Santana's POV
It was the last day everybody was going to be in Lima. Puck was throwing a party tonight that he made Quinn and I promise to go to. We were heading back to Boston in the morning. We needed to pack, but I'm sitting here in the Lima Bean thinking not about what tonight will bring but instead what today really means to me.
It's July 1st, today, 7 years ago I married Quinn on a beach in New York, the Statue of Liberty off in the distance, the sun setting behind it as I promised to love Quinn with all I had no matter what until death tore us a part. I look down at my phone. It's open to a photo from my sorority sister, Rylan. It's a picture of her and my god child, Riley, holding up a decorated sign telling me 'Happy Anniversary Auntie Tana and Auntie Quinn.' I have been getting calls and texts from all my friends, family, and even some co-workers wishing me many more happy years with Quinn.
We went out to brunch with my parents and Quinn's mom this morning. Telling stories from the past 10 years of our relationship as we ate omelets and bacon, always lots of bacon. We're going out to dinner before Puck's party. I hear somebody sit down in front of me. I look up to find Kurt quirking his eyebrow at my phone. "You got a secret family you're hiding from us too, Satan?" I turn my phone so he can see it properly.
"It's your anniversary?" he asks me when he sees the card they're holding up. "Seven years." I tell him. "Surprised you made it that long without Quinn killing you." he chuckles. "We work well together." I say putting my phone away. "How'd you two end up together anyways? I never saw that coming. I always thought Quinn was straight." I shrug. How Quinn fell in love with me I'll never understand, but will be forever grateful for.
"You said you guys have been together for 10 years?" he asks. I smile and nod my head. "She ask you out? Did you ask her?" "Actually I was getting ready to go out with another girl." I tell him laughing a little at the memory. Kurt raises his eyebrows at my admission. "Don't tell me you got drunk and got into bed with the wrong girl, Lopez." He teases. "No, would you believe me if I told you it all started off with a fight?" I ask.
Most people actually don't believe us when we tell them how we got together. Quinn and I rarely fight with each other, and never do we fight in front of people. When we do fight it's always over something big like when we bring up old insecurities.
When I invited Quinn's father to the wedding I was pretty sure Quinn was going to actually kill me. From the murderous glint in her eye as she yelled at me I'm pretty sure she was thinking of which way best to do it. To this day I still believe the only reason I'm still here is because Quinn was already too stressed out to have to deal with questions from friends and family about my whereabouts after she hid my body. I have no doubt, however, that if she had chosen to go through with her murderous scheme she would've for sure gotten away with it. Quinn's too smart to get caught.
"Sounds like you two." He laughs. So I tell him the story of how I had met a girl at the bar I worked at. How she had asked me out, and I had gone to Quinn for advice. I tell him how I was getting ready when Quinn snapped and angrily professed her love for me. I tell him how Quinn ran away, and I had called my date to cancel. I tell him about going to a trophy store in a skin tight red dress and heels and bought a first place trophy. How baseball was the most popular sport in season and thus the only trophy they had to fit my needs at that second. How I showed up with flowers and a ridiculous trophy just to have Quinn tackle me at the door before kissing me hard on the mouth. I tell him how I took her out to dinner, and how at the end of the night I told Quinn if she still wanted to give us a shot that I'd really like to see her again.
"How'd you know that Quinn was the one for you? I always thought Blaine and I would end up together, but now we never talk and he has a kid with another man." I think back on my relationship with Quinn. "You know I came back here." I tell him looking around the Lima Bean. "I promised Brittany I'd be here when she graduated so I came back." He looks surprised at my confession. "Why didn't you tell anybody? Brittany said you had sent her flowers." I nod my head. I had sent Brittany flowers with a note to be sure she knew exactly who they were from. "It was about a week after I had started dating Quinn. It was the only time I've come back to Lima without her."
"Quinn was nervous about me coming back. Before I left I thought she was just scared of the shit storm I'd receive from you guys, but at the ceremony seeing Brittany, Sam, Artie, Rachel, and you" I say gesturing to him, "I realized why she left everybody behind too." Kurt quirks an eyebrow at me curiously. "You know I never asked her to stop being friends with you. I just needed to get away, but the Sunday after I arrived she changed her number and erased her social media accounts."
"We always thought you made her chose." Kurt says in a quiet voice. I shake my head, "I would never make Quinn chose between her friends and me. When I saw you again I finally realized why she ran away with me." Realization spreads over Kurt's face, "She was in love with you." He says.
"Quinn was in love with me and shut off her past so she could have me. That's why she was mad at me when I started dating again. She didn't understand how I could chose to keep her in my life, but not want her." "Quinn is the reason you stayed away." I nod my head.
"It wasn't the last night I saw any of you, but it was the night that I decided that if Quinn wanted to stand by my choices to run away that I would stand by hers to stay away. So after the ceremony I came here and called Quinn instead of confronting Brittany." Kurt is silent after my admission taking it all in so I continue. "It was my second year at Berkeley when I knew I was going to marry Quinn." I smile at the memory. "We had gotten into a huge fight." Kurt laughs at that.
"Does every major decision you make start with a fight?" he teases me. I shrug, sometimes I need to get hit over the head to understand what I want. "You know I can't even remember what we were fighting about. Quinn and I rarely ever fight. By the time it happened we were living together so I went to the library to cool off. My best friend, Ashley, stormed in an hour after I got there like a mad woman demanding why I wasn't picking up Quinn's calls."
I chuckle at the memory and look at Kurt and shrug when I tell him, "I didn't even know Quinn was calling me. I was in a library my phone was on silent. I had about 50 missed calls from Quinn and several texts from friends telling me my 'wife' was looking for me and she was pissed."
"I know Quinn is hot when she gets mad, but is that really a reason to marry her?" Kurt asks. I laugh and shake my head, "I went straight back to the apartment. Quinn was furious, but halfway into yelling about how I couldn't just leave a note saying I was going out, but not saying where I was going and not telling anybody where I would be she just broke down. She started sobbing about how she thought I had left her. I don't know why, but it was that moment when I was telling her over and over again that she was stuck with me and I loved her I knew I was telling the truth. I started looking for a ring the next day." Kurt's smiling at me like a goon.
"A fight brought you together and got you to propose." "I was so nervous, Kurt. I dropped the ring twice before I finally finished my speech." Kurt laughs, "And here I thought nothing could turn Santana Lopez into a bumbling mess." I shrug, "I guess Quinn just brings it out in me."
"I am sorry, Santana." Kurt says after a few minutes of silence. "For that night. It just happened so fast, and Rachel was so angry. I didn't know what to do. We were all just kids living in a dream. That night the real world just came crashing through and I was scared. You had brought up a real problem that turned into a nasty mistake." I look at Kurt. I know he's being sincere, I know he's sorry.
"My biggest regret is not speaking up. For not defending you when all you were trying to do was protect us." Kurt's looking down at the table ashamed of his past actions so I reach over and grab his hand to get him to look at me. "Thank you, Kurt. It's not necessary though I forgave you a long time ago, but you need to forgive yourself. We all make mistakes."
"Santana you could've gotten hurt. We lived in New York not Lima. If you hadn't gone to New Haven who knows what would have happened to you. If Quinn hadn't taken you in especially after what happened over Thanksgiving..."
"If you had said something. I would've stayed in New York. I probably would have gotten back together with Brittany and I'd be a bar tender or a waitress singing in crappy bars trying to get noticed, or I'd be here in Lima with Brittany so she could live out her dream. I'd spend my time thinking where I went wrong, and probably have a lot of regrets." Kurt opens up his mouth to talk again, but I cut him off.
"That night was terrible, but I would do it all over again if it meant I get to have my life. I love my job, I loved college, I got to live in my favorite city while studying something I'm passionate about. I have a wife and friends that I wouldn't trade for the world. Quinn and I forgave you and Rachel a long time ago. We just didn't want to leave our bubble to tell you, and yeah that was selfish and I'm sorry. I'm happy Kurt. Quinn, she makes me happy."
"Can I ask you one more question?" Kurt asks shifting uncomfortably. I nod my head. "Why didn't you ever call Brittany back? I know Rachel said some nasty things, but you and Brittany really did love each other at one time. Brittany, she would've helped you." I sigh running my fingers through my hair.
"The first couple of months I was in New Haven I got really clingy with Quinn. Whenever she was around I was always touching her. I spent all my time with her if I wasn't working, I made her sleepover all the time, and we ate all our meals together. It didn't matter where she was or what she was doing. I kept tabs on Quinn. I knew her schedule by heart and I got to know all her friends. After I got my apartment I gave Quinn a key right away. After we got together Emily, Quinn's roommate, told me she always thought I was so touchy with Quinn because I was trying to claim her or something. She said she thought that since I had lost so much I wanted people to know Quinn was mine, that they couldn't take her away from me."
"I had lost Brittany a long time ago. She was with Sam, and we never talked. Then I lost you and Rachel. I never really talked to anybody else from glee. I was just trying to stay afloat so I grabbed on to Quinn. She anchored me." Kurt was nodding along to my words probably trying to figure out where I'm going with this. I can see the regret in his eyes.
"Brittany called Quinn when I showed her my apartment the day after I arrived at New Haven." I remember the look on Quinn's face when she said Brittany's name.
We were hugging when her phone went off, and I pulled away so she could take it. I grabbed onto Quinn's shirt when she said Brittany's name, but I didn't say anything just shook my head. I looked around my new apartment as Quinn spilled the story we had already shared with Kurt and Rachel. The apartment was bare. It felt cold unlike the warm and homey feeling I always got from the loft when I entered.
When Quinn hung up I could tell she was going to say something so I stopped her by asking her how I should furnish the place. It was small, I didn't have room for much. Quinn always had an eye for design so she started mapping out what I should do. "Wow, you work fast." He says with a bitter chuckle, snapping me out of my memories.
"You should have seen how torn she was between pushing me back to New York, back to Brittany, or keeping me there for herself. Plus having Brittany crying over the phone didn't help." "Quinn kept you from calling Brittany." Kurt states.
I shake my head, "No, Quinn would never ask me to do that, but it was a reason as to why she obeyed my wishes to keep my whereabouts a secret. I didn't feel safe with Brittany anymore, not like how I used to. I felt safe with Quinn, and I didn't want her to feel like I was leaving her. I couldn't lose Quinn again." Kurt was nodding his head. "I get it. You ran away to Quinn because you knew she would keep you safe. You kept away to insure Quinn wouldn't get scared and leave you. That meant staying away from Brittany especially after you started dating Quinn."
"Quinn stole my heart the second she opened the door the night I left." Kurt smiles at me patting my hand. "You did what you had to do in order to make sure she didn't run away with it." My phone buzzes on the table. It's Quinn. She wants to know where I am. "The wife?" Kurt asks chuckling when I smile and nod. "I have to go. We need to pack and then we're going to dinner." Kurt nods and stands up with me.
"I guess you're not going to Puck's party?" He asks giving me a hug. "No, we are. Puck made us promise to come. He doesn't know it's our anniversary." I tell him before saying goodbye and heading home.
