A Study Of Attraction
Chapter 2
A/N: This follows on almost directly from the first chapter.
"Come on." Santana murmurs under her breath as the door to her apartment remains shut tight despite her best efforts at turning the key and bodyslamming it. "Aha!" Eventually the heavy door gives way and opens – almost in slow motion, as if it was reluctant to let her in at all. "Asshole." she calls it as she shuffles inside and closes it behind her. She starts to take her boots off.
"What did you just call me?!" Santana's caught so off-guard by the sharp voice that she snaps to attention, temporarily forgets she's only standing on one leg, and attempts to turn – managing an awkward pirouette before tipping over and landing on her ass. Apparently her parents had arrived to her apartment for their weekend visit earlier than planned.
She looks up indignantly at the restrained amusement on her mother's features as the short – but oh so intimidating – woman gazes down at her with her arms crossed. "I was talking to the door, mama." she squeaks out. Her mother just raises an eyebrow as her father comes around the corner from the kitchen.
"Hey Mija, I-" He stops next to her mother, taking one confused look at his only daughter before leaning in towards Maribel and whispering loudly. "Why is she on the floor?"
"She was talking to the door. And then she fell over." The older woman explains.
"Ah." Her father responds, raising his eyebrows in amusement and giving Santana a look that says 'we expected no less of you'. "Well don't just sit there, Santana. Come and help with dinner." Both parents then turn back to the kitchen. Santana allows herself a small noise of dissonance before she finishes removing her boots, gets back on her feet and follows her parents.
Santana's kitchen, located in the two-bedroom apartment inside one of the oldest buildings she's ever seen in person, is just big enough for her and her roommate Mike to simultaneously throw together two separate meals – just. So Santana finds herself standing in the doorway tilting her head to try and get a better angle on how her mother has managed to prepare what looks to be four different dishes in her tiny kitchen at the same time, with counter space to spare and enough room for her father to be washing dishes and kitchenware at the sink without getting in her way.
Her mother looks over at her with a smile, clearly still amused at her daughter's clumsiness, and Santana rolls her eyes before heading over to give her a quick hug. "Hey, mama." she says before letting go. Immediately afterwards, she finds herself being pulled into a bear hug by her father, who laughs when she squeals because he didn't even bother to dry his hands and is getting soapy water all over her shirt. Santana squirms and flails trying to get him to let go, eventually joining in his laughter.
"Hey! Will you two mind, there isn't enough room in here for that!" Her mother scolds lightly as Carlos lets go of his daughter.
"How are things, mija?" her father asks as he gets back to washing up.
"They're good. I think." Santana scrunches her face trying to think, before shrugging and reaching out to grab a piece of chopped carrot from the counter – but never getting there as her mother swats her hand away.
"Make yourself useful and slice these." Her mother commands, pushing some apples for the dessert towards a chopping board on the spare piece of counter. "How is your experiment going?" She asks as Santana gets to work.
"It's okay. I'm still trying to get enough people to take part, but soon I can start analysing everything." Santana answers, putting the knife down to yawn into her hand and setting her mother to 'inquisition parenting' mode as she resumes her task.
"You're tired. Have you been sleeping well? Are you sick? Do you need to nap? I bet it's all that partying you think I don't know you college kids get up to. Mija, I don't mind you drinking so long as you're being responsible. And not just with the alcohol, you know, I know you don't want to hear this from your own mother but girls should carry protection too, you never know when-"
The word 'protection' whips Santana from her slight daze. "Mom!" she yelps as she attempts to stopper the motherly rambling Maribel's so intent on vocalising, ignoring the way her father's laughing so hard he's physically immobilised leaning over the sink. Her mother just turns to her without a single ounce of shame.
"What? Mija, I'm just thinking of your safety."
"I don't think out daughter has much use for condoms, Maribel." Her father manages to choke out once he's calmed down. Santana's eyes widen as her face turns redder than she thought possible.
To her horror, her mother carries on. "You never know, Carlos, she might-"
"Can we please not have this conversation right now?" Santana spins to face her parents as the request bursts out, before quickly turning back to chopping apples. "Or ever." She adds under her breath.
They all work in silence for a minute before Santana's mother addresses her again in a much gentler tone of voice. "You know, I read something online about those 'dental dams' you can-"
"OH MY GOD." Santana drops the knife to the chopping board and covers her ears with her hands before marching out of the kitchen. Carlos laughs so hard that when she returns two minutes later wearing a clean top he's sitting on the floor practically sobbing.
"...And that's the story of how your mother got herself escorted out of Lima mall by armed security." Her father finishes his story with a smirk, and Santana dares to let herself collapse into hysterical laughter despite the death glare her mother is aiming back and forth between the two of them.
"I always said that putting the lingerie store next to a food court was asking for trouble." Maribel pushes out her defence between gritted teeth, which simply sends her daughter into tears.
Santana quickly calms down when she realises that being so full means she won't be able to laugh that hard for much longer without throwing up.
"So, Santana, what do you have planned for school next week?" Her mother quickly nabs the opportunity to change topic.
"Just more participants, a couple of lectures, the usual." she brushes the question off with her hand, before remembering something. "Oh, but I have been asked to cover one of my tutor's social psych lectures for her second-year students." Her father sends her an impressed grin.
"Really? That's great! Are you nervous? Is it a lot of work?"
"Nah, it's cool. She left me all of her notes and I know all of the material already. Besides, they're just second years. I can totally handle it." Santana responds before attempting to stifle another yawn which doesn't go unnoticed by her mother. Santana spots her concerned look. "I just had a long day, that's all." she quickly explains.
"Oh?"
"Yeah. I started at 8 and didn't have my last appointment until five. Who was late. And kept asking questions. And she didn't even do the study," Santana elaborates, letting her mind wander back to Brittany, totally unaware of the small smile working it's way onto her face. "And she was wearing leg warmers on her arms, I mean, really..." Santana trails off when she notices both of her parents sharing a look. "What?" she takes a sip of water.
"Was she cute?" her mother leans in and ask mockingly as her father wears his best shit-eating grin. Santana chokes on the water. Carlos laughs. Santana eventually clears her airway.
"What!? No. I don't know. I mean, I guess. Maybe..." She splutters out, completely caught off guard. Her mother then starts laughing at her too. Sadists, the pair of them.
Santana just groans and drops her head to her forearms on the table. Her father starts sing-songing 'Santana's got a cru-ush' under his breath and her mother just laughs even harder.
Later on when they've finished dessert and have cleared away all of the dishes, her parents are getting ready to make a move back to their hotel.
"So we'll see you tomorrow, Mija?"
"Not before twelve. Please." Santana's about ready to collapse after having her nap-time hijacked by her parents.
"Don't be rude." Her mother tells her as Santana leans down slightly to let her kiss her on the cheek.
"Get some rest, Santana." Her father says with a smile as he leans in to hug her.
"And don't forget to drink plenty of water and have a balanced breakfast." Her mother slips in one final cliché nag, and Santana rolls her eyes as she waves them out of the door, her tired expression quickly turning back to one of indignation as her father turns around to mouth the words 'dental dams' at her over her mother's head just before she closes the door.
She finally shuts her apartment, grabs her bag from down by her boots where she left it and walks to her room, switching on her lamp and placing the contents onto her desk hoping to get around to some studying tomorrow. She pulls out textbooks, notepaper and her laptop, before unceremoniously dropping her bag on the ground.
After going to the bathroom and changing for bed she's just about to hit the hay – about fucking time – when she notices the corner of a piece of paper sticking out from her bag. She reaches down and pulls out the sheet, glaring at it for a minute – reading glasses that are all the way over the other side of the room be damned - before noticing it's the consent form for that particular participant. She ponders it for a minute as she slowly walks to her bed, before making a decision.
She pulls back the covers and slips into bed before grabbing her phone off the nightstand next to her. Before she can think it over too hard she quickly adds in the contact 'Brittany' and sleepily types a quick text, "Hey, it's Santana.' not bothering to proofread before she hits send. She locks her phone and passes out almost as soon as her head hits the pillow.
Across town, Brittany's phone buzzes with a text. She reaches down to read it. Her brows furrow with confusion.
'Hnng, it's Saturn.'
A/N: Hey there! So I got a fair few reviews asking me to write more even though it was just a one shot, so I have finally gotten around to doing that. I hope this was alright! I know a few of the reviews wanted to see the date and we'll get to that soon I swear!
The next chapter skips the rest of the weekend but I guess I just wanted to put in some context about where Santana lives and what her relationship with her parents is like and how they feel about her sexuality? This story is probably going to stay pretty lighthearted and cheesy, at least for now. Also hopefully the updates will be kind of regular but that's never usually how things go so sorry in advance!