oh wow the response so far is overwhelming, thank you so much! i sincerely hope you enjoy part two!
also, as a side note, the trip these kiddos are on is basically the same trip i took out west from indiana to california and back two summers ago :)
dedicated as always to the lovely mary gael who was gracious enough to read part of this and let me know it wasn't too ridiculous,
and also dedicated to delina, as it is now officially her birthday! i hope this doesn't disappoint!
i would've married you in vegas (had you given me the chance to say i do)
((part two of three))
xi.
It's not as easy to pretend that she didn't catch Noah and Quinn getting hot and heavy in the ice room as she thought it would be. She starts noticing their subtle glances, the way Noah's lips curve downward in a frown when Quinn grips Finn's hand tightly, the way their fingers seem to brush when they're eating a meal at a restaurant.
It's like she can't stop seeing it now, but she tries her best to ignore it. Finn's still oblivious to it all, and she really doesn't know how to – or even if she should – tell him.
They stay in Arizona an extra day in order to take a trip out to the Grand Canyon. They have to get there by train, and she ends up sitting next to Finn on the way there, his thigh pressed closely against hers. Quinn and Noah talk in low voices for most of the train ride, but Finn sleeps, so he doesn't notice. Rachel does, though, even though she's pretending to stare straight ahead, absorbed in her iPod. She can see them out of the corner of her eye, though, and she wonders how long they'll keep up the façade.
She wonders if Quinn's just stringing both boys along, or if her heart actually belongs to one of them. She doesn't really care to guess which one.
They finally arrive at their destination, and they pile out of the train car with the other tourists. The path leading to the canyon is dusty and worn, but Rachel just falls into step beside Finn, following the throng of people heading in the same direction.
They make it to the canyon within minutes, and the sight is breathtaking. It's literally miles below, trees dotting the ground, the jagged edges of the canyon jutting out from its stone wall. A cloud crosses the sun, and a large shadow moves across the bottom of the canyon.
Rachel inches toward the edge, her breath caught in her throat, and she has trouble remembering how to breathe. She doesn't remember the last time she saw something so beautiful.
"Isn't it amazing?" Finn breathes beside her.
She nods. She still has no words.
"Don't fall!" a manic voice screeches as she's jolted forward.
She screams, gripping Finn's arm for support as Noah laughs hysterically behind her. Quinn slaps his arm, giving him a reapproving frown.
"Not cool, man," Finn admonishes, and he wraps an arm around Rachel."You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she says, pointedly glaring at Noah, but he's laughing too hard to notice. She's suddenly conscious of Finn's arm around her and Quinn's lingering stare, so she inches away from him, and he lets his arm drop.
"That was hilarious," Noah wheezes in between bouts of laughter, and Finn punches him in the arm.
Rachel doesn't get too close to the edge after that, just admires from a safe distance, snapping pictures on her iPhone. Quinn has her camera out, taking pictures as well.
"It's beautiful here," she says quietly, and Rachel steps closer to her so she doesn't miss any of her soft spoken words. "It's almost like a whole different world."
Rachel nods. "It's surreal," she agrees.
"It just…" Quinn takes a deep breath in, lowering the camera from her face, letting it hang around her neck. "I guess it just reminds me of how imperfect things really are, compared to this. How this is something natural and beautiful, and then people get involved, and it all gets messy and – and shitty, you know?"
Rachel bites her lip. "I mean, people can make things beautiful, too, you know."
"It's harder though," Quinn says quietly. "It's a lot easier to fuck everything up."
Rachel isn't sure if she's referring to the situation with Finn and Puck, or if she's referring to something else entirely, but regardless, she rests a trembling hand on Quinn's shoulder. They stand like that for a while, just looking out over the canyon, and Rachel thinks this is the first time she's felt like Quinn's friend this entire trip. She feels like she's actually there for her, and she's missed being able to say that.
"Maybe, when you think you're screwing something up, you're actually just diverting to a different path," Rachel says quietly. "The path you were supposed to be on."
Quinn raises an eyebrow at that. "Maybe you're right," she allows, and then she raises her camera back up to her eye. "But maybe I can capture one last bit of perfection before the path completely changes."
Quinn presses down the button on top of the camera, adjusts the lens, and then all that is heard is the clicking sound of the camera shutter.
xii.
Rachel can't help it – she squeals when they cross the California state line. Finn turns around, video camera in hand, to capture her reaction, and Noah, who's driving, just rolls his eyes, turning up the AC/DC so the car is practically gyrating with the music.
"How's it feel, to be in California?" Finn shouts over the pounding music.
"Great!" she grins back, also raising her voice so she can be heard. "It's like being alive!"
Finn chuckles, then he turns the camera on Quinn. "How about you, Quinn?"
She frowns. "Undecided," she declares. "It's the experiences you have in a place that should shape how you perceive it, not the place itself."
Finn just looks at Rachel, eyebrows raised, and she shrugs. He turns the camera off after that.
Quinn goes back to looking out the window, and Rachel wonders if she's weighing her feelings for Finn and her feelings for Noah. Surely she has feelings for Noah? And if not, then why did she kiss him? To get back at Finn for flirting with her?
Thinking about all this makes Rachel's head hurt and her heart pound in strange rhythms in her ribcage, so she takes to looking out the window instead. She's in California now. This is where everything changes, where everything starts making sense.
This is where it all begins.
xiii.
Los Angeles isn't at all what she expected. It's dirty and crowded and so smoggy that the sun doesn't even break through the clouds until around noon. They check into a Super 8 Motel in West Hollywood, and she (naively, she supposes) had assumed that everything in Los Angeles was glamorous. Obviously, judging by the room the four of them are now staying in, she was wrong.
The carpet has too many stains for her to count, the curtains hanging in front of the window are practically shredded, and she swears she saw a cockroach scuffle past her in the bathroom, although Noah says she's just being dramatic. She thought that this was the town of glamour, the town of everything beautiful, but if it's true, she has yet to see it.
She doesn't want to judge the place so quickly, but she already feels let down. Her fantasy of what California would be like has to proved to be simply that: A fantasy.
Nothing's going to be different here. Quinn will still have Finn. She'll still have her secrets. Finn will still insist Rachel's his best friend, and nothing more. Noah will still be a pain in her side. And she'll still be Rachel Berry, the girl from Ohio, not Rachel Berry, the star.
She's still the same girl she was back in Ohio, and she was a fool to think traveling across the country would change that.
xiv.
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is the one place she insists they visit on their day of sightseeing in Los Angeles. It's surprisingly not that crowded, but she figures it's because it's ten am, and only tourists appear to be in the area they're in.
She and Quinn both take pictures of various stars, following the trail right up to the Kodak Theatre, where all of the handprints of celebrities are imprinted into the cement. Rachel's heart pounds, and she can't help but think – well, hope – that someday, it'll be her name, her handprints, that people are gawking over.
Almost as if he's reading her thoughts, Finn inches toward her, leaning down to whisper in her ear, "This'll be you someday, you know."
Rachel blushes, looking up at him. "You really think so?"
"'Course, Rach," he says, an easy grin spreading across his face. "You're gonna be a star, anyone can see that."
She flushes, pleased, but she just ducks her head. "No one's believed in me the way you do, Finn," she admits quietly.
"That's silly," he murmurs. "They will. They just don't see what I see yet."
"And what's that?"
"That you're smart, and kind, and brave," he whispers. "And so, so talented."
She feels herself blush, and she looks pointedly past him, over at Quinn and Puck, who are talking in low voices next to Robert Downey Jr.'s imprinted footprints. "I thought it'd be different," she finds herself saying.
Finn frowns. "How so?"
"I just…" she sighs. "I thought California would have all the answers somehow, I guess. That suddenly everything would make sense, where I was supposed to go, where I fit in. That I'd feel like I belong here, or something."
"You don't need to fit in," Finn tells her. "You were born to stand out, Rachel Berry. And no matter where you go, or – or what you do, I know you'll prove that."
Quinn comes over then, Noah not far behind her, and grabs Finn's arm, pulling him in the direction of a souvenir shop just down the street.
"Come on, Rach!" she calls behind her. "We can get matching t-shirts, it'll be fun!"
Rachel sighs, but she follows her friends into the store. She helps Quinn pick out a suitable shirt that reads 'Hollywood,' and looking back, she'll know that there's no way she could have seen all the turmoil that will happen next. In that moment, she's content, and that's all that matters.
xv.
She goes to get ice when they get back to the motel, and when she comes back, the room is in chaos. Finn is on one side of the small space, Quinn and Noah on the other, Quinn's eyes wide and terrified.
"What's going on?" Rachel asks quietly, depositing the ice on the table and looking at Finn expectantly. "What's happening?"
"They're fucking lying to me, that's what's happening!" He points an accusatory finger at Quinn and Noah. Noah squares his jaw, and Quinn grips his arm, pressing her face against his back.
"Finn, let's go outside," Rachel says firmly.
"They've been – she accused me of cheating on her with you, and the whole time, the entire fucking time, she's been sneaking around with – with him!"
A tear slips down Quinn's cheek, and Rachel grabs Finn's arm, gripping his chin with her other hand, her fingers grazing the slight stubble on his chin. "Finn," she repeats slowly, "I know you're upset. But you need to take a break, breathe, think about this rationally, so please come outside with me. Please."
He looks over at Quinn, and then back at her, still breathing heavily through his nose.
"I'm asking you as your best friend," she says softly, her voice shaking. "Please."
He clenches his jaw, a muscle in his cheek pulsing for a second, but then he gives an almost imperceptible nod of his head, letting Rachel take his hand and lead him outside. She shuts the door behind them, and then he slumps against the wall, sliding all the way down until he's sitting on the ground.
She just stands and watches him, waiting for him to speak.
"She lied to me," he groans, putting his head in his hands. "I just – I can't believe she would do that to me." He runs a hand through his hair, looking up at her. "You don't seem quite as shocked by this as I do," he points out.
She chews on her lip. She hesitates, then slides down the wall to sit beside him. "I – I caught her and Noah making out back in Arizona," she admits quietly. "I didn't know how to tell you, Finn, I'm so sorry. Please – please don't be mad at me."
He just stares at the railing opposite them for a moment, his expression blank. Finally, he lets out a loud, long sigh. "I'm not mad at you."
Her heart leaps more than it should at the admission. "I – I didn't know if it was my place to tell you," she says quietly. "I mean… Quinn…"
"I know," he says shortly. "Its – I mean, I know now, so it's fine. I mean, obviously it's not fine, but like… I'm not mad at you, okay?" He sighs again, leaning his head back against the wall. "I need to come out of this trip with at least one relationship still intact."
"Finn," Rachel whispers, placing her hand comfortingly on his knee.
"I mean, I knew we weren't even that great together," Finn says. "I knew that, but… we were comfortable, you know? We knew who we were, at least I thought we did. And – and maybe we were both unhappy, but… she could've just… ended it, you know, instead of doing this and making me feel like shit."
"She still has feelings for you," Rachel tells him quietly. "I'm not saying she doesn't have feelings for Noah, but she has feelings for you, too."
He just swallows, eyes trained straight ahead. "If she cared enough about me, she wouldn't have done this," he says, and his voice is hollow. It scares her a little bit, to hear him sound so empty.
"She was probably scared of losing you," she whispers, and Finn looks over at her then. His gaze is more piercing than she thought it would be, and it catches her off guard.
"Even so," he says slowly, "it doesn't excuse what she did. I can't – I can't forgive her for that."
"I'm not saying you should," Rachel says quietly. "What she did was – was bad. Really terrible. But we need to get through another week of traveling together, so you have to be able to at least tolerate her, and Noah. I'm not saying you have to like them, but you need to tolerate them, just long enough for us to get back to Ohio."
He cracks a smile at that, and he glances down at her hand that's still on his knee. She blushes, making to move it, but suddenly his hand covers hers. His smile grows, and he gently squeezes her fingers.
They stay like that for a few minutes, but she knows they can't stay like this forever, so she sighs, standing up and pulling Finn with her. He doesn't let go of her hand.
He pulls a face as she reaches for the door, but she just murmurs that he'll be fine. "I'll be here," she reminds him. "And you just have to tolerate them."
He gives a firm nod, then he follows her inside.
Quinn looks up from her perch on the end of one of the beds, her eyes rimmed red, and she stands up, walking toward them. Noah stays seated at the desk in the corner. "Finn…" she murmurs, her fingers outstretched.
"Don't," he says shortly, and she recoils. "Don't touch me, and – and I don't really want to talk to you right now, okay? We're not – as of right now, we're not together anymore."
Quinn's eyes fill with tears, and she darts toward the bathroom, the sound of the lock clicking following the slamming of the door. Rachel sighs, making to climb into the bed Quinn left abandoned, but Finn's grip doesn't loosen on her hand. She looks at him questioningly.
"I – will you sleep with me tonight?" His voice is small, vulnerable. "Just – just sleep, I promise."
She nods. "Yeah, Finn, of course."
"I don't wanna feel so alone," he admits quietly, and she glances over at Noah, who's pretending not to hear them.
So she ends up sleeping next to Finn, his arm somehow winding its way around her, her leg finding itself hooked behind his calf. He's warm and solid and safe, a piece of security in this strange place. She swears she feels his lips press against her hair as she drifts off to sleep, but she can't be sure.
She finally succumbs to sleep, Finn's steady breathing and the thrumming of his heart the only thing she's conscious of.
xvi.
The Santa Monica Pier is crowded, even though it's a cold, blustery day. Rachel grips her thin jacket more tightly around herself as she maneuvers through the crowd, Finn's hand within her own. They've already separated from Quinn and Noah, and Finn seems more relaxed now that he doesn't have to be in the same space as them. Rachel thinks they've gone to the ferris wheel, so she's dragging Finn up to the pier instead.
Finally, she gets to where she wants to be, and she lets go of Finn's hand, pressing her palms against the railing instead, leaning out over the water slightly, inhaling the salty air. "This is the California I expected," she sighs.
He raises an eyebrow, but he leans his elbows against the railing. "Really? Cold, windy, crowded?"
"No," she says quietly with a shake of her head. "Free."
He just smiles, the corners of his mouth turning up. A large gust of wind comes in then, and instinctually, Rachel moves closer to Finn. He lifts his arm, letting her curl into his side. His fingers play idly with her hair as it blows in the breeze. He's warm and solid, and she snuggles into him a little more.
"I'm sorry," she says then, craning her neck to look up at his face.
His brow furrows in confusion.
"For what happened with Quinn," she clarifies.
"It's not your fault. You have nothing to be sorry for. If anything, I should have seen it coming, seen the signs." He sighs. "But I don't – I don't wanna talk about her. I wanna talk about you."
"Me?" She laughs. "What about me?"
"Thank you," he says simply.
"For what?"
"For being my best friend."
Her heart falls ever so slightly, but his eyes don't leave her face, his gaze traveling to her lips. Subconsciously, she licks them.
"It's – it's no problem, I mean, you're my best friend too—"
"Rachel," he says quietly then, and his hand moves to cup her chin. "You're so beautiful. You know that, right? How beautiful you are?"
She shivers, and it isn't due to the chilly air. His face is inching closer and closer to hers. She can feel his breath on her skin. Her heart pounds in her chest, and she wonders if this is really happening.
Then she wonders if he's actually aware of what's happening, if she's even over Quinn. She hurt him so badly. What if he's just projecting his feelings for Quinn onto her? She doesn't think she could bear to give him her heart just to have him give it right back when he's finally healed.
She turns her head at the last moment, and his lips connect with her cheek. "I – I can't, Finn," she whispers. "Not – not like this."
"Like what?" he asks, and he looks so heartbroken, she wants to take it all back.
"You don't – you don't want to kiss me," she whispers. "You're not over Quinn, Finn—"
"This isn't about Quinn!" he insists. "This is about me and you, Rachel. It's always been about me and you. I was just too blind to see it."
Her breath catches in her throat. Maybe it's not about Quinn after all.
He cups her cheek, his fingers rubbing smoothly against her skin. "Rachel," he murmurs again, and she's thinking that he might try to kiss her again, and this time, she'll let him.
"Hey!"
Rachel turns then, Finn's hand falling from her cheek. Noah and Quinn area few feet away, hands linked. Quinn's glaring, her eyes slits.
"What?" Rachel calls back.
"If we want to make to make good time on our way to San Francisco by sundown, we probably need to be leaving soon," Noah points out.
Rachel sighs, looking up at Finn. He nods, giving her a small smile. "Alright," she agrees. "Who's driving?"
xvii.
Noah ends up driving, Quinn in the front seat. He doesn't turn the radio on, and the car is filled with eerie silence.
Rachel notices a muscle tensing in Finn's jaw, and she puts her hand on his knee, rubbing tiny, calming circles on the fabric of his jeans. He gives her a small, grateful smile.
"Oh, please," Quinn mutters, and Rachel looks up to see her watching them.
"Don't, Quinn," she advises quietly, her voice dangerous.
"You think I don't see what's going on?" Quinn asks, and her eyes flash. "You think I haven't seen the way you've looked at him, the smiles you've shared, ever since we've been together? You are a terrible friend, Rachel!"
"That's not true!" Rachel retorts angrily, forgetting that they're in a car hundreds of miles from home, forgetting that there's anyone there but her and Quinn. "I watched you come in and say we were friends and date Finn anyway when you knew how I felt about him. If you ask me, that makes you a terrible friend."
"You had no claim on him!" Quinn shrieks. "But I did! He was my boyfriend, Rachel!"
"And you cheated on him with Noah!"
Silence falls over the car. They both glare at each other, breathing heavily. Rachel feels Finn's knee slip out from under her fingers, and she glances over at him. He's looking at her with a strange expression on his face.
"I'm sorry," Rachel whispers, "I'm so sorry. I – I didn't mean to talk about you like you're not here, Finn, I just—"
"No, Rach, just…" He exhales loudly, averting his gaze. "I'm gonna go to sleep, okay? You can finish fighting over me with Quinn, it's fine."
He turns away then, scrunching down as far into his seat as he can (which, for a man of Finn's stature, is hard to do), and then presses his face against the window, clamping his eyes shut.
Quinn just purses her lips before turning back around, and Rachel sighs. Now she's in a car full of people where almost everyone is mad at someone else, two of them mad at her. She wanted this trip to be fun, but frankly, it's turned into a full-scale disaster.
xviii.
San Francisco would probably be more enjoyable if Noah wasn't the only one still speaking to her. Finn isn't really talking to anyone, to be fair, and Quinn's still upset with her as well, so Noah's acting as a sort of mediator between them.
They all wander around the city in an awkward group – kind of together, but not really. Finn walks with his hands stuffed in his pockets, a few feet always separating him from the rest of them. He looks around, and he doesn't really acknowledge the other three.
Quinn latches onto Noah's arm, often leaning up to whisper something in his ear, and Noah keeps smiling at her, his lips even brushing the top of her head at one point. Rachel thinks that if she weren't still so angry with Quinn, she'd think they were cute.
She glances over at Finn to see him leaning against the railing of the Fisherman's Wharf, looking out into the ocean. Her heart gives a pang. She keeps trying to apologize for what happened in the car, but he keeps brushing her off.
She just wants someone to talk to her. She just wants her best friend back. She wants Finn.
He still seems millions of miles away, even though he's right there. She can see him, but she can't reach out and touch him. She wonders what it'll take to get him back, because whatever it is, she's willing to do it.
She cares about him too much to let him go, to let him just walk away. They've always been best friends, able to tell each other anything, and even if she can't have him in the way she's always hoped – as so much more than that – she at least wants her best friend back.
xix.
"We should go to Vegas," Noah says from the backseat.
Rachel just laughs, looking at him in the rearview mirror. She glances over at Finn to see what he thinks of this ludicrous idea, but he's still staring out the window, seemingly oblivious. Her laughter dies in her throat.
"I'm being serious!" Noah says defensively. "We're all eighteen, so it wouldn't be a total bust!"
"It's not exactly on the way home," Rachel points out.
Noah scoffs. "So? We make it on the way home."
"I say we go for it," Quinn says. "I know that I need a good stress reliever at least, and what better place than Vegas to unwind?"
"Yeah, plus we may be able to score some alcohol in Sin City," Noah adds (which Rachel blatantly ignores).
"What about you, Finn?" she asks instead. "What do you wanna do?"
He shrugs, just continues to stare out the window. It's breaking her heart, bit by bit, piece by piece. "Whatever," he says. "Doesn't make any difference to me."
"Finn—"
"It's settled then!" Noah cuts her off, raising his fist in triumph. "Vegas, here we come!"
Rachel sighs, but Quinn reaches forward for the GPS attached to the dashboard. She guesses they're going to Vegas. She really hopes this doesn't turn out to be as terrible of an idea as she thinks it will be.
xx.
It's incredibly hot in Las Vegas, practically stifling. They stay at the Circus Circus hotel, just off the strip (because, at twenty-five bucks per room per night, it's practically the cheapest deal they can get). Rachel doesn't even want to leave the hotel room, but Noah says it's bound to cool down at night because "like, the sun's not out anymore and don't you want to actually experience the city, Berry?"
So she's coaxed out of the room, and she ends up walking next to Finn as they wander down the strip. He can't put as much space between himself and the rest of the gang as he did in San Francisco because Las Vegas is incredibly crowded, but he still doesn't say anything, his mouth set in a firm line, and it's so unlike him that Rachel just wants to cry and scream that she's sorry over and over again. She just wants her Finn back, as selfish as that may be.
They walk down to the Bellagio to watch the fountain light show, and Rachel ends up nearly pressed into Finn's side. She's reminded of the salty air of California, of the way his arm felt around her, the way his lips pressed against her cheek. He glances down at her briefly, then he swallows, hard.
She knows he's remembering, too.
The show ends after a few minutes, and they end up back in the crowd of people. Noah wants to try sneaking into a casino, but Rachel doesn't really want to get arrested when she's halfway across the country. She expects Quinn to talk him out of it, but to her surprise, she agrees to accompany him.
"What?" she says defensively when she notices the look on Rachel's face. "Someone's got to make sure he doesn't get arrested."
Rachel just sighs, then nods. They've already gone, though, leaving just her and Finn.
He sits down on a bench a little ways off with a sigh, and she moves to sit beside him. "Finn," she begins, but, to her surprise, he cuts her off.
"Look, Rachel, I know you're sorry, and – and I'm not even mad at you, really. I mean, I was, but I'm not anymore." He's staring at the ground, not even looking at her, but her heart pounds against her ribcage.
He licks his lips and sighs, then continues. "I guess, seeing you and Quinn fight – over me, basically – made me realize how – how fucked up this whole thing is. How fucked up I am. I mean, I basically just led two girls on, and do you know how shitty I feel because of it?"
"You didn't lead me on," Rachel says quietly. "I knew you were with Quinn. I fell for you anyways. It's on me, not you."
Finn shakes his head. "That's not what you said, in the car. You said Quinn knew about your feelings for me, before we got together."
The blood pounds in Rachel's ears, but she takes a deep breath. She supposes he deserves at least the truth.
"I've had a crush on you for as long as I can remember," she begins. "I mean, you were my best friend, and so nice, and chivalrous, and – and you turned into this gorgeous boy. I couldn't believe you even spoke to me half the time. But you did, and soon, I realized that I didn't just want to be your friend anymore. I wanted to be more than that. But I was fourteen and terrified of losing my best friend, so I kept those feelings and thoughts to myself."
Finn's looking at her intently now, so intently that she feels she has to look away. She picks at a corner of the bench instead, the peeling paint rough against her fingers. "Then Quinn came along, and somehow our duo became a trio. And it was nice, having a girl to talk to. I told her about how I felt about you at the end of our sophomore year, and she acted that it was inevitable we'd get together, you and me."
She laughs then, glancing up at him. He's still watching her. "I didn't even know she liked you, too. She never said anything, never even hinted. So when you told me you were taking her to prom junior year, I…" She swallows. "I didn't think it would be such a blow. I mean, we'd been each other's first everything. First friend. First kiss. I just… I guess I just figured we'd go together as well." She looks up at him and gives him a watery smile. "Stupid, I know."
"It's – it's not stupid," he says quickly, and his fingers brush hers. For a moment, she dares to let herself hope. Then she swallows and continues with her story.
"Anyway, I was happy for you both, or at least I tried to be. I mean, you're my best friends. But part of me… part of me just still hoped that maybe you felt the things I felt." She takes a deep breath, then pushes on, her words now tumbling over each other, because if she doesn't get them all out, she might explode. "And I'm really sorry that all the resentment I've probably felt toward Quinn just exploded in the car. I didn't mean to put you in the middle of that. She just – she gets everything and I'm stuck with nothing and I mean it's just not fair—"
"Hey," he says gently, cupping her cheek, and suddenly she feels like she's back at the Santa Monica pier, "that's not true. You have me."
She gives him a small smile. "Why were you so upset, though?" she asks. "I mean, I think you knew how I felt about you—"
"Just…. Watching you two argue over me made me think that maybe it was just some kind of competition you and Quinn had, and I was the prize. That – that none of this really mattered."
Rachel frowns. "It's – it's not—"
"I know that now," he assures her. "It just hurt to think that the two most important girls in my life may have been pretending, you know?"
She nods. "I understand. But you have to know, Finn, that I'm not pretending with you. I've tried." She shrugs. "I can't."
He just ducks his head, failing to hide his smile.
"I missed you, Finn."
"I didn't go anywhere."
She frowns. "You know what I mean."
He sighs. "I know," he admits quietly. "I missed you, too."
They just sit in comfortable silence for a moment, his hand still on her cheek, and then he asks, "Hey, you know what we should do?"
"Elope?" She's only half joking.
He laughs. "I guess we are in Vegas…" He raises a suggestive eyebrow, and she shoves him playfully. "No, I was gonna say we should get out of here. Go back to the hotel and gamble in the kiddie casino I saw in the lobby."
"What about Quinn and Noah?" she asks.
He shrugs. "Who the hell cares?"
"Finn!"
"Fine, text them to let them know where we are, whatever."
She bites her lip. "Okay," she agrees.
"Ready to get out of here?" he asks, standing up and offering her his hand.
She smiles, placing her tiny hand in his larger one. Somehow, they're a perfect fit. "Ready."
tbc