My Escape (Quinntana)

Chapter 19

Santana managed to stand up, and ran to the other side of the room to buy herself more time. Sitting down on the floor, she began to breathe. In, out, in out. She heard footsteps, and they were getting louder. She felt herself starting to drift off, and the room grew blurry around her. In, out, in, out. Right as the now blurry figure of her father reached her, her vision grew black.

Quinn was still massaging Santana's temples, murmuring soft encouragement, when Santana woke. The Latina shot up into the sitting position, her forehead slamming into Quinn's. Quinn fell back, dizzy, and rubbed her sore head. She quickly forgot about it when she heard Santana's voice. "Sorry about that Q," came a weak voice. 

"Santana!" Quinn cried happily. The two girls moved forward for a hug, but at the last minute the both went for a kiss instead. After a few moments, they pulled away to see the others looking at them with slight smiles on their faces. "Are you okay? Do you want to talk about what happened?" 

Santana hesitated, but nodded. "I was in this room, with all of you, and he came." She didn't have to specify who "he" was. "I tried to wake you up, but I couldn't. None of you woke up. He starting hitting me, and you still didn't wake up." Her voice cracked with emotion. "You didn't wake up." 

They were all silent, not knowing what to say. Quinn her hand. "There's not much I can say right now," she said honestly. "But I'm proud of you for managing to wake up." She stifled a yawn. "Now, how about we go back to sleep?" 

Santana shifted uncomfortably. "I, uh, don't really want to have another nightmare," she admitted. Quinn nodded in understanding.

"What if I held you?" She asked with a smile. Santana blushed, but a little smirk crossed her face. 

"I guess we can go back to sleep," she agreed. 

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"Rise and shine girls!" Kurt's cheerful voice brought Quinn out of a deep slumber. She rolled over with a groan, and sat up. "We have to leave for school in 30 minutes." Quinn glared at him.

"30 whole minutes?" She complained. "Why so early?" Kurt shrugged. "Ugh, whatever, I'm up." She nudged a groggy Santana awake, and went to change and get ready. Santana soon joined her- she looked more tired than she was. When they got back from the bathroom, Blaine, Mercedes, Kurt, and Brittany were gathered on the bed around a laptop with shocked and dismayed expressions on their faces. "What is it?" Quinn asked nervously.

Blaine cleared his throat. "Oh, um, I'm not sure you want to know-" Santana cut him off.

"Just tell us. We've been through so much crap in the past week, we can deal with it." Blaine sighed.

"Fine, but prepare yourselves mentally." He took a deep breath. "So those videos of you and Santana when, you know, they..."

Santana interrupted again. "Publicly humiliated us? Yeah, we remember, please continue."

Blaine shot her a look, but went on. "Those videos... they got out. And photos too- and people are talking." Quinn paled, and Santana clenched her fists. Quinn grabbed the laptop, and saw that it was open to the WMHS gossip website. She and Santana read the headline, which captioned an image of Quinn, drenched in rainbow paint.

Former HBIC Quinn Fabray Revealed as a Lesbian, Dating Fellow Cheerio Santana Lopez.

Quinn grew dizzy, and she felt Santana grab her by the waist to prevent her from falling over. "Quinn..." Santana said slowly. Quinn buried her head in her hands. No, this wasn't happening. The harassment and name-calling was one thing, but this... was just too much. She heard someone crying- wait, that was her. Santana was rubbing her back comfortingly.

"I'm so sorry," Santana murmured. "I know it sucks- I've been through it. Being outed, I mean. You have it worse though," she added. "Wait- that doesn't really help. Sorry." Santana sighed inwardly- this is why she didn't comfort people. 

Quinn laughed bitterly. "No, it's fine. Honestly, I don't know why I'm upset. Everyone basically already knew that I was gay, so this shouldn't be a big deal. I just... I don't know. I guess it being posted online makes it more real, if that makes sense." Santana nodded, understanding. "Ugh, I'm not looking forward to school." 

Blaine's expression shifted to one of confidence. "We're going to be there by your side the whole time," he told her. Mercedes nodded in agreement.

"Hell yeah, no one's going to mess with you when this girl's around," she stated, pointing at herself. This prompted laughter from the others, and Brittany piped up.

"If anyone tries to be mean to you, I'll make them go away with my special telepathic powers," she said. Quinn wrinkled her brows in confusion at the girl's usual nonsensical talking patterns, but Santana smiled and squeezed her friend's hand. 

"Thanks Britt, that's much appreciated," Santana said with a grin. Quinn saw that Kurt was raising his hand.

"Uh, I can't promise that I'll be much help, but I'll be there for you too," he told them. Quinn smiled gratefully- Kurt was still putting up with bullying himself, and he obviously didn't want to make things worse for them. 

"Thanks guys," Quinn said. "Well, we should probably get going," she advised. They all agreed, and the group of friends grabbed their bags and set off to school.

AN: Cliffhanger! (kinda) How's Quinn going to deal with being outed? What other pictures and videos got leaked? Those questions will be answered in the next chapter, along with some of Artie being a jerk.