There are perks to having a good looking brother. For one thing, people pay more attention to him than they do to her, so it doesn't matter much when she just looks worse in comparison. Santana's known this for a while, but she's always reminded when she's actually with Mikey.
Like this week for example, the night after she had gotten to town the with her mom, she and Mikey decided to go to the movies. Catching Fire had just come out, and they didn't have anything else to do anyway—plus she read the books, and she liked to see them come to life.
They were running late because Mikey had just gotten off work, and they couldn't convince their mom to go with them, so they jogged across the parking lot and into the building. It didn't help that it was cold outside, either.
Mikey pulled out his wallet as they stepped up to the window, and Santana glanced up the the movie board.
"We're actually closed...," the girl behind the window spoke up. Santana glanced down at her, and then over to Mikey.
"You're closed?" Mikey repeated, confused.
The girl nodded, her long, blonde hair bouncing on her shoulders. "She actually just took the box," she said apologetically.
Santana frowned as Mikey put his wallet away and turned toward her.
"What were you going to see?" the girl asked.
"The Hunger Games," Mikey said, turning back. The girl looked down at a paper in front of her, trailing her finger down what looked like some sort of list.
"Go to theater eight," she said, looking up with a smile.
"Oh," Mikey said, "Thanks."
"No problem," she said.
Mikey turned to Santana and smiled as they made their way to the door.
"Wait," the girl said quickly. Santana looked back over to see her jump out of her seat and to the door behind her. "That door's locked."
She ran around to open the door for them. Mikey held it open and Santana walked through.
"Thanks," Mikey said.
The girl smiled at them. "Enjoy!" she said before walking back into the ticket booth.
X
Two and a half hours later, they walked back out, talking about the movies and the books. Mikey didn't understand why she cared about seeing the movie since she'd already read the books. Oh, wow, that was unexpected, he mocked.
Santana rolled her eyes but before she could respond Mikey cut to the right.
"I gotta go to the bathroom," he said before disappearing behind the door. Santana backed up to the railing and looked around at the movie posters. The rest of the crowd from the movie cleared out, and the room went strangely quiet.
Until, "How was it?"
Santana's head jerked up to see the girl from earlier walking toward her. Before she could think, she said, "What?"
The girl smiled. "The movie. Did you like it?"
Santana started nodding. "Yeah." Then, "Have you seen it?"
"Uh-huh," she responded. "I watched it with some friends the other night when it came out. It was packed, we had to sit around forever so we wouldn't be stuck in those neck-breaking seats up front."
Santana smiled. "I did that for the first movie."
"Really?" the girl laughed. "Me too! I started working here a little after that, plus it sucked, so I knew better this time."
Santana continued to smile at the girl, but then realized she was staring. She cleared her throat and took her phone out of her pocket. She unlocked it. Nothing. She slipped it back into her pocket and looked up.
"Thanks," she said. The girl tilted her head. Santana's smile snuck back out as she said, "For the movie, I mean."
"Oh, no problem," the girl said again.
"You're not gonna get in trouble or anything, are you?" Santana asked.
The girl smiled, and then shrugged. "They'll never know."
Santana nodded, and then reached for her phone. She'd just unlocked it when the girl asked, "So what's your name?"
"Santana," she said, glancing up.
It got quiet, and Santana looked toward the bathroom. What's taking you so long?
"I'm Brittany," the girl said, trying to catch Santana's eyes.
Santana looked, but awkwardly glanced around her face, avoiding the blue eyes drawing her in.
"So why'd—"
"Hey, San," Mikey said, walking up beside them. "You ready?"
"Uh, yeah," she said.
Mikey looked at Brittany and smiled. "Thanks again for the movie."
Brittany smiled back and nodded.
Nobody moved.
"Can I get your number?" Brittany asked suddenly. "Maybe we can hang out sometime?"
Santana's eyes bugged. She glanced at Mikey, but it was too quick to even make out his face. Brittany watched her expectantly.
"Sure," she said finally, surprised her voice came out right.
Brittany smiled brightly and reached into her pocket and frowned. "One second!" she said, turning and rushing back to the ticket booth.
Santana could feel Mikey's gaze on her, but she didn't dare look. She kept her eyes forward, wishing she could run away, too.
But then Brittany was jogging back her way, and her hair was going everywhere and she still looked amazing and damn. Brittany stopped in front of her and held out her phone.
Santana reached for it with a shaky hand and quickly gripped it with both hands as she entered her number. She was pretty sure she entered it right before shoving it back at Brittany.
"Awesome," Brittany muttered.
"Well I guess we better get going," Mikey said. Santana nodded in agreement. "It was nice to meet you," he said to Brittany.
"You too," Brittany said.
Santana followed Mikey toward the door, forcing herself not to look back.
"Bye Santana!" Brittany called.
Santana almost stopped, but decided not to, which resulted in her stumbling through the doorway. Mikey caught her by the arm. She could hear Brittany giggle as the door closed.
"You okay?" Mikey asked.
"Yeah," Santana mumbled. She glanced back. Brittany was still standing there, still smiling. She reached for her phone.
When they got back to the car, Santana's phone beeped.
You look good in red.
She couldn't contain her smile as she reread it a few times before saving the number as Brittany.
There are perks to having a good looking brother, but the perks of being good looking yourself are definitely better.