"Kurt, I honestly don't know what to do. Santana's barely spoken to me in almost a week." Rachel said as they walked down the hall to the cafeteria. It was true. They'd barely had any contact since Santana left the Berry house that day.

FLASHBACK

The rest of the dinner went by very slowly. After Caroline's announcement, Santana felt very awkward. When it was time to go, Santana said goodbye to Caroline last. "Thank you for having me." Santana said politely.

"Anytime, Santana. Just remember what I said." Caroline said with a wink. Santana nodded and walked out to the car with Rachel. The four drove back to Lima in silence. When they got back to the Berry house, Santana kissed Rachel on the cheek and left.

END FLASHBACK

"Really?" She nodded.

"She never even told me that she, Quinn, and Brittany were rejoining the Cheerios. I didn't know until they walked down the hall in their Cheerios uniforms that day." Rachel said.

FLASHBACK

Rachel was at her locker when loud gasps caused her to turn her head. Jaw dropping, she watched as her girlfriend and her two best friends walked down the hall clad in the familiar uniform of the William McKinley High School Cheerios. "What the hell?" Rachel whispered, rushing after.

"Hi Rachel!" Brittany said.

"Hi Britt. Tana, why didn't you tell me you were rejoining the Cheerios?" Rachel asked. Santana shrugged.

"I guess it slipped my mind. I have to go. I'm super late. Bye." she said, walking off. Brittany smiled at Rachel and waved before following Santana. Quinn gave her a questioning look.

"Is everything okay between you two?" Quinn asked. Rachel honestly didn't know, but nodded her head nonetheless.

"Everything is perfect, Quinn. Thank you for asking." she answered. The look on Quinn's face told her she didn't believe her, but the blonde let it go and followed her fellow Cheerios.

END FLASHBACK

"She's understandably freaked out. She's meeting your grandparents for the first time, and - after dating you for a week - your grandmother informs her that not only are you in love with her, but she's in love with you as well. This is Santana Lopez we're talking about. Rather than stand up and fight for Brittany, she plot to win Prom Queen in hopes of convincing the blonde that being with her was the law of the land." he said.

"Do you think she still loves Brittany?" Rachel asked softly.

"Rach, I can't lie to you. I think that there will always be a small part of Santana that loves Brittany. Brittany was her first friend, her best friend. She was also her first love and the person that helped Santana realize who she really is and encouraged her to embrace it. Santana can never forget that. But I do think that she really does care about you." Kurt answered. Rachel nodded thoughtfully and ran into a person as they walked into the noisy cafeteria.

"Oh my god. I am so sorry." Rachel said, picking up the books that had been dropped.

"This is yours." a familiar voice said, holding out a Calculus book. Looking up at her girlfriend, Rachel mentally took note of the fact that this was the closest they'd been outside of Glee rehearsal since the dinner.

"Santana..." Rachel said, trailing off as she took the textbook. "I am so sorry for running into you."

"Its fine, Rachel. I have to go." Santana said, grabbing her binder out of Rachel's hands and quickly walking down the hallway.

"Well that was awkward." Kurt said. Rachel glared at him. "Well it was." he said, shrugging.

Santana was sitting in the library when Kurt approached her. "Hummel." she said, nodding.

"Well, at least that's actually part of my name." he said, sitting down. Santana shrugged.

"Take what you can get. How can I help you?"

"Well, you've been ignoring a certain girlfriend of yours lately." he said. Santana raised an eyebrow.

"My relationship is none of your business." she said.

"It is when that girl is my best friend. I don't like to see Rachel upset, Santana." Kurt said.

"And you think I do?"

"You don't have to see it! You're the one ignoring her." he said.

"Look, I'm just trying to figure things out, okay?" Santana said.

"Well you need to figure it out and you need to figure it out quickly. Were you aware of the fact that Rachel has now managed to convince herself that you are ignoring her because you're still in love with Brittany?" he asked.

"How the hell did you find out that I was in love with Brittany?" Santana hissed.

"It was obvious, Santana."

"Well, that's not true. This has nothing to do with Brittany. Rachel's grandmother thinks we're in love." she said.

"You are!" Santana raised an eyebrow. "Its obvious to anyone with eyes. The way you two look at each other. Even now when you're avoiding her, you still sneak glances during class or Glee Club." he said.

"We've only been together for two weeks and we've barely spoken for one of them!" she hissed.

"So? Have you ever heard of love at first sight?" Kurt asked.

"Uh, that was most definitely not the case. It took me two years to even tolerate Rachel and another three months to acknowledge the fact that I like her." Santana said.

"Santana, when was the first time you looked at Rachel and didn't see the girl you called Man Hands or RuPaul or Treasure Trail, but you actually saw Rachel Berry?" Kurt asked. Santana thought for a moment.

"I... I guess when she was singing Prentending at Nationals. She looked beautiful and she sounded amazing. I couldn't take my eyes off of her throughout the entire performance. I wanted to strangle Frankenteen when he kissed her, but I passed off as being a closeted, lonely, repressed lesbian who wanted to win Nationals. But during that moment, I had no urge to call her any of those things. I just wanted to stare at her and watch her sing for as long as I could." Santana said. Kurt nodded. "I wanted... I wanted to be with her... to have her... to hold her... to... to love her." she continued. Kurt smiled softly and Santana sighed. "Where is this going, Kurt? Do you expect me to go run off and find Rachel and declare my love for her? Because I can't do that. I... I'm not ready for that type of announcement or committment. I'm totally committed to my relationship with Rachel and I'm going to see it through to the end, though if I have it my way, it won't end... anyway, I just don't know if I'm ready for that." she said.

"Santana, as long as you can admit it yourself, that's okay. But you can't avoid Rachel. If you really love her, and I think you do, you need to talk to her. She's your girlfriend and she's freaking out. You need to let her know how you feel. She needs to know that while you do love her, you're not ready for love yet. You're young, you're in a new relationship. She just got out of a relationship. But as long as you both know how the other feels, then you'll be okay. And then someday when you're both ready, you'll be able to fall in love completely. But that's not going to happen if you keep avoiding her." Kurt advised. Santana nodded.

"Where can I-"

"Auditorium."

Santana made her way toward the auditorium and found Rachel sitting on the stage floor. Walking through the curtains, the Latina came out of the shadows of the backstage. "Hey." she said softly. Rachel looked up.

"Are you going to run away again?" she asked. Santana shook her head and sat down next to her.

"Can we talk?"

"Considering we haven't talked in a week, it'd be nice." Rachel said. Santana looked down.

"I'm sorry. But you have to understand how freaked out I was. We'd been together for exactly one week and I was already having people tell me that we're in love. I've been in love exactly one time, Rachel, and I got hurt. I wasn't exactly looking to fall in love again, so to have people inform me that I am scared me. I'm not good with love. You're my first real girlfriend, so I'm new to the whole relationship thing, but I'm learning." Santana said. Rachel raised an eyebrow.

"Who taught you to ignore your girlfriend for an entire week?" she asked. Santana smiled.

"Are you kidding? Its the first chapter in How to Successfully Ruin a Relationship in Less Than A Month." she joked.

"Oh really? Who's the author?" Santana bit her lip.

"Hopefully not me." she said softly. Rachel tried to meet her eyes. "Rach, we need to talk though. Kurt came and talked to me... he helped me realize that I do love you. I didn't think I was ready for love, but on the walk over here I tried to picture my life without you in it and... I couldn't. Rachel... I love you." Santana said. Rachel looked down. "Please say you love me back." she whispered.

"Tana..."

"Please."

"Santana, you're not the only one who got hurt by someone they loved. Finn hurt me too."

"What the hell does he have to do with anything? Rachel, this is about you and me, not you and Finn and me and Brittany." Santana said, crying.

"Tana, please don't cry. I care about you. Really, I do. I'm... I'm just not ready to be in love again. I was hoping that we could just have fun in this relationship for a little while. I didn't expect it to get this serious this quickly." Rachel said.

"Why?"

"Because you're Santana Lopez!" Rachel said, instantly covering her mouth. Santana stood up so that she was towering over the diva.

"And what? Since I used to fuck around a lot, I'm not allowed to fall in love? I'm not allowed to take a relationship seriously? Is that what this was about? You wanted a simple, fun relationship to take your mind off of Finn and Quinn?" Santana said, her voice rising as Rachel stood up.

"No, Santana, I swear-"

"You know what, fuck you! I'm over this! See, this is why I don't fall in love. Because the people you think are worth falling in love with turn out to be just like everyone else. They use you until they find something better and then they just toss you aside. I'm done letting people do that to me and I'm done with you Berry!" Santana said, running off. Rachel fell to the floor and began sobbing.