"This sucks." I frown, placing the sign I've been holding for hours now on the ground, leaning it up against my legs. My arms are aching, and my legs are aching, and I honestly just want to go home.
"You're being pessimistic." Brittany dances over to me from the other side of the street, swinging her own sign around. "Come on, it's for charity!" She spins the sign, stepping out into the street and holding it up in front of an elderly women.
"Hugs for pugs?" The woman asks, raising an eyebrow. The signs are ridiculous, and bright pink, and impossible to ignore, covered in flowers and cartoon dogs. Sign making has always been one of her strong points.
"Yeah!" Brittany grins at her, eyes sparkling. "We're trying to raise money for the local animal shelter, they had a fire last week and need to do repairs." She pouts a little when she remembers the fire that claimed the life of a lone guinea pig. A guinea pig that I attended a funeral and wake for a few days ago.
I'm only even doing this for her, she's volunteered there since we moved to New York for school last year, and I'm pretty sure she spends more time there than she does in our crappy apartment.
The woman smiles at Brittany, handing her some change before gladly accepting a hug. Britt leans down, practically scooping the woman off her feet in a massive bear hug. "Thank you!" The women looks a little shocked when she's placed back on the ground but gives a cheery wave before heading to wherever she was heading before she was interrupted.
"See, it's easy." Britt grins at me, waving goodbye to the woman who's already half way down the street.
"It's easy for you." I tell her rolling my eyes. "I hate people touching me. I hate people."
"Santana…" She looks at me, corners of her mouth turning down. "You promised."
She knows if she frowns at me for long enough I'll give in, and it takes about two seconds for me to sigh before picking the sign back up.
"Fine." I scowl, turning away from her. I hear a little squeal of delight before she moves away from me, looking for her next victim.
I scan the faces passing me, trying to pick out a person I wouldn't completely hate touching me, frowning at most of the prospects.
A lot of old men in itchy looking suits, which makes my scowl deepen. I'm almost ready to give up and just let Britt pout until she points me at someone when a flash of blonde hair catches my eyes.
I whip around to follow it, sighing in relief when I recognise the woman attached the the hair.
"Hey!" I yell, trying to get her attention before weaving towards her in the crowd. She looks up, hazel eyes scrunching up in confusion before she recognises me. She smiles tentatively before approaching me.
"Hey…" She looks at my sign, an eyebrow raising, before she continues. "Santana?"
"Yeah, I'm in your screenwriting class." I grin nervously, pushing a hand through my dark hair. "You're Quinn, right?"
"Yeah." We stand in silence for a minute before I clear my throat.
"Oh! Me and my friend," I motion behind me where Brittany is hugging a middle aged man who looks slightly too happy about it. At least she'll probably squeeze an extra few dollars from him and we can go home earlier. "We're trying to raise money for the shelter. You know the one that had the fire last week?" She nods. "So, we're giving out hugs in exchange for like, spare change or whatever."
"And you want to hug me?" She narrows her eyes a little.
"I don't really want to hug anyone but if it's a choice between you and some douche in a suit then I know which one I'd rather pick." I tell her honestly.
"I don't know whether to be offended or not?" She chuckles. "Do you want the money before, or after?"
"Gosh, make me sound like a prostitute." I roll my eyes but I smile, causing her to laugh again. It's cute laugh, breathy. Kind of adorable really.
"C'mere." I put the sign down and then hold out my arms. She moves into my arms, her own arms coming up to wrap around my waist, pulling us closer together.
The first thing I notice when she rests her head against my shoulder is that she smells good, like the kind warm vanilla smell you get when you've been baking all day.
I tighten my hold of her slightly before I realise how creepy that must be. We stay like that for a couple of seconds before she pulls back, keeping her hands on my hips, looking down at me with a small smile on her face.
Butterflies flair up in my stomach and spread across my body as I smile back, blushing slightly. My skin tingles where her hands lie.
"If I give you double can I have another hug?" She asks, her voice lower this time, almost husky, causing another batch of butterflies to flutter out over my skin.
"I… Uh… Yeah, yeah." I nod, blush deepening. I internally thank my darker skin for hiding a blush easier.
She leans back in, resting her head against my shoulder. I shudder when her nose brushes against my neck. I close my arms, not worrying about being creepy this time and tightening my grip around her shoulders.
Part of me, somewhere in the back of my head, is telling me that this is weird, and I've never felt like this hugging another person before in my entire life.
When she pulls away, she looks a little bit flustered before she digs through her back, grabbing a piece of paper and her purse.
"Turn around." She tells me, motioning with her hand for me to spin.
I do as she asks. "What're you doing?"
"I need something to lean on." She tells me before I feel her press against my back, making shapes. It takes me a minute to realise she's writing something down.
"Alright, you can turn around again." She smiles when I spin around quickly, almost losing my footing.
"Here." She passes me a small roll of money, which I assume is a few dollar bills, wrapped in a piece of paper.
"What's this?" I frown, unravelling the money to look at the writing on the paper.
"My number." She tells me, putting her purse back into her bag and turning to walk away.
I look up at her for a second before I look down at the amount of money she's given me, eyes widening.
"Quinn?" I call after her. She turns back to me part way down the street. "You've given me too much money!"
"Maybe I just don't want you to hug anybody else." She calls back before she turns around and walks away.
Bonjour.
I haven't written anything in so long, and I know, but I can't decide whether this should just stand alone or I should continue it. What do u think friends?
I got the idea for this from a tumblr post about AUs and I do kind of have an idea on how to continue it.
My hands are itchy.
plz review, fave, whatevz, let me know what you think about it.