"Ugh," Sophie moaned, pushing open the heavy glass door to the restaurant and wrenching her heavy suitcase over the threshold behind her as she entered. Outside the weather was bleak, the sky, which only a few minutes ago had merely been thick with the threat of rain, had finally decided to follow through on its promise and was now, drenching anything not under shelter in a torrential downpour. This included a very sodden Sophie, who, now momentarily protected from the miserable weather outside, shook her sweater in a vain attempt to rid it of the water which had taken up residence in its purple material. "Great," the brunette cursed under her breath, finally accepting defeat and dropping the thick cotton from her hands before running the now free appendage through her saturated hair.
Finally, Sophie glanced around her, running the back of her free hand across her forehead in order to keep the offending water particles which ran down it out of her eyes as she took in her surroundings. The place was appealing, she'd give it that much. A typical American fast food restaurant, complete with booths full of congregated teenagers, an illuminated jukebox sitting alone in the corner and a hoard of smiling waitresses, one of which was fast approaching her, the white of her almost perfectly aligned teeth glowing in the restaurants fluorescent lights.
"Welcome to Breadstix, I'm Jenny," the red-haired waitress greeted Sophie, almost a little too over enthusiastically for the brunette considering that she was standing drenched from head to toe, in what no longer constituted for a puddle but a small lake. "How are you this afternoon?"
Sophie considered making an irritable retort but bit her tongue instead, asking, "I don't s'pose you have a pay phone here do you?" Sophie pulled her now soaked mobile phone out of her pocket and held it up in front of the waitress, shaking it slightly in her right hand. "My mobile hasn't worked since I arrived here and I need to call someone."
"Sure," The waitress answered airily, gesturing through the maze of tables before her to the far side of the restaurant, "It's over by the restrooms." Sophie's gaze followed in the direction of Jenny's arm before returning to her smiling features.
"Thanks," Sophie acknowledged gratefully, depositing her malfunctioning phone back into her pocket and picking up the large suitcase which sat at her feet. Slowly, burdened with the over-packed item of baggage, Sophie began to negotiate her way across the busy restaurant in the direction of the pay phone which, for all the time it took her to reach it, could have been located on the moon instead of merely ten feet away.
Finally, having reached her target, Sophie dropped her suitcase to floor, shaking her arms at her sides to rid the aching which had begun to nag at her muscles. She ran her hand through her dark hair once again, before picking up the phone receiver in one hand and rummaging in her pockets for some money.
"Damn it," Sophie cursed again, pulling out a few small pieces of change and four single dollar bills. She glanced up, the feeble pile of coins and notes in her right palm as her head scanned the restaurant for the waitress who had greeted her at the door. Finding the waitress no longer visible in the throng of patrons, she returned her gaze to the change before her; a couple of copper cents and a solitary nickel glistening on top of the pile of green dollars. Sophie looked at the receiver once again, noting that it only accepted coins, which, she unfortunately, did not have an ample supply of. For a moment, Sophie just glanced between the phone and her handful of change, occasionally scanning around the restaurant in search of the waitress, but soon returning to the offending items in her hand when that was unsuccessful.
"Hey," a cheery voice said, accompanied by the light touch of someone's hand on Sophie's shoulder.
Sophie turned in the direction of the voice, half expecting to see Sian standing beside her but surprised to find a different blonde, her eyes alight with laughter and good humour, watching her intently.
"Are you alright?" the blonde asked her when Sophie failed to find her voice. "It's just…you've been looking at your hand for a while now…" The blonde trailed off, glancing between the receiver in Sophie's right hand, the change in her other and the brunette's face which was evidently frustrated. "It took me a while too," the blonde said undeterred and somewhat ambiguously, which Sophie assumed was solely an attempt to fill her silence rather than anything of actual substance. "Once you put the money in though it's just like using a normal phone."
"What?" Sophie managed in reply, confused by the blonde's words more than anything else.
The blonde pointed between the money in Sophie's hand and the pay phone box attached to the restaurant wall.
"You just need to put your money in and then you can make a call," the blonde responded smiling brightly.
"Oh," Sophie replied, finally determining that the blonde was trying to help her in her own, strange way. "No I already knew that…" Sophie admitted, "It's just, I don't have enough change. I don't s'pose you have any quarters do you?"
The blonde looked upon Sophie's hand once again, finally understanding what the brunette's dilemma was.
"You mean…you need change for a dollar?" she asked Sophie, realisation dawning on her.
"Yeah," Sophie said hopefully. "The phone only takes change and, as you can see I don't have anything more than a nickel."
The blonde glanced over at a vacant table a couple of feet away which had two drinks of what Sophie assumed to be Cola sitting atop it.
"I don't think I do," the blonde replied honestly, biting her bottom lip in thought. "Maybe San does though?"
"San?" Sophie asked once again confused.
"My best friend," the blonde replied glancing towards the restrooms on her left. "She went to the bathroom a couple of minutes ago. That's when I saw you standing here…"
As if on cue, the door to the restroom across from them opened and an attractive Latina girl with dark hair emerged, a look of suspicion crossing her face as she looked between Sophie and her blonde friend.
"Brit?" The girl said questioningly as she slowly made her way over to where the pair of them stood. Her eyes seemed to take in every inch of Sophie, like a predator sizing up its prey, readying itself to attack.
"This is her," the girl called Brit almost sang, throwing her arm around the other girls shoulder and pulling her into her side, "this is Santana."
"Hi," Sophie greeted the dark haired girl cautiously attempting to extend her hand in greeting then realising that both were otherwise occupied. "Sorry," she apologised embarrassed.
Santana raised one eyebrow in acknowledgement but said nothing to the brunette, who she decided, must have swam here if her dishevelled and unkempt appearance was anything to go by. Sophie took in Santana's rounded features, her perceptive, sharp eyes and for some unknown reason felt uncomfortable under the Latina's intense glare and she dropped her eyes to the floor in a bid to escape it.
"Brittany," Santana began her voice low and hushed. "I thought we'd talked about this…"
"About what?" Brittany asked her friend, clearly not recalling the discussion to which Santana was alluding.
"About talking to strangers." Santana clarified, emphasizing the word and catching Sophie's gaze pointedly.
Sophie frowned to herself, wondering what exactly it was she'd done to the Latina to make her so defensive.
"We weren't really talking," Brittany tried to explain, "She just looked like she needed some help that's all." Brittany paused, beaming at Sophie, oblivious to the tension that had manifested between Santana and herself. "So…I came over…"
"Brit, you don't even know her," Santana interceded before the blonde could continue.
"San," Brittany said in disbelief. "She just needs some change to make a phone call. She's not a mass murderer or anything. Right?" The blonde finished turning back to Sophie.
"Rii-iight," Sophie replied watching the two girl's interaction closely.
"Doesn't she have a cell phone?" Santana asked meaningfully, throwing Sophie an accusatory look.
Brittany shrugged uncertain and turned to Sophie for an answer.
"It's in my pocket," Sophie offered, gesturing to the back pocket of her jeans with her left elbow and turning slightly so the other girls could see her phone protruding from the denim, "but it doesn't work."
"Can I have a look?" Santana asked raising her eyebrow questioningly at Sophie. The brunette nodded in response and carefully, Santana reached into the other girls pocket to extract the small device. She blushed slightly as the back of her fingers grazed the supple flesh under Sophie's jeans and jerked her hand out quickly, phone within her grasp.
Santana held the small blackberry phone in front of her and looked between the screen and Sophie with renewed interest. Displayed in vibrant colour on the screen before her was a picture of the dark haired girl, a huge smile spread across her face as a small blonde, her eyes closed, kissed the side of her cheek playfully.
"It looks fine to me," Santana said pressing a few of the buttons and noting the numbers appearing on screen as wanted.
Sophie took a step closer to the Latina and Santana felt herself grow uncomfortable at the sudden closeness. "Yeah it looks fine," Sophie explained pointing to the screen and the network bars in the right hand corner, "but ever since I arrived in the States it's had no signal."
"I thought you sounded weird," Brittany admitted meeting Sophie's gaze and seeing her smile in response before peeping over the top of the phone to see what the other two were looking at.
Initially, Brittany's eyes took in the small 'x' in the corner where the brunette was pointing, but, as Sophie moved her hand away slightly, Brittany was immediately drawn to the picture of her and the blonde girl on the screen.
"Where are you from?" Santana asked handing the phone back to Sophie, who had now placed the pay phone receiver back in place on the wall. Finally accepting the other girls' explanation, Santana reached into the pocket of her own jeans to pull out a handful of quarters and proffered them to the brunette.
"England…" Sophie said taking the coins gratefully and handing Santana the correct number of notes in return.
"Is this your girlfriend?" Brittany interrupted with as little tact as possible, pointing to the background picture on Sophie's phone.
Sophie looked between the two girls, her cheeks reddening, uncertain of their feelings about homosexuality.
Sensing her discomfort, Brittany added, "She's really pretty." Santana threw Brittany a disbelieving look which the blonde missed completely, but that was not lost on Sophie who finally understood the Latina's initial defensiveness towards her. She'd never really seen that look before. Normally, it wasn't Sian who wore that expression, it was herself, but, she recognised it now for what it was. Jealousy. Santana was jealous that Brittany had been talking to her.
"Thanks," Sophie replied slipping the phone back into her back pocket as she said, "that's who I'm trying to phone actually."
"She's here too?" Brittany asked enthusiastically. "I mean, in America?"
"Yeah," Sophie answered. "Her mum's boyfriend is out here on business so she's staying with them for a few weeks."
"What's her name?" Brittany questioned with interest.
"Sian," Sophie answered smiling, Brittany's easy nature making her feel more comfortable.
"What's your name?" Santana asked her voice steady and unreadable.
"Sophie," the brunette replied as Santana glanced at her finger nails in clear disinterest of the answer. Sophie felt instantly more uncomfortable and turned to Brittany who still had a smile across her face. "Well, thanks for your help," Sophie said gratefully before looking in Santana's direction again as she gestured to the pay phone with her handful of change. 'Thanks for the quarters," Sophie said to Santana who still refused to meet the brunette's gaze, 'I should probably make that call now."
"No problem," Brittany responded lightly, taking Santana's hand in her own and causing the Latina to glance up from the imaginary hole her eyes had been burning into the floor of the restaurant. "Right Santana?"
"Yeah, whatever," Santana said finally meeting Sophie's eyes as Brittany began to pull her back towards their table. The blonde waved animatedly at Sophie as she took her seat opposite the dark haired girl, who suddenly became very interested in the Cola in front of her.
Sophie smiled back at Brittany briefly before turning back to the pay phone on the wall. Reaching into her pocket, Sophie pulled out a scrap of damp paper, and after lifting the receiver and depositing some coins into the phone, she dialled the number Sian had given her before she'd left Manchester with her mum.
Over the receiver, Sophie heard the repetitive ringing of the phone, uninterrupted and after four minutes of waiting, unanswered. She sighed inwardly and put the receiver back in place, today was definitely not her day. After finally making it to Dayton International Airport an hour late, Sophie had travelled the hour and twenty minutes by bus to Lima only to find that its last stop was a good forty minute walk away from her final destination. For a while, Sophie had waited at the bus stop hoping for another to come along which she could ride nearer to the house which Sian's mum and her boyfriend were staying in, however, after twenty minutes with no luck and the heaven's finally beginning to open, she'd ran across the street to the first place she could find with a functioning phone to call her girlfriend for help.
When Sian had called Sophie to invite her to stay whilst she was away, the brunette had jumped at the chance to spend some time alone with her girlfriend out of the war zone that was her own home. Sian, being a more seasoned public transportation user than Sophie, had offered to ride the bus to meet her girlfriend at the airport. She'd explained to Sophie that her mum's boyfriend would be at work, along with his company car, and her mum didn't drive so they'd be unable to pick her up.
Sophie had insisted that it wasn't necessary, that it would save Sian money if she got the bus from the airport herself instead of Sian having to travel two and a half hours just to pick her up. After all, Sophie had said to her girlfriend, she wasn't a complete idiot and could take a simple bus journey on her own. Sophie sighed to herself again. Perhaps she was an idiot after all.
Sophie looked up in the direction of Brittany and Santana to find the darker haired girl watching her closely from where she sat. Brittany seemed to be saying something to Santana, but, on noticing that her friend's attention was elsewhere, she followed her gaze in Sophie's direction.
Seeing that Sophie was no longer on the phone, Brittany smiled brightly and waved to the brunette, beckoning her over to table to join the two of them. Not wanting to intrude on their dinner, Sophie waved the gesture away kindly, but when Brittany stood from her seat, "Sophie," she called beckoning once again with more vigour then previously; Sophie had little choice but to obey the blonde, not wanting to be rude.
Catching the disapproving look from Santana as she bent to pick up her suitcase, Sophie sighed heavily. Perfect, she thought to herself as she started making her way towards the table. Just perfect. The idea of being stuck trying to make conversation with someone who clearly disliked her was the last thing that Sophie wanted to do.
"Hey," Sophie said as she reached the two of them.
"Here, sit down," Brittany offered sliding out of the booth to make room for Sophie.
"Thanks," Sophie said taking the seat gratefully and smiling at Santana opposite her awkwardly. "Sorry to intrude," she apologised to the dark haired girl who was staring just as uncomfortably at the straw in her Cola.
"I'll get you a drink," Brittany said suddenly disappearing before Sophie could even begin to protest.
"What is she doing?" Santana asked no one in particular as she watched the blonde bounce away across the restaurant. "They have waitresses…"
"Look I'm really sorry," Sophie apologised when Santana finally raised her eyes to meet her own. "I can make an excuse and leave if you want?"
Santana watched Sophie for a moment trying to decide if her offer was genuine and then asked. "Did you manage to get through to your girlfriend?"
Sophie shook her head, "That would be a no," she replied laughing despite her own bad mood.
"So what, you're just stuck here until you speak to her?" Santana questioned.
"Pretty much," Sophie admitted nodding her head.
"You don't even have an address where she's staying?" Santana said bewildered.
"Ah, now that I do have," Sophie said pulling the damp piece of paper from her pocket again and spreading it out on the table in front of the other girl.
Santana looked over the address written in black ink across the page before looking up at Sophie again. "I know where this is," she said relaxing slightly in Sophie's company, "it's not too far from where I live."
"Really?" Sophie asked. "How much will a taxi cost me from here?"
"Don't worry about that," Santana waved away the question seeing an opportunity. "Me and Brittany will drop you off after dinner if you want?"
"Really?" Sophie asked, her day finally beginning to look up.
"Sure," Santana replied, a shy smile forming on her lips. "Don't worry about it."
"Ok but, only if you'll let me pay for your meal," Sophie said, "You know, as a thank you."
"Actually," Santana said dropping her eyes to her Cola once again, withdrawing into herself a little. "There was something else I was hoping you could do for me…"
Sophie frowned puzzled.
"Like what?" Sophie asked the other girl.
Santana raised her eyes from her Cola and glanced in the direction of Brittany who was now making her way back to the table, a large cup of Cola in one hand. Sophie followed Santana's gaze and suddenly understanding dawned on her.
"Oh," Sophie said sympathetically. "You love her?" Santana nodded and Sophie laughed to herself a little, "Trust me, I've been there."
"Can you help me?" Santana almost pleaded. "It's killing me; I don't know what to do…"
Sophie looked back in the direction of Brittany who was a few feet away.
"Of course I'll help you," Sophie agreed kindly just before Brittany plunged herself into the seat beside the brunette and offered her the cup of Cola.
"You guys have Cola in England right?" Brittany asked.
"Sure," Sophie said taking the cup from Brittany as she said 'Thanks."
"So," Brittany began, taking her own cup in her hand and taking a sip of the cool liquid quickly before finishing, "what have you guys been talking about?"
Santana and Sophie shared a look before the Latina answered "Nothing."
Sophie took a sip of her drink as Brittany turned her attention back towards her.
"Don't you have a coat?" Brittany asked bluntly, causing Sophie to look down at her still drenched sweater which clung to her body closely and laugh. She'd completely forgotten that she was soaked to the bones.
"No," Sophie answered smiling. "I forgot to pack one."
"You should probably get one," Brittany said matter of factly before taking another sip of her drink.
Sophie laughed at the blonde's words before giving Santana an approving look. She could see why the dark haired girl was attracted to her friend. In a way, Brittany reminded Sophie of her own blonde girlfriend, kind, good-natured, funny. No wonder Santana was suffering. Love, when it wanted to, could be a right bitch. Luckily for Santana, Sophie had experienced its bark herself in the beginning, and now, she was ready to bite back, hard, in order to help the dark haired girl.