DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.
Rachel Berry lightly swung back and forth in the hammock she was laying in. She lightly hummed When You Wish Upon A Star to herself as she looked up at the night sky. The sounds of the stereo blaring and everyone singing and laughing inside the house were muffled by the soft wind chimes and noisy crickets. Rachel wore a bittersweet smile. She should have been in there with Mr. Schue and the rest of the glee club (who, surprisingly after three years were now pretty much her family) celebrating. They were all graduating tomorrow. Their lives were only just beginning. She herself was headed to New York City at the end of June. It was supposed to be exciting and amazing like she always dreamt it would be but in reality it scared her to death. It had all happened way to fast. Wasn't it just yesterday she was getting slushied in the face? That hadn't happened since junior year but still, time felt like it had just disappeared.
"There you are." Rachel tilted her head up to see Finn leaning against the tree with his trademark adorable goofy grin. His arms were folded across his chest and he looked so relaxed and at peace with everything, like nothing was changing. Rachel wondered what his secret was. "Everyone was wondering where you went."
"Yeah, sure." Rachel let out a breathy laugh and returned her gaze back up to the stars.
"No, I'm serious. Mr. Schue just put in the karaoke game on the wii and Kurt is picking first song. He says if you're not in there in five minutes he's calling Don't Rain On My Parade."
"And I'm sure he'll knock it out of the park." Rachel said genuinely. Despite the fact that her and Kurt seemed to enjoy going toe to toe all the time, a deep respect and friendship had somehow built between them.
"Are you feeling okay? I never thought I'd see the day you'd pass on singing anything from Funny Girl to Kurt."
"Yeah, I'm fine," she was only partly telling the truth, "I kind of just wanted to escape for a while, you know, be alone." Finn nodded his head and pushed himself off of the tree. "No! You can stay. I like being alone with you."
Finn smirked at that and walked over to the hammock doing his best not to tip Rachel off of it as he awkwardly sat down and let Rachel cuddle against him as he stretched out. Once he was settled in they sat in a comfortable silence for a while.
"We're really graduating tomorrow aren't we?" Rachel asked.
"We really are. It's crazy, huh?"
"Yeah." Rachel's voice was soft.
It wasn't like she was going to miss high school. McKinley High was a horrible place but she was going to miss her little glee club family. As much as they all loved each other it was inevitable that they would eventually lose touch, what with being busy with their own lives and perusing their own dreams.
"Are you okay, Rach?" Finn gently squeezed her shoulder.
"I guess it's just that..." Rachel turned in his embrace so that she could face him, "It's really sad to think that this is it. That all of us will be going off and we probably won't see each other very often if at all anymore."
"Don't think like that, Rach. Besides you'll be seeing me more often than you like. You're stuck with me."
Rachel gave him a sweet kiss. "I like being stuck with you."
"Well, I'm a very sticky guy," Finn stopped for a second to think about what he just said, "I don't mean like..."
Rachel stopped him with another kiss and smiled. "I know what you mean."
Finn loved that Rachel got the not so eloquent things he said and she didn't judge him for it. She loved him for who he was. "Are you nervous about tomorrow?" Finn asked.
"A little I suppose but it's a good nervous. It's just," she looked up at Finn who was idly playing with a few strands of her long hair, "I feel like I've finally found my place and now I'm going to have to start all over again. Everyone in that house, you, well, you're my family."
"Rach, as corny as this sounds we will all be together no matter what. Sure we may drift apart occasionally but we will still all be there for each other. Besides when too much time passes you know Kurt will be kicking our asses into gear and sending out the invitations."
Rachel laughed at that. That was something Kurt would do. "That wasn't corny." She placed a lingering kiss on his lips. "You're right."
"I'm actually right about something?" Finn said only half jokingly. He pulled Rachel closer to him and wrapped his arms around her. "Besides Kurt is coming with us to New York and Mercedes is coming along for the ride. He said that he doesn't trust either of us to decorate our dingy little 'hole in the wall' apartment correctly and he always needs Mercedes advice."
A big grin spread over Rachel's face as she heard the music to Don't Rain On My Parade start up. "Looks like your five minutes are up." Finn teased.
Rachel shook her head, lightly laughing and grabbed the back of Finn's head crushing him to her for a heated kiss.
She could miss out on Don't Rain On My Parade just this once.
FIN