Stolen Glances

Chapter Eleven.

There was a long silence as Santana drove her and Rachel to Rachel's house, even with all the things they felt like they needed to talk about. All their feelings, all their thoughts. All of them needed to be said. But, both of them were too scared to even bring it all up.

"So, what's this song idea you've come up with?" Rachel asks, deciding to go with the least volatile topic of conversation. Santana glances over at Rachel as if she was deciding something.

"I... I want to take you somewhere first. And then, I'll show you my idea for the duet." Santana offers. Rachel knew that she should say no. She seemed to be having something with Tina, which felt good. It felt comfortable.

"Okay, let's go." Rachel ends up saying. She didn't even realise she said it till after, she was absolutely sure she was going to say no. But, she felt like it would be unwise to backtrack, and she was curious to see what Santana had planned.

About twenty minutes later of another silence, Santana parked up on a cliff side, Rachel eyes Santana with a worried expression.

"Should I turn find my phone on?" Rachel asks. Santana looks over with a bemused face as her eyebrow quirks up. Santana's signature move, Rachel had already deducted.

"Please, Rachel. If I was going to kill you, I'd not take you out somewhere like this. I'd kill you stealthily in the middle of a crowd." Santana says as she slides out of her car.

"Yeah, because that makes me feel better." Rachel mutters to herself as she exits the car herself. She looks at the back of the car to see Santana pulling out a guitar case from the trunk.

"You play?" Rachel asked, surprise evident in her tone.

"I'm a girl of many talents, Berry." Santana shrugs, as if it answered her question. It did not.

"So, where are we?" Rachel asks as Santana leads the way towards a small path, the moon above lighting the path up, and reflecting the grass around it. It felt so peaceful, Rachel thought.

"Edge of Lima. Its a quiet spot, it's nice and peaceful." Santana answers. "I sometimes come here when I need to get away from everything, you know? Where I need to think, or scream, or cry. Anything I feel, this is where I've always expressed it."

"Oh." Is all Rachel managed to say. She wasn't exactly sure how to respond. Santana had just told Rachel something pretty private. She knew she should of said something else, something better, but her mind drew a blank.

"Yeah, I know, super unlike me. But even the bitch feels." Santana shrugs as they reach a small lake. The trees formed around it perfectly, giving it a feeling of purity. The moon touched lake rippling from the calm wind.

"Santana, this place is beautiful." Rachel says as she walks over to the lake. It was as if the peacefulness of the place could be felt, that it grazed against the skin, and you breathed it in. It was its own isolated paradise.

"Yeah. My dad brought me here years ago." Santana says as she walks to stand aside Rachel, placing the guitar case down gently. "We use to go on walks every Saturday. I was always so excited to go. I'd be up at 7 dressed and ready. And I mean, big wooly hat, trench coat, wellies. The whole nine yards." Santana smiled fondly as her eyes watched the wind gently cut against the lake. "It was the last week of July five years ago. We hiked all across the cliffs up here. There's a trail near the school, cuts through the woods and brings you along the cliffs." She tells her as she points over at the start of the cliff. "But my dad had a tendancy to go off track. And he did. And he came down the path, pretty sure it was made by animals or something, and we found this. I remember when we first got here, there were two foxes stood where we are right now, and they just stared at us. I never saw my dad so scared of something so little before." Santana laughs. This laugh was different from when Rachel has heard her laugh before. This laugh was so loving, and carefree.