Ch. 14 – Reach
"You reached out to Santana?" Rachel all but practically shouts at Quinn as soon as Quinn calls her back.
Quinn sighs, already feeling the impending headache she knows this conversation will bring, coming through. "Well, she is one of Beth's coaches for this clinic, so yes, I do have to interact with her."
"No. Not 'interact.' You reached out. Don't play coy with me Quinn Fabray. Britt's already showed me the text Santana sent her."
"Santana sent Britt a text? What did she say?" Quinn asks, equally curious to know what Santana might have said, but also beyond terrified as well.
"Well, apparently you only sent half a message, so she had to call the number to figure out who sent it and then she realized it was you once she got to your voicemail."
"Is that - ."
"Britt told Noah that Santana reached out to her."
"Britt did what?" Quinn asks, slightly alarmed, more for Santana than for herself.
"Yes, she told Noah. I don't know what they said to each other because Britt told me when I came home, but Noah knows that you reached out to Santana."
"Christ. I'm a grown woman. I can reach out to whomever I want," Quinn tells her, exasperated.
"Honey, no one said that you can't. But we all love you and don't want to see you get hurt."
"Hurt? Rachel, the only person who knows that I had any sort of feelings for Santana back in high school is you. And Frannie, apparently, but she doesn't count because she doesn't run in our circle and wouldn't tell our friends about my personal life. So, I don't know why people would think that I'd be 'hurt' by reaching out to an old high school acquaintance in this new city that I moved to."
"I told Britt. About what you told me about you liking Santana. She said that t was obvious to her and Lord Tubbington, but she was just waiting for you guys to figure it out on your own."
"Rachel, why the fuck would you tell her about my business?" Quinn asks, becoming frustrated.
"She's my wife. We tell each other everything," Rachel says, nonplussed.
"Well, I've been your best friend longer than you two have been finger banging each other, so a little heads up on you letting everyone know that I have feelings for Santana would have been great!"
"I'm sorry!" I didn't know that she'd contact Noah after Santana reached out to her."
Quinn sighs, feeling defeated. "Well, now I'm probably going to have Puck up my ass about this – something that I don't even know how to begin to navigate. So this whole exploring new feelings thing is going to be just lovely."
"Don't worry about Noah, Quinn."
"How can I not, though? She was his best friend in high school and then when I had Beth, everything changed. After high school, not only as Santana out of my life, but she just up and vanished on the rest of the group, too. Puck was devastated that she wasn't there to see him off and then his graduation from basic and everything after that. So how can I not worry about how he feels about me having feelings for his best friend? I didn't even get to tell him myself, which sucks."
"I said I was sorry about telling Britt," Rachel interjects.
"I know. And it still sucks. Let me wallow in it for a little while."
Rachel's quiet on the line for a while, almost to the point that if it wasn't for the sound of Rachel's breathing, Quinn would have thought that the line was disconnected. "Then do this for yourself. You deserve to be happy. Tell Noah how you feel about Santana and then act on it. You deserve to follow your heart for once."
"What about Beth? I don't want to pursue something with someone – even someone like Santana – who might leave me. Us. Might leave us. Beth and I are a package deal."
"You tell her that." Rachel states matter-of-factly. "And hey, good news: you already know that she's a lesbian, which is sometimes half the battle when trying to date women."
Quinn chuckles. "Yes, that's true. But, just because she likes women, that doesn't mean that I'm her type. I mean, the girls she was with in high school don't exactly look like me."
"Quinn," Rachel draws out her name while rolling her eyes. "We also lived in a conservative Republican town that worshipped their football players and cared about not much else besides when the cheese was changed at the Hot Dog Shoppe and who got a new tractor. So, finding girls to date wasn't that easy for her, or any of us, really."
"I guess you're right. It just seemed that everyone she was with was brunette and dark featured."
"Hey, stop. I want you to get off this phone with me right now and finish that text and then send it to her before you lose your reserve. You won't know anything until you reach out to her, for real this time. And, before you ask about Noah, worry about him later."
"Okay, I will. Thank you, Rach. You frustrate the hell out of me, but I love you anyways. You're the best friend I could have gotten back in kindergarten."
"Anytime, Quinn. Now, go send that text!" Rachel says quickly right before she disconnects the call before Quinn can continue it further.
Quinn laughs out loud as switches to her text app. But she quickly starts to lose her confidence when she selects Santana as the recipient. In order to not lose her nerve, she quickly taps out a text, takes a deep breath and hits send before she can second guess herself. Almost as soon as she hits send, her phone is soon dinging, causing Quinn to almost drop her phone out of shock. When she gathers herself, she looks to see what the notification is for, secretly hoping that it's Santana. Much to Quinn's dismay, it's not Santana, just some alert from one of the news apps she has on her phone.
Across town, Santana receives Quinn's text as Erika is getting ready to leave. Out of habit, Santana checks to see who sent her a text, just to be sure that it's not one of her coworkers at the hospital. Erika notices the change in Santana as Santana stares at her phone. "Is it her? Quinn?"
Santana takes a few seconds before she shakes herself out of her stupor. "Huh? Oh. Yeah, it's Quinn."
"Well, what did she say? Are you going to reply back? I mean, we just spent all morning talking about what you would do if you had the opportunity to talk with her."
"Do you think I should reply back to her now or wait awhile? I don't want to seem like I was waiting around all day for a text from her. Yeah, I should wait, that's what I should do. Maybe take Onyx out for a run or something like that and then reply back."
"San," Erika chuckles. "Text her back now. Then you can go about doing whatever you supposedly have to now do. I'm going to leave now, but I expect details later!" With that, Erika is out the door of the apartment, leaving Santana standing in the doorway of the apartment, with only her thoughts and Onyx.