"Fuck." I whisper as I walk through the doors of my new home.
Home. Is this home. Was the facility home. Do I really even have a home? Does it really matter …?
The blonde's stare still burns through me as I explore my new surroundings. From what I gathered it's a two story house. Walking in your meet with the living room in front of you, and stairs to the right. Staring though the living room you see the kitchen behind it. Both are huge rooms modernly decorated.
The living room is a dark red with a large couch, love seat, and a recliner, all facing a fireplace with a huge TV above it. I could get use to this. There's even blankets and throw pillows nicely laid on the couches. There's a couple book shelves on each side of the fire place filled with books, pictures, and DVDs. Beautiful artwork is nicely placed throughout the room. It's gorgeous.
The kitchen is a tasteful light yellow with a grey accent. It has a couple dishes in the sink, and some mail on the counter. It really looks like someone lives here.
"Santana." Quinn whispers as I take in the scene.
I turn and look at her, and she's exactly as I remember her. Gorgeous. Naturally. Every 'Love Interest' is incrediably good looking. She has short blonde hair and stunning blue eyes. She's dressed in boot like heals, light blue skinny jeans, a pink and grey horizontal stripped tank top, with a cardigan.
I'm momentarily speechless, "Hey."
It's not that I'd necessarily call her a friend. However, she was the only person at the facility I would ever talk to. We're too much alike to not get along, but that sometimes caused a lot of conflicts between us. I was super bummed when she left, and thankful that after a long time I never saw her return.
"Brittany is coming over later for a girls' night. She's super excited to meet you." Quinn states flatly as we take each other in. "I figured I'd help you out a bit by creating your meet and greet. I'm sorry you've been dealt such a shitty hand. Luckily she thinks I'm cool."
I nod, not quite sure what to add to this. It all feels like I'm watching someone else life. Like all the Romcoms they made us watch back at the facility.
"She's super hot." I blurt out.
Quinn laughs a little as she nods her head but her gaze never leaves mine.
She shows me around the house. Showing me all the bathrooms and bedrooms while explaining her 'house' rules. Don't leave your clothes around the house. Don't bother me before noon. Don't make a mess and not clean it. Don't be too loud. Essentially don't make it seem like you don't live here. Got it. She shows me the pool, hot tub, and garage. I have a car. Red convertible. Super expensive from the looks of it. I have no idea what kind it is though. I assume they only teach the boys about cars.
This place is amazing. Way better than anything I expected after the way Holly described my mission.
Lastly she takes me to my room. Its black and a deep red. Even darker than the living room. It's a mixture of angst and mystery. The bed is huge. Way larger than anything I've ever seen. A deep red comforter lays on top of it. The kind you can't resist but touching. So I do. Silky. Heavenly. I decide to sit. Oh my god. The bed absorbs me.
"It's nice, right." Quinn laughs as she watches me.
I momentary forgot she was here, "This is like an orgasm."
Quinn wears an amused expression while I continue to take in my room. There's no personal quality about it – which makes sense. I don't have anything personal. There's a huge love seat sitting in front of a bay window, with a moderate sized TV I viewing distance. A large dresser with nothing on it, and a gorgeous multi square mirror on the wall above it. I walk to my closet and notice there's so much clothes, shoes, scarfs, and insanity in there. There's a few pieces of artful wall decorations lingering about, and a bookshelf loaded with books and things. Off in a corner is a desk which, OMG, has a computer.
"This feels like heaven." I mumble as I walk around the room.
Quinn just nods as she takes a seat and gets serious, "Look. It's all great. But don't lose focus. What do you know about your life and Brittany?"
Brittany. That's the second time she's said that name. She must be the blonde that devoured me those gorgeous blue eyes earlier. My target.
From the expression on my face, Quinn must know I haven't read the material Holly gave me, "My god Santana do you even care!?"
She's pissed.
"Look. I did this for you." She motions her hands around the room. "I know we haven't always agreed with each other. But fuck dude. You're probably going to die."
She pauses. Waiting for me to react maybe? My death has always been the scariest thing to me. Especially now seeing all this. I thought I had it made back at the facility. This is exactly why I didn't want to conform. I didn't want a target. I didn't want to play their game. I knew I was missing out on things. I just didn't want, or expect, to ever experience them.
It's like living your whole life without ever eating chocolate or tasting caffeine. You know it's amazing. Everyone you've ever talked to tells you so. But there's this bliss in never being addicted. Never confirming their gossip. Because as much as they love it … they bitch about it just the same.
I stammer, "Yeah. It just happened so quickly! Normally you have like what a month to prepare. Learn your target. Feel the outside life. I feel like I'm like five living out some guys' fairy tale. But shut up cunt. I got this. I'm fucking Snix."
"It's super disgusting that you implied some five year old would want to sleep with Brittany." She jokes, "But okay. Fuck the paper work. I'll give you a run down. Your target is Britany. Blonde. Jumped off the diving board that was her life. We meet a while back – but she's recently taken a larger interest in me. Not like sexually. But we're older. She wants to escape her high school bullshit. And more importantly her douche of a 'Love Interest.' She's coming over tonight, along with Mercedes and Rachel, who are a whole other level of shit show I can't even begin to explain, to welcome my bestest friend- you – here."
Quinn spent the next hour giving me the run down on her life. Since we're best friends and all. She told me about Puck, her target. How he's a shit head and she has no idea what information they could ever want out of him. She works at a local bank with Rachel and Mercedes. Rachel is dating some loser named Finn and Mercedes is 'in love' with Brittany's 'Love Interest" Sam.
Sam. That's who I'm killing.
Before Quinn can really explain anything else there's a knock on the door.
"Showtime. Don't fuck this up. Apparently first impressions are key." Quinn barks as she removes herself from the love seat and migrates downstairs.
The girls all arrive and introductions are exchanged.
"Santana we've heard so much about you. Quinn hasn't shut up recently about her old college friend." ~ Rachel
"Girl. You look hot and dangerous. This town can use some excitement." ~ Mercedes.
"Hey." ~ Brittany.
Brittany. Is all I can think as they stumble into the house.
Quinn moves to the kitchen where she starts prepping food for the evening and pouring everyone some wine. Conversation flows easy and they start asking me all kinds of questions – Where are you from? Boyfriend? Oh you like girls? That's cool I have two dads. Do you have any embarrassing stories of Quinn? Streaked!? Like full naked girl? Shit that's awesome. Why would you ever leave New York? We should all visit there sometime.
Soon enough the boyfriend bashing starts. Apparently Rachel and Finn have been having some problems. I can't even follow what the problems are because Brittany keeps staring at me, and my god, you could literally get lost in those eyes for days.
Slowly the room starts to fade as Brittany makes her way to the living room. What are these guys even talking about? I really try to join their conversation. I don't want to follow Brittany. I still don't want to conform. But she is mesmerizing and enticing and my body moves on its own free will.
When I enter the living room Brittany fakes her engagement at the things on the bookshelf. Like she is actively looking for a book or movie to watch. Shit. I hope I didn't miss something important when I zoned out.
"Hey." I practically whisper letting her know I'm here, and watching.
Her gaze was already on me, so it just burns deeper as she returns my "Hey."
"Is this like a fake book cub where all we really do is bitch about our love lives?" I joke.
Her eyes still bore into my soul as she lightly laughs. My god. She is chiseled from the gods. "Maybe. We could go rogue and leave."
"I'm already wearing my coat. What does one do around these parts for a good time?" My gaze matches hers now. Or at least I hope it does. Because what she is doing to me with those eyes, it's insane.
She scoops up her wine glass, and yanks a movie down from the self, "This." She states as she hands me a DVD.
I laugh as I examine the movie, Finding Nemo. She likes kids' movies. "Quinn would flip."
Her eyes dance around the room and she shrugs. I can hear Quinn make some comment about how Puck goes out all night without ever mentioning it to her. Brittany starts to stare at me again. Almost like she's waiting for me to figure something out. I do, "We can go upstairs."
I didn't even think of how suggestive that sounded until the hint of a smile appeared on her face and she slightly looked down. Shit should I correct myself? Before I have time to decide she has grabbed a bottle of wine and motioning me to lead the way.
Well I'd say my first impression went well. Suck on that Quinn.
When we get in to my room I watch as her eyes take everything in. She starts at the bed and lightly runs her hand along the comforter as she makes her way to the window. She kind of chuckles as she looks outside, "It looks like I now have a fantastic view." She turns and looks at me to see if I caught on to what she meant. I didn't. She must understand as she elaborates, "That's my room. And now I wish I would have made my bed … Or closed my blinds." She mumbles the last part and she starts to turn a little red as she looks over her room.
I shrug as I move next to her, "I like mess. There's almost something beautiful in the chaos."
She thinks about what I said for a minute before she changes the subject, "So tell me about yourself Miss New York." Her gaze bores in to my soul as she takes a seat on the couch and sips her wine.
I should have expected this would happen as soon as we left the group. I'm suddenly disappointed in myself for not reading my material. Fuck it.
"My life before was different. Before I knew it, it wasn't my life anymore. It was like I was living someone else's life because it was comfortable? Easy? Scared to change it?" I didn't know what I was saying, but it seemed fitting. And most importantly it wasn't a lie.
My life at the facility was nothing like this. For starters I didn't have friends, or like to talk to anyone. Now I'm sitting in my room with the most gorgeous woman I've ever seen before. And that's saying something because everyone at the facility is earth shattering gorgeous. But they have no depth in their eyes. They are trained on how to live, and to me, it was all so dull. Looking into Brittany's eyes, I can see her secrets. I also convinced myself it was better than the real world. Because the real world scared me, and life at the facility was comfortable.
"So I started looking for a job somewhere else. I guess to make a fresh start." So that was a lie but really I can't tell the girl I was forced to do this – that would raise a red flag. "And it just all ended up working out that there was an opening here, and Quinn lived here. What's your story?"
She had this far off look in her eyes as she contemplated what to tell me about herself. "I meet this guy when I was like – 12? I don't even really remember meeting him anymore. However kids meet I guess." She laughed as she tried to recall their first meeting. "He was just there. Like always. And he was perfect. It's almost like he was taught how to be compatible with me. Like when we were kids he was the perfect friend. When I started thinking about more adult things, it's like he knew, and suddenly he was the perfect boyfriend. That's really the only way to ever explain him. Perfect. Like I can't even recall a time we've ever fought. But ten life happened and it seems one person can only ever have so much perfect and my life turned in to a shit show."
She brings her eyes up to mine, almost like she's about to say something crazy and she's trying to gage how I might react. And I start to feel guilty because I already know this story. I wish I didn't. I wish this was the first time I'm ever hearing this. I love the way she tells it way better.
"Now I'm just trying to find myself again, I guess. Like a lost horse who knows there something more and they are out searching for their horn. They don't want to be a horse anymore. They want to be something else, they want to be a unicorn."
She doesn't give me a chance to respond. She smacks my arm with the DVD, I had forgotten why we actually came up here. We finish the movie, and our bottle of wine in almost complete silence. I don't mind though. Brittany seems to really love this movie, and I'm used to solitude. I head downstairs to grab the sequel, Finding Dorey, and another bottle of wine. The other girls are still chatting away about everything under the sun. I steal some of their appetizers when I grab more wine and head back upstairs.
Brittany is laid out on the length of the couch and I fake annoyance at her for stealing my seat. I fill up our wine glasses, place the plate somewhat close to Brittany, and put on the movie. Brittany lifts her legs so I can sit beneath her, and I hesitate for only a second. I gently run my thumb along her calf as I drink my wine and watch the movie. Kids movie don't teach someone how to be compatible with their target so I've never really seen any. I quickly realize I've missed out because these were really funny.
I start to realize something else I've missed out on. Something about her calf has captivated my hands and I can't keep them off her. This is new.
I must have fallen asleep at some point, because I feel my mind come to consciousness from a faint buzzing. I forget where I'm at and what I'm doing and I'm momentary alarmed as I take in my surroundings. I'm not longer at the facility. I look down at the legs still in my lap and follow them to blonde who is passed out. I realize I have no wildly idea what time it is. That's weird. My body always knows the time. Something Holly said to me flashes through my mind, 'Also don't get fired. We will kill you regardless if you get fired.' I gently move out from underneath Brittany and hear the buzzing again. I look around in hopes to find the source. It's Brittany's phone. Sam 3 repeatedly flashes on the screen. My target is already in love. I take my phone out of my pocket and see that its 3am. I move quickly to locate my bag and pull out the materials Holly gave me. I decided when Brittany was telling me about herself I wasn't going to read anything more about her. She's a mystery I want to unravel myself. Even if it could cost me my life. I grab my work schedule and am relieved that I don't start for another week. I feel a weight lift off my chest.
The buzzing comes back and I realize I should wake the sleeping blonde. I gently nudge her shoulder, "Hey Brittany." I whisper and watch as she starts stir. Her mind hasn't figured out where she is yet. "It's like 3am, do you need to go home? Someone keeps calling your phone I think."
"I hate it there." She mumbles as she starts to snuggle back in to the couch. "It's probably Sam checking in on me. Just turn it off."
I chuckle and move to the dresser to see if I can find us some more comfortable clothes. I toss some clothes near her and tell her I'm going to change and that we can sleep on the bed if she wants. It's like 3am so I don't really care at this point. I'm exhausted, jet lagged, and honestly overwhelmed. My foggy mind goes over things from the day.
I don't have to work for a week. She likes kid movies. I like kid movies. That's really shocking. Quinn's still a bitch. It makes me laugh as I replay seeing Quinn again. I'm not going to lie to her. I'm not going to conform. She'll like me for me. Or I'll die. But at least I'll know for sure either way. Sam's perfect. She wants chaos.
A smile spreads across my face when I return to my room and my sights take in the beautiful sleeping blonde snuggled tightly on my bed.