Chapter 8: Risk

Finn didn't sleep at all. Instead he'd spent the night going over the lyrics to the song he was going to sing, over and over again.

They didn't stop circulating in his mind as he had his shower, got dressed, ate breakfast, drove to school, met Rachel at her locker with the same cue cards, went to class – he got in trouble about 10 times throughout the day for not paying attention to the teacher and getting answers wrong more than usual – and had recess and lunch break. Rachel seemed to notice something was up with him and he was glad she couldn't talk to ask him.

When it was finally time to go to glee club, Finn felt surprisingly excited instead of nervous. He needed to get this over with so the damn song would stop messing around with his mind.

Everyone else was already there when he arrived with Rachel and straight away Finn walked towards the piano guy to give him the sheet music. Then he walked to stand in the middle of the room facing everyone. He looked at Rachel and she smiled at him.

Mr. Schue then said. "Show us what you've got then, Finn."

Finn cleared his throat and the band started playing the opening notes. Finn looked at Rachel and she seemed to gasp as she recognised the song before he'd even started singing.

He didn't take his eyes off her as he began to sing the first verse of "Jessie's Girl."

The choir room was quiet, everyone staring at Finn in shock and awe. He looked away from Rachel's blushing face and awkwardly looked around at everyone else.

Finally, everyone started to cheer and some of them walked up to him and patted him on the back. He heard words of congratulations, but he barely paid attention to them. He had looked back at Rachel and couldn't take his eyes off her. She was staring right back of him on blankly and her face seemed to be getting redder and redder.

Finn barely heard Mr. Schue tell everyone to take a seat while he praised Finn's confidence at letting everyone know he felt.

Was it suddenly really hot in here? He reached up and felt his face. It was hot. He was blushing like crazy. And suddenly he felt like he couldn't stay in the room any longer. Tearing his eyes away from Rachel he turned without a word and ran from the room.

Rachel and the rest of glee club stared after Finn in shock. Rachel felt like she was stone. She wanted so badly to get out of her seat and sprint after Finn, but she couldn't move. She vaguely heard Mr. Schue say that someone should go after him and she thought she felt his eyes on her, but she ignored it. For once in her life, she had no idea what to do. She heard Kurt say he'd go and see if Finn was alright and she didn't have the energy to try and stop him.

She couldn't believe what had just happened. What Finn had just so openly shown to everyone. He had sang "Jessie's Girl" and she just couldn't believe it. It meant so much to her that he had purposefully chosen this song to sing to her and she felt stupid for never wishing he'd sing it to her before. It was perfect. It made her happy that he had chosen to sing it, because it really proved what she still hoped. That Finn had real feelings for and was serious enough about it to show everyone in glee. He liked her. He liked her. And he wanted her to be his. She couldn't believe it.

Rachel paid no attention to what the others were singing. She just sat deep in thought until she felt everyone moving around her towards the door and she finally looked up, coming out of her daze.

Mr. Schue was looking at her in concern. "Are you alright, Rachel?" He asked her.

Rachel nodded numbly, got up slowly like she might fall over if she moved too fast and slowly walked out of the room.

Finn drove home as soon as he left glee. He needed to get away from there and think. He didn't know if Rachel was going to follow him, so he left as quickly as he could. He didn't want to know what she felt about him singing that song. He didn't know if he could take it if it was rejection. He felt insecure and he felt like crying.

Why had he been so stupid?

He remembered Rachel's blank face and cringed.

What had he expected anyway? That she would throw herself at him and kiss him senseless as soon as he stopped singing? Or better yet, before he even started?

Sure. He'd dreamed of that but he hadn't expected it. He wasn't that stupid.

So why did he feel so disappointed?

He had taken a risk and it was for nothing.

Rachel didn't care about him. She just loved Jessie.

Finn felt like the biggest idiot in the world.

The next day Finn didn't want to go to school but his Mum made him get up and threatened to drive him to school if he didn't go. Usually his Mum would have been fine with him staying home but when he explained what was wrong, she told him that it was better to face it rather than try and run away from it.

So, he went to school feeling incredibly nervous about seeing Rachel and how she was going to act with him today. But maybe Rachel wasn't even at school. Maybe he had embarrassed her so much that she'd decided to take the day off and spend the day in Jessie's pants.

He clenched his fists at the thought and almost ran himself off the road.

Keep a hold of yourself, Hudson. It's going to fine.

Shut up.

But Finn was in for the surprise of his life.

When he walked into the locker area towards his locker, he found Rachel standing by his locker looking incredibly nervous. His heart sped up so fast he felt like he was having a "heart attack". One much worse than the last time in Quinn's bathroom.

When she heard him approaching her awkwardly, she looked up and smiled at him shyly. He reached her and looked at her, giving her a small and nervous smile.

She held up a cue card. "Hello, Finn. I'm sorry about yesterday."

Finn stared. Why was she saying sorry? He was the one that was sorry!

She flipped it over. "Can you meet me at the choir room after school? I really have to talk to you about something."

Finn smiled and nodded. She smiled at him and walked away.

See what did I say?

Oh, will you shut up I said?

He smiled to himself.

Rachel waited in the choir room at the end of the day. She kicked herself for being so early because waiting was the worst thing for nerves. Her heart was beating really fast and her palms were so slippery she kept dropping her cue cards.

Finally, Finn stepped into the room and the door closed behind him.

He held up a hand as a greeting and walked towards her nervously.

Rachel smiled and waited until he sat down beside her before she started.

He sat down and she stood up and walked to stand in front of him.

He stared at her quizzically and grinned when she moved her hands from behind her back to show him she was holding a stack of cue cards.

"Thanks for coming."

Finn smiled.

"I have something really important to tell you Finn."

Finn stared at her before she moved on to the next cue card.

"And I am truly sorry I didn't tell you this sooner…

"I was scared about what would happen to our friendship…

"But it is time you knew that…

"Jessie and I are not together anymore."

Finn stared at her in shock as she paused before hesitantly continuing.

"I've been really grateful for everything…

"That you've done for me the last couple days…

"And you have to know that what you did yesterday was…

"The sweetest thing ever but it was also wrong because…"

Finn frowned.

"I'm not Jessie's girl, Finn…"

"I'm yours."

Finn looked up at her in shock and she was smiling at him and little tears were in her eyes. They stared at each other for a second before Finn laughed out loud and jumped off his seat.

He walked towards Rachel and wrapped his arms around her and kissed her enthusiastically. She kissed him back and laughed against his mouth as he lifted her up off the ground.