Quinn sighed and parked her car in the gas station's parking lot as well, putting her head on the steering wheel.
She stayed like that for about ten more minutes, until she was suddenly jolted awake by her phone ringing.
It was Kurt.
"Quinn? We got her!"
The blonde smiled to herself.
Who's the sneaky one now, Santana?
She quickly stopped smiling when she noticed she hadn't answered Kurt yet, and asked him how the search had gone and where she was now.
"Well, we saw her drive from the parking lot on the other side through a small space. I think it's a good thing you were so obvious in following her, though, 'cause I think she would have noticed Blaine's strange driving if she hadn't thought she'd lost anyone who could follow her already-"
Quinn nodded, and chuckled when she heard a flustered Blaine exclaim in the background that his driving wasn't that strange, only to be cut off by Kurt again, who sarcastically said that it wasn't strange indeed to swerve left and right two cars behind to make sure Santana was still driving in front of them.
The blonde could easily imagine the two of them driving like that, a vat of nerves, but she finally let out a loud laugh when Blaine retorted by saying that he really didn't think the swerving was any less obvious than the fake moustaches and sunglasses Kurt wanted them to wear.
She only became serious again when she heard Kurt sigh indignantly.
"That aside, though, Q… You won't be laughing for too long anymore if you come to her place. It's really… Well, just come and see for yourself. But try to make sure you park your swimming-pool blue car somewhere farther away. How about we come pick you up at the parking lot of the Walmart on Dingskesstreet, that sound okay?"
Quinn answered with a quick yes, her amusement about the two boys disappearing when she heard Kurt's worried voice and hung up as she left for the Walmart in Lima Heights Adjacent.
Just the fact that Santana was actually living in that neighbourhood now was enough to make the blonde worry even more than she already did. The Latina had always used LHA as something to make kids afraid to approach her, she'd always lived in a nice house on the 'right' side of the tracks.
Now though, things appeared to be different.
When she drove into the parking lot, she immediately saw Kurt and Blaine standing on the sidewalk. They hurried to her as she got out of the car.
Kurt was jumping up and down in excitement, and Blaine made quite a nervous expression as well when Quinn got out of the car.
"Everything alright? Did she see you? You two seem a bit… jumpy." Quinn quickly locked her car while waiting for an answer.
Kurt stopped moving a bit and just started fidgeting with his hands now. "No! No, she didn't see us, she's still inside the apartment block. We just really don't like this place."
Quinn nodded. They were standing in the lights of street lanterns, but the houses and street looked extremely run-down, there was garbage everywhere, and groups of shady youngsters were wandering around.
"Yeah, I get that, this street is really kind of creepy."
Blaine shook his head, looking around nervously again. "This is still pretty okay. Wait till you see Santana's street. The lights don't work anymore in there."
The look on Quinn's face must have been really worried at that moment, because Blaine quickly backtracked and grabbed the blonde's shoulder.
"Don't worry, Q, we're here now. We're going to fix this."
Kurt nodded towards them, and then clapped his hands once in determination.
"Okay, guys, let's get going. It's almost 8, so we only have 1 more hour before she has to go to work, and we'll have to be there if we want to intercept her."
The two others chuckled at his words, and nearly started laughing when Kurt quirked an eyebrow at them.
Blaine looked at Quinn. "Nice to have the good old 007 back again, right?"
Kurt huffed indignantly, but the blonde laughed even harder. "Feels familiar, yes. It's nice to have something stay the same around here."
They finally got going again, Kurt rolling his eyes at their antics, and indeed walked into the dimmest street Quinn had ever seen – and it wasn't even completely dark outside yet.
She felt like her surroundings were getting darker and darker when Blaine and Kurt finally slowed down and looked across the road.
Quinn looked as well, and found herself staring at a small, mouldy apartment complex, with windows either so dirty that you couldn't see through them, or no windows and just wooden boards instead.
I can't believe Santana is living here, this place is AWFUL! I just – I can't believe this! She's freaking 17, she should NOT be in a place like this!
The two guys were looking at her intently, and took her shock as a bad sign.
"Quinn, don't worry, we'll help her, don't get upset now…"
Kurt was looking at her with anxious eyes, but when Quinn's eyes met his, he quickly noticed that she was not sad.
She wasn't feeling depressed or anything this time.
She was just. Plain. Furious.
It was one thing for Santana to be dumped and refuse to talk about it, but this was in a completely different league.
Santana should have come to her.
Quinn knew after these days that she couldn't really have helped her friend that much, but now she realised she hadn't just been angry at herself about Santana.
She was angry at the Latina as well.
"How could she do this to us! What the hell was she thinking not coming to us when this happened to her? Doesn't she know we freaking care about her? Didn't she think that it might just hurt us to see her live like this? Fine, so she has issues with talking about her feelings, but she should not be living here! It's not freaking okay, and I will not stand for it!"
Kurt and Blaine looked seriously taken aback by her exclamations, so Quinn stopped her rant and started pacing about the sidewalk in front of Santana's 'home'. She was still silently fuming, so the guys didn't dare approach her right then.
It was only when Blaine suddenly pulled her into the bushes next to the house that Quinn was shocked out of her angry thoughts.
"Blaine, what the-", she started asking, but immediately stopped talking when a hand was clasped around her mouth.
She looked at Kurt – whose hand was on her mouth now – with a frown, but when he shook his head and pointed in front of them, Quinn stopped struggling and looked through the leaves as well.
"9 O'clock sharp", he said, making Quinn wonder what was going on.
In front of them, she saw that a car had pulled up next to San's apartment building, and through the windshield the blonde could see a gruff looking guy in the front seat, obviously waiting for something. His car was a fancy black one, but weirdly enough it had a number in white lettering on the side.
Quinn was fully breaking her head on what the hell the guy was doing out there, when she suddenly heard a door open. She shifted her vision, and was shocked by what she saw.
Santana was walking out the door, wearing an extremely short black dress and an extreme amount of make-up.
The blonde felt a pull at her heart, and she felt like all the breath was pushed out of her lungs. Violently.
Shit, shit, shit! This can't be true! San can't be… she can't!
She felt tears pushing at her eyelids now, all her earlier anger flaring up again.
No way, no way, don't get in! Quinn kept thinking as she saw Santana walk in front of them in her high heels. The blonde was still hoping it was all one big mistake, but when the Latina actually got in the car and it drove off, she just shook her head and shakily dropped to the floor.
Kurt and Blaine quickly joined her. They had all suspected something like this, but it had felt a lot better not being sure.
Quinn shakily reached her hand for her pocket, and took her phone.
"Uhm, Q, we're shocked as well, but I really don't think it would be a good idea to call Santana right now. She's working, so she won't have any time for us right now, and-"
Quinn was still shaking roughly, but she shook her head and looked Blaine in the eye.
"I'm not calling San, Blaine."
The two boys looked at each other in wonder, whilst Quinn typed in the number she had memorised.
A sultry female voice answered her.
"Lima Escort Bureau, how can we please you?"
A/N: Just to be clear: I have no idea how escort services work, so let's just pretend that whatever type of stuff I use in the stories is actually true, alright?
