Like This Triangle Needs More Sides
The universe is obviously punishing her for failing senior year by putting her in the center of the love triangle from hell.
Brittany listens to a lot of Avril Lavigne after the break up because Taylor Swift is the last thing she wants to hear.
Early Avril, more specifically.
Like why'd-you-have-to-go-and-make-things-so-complicated Avril.
Lord Tubbington just stares at her the entire time, too high to blink and too lazy to turn the music off.
Her parents sort of ignore the fact that they can hear it throughout the house. It's not that they don't care her heart's been shattered into a million billion pieces, it's just that they're lame and old and don't understand teenage angst quite like Canadian pop-punk skateboarders. Instead, they turn the television up while she wails I'm With You by herself.
Her sister is a nosy brat. Sometimes when she's at Cheerios practice, her sister will snoop through her things and read her diary. One day Brittany even catches her wearing Santana's sweatshirt.
Normally Brittany wouldn't mind, but there's always the possibility that Santana will ask for her stuff back.
That's a lifetime of stuff and the thing is she has a sentimental attachment to… well, everything.
She yanks the sweatshirt over her sister's grubby little head easily enough.
It doesn't smell as much like Santana as it used to though.
Sugar hands her a Get Well Soon card one day.
"But I'm not sick," Brittany insists.
"Sadness can turn into sickness," Sugar tells her. "Don't be a downer like Blaine. Cheer up, okay?"
Blaine texts her every now and then, but for the most part he doesn't talk. She's not sure why. It's not like she hates him for cheating on Kurt – she's cheated before, on Artie, and even when she was dating him, it felt like she was cheating on Santana, too.
For once, school is really the only thing that makes sense. The tutoring helps and the more she pays attention in class, the easier her homework is. The easier the homework, the easier the tests.
Sometimes she has nothing better to do on the weekends than study.
Her grades go up little by little, slower than she thought they would, but anything is an improvement over last year.
She auditions for the musical, gets the part she wants, and has nobody to share it with.
Santana manages to pop back into Lima just in time to save the show and looks more gorgeous than ever.
Sam takes her out for Chinese food right after the play wraps up. It's not the first time they've ever hung out or anything, but it is the first time they've gone… out.
It's not a date – Brittany doesn't think so, anyway – but she gets the feeling that Sam might think it is by the way he's staring at her.
She focuses on her sweet and sour chicken instead. For a second she thought about getting shrimp, but that only reminds her of… yeah.
"Everything okay?" Sam asks. "You haven't said much."
She doesn't tell him she made a mistake coming to dinner with him especially after she told Santana she wasn't seeing anyone.
"Thinking 'bout the play," she replies.
More like a certain Pink Lady.
"Glad it's over?"
No. Not when Santana has to go back to Louisville now that it's done.
"Yeah," she lies, taking a bite of chicken. Shrimp would've been better. "Took up too much study time."
Sam fiddles with his fork a bit, having given up on his chopsticks a while ago. "Brittany," he says, "it's okay if you're still in love with her."
"I know that," she says meekly. "Just like it's okay if you like me."
She doesn't know why she says it, but it's not like she can stop him if he does, right? He's allowed to have a crush on her even if she doesn't feel the same way, and she's not leading him on if they're friends and she tells him that's all they are.
Friends get dinner all the time.
Sam seems pretty shocked that she picked up on it, but she knows when people are into her. Maybe he thought he was being smart by keeping it a secret until she got over Santana or something.
Brittany remembers junior year and how sometimes timing is everything.
Sam, with his cool Kenickie 'do still in place, shrugs. "I guess if you already know there's no reason for me to say it."
The bill comes and Brittany starts to panic. She can hear Santana's voice inside her head when Brittany told her she wasn't dating anyone.
It would be okay if you were.
Then she can see Santana's face when she added, I'm glad you're not.
"Let's split this one," she tells Sam, who nods.
"Sure thing."
She doesn't feel so guilty anymore until she breaks her fortune cookie and reads, "Confucius say, lovers in triangle not on square."
When Sam asks her what it says, she cries.
It takes him ten minutes to get her to stop sobbing and to pry the fortune from her balled up fist.
"What does it mean?" she asks, because she can't really understand anything other than lovers in triangle.
Sam doesn't know what it means either though, so he looks it up on his phone. "It means there's a lack of…"
"A lack of what?"
"Honesty."
God, this is what she was afraid of. The universe is obviously punishing her for failing senior year by putting her in the center of the love triangle from hell.
Sam drops her off at her house after dinner looking crestfallen. She gives him a hug because how can she not hug him when he looks so sad?
And she's sad too, so he hugs her back.
"Night," she whispers in his ear before letting go and climbing out of the car.
"Good night, Brittany," he says, faking a smile.
She shuts the car door and makes her way inside, thumbing through the contacts on her phone.
"Hello?" Santana says when she picks up after a few rings. "Britt?"
"Hey," Brittany says, suddenly feeling self-conscious. "Are you in your car?"
"Yeah," Santana replies. "I'm on my way back to school. I have a ton of homework to catch up on. Is everything alright?"
Brittany lies down on her bed and snuggles with Santana's sweatshirt, inhaling whatever's left of Santana's scent. "I didn't get to say goodbye."
Santana doesn't say anything for a while. "I looked for you after the show, but when I didn't see you right away I figured it was for the best. I was afraid if I did come to say bye, I never would've left."
"Really?"
"Really. I would have stuck around for hours just to talk to you and then I'd be so far behind once I actually did get home–"
"I went to dinner with Sam," Brittany blurts out, and then starts to cry all over again. "I'm sorry," she adds. She ran out of tissues weeks ago so she uses the shirtsleeve to wipe her eyes.
"You have nothing to be sorry for," Santana sighs.
"It wasn't a date, but I could tell he wanted it to be."
"What did you want?"
"I didn't want to hurt his feelings."
"No, Brittany, I'm not asking what you didn't want. I'm asking what you did want. What do you want?"
"I want… to be happy."
"Remember when I said I can't give you the things you need right now?"
"Yeah."
"I think happiness is one of those things. I can't make you happy because so much of that is being in Lima with you."
Brittany nods even though she knows Santana can't see her. "I still don't know what to do about Sam though. He makes me friend-happy."
"You're a genius, Britt. I'm sure you'll figure something out. Things change, y'know?"
"Sometimes I wish they didn't have to," Brittany sniffles. "Santana? I just wanna say it's okay if you are dating that Virginia Woolf girl."
"I'm not, Britt."
"I'm glad," Brittany says with a yawn. "But I want you to be happy too."
"Thank you," Santana replies sincerely. "I'm not looking to date anyone at the moment though. College surprisingly has a lot more to offer than just hot chicks. Or not-so-hot chicks in Virginia Woolf girl's case."
Brittany laughs. "Hey, you're the one who's attracted to her," she jokes.
"For like a split second!"
"Still counts."
"Whatever. Like this love triangle needs more sides," Santana says.
"Word."
"You sound tired, Britt. You should go to bed."
"Nuh uh, I'm staying on the phone with you until you get back safe."
"It'll be at least another hour," Santana warns her.
"Plenty of time to tell my best friend how awesome she was as Rizzo," Brittany insists.
"Oh, you'll need more than an hour for that."
Brittany grins into Santana's sweatshirt. "I know."
A/N: Thanks to Skillz for being an awesome beta!