his mom had called him, making sure he was ok and all that... but Isabel called everyday. It was getting ridiculous. 

He put the phone up to his ear, after he sighed. “Hey Isabel.” He hoped that she believed he was as happy to talk to her as he was trying to pretend to be. 

“Hi Finn. Are you ok? You’re not doing too much are you? Have you taken your medication today?” She immediately started firing off questions. 

Finn bit down hard on his lower lip to refrain from freaking out. This was going to be a long phone call.