CHAPTER 14

"GET UP!"

THUD!

"OW!"

WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!

That was the next thing Theo heard. He had no idea where he was, what time it was, or if he was still in the locker room at McKinley High. When he came to, he found himself flat on the ground, lying face down with his cheek pressed against a cold surface. He tried to lift his head up, but as soon as he tried, a blinding pain rattling around his skull forced him back down, and made him once again oblivious to his surroundings. He wasn't left in that position for long though, as all of a sudden, Theo felt a flood of freezing cold water crashing down right onto the back of his head.

"What the f-owwwww!" Theo leapt up to his feet to see who had just poured water on him, but his voice and his anger trailed off as he was overwhelmed with a searing pain, ripping through his entire body, making him feel like he was being burnt alive from the inside out. It was so agonising that for a few moments, Theo saw only white. It took almost a full minute for him to regain full vision and his excruciating pain to diminish to just a pounding headache, and it was only then that he was able to look around the room and realise where he was.

He was in his trailer. He was home. How, he had no idea. The last thing he remembered was taking a sip from his flask in the McKinley High locker room, and now he was home, and based on the small clock in the corner of his trailer, it was the following morning. The bigger cause for concern for Theo, one that when he noticed caused him to freeze on the spot, was that he wasn't alone. Not only was the stray dog that he had met 24 hours earlier still inhabiting his trailer, making itself at home on his chair, but there was also a familiar latina standing on the other side of the trailer, staring at him with a burning curiosity, filled with unasked questions.

"What are you doing here? H-how did you get here? How did I get here?" Theo stammered. Santana raised an eyebrow.

"You don't remember?"

Santana went through the entirety of the song yet again, but thoroughly dissatisfied with her performance, it took all of the restraint she had not to throw her sheet music at the wall. It had been a long day for Santana, but it wasn't over yet. Though pretty much everyone else in the entire school had gone home for the night, and it was nearly 7 pm in the evening, Santana still found herself in the choir room. She was working herself to the bone, trying to perfect every single detail of her singing that she could, knowing that the finest of margins would be what enabled her to challenge Rachel Berry for top spot in the Glee club.

Despite all of her practice, Santana was still finding herself falling short of where she wanted to be. Where she NEEDED to be. And the fact that she knew Rachel Berry, at that very minute, was probably practising in her own home and extending her lead at the top of the club even further, did nothing to settle Santana's thoughts and fears.

As her mind whirred with thought, it drifted to the earlier rehearsal, and the ghost of a smile crept upon Santana's face as she recollected the facial expressions of every other member of the New Directions after her and Theo had performed. Apart from maybe Mike who wasn't a singer, there was not one member of that entire Glee club who didn't fancy themselves as the singer deserving of a solo, at the very least for Sectionals. Even though Mr. Schue had refused to pick a favourite or best performance, nobody could deny that her and Theo had sure as shit barged their way to the front of the pecking order of contenders to dethrone the mighty Rachel-Finn partnership.

But as Santana now practised alone in the choir room, she couldn't help feel like something was missing from her performance, in comparison to earlier that day. Her and Theo had worked so well as a duo, that it felt like either of them performing as a soloist would make their singing ability take half a step down. If Santana wanted to win, if she truly wanted to dominate the Glee club in the same way that Rachel had, then maybe it wasn't the worst idea to consider performing with Theo more often. No, Santana quickly shook that thought out of her head. That was, in fact, the worst idea. She couldn't think of something more painful than having to spend more time with arguably the most frustrating person she had ever met.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

Suddenly, Santana was greeted by a faint thumping against the choir room door over and over again. If she hadn't heard the exact same sound during Glee rehearsal earlier that day, she would've been confused about who could possibly be at the door at that time of night. However, the events of that morning made her not at all surprised to open the door and find Theo tumbling head-first into the choir room. He had been trying to open the door, but in his drunken state, had been leaning too hard on it to pull it open. But when Santana opened it, he found his balance thrown off and fell flat on his face.

"Thought there was a… a door there." Theo slurred, slowly stumbling to his feet but wobbling significantly as he did. Santana groaned, knowing full-well what the problem was. "I did it again! My bad, S-s-santino!'

"Seriously? What the hell, Theo?! Again?!" Santana hissed. "And it's Santana, you moron."

"Hey, it's not my fault! Your name's… confusing! Like what kind of a name is S-s-s…"

"Santana!"

"Right! You need an easier name… like Bob! I should call you Bob! Much easier to remember!"

"You call me Bob once, and I will gut you like a fish." Santana grumbled. Her mind was spinning, trying to think about what to do next. Should she just leave him there? Not only did that not seem too safe given Theo's condition, but if anyone found him, he was almost certainly expelled if not arrested. But what other options did she have?

"So I somehow managed to sneak you out of the choir room and out of McKinley without anyone noticing us. Which, by the way, was impossible because you couldn't keep your fat mouth shut for even one second! I threw you into my car, and you directed me here, to the sketchiest part of Lima I've ever seen. And you led me to this place, not before you threw up all over my car!"

Santana filled him in on the rest of the story, during which Theo was completely and utterly silent. The worst of his hangover headache seemed to have passed, though he still felt like absolute shit. He felt like he was in his mid 80s, barely able to lift his arms over his head, even the smallest movements feeling like an impossible task. So all he could do was stand still and listen.

After Santana finished speaking, Theo was quiet for a while longer, before finally speaking up for the first time in minutes.

"You can leave now." He told her. Santana's eyes widened, taken aback, flashes of anger appearing on her face.

"Seriously? That's it?! No thank you?! If it wasn't for me, you would've been found by some security guard, throwing up all over yourself in the choir room, and you would've gotten expelled! Or if you had managed to make it out the school, dead at the side of the road somewhere."

Theo nodded. If only.

"Thank you for bringing me here." Theo acknowledged. "Now please leave."

That's when Santana well and truly erupted. She had exploded in anger on Theo before, but nothing like right now. She was screaming at the top of her lungs, not caring in the least about the other RVs around them, and the fact that it was still very early in the morning for that level of noise, not caring in the least about Theo's hangover. He was ungrateful, he was the scum of the earth, and Santana had had just about enough of his behaviour.

Theo, as he so often did, remained silent throughout all of this, simply looking at her and blinking, his eyes still struggling to adjust to the light of his trailer. To try and mitigate this, Theo found his discarded shades on his trailer table and put the sunglasses over his eyes, a rude gesture in retaliation to the girl who was currently violating him with pretty much every slur known to mankind.

The disrespect of him putting the sunglasses on wasn't lost on Santana, and just as she was about to erupt even further and resort to physical contact, her eyes drifted around the small, dinghy trailer and she found herself stopped in her tracks. When Santana had dropped him there the night before, it had been pitch-black so she hadn't gotten to see anything. She had assumed this was just some temporary base he had to hide out from his family while he was that drunk.

But as she looked around the trailer in the light of morning, a few things began to hint to her that that wasn't actually the case. Scattered clothing on the floor, a plethora of full and empty bottles of alcohol, as well as pictures of Marley covering almost every inch of trailer led Santana to a conclusion that she never could've imagined…

"Wait… Theo… do you live here?"

While he didn't give a verbal confirmation of that, a small nod told Santana all she needed to know. For the second time since she'd met him, a revelation by the mysterious teenager had rendered her speechless and immobile in shock. He lived in this dump?! She had about a million questions for him, so she forced herself to pick just one to start with.

"Where are your parents?" Santana asked him.

Part of her already knew the answer she was going to get from the frustratingly closed-off boy, and sure enough, she was right. Theo didn't say a word, simply staring a hole into her, his expression giving absolutely nothing away with a poker face even a CIA agent would've been proud of. It was clear that he wasn't going to answer that question, and instead, he turned around and started rummaging through cupboards. He was looking for food, anything left that he could scavenge, and as he went through each drawer and cupboard unsuccessfully, Santana heard the unmistakable clinking of alcohol bottles together as he did. Eventually, Theo managed to find a small box of crackers, as well as an aerosol can of spray cheese. Spraying some cheese on a cracker, he held it out to Santana.

"Breakfast?" He asked. Santana looked revolted at the breakfast Theo was offering, so he shrugged and hungrily ate the cracker himself, putting the aerosol can in his mouth and spraying some more for good measure as he did. "Fine. Be like that."

"So you live alone." Santana continued, eager to find out as much as she could, her concern for him at its peak upon seeing the horrifying conditions he was living in. "Is that even legal?"

"Of course it's legal." Theo murmured. "I'm 18. It's my RV. It's not like I stole it or anything. And an RV's cheaper than a real place."

"That's…" Santana tried so hard to look at the positives of Theo's situation, looking for anything that made her feel like she wasn't obligated to report this to Mr. Schue, or to the police even. "Being able to travel wherever you want in that RV… that's kind of cool I guess."

Theo's face darkened slightly and Santana noticed, nodding. She knew based on all of this that his parents most certainly weren't around. Where were they? She had no idea, and had a feeling that that was just about the last thing that Theo would ever tell her.

"Must be really lonely too." She commented. Theo didn't respond to this, but Santana knew that she had hit the nail on the head with her latter statement. She decided to keep asking questions. "Why'd you come to Lima from Texas in the first place?"

"Trailer broke down in Lima. I don't have the money to repair or replace it. So I stayed here." That was the genuinely honest answer, and that was exactly what Theo said, speaking up for a rare moment. Santana nodded almost encouragingly at his cooperation, deciding to press her luck further with another question.

"Yes. But why did you leave Texas in the first place?" She asked. Upon hearing this question, Theo's eyes flickered sideways to the many pictures of Marley that were scattered around the small space, and Santana immediately realized the answer. She felt like an idiot. "I'm sorry, Theo. I…"

"I needed a fresh start. Away from everything." Theo admitted. He stayed silent for a while longer, Santana noticing an internal debate seeming to rage on inside him as he was on the precipice of revealing something else, but was seeming to shy away. She remained quiet, allowing him the space he needed to make a decision, and he eventually decided to keep talking. "When I met Marley, I was 13. 13 years of the world kicking me and punching me with all it had, and I was just about done. I was at my weakest, too weak to fight back anymore. I didn't have the strength to, physically or mentally. And she… she saved my life. Gave me everything I didn't have. She gave me a home. She gave me love. She gave me people I could call family. So when she died last December, I was broken. Everything I cared about in the world had been ripped away from me. I had nothing left. I have nothing left. But I couldn't stay in Texas. Not when everything there, everywhere I looked, was a reminder of her. So I turned tail and left. And I didn't look back."

Santana listened to this, quiet for a few moments longer, before a thought occurred to her.

"When did you arrive in Lima again?" She asked.

"Last week." Theo replied. Santana's eyebrows furrowed, further confused.

"But if… if Marley passed away in December, and it's August now, where were you for the past 8 months?"

Theo's face darkened considerably, and he went silent once more. Santana had overplayed her hand and it had led to Theo retreating back into his shell. She decided to try for one more question though, either way.

"What about the alcohol?" Santana cautiously questioned. "I'm no expert, but I don't think a teenager… I don't think anyone should be drinking that much."

Theo was done talking by this point. There would be no further confessions on his part, not for right now at least, so he stayed silent at Santana's question, his thousand yard stare burrowing deep into her.

"Don't tell anyone about this, okay?" Theo eventually spoke up. "I don't want other people knowing I'm…"

"Homeless? A raging alcoholic?" Santana had gone a step too far, and she knew it. Theo sighed.

"I think it's time you left." He murmured, but Santana wasn't done just yet. Her concern was most definitely outweighing her mean streak, and so the person inhabiting her body was almost unrecognisable to the person who most people say and were intimidated by at McKinley.

"Look, Theo, this isn't a joke! You need to tell people! You need help!"

Theo chuckled mirthlessly and shook his head. He didn't need help. He didn't deserve help. Walking over to the door of his trailer, he opened it and stepped aside, gesturing not-so-subtly for Santana to leave.

"Thank you for bringing me here, Santana. Really. Even if I don't remember any of it."

Santana understood that she wasn't getting anything else out of him, so she nodded.

"Okay, I'll see you later at Glee rehearsal."

Theo nodded and looked down, not saying anything at this, and Santana noticed, her concern ever rising. She was debating leaving, but just before she did, she turned towards him.

"I will see you, right? You're not going to…" Santana's voice trailed off, but it was clear exactly what she was implying.

"No. I won't. Not yet."

'Yet.' The word rang louder in Santana's ears that any explosion of a bomb could have. Her eyes widened slightly.

"Yet? So you want to? For real?" Santana asked. Theo was silent for a few moments before he nodded.

"Yeah. I do," and Theo sounded more sure of this than anything else Santana had ever heard him say. "But if it makes you feel any better, I can't do it yet and probably won't be able to do for a while. If ever."

"And why's that?"

Theo sighed.

"Because I'm scared. I'm scared that if I do it today, I haven't done enough on this Earth to join her up there. I can't do it unless I feel like I've done enough to redeem myself and be certain I'm going up and not down." It felt weird admitting it out loud. "Crazy, right?"

Santana shook her head.

"You know what, Theo? That might be the least crazy thing I've heard you say."