"Ladies and gentleman, we are experiencing slight turbulence, so I ask that you all return to your seat and ensure your seatbelt is securely fastened. Thank You."
"No shit." I whisper in frustration; my eyes shut tight together and my hands gripped the armrests on either side of me until my knuckles turned white.
I hated flying. I remember once when I was about five or six, my parents taking me to Florida over summer vacation; some drunk guy caused a scene over god knows what, resulting in him attacking one of the air stewards with a plastic butter knife, the other cabin occupants managed to restrain him but I decided then and there that no good could come from flying. I've been on planes since, but the turbulence, wailing babies, and confined bathroom space, not to mention my stubborn nature, have caused me to remain firm in my stance on air transportation.
A loud clap of thunder sounded from outside, the lights flickered, and the metal tube we were confined to, shuddered violently again. Any child that wasn't asleep cried in uproar at the experience; I very nearly joined them.
A soft hand covered my right one and squeezed gently, causing me to peek open my lids just a little. Blue sympathetic eyes met mine and their owner smiled warmly. I relaxed somewhat at the gesture, loosening my death grip on the armrest.
"Hey, don't be scared. I got you." crooned the delicate voice. I turned my hand upwards and intertwined our fingers. She was the only person I felt comfortable with seeing me like this, after all, she'd seen me in worse states.
"Thanks Britt." I smiled back, squeezing her hand that little bit tighter when the plane made another heavy jolt.
"Maybe you should try to sleep?" She suggested. I could see the slight worry in her otherwise calm expression; I knew she hated seeing anyone afraid, least of all me.
I chuckled a little at the thought, there was no way in hell I'd be able to sleep in this rickety cylinder of doom. I lay my head against her shoulder, not wanting to dismiss her suggestion, "But then you'd have no one to talk to Britt Britt."
I felt her place her own head atop of mine and her cheek tensed in what I knew was a smile. "Well then, how about we imagine how awesome this trip is going to be, and all the new friends we're going to make."
I was excited just thinking about the summer we were about to embark on, and it proved successful in terms of distraction to talk about it. So we did just that.
This trip had been Brittany's idea. She had always wanted to travel, see everything the world had to offer. As children, we had often talked about how we'd visit every country in the world one day, and play pretend that we were there.
When she finally suggested the idea to me back in January, I was all for it, but reasoned that visiting every single country was a little out of our reach what with college starting in the fall, so we settled on sticking within Europe. My dad had offered to fund the trip as a graduation gift for us both if we kept it to a realistic number of countries, so we mutually agreed that six was rather reasonable.
Picking which countries we visited however, proved to be a more difficult task. I wanted all sun all summer long, Britt wanted to visit places with character, rich in culture, a more sight-seeing experience. We chopped and changed our list more times than I can count, until we finally came to a decision in early March.
She had agreed on Spain and sunshine for me, if I promised to visit Ireland with her - she had seen some Amy Adam's movie set there, on one of the movie channels in mid February and decided that it was the cutest place ever, not to mention Rory leprechaun had returned home for the summer two weeks ago and she was anxious to visit him. She insisted on Paris, claiming it would be 'super romantic' and I couldn't possibly say no to that. Stuck on the idea of romance, I suggested Rome, and Britt loved it. Puck had reasoned that no European adventure would be complete without a stop in Amsterdam, and though I wasn't sure it would really be my thing, I loved the idea of visiting somewhere my friends found enviable, not that they weren't envious of this entire trip, because, come on, but still. So Amsterdam landed on the finalized list, along with the mutually agreed London as a starting point.
So here we were, en route to our greatest adventure yet, a week after graduation. Leaving McKinley proved to be a sadder experience than I had anticipated. I was excited to move on to a new chapter of my life, but highschool would always hold a special place in my heart, after all, it's where I fell in love.
I used all my self restraint to hold back tears on that last day in glee club, but it was no use, I'd miss those losers. They had all been so supportive of me these past couple of months and I didn't quite know how to express my gratitude. But it wasn't goodbye to everyone, I had reluctantly agreed, due to a lot of persuasion on Brittany's part, to share a three bedroom apartment in New York with Berry, and Kurt. The thought of living with these people did not excite me in the least but Britt had made a valid point of how expensive residence was in the city and it only made sense since we'd all be moving there for college anyway. Knowing I would be returning home to share a living space with the hobbit and lady porcelain, just made me more determined to enjoy every last minute of this trip.
A whole summer, just me and Brittany taking on the world.
I felt the aircraft begin it's decline and the fasten seatbelt sign made a digging sound. I leaned over the armrest and placed a delicate kiss on my girlfriend's lips, holding it there, my silent thank you for keeping me distracted throughout the flight.
"I love you." I whispered against her lips as the plane touched down.
A giant cheshire smile adorned her features at my words and I felt such a swell of pride in my heart that this beautiful girl was mine. "I love you too San! God! I'm so excited to be on this adventure with you!" She declared, taking the hand that was still clasped in hers and bringing to her lips to place a soft kiss.
We collected our luggage and fought our way through the crowds of people, eventually making our way to the exit.
Cold air stung my cheeks the second I stepped outside and I looked up, only to be met with grey skies and a spitty type of rain that was sure to make my hair frizz. Great. Clearly London hadn't received the memo that it was, in fact, June!
"Well, this sucks." I noted, looking out at the dull scene before me.
Brittany placed her bag on the floor and wrapped both arms securely around my upper body.
"Don't worry, I'll keep you warm." she whispered in my ear, causing a shiver, completely unrelated to the weather, to run down my spine. I smirked at her and she pecked me on the cheek before pulling away to pick up her bags.
I caught sight of a man wearing a black suit, and matching drivers cap holding a sign that read 'Lopez-Pierce'; my heart stilled in my chest. Just two simple words I'd seen countless times on our respective school books, hell, words I'd written – secretly of course – all over pretty much every notebook I'd owned, just words, and yet I felt a warmth spread in my chest at seeing them combined. This was it. We weren't school girls anymore. This was the real world, and here we were, taking it on together. Together. I smiled, probably a little too long, because the guy holding the sign looked at me like I was a l was a few screws short, and approached with unnecessary caution.
"Miss Lopez?"
"Yes."
"My name's Bryan, I'm here to take you to your accommodation." He informed in his very-British accent. It's not that I hadn't expected people in England to have British accents, but it always came as a surprise to hear an accent I was unaccustomed to. My father had told me at the airport that he'd arranged pick up at every destination to make sure we arrived to our rest places safely, but I had assumed it would be a shuttle bus or something of the sorts. I made a mental note to thank my dad later, and nodded at Bryan, throwing him a polite smile before offering our bags to his waiting hands.
Taking Brittany's hand, we followed the driver to the car. I loved how comfortable I felt doing this in public. There was a time when I wanted nothing more than to hold her hand and show the world she was mine, but fear overpowered that want. Not anymore though. I no longer cared about the looks, and the talks, the only thing that mattered was how perfectly her hand fit in mine.
Bryan was rather chatty, almost annoyingly so. He spent the entire ride recommending places to visit and restaurants to eat at. While I was grateful for his insight, I was more interested in the warm fingers tracing random patterns on my thigh. I looked to Brittany who was just staring innocently out the window, absorbing in everything as we passed it by. I knew she was aware that her touch was setting me on fire, but she was also sure to support an air of nonchalance when teasing me in public. In the end I grabbed the fingers on my thigh between both my hands; she smirked over at me knowingly and I pretended to glare at her. She just laughed, leaning close to my ear before whispering, "You love it."
"Here we go."our driver announced pulling to a stop in front of a large white townhouse. I peered at the hostel through the window as Bryan raced to fetch our bags from the trunk. I had wanted to stay in a hotel but Brittany put her foot down, insisting that it was too expensive and she wouldn't accept my father paying for her to stay in a luxurious hotel when there were perfectly good hostels available; not to mention the traveling experience would be much more fulfilling if we were to 'rough it' like everyone else. I had to admit, this place didn't look half bad.
We thanked Bryan and he informed us he would be back to pick us up in four days.
"Do you think four days is long enough to see London?" I asked Brittany, suddenly afraid that our meticulously planned out vacation, wasn't so on point after all.
She smiled at me, wrapping her arm around my shoulders, pulling me nearer and kissing the top of my head. "I think four days is perfect."
She was right, of course, we had mapped out the 'must-see' locations, but decided to play it largely by ear; we could always detour back if we felt we missed something of huge importance. I kissed her cheek before pulling her up the steps to the front door.
We checked in at the reception desk and received a key to our room on the third floor. I could hear music and chatter coming from one of the downstairs rooms and had to pull Brittany away from exploring, promising her we'd check it out once we put our luggage away.
The room's décor was acceptable, not exactly my taste, but I had imagined worse. White walls, blue carpet, and a little cramped with three bunk beds.
"Hey Britt?"
"Hmmm?" she didn't seem to find the room's sleeping quarters at all unusual, and was happily dressing one of the empty beds.
"Are there other people staying in this room?" I scanned the area and took note of the three open suitcases by the closet, and the dressed, but unmade, bunks.
She stopped her actions and followed my line of sight, then shrugged. "I guess."
"Well, shouldn't we go request our own room?" I asked incredulously.
"Why?"
"Because I don't wanna share a room with possible psychopaths?" I was bewildered at the thought that anyone wouldn't mind sharing a room with strangers.
She laughed at the concerned look on my face. "San, I'm sure they're not psychopaths. Besides, I don't think they do 'private rooms.' Why don't you wait to make assumptions until we actually meet them?" She smiled, walking closer and wrapping her arms around me, resting her chin on my shoulder before speaking again, "And if they do turn out to be mass murderers of some sort, I'll protect you." I would have chuckled had it not been for the sincerity of her words and the promising look in her eyes before she twisted her head so that her lips could reach the nape of my neck.
I shifted in her arms, wrapping my own around her neck, urging her closer until our lips locked. She placed her hands flat on my lower back, pulling my impossibly closer, parting her lips, encouraging me to follow suit before slipping her tongue inside.
We had barely just begun when the door slammed open and three giggling girls tumbled through. We jumped apart out of shock and the strange females straightened up when they noticed us.
"Oh. Hey." One of the girls offered, composing herself with a final chuckle.
"Hi." Brittany strode forward, hand outstretched. "I'm Brittany. And this is Santana." She introduced, gesturing to me with her thumb.
The girl who had spoken first, shook Brittany's hand. She was was tall, around the same height as Brittany, with peroxide blonde hair that fell past her shoulders. She was pretty, but largely with aid of excessive make up and fake tan, she had a pleasant smile and spoke with a kind voice.
"Great to meet you guys! I'm Sophie, this is Jules, and Jess." She turned to indicate to the girls on her left.
Brittany shook each of their hands in turn and the lingered touch and hungry stare of the Jess girl did not go unnoticed by me. I balled my fist and took a subtle, shallow breath to keep my temper at bay. I didn't like being the jealous girlfriend type, but I couldn't help it with Brittany, she was everything to me and I hated the thought of anyone else looking at her in a way that only I was supposed to. She's hot, I get that, but it doesn't mean I accept every Tom, Dick, and Jessy checking her out.
In an effort to avoid going all Lima Heights on this stranger, I decided to make my presence known. Stepping forward, I placed a possessive arm around Brittany's waist and was satisfied when I noticed Jess deflate a little at my action. I plastered on my sweetest smile. "It's great to meet you too."
I let my eyes fall on Jess and gave her a subtle, but warning look. At first she looked a little intimidated but then stood up straighter in a bold stance. She was slightly taller than me but shorter than Brittany, her skin was pale and she had striking green eyes, but her obvious focal feature was her edgy hairstyle, it was cropped short, red, shaved on one side and fell in a large side fringe on the other. I guess she was pretty if that's what you're into. I didn't like her.
The girl in the middle, Jules, seemed quiet, out of the three I think I liked her the best, she was average in height, with brown hair, there was nothing striking about her like there was with her friends but she was attractive in a more natural kind of way.
The girls made their way to their bunks, pulling make up bags from their purses, replying mascara and lipstick. I began to unpack a few things from my suitcase that I didn't want to leave folded only asking to get wrinkled.
"This your first time in London?" Jess inquired, I glanced up to where she had positioned herself on my bunk next to Brittany.
Brittany, evidently unaware of this predatory female's overly keen interest in her, bounced up and down, a buoyant look written all over her face. I smiled at how happy she was.
"Sure is! We're super excited to see everything. We're only here for four days so we've got to cram a lot in, but I think that'll just make everything more fun."
The conversation continued from there. We chatted for about half an hour; after I had finished hanging the few easy-crease items, I moved to sit in front of Brittany and rested my back against her legs; we learned the girls were from somewhere just outside London I didn't care to remember, and were interrailing. Seemed a little stupid to me to start a trip in the place you're from but, whatever. I chose to only contribute to the talk when someone asked me a question, glancing up at Brittany every couple of seconds while she contentedly played with my hair.
"So, how long have you two been together?" the quiet girl asked.
"Jules!" the redhead scolded. "You don't know that they're together! You can't just make assum-"
"We're together" I cut her off coldly. She met my icy stare with a challenging one. Was she seriously going to play this game with me?
"Yes indeed. Almost a year, officially." Brittany seemed blissfully unaware of the tension in the room, responding to Jules' question, bending forward to hug me from the awkward angle.
"Officially?" Sophie questioned from her top bunk.
Brittany nodded. "Well yeah. We kind of fooled around and stuff before that. but Santana didn't want -"
My cheeks burned as the conversation turned to my self-acceptance. I felt it was a topic I needed to control, so once again butt in. "I... our school wasn't very accepting." I settled with.
"My last girlfriend was a newborn." Jess piped up, even the sound of her voice had begun grating on me. "Cared too much about what other people thought, she came out eventually but it wasn't worth the hassle." She spoke more to Brittany than the rest of the room when she said this, and I felt the anger boil once again in the pit of my stomach as my glare bore into the side of her head.
Brittany shifted her eyes in my direction and I knew she had picked up on my sentiments towards our new roommate just by the way her arms pulled tighter around me. Britt was nothing if not perceptive and she could read me like a book. She kept her eyes focussed on me as she responded.
"It was no hassle. Santana was worth the wait." She returned her attention to Jess as she concluded her sentence, smiling.
Sophie seemed to have picked up on the hostile atmosphere that had taken over the room, removing herself from her bunk. "Okay, enough chit-chat, let's go get drunk! Resident's bar?"
The others clapped in approval; I forced a smile and nodded. "I'll follow you guys down, I just have a few more things to put away."
I untangled myself from Brittany's hold, and scooted towards my open suitcase again. I didn't really need to hang anything else, I just wanted to put some distance between myself and Jess for a few minutes at least. I pulled any random article of clothing from my case, and slowly straightened it out.
"Yeah, you guys carry on. I'll wait for Santana." Brittany smiled politely at them as they all walked through the door in acceptance.
I continued to hang my clothes in the tiny closet, but paused mid hang when I felt a pair of strong arms embrace me from behind and warm lips connect with the back of my neck in comfort.
"You ok?" She mumbled into my skin.
"Mmhmm" I nodded. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Because of Jess."
Again, I turned in her arms to reciprocate the embrace. Our eyes connected, and for the first time since meeting our roommates, a genuine smile broke across my face. I leaned up and placed a gentle but passionate kiss on my girlfriend's lips. Hoping it was enough to reassure her that I was good.
"I'm fine B. This is our adventure, no one's gonna ruin that."
She smiled widely and pressed her lips to mine once more before taking my hand and leading me towards the door.
"Come on, let's go show these Brits how we do it in Lima Heights" She winked and giggled at her own joke before pulling me with her downstairs.