postponing forever

chapter 24

Rachel sat down and stared at the phone in her hand. Finn looked over at her from his spot on the lounge and sighed. 

“It won’t bite,” he told her. 

“I know but my parents do” she replied. 

It had been another week of avoiding her parents but yesterday the invitation to graduation had come in the mail and Rachel knew she no longer had a choice but to call them. 

She dialed the familiar number and listened as the phone rang. 

“Hello” her mother said on the other end. 

“Hi mum” she said into the phone. 

“Oh my god, Rachel” her mother sighed in relief “What the hell has been going on we haven’t heard from you in three weeks despite the millions of messages me and your father have left you” she ranted. 

“I know” Rachel said. 

“Is that all you have to say?” her mother said. 

“No actually it’s not” Rachel replied annoyed. 

Rachel could hear her mother talking to someone else then and the next minute her father was on the other extension. 

“Rachel what the hell is going on?” he demanded. 

“Yeah hi to you too, Dad” she said sarcastically. 

“Well what do you expect, Rachel. You don’t return any of out calls for three weeks. Finn wont tell us anything and then you go out and spend hundreds of dollars on our credit card without a single explanation as to why” he snapped. 

“Oh I have explanations” Rachel snapped back. “and don’t bring Finn into this it has nothing to do with him” she added. 

“Well that has to be a lie” Nancy Berry  said “I mean you live with the guy and he wouldn’t tell us a thing it’s obvious he has done something to you” she said. 

“Oh you mean other than love me and look out for my well being?” Rachel asked. 

“Well I’m not exactly sure I agree with you there” her mother stated. 

“No of course you don’t which is why the two of you would refuse to let him ask me to marry him and quilted him into thinking that if he loved me and was with me that he would ruin my life” she voiced angrily into the phone. 

The phone went silent then. 

“oh so now neither of you have much to say” she said sarcastically. 

“He told you?” Jeff Berry spoke up then. Truthfully he had expected Finn to tell Rachel immediately about the incident and was surprised when his daughter never confronted him about it, he had felt guilty about it for a long time. He had watched the sadness from his daughter over her lack of relationship with Finn over the past three years and he knew it was his and Nancy’s fault. Finn had stood by and taken care of Rachel over the years and at the same time respecting their wishes and Jeff realized what a terrible mistake he had made when he said no. He knew one day Rachel would find out and she might never be able to forgive him. 

Nancy on the other hand believed that Finn was a passing crush for their daughter. Personally she never believed that Finn Hudson was good enough for Rachel and wanted her too meet and marry someone who could give her the life she wanted. It was only over the past twelve months that Jeff Berry had realized that they had no idea what Rachel wanted. 

“Oh very reluctantly, believe me” Rachel said bitterly. 

“Rachel” Nancy sighed and Rachel knew she was going to start trying to explain her way out of it. 

“Don’t even, mother” she snapped “I have nothing to say to either of you at this moment except thank you for ruining my life” 

“Oh don’t you think you’re being dramatic now, Rachel” Nancy said. 

“No, not at all and now that you know why I’m pissed as hell with you that’s the end of this conversation” she told them. 

“Can we still come for graduation?” Jeff Berry asked hopefully. He knew he deserved Rachel's anger but he didn’t want to miss one of the most important days of her life. 

The phone was silent for a while. On her end Rachel was looking at Finn who had moved to sit next to her when she had started yelling at her mother. 

“Ok” she said. 

“Ok?” her father repeated. 

“Thank you sweetie” he father sighed. “I’ve looked forward to this day for a long time” 

“I know” Rachel said quietly. 

“I’ll call you with our flight information” he told her then. 

“Ok. Bye” she said. 

“Bye sweetie, we love you” her father rushed to tell her before the she hung up. 

The minute Rachel pressed the end button the tears began to fall. Finn wasted no time pulling her into his arms. 

“What did they say?” he asked. 

“My mother told me I was being dramatic and Dad didn’t say much at all” she explained. 

“Oh sweetie I’m sorry” he sighed he hated that he had caused this rift between her and her parents. 

“Why are you sorry?” Rachel asked him sitting up. 

“Because it’s my fault” Finn told her simply. 

Rachel's mouth opened in shock. She knew Finn was blaming himself for a lot of things but the easy way that he took the entire blame on for postponing forever was astonishing. There were a lot of people that played a part including herself, she should have told him no. She would not allow him to continue blaming himself for everything. 

“No, it’s a lot of people’s fault” she told him. 

“No it was my idea to listen to you parents to not tell you about and it was my fault that you know about it now” he argued. 

“No Finn” Rachel shook her head. “Your right you did some stupid things but so did I and so did my parents. They had no right to treat you the way they did. Just like you had no right to keep it from me” she told him. 

“God I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you” he apologized then. 

“I know” Rachel smiled. Over the past two weeks Rachel had firmly started to believe in the saying ‘it was the little things that counted’. It was. Finn  had been trying really hard to prove his worthiness for her. There was nothing outlandish involved after the flowers it was just little things like making her dinner, asking her to for a walk or buying her favorite coffee on his way home from work early in the morning. Those were the moment that Rachel cherished because they were just simple and right. 

They sat back down then with Rachel's head buried against Finn's hard chest. “Let’s go dancing?” Rachel  suggested then. 

“What?” Finn laughed. 

Finn didn't mind going out but he wasn't exactly the best dancer, but with Rachel he was willing to go through it.

“Let’s get dressed and go to Burn” she sat up with a smile. She hadn’t been out dancing in ages. 

“Okay” Finn agreed it was his night off but Michael would be there. 

“Why don’t you call Maria and see if she wants to come too” he suggested then. Again he didn’t mind dancing but he couldn’t keep up with Rachel. 

“Great idea” she smiled before picking up and dialing.