Santana arrived home after a long day at school to find her mother's car sitting in the driveway. Walking into the house, she called out to the woman to let her know she was home and decided to go searching for her when she didn't get an immediate response. Less than a minute later, she heard her mother's cellphone ringing from the other room, followed by the woman's voice answering the call.
"Hello? ...Hey, how was your day? …Oh, well that's good. Mine's been alright. Just cooking some dinner before I go over to my sisters tonight."
Knowing exactly where the woman was, Santana made towards the kitchen find her mother standing in front the stove with her back to her. She was just about to step through the doorway when she suddenly heard the woman heave a sigh as she brought up a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose.
"Yes, I understand that you would like to see me again. I want to see you, too, but I just don't have the time right now. Work's been crazy and my home life hasn't been much better… Of course I enjoyed the few days we spent together. It was honestly the most fun I've had in a long time."
Santana scrunched her eyes up in confusion. The only time she remembered her mother recently being away from the house was while she was at a conference a few weeks before.
At least, that's where she said she'd been.
The brunette could almost hear the gears start turning in her head as she continued to listen in to the telephone conversation.
"Yeah, I understand that, but I can't just drop everything to be with you. I have a family to take care of and so do you... I know I said my husband and I have been having some issues, but we're working through them… No, I can't just leave him. We've built a life together, Jay. You need to understand that."
With those last few statements, Santana found herself unable to listen to the pair's exchange any further and decided to finally make her presence known.
"Mom?"
"Oh, sh-" the older woman suddenly shouted, spinning around in surprise before cutting herself off and quickly spitting out, "Jason, I really need to go… I know, but I have to. We can talk about this more later… Okay, bye." The older Latina stood there for a moment, frozen in place with her cellphone still clutched in her left hand as it hung limply by her side. After a few seconds of agonizing silence, she finally managed to cautiously ask, "Santana, how much of that did you hear?"
"Enough," the young Latina bluntly stated before asking, "What the hell was that? Or better yet, who was that?"
"That was- It was no one."
"Bullshit. Who was that?" she questioned again, only to get the same response.
"I-it was no one. Just a friend from work."
"Really? Because that did not sound like a conversation between two friends. He asked you to leave your husband. He wouldn't have done that if he was 'just a friend' to you," Santana growled out, snapping her hands up to make air quotations as she quoted her mother's words.
"No, you got it wrong. You see, he-I, uh," she said as she quickly tried to formulate a way to explain to her daughter that she had simply misheard their conversation, but her mind was drawing a complete blank.
Santana ground her teeth together in annoyance as she caught on to what her mother was trying to do. "You know what, forget it. It's pretty obvious that I'm not going to get anything even remotely close to the truth, so let me know when you're ready to give me a straight answer," Santana stated lowly before she turned around and stormed out the front door.
Santana awoke with a start.
Glancing over to the digital clock on her nightstand, she lazily blinked a few times before her eyes were clear enough to read that it was only two o'clock in the morning, and she instantly let out a groan. It was the third night in a row that her sleep schedule had been cut short by the same nightmarish memories plaguing her dreams.
Rolling her head to face back up towards the ceiling, she closed her eyes and brought up a hand to cover them as she mentally prepared herself for another sleepless night.
The hours passed by slowly for the brunette, but her alarm eventually started to go off, signifying that it was time to start getting ready for morning practice. After sluggishly pulling herself up out of bed, Santana got dressed and quickly left the house before anyone else even had the chance to wake up.
The brunette somehow managed to drive herself to school without dozing off behind the wheel and pulled into the near empty parking lot. Walking up to the football field a few minutes later, she placed her bag in the bleachers with the other cheerleaders' things and immediately made her way over to her coach, knowing the woman would want to talk to her.
"Well, look who decided to show up for practice. Where were you yesterday, Sandbags?" Sue inquired dryly as she kept her eyes on the other girls, who were setting up for their first routine.
Ignoring the jab, Santana replied, "Sorry, Coach. I had some family business to tend to."
"What? Helping set up your parent's taco truck on the south part of town?"
"No, I didn't mean that kind of business," Santana commented through gritted teeth.
"I know. Now, start running, and don't even think about slacking off," Sue said without so much as a glance as she waved her off. Knowing that the statement meant that she was basically going to be running until Coach Sylvester told her to stop, Santana huffed out a frustrated sigh and got to running.
Time passed slowly as Santana continued to make her way around the track, but there was a small part of her that was grateful she wasn't running routines with the other girls that morning. She had already watched countless pyramid collapses, and Coach Sylvester looked like she was about to blow a gasket.
"Okay, I can't watch this train wreck anymore. I'm calling practice since you nimrods seem so hell-bent on giving me reoccurring nightmares about this squad's horrific cheerleading skills. Now, scram before I decide to corral you all up into a giant flat-rate box, pay the postage necessary to ship said box to the Island of Misfit Cheerios, and start over with a fresh new batch of girls who don't completely reek of mediocrity," Sue suddenly announced through her bullhorn before storming off the practice field. Just as Santana was beginning to think the coach had forgotten about her, she heard the woman yell out, "That means you, too, Boobs Magoo. Hit the showers."
Santana immediately stopped in her tracks as soon as she heard the order and bent over when her hands on her knees, clearly winded from her run.
"Looks like you finally got what was coming to you," Quinn mocked as she came walking by, bumping into the brunette to intentionally cause her to stumble forward slightly.
Pulling herself up to her full height, Santana retorted, "I might be a little winded, Tubbers, but that doesn't mean I can't come over there and sock you in the throat."
"Good luck with that, Hoepez. Hope you can catch up without passing out."
"Yeah? Well, I hope you can avoid crushing our best Cheerios the next time you cause the entire pyramid to collapse, Shamoo," Santana replied, but her words quickly lost their bite as she started to feel lightheaded. Watching a smug smirk make its way across the blonde's face, she unwilling let herself double over once more.
After taking another moment to regain her breath, she stood back up and started making her way towards the locker room. She didn't get far, however, before she felt her body quickly sway to the side. Thankfully, Brittany quickly came up out of nowhere and wrapped her arms around her waist to prevent her from falling over.
"Hey, are you okay?" Brittany asked in a concerned tone as she continued to help steady the girl.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. I just sat up too quick."
"Are you sure? You look really tired. Maybe we should-"
"Look, I said I was okay so just drop it," Santana snapped as she pushed herself out of the blonde's hold and took a few quick but tentative steps away from her.
"A-alright. Sorry."
Hearing the sadness in Brittany's voice, Santana turned back around to find the blonde looking at her with a defeated expression. Pulling together her resolve, she walked back up to her and wrapped her up in a tight hug, "You have absolutely nothing to be sorry about, Britt. I'm the one who should be apologizing. I've been nothing but tired and crabby all morning, which is fine when it's directed towards everyone else, but you don't deserve to be treated like that. I know you were only trying to help."
"It's okay, San, I know that you're having to deal with a lot right now. I don't know what it is exactly you're going through, but I can see that it's making you sad and when you're sad, I'm sad," Brittany admitted with a pout.
Releasing her hold around the other girl, Santana brought her gaze up to meet Brittany's bright blue eyes, "Well, I'm going to do my best to not be so sad anymore, so you shouldn't feel that way either. Now, come on. I want to see that beautiful smile of yours."
"But San-"
"Please?" Santana drawled out with a small smile of her own.
"Okay," Brittany replied with a reluctant tone, but the look in her eyes told the brunette that she was just kidding. Suddenly, Brittany's lips split into a grin, causing Santana's smile to grow in response.
"See? I'm feeling better already."
Brittany gave her a playful eye roll, "Yeah, me too. Now, how about we head to the locker room to get dressed before we're late for class? I can't have you missing Glee anymore for detention. Yesterday just wasn't as fun without you there."
"Yeah, staying out of trouble sounds like a pretty good plan to me," Santana agreed with a laugh as the pair turned and started making their way back towards the school.
The rest of the day carried on just as it had since Santana began losing sleep. As the classes drug on, Santana felt the weight of her eyelids gradually become heavier until she finally dozed off.
She had been sitting in the parking lot of the local park for the past hour when she heard her phone's text notification go off. Unlocking the screen, she opened up her messages to find one from the last person she wanted to hear from in that moment.
From Mom: Santana, I know you probably won't reply to this message, but I just needed to ask for you to please not tell your father. I swear I'm working on finding the right way to tell him the truth. Please, just give me some time. I also wanted to let you know that I'll be at Aunt Virgie's for the evening, so you can go home whenever you're ready.
Locking the device, she tossed it into the passenger seat and brought her hands up to grip the top of the steering wheel as she rested her forehead against the back of them.
This day was getting worse for her by the second.
The final bell suddenly rang out through the classroom, effectively waking her up from her nap.
Snapping her head up from where it had been lying on her desk, she quickly looked around the room to find her classmates gathering up their things and exiting the room. Following their lead, she slipped her notes into her backpack and left to meet up with Brittany so they could walk to the choir room together.
Glee Club passed by slowly for the Latina as she watched each of the other members get up in front of everyone to sing their song selections for the week. From time to time, she could feel Brittany eyeing her from the chair next to her. The blonde had been keeping tabs on her ever since that morning, making sure that she was feeling at least a little better than she had been during practice.
After Glee, the pair walked together towards their cars, giving each other a brief farewell before slipping into their vehicles and going their separate ways.
Dinner was waiting for Santana when she got home, but she wasn't really in the mood to eat and quickly opted to just sleep instead.
After trying unsuccessfully for a few hours, Santana finally managed to fall into a light slumber. Her hopes of dreaming of something other than the night of her and her mother's fall out were dashed, however, as her dream picked up right where it had left off.
She had just walked back through the front door of her house several hours later when she heard her father's voice call out from his office, "Santana, is that you?"
Not having realized that he was home, she felt her body immediately still with her mouth hanging open slightly as her eyes began darting nervously around the room. She had no idea what she was supposed to do in this situation and began searching her mind for something, anything, to say to him, but the words never came.
Suddenly, she saw the man poke his head around the corner from where he stood in the hallway, "Hey, mija. Your mother called a little while ago to let me know that she got distracted while cooking earlier and accidentally burnt dinner, so it looks like you and I will have to fend for ourselves while she's at your Aunt Virgie's for the evening."
"Y-yeah, she had mentioned that she'd be over there tonight."
"Well, good. At least it's not a complete surprise, then," the man joked, but Santana's mind was too much of a mess to catch it.
For a second, she considered telling him about everything that had transpired that day. Without thinking, she sputtered, "Dad, I-" but then got distracted by the man's curious gaze as their eyes met and felt her body freeze once more. When no further words fell from her mouth, she took a small breath and tried again, only managing to force out a sharp "I-" before losing her voice once more.
Her dad gave her a questioning look, "Everything alright, Santanita?"
"I-I, uh," she stuttered uneasily, giving another brief pause before her brain finally caught up with her mouth, "Y-yeah, I think I'm just tired. Anyways, it's been a long day, so I think I'm going to go straight to bed."
"But I already picked you up some food," he said, motioning to the bag of takeout sitting on the counter top.
Not being able to bear saying no to him in that moment, she quickly replied, "Oh, alright. I'll just take it up to my room, then. Thank you."
As soon as she got up to her room, she placed the to-go box she had been holding on her desk and almost immediately forgot about it as she flopped onto her bed to rest her eyes. Not wanting to waste the food, she eventually decided that she'd go sneak it back into the refrigerator, figuring her father would be too engrossed in watching Sports Center by then to notice her presence downstairs.
She had just walked into the kitchen when she heard her father's voice suddenly ask, "Weren't hungry after all?"
Feeling her body give a little jump in surprise, she looked over to find the other man standing in front of the microwave, heating up his food. "Oh, I, uh- No, I wasn't. Sorry," she stumbled slightly before regaining her grip.
"It's okay. Just take a little something back up with you just in case you get hungry before you go to bed, okay?"
"Yes, Sir. I will."
He gives her a quick nod in acknowledgement and bids her a quick 'good night' before turning to get his food out of the appliance and leaving the room. After she knew he was gone, she let out a shaky breath, forcing back the tears as she walked over to the cabinet to grab a granola bar and made her way back up to the safety of her bedroom.
Santana woke up to find her room shrouded in darkness. Too tired to check what time it was, she rolled over to go back to sleep, but the attempt was to no avail. After an hour of trying, she finally felt at the end of her rope and reached over to grab her cellphone off the nightstand. Scrolling through her contacts, she found the number she was looking for and dialed it.
The line continued to ring until she heard the phone pick up and a groggy voice suddenly ask, "Hello?"
"Hey, Britt-Britt. I'm really sorry to wake you up, but I was wondering if there was any way I could come over. I haven't been able to get a good night's rest in a few days, and I think I need to try something different so I can actually function at school."
"Yeah, you can come over. Just call me when you get here, and I'll come down to let you in," Brittany mumbled sleepily into the receiver.
"Alright. Thank you, Britt."
"Not a problem. See you soon, San."
"Bye. See you soon," Santana returned before ending the call. Gathering up everything she would need for the following day, she crept down the stairs and out the door without a sound.
Less than ten minutes later, she pulled into the familiar driveway and called her friend once more to inform the blonde of her arrival. Brittany met her at the front door with a small smile and as she held up a finger to her mouth to warn her to be quiet and led her up the stairs towards her room.
"Okay, we can talk now," Brittany quietly announced as she shut the door to the bedroom. Slowly spinning around to face her friend, she greeted her with a simple, "Hey."
"Hey, yourself," Santana returned with a chuckle.
The pair stood there for a moment before Brittany's face turned into a more concerned expression, "Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, I've just been having reoccurring nightmares for the past few nights, which has led to me getting very little sleep."
The blonde gave a nod in understanding, "Okay, I know you'd probably rather not talk about it, but I-"
"-will be there for me if I do," Santana finished with a knowing grin, which Brittany quickly returned as she gave another nod of her head. "Thank you, Britt-Britt."
"Anytime," the blonde stated as she flicked the lights off and moved to pull back the covers so they could slide into bed.
After getting comfortable, Santana blindly reached out towards Brittany in search of the other girl's hand and accidentally ended up bumping into her abdomen.
Santana immediately retracted her hand slightly in surprise, "Oops. Sorry, B."
"It's okay," Brittany replied, instantly knowing what the brunette was wanting her to do. Suddenly, Santana felt the blonde's pinky wrap around her own and felt her body relax into the mattress. "Better?"
"Better," Santana answered as she released a contented sigh and closed her eyes. "Good night, Britt-Britt."
"Good night, San."
Brittany cracked her eyes open the next morning to find Lord Tubbington resting in his normal spot beside her and smiled before reaching out to pet him. She abruptly stopped the movement, however, when she felt something brush up the back of her shoulder. Carefully rolling onto her back, she found a sleeping Santana curled up beside her. Suddenly, the girl shifted forward slightly to press her face into the side of her arm, and she couldn't help but release the grin that pulled at her lips.
For the first time in days, the Latina looked completely relaxed.
Brittany laid there watching her for a minute before becoming aware of their close proximity. Feeling her heart flutter, she gently moved a lock of hair away from Santana's face and was instantly entranced by her friend's beauty. It wasn't until she heard a knock at her door that she managed to snap out of her daze.
"Brittany, are you up?" her mother asked through the barrier
The blonde felt her face warm as she realized just how easily Santana could have caught her and nervously looked to make sure there was no sign of her waking up before slipping out of bed to make her way across the room.
As soon as she opened the door, she quietly hushed the older woman and let her know that Santana was in there sleeping. After checking her alarm clock to make sure she would have enough time before she had to wake up Santana, she asked her mom if she could talk to her down stairs so she could explain what happened last night.
Receiving a small nod from the woman, the two quietly exited the room, leaving the Latina to sleep for a little longer.
Santana woke up about ten minutes later feeling more rested than she had in the past few days combined. While stretching her arms over her head, she tilted her head to the side and noticed the empty bed beside her.
Scrunching her eyes together, she rolled out of bed and walked downstairs to find Brittany talking to her mother in the kitchen. Santana couldn't hear what they're talking about since they're both speaking quietly, but Santana instantly noticed Brittany had a worried look on her face as she spoke to Mrs. Pierce.
Out of the corner of her eye, Brittany noticed Santana standing just outside the doorway and abruptly stopped talking.
Watching her daughter's attention move to the kitchen's entrance, Susan turned to see the young Latina looking at them. Letting a broad smile spread across her face, she greeted, "Good morning, Santana."
"Morning, Mrs. P." Noticing the pair of scrubs she was wearing, she asked, "You about to leave for work?"
"Yep, I was actually on my way out the door so I'll see you two later," the older woman informed as she went over to grab her purse and head towards the door.
"Alright. Tell my dad I said 'hi' if you see him around."
Mrs. Pierce turned around, giving her a smile, "Will do." And with that, she was out the door.
"Hey, how you feeling?" Brittany asked from behind her.
"Better. I actually slept through the night, so that was good," she said as she turned to face her. Catching the concerned look on Brittany's face, she decided to change the subject, "Anyways, we should probably go get ready for practice. No telling what Sue would do if I missed again."
Brittany silently agreed with a nod and lead her friend back upstairs to get dressed for yet another day of school.
Author's Note:
Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this chapter. I would also like to thank everyone who has followed, favorited, and reviewed the story. It is all very much appreciated.
My last thank you goes to my beta, ruby-may89. Thank you so much for all your help!
Anyways, I hope you all have a great day. See you next time!