Chapter Text
Santana had been pacing in her room for the past hour, just waiting for Quinn to get there. She didn’t know how to break the news to her. Didn’t know how to tell her that she had been lying to her for the past few months. She hadn’t meant to, but she didn’t want Quinn to break up with her, and she knew she would. She had felt so guilty for keeping this from her, but she couldn’t take the heartbreak. She was selfish, she knew it, but she just wanted to enjoy the last moments she had with Quinn while she could.
She heard a knock on the door, and stilled. It was now or never. “Come in babe,” she squeaked out. She coughed, trying to regain some confidence. As soon as she saw her girlfriends face her whole world lit up. “Hey,” she greeted with a soft smile.
“Hey San,” Quinn greeted her and leaned in to kiss her. Santana was stiff enough for Quinn to realise. “Everything okay?” She asked, brows furrowed.
“Yeah,” Santana said, looking down to avoid eye contact. “It’s just that, I think we need to talk.
Quinn’s whole body froze, all the happiness that she felt before had vanished and nervousness took its place. “That’s never good,” she tried to joke. Neither of them laughed.
“I, uh, I really don’t know how to say this.” Santana took a big breath, making Quinn even more nervous than before.
“How about you just say it, Santana?” Quinn snapped. She hated all this beating around the bush, if Santana was going to break up with her, then she should just say it.
Santana just looked at her for a second, feeling a bit hurt. “I’m not going with you to Yale.” She let out with a sigh.
“What?” Quinn’s whole body froze, she had expected a break up, not this. “What do you mean? You got in, I saw the letter.” Now Quinn was the one pacing.
Santana sat on her bed, defeated. “I can’t move that far away, my mom needs me.”
Quinn stopped and looked at her, dumbfounded. “What do you mean? I thought that was sorted out?”
“Sorted out? I don’t just sort out my mother, Quinn.” Santana said, angrily. She stood up and crossed her arms. “She’s not okay Quinn, I can’t just leave her here and pretend everything is okay at school. I can’t do it.” She had started out angry, but got progressively sadder as she talked.
Something in Quinn softened when she saw just how upset this made her girlfriend. “When did you make this decision?” She asked, this time calmer.
At this, Santana tensed again. “Honestly, it was way before I even got the acceptance letters.” She said, ashamed.
“So you’ve just been lying to me for months?” Quinn asked, hurt. “Santana, we- I leave in a couple of weeks. Were you just waiting until the last moment?”
“I didn’t want this to be hanging over our heads. I know I was wrong for lying to you, I know that. But I just wanted to have some more time before you hated me for this.”
“I don’t know how to feel, Santana. You really just sprung this one on me. What even is your plan? Are you just not going to college?” Quinn was unbelievably confused. Just yesterday they were talking about things to do on campus.
“No, I knew my mom would fight me if I didn’t, so I’m going to Ohio State.”
“Ohio State? I shouldn’t be surprised you didn’t tell me you even applied there. Is that even a good school for medicine?”
“I don’t really care right now, I just want to be close to my mom. It’s the best one around.”
“Are you even thinking about your future, Santana? Good doctors don’t just come out of nowhere, Yale is one of the best schools in the country. Hell, of the world. Ohio State? I don’t think so. You’re just going to stay in Lima for the rest of your life? What about all the plans we made? How could you just lie to my face for such a long time?” The more words that came out of Quinn’s mouth, the more her anger grew.
And when Quinn got angry, so did Santana. “I know it’s not ideal, Quinn! I’m trying my best, okay? I can’t leave my mom here, I’m not heartless.”
“What exactly are you implying? That I am? I’m sorry for thinking about my future!”
“That was not what I was saying at all, but if the shoe fits!”
“Your mom could get better Santana!”
“She has cancer, Quinn, it could get worse so easily. She needs someone to take care of her, and my dad isn’t around to do it anymore.”
“I know Santana, but she has nurses. And Yale is really not that far away-”
“It is far away, and I don’t know how much some nurses are going to take care of her while I’m gone. I’m not going to be able to focus on my life at school if I know my mom is here suffering.”
“What about your life, Santana? Do you really plan on staying in Lima your whole life?”
“I get that this isn’t your dream, I’m not asking you to stay here. But I am.”
“This isn’t your dream either.”
“So what? This is the hand I was dealt, so I’m gonna play it.”
“So that’s it? You just made this unilateral decision on our relationship and I’ll just have to accept it?”
“This is my future Quinn-”
“I know that. But you made the conscious decision to leave me out of it. You’re telling me two weeks before we were supposed to move!”
“We can do long distance! You just said that Yale is not that far away.”
“Don’t act like this can be fixed so easily!” Quinn stayed silent for a second. “This isn’t what I wanted. You can’t just spring this onto me and expect me to love it and get on with your plans. To just pretend we didn’t plan a whole life together!”
“Quinn, we’re eighteen, don’t be so fucking dramatic. Chances were we were going to break up anyway and one of us would transfer just so we wouldn't cross paths.”
Tears sprung to Quinn’s eyes, “I’m glad you had so much faith in our relationship. Did all those fucking plans we made mean nothing to you? We just talked about moving in together and getting married, and all the while you were thinking that we weren’t going to make it.”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it-”
“You know what, why waste a couple of years until we break up? I’ll save you the time. Have fun staying in Lima the rest of your life. It’s really where you belong, being a Lima loser.”
This god awful town. Quinn hadn’t stepped a foot in Lima in ten years. She thought she could avoid it forever, but after hearing her mother beg and whine about it for the past decade, she gave in. This Christmas was the first she was spending in Ohio in ten years. She took time off from work and decided to spend her vacation in the middle of nowhere. She felt bad about having such little contact with her family. And besides, she had news to share with them.
“God, is there even a starbucks in this place? Why are we spending our vacation in the middle of nowhere? We could be in Hawaii.”
“I told you I wanted to spend time with my family, Biff.” Quinn rolled her eyes while answering her boyfriend’s question. “And I’m sure there’s a Starbucks here, but I’m sure a regular coffee shop is good enough.”
Why had she decided to do this again? Her therapist had said she couldn’t run forever. Well, that was before she ghosted her.
“We’re here ma’am.” Their uber driver announced. He was clearly pissed about the comments her boyfriend had made.
Quinn got out of the car and tipped him greatly for his troubles. Biff barely managed to get his own bags out of the trunk before walking away. So Quinn had to carry everything on her own. It was fine, she didn’t need a man helping her. She was a feminist. Besides, Biff was just used to having people do everything for him. It was a miracle he even got his own bags. She should really be thankful.
She walked up the little path to her childhood home with great difficulty and rang the doorbell. She had decided to surprise her family, for some reason. Why was she doing this again?
“They are taking forever. Doesn’t your family know it’s rude to keep people waiting?” Biff whined.
She could turn around now. Hide in some bushes and pretend that some kid had rang the doorbell and ran away. But it was too late for that, she could hear voices getting closer to the door.
“It’s fine Judy, I’ll get it!” Wait. She knew that voice. It couldn’t be.
The door opened to reveal the very person she had been running away from for the past decade.
“Q-quinn.”
No. Freaking. Way.