Title: How Do I Live Without You

Series: And Then There Were Four

Author: Jamiexh

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Rating: PG-13

Summary: The girls are all off applying to college and Brittany can't help but feel left out.

Thanks to Marinka for hassling me and catching some of my typos.

Author's Note: Sorry for the shortness.

Preceded by: Open Your Heart/ I'm Still Here/ Everything I Do, I Do It For You/ Girls Just Wanna Have Fun/ Pictures Of You

"How do I live without you, I want to know.

How do I breathe without you, if you ever go?

How do I ever, ever survive?

How do I, oh, do I live?"

-October 2011-

Senior year had begun and it was time for all the seniors to start applying to colleges. Applications, due dates, fees, essays, all of this did nothing more than confuse poor Brittany.

At the end of the summer they all spoke about what to do about applying for colleges, and where to look and apply. They quickly decided that they should all apply in the New York City area, so that they could stay together. Everyone already knew that Juilliard was Rachel's dream school, so there really wasn't much debate about the whole thing.

So they would all apply for schools in New York. Rachel applies to Juilliard, NYU, and CUNY, Santana to NYU, CUNY, and Pace, and Quinn to CUNY, and the nursing program at Pace. That just leaves Brittany. She dutifully, like her girlfriends, applies to Pace, and CUNY, but also a few others such as King's College and Manhattan College, which she discovered after applying that it was in the Bronx.

So, in October they sent out their applications, and now they just wait for the results. Rachel is really excited about everything. She searches constantly for an apartment for all of them in the city and is eagerly trying to plan their lives. Quinn and Santana try to contain her, but they are often not met with much success.

Brittany hates to admit it, but the whole situation kind of depresses her. While Rachel, Santana, and Quinn all maintains high averages with mostly A's and some B's, Brittany is only average. Her report cards are mostly C's, with a few D's and if she's lucky, maybe a B. She doesn't believe that she will get into the colleges she applied to. This is partially why she applies to one of the community colleges in Ohio, just so she would have somewhere to go next year.

Time goes by and gradually Brittany forgets all about the future, until that one day in December that Rachel and Santana get their acceptances to NYU. Rachel got into the arts program while Santana received admission to the school with a small scholarship. Brittany is happy for her girlfriends, but she does feel the despair in her stomach that the end for relationship is near. At least the end for their relationship with her.

The next week both Santana and Quinn get their acceptances to Pace. Brittany gets a letter from Pace, too, but she is denied. The girls take her for ice cream to try to cheer her up, but it's no use. Brittany knows that they are all going to go to New York and leave her behind.

The next day, Brittany just stays in bed and cries. Her heart is breaking over the loss that she isn't suffering from yet, but she fears she will be. She ignores the phone calls from her concerned girlfriends and just doesn't have the energy to face her family.

In a moment of weakness, Brittany scans the texts that her girlfriends left her.

"Brit-Brit. What's wrong? –Rachel"

"B, Baby, pick up the phone.-Santana"

"Ducky, are you ok?- Quinn"

"I love you, please talk to me- Santana"

"Love, call me- Quinn"

"I love you, Brittany, but I'm worried about you. Please call- Rachel"

After those messages, Brittany could only guess that the other seventeen messages in her inbox were similar.

By 7:00pm, other three girls were really worried about their girlfriend. Santana picked up Quinn and Rachel and they drove over to Brittany's house. When they got there Stephanie told them that she hasn't left her room all day and that she and Lucas were really worried about her. As the girls headed up the stairs to Brittany's room, Stephanie hands them a big envelope address to Brittany. The three girls smile when they see which school it's from.

Santana knocks on the door, and Brittany just yells go away. Santana's heart sunk, but she opens the door anyway. "Baby," she coos.

Brittany turns and sees all three of her girlfriends piling into her room, gathering around her bed.

"What's wrong, Ducky," Quinn asks pulling Brittany into her arms.

"You're all going to leave me," Brittany answers weakly.

"What," Santana demands.

"You all got into New York schools and I just got denied from Pace. You're all going to go to New York and leave me here and forget all about me."

"Brittany," Quinn starts. "We could never forget you. We could never leave you. No matter what, it's the four of us. We all go together."

"But, what if I don't get in anywhere?"

"You will," Rachel states. "And this might be a start." Rachel presents Brittany with the big envelope that her stepmother handed Rachel.

"Why is there an envelope from Juilliard with my name on it," Brittany asks.

"Well," Rachel starts. "We sensed your nervousness about the future and we all know you're a great dancer. So we thought, why not send an application in for you to Juilliard. We know how amazing you are and we thought everyone else should too. Open it, Brittany."

Brittany gently opened the envelope, half expecting bad news. But instead she read:

Dear Miss Jansen,

Based on your application, performance video, and personal essay, we would like to offer you an audition to complete the application process for the Juilliard School. Please return these forms by January 15th to schedule your audition. Best of luck.

"I got an audition," Brittany cheers. "But how did they get all this stuff."

Santana chuckles. "Your Ray Bear is a little sneak. She actually hid in one of your modern dance classes and taped you the whole time."

Brittany just laughs and hugs her girls. Santana kisses her head, "Congratulations, Baby," she murmurs.

Brittany just smiles. "I know how we can celebrate." Brittany pulls her girls onto her bed, and everyone smiles cause they know that this will be some special sexytimes.

...

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