Better Forgotten
12. Dinner
Quinn and Santana pulled away from each other in a rush and for a moment all they could do was stand staring at the paparazzi like two deer in the headlights. But then Santana regained her senses and quickly shut the doors on the gossip-hunting faces. She breathed a sigh of relief when it was just the two of them in the silence of the hallway again.
Quinn slid down to the floor and Santana settled down beside her. "So…that kiss."
"Yeah," Santana laughed, "It was quite something."
"But where do we go from here?" Quinn asked. Santana looked across at her with a small smile. She sighed and took hold of Quinn's hand.
"That's up to you. You can either tell me it was a mistake and we'll forget about it…or, if you meant to do it," Santana shrugged, "We can be together. Taking things however fast or slow you want."
"You're very understanding," Quinn sounded surprised.
"Well, I'm happy with whatever you want. As long as you don't disappear from my life altogether, I'm fine," Santana hated how desperate she sounded but there was no other way to say it. It was the truth. "It's up to you."
Quinn squirmed under the pressure of Santana's gaze and she laughed lightly. "I'd like to be with you…"
"Fine by me," Santana leant forwards and gave her a quick peck on the lips. She grinned to herself when she pulled away. "You have no idea how happy it makes me that I can just do that now."
"Well, we've still got to get out of here without being eaten alive by that lot out there," Quinn didn't sound too enthused about the idea.
"Can I just tell you," Santana found the words tumbling from her mouth, "How proud I am of you? You were so confident in there, so happy."
"I wish Lucy could've met this Quinn," the blonde smiled sadly, "She might not have been so depressed."
Santana put an arm around Quinn's shoulders. If she was referring to her past self in the third person she still had a way to go in terms of acceptance…but today she'd made a huge step.
"Come on," Santana said, jumping to her feet and pulling Quinn to hers. She lead the two of them to a side entrance to the school and they crept out, checking the coast was clear.
As they rounded the building to get to the part of parking lot the limo was waiting in, Santana caught sight of the crowd of paparazzi still swarming around the main entrance. She let out a laugh and dragged Quinn over to the limousine.
When the car started and began driving out of the car park, they all turned around and watched the vehicle leaving with defeated expressions. Santana flashed Quinn a triumphant smile which made the blonde giggle.
"You know," Quinn said a few seconds after the waitress left with their order, "I never ate in Breadstix when I lived here."
Santana looked up from the drink she was slurping up through a straw, "How on earth did you manage that?"
"Well, besides Tina I didn't really have any friends and she was always out with Mike," Quinn shrugged, "Plus, I wanted to lose weight."
"Tina, really?" Santana couldn't help but giggle. The girl was one of the most self-centred people she'd ever met.
"She kind of had no friends herself so we stuck together," Quinn shook her head, "You'll never know how much moaning I had to endure."
"You poor thing," Santana chuckled. "Now…I'm sorry to get all businessy on you but we need a game plan here."
"Game plan?" Santana nodded, "Oh. You know the industry better—what do you think?"
"I say," Santana smiled as she reached across the table and let her hand cover Quinn's, "That when we get home we have a little get-together and tell our friends about us. Then we'll let the public know by showing up to the premiere together, even though those pictures will be leaked very soon. How about that?"
Quinn bit her lip and looked over at Santana. The confidence in the Latina's eyes was enough to soothe her worries for the moment, "OK, that sounds good. Did you know the paparazzi would be there?"
"No, I told you I thought I'd got rid of them when they found us on the road," Santana shook her head, "I'm really sorry about them crashing our first kiss like that."
"OK," Quinn said quietly, "I don't know if I'll be able to handle so much media attention, though…"
"I'll help you through it," Santana gave the hand she was holding a small squeeze, "But we don't have to think about that for a little while, let's just enjoy our first date."
"I'd love to," Quinn gave her a grin as their food was placed in front of them. When the blonde broke their eye contact to go about eating her food, Santana found herself unable to look away for a few seconds.
The day had changed Quinn. She had a glow to her and a glint in her eye that she'd never seen before.
Quinn was still clattering around in the kitchen while Santana was sat on one of the dining chairs with her feet up on another. Her feet were sore from a half day of standing in Quinn's tiny kitchen area, the other half rearranging her furniture to make the place look half decent.
Granted, Quinn would need to change everything back afterwards…but at least there was temporarily room for everyone to fit around the same dinner table.
Her phone buzzed on the table in front of her and Santana picked it up, reading the text lighting up the screen.
We're almost here, S! I can't imagine why you've picked this address…
She rolled her eyes and didn't bother replying to Rachel. She'd seen the pictures—she'd worked everything out.
Santana walked over to Quinn, who was adding the last finishing touches to the plates piled high with food and slipped her arms around her waist, resting her head on her shoulder, "Relax, Q. It's going to be OK."
"I know, I don't know why I'm getting so worked up," Quinn sighed and dropped her hands away from what she was messing with, turning around to face Santana.
"Just think—I've got an interview with a magazine in a few days. Compared to that this is nothing," Santana gave her an encouraging smile.
"OK," Quinn returned the grin and leant towards Santana when there was suddenly a loud knock at the door.
"Santana!" Rachel's voice shouted, "We're here."
Santana groaned and Quinn laughed quietly, pushing the Latina towards the door. She opened it and was pushed to the side immediately by the crowd hurrying inside, "Oh, Quinn, this place is lovely!"
As Kurt started pestering Quinn for a tour with Blaine on his heels, Rachel pulled Santana to the side and gave her a quick hug, "So, was I right? The trip was a good idea?"
"A very good idea," Santana confirmed and Rachel squeaked again, pulling something from her pocket.
"I didn't really need you to tell me that, though, did I?" she asked, turning her phone around with a paparazzi shot of Quinn and Santana's first kiss lit up on the screen.
"I know, the idiots are everywhere," Santana muttered, "Emma was not happy about that but I told her its true, so what can we do? I'm not going to deny it but we want to officially announce it at the premiere."
"Oh…," Rachel said looking away all of a sudden. Santana frowned.
"What?" But all Rachel did was shake her head. "Come on, Rach. What is it?"
Santana watched her friend for a few seconds before her hand covered her mouth.
"No! Rachel, did you tell the paparazzi where we'd be?" Santana whisper-shrieked for the benefit of everyone else in the apartment, flashing Quinn a reassuring smile when she saw her look over.
Rachel finally looked guiltily up at Santana, "I might've…"
"Why would you do that?"
"I just thought perhaps if the media knew you two were spending all that time together all the questions and rumours would eventually push the two of you together…" Rachel bit her lip. "I messed up."
"That could've backfired completely, Rach. You don't know Quinn like I do…" Santana said, realising suddenly how muted the twinge of guilt was when she said that now.
"Are you mad?" Rachel's large brown eyes were pleading with her.
Santana sighed, "No, luckily for you it didn't ruin anything."
"Oh…" Rachel looked down at her feet and Santana laughed.
"I said no. I'm not mad at you," but Rachel still wouldn't look up. "Oh, come here, then."
She shook her head and wrapped her arms around the other girl who willingly accepted the hug.
Quinn was relieved to hear that Santana had nothing to do with the paparazzi being there but knowing it had been Rachel wasn't much better. As she showed Kurt her extensive collection of books, she tried to focus on what she was saying whilst listening to the two girls and their quiet conversation.
She should've guessed it was Rachel. Who else would have tried to ruin their trip like that—and the paparazzi wouldn't randomly be in Lima, Ohio.
It seemed that despite knowing the reason she was there that night at Quinn's apartment, Rachel wasn't giving up on Santana.
"And, here at the bottom, is my favourite book," Quinn said pointing to her copy of her own book and the two boys eyes lit up. Kurt bent down and pulled it off the shelf, giving Quinn a full view of Rachel and Santana just as she saw her girlfriend pull the troll in for a hug.
He bobbed back up in time to draw Quinn's eyes away from them as they pulled apart. Blaine jostled her arm slightly, "This is so cool."
"OK, guys," Quinn heard Santana's voice above the murmured conversation. "Everything's ready now, so if you'd like to take a seat at Quinn's table."
Quinn excused herself from Kurt and Blaine to go and sort out everyone's plates with Santana.
When the two of them had their arms full of plates they started distributing them about the table to everyone. Finally, they were allowed to sit down themselves and Quinn saw that the two seats left were at both heads at the table, Rachel sat directly beside one of them. Funny how that had worked out.
She sighed and walked around to the other end of the table and sat down with Sam and Blaine on either side of her.
In one of Rachel's rare pauses, Santana looked around the table and saw that everyone had finished now. She locked eyes with Quinn and gave her a grin to signal she was about to tell everyone. And when Quinn smiled back, it felt like everything was starting to fall into place, "Everyone, if you could listen please."
Their group of friends fell into silence fairly quickly and she felt all eyes on her as she got to her feet.
"I don't know how many of you have worked out why you're here tonight…but Quinn and I have something we'd like to tell you," Santana was now stood behind Quinn. She put her hand on the blondes shoulder and their eyes met again, "We're together. As in dating."
"Finally!" she heard Kurt saying from somewhere beside her. She looked away from Quinn's hypnotic eyes and saw the majority of the table smiling proudly at them—all except for Sam who looked completely surprised and Puck who gave her a sly wink.
"Come on, everyone," Rachel called, lifting her glass, "To Santana and Quinn…finally together."
Santana skipped back to her seat by her best friend to join in with the toast and after the table burst into even louder lively chatter but Santana found herself just sitting contently within it, Rachel jabbering in her ear and her eyes settled on Quinn.
At about half twelve, Quinn was saying goodbye to Kurt and Blaine in the doorway. It had been a long night and she was ready for bed but when she turned her back on the two boys, there was still one person left.
Rachel.
Who else? She and Santana were sat on Quinn's sofa together with wine glasses in their hands.
Quinn closed her apartment door and went on over and perched next to Santana, slipping her hand in hers. Santana smiled, "Good night?"
"Yeah," Quinn yawned and shot a look at Rachel, "I'm ready for it to be over now, though."
Santana laughed, "Why don't you go to bed? I'll be in in a few minutes."
Quinn nodded and got up reluctantly, heading off to her bedroom to get ready for bed while the low hum of conversation continued in the next room. She fell asleep to the sound of Rachel cackling and didn't wake up when Santana slipped into bed a couple of minutes later and gave her a light goodnight kiss before falling asleep herself.
I'm sorry I'm soo bad at sticking to my schedule! and also that this one is a lot less.. eventful, hm? Thank you everyone who has followed/favourited and reviewed, it really means the world to me.
boringsiot: I know, I kinda felt I was overusing it (sane/sanity) but Quinn is a bit loopy so it was fitting eheh
ErosEternaGlee: hahah well she's not finding it all too funny!
Sylverkubus, Guest, 56292: thank you for the lovely reviews and encouragement!