Can't Take My Eyes Off You || Quinntana

Seven

TW: Mild mentions of homophobia

Upon arriving in Louisville, Santana didn't know what to do with herself. She certainly wasn't planning on trying to make small talk with her roommates. With few options, she walked directly to her room and shut the door.

Living in a suite with 4 other cheerleaders seemed like a great idea at the beginning of the year. But while she had expected built-in friends, she ended up feeling like an outsider. It had all started during her second week of college.

All the newbies to the cheer team were having a party in Santana's suite to celebrate their first week of school. There was good music, dancing, some alcohol being passed around—Santana was having a great time. She was in the midst of a great game of beer pong when her phone started to ring. It was Brittany.

"Sorry. Gotta take this," Santana said with a grin.

"Ooh, you got a boyfriend calling?" Asked one of her teammates.

"A girlfriend, actually," she replied, walking to her bedroom for some privacy.

It turned out that Brittany didn't have much to say. She had just heard Landslide play on the radio and wanted to let Santana know that she was thinking of her. It was adorable.

Santana was about to return to the party, but she heard something that caught her attention. The walls to her dorm were impressively thin, so the words were clear as day.

"Did you guys know she was—"

"I had literally no idea."

"I can't believe we change in the same locker room. What if she's looking?"

"She complimented my skirt the other day. I bet she was hitting on me."

Santana's heart sank. The words were hurtful, but not incredibly surprising. She had known that most of her teammates came from conservative families. But there were a lot of conservatives in Ohio, too, and she'd still felt accepted at school. Of course, that was in the Glee club, where pretty much nobody was straight.

She felt her eyes start to well up with tears as she realized that these people were her only friends at school, and they already disliked her. Her first instinct was to go all Lima Heights on their asses, but something stopped her. The way she behaved in high school made most people hate her. She wanted to have friends in college, even if they were blatant homophobes. Without them, she'd be alone. So, she put on a brave face and returned to the party as if nothing had happened. In the following months, she kept up the act, constantly pretending to be okay and never bringing up what she'd overheard.

Santana was pulled back to the present by a text from Quinn.

Just got to New Haven.

She'd remembered.

In that moment, Santana realized she wasn't as alone as she'd thought.

. . .

"So who is he?"

Quinn had barely settled in to her dorm at Yale before her roommate, Nora, started interrogating her.

"He?"

"C'mon Quinn. You drove 10 hours back to your hometown out of the blue just to spend the weekend with someone. And now you keep looking at your phone and smiling. Who's the guy?"

Quinn had no idea her body language was so obvious. She looked down at her texts with Santana again.

Just got to New Haven.

I miss you already.

I miss you too.

We have to stay in touch this time. I'm calling you later.

I'll talk to you then.

"There's no guy. I was just helping out a friend," Quinn said, her lips curving into a smile.

"You just did it again! Is he hot?"

"Yeah, I guess he's pretty hot."

The words slipped out of Quinn's mouth before she could realize what she was saying. She had nothing to hide. Her relationship with Santana was purely platonic. So why did she just call her a he?

"Well, you've clearly got it bad for him. Does he like you?"

Quinn's smile disappeared.

"I—I don't think so."

"You never know. I mean, he wanted to spend the weekend with you, and by the way you've been acting, it seems like he's been sending some pretty flirty texts."

Before Quinn could reply, her phone rang.

"That's him, isn't it? I'll leave you alone to make out over the phone."

Quinn groaned, but she was thankful for the privacy. Not wanting to wait another second, she answered the phone.

"Hey San."

"Hey."