My heart's beating seemed to stop each time I took a breath, and my knees grew weaker with every step I took forward. Today was the day I would finally ask Brittany to go on a date with me. It's been a long time coming! About five weeks in fact, since I first saw her in a red sundress, walking across the street showing off legs that put unholy, yet heavenly thoughts in my head. I had had the guts to ask if she'd like a sample from the sandwich shop where I worked as she was walking by. She had declined politely, her voice as graceful as her walk, and had flashed me a megawatt smile before continuing down the street, past the sandwich shop and all the other shops that lined up on Tosh Street. As the days dragged on, I soon found out that she walked down the street every day at exactly 11 am. Being the creeper that I am most certainly NOT, I threatened my manager, old man Figgins, to allow me to have my breaks at 11 sharp. The first few days of this new schedule, I would sit at the tables outside the shop, and casually say hi to her when she would walk by.
It wasn't until the 8th day after the new schedule that I said, "Hello. Fine weather today isn't it?" It really wasn't, because it was overcast and there were predictions of showers later on. She had stopped walking, looked up at the sky and then back at me. "L.T. said the same thing while we were watching the weather report. I had told him he was wrong, but now that you say it, I realize I may have missed something." I was confused at that, mainly because she said it like I would know who this guy L.T. was; but I had nodded and made sure to look understanding. The day had turned out to be a really nice day, actually, when the sun came out later on and stayed with a breeze cooling the air around. Our casual hellos grew from that point and it wasn't until the beginning of the 4th week that she sat down at one of the tables outside the shop. I was elated, of course, and had almost run over Rachel Berry (my loud mouth co-worker from the Shire) in my haste to get to Brittany. I had forgotten I was off at that moment and taken her order. The way I was with her, one would've thought I was campaigning for the award of "World's Most Kiss-ass Waitress." Whatever though, I was charming and she seemed charmed. Sometime while I was catering to her, I had asked her what her name was. She seemed amused when I asked her, but she had replied kindly, "Brittany. And yours?"
"Santana!" Her brows had raised and her amusement shone through at that point, because I was so excited to know her name that I had practically yelled mine back at her. God, thinking about it now makes me nauseous. She had said it was a pretty name though, so in the end I guess I still win.
Anyways, long story short, Brittany kept walking down the street every day at 11, occasionally stopping to eat and we would talk every day she walked past the sandwich shop, flirting shamelessly with each other. Today was a Wednesday and she had chosen today to be one of the days she would eat here. And I had chosen today to ask her out; which is why I was nervously walking towards her as she was getting up to leave, setting down a generous tip as usual. "Keep your shit together." I muttered to myself. Easier said than done apparently, because as soon as I was standing in front of her my mind went all over the place, and all I could look at were her electric blue eyes and the way they seemed to move as naturally as tides rolling in. I think I hear waves in the distance, almost as if they're talking… Talking waves? Santana, your shit is most definitely not together. You're in the middle of nowhere in Ohio during the summer: ain't no waves coming in.
"Uhm, you all right?" She's smiling. God she's beautiful. She had been sitting at a table with no umbrella over it, so the warm sun was on her, seeming to illuminate her beauty even more. She's also wearing the same red sundress that I first saw her in. Yes, today was definitely the day.
"Wha—no, yes. I was." The crap am I saying?
"You were? Are you not, now?" Her brows furrowed in confusion as she tilted her head and looked at me, her blue eyes cloudy now with worry.
"Iamquitealrightthanks." Seriously, what the hell.
"Wellthat'sgoodtohear." Her reply was playful, but her smile showed she meant it.
I blush embarrassingly at her, and before I knew it I'm stammering, "He-ey. I was won-wondering if you would maybe, if you wanted of course, to maybe date on the go. With me." I don't know what just happened, but I'm pretty sure I didn't do it right.
"I'm flattered, Santana. But no." She was still smiling at me, but her smile wasn't as warm, it looked more disappointed. Despite the sun, I felt like rain was pummeling down on me. She turned around without a word and walked down the street.
Needless to say, I spent the whole day being a complete arse to the rest of my co-workers, even yelling at Puck to throw away his trash nicely after he chucked it at the trash can (the trash made it in, but that wasn't my point at that moment in time). After all that, I went home where I fell in a heap on my bed and thought of nothing but the tall blonde girl in her red sundress walking away from me. "Damn it if I don't ask her again! I want an explanation at least!" I was talking heatedly to my pillow now, determination and stubbornness boiling through my veins as I replayed every single conversation we had had together the past five weeks. "I flirted mercilessly! She had flirted back! Or maybe it was all in my mind. Does she think she's too good for me?" I paused at that, anger slowly dissipating. 'I DO work in a sandwich shop,' I thought to myself, 'and she…well come to think of it, I don't know what she does. Does she make a living just walking down the street at 11 am every day? Where does she even go? There's really nothing else down Tosh Street besides some bakeries and an old abandoned warehouse at the end of the street, and she's always dressed perfectly so…none of it makes sense. Maybe she's already in a relationship, or…holy shit, I hadn't even considered the fact that she might not be gay!' "That is probably it." I say aloud, nodding to my pillow. Goes to show how badly I am crushing on this girl. At some point during my confusion/misery/anger, I fell asleep, still in my work uniform, and totally set on getting some explanation the next day.
The next day started off like any other Thursday. I had woken up way earlier than usual, however, which was a good thing because I realized I didn't even shower the night before. Or brush my teeth. I took an extra long shower and took my time getting ready, making sure to look my best hoping Brittany would realize her mistake in turning me down. At about 7:30 I slipped on my uniform again and headed to work. I walked in and started baking some loaves of bread for the morning customers. I always wondered why people would eat a sandwich in the morning; I mean I understand an egg/cheese sandwich or something of that sort, but a ham and cheese with the works at 8 in the morning? Ham and cheese sandwiches for weird people wasn't what was weighing on my mind, however, and I felt myself checking the clock every few minutes to see when I'd see a certain blonde walking down the street.
"But of course that wasn't as great as I thought it would be, so she just took it off and we did it the old fashioned way." I snapped my head towards the sound and found Rachel was talking(surprise, surprise), but even worse than that: she was talking to me. 'Ugh, it was only 9 in the morning. Too early for this.'
"Huh?" I blinked my confusion at her.
"Honestly, Santana, I might as well be talking to a wall. I was talking about how Quinn and I-."
Oh, Lord I need to interrupt her monologue. I put my hand up and shook a finger at her, "Ok first of all, if you were talking to a wall it would grow legs and run. And secondly, I'm gonna have to ask you to stop right there. Every time you talk about Quinn it's about something that you two did in the bedroom that nobody wants to hear, especially so early in the morning." She huffed her annoyance at me and walked away, I assume to tell the story to some other poor soul. Truth be told, I was jealous of Rachel and Quinn's relationship. They've been dating for about seven months now and I honestly have never seen either of them so happy before. It's a good thing of course, but I don't want to be constantly reminded that I'm alone.
I looked at the clock for what seemed like the millionth time that day and saw that it was 11:01, then I looked out the window of the shop and sure enough, there was Brittany in all her glory walking towards the shop. I took a deep breath and walked towards her, determined to not take no for an answer. Halfway to the door, I noticed that she wasn't actually walking, but sprinting towards the shop, and she's not dressed to the nines like usual; instead her hair is up in a ponytail, and she is dressed in tight black pants with compact boots, and a leather jacket zipped all the way up. She looked menacing to say the least, not because she was dressed that way, but because once she entered the shop I could see her eyes and they weren't the same warm blue I was so used to seeing; they were ice cold, and her stern face only added to the chill emanating from them. Obviously something wasn't right. I was about to ask what she was doing when a loud thundering sound shook the entire place and I saw the windows blow inwards, as Brittany suddenly lunged towards me, knocking me onto the floor. I felt all the air in me rush out when her body slammed mine onto the ground as I fought to keep my head up so I wouldn't land on it. I gasped for air, struggling to do so against her weight, but as quick as she had put us on the ground she was now pulling me up with her as she yelled, "Run! To the back!" I turned towards the back and felt her pushing me forward, making me stumble as I tried to run. There was rubble and dust everywhere, and alarms had gone off, and I could hear sirens in the distance. I looked around in the shop as I tried making my way through the rubble which was formed by part of the roof collapsing and the now broken tables and chairs. Trying to gain some adequate vision in the dust, I suddenly stopped in my tracks as my eyes found something I wish they hadn't. I was looking at an unmoving body laying just a few feet away. "Oh my god. Is that Rach—."
"Move!" Brittany's voice startled me and I automatically rushed towards the back again. We made our way to the back, Brittany practically carrying me as I stumbled along the rubble littering the floor. We passed some familiar looking body shapes and I tried my best not to look directly at them. When we finally reached the back she pushed me inside the huge refrigerated room used for storing food and bolted the door shut. We were in the midst of various sorts of meat, cheese and vegetables. It was chilly in the room of course, but I was feeling very hot and felt as if my heart would burst. For what seemed like an hour, but was probably about thirty seconds, I struggled to catch my breath, aware of the fact that Brittany was just calmly checking her watch. "Hey, what time is it exactly?" She asks casually, without even looking at me. I was now looking at her with what must have been a dumbfounded look on my face. 'The fucking place just blew up and she wants to know what time it is?' I became angry at her and started yelling, my words echoing around the room, "What the crap just happened? What was all that? Did you do this?"
"What time is it?" She asked again, completely ignoring my questions and keeping her eyes on her watch.
"I wanna know-." She suddenly cut me off by moving quickly towards me and putting her hand on my mouth, getting so close I had to tilt my head upwards to keep her eyes on mine. I could still hear the alarms outside the door, the refrigerator engine whirred on, and the sirens were getting closer and closer, but all of that faded out as Brittany bent her head towards mine and began talking to me in a low voice, "If I did my homework right, this whole place is going to go dark in a few seconds. I'm gonna need you to stay calm once it does, and follow my lead. I can't answer you right now, but I will." She took her hand from my mouth and I started to protest, but she immediately shut me up again, "Santana, please. I need you safe." Her eyes were pleading now, and although her body was calm and reserved, I heard a slight panic in her voice. For some reason I could do nothing but trust her; maybe it was the way she said my name then, or maybe it was the pleading look in her eyes. I don't know exactly what it was, but I gave in and nodded my head to let her know I would comply. She then removed her hand from my mouth again and took a step back; then the refrigerator engine stopped whirring, the alarms stopped ringing, and the room went dark.