A few notes: My Brittana fanfic is not based on any episodes from the show, BUT, I do use Glees' characters as well as my own original characters and often pull lines or interactions from the show that seem to fit the situations in my story.
And a Warning: The first couple of posts and updates are just going to be background stuff so everyone can get a feel for the story line and Glee characters in which I might choose to tweak in comparison to their on-air personalities as well as introduce a few original characters. I'm going to introduce how everyone meets and how their friendships relate to one another. I'll ease into the rest of the good stuff depending on how many people like it and want me to keep going! And if you're good you might even see some Quintana or Fabarry pop up. Brittana will eventually show up, but it'll take a while to set the mood, so please be patient and enjoy the journey!
Santana Lopez, Quinn Fabray, Mercedes Jones. They were the unstoppable force that was Girl Power at William McKinley High School. The whole school knew them. Some loved them, some hated them, but all never really understood them together. The only people who could really penetrate the inner workings of their click were the four guys at McKinley worth talking too. Quinn's ex-boyfriend Finn Hudson, who after the year of their break up, had decided Quinn was a actually better friend than girlfriend had started tagging along with the girls again. Sam Evans and Finn were tight although they had beef while vying for McKinley's starting quarterback position, so he had started coming around often as well. Noah Puckerman who had been in and out of the girls' drama for years, was Finn's childhood best friend who was also on the football team. And newest addition, lone junior, Blaine Anderson sang with Mercedes at church. Blaine was her best guy friend before she had met the other two legs to their lady tripod. He had fit quite nicely into the male half of their group when he came back to McKinley after coming home from a semester over seas with his recently reconciled parents. Although Noah, who had renamed himself Puck before starting high school, had run into some academic problems and was no longer at McKinley, he remained a stand in at kick backs and get togethers often enough for the click to consider him "in," everyone ignoring that he had stirred up girl drama all too often.
Quinn, the sweet and seemingly innocent All-American-girl-next-door and Santana, straight up bitch, cheered together in high school while Mercedes was a gospel singer at their local church. How the hell the three got stuck together was beyond anyone at McKinley, even the boys they accepted as their own. They thought about how Finn, Sam and Blaine had told the girls one night how they, between the three of them, had put the pieces together of their inevitable friendship. The girls contemplated their theory and then they thought of how they as a group had made sense of their friendship.
Santana Lopez has always been the bitch of the click. Her best friends would definitely vouch for that. She's always snarky and has a bite to her words constantly. She's slept with more than a couple of handfuls of boys around William McKinley High School despite her awful attitude, probably due to her being the hottest girl in school. She knew just how to lure them in, and bite their heads off one by one, checking them off of her To Do List as she went. Deep down Quinn and Mercedes thought she was searching for some sort of fulfillment that never came, no matter how many guys she could get to drop to their knees in front of her, or how many girls she could get to follow her around the halls of school, asking to eat lunch at "THE" table with her. She didn't quite understand how Quinn and Mercedes had managed to stick around with her the last two years of high school with her insane tirade for Queen Bee at WMHS. Well, maybe she did. Quinn is just as competitive as she. And despite Santana's efforts, Quinn ended up winning, everything. Quinn challenged Santana for everything, causing ear shattering arguments often, by the end of which only strengthened each of them individually and also together as friends. Senior year Quinn took the title of Homecoming Queen, Class President, Prom Queen and Valedictorian. She had won everything. Everything but Puck, which seemed to be almost the most important of them all to both girls. Mercedes fit in as the Diva and voice of reason who balanced them out. She just laughed off her two best friends love-hate relationship when it came to boys because she did her own thing, point blank. She was always the perfect amount into and not into the other twos' drama with each other. Mercedes had been the one who held this trio together for so long, no doubt. Even so, drama ensued when Santana was the one who came out victorious when Puck had broken it off with Quinn for good and started dating, well sleeping, with Santana. All hell broke loose between the two but it lasted only two or three weeks before they couldn't take it any more. Both girls, never really admitting to each other, but each in complete confidence to Mercedes, they missed each other. Both had missed each other more than either had ever cared about Puck. So Mercedes set them up on a lunch date with each other where they all but kissed and made up. With some no nonsense lecturing on the Diva's part all was well once again. Two years later, coming up on graduation there was still a twinge of animosity between the two over Puck.
The click buzzed with excitement as graduation neared. The boys mostly for the parties and the chicks. The girls, mostly for the memories they'd have the best time of their lives creating and have forever to cherish. Two months from being WMHS alumni, as the boys were having a small kick back at Puck's, the girls were settling into Santana's living room, planning to enjoy one of the last few weekends alone as a group before all the pre and post graduation madness would drop like a bomb on Lima, Ohio. Mercedes lounged on the couch scrolling through her phone while Quinn and Santana were sitting on either side of the coffee table placed directly in front of her feet. Quinn, being Quinn, sat with her legs tucked in a criss cross in front of her, pen and paper set down, ready to scribble notes for decorations, a guest list and their plan of attack. Her perspiring drink acting as a paper weight soaked the corner of the blank sheet. Santana, being Santana, had suddenly sprawled out on her stomach, dramatically huffing as she reached for her iPod to look for some pump up music as they mumbled nonsense to each other. They sat around waiting for inspiration, sipping their rum and cokes, none of them knowing where to start planning. Santana selected a random playlist and pressed play. She lazily pulled herself up off the ground to turn up the music on her families' sound system. She wiggled her hips and she took a big gulp of her drink.
"Mmmhmm." She smacked her lips before starting in on the two others. "Although I love you ladies like I love gettin' my grooves on to this song, this pow-wow is not hittin' my high notes, you feel? Get off of your phone and start blabbin', jabber jaws." That was directed straight for Mercedes who knew Quinn had purposefully left her phone in the car due to boy drama, as usual.
Mercedes rolled her eyes and snapped back,"Well excuse me for trying to sort out which boys, other than Finn, Sam and Blaine you've already banged so I don't re-invite them to the massive orgy I know we'd be having if you were in charge of the party."
"Ooohhh, touche." Santana pointed at Mercedes, letting out a laugh before downing the rest of her drink.
"Ladies, ladies, I know you're both after 'Handsome Hudson' but he'll never be caught dead within a ten mile radius of me during a party after the last fiasco."
The trio burst into laughs after Quinn's reference to her and Finn's devastatingly ugly break up last year. Quinn still remembered how Finn had been hurt for a few months longer than she had been over her confession that she had slept with his best friend after a football game one Friday Night. Finn had previously chewed Quinn out for mentioning that he wouldn't be starting quarterback after California beach blonde, Sam Evans had transferred and took over the spot. She hadn't meant to upset him, and was merely trying to offer some support that he'd win the spot back if he was just patient enough, but Finn had lost it anyway. She ignored him the entire game and ran off with Santana and the rest of the Cherrios to a victory party as soon as the game was over. Finn having to work at Burt Hummel's car garage early the next morning was absent from the get together. He had texted and called her a few times, explaining he was sorry, but he had just been so hurt by Quinn's insensitive words. Ugh he's such a female. That was all the queue Quinn needed to lean into football hottie Noah Puckerman. Puck was man enough to handle Quinn, she scoffed at her phone as she turned it off. And boy was she right.
Santana had snapped Quinn's attention back to reality, "Naw you know Cedes is all about Trouty Mouth Sammy."
"Oh God, shut up Slope! Don't even get her started or she'll be drooling all night." Quinn was the only one who ever called Santana Slope. It had happened accidentally when they were kids in elementary school. It had been Quinn's turn to call role and she called out S. Lopez instead of Santana's full name. A few of their classmates giggled but S. Lopez sounded bad ass to the girls. It eventually shortened into Slopez, which the mini bitch had shot down quickly, and had eventually evolved into Slope. To both girls it just seemed to fit, so it stuck, just like their friendship.
Mercedes, who had been sipping her drink deep into tipsy territory, almost coughed her mouthful at the two others as she was hit by the wall of denial.
"I do NOT like Sam you guys! He's like our little brother." The sparkle in her eyes and her over dramatic shocked face gave her away all to easily.
"Ew, gross!" The Cherrios laughed sarcastically in unison. "That's totally incestuous Cedes." Santana followed up with before another round of giggles hit the three tipsy girls.
They sat around pouring drink after drink until they were rolling around in pure hysterics, reminiscing on the last two and a half, almost three years they had all spent together. Santana and Quinn telling stories of their childhood, which Mercedes could appreciate because it showed how much had and hadn't changed since the twosome had become a threesome. The three laughed and joked over and over about how if Quinn and Santana hadn't grown up across the street from each other and they hadn't had met Mercedes that night at The Burning Tree, they would never have been caught dead with each other. They had met coincidentally one night right before sophomore year had ended, at the local head shop and cafe by day, open mic and bar of sorts by night. They always said fate laid a hand in their meeting because the three of them together had run the school their Junior and Senior years.
Mercedes was on stage when the girls rounded the corner to look for a table, commenting on that girls voice and making a small wager about her, when they spotted her.
"Told you she was a sista Q. No white girl can blow like that, you heard. That's why I'm a better voice than you'll ever be," the ethnically mixed girl spat at her best friend.
"Oh shut the hell up Slope, you know I can out dance and sing your cocky ass any day!" Quinn jabbed back. "Just because you're like eight kinds of brown doesn't make you and more of a performer than me."
"Oh helllllls no! I am NOT eight kinds of anything. I'm hisssssspanic, black AND white Miss pale princess. So that definitely makes me two shades sexier than you, voice included."
Quinn winced at the remark, knowing it was somewhat true, although she was an outstanding beauty and talent herself. "Whatever, let's just sit by the bar and try to get the bartender to slip us some much needed alcohol."
They sat cozied up in the back corner of the room, next to the bar in the shadows slipping their one tiny flask of rum out to slit between their two cokes the server had brought them to sip on through the rest of Mercedes' set.
Tj was name printed over her heart, on the left side of her black, long sleeve, button up shirt. She was the bartender on duty that night, serving up soda's, waters and virgin frozen margaritas. She spotted the two trying to liven their night and spooked them when she said, "I hope ya'll know it's dry in here tonight." There goes that plan Santana thought.
Both young girls jumped and Quinn showed the panic on her face immediately while Santana's exterior poker face didn't match her internal frantic search for a way out of the situation, which she was sure was to get them chewed out, then thrown out.
The owner of The Burning Tree, Teresa-Jane, better known as Tj or sometimes Teej, was a younger hipster woman in her mid-twenties who had acquired the place when her lesbian Aunt had run off to South America with her Argentinian girlfriend. They both just took off when her work visa had expired about five months ago. She had been her Aunt's assistant manager for years now, but when her Aunt had met Alejandra a little over a year and a half ago, she had pretty much taken over the business. It had originally been a glass blowing studio for all the hipster artists from the local community college to come and sell their art, but the cafe was what really kept the place on its feet. Tj had seen the art gallery and shop/cafe formally known Oak Tree Cafe slowly creep towards failure when she shut down the place for renovations, and reopened as The Burning Tree; head shop and cafe by day and adding a small stage for an open mic and bar spot by night. The stage was perfect for the night scene in Lima, where neighborhood bars were for the old drunks and sleaze balls. The underagers now had a place to hang out other than parking lots or Hell No Heights, the local make out spot everyone denied going to. The Burning Tree was open for poetry readings, comedy shows and karaoke nights after knocking out half of the employee break room to make room for a bar flanking the opposite wall of the stage. The place was dry Thursday nights so the local high schoolers could bring in some much needed business. After a few months though, Tj started slipping her favorites a Vodka cranberry or a shot of Tequila every once in a while, as long as they had one designated driver and swore to every kid sneaking drinks she'd cut them off at a three drink max over the course of the night or call the cops herself.
Mercedes' older brother Michael had graduated high school with Tj and they both still hung around the same crowd now and again. Tj had mentioned to Michael at a get together one night, that she was re-opening her cafe with a night scene if Mercedes wanted to book a gig with her every other Thursday night. It wouldn't necessarily pay right away until they could see how much business it brought in, but if it did well she could have a permanent spot with a shot at a steady paycheck and whatever tips she earned on stage would definitely be hers to keep. Mercedes had gladly accepted when Michael had brought home the good news, seeing it as yet another step towards her dream of becoming the next Whitney or Mariah.
"Tj," Santana hummed, her eye's sweeping across the young woman's chest. "Is that short for something equally sexy?" Quinn's jaw dropped and Santana quickly pressed her toes into Quinn's under the table as a sign to keep it together.
Quinn turned her head towards the door and snapped her jaw closed as fast as she could without drawing attention to herself. But what in the hell does she think she's doing? Quinn really couldn't believe Santana was going to try to flirt her way out of this.
"T is for totally-busted. J is for jail-time." Tj leaned in closer to the warming cheeks of the flustered teen. "But I'd be willing to bet it'd change into T for this-time-you're-catching-a-break, J for just-this-once. Sit tight." She commanded as she set down two napkins and disappeared behind the bar.
"WHAT the FUCK Santana!" Quinn hissed as low as her voice could go without slipping beneath the powerful number the girl on stage was belting out. "You can't just throw your vay jaj at anyone who walks you know. She's probably not even a dyke."
Santana scoffed, "Number one, dyke is officially out of your vocabulary. And number two, she totally looked at my boobs. She wants me Fabray, so let me just get us outta here before we spend the night cuddling up to each other in the corner of the same jail cell Puck frequents."
"Whatever Slope, but I'm not getting involved. It's a long shot. She's probably got guys hitting on her left and right. No way she'd be into a girl."
"Oh please, I'm not just some girl. I'm Santana 'sex appeal' Lopez. I can get anyone I want. Even if I'm not willing to lick her cooch back."
"Oh my God, you're outta control." Quinn rolled her eyes dramatically. But deep down inside she had let a thought about Santana letting the pretty young woman kneel in front of her slip to the surface. "You wouldn't actually let her do it...right?" The quiver in Quinn's voice almost betraying her thoughts.
Santana, caught off guard, paused before responding, somewhat out of character. "I, I-I-I don't..."
Two shot glasses splashing clear liquid hit the napkins on the table. "You two hot shot's take that. Here's some salt and a couple of lime slices. You're going to show me you know how to take those, thus proving," Tj leaned in making eye contact with Santana then Quinn as she stretched the word, "that you are both of age to be drinking in my bar."
Santana, coming from a Hispanic family, had been around tequila since she could remember. Her cousin Marco had showed her how to take a shot with lime and salt years ago. Granted back then she had never had a sip of alcohol and the shot had gone horribly wrong. She learned to perfect it earlier in the year when she turned sixteen.
She lifted Quinn's hand off the table, licking the bulky space of her hand behind the point where her thumb and her index finger met. Quinn shocked, almost yanked her hand away until she realized Santana was playing Tj's game, trying her best to trump Tj's move. Santana shook some salt onto Quinn's hand, licked it off, dropped her head back with the shot of clear liquid vanishing and bit into the lime.
Tj raised her eyebrows as Santana's eyes finally unlocked from the bartenders and glanced at Quinn. Quinn froze. She'd never taken a shot of anything, let alone tequila. She'd lied to Santana and Mercedes about doing so with Puck to try to make Santana jealous when the two had broken it off and his attention started drifting towards the sexy Latina.
"Your turn blondie."
As if Santana had read Quinn's mind she picked up Quinn's hand again and licked the same spot, shaking some salt to cover the wet spot. She nodded at Quinn. Quinn took a deep breath and licked her hand, the salt causing an awful reaction on her face. She quickly knocked back her glass and the burning caused her eyes to water. She gagged as Santana rushed the remaining lime slice into her sight. Quinn bit hard on the lime squeezing her eyes shut.
"Mmmhmm." Tj tossed a wet waiters towel on the table, picked up the salt shaker and shot glasses and started towards the bar. "Stay put and meet me at the stage around closing time. We have things to discuss." She called over her shoulder. And with that the pretty young bartender was gone.
Santana grimaced at the sight of Quinn's face, contorting her own face to try to keep in a laugh that was too strong to hold back. Quinn shot Santana a look as she snorted and started giggling, clapping her hands together in amusement.
"You know she's going to call your Dad and my Mom down here to pick us up and treat us like the high school idiots we are!" Quinn snapped at her best friend who had slowed her laugh and was looking at her through the most adorable puppy dog eyes, just pleading for forgiveness.
"Oh come on Q, I've still got some tricks up my sleeve, and hey, you choked down your first shot of tequila a lot better than I did."
"That wasn't my first!" Quinn started to retort, but decided the gig was up. "Ok fine," she chuckled, "but how'd you know?"
"Puck drinks whiskey, Q. Come on, I've got this in the bag, let's just enjoy the rest of the evening."
"Alright, but seriously, I'm not whispering sweet nothings to anyone tonight, you hear me? You're a solo act on this one...if she even like girls."
The two girls sat sipping the rest of the non spiked cokes over the next two hours as Mercedes sang an array of top 40's. Quinn had even lightened up enough to start singing along with Santana to a few of them. Santana had even dragged Quinn onto stage during a short Karaoke intermission. They sang Lady Gaga's "You and I" as the crowd hooted and hollered at them. They had passed the girl who had been on stage all night on the way off the stage. She smiled and said something in passing.
"She said 'nice pipes ladies,'" Santana had repeated for Quinn who was taking her shot of tequila and two rum and cokes to the head. Quinn just smiled back at the stage, as if the girl could see them through the bright stage lights. Santana had started to feel it too, sitting down with an "oof" back at their table. Quinn almost missing her chair in the dark leaned into Santana for support. Their faces were inches from each other, the smell of liquor lingering mildly between them, their woozy eyes and the dim lights causing a stir of emotion between the two.
"Girls, last set then I want you to use these towels to start wiping down the tables." Tj had dropped another wet towel next to the first onto the table.
Quinn and Santana both snapped their heads away from each other and Quinn finished sitting down in her chair. Santana straightened her body away from Quinn and looked up at Tj, who had already turned her back to them. The girls sat in silence for the next twenty minutes until Mercedes had announced last song.
"Well Fabray, let's just get these tables wiped, throw on your best, 'I'm sorry' face and then I'll do the rest."
After the last song had come to a close and all the customers had said goodnight and filed out of the bar, the two delinquents took their towels and started wiping tables close to each other so they could still chat.
"So," Quinn started, "You never answered my question earlier."
"What question?" Santana played dumb, but sensing what was coming next.
"You know, what you're gonna do if she actually wants to take you home with her." Quinn turned her body towards the next table.
Santana determined not to show her unease like she had earlier just casually threw back, "I don't know. Let her kiss me, feel me up, get a good enough handful so that all of our crime is forgotten."
Quinn wanted more than that. "Ok, that I can believe, but what if she wants to...you know.. what you said you wouldn't do back."
"Q, seriously, grow a pair. It's called going down, eatin' the puss, lickin' the snatch, collecting the clam." Quinn had turned bright red, and although Santana had internally been thinking about it too, she displayed her know-it-all-attitude to cover up her nerves. The nerves that had come especially after that moment the girls had shared earlier.
"Uh, hey ladies." A friendly voice had appeared behind them, stirring them from their awkward conversation. "I really liked your duet during intermission earlier."
The three exchanged smiles until Santana, seeing her escape from the awkward conversation spoke up. "Hey, not so bad yourself. I'm Santana." Santana rarely smiled at meeting new people, but she was grateful not to have to keep talking to Quinn about her questionable choices tonight. She held out her hand for Mercedes to shake.
Mercedes took her hand and replied, "Mercedes Jones. I think I've seen you two around school. William McKinley right?"
"That's right. We both cheer for Coach Sylvester's Cherrios. I'm Quinn Fabray" Quinn had also held out her hand, coupled with a genuine smile. To most people, acknowledging that you were a Cheerio was an insult, but coming from Quinn it didn't seem cocky or rude at all.
"So looks like we're all on table duty tonight. How'd you two get stuck in here?"
"Tell her Slope." Quinn jabbed, a bit of psuedo-irritation lacing her comment.
Slope? Santana could see the confusion on Mercedes' face. "Santana Lopez. Q's the only one who calls me Slope for short though." Ohhhhh. A smile appeared on Mercedes' face. "We got caught packin' some extra goods tonight. Looks like your boss doesn't appreciate BYOB."
Mercedes' laughed. "Really? That's all? She must be extra cranky tonight. Either that or she's got the hots for one of you... Or both"
Riley, the only server in the bar that night had laughed loud enough that the girls had all turned their heads. Quinn shot a told-you-so-glare at Santana before returning to the conversation.
The three chit chatted until all the tables were wiped down and Mercedes had shown them how to place all the chairs on the tables so Riley could finish sweeping. After all but three chairs were up the girls sat down together, Riley cracking jokes to Mercedes' back and forth as she swept.
"She hates that I don't work here." She explained to the girls she had just met.
This time it was confusion on Santana and Quinn's faces. "Oh." Mercedes had chuckled. "I sing every other week and help out after close until Tj drops me off, unless my brother comes to pick me up. But I don't actually work here."
The girls nodded in understanding so Mercedes continued. "Tj has been really generous with me being so young. My 16th birthday is this summer, so I'll start getting a paycheck then, and she's holding onto all my tips in a shoe box in the office until she can legally hire me and pay me."
Riley, who had finished sweeping had pulled the last remaining chair off the nearest table and set it down, disappearing from sight. She came back from the bar with four glasses full of dark maroon colored bubbling liquid.
"Then she'll be a full time pain in the ass around here." She nudged Mercedes' playfully.
Although they hadn't officially met, the fourth girl fit into the conversation easily. They sat for another ten minutes sipping their cherry sodas Riley had made behind the bar, filling in the two new girls in about the place and how they ended up here. Riley's phone buzzed in her pocket. "Boyfriend. I'll see you girls next week." She called behind her as she started walking towards the door. It wasn't a question and it wasn't a command either. It was like she knew these three girls had started their everlasting friendship that night.
Tj walked out of the office and had told Mercedes to wash and dry their glasses when they were finished as she sat down with Quinn and Santana.
"So let's get right to the point. You two obviously aren't of age, and you two were blatantly drinking in my bar, on a dry night. I am the sole owner of this place. I tore it down and rebuilt this place, putting every penny of mine on the line to revive this bar. I love this place for more reasons than it is my only income. It was family owned and honestly this place saved my life." Quinn and Santana sat stone faced not knowing where this was going. Santana starting to feel awkward, squirmed slightly in her seat.
Tj noticed the air tighten and the atmosphere tense so she decided to finally cut them a deal. "How old are the two of you? The truth," She warned.
Santana, always more outspoken despite her apprehensiveness, spoke up first. "Just turned sixteen." Just enough bite in the statement to command that age doesn't claim either immaturity or maturity.
Quinn sat still. "Quinn's..." Santana glanced over at the blonde.
"Sixteen also." Quinn finished answering the question. She wanted to speak for herself, take on some of the weight from the nights trouble. She already felt she needed to compensate for blowing the shot and for sitting by while Santana tried to bail them out.
"Ok Quinn and..." Tj looked at Santana with questioning eyes.
"I'm Santana."
"Ok, Quinn and Santana. That's a start. Well you too could have cost me my bar. You're lucky I've got connections and I know exactly when all of the Alcohol Compliance checks are coming up, and my best bud from high school is on the Lima PD force as a back up plan."
Quinn and Santana looked at each other, still not knowing what to anticipate.
"Here's the deal, you two work for me now. To pay off the debt you could have cost me. I could use a few more hands around here, and a few more girls on stage throughout the week. I heard ya'll sing and I know you can both can bring in more business. Eight dollars an hour, fifteen hours a week. Tips are based hourly, plus whatever you bring in on stage is yours to keep. Same deal I cut for Mercedes. You in?"
Santana knew it would be tough during school with Cheerios practice and she looked at Quinn with questioning eyes. Quinn recognizing Santana's concerns, thinking of them herself finally said, "A permanent gig, or a summer time thing?"
Tj looked at Quinn in the eyes for a long time, deciding whether or not Quinn was challenging her or simply asking a fair question. She decided it was the latter. "Start as soon as school is out, through the summer, then you're free. Unless you both do well and would like to stay." It was the first time since their dramatic meeting that Tj's voice had softened.
Santana had not said a word since Tj had first asked their age, sealing her fate with her next choice words. "Alright, I'm in."
"Me too" Quinn looking at Santana for reassurance. She had gotten some from her best friend as she nodded in approval, but she gotten ten times more with what she heard next.
"Alllllright! We're gonna kick some ass and live up the summer together!" Mercedes beamed a huge smile at the girls. Surprisingly both girls beamed back and they all giggled as they threw high fives around at each other. The night hadn't turned out as awful as they thought it would.
"Alright, alright ladies, that's enough. You've both had something to drink tonight," looking at the pair, "so I'm taking you all home. Meet me out front and I'll lock up." This didn't really seem to bother either of them, a rather strange sense of fulfillment had come with the news. Maybe a first job, a summer full of new friendship and, well something to do all lazy summer.
Tj had walked up to her blacked out Escalade and clicked the automatic door opener. Mercedes had taken the seat up front and Quinn and Santana filed into the middle seat one after the other.
"Who's where?" Tj directed at the girls behind her as she started her SUV.
"Towards the Lima Bean on Campbell Boulevard. It's a right at the stop on 7th and Hayden." Santana answered automatically.
"And where are you Quinn?" Tj had pulled out of the parking lot and onto the main drag past all the other stores and cafes' with dark windows, signaling how late the night had become.
"We live across the street from each other," Santana again.
"How convenient" Tj had mumbled. Santana and Quinn looked at each other in confusion. Had their fake display of affection really sunk in? Santana smirked and nudged Quinn. "Oh it is," the husk in Santana's voice surprised everyone, herself included. Quinn giggled, mostly because she knew Santana was faking it. But was she?
Tj shook her head, a little smile on her face as well.
"Well who's house then?" She asked as she pulled up to the stop sign on 7th and Hayden.
"Right on Hayden, all the way down to the cul-de-sac. I'm the beige house just there," Santana leaned past Tj and pointed in her view as they rolled closer to her home. "Quinn's the bluish house with the tree in the yard, just on the other side of the street."
"Well ladies here you are. Stop by The Tree after school tomorrow and we'll discuss the rest of the details about summer coming up. Goodnight, and no causing any more ruckus. Keep it down up there," Tj nodded her head towards the second level of Santana's house.
"Actually, we sleep in there," Santana pointed to the window peeking out from the left side of her house. "We have the whole first floor to ourselves, so we're known to stir up ruckus all night, with no complaints if you know what I mean." The husk in Santana's voice was back.
Quinn feeling a jolt on her insides grabbed Santana's hand and yanked her towards the front door. "Goodnight ladies! Mercedes see you at school tomorrow? Lunch?" Mercedes nodded, "Hell yeah! See ya girl!"
"Thanks for the ride Tj!" Quinn turning her head to call back to the dark vehicle, Santana in tow, already halfway to the door.
"Those two are somethin' aren't they?" Tj and Mercedes laughed in agreement to Tj's statement as they pulled away from the curb towards their next destination.
Quinn fumbling with Santana's keys, finally got the front door open. Pulling Santana through the door and closing it behind them.
"I can't believe you." Quinn's voice was hard for Santana to read. She couldn't decide whether her tone was panicked due to the nights turn of events, or if it was due to the husk Santana had used on multiple occasions. Wait, why would she be frantic about that, unless she liked it? Santana shook her head, trying to banish the hopeful thoughts from her head.
"Well it worked didn't it?" The husk was still there, low and sultry. Half by accident, half testing Quinn. Santana felt Quinn's hand slightly tighten around hers on impulse. Oh My God. There was a sudden pull in Santana's lower body. There was a sharp intake of air and Quinn looked her directly in her eyes.
"Are you alright?" Quinn's voice, soft and gentle, almost urging Santana closer to her body.
Santana took a half step towards her, mesmerized with the brilliant green of her friends eyes despite the dim lighting from the porch light outside. She snapped herself out of it and pulled them both towards the kitchen. She reached for the top of the wine rack in the pantry and pulled down a bottle filled with light pink liquid.
"Come on, let's head to my room." Santana led them down the hall through the first door on the left. Once inside, she flipped on her desk lamp and covered the shade with a thin Bob Marley flag she'd gotten from her cousin after a visit to Hawai'i. The dimmed red, yellow and green light from the corner of her room paired with the dark color on her walls set the mood. It's...sexy in here. Santana thought to herself. She turned to find Quinn already sitting on her bed. Looking around as if she'd never been in here before she murmured, "It looks different like this."
"Y-you don't like it?" Santana suddenly caught in panic that maybe Quinn wasn't also feeling the pull in her lower stomach.
"Oh no, I do. I really like it," Quinn said quickly, but softly. Smiling at Santana she reached out her hand. Maybe for the bottle of wine, maybe for Santana.
Neither girl knew what was happening and before they knew it the distance between them was gone. Santana standing less than a foot away from Quinn, who was still dangling her feet off the side of Santana's raised bed. Quinn had her hand on the bottle, right above where Santana was holding it.
"Do you have a cork screw?" Quinn asked, never taking her eyes away from the dark pair that stared back.
"Top drawer in the bed stand. For emergencies," Santana explained.
"Hmmph." Quinn thought this was odd, but so Santana.
Quinn's laugh was cute. The way she looked in this light was cute. Her soft hand above Santana's was cute. What are we doing? No, what am I doing? What am I letting her do to me?
Santana leaned past Quinn to reach for her drawer. The sent of Santana's perfume filled Quinn's nose. In a split second reaction, she pulled Santana's hip to sit next to her when she started to lean back. Santana startled, stumbled and fell onto Quinn, smashing their bodies together. "Oh..." Santana breathed airily. That was the only thing that could escape her mouth.
"Oh." Quinn repeated.