The silence was deafening. Nothing could be heard except for the blood rushing to her head, pounding loudly in her ears as she stared at two very shocked faces. Before she had enough of the silence, it was interrupted after what seemed like forever.

"I can't deal with this right now; we'll talk about it later, Santana."

"Dad, please…" She begged, eyes welling up with tears but refusing to let them fall.

"I said not now, Santana." Her father said sternly and walked to the study, closing the door louder than necessary.

Unable to hold her tears any longer, she got up from the living room couch and made her way to the front door. She hastily grabbed a jacket from the hallway closet and slipped on her shoes as her mother sat on the couch, still very much in shock. Not wanting to wait around for other mother to voice her possible disgust, Santana did the only thing that she could think of doing at that moment.

She fled.

She wasn't sure where she was headed, tears slightly clouding her vision. It didn't matter; she just wanted to be as far away from the house as her feet would allow her.

When she had calmed down slightly, no longer crying as hard as when she left the house, she realised that she had walked a couple blocks towards the local park. Feeling the need to sit down and maybe gather her thoughts, she headed into the park and toward the swings by the pond.

Well, shit. That didn't turn out like I expected it to, she thought. Maybe I should have waited until I was at college next year and emailed them instead. At least they can't throw me out since I've already left…

Santana was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice someone approaching the unoccupied swing beside her. She was torn from her thoughts when she heard the creaking metal of the swing beside her. She looked to her side, assuming the wind had just been strong enough to cause the swing to move but she had not anticipated an actual person to be sitting in it therefore being startled by their presence.

"Jesus Christ! What the hell?" she almost yelled and tried to calm down her racing heart and threw a glare at the person next to her.

"Sorry, I thought you heard me coming," the girl said with an amused grin.

"Yeah, well, it's obvious I didn't," Santana snapped. "Next time speak up before you give someone a fucking heart attack or something."

"Sorry," she apologised again, looking sheepish.

"Whatever."

She turned her head to face forward as they lapsed into silence. After a few minutes, Santana turned her head slightly to take in the blonde stranger beside her.

The girl was sitting with her long legs resting on their heels straight in front of her. Really long legs at that. Really long, creamy white legs.

Damn, those are some long ass le—

"So, do you want to talk about it?"

Santana's eyes snapped back up to the blonde's face in panic, hoping she didn't get caught ogling the girl's legs like a creep.

"H-huh?" wow, that was real smooth of her. At least the girl was still looking ahead and not at her meaning she didn't get caught eyeing her up.

"I said- do you want to talk about it?" the blonde girl said as she turned to look at Santana with such beautiful, clear blue eyes that she could swear she was looking into the ocean.

Santana was so caught up in the stranger's eyes that her mind was late registering that she had been asked a question.

She tore her eyes from the blue ones beside her and answered. "What makes you think I have anything to talk about? And what makes you think I'd tell you, someone I don't even know, if I do?" she said, a little harsher than intended. She wanted to apologise because the girl seemed genuine enough.

But then again, who takes time out of their day to listen to a stranger's problems? No one. No one Santana knew, at least.

Not until now, anyway.

"Well… you didn't get up and leave when I sat down next to you."

The girl kind of had a point. Santana doesn't normally sit on swings and converse with strangers. But she doesn't normally come to the park to cry either- fuck it, there's a first time for everything.

"And, well, I don't know if you do have anything to talk about but you looked like you were crying so—,"Santana shoots her a glare because pretty girl or not, she's Santana Fucking Lopez and no one sees her when she's weak.

Except yeah, she's been caught crying so that glare doesn't look as terrifying as she wanted it to.

And yeah, she decides the girl is kind of pretty but she doesn't need her to know that.

"—or I could be wrong," the blonde girl corrects herself after seeing Santana's 'glare'.

"But I think it's nice to have someone to listen to you," she smiles at Santana. "It's nice to be able to unload what you're thinking once in a while, even if that someone is someone you don't know," she breaks eye contact and looks forward again. "I don't know, I just think it would be freeing to say what you're thinking or feeling."

This girl is completely right, Santana realised. It's why she came out to her parents in the first place. She just couldn't hold it in anymore, that's why she told them. She hasn't even come out to Quinn yet and they've been best friends since middle school.

You see, Quinn's from a pretty conservative Christian family and even if they're best friends, there's no telling whether Quinn will be okay with it or not. That's why she told her parents first, they're the closest people to Santana besides her best friend. They're her parents; they're not supposed to judge their kids. They're supposed to love them no matter what, right?

Well what happened today kind of killed that hope. Maybe she should have taken her chances with Quinn; at least if Quinn decides to break off their friendship, she'd still have her parents. She needs them.

Could she tell a stranger, though? Could she just tell the nice stranger beside her and not receive a look of disgust in return? Its Lima, Ohio after all, it's not the most accepting place in the world.

But what if she doesn't react at all? What if, in fact, she doesn't care that Santana's gay? What if she just sits there and says 'oh yeah? That's cool'?

It would be... amazing for someone to accept something that's a part of who she is, something she spent so long trying to deny. It would be nice to be accepted by someone else other than herself; even if that person is a total stranger. She decides to take this chance because this kind girl next to her took the time out of her day to make sure Santana was alright.

"I came out to my parents earlier… I-I'm gay," she said softly, the last part barely audible. She wasn't sure if the other girl had heard her at all.

But she had.

"Is that why you were crying? Did they… did they kick you out?" she asked Santana tentatively.

"I left before they could."

"So they were going to kick you out of the house?"

"Yeah, I mean no—I don't know; they might as well," were they going to throw her out? Santana doesn't even know because she left before she could find out but with how her dad reacted, they might as well have.

"What do you mean? What did they say to you?"

"Well, nothing at first, they kind of just sat there staring at me then my dad got up and said we'll talk about it later and stormed into the study," she started to fiddle with her fingers. "And I kind of just left before my mother could say anything."

"How do you know they were going to kick you out, then?"

"What else could that reaction mean? It wasn't like he went into the study to plan a party for me," she said sarcastically.

"You didn't exactly stick around for them to do anything, remember? I mean, they didn't tell you to pack your stuff and leave straight away now did they?"

"No, they didn't," she conceded.

"Exactly, they probably just needed some time to process. Even if you don't think it is, it's still a big deal for them because you're their child."

Santana hates that this stranger is actually making sense.

"And maybe your dad decided to talk about it later and went into the study because he just needed to gather his thoughts and avoid saying something he might regret and hurt you," she said softly.

"You think so?" the vulnerability was evident in Santana's voice.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "But it's possible, you should give them the benefit of the doubt."

Santana just nodded and they fall into silence once again.

Maybe I should go home and see if dad's ready to talk about it.

The comfortable silence was then interrupted by a ringtone. Santana didn't bring her phone with her so it must belong to the blonde beside her.

"Hello? Yeah, I know… Don't worry; I'm just at the park nearby… Yeah, okay, I'll be home soon… I love you too, bye."

The blonde pockets her phone and stands up to face Santana.

"That was my mom; she wants me home since it's starting to get dark," she said, something almost like disappointment playing on her face.

And for some reason Santana feels disappointed too.

"Uh, yeah, okay…," she kind of fumbles with her words.

"Yeah," the blonde giggles. "It was nice talking to you, you should really talk to your parents; they heard you out, you should probably hear them out too."

Santana just nods as her company for the last however long, starts to turn away.

"Thanks for listening," Santana called out to the blonde's retreating back. "Do you make it your habit to talk to strangers?" she asked.

The blonde looked over her shoulder and gave Santana a toothy grin.

"Only the pretty ones," she replied.

And with one last smile and a wink, she walked toward the park entrance with a noticeable skip in her step, leaving a speechless Santana behind sporting a blush on her cheeks.