Chapter 4: Tears
"Oh good, Brittany. Is Santana with you?" Brittany walks into the choir room to be immediately questioned by Kurt
"She said she was coming here. Where are Quinn and Rachel?"
"We don't know , we were hoping you might"
Suddenly Rachel runs into the room and beckons for Brittany to come with her. The others look at her for an explanation
"I need Brittany"
"And I need Santana so I can measure her for her dress"
"Don't bother…" Brittany then proceeds to recite Santana's exact measurements for everything
"Brittany! Come on!"
"Sorry!" Brittany follows Rachel out of the choir room and into the girls' bathroom where Quinn is watching Santana who is curled up by the wall crying with her head on her knees and her hair draped around her face
"What did you do?" Brittany asks as she rushes up to Santana
"We didn't do anything!" Quinn protests "We just found her like this"
Brittany turns her attention back to the girl who's weeping in her arms "San…" Santana looks up at her, tears still rolling down her face "What's the matter?"
"He did it again!" Santana sobs. Brittany pulls her up to lean on the sink and lightly brushes her hand over Santana's stomach. When she winces Brittany slowly pulls her top up reviling a large, purple bruise. Rachel and Quinn gasp, Santana sobs and Brittany just looks at it
"This one wasn't here yesterday Santana; you need to tell me when this happens"
"I'm sorry Brit; I just didn't think you needed anything else to worry about"
"Then don't think. It works for me" Santana lets out a small chuckle through the tears and winces again "I'm serious; you need to let me help you." Santana nods, still crying and Brittany retrieves her backpack from the floor. She takes out a bag of Breadstix breadsticks.
"Are those…?" Brittany nods and Santana grins and reaches for the bag which Brittany gives her after ripping it open. Santana offers some to Quinn and Rachel and the four of them stand there for a minute eating in silence. Finally Rachel speaks up.
"Who did that to you Santana?"
"Um, Um, I…" Santana stutters and finally gives up trying to tell her in so many words "Demi Lovato"
"What?"
"Look it up, Demi Lovato's family situation. That's me but without the stepdad."
"Wait, so that means…" Santana nods
"Your dad?" Quinn asks
Santana nods, "It's got worse since I told him. It happens when he gets drunk and since then it's been every night." She starts crying again and Brittany pulls her close
"Have another breadstick!" She offers her girlfriend the bag and Santana lets out a breathy laugh and reaches for the bag. Tina walks into the bathroom
"Guys you need to get to the choir room, Puck keeps insisting you're having a foursome and I think Finn's getting to breaking point. Also Kurt's insisting on checking the measurements Brittany gave him and you should most definitely be sharing your Breadstix breadsticks"
"Sorry Tina but there Santana's" Quinn says
"You're eating them!"
"She offered" Tina looks at Santana expectantly
"Fine but don't scoff them all"
"So," Tina asks grabbing a breadstick "What did Rachel do?"
"Why does everyone assume I've done something?"
"Cause frankly Rachel," Santana says "Most of the time you have"
"Well as much as I love eating breadsticks with my girls we should probably get to the choir room before Kurt sends someone else and it turns into a game of sardines." Tina says
"I love sardines!" Brittany says "The game, not the food and I prefer Santana's version to the real one."
"Do I want to know?" Tina asks
"Well…"
"No." Santana cuts Brittany off, "You really don't"
They head out the bathroom and into the choir room where they just eat breadsticks with the others for a while until Puck breaks the silence
"So if you weren't having a foursome earlier what were you doing?"
"Calming Santana down" Quinn states simply
"Why did she need calming down? "Finn asks
"Umm…" Santana's not sure how to answer that
"Look if Santana's not ready to tell you her secret then she doesn't have to" Rachel snobs "It's not my fault Quinn and I are more trustworthy than all of you"
"Wait, Santana has a secret?" Mercedes asks "What is it?"
"You see this is why no one tells you anything hobbit!" Santana storms out the room
"Santana!" Quinn, Brittany and Rachel follow her out to the car park where she's crying inside her car. Brittany tells the other two to go and walks up to the car, letting herself in and sliding next to Santana.
SANTANA POV:
The moment I felt Brittany's arms around me I calmed down, she has that effect on people, especially me
"I hate Berry so much"
"She didn't mean to" Brittany always sees the best in people "Trust me, people will realise you don't want to talk and drop the subject. It always happens."
"I hope your right because I can't take any more questions right now"
"Come on San" She opens the door and pulls me out
"Where are we going?"
"Back to glee" She sees the reluctant look on my face "It'll be fine. Besides, it's your hunger games training, they won't want to push you too much emotionally" She takes me back to the choir room where were immediately circled by Quinn, Rachel, Mercedes, Tina and Sugar
"We've decided to have a glee girl's sleepover tonight" Rachel announces and I glare at her.
"Where?" Brittany asks
"We were thinking Santana's house, you know, since she's the one who's going to win the hunger games" I smile at that comment, I need to win the hunger games, I can't lose Brittany. Then I realise what she said before that
"Wait, my house?"
"Yeah, unless there's a problem with that"
Maybe I can get my mum to take my dad to dinner. It'll look suspicious if I say no. They'll assume it's something to do with 'the secret' which they all know about thanks to Berry. "No, be there at seven."
"Awesome"
After that we got to looking at dresses for the opening ceremony, Kurt designed some very nice ones considering the fact they were supposed to reflect glee club, and Puck spent most of the time complaining about it now being against the rules for stylists to decide that nudity was the latest fashion. I didn't particularly favour any of them but the moment Brittany pointed out a long black dress with a music note cut out of the side I knew that was the one.
I went home after school and spoke to my mum straight away about taking dad out for dinner. She looked inquisitive but, knowing me, didn't ask. All that was left to do was pray they didn't get drunk. Then I ran upstairs, I had hours before the others would arrived so I slumped down on my bed and let the tears I'd been holding back flow.