A/N: And so I'm back once again, briefly! I'm not going to be annoying and apologize every time for no longer giving you daily posts, so I'll just get on with it! Wrote this because I just needed to put an end to Finn and Rachel for myself, for today. Not saying I won't write some Finchel in the future, because I will ... if only because it's the canon (;. But I'm really just not in the mood for them right now, lol.

Sorry, Finchel-shippers ...

The rest of you, hope you enjoy!

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When she breaks up with Finn, she goes to the bleachers.

She's not (consciously) sure why, but she does. She likes it here. Maybe she shouldn't, what with the history she has in this very spot, but there's something calming about sitting on the cool metal and looking out over the football field. Something oddly comforting about knowing that these four years of her life are suspiciously like a game; suspenseful and a never-ending competition during ... but years after it's over, people aren't going to remember the score or who fumbled in the second quarter. It's not really going to matter all that much whether she wore jeans or knee socks, name-brand tees or knit-cardigans. (Not going to matter if she was in Glee club or on the Cheerios, whether she was popular or the school freak.)

She's really ready to move on this time, she thinks. Or at least, she hopes … Because she's so over-tired of the back-and-forth game they've had going on between them since last year. The up times were good and pleasant and wonderful, but the down times were too horrible to put up with. She just wants it to be over. She still cares for him, of course … but it's so much easier to just be apart indefinitely, she thinks; to not be unsure and frightened and confused all the time.

He doesn't understand that. She knows, because the entire time she was trying to let him down gently he was staring at her with that more-annoying-than-adorable confused expression of his, and when it was over he didn't have a clue what she had just done. (That she had just brought their relationship to an end.) And even once he did, she could tell that he didn't understand – or agree with – her reasoning.

I'm sorry, Finn, but sometimes love isn't enough to justify the pain in the end, she'd told him, before turning and coming here, ignoring his calls after her insisting that they could work it out. (Of course they could work it out … temporarily. But it's never more than temporary, is it? And she needs something more concrete, something that she can honestly believe will last. Not something she'll be questioning for the rest of her life.) Tomorrow she'll have to deal with him again, of that she has no doubt. He won't give up without a fight – a trait she'd admired until it became more inconvenient than endearing – and not without saying his piece.

But it won't change anything; won't change her mind on the matter.

Because she's finally done; she'll be back here, no doubt, to think it over and wonder if maybe it could have worked out, to doubt her decision … but she is done.

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