I just want to be wonderful...

Santofsky

A few days into his hospital stay, even before the God Squad came with their flower arrangement, Dave Karofsky got a visit from Santana Lopez. She walked in with a solemn but determined look on her face, wearing a cherry red beret and carrying another in her hand.

She was tentative in her approach, but eventually she sat down beside the bed, handed Dave the beret she was carrying, and began to tell him about her experience coming out to her abuela. She had never told the entire story to anyone except for Brittany, who had given her her patented sunny words of encouragement (“Who cares what anyone else thinks, San? I love you more than anything”) and held her while she cried, but couldn’t really break through that particular barrier. Dave could though. As Santana told her story, doing her best to hold back her tears, his eyes darkened. He knew exactly what Santana had gone through - his own mother had called him diseased. His mother. The one woman who was supposed to love him no matter what. 

He also knew why Santana had chosen to visit him and confide her story. It was her way, her heavily veiled way, of showing she cared what happened to him. Sure, their friendship last year had been based largely on blackmail. But it has been based on something else too - secrets, trust. Now neither of them had their secrets anymore. But what Santana was trying to tell him was that maybe they could still have that trust.

When Santana had finished, she just looked at him, her eyes glistening but narrowed. Dave took a deep breath and slowly, he placed his Bully Whip beret on his head. Santana gave him a watery smirk and then rolled back her shoulders, her demeanor all business as usual.

“Ok, Karofsky - here’s how it’s gonna be. We are in this together. You got that? Nothing like this is ever going to happen again. If either one of us ever feels like anything’s getting to be too much, we’re to contact the other. Comprende?”

Dave nodded, grinning at the Santana Lopez he was used to seeing. She smiled back, but only for a second. Then she looked him dead in the eye. “And if any of those jockstraps start giving you crap, you leave it to me. I’m Lima Heights, after all. Those bitches won’t know what hit them.”