CHAPTER 23

Just keep running, Finn told himself as he climbed out of his house's window, and ran down the street for quite possibly the last time. He had no idea where he would, or what he would do; he just knew that he couldn't go back to foster care. As he walked purposefully down the street, he thought about the Glee club, and Santana in particular, and how he would never get a chance to see them again. Many times he was tempted to stop and go to Santana's house first to say goodbye, but he knew that if he went, she would find a way to stop him from leaving. Finn couldn't afford for that to happen, so he soldiered on. He finally made it to the Lima bus station, and took the 11 pm bus - the last bus of the night - to Lexington, Kentucky. There were many shady men on the bus but Finn didn't care. He was now homeless and knew that he would have to fight if anyone tried to attack him. And anyways, to an outsider, he was probably just as shady as the other men, in his black hoodie and dark jeans. Finn settled into his seat for the ride and 6 hours later, he arrived in Lexington.

By this point, the sun was rising for a new day. Finn was able to snag a couple of hours of sleep on the bus, so he forced himself to stay awake. As he was getting off the bus, he realised something. It was Monday morning, the first Monday after March Break, so Mr. Schue was probably breaking the news of his departure to the rest of the Glee club. He wondered how the Glee club would take the news. They would obviously be upset, Santana especially, and he felt terrible about it, but he forced himself to forget about them. They were his past and he had to focus on the future. However, that plan failed a minute later when he got a call. He took out his phone and looked at the Caller ID. It was Santana. He forced himself to ignore the call, and he did that successfully twice, but the third time, he knew that he needed to answer.

"Hey, Santana." He said quietly into the phone. He was immediately greeted by a string of rapid-fire Spanish that he could only assume were insults and swears. Eventually, she switched to English.

"Seriously, Finn? What the hell?! You leave in the middle of the night and you don't tell me? How could you do that to me? I never got a chance to even say goodbye to you! Or talk you out of leaving!"

"Yeah, I wonder what that's like: never seeing someone again and not even getting to say goodbye." Finn remarked sarcastically. He could practically hear Santana biting her tongue on the other end of the line.

"I just… I just wish you could have told me. And you didn't have to go. You could have stayed with me - I stayed with you for two months so it would have been only right for me to return the favour!"

Finn shook his head, as if Santana could see him.

"It's not that easy, San. Although your parents kicked you out, they were still your parents. Say for example you got injured and needed to go to the hospital. Your health insurance is under who's name? Your parents! I don't have that anymore!"

Santana sighed. She knew that he was right, but didn't want to admit it.

"So where the hell are you?"

"In the wind." He said, cryptically. Suddenly, a tour guide walked up behind him and exclaimed:

"Welcome to Kentucky, my fine sir!"

Santana couldn't help but snicker slightly. Finn resigned. He knew that she heard that man.

"OK, fine. I'm in Kentucky."

"You're gonna live in Kentucky? The birthplace of Trouty Mouth?!" She exclaimed, surprised.

"No, I'm just in Kentucky. I'm going to take a bus to Kansas City?"

"You're gonna live in Missouri?" She asked, confused.

"No, from Missouri, I'm taking another bus to Albuquerque."

Santana was extremely confused now.

"So where are you going to end up?"

"I don't know yet." Finn lied. He knew exactly where he was going. He had just enough money for a flight to the least bad state for the homeless: Hawaii. In Hawaii, there were plenty of bathrooms and showers for the public due to the many beaches; and it was pleasant weather all year long.

"Still, you should have at least said goodbye. Do I seriously meet that little to you? That you don't even bother telling me that I'm never gonna see you again. You were like a brother to me, Finn! But it's nice to know how you felt about me. Puto."

"DON'T YOU GET IT, SAN?" Finn said, raising his voice and silencing her outburst. "I didn't leave without telling you because you don't mean anything to me. I did it because you mean so much to me that I knew that you would talk me out of going."

"So instead you ran like a little puta. You know what you are… a coward. A fat-ass coward who doesn't have the balls to face his problems so just runs away."

"Goodbye Santana." He said, quietly and hung up the phone. Finn sighed. If Santana was that upset and wasn't going to forgive him, he really didn't care to ever come back. He could start a new life in Hawaii. He could be one of those street performers. Maybe one day he could even earn enough to buy a small, studio apartment.

Meanwhile, back in Lima, Santana started to sob. If there was a small chance of him coming back before, she had truly driven him away now. Finn hadn't even bitten back: he had just sat there and taken the verbal abuse. Brittany enveloped Santana in her arms. She couldn't even imagine what the Latina was going through. Once Santana had finally stopped crying, 15 minutes later, they walked back into the choir room together. Everyone looked up at her, desperation in their eyes.

"So?" Mercedes asked. Sanntana could feel tears welling up in her eyes, and Brittany squeezed her hand comfortingly. She looked Mr. Schue in eye when continuing.

"I'm sorry guys. I don't think he's coming back. He's not even in Ohio anymore. When I spoke to him, he was in a bus station in Kentucky, but I know that it's not going to be his final destination. He's not telling me where it will be though."

Of course Santana immediately saw through his lie about not knowing where he was going to end up. Mr. Schue, as well as the rest of the Glee club, were devastated. Mr. Schue put his head in his hands. Winning Nationals would now be almost impossible, and they all knew it. Morale was low, lower than it had ever been.

Finn paid the driver and got onto a bus from Lexington to Louisville. Shortly after, when he made it to Louisville, he got on yet another bus to Corydon, Indiana. Finn was just thankful that he didn't suffer from motion sickness. 2 and a half hour later, and 4 bus stops later, Finn got off the bus at Corydon, Indiana. Despite everything, Finn was proud of himself. He was navigating through a country that he was pretty unfamiliar with, all by himself. In Canada, during his homeless years, he only stayed in the province of Ontario, but this time, he had crossed through 3 states. He spent the next couple of minutes sitting on a bench and deciding the best route to make it to California, from which he would take the flight to Hawaii. As he studied a map of the United States against the faint sunset light, an elderly man came and sat next to him.

"Hello, son. Can I help you with something?" He asked. Finn looked up and smiled at him.

"Thank you, but I'm pretty sure about the route I want to take." Finn replied. The man shook his head.

"That's actually not what I meant. I meant that you look troubled."

Finn sighed.

"Yeah, there's a lot on my mind. I lost my best friend this morning." He said. The man's eyes widened.

"She died?!" He exclaimed. Finn shook his head furiously.

"No, no, no. Thankfully, not. She just hates me, so much better."

"Well, as an old man who's seen a lot during his life, can I offer you some advice?"

Finn nodded.

"If this person is truly your best friend, you should apologise for whatever you did. And apologising doesn't always mean you're wrong and they're right. It just means you value your friendship more than your ego."

Finn nodded.

"Thanks but it's gonna be pretty hard to apologise with her being all the way in Ohio."

"Well then call her! You've probably got a phone! Don't let a stupid fight ruin an amazing friendship. I did that and look at me now: I'm old, friendless, and I'm sitting at the bus station without even needing to take a bus. I'm just here to talk to people."

Finn chuckled and nodded.

"Thank you sir. I needed to hear that."

"It's no problem. And the name's Walter. 'Sir' makes me sound old."

Finn laughed and stood up. The two men shook hands and Finn continued on the next part of his long, treacherous journey.

From Indiana, he took a bus to St. Louis, and then Kansas City, and then Albuquerque. The bus journey all merged into one in his head. Everytime he would arrive at his destination, he would just get up and, two minutes later, get on a different bus. When he made it to Albuquerque, he started to get a little bit more excited. He had travelled non-stop for almost 3 days. From Albuquerque, he took yet another bus to Phoenix. There were two reasons why Finn didn't just take a flight from Ohio straight to Hawaii: first of all, he would be saving a lot of money by taking the buses; and second, in that off-chance that the foster-care agency started looking for him, he would be harder to track whilst taking his current journey. Eventually, he made it to Arizona, and his excitement was mounting. He was just one state away from California, and it was only a 6 hour bus journey until he made it. He made it to Los Angeles at 2 pm local time, and when he arrived, he was practically bursting with excitement. He had never been anywhere like L.A before. Finn couldn't help but squeeze a little bit of tourism into his journey. He quickly visited Santa Monica Pier, Griffith Park, and the Hollywood sign, all places with free admission so he wouldn't be spending any money. For the past three days, Finn had been living off of crappy bus station food, and he already missed real food. While he was at the Hollywood sign in the Griffith Observatory, he got a text from Santana.

Hey, Finn. I'm really sorry about what I said. I didn't mean it, and it would kill me if our friendship ended for that reason. You don't need to tell me where you live, what you're doing, or anything. Just please let me know that you're safe.

Finn sighed as he read the message. He was still pissed at Santana. He took a selfie in front of the Hollywood sign and sent it to her, as well as the following message:

I'm safe. I'm in L.A right now. I'm about halfway through my journey. Good luck in Nationals. Goodbye, Santana.

He then put his phone in his pocket, and took a bus to LAX. He then finally bought his long-awaited ticket to Hawaii and, 3 hours later, he boarded the plane. He couldn't believe it. After almost a week of travelling, he was finally on his way to Hawaii!