The shopping mall is bustling with people when Quinn Fabray finally manages to emerge from her favorite clothing boutique. Even though she knew that the holiday rush was going to be crazy, she would've felt lame staying home when she had the weekend off and so decided to suck it up-not to mention she was dying to get her hands on the cute leather boots she had been eyeing for a couple months now.

Still, she thinks it's a bit ridiculous the way people are running around frantically trying to buy their last minute gifts. She wonders what it would be like to be that concerned with getting someone the perfect present. The thought of caring about someone that much seems like a foreign idea to her.

Shaking her short blonde mane out of the way, she leans against the banister to pull out her iPhone. No new text messages. She quickly thumbs through her e-mail and deletes the mandatory spam holiday greetings every retail store she's ever purchased something from feels obligated to send around this time of year.

Noticing she has a voicemail, she clicks on the icon and listens to the awkward pause before Linda's voice whirs to life.

"Quinn, this is Linda calling. Obviously. I need your articles by 5pm tonight. No later," she says in a monotone voice that as Quinn has become all too familiar with. "Hope you're enjoying your weekend. Bye."

There's a small click as her voice disappears. Quinn almost allows herself a wry smile but the sound coming from the floor below her distracts her.

"Helloooo everybody!" A squeaky female voice shouts.

The crowd cheers and Quinn notices the amount of children lined up around the colorful display of lights and candy canes.

The enthusiastic voice once again calls out: "Who's ready to see Santa?!"

This time, the crowd is even louder as some of the children squeal in delight. Quinn squints to get a better look at the elfin girl who's holding the microphone. Her short ginger hair bobs up and down as she smiles with excitement.

"I hope you've all been good this year! We wouldn't want anyone to get coal instead of presents!"

The children giggle as she begins escorting the child at the front of the line toward the man in the red suit who greets him with the obligatory "ho-ho-ho."

Quinn notices she is smiling despite herself because she quickly wipes it from her face as she returns her attention to the electronic device at hand. As she directs her attention, a familiar female voice greets her.

"Never thought I'd see the day," a voice chides mockingly. "Quinn Fabray."

Startled, her green eyes flicker upward to meet the over-confident smile of the brunette woman standing before her.

She raises an eyebrow in surprise. "Rachel Berry."

"Is that the greeting your long lost high school friend deserves?" She oozes drama and joie-de-vivre all at once.

Yep, still annoying.

"Hi, Rachel. It's been awhile. You look…" Quinn notices the elf ears sticking out from either side of the girl's head and seems momentarily distracted from whatever sentence she was trying to get out.

"Oh, these?" The brunette blushes slightly in spite of herself. "Yeah, well it's a gig. A well-paid one I might add. We all have to pay our dues in this business. At least I get a solo." She shrugs nonchalantly, then returns to the matter at hand. "I can't believe you never got in touch after graduation. Especially since you moved to New York. I mean, I'd heard rumors from a couple of people—I just never truly believed it since I never heard from you."

As her words sink in, Quinn can't bring herself to meet the girl's eyes. "Oh, yeah…" She swallows the lump in her throat. "I'm sorry about that."

Rachel seems to have already moved on though because when Quinn meets her eyes again, she's still smiling. "No worries. I'm just glad to see you after all this time. We're finally real adults! No more school. Which, I might add, is a little sad for me."

The blonde girl chuckles lightheartedly. "Yeah, being an adult—it's interesting. Graduating was the best thing for me though. College went by so fast. How's Kurt?" She ignores the other name on the tip of her tongue.

"Oh!" The brunette's eyes light up. "He's great! Yeah, it's like we've all managed to put McKinley behind us. Especially Santana. I mean—"

Her words are cut off by the appearance of a short blonde man. "Rachel! We have to go!" He waves apologetically to Quinn before grabbing Rachel's hand and dragging her toward the elevator. "Sorry about this!"

Rachel gives Quinn a small smile as she allows herself to be dragged by the man in front of her. "Bye Quinn! We'll catch up later!"

Quinn returns the smile and gives a short wave. As soon as the girl is gone from her line of sight, so is her smile.

And there's that name.

The one she wanted to avoid.

She knew she should've stayed home.

[/]

By the time Quinn makes it back to her apartment, dusk is already approaching. Wearily, she throws her bags on the chair as she plops down on the sofa. She can feel her head pound with the onset signs of a migraine.

Santana Lopez.

She hadn't seen Santana since they spent the night together in that hotel room so many years ago. It was something she still thought about fairly frequently, perhaps more than she would like to admit to herself.

If she was being honest, it was the only thing she felt personally responsible for.

That was such a weird way to phrase it, but there was a certain truth to it. Everything else had just happened to her, without her ever knowing if it was what she truly wanted or not.

Finn had happened because he was the quarterback and she was the head cheerleader. Puck had happened because he was, well, Puck. Beth had happened because of Puck. Sam had happened because he was charming and it was exciting for a while. Then there was a brief fling with a professor in college who had made no subtle overtures with his attractions toward her. However, Quinn was never quite able to put her finger on why she had been with any of them in retrospect.

She had always envied Rachel who had gone after Finn because he was what she wanted. In the same way, Santana had chased Brittany without really realizing it; but Quinn on the other hand had never actively sought out romantic involvement with anyone.

Until Santana… And it was the briefest romantic entanglement of them all.

There was something about the way the brunette wore her red dress and lipstick that night. It was as if Quinn was finally able to see the woman Santana was becoming—without her knowing she was ever really paying attention in the first place.

As they spent time together that night, Quinn realized she was no longer the insecure girl who hid behind her anger, as she had known her to be as they grew up together. Even though the Latina was still recovering from her breakup with Brittany, her confident demeanor was admirable.

When they danced together, Quinn felt as though Santana saw her. Her dark eyes no longer sought out Brittany's blue—they were focused on her with an intensity none of her previous lovers had managed.

"I've never slow danced with a girl before," she heard herself saying. "…I like it."

A beautiful smile suddenly spread across the other girl's face.

And that was all it took.