The sound of a locker slamming shut grabs your attention. You look up from your own locker to see Santana Lopez having some sort of conversation with that new exchange student. Rory something. Okay, conversation might not be the best word. From the looks of it, the new guy is getting one of Santana's legendary verbal smack downs. You think you hear Brittany Pierce's name and suddenly it at all makes sense to you.
It's not like you've been paying particular attention to anything Santana Lopez and Brittany Pierce do. It's not anything creepy like that. They're among the most popular girls in school so word gets around whenever they do something that's deemed gossip worthy. You've never been one to care about all that. You've got exams and biology projects and college entrance essays to write. Stuff like who flashed whom at Noah Puckerman's last party are really at the bottom of the list of things on your mind.
But you can't really help it lately; not since that day you saw a tearful Santana push a distraught looking Brittany away from her and practically run in the other direction. For some reason that fleeting moment you caught in a busy hallway last year stuck with you. You didn't know what they were just discussing or what had caused that kind of reaction. All you did know was that whenever people talked about Santana Lopez, it was either about how hot she looked or how much of a bitch she was. But you had never once seen her treat Brittany that way.
It made you wonder how much you didn't know about the two girls. They were common topics of school gossip so it always seemed like you knew them. Even the few classes you had shared with them confirmed everyone's tales of the mega bitch maneater and her super slutty, ditzy best friend. You'd occasionally overhear Santana mention her sexual exploits with various boys on the football team, or how Brittany forgot her bra at Puck's party last weekend.
But ever since that day in the hallway, you started noticing and overhearing different things. You remember seeing when Brittany and Artie Abrams broke up. Their entire relationship in itself had been a surprise to you and the rest of the student body. The meatheads on the hockey team had once cornered Artie and harassed him, asking how a cripple like him managed to hook up with one of the hottest girls in school. They chalked it up to her being too dumb to care and obviously influenced by those losers in Glee Club.
Brittany's locker is only a few strides away from yours and when she and Artie broke up you distinctly remember Santana's name being brought up. It was Brittany who ran away in tears this time. It was only a few minutes later that you saw Santana with her arm wrapped protectively around Brittany, whispering something in her ear that managed to get a faint smile out of her.
After that, things appeared to go back to normal for them. They were back to being best friends, made inseparable by the linked pinkies that swung in between them. But this time there was a different air about them. You couldn't figure out what is was exactly but you could definitely see it. And when you'd overhear them, they didn't talk about parties or stupid jocks anymore. This time around you think you hear something about a movie at Brittany's and notice a smile on Santana's face that you're sure you've never seen from her before.
With the start of the new school year, everyone was talking about Quinn Fabray's new look. The boys talked about how hot she was and the girls about how she had finally gone off the deep end. You heard Brittany and Santana talking about it during lunch and that's when you noticed it again; this new tension between them. It almost felt like a warm anticipation of something. Like a fluttery, nervous excitement that you could see in Santana's smile and in Brittany's step. You even noticed how they were sharing the same lunch tray. You even maybe smiled a little when Santana smacked Brittany's hand away for trying to steal a carrot. Brittany only pouted and then laughed when Santana handed her another one.
You maybe smiled even wider a few weeks later when you saw them eating at BreadstiX together. There was a napkin on the table covering what you assumed were their hands and you looked away, deciding that they deserved their privacy.
Back in sophomore year, a friend once told you about a party he went to. He went on and on about how crazy it was and how the jocks acted even more stupid when they were drunk. He also mentioned seeing Brittany and Santana making out to the delight of every guy in the room. You had rolled your eyes back then, scoffing at the latest antics of the school's resident sluts. But now, as you watch Santana send one last withering glare in Rory's direction, you can't help but think about how wrong you were.
You think about the looks on their faces that day by the lockers. In one single moment, it was like some secret light they shared was shattered. Even then, you felt as if something precious was being crushed by forces far bigger than two high school girls. You wonder if maybe everything you have ever heard about Santana Lopez and Brittany Pierce was all wrong. And everything you'd ever need to know about them you could see on their faces when they looked at each other.
And later that night in the school parking lot, after classes had long ago been let out and you're just leaving a late tutoring session, you maybe see that light restored to them when you catch Santana's hand slide into Brittany's. That light looks brighter this time; full of hope and possibilities. And maybe you feel an unexpected sense of pride for the two girls you never knew at all.