Howdy folks! Now the chapter you've all been waiting for! Enjoy...
"Come on lazyass, get out of bed. You've been sleeping for two days," Puck announced as he flipped the comforter off of her lithe body, causing her to shiver and curl up into a little ball in the middle of the bed. They'd been in Lima a grand total of three days, and she had spent all of it holed up in the hotel room. Well, if you could even call it that. The Hotel Lima was more like New York's Days Inn. Santana had blamed it on the jet lag, but by now, surely she was fine.
"No, I haven't. The operative word is sleeping. I don't see how anyone can sleep on these awful sheets. They must not even be 200 count," she quipped, burying her face in the pillow.
"Well, you slept on them for the first eighteen years of your life, so get your ass up, princess. We're going out," he yelled, grabbing her by the ankles.
"Cut the shit. I am not going anywhere," she screeched, pulling free and sitting up in bed, leaning against the headboard with a defiant look on her face.
He stared her down, "What is your problem, Santana? You didn't come home to sit in a hotel room all day. Do you think this is anybody's idea of vacation?" He had spent all of the first day with her, the second and third with his sister and his ma, who interrogated him nonstop about why he wasn't staying at home. Sarah had smirked the whole time. Like brother, like sister.
"This was your stupid idea!"
"Yeah, and I'm thinking that we shouldn't have come!"
"Well, isn't that just dandy? That's what I've been saying all along, but no, you just had to come home to precious Lima."
"Don't act like I forced you into it," he said petulantly, despite it being the truth.
"I'm not. If you want to leave, leave. No one is asking you to stay. You didn't have to stay in this awful hotel with me. You could be at home right now eating bacon pancakes with Sarah, or watching the game on the couch with Finn fucking Hudson even for all I care."
But didn't he see that she was indeed asking him to stay?
And didn't she see that he did need to stay? It was the same reason he chose to stay in the hotel with her, instead of in his old room in his mother's house. It was the same reason he hadn't told his mother he had come home with a guest this time. It was the same reason he had brought her the Thunderclap from their senior year after stealing it from the public library.
Neither of them averted their gazes, and he was the first to break the heated silence.
"Fine. I'll be back in a couple hours."
"I'll be here," she responded quietly, because where was there to go? Now here was the thing about people who lived alone for long periods of time. They get used to the loneliness.
"Maybe I'll bring someone around to visit you if you refuse to see them," he casually said, just throwing the words over his shoulder as he reached for his coat. It took her a few moments in her sleepy haze to realize the connotation of his comment. And once she did, she sprung up in bed, her unwashed hair whipping behind her in messy strands.
"What?"
He only smirked, because he was sure she knew what he meant. Jackass.
"Okay, wait. I'll be ready in twenty minutes. I can't go out looking like this, even if it is Lima," she sighed, getting out of bed and heading for the dingy shower. He smacked her bottom as she walked by him, of course.
He smirked again, and sat in her place on the bed. Only they could go from raging fights to cunning deception to this in a matter of minutes. Twenty-four minutes later (Yes, he timed it), she emerged, wearing a simple pair of jeans, a tight-fitting tee shirt, and a scarf. The outfit looked casual, like she didn't care enough to make an effort, but she was still polished. Of course, this meant she had put tons of thought into her outfit to ensure she didn't look as if she tried to hard.
"Okay, where are we going?" she sighed in defeat.
"Let's hit the mall."
"What are we? Sixteen?"
He chose not to answer, and the two of them walked the half mile to the business district in town, which was comprised of a dry cleaner's, several grocery stores, and a shopping mall. When they passed Breadstix, he nudged her back a little, as if to tease her.
She groaned. "I wish. But you know I can't eat that stuff." But it was awful tempting.
"Are you sure? We don't have Breadstix in New York…come on, Lopez. When are you ever going to get another chance to have those delicious breadsticks? They deliver, so no one would ever have to know," he taunted.
She groaned again, like she was in great agony, and he was sure she was. "Stop. Okay, we can go on our last day. Only once. And we better get our special booth."
He shrugged, as if the decision was completely up to her. They reached the mall, and she pushed the sunglasses she had grabbed from her purse higher up on her nose. She wasn't afraid of being recognized as a celebrity. She was afraid of being recognized, period.
She found that the Lima Mall had changed little since her high school days. There was still a Forever 21, but honestly, what place didn't have one of those? She saw the frozen yogurt place that had opened up their junior year, causing a frenzy in a town that had been spoiled by full-fat ice cream their whole lives. Still, she felt a sense of nostalgia as she walked through the somewhat deserted mall on this Wednesday afternoon. But she was going to make an effort to be pleasant about the whole thing, truly. There was no need to start up even more drama in this place. She even pretended to be the slightest bit interested when he pulled her into the sporting goods to look at the whole spectrum of colored fishing lines. She told him the green one looked better than the red, and he offered to buy her a matching pink one, which she promptly declined. She let the sales lady at Ann Taylor speak to her like she was her mother or something, and even tried on a cardigan that made her feel like Quinn Fabray, circa 2010. And in a true testament of her attempt at being nice, she didn't even smack him when he whispered in her ear that what this mall really needed was a Victoria's Secret.
But it was the last store in the mall that actually stopped her in her tracks. In the place of the shoe repair shop that had once occupied the spot was Kurtsies, a chic and stylish boutique for all fashionistas, as the sign proclaimed.
He nudged her again. "Wanna go in?"
She was hesitant, but she really really wanted to see what Kurt Hummel had been up to. Last she heard (which was a long time ago), he was at RISD studying fashion illustration. Was he really back in Lima? Surely there was not anyone else in this town that would start a boutique, and name it Kurtsies. And of all people to understand her career, it would be Kurt, right?
Oh, what the hell?
She grabbed him by the hand, and allowed herself to be dragged into the Midwestern fashion heaven.
The man at the counter dropped the sunglasses he was holding, and his mouth dropped open. Oh yes, it was him. She noticed he was as stylish as always, in khaki slacks and a long Marc Jacobs sweater from last season. She knew the look would never fly in New York, but in Lima, Kurt was basically a fashion extraordinaire. She stood uncomfortably in front of him, not sure what to do. She looked to Puck for advice, but he shrugged again.
"Hi?" she waved awkwardly.
"Oh my gosh, it is you! Oh my gosh, Santana! I can't believe you're back! Oh my gosh!" he squealed and he ran to embrace her. The force of his hug sent her back a few steps, and she felt Puck's hands on the small of her back steadying her.
To say she was overwhelmed was an understatement.
When they broke apart, Kurt looked breathless, as if hugging a social pariah was simply exhausting.
"Wow, I can't believe this. I never thought I would see you back here again, Santana."
She nervously chuckled. "Aren't you going to be ostracized for talking to me?"
"Screw them. There's a celebrity standing in my store! How've you been? You know I'm a tabloid junkie. Is it true you and Victoria's Secret might be cutting ties? I know all the other stuff about you and Puck is true. Some things never change, baby."
"Yeah, well…I'm not sure. Anyways, how about you? I thought you were in Rhode Island!" she said enthusiastically, changing the subject. She and Kurt were never close, and she didn't see why she had to tell him the details of her career, even if she was trying to be amicable.
"Wow, Santana. You've got to keep up with the times, hon. That was so five years ago. I had a branch of Kurtsies there, but you know, then recession hit again, and I had to come back home. Can't say it's what I wanted, but what can you do, right?"
She nodded, like she understood, when the reality of it was, she had no idea what it felt like to be financially insecure in this decade. The last time she was poor…well that was when she was first starting out in the business, eating peanut butter for lunch. Puck was still behind them, pretending to look at the scarves on the rack. Real subtle.
"Well, how's business?"
"It's Lima. What do you think?"
"But you must have a website?"
"Yeah, but I don't have enough capital right now to get the word out," he said sympathetically, and she nodded because she understood the fashion market better than anyone else at this point.
"Here, let me help you out then. ?" she said proactively, whipping out her Blackberry.
Kurt nodded, wondering what Santana was doing. He was shocked to see her back in Lima, naturally because of what happened, but he wasn't that shocked. Lima had that tacky magnetic quality that always pulled people back. He'd fallen for it. Why wouldn't Santana?
"What are you just doing?"
"Just tweeted your website," she mumbled.
"Really?" he asked. Santana was being awfully nice. Maybe it was because she was already walking on eggshells in this town. Kurt didn't quite remember her like this.
"Yeah, it's nothing," she waved off. She started to change the subject yet again, but was interrupted this time by someone else.
"Santana? Is that you?"
Santana turned around, and faced a petite woman wearing a dress with camels all over it. She felt a flashback back to science class, and couldn't remember if the camels on the dress were considered dromedary…or that other one.
"Hi, Rachel. How've you been?"
It came across more insincere than she intended. It was a habit.
"What are you doing here?" Rachel demanded, ignoring her.
"Am I not allowed to visit the town I grew up in?"
"Not after what you did. How dare you even show your face here?" Rachel continued, "Kurt, how can you even let her in?"
"Now wait a minute, Rachel. Santana's the reason my website server just crashed from so many hits. She's welcome here anytime," Kurt interjected, and Santana felt a satisfactory smirk coming on. By this time, Puck had noticed that the mood in the room was no longer what it was a couple minutes ago. He turned around and put his hand on Santana's back again, noticing that she was shaking. He felt Santana fall into ease slightly, but continue to feel the reverberations of Rachel's appearance.
"And you, Noah! How can you stand to stay with her? What has she got? There are plenty of other girls who have it too, just call up her plastic surgeon."
Santana felt herself getting a little defensive, but she would not answer Rachel for him.
"Lay off, Rachel. I'm with her." And there was no other way to put it. He noticed that Rachel's words echoed Quinn's sentiments from a few months before, and he realized how uniform people here in Lima were.
"Fine. But, Santana, you are still the laughing stock of this town, and will always be!"
"Rachel, when are you going to give it up? You know why I'm the laughing stock of this town? It's because you are all secretly jealous that I'm doing something, while the rest of you are sitting here disenchanted, complaining about your sob stories. Yeah, you tried. Kurt tried. And it didn't work. And what I did worked. But don't hate me for that. Or do. I'm done trying to get this place to forgive me for something I did rightly so. It's not worth it." She finally found her voice, and damn, did it feel good.
"It didn't work because of you. You ruined my dream. We lost Nationals because of you!"
"No, you lost Nationals because of you! I was long gone before you started rehearsing. I didn't bail on you last second, and from what I remember, it seemed like you never needed me or even wanted me at all. The New Directions lost because they weren't good enough, and that's that."
Rachel felt herself getting heated, and reached out to grab Santana's wrist. Santana felt Rachel's hold vibrate through her body and she was hit with a flash of panic.
"Don't…don't touch me there," Santana yelped at Rachel's touch. Puck shot a desperate look at Kurt, and tore Santana away, turning her body around so that it no longer faced Rachel. He pulled Santana into his arms, shielding her from the other bitter girl.
"I think it's time you leave, Rachel. It's for the best. For everyone," Puck said steadily, holding his gaze with Rachel's until Rachel huffed one last time and left on her penny loafered heel.
"Thanks," Santana said once she caught her breath, "Sorry," she apologized, "After what happened back home, I just don't like people invading my space."
Kurt nodded. "Don't worry about it. I've been wanting to say all those things to her for so long now. Ever since Finn married Quinn—I mean, Lucy—she hasn't been the same."
Santana and Puck laughed, because that was so Rachel, to be hung up over one lughead boy.
"Right. What have they been up to? Finn and Quinn?" Santana asked, because it was the polite thing to do, even though she was starting to get sick of asking about people's blah lives.
"They're fine. Quinn just had another boy. Named it after Schuester."
Santana gagged. Puck chuckled.
"Yeah, they're actually out of town right now. They took a trip to Dayton to see some fertility specialist, because Quinn desperately wants a girl for baby number five."
Santana gagged again. Puck tensed.
"I know, right? I told her to just adopt some pregnant teenager's. Ha. Anyways, she'll have a hoot when she finds out you were here the week she was gone."
"Well, hopefully I'll be gone before she comes back. I don't really want to see her."
"Understandable."
"Santana, I think it's time we head back to the hotel. We've had enough for one day, don't you think?," Puck said unexpectedly.
"Yeah. Yeah, sure." She faced Kurt again, ready to say her goodbye, knowing quite well this would actually be the last time she would see him, unless he came to see her. "Well, it was so nice seeing you. Thanks for not hating me."
"Course not."
"And if you're ever in New York, give us a call. We'd love to have you over."
"Absolutely." The trio exchanged hugs and contact information, and parted ways.
On their way out of the mall, both of them exhausted from the Sturm und Drang they had encountered, he whispered to her, "Next year, we're going to Cabo."
She smiled, but only because he was already thinking there would be a next year.
So how was it? No questions this time, just tell me what you think. What did you like? What didn't you like? Please drop me a review, I love hearing from you all. xoxoemily.