Part 2: [Center of Attention]

Your first roommate didn't really appreciate your liking of girls. When you move into your new room, the door is opened by a girl dressed in what appears to be her boyfriend's shirt.

You groan a little in your head thinking that this straight girl is going to be just as misguided and judgy as the last straight girl you tried to room with.

That thought lasts for about two milliseconds before another girl, with wildly tangled hair, emerges from the room and presses a kiss to the first girl's cheek. The first girl just grins at you and picks up the boxes you'd set down and helps you move them into the room.

When you're all done both of you stand in the door way awkwardly, she, still grinning, you keeping your face in that kind of smile that looks clearly forced.

"I'm Lex," she says, breaking the awkward tension and holding her hand out to you.

"Santana," you reply, grasping the proffered hand.

Now that you're less than three feet away from her you can see her dark brown eyes and the way that her hair falls into her eyes a little bit because she's swept her bangs to the left.

Her eyes may be brown like yours but they are so different than yours. Her eyes are warmer more like melted chocolate, whereas yours are colder, harsher more obsidian like.

She's Asian but her black hair is tinted with blonde and brown hairs and her eyes aren't slanted like other Asians you've seen.

She releases your hand and closes the door behind you before settling into her office chair, kicking her feet up onto the desk and eying you.

"So what happened with the other roommate? Not that I mind the switch, god knows my ex-roomie was a crazy bible beater." There's a twinkle in her eye as she says it and that confident grin reappears on her face.

You can't help but grin back as you reply, "She's catholic, I'm gay."

"Ah. You know I didn't think we'd get many of those bible-beating types here. I mean we are at Berkeley. But I guess there's always a few."

"So I'm assuming that you're not a crazy religious..."

"Oh hell no. As if I could get my lazy ass out of bed to go dress up and sit still for three hours on a weekend morning. I'm not the strict rule following type and the only thing I'm crazy about is my bass and demon music. Besides, I like me some girls and I like me some boys."

You've just got this stupid grin on your face. Your roommate is not only somehow confidently sexy (that goddamn grin), she plays for your team (at least some of the time) and she makes you laugh, and you haven't laughed like this since, well, since you and Brittany were okay back at the beginning of junior year.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Lex quickly becomes your closest friend at school. When you two aren't studying together in your room, you're working out together, or crashing frat parties together.

On the surface she seems exactly the same as you are. She's a hard ass, badass, crass and funny but she's also got a charm that you don't possess. There's something about the way that she makes everything seem like a joke that makes everyone around her really like her.

You've gotta admit, she's got a great sense of humor and somehow possesses the self-awareness to go along with the borderline offensive humor. She knows how to make fun of people without being a total bitch. And you're in awe.

She's exactly like you but people actually like her. And now because you've been hanging out with her so much you actually have a group of friends that are both cool and supportive.

These people seem to genuinely appreciate your often non-politically correct commentary and understand that you're not aloof or cold, but just keep your emotions close to the chest.

Still, you're curious about Lex, she explains herself just about as much as you do, which isn't much at all. So one Sunday morning as you sip your coffee while sitting at your computer, you look over to her side of the room where she is playing some riffs on her bass.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" You're not even sure where that question came from. "Sorry, I didn't mean to like pry or get all up in your business or whatever."

"It's cool." She cocks her head curiously at you, her brown eyes search your face for a few seconds as though she was looking for an answer before she replies, "Not at the moment, no. I have had a girlfriend in the past, but not right now."

She doesn't need to ask why. She knows why you're asking even if you don't quite know.

"What about the girl from the day I moved in?"

"Who? Oh yeah, nah, that was a one-time thing with her. She's not my type." She smiles at you, though her smile is more unsure than usual.

"Type?" Now you know you're getting into awkward territory. You're gay and you're asking your half-gay roommate what kind of girl she likes.

"I like my girls smart and hot."

This time the smile that follows the comment is genuine and you're chuckling too. Leave it Lex to be able to diffuse any awkward situation.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Lex understands you. She may not know you in the same way that Brittany does (or did), but something tells you that her story may closely mirror your own.

She gets that when you shut down, you're not trying to be exceptionally bitchy but that those barbed words are a defense mechanism.

She isn't perturbed by the fact that you've told her only tidbits about your high school experience. After all, it isn't as though she'd been exactly open when it came to telling high school tales. You two may not know each other's life stories but you know each other in all the ways that count.

She knows that you won't get out of bed until there's coffee in the vicinity (she hands you a cup of coffee whether you are awake or not at 7am every morning) and you know that she can't go a day without running (and so you run with her everyday even though you haven't worked out this much since you've been on the Cheerios).

It's been nearly three months of pure bliss at college. When you chose Berkeley you didn't know if you were going to be okay going so far away from the people and places you'd known since birth. You and Lex have taken to hanging out in the engineering library because she's majoring in engineering and there's no quieter place to go on campus.

It's been a week of late nights spent studying and finishing term papers.

You're both tired as hell, it's Sunday night, finals start on Monday, and you're walking back to the dorms side by side, hands barely brushing against each other.

You steal a sideways glance at Lex underneath a streetlight as you walk past and your first thought is that she looks cute even when she's disgruntled and tired.

Her hair is somehow perfectly messy and her glasses (which you've only recently seen as she usually wears contacts) are adorably knocked askew. Her collared shirt is rumpled and untucked and the sweatpants she's wrongly paired with the formal shirt are barely staying on her hips.

You stop walking in the middle of the sidewalk and she stops five feet later and turns to look at you curiously. You close the gap with two steps and stare into her warm, tired, half-closed eyes. Your right hand grasps her left and your left hand gently brushes the hair away from her face.

She doesn't move an inch as your eyes continue to search hers.

Then without even thinking your lips are connecting to hers. Her hand right hand is has found its way into your mess of hair, her fingers threading their way through the locks of your hair.

The kiss is gentle and explorative and there are fireworks going off behind your eyelids and you can feel the pads of her fingers slowly moving down from your cheekbone, across your jaw line and down your neck before coming to a rest with her fingers on your collarbone and the heel of her hand resting at the top of your sternum.

You both pull away simultaneously and when she smiles at you, you force an unsure smile back and refuse to meet her gaze. There's the possibility that she may reject you and that's not something you're sure you can deal with.

"Happy Finals Week," you speak quietly as you study the ground.

You realize what you've just done. You've now possibly ruined a friendship and made things super awkward between you two. You're not really sure where Lex's head was, and you're not sure if she even feels remotely 'that way' about you. But you've done it, and now you need to know if she's okay with that.

"Happy indeed," she replies simply with a knowing smirk on her face.

She winks at you and all your previous worries about it being awkward have now flown out the window, because she seems more than okay with it and you're more than okay with it.

She reaches over and threads her fingers through yours, pulling you closer to her so that your shoulders are gently nudging each other. You continue your walk back to the dorms, only now with linked hands swinging between you and a smile that would rival that of the Cheshire cat.

You expect her to ask what the kiss means or how you feel because that's the kind of thing you think girls would ask when you kiss them. But to your surprise she says nothing as you get ready for bed and still asks no questions when you leave to brush your teeth. Perhaps she knows you better than you thought.

You know that you don't want to mess up the mood by talking about it, and you sure as hell haven't figured out where Lex fits in with Brittany and if Brittany is even a viable option at this point. You still haven't told Lex the entire story about Brittany, but now you know that you need to.

You ready yourself to answer the questions she'll probably hurl at you as soon as you get back from the bathroom. But, instead she kisses your cheek when you re-enter the room and climbs into bed with only a brief goodnight in your direction.

You reply and turn over in your bed, you lips and cheek still tingling with the feeling of her lips.