[[AUTHOR NOTE]]

Hey lovelies! So sorry for the delay! I had finals to take and things to figure out but now I'm back.

I'm not totally proud of this chapter, to be honest there's a big part of it that i debated erasing for a while but yeah, a little background was needed for Britt. Also, hold on tight, we're meeting Mateo next chapter, and you're going to fall in love with that bundle of joy :)

Enjoy! x

Brittany had now been lying on her bed for two hours, in an utter silence. She was aware that her phone had buzzed, and that someone –probably a neighbor since Quinn was out with Sam for another couple of hours– had knocked on her door. Still, she hadn't moved. So many thoughts were racing through her mind that she was sure that standing up would only make her head spin faster than it already did. Santana. Santana Lopez was the reason why she was there right now. This afternoon spent with her had left her even more confused than she had previously been. Confused and hurting. After a couple of questions, Santana had suggested they should relax and the interview had turned into a 20 questions game, game during which Santana had discovered about one person from the blonde's past that she had been trying to leave back in Arizona: Arthur Abrams. It had been three years now since she had last seen her ex-boyfriend. Three years of trying to forget his face, and especially that one night.

FLASHBACK

Arthur and Brittany had thrown a huge party to celebrate Arthur's 21st birthday. There was about a hundred people there, some very loud music, and alcohol, a lot of alcohol. Thing was, Arthur's parents were some very high profile people so none of their neighbors ever stood up to them, too afraid of what they could do. Arthur was taking full advantage of it and threw his money around by hosting a big party every other week. Brittany was taking advantage of it, too. She had drunk a bit more than she should have. She wasn't feeling too good but she had promised herself she'd be there for as long as the party was still going on, after all it was her boyfriend's birthday and she knew the word would go around if she left early. What she didn't know was that Arthur had been watching her. In fact, he was the one who had made sure her cup was always full in order to be able to make Brittany his birthday present. See, he had been with the blonde for 6 months now, and they still hadn't slept together. Anytime he'd initiate something, she would stop him, pretending to be "tired", or "not ready". Arthur was tired of her act and of having to go around bars to get some release, so he had decided it would happen. That night. Whether Brittany would be able to remember it or not. When he saw the blonde stumbling and falling on the closest couch, he knew it was time.

"Brittany, come on let's go upstairs" he told her, gently grabbing her wrist and speaking loud enough for her to hear him through the music.

"What? Why? I don't want to sleep, i want to partyyyy!" Brittany had replied, shouting the last word to the crowd of people dancing and laughing around the house. Arthur had smiled. She was really so drunk, she wouldn't be able to stop him tonight.

"Babe, I just want some alone time with you. Just you and me, baby." Arthur gave the blonde a loving look, stroke her hand a couple of times, and when he saw her eyes soften, he knew he had her. The dark-haired man smirked and went to his room while Brittany was getting another drink. This was it. He was finally going to get what he had been waiting for for so long and win that bet he had made with his friend.

When Brittany finally made her way upstairs –after drinking her nth drink of the night while chatting with some friends– she found Arthur waiting for her in his room, shirtless. At the first the blonde didn't think much of it; after all it really was hot in the house. She made her way to the bed, tripping a couple of times because of stuff on the floor. When she made it, she laid next to her boyfriend and snuggled into him.

"What did you want to talk about babe?" she asked in a yawn, letting her eyes close and rest for a minute.

"Do we really have to talk?" Arthur smirked, nudging Brittany's shoulder playfully for her to stay awake a little longer.

And that's when Brittany had made her biggest mistake: asking what else they could do. Arthur had pushed a hand underneath Brittany's top so fast that he had unclasped the blonde's bra before she could even understand what that "little idea" he had whispered he had was.

"DON'T!" Brittany screamed, pushing Arthur's hand away and standing up for the bed. "I don't want to do that. Not yet. You know that I'm not ready. I want to wait."

Brittany knew she had said the wrong thing when Arthur's eyes narrowed, his face turned red with anger and his hands bawled into fists so hard that his knuckles turned white.

"Wait? That's all I've been fucking doing Brittany. I've been waiting for 6 fucking months! 6 MONTHS! You should have known I wouldn't wait forever." Arthur saw he had caught Brittany's attention when she winced at the tone of his voice before looking up in confusion.

"What… what do you mean?" She asked in a whisper.

Arthur let out a loud laugh. "Let's just say Brenda, Mary or even Lydia made the wait easier."

"You... " It was all Brittany could mutter before falling to the ground in sobs. She couldn't even have found the words if she had tried. She couldn't believe that the sweet gentle Arthur she had met in high school could have been so cruel with her, cruel enough to cheat of her... multiple times. The thought made Brittany sob even harder. She was hurt, broken. Every pieces of this relationship that she had spent the last 6 months building were now falling apart.

"You really thought I would have waited like a nice little boy until Miss Virgin over here would have the decency to sleep with me? Oh please."

"You disgust me," Brittany choked up. With the little strength that was left in her body, she stood back up and headed to the door. "I don't want to ever see you again," she spat before turning the door knob to leave the room.

She winced again as a hand grabbed her wrist hard. "That's fine by me," she heard the man say right behind her. "But first, we have some unfinished business to attend," he continued, dragging her back to the bed.

"Let me go." Brittany tried to push him away, but her body and mind were too weak to put up a proper fight.

"No way. I didn't wait 6 months for nothing," he replied replied angrily; "I'll make you mine. TONIGHT!" He almost shouted the last word, tightening his grip on Brittany.

He pushed her down the bed and straddled her. Brittany tried her best to escape his grip, throwing punches whenever and wherever she could but Arthur still wouldn't let go. Thankfully, in a moment of inattention, as he finally let go of her hands to unzip his own pants, Brittany succeeded to hit him. She didn't wait to see how much damage she had actually done, his painful scream being enough to know he wouldn't be able to come after her. She ran away from the room, from the party and from the house as fast as she could. She was still crying, the cold wind hitting the pale skin that her now ripped shirt was now showing with every step she took. She ran and ran until she reached her house, and never once did she ever look back.

END OF FLASHBACK

Brittany, who was still lying on her bed, shivered thinking back to that moment. As she let a single tear escape her eye, she thought back to how scared she had been in that moment, and how scared she still was. Ever since that night, she hadn't let anyone but Quinn get anywhere near her, let alone touch her, that's why it had surprised her when lying with the Latina earlier in the day hadn't made her uncomfortable. Her body would normally flinch out of nervousness at a simple touch, yet it had done the contrary with Santana, it had relaxed. The blonde shook her head as she remembered the bet. Santana just wanted her in her bed, and this was something Brittany didn't want to ever go through again. She was taken away from her thoughts when she heard a light knock on the door.

"Come in," the blonde said sitting up and whipping her eyes.

"Hey beautiful," Quinn said, smiling softly before frowning as she noticed the blonde's tearful face. She decided not to ask questions, knowing Brittany would open up to her when the time was right. "Dinner's ready, are you coming, or do you want me to bring you dinner in bed? I bought take outs on my way home."

"No, no don't worry," her friend replied. "I'll be there in a minute." Her voice was low and raspy, just above a whisper as she whipped a couple more tears away. She wasn't scared of letting go, not in front of Quinn. She shuffled on the bed, knowing it was enough for Quinn to know she wanted her to lay down next to her.

Quinn nudged her shoulder a little bit before maneuvering Brittany so the blonde's back were facing her front. She pulled her into a hug and stroked her hair as she cried some more. "What were you thinking about?" she finally asked after her friend's sobbing had stopped.

"Arthur." Brittany didn't need to say more. Quinn knew.

"He's not worth your time nor attention love," Quinn finally spoke. "Besides," she continued playfully, "you have Santana now." Softly nudging Brittany's shoulder again as this latter let out a chuckle, she made the now smiling blonde look up. "Come on, dinner's calling and Rachel's waiting for us."

Brittany's eyes went big as she stood up fast, making Quinn fall off the bed. "Rach is here?"

"One: OUCH!," Quinn replied, faking being hurt. "And two: yes she is, now come on!"

The moment Brittany saw Rachel, she literally jumped in her arms to hug her, causing the small brunette to stumble. Rachel was Brittany's second best friend, after Quinn of course. Rachel knew Brittany more than the blonde knew herself, but then again reading people was just something Rachel was good at. Brittany's mood definitively lifted, the three best friends cuddled on the couch to catch up on everything they had missed in each other's live.

"You wanna get outta here?" Santana's head turned towards her friend, whose eyes were still fixed on the flat screen, playing whatever game he had picked up on his way to her house earlier in the day. He had arrived unannounced an hour after the brunette had come home, saving Santana from overthinking the whole Brittany thing. Far from being interested in the game her friend was playing, the Latina had spent the past hour on her phone, interacting with her fans on Twitter.

"Sure, why not, I need to get out of this place anyway. What do you wanna do?"

Her friend sent her a look, as if it was obvious. And really, it was. Santana fully knew that what he wanted was to go get his mack on, and more, with some random girl at a club. But Santana really didn't feel like getting drunk tonight.

"Actually," she said deep in thought. "I know exactly where we could go."

When they got out of the house, Santana was glad to see there were no paparazzi around. After all, it was Friday night; she should have known they would be near nightclubs waiting to snap some good pictures that would make headlines the next day. Santana knew her friend would be disappointed because it wasn't a nightclub they were going to but there was somewhere she wanted to go to, so he had no choice than to follow anyway. When she got there, Santana could hear the giggles coming from inside. From what she could hear, someone else was with Brittany and Quinn. Sure enough, it wasn't two, but three young women who opened the door. Their giggles seem to be cut short as their mouths closed tight and a look of anger flashed in their eyes. Santana couldn't help but notice how Quinn and the mystery women took a step forward, as if to shield Brittany.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Quinn gritted through her teeth. Santana was surprised by Quinn's aggressiveness, but she was even more surprise that said aggressiveness was not directed towards her, but towards her friend.

When no response was given except for a smirk, Quinn repeated herself. "I said, what the fuck are you doing here, Arthur?"

Santana was starting to put the pieces together. Artie had told her that only his high school classmates had ever called him Arthur. The girls and he must have met in high school. But that didn't explain the look of fear on Brittany's face, or the fact that the two other girls looked like they were about to attack him.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Miss Virgin and her two little dogs Miss Skank and Miss Loser," Artie laughed. Santana frowned, for she had never heard that much venom in her friend's voice. "See ladies, I came with my friend over here, Santana," he continued with a smirk. The place the Latina took him to was better than any nightclub they could have found.

"Santana, is that true? Arthur is your friend?" Quinn turned to the brunette while asking the question. She found the Latina looking down. She hadn't said a word since the door opened. She was confused and still had no idea of what was going on.

"Ummm yeah?" she said with a frown. That came out more like a question than a statement. She had come here to see Brittany and she didn't want to mess things up. "I take it you guys know him already?"

Brittany looked up and spoke for the first time since Santana and Artie had arrived. "Yes. We know him. And he's a fucking ass," she said before storming out of the room. How could he be there? It had taken her ages to get over all of this and here he was, showing up like nothing happened, just a few hours after the blonde had mentioned her ex-boyfriend to the Latina. In her rush, she hadn't heard Santana excuse herself before following her inside, which made her jump slightly when she heard a knock on her door, followed by a head of black hair popping up at the door.

"Hey, can I come in?" Brittany wanted to tell the Latina to leave her alone but she didn't find the strength to do it, so she just nodded.

She was supposed to hate Santana, but she didn't seem to succeed at doing so anymore. It had been a couple of days since they met and Brittany had grown to know the singer better and found out she was not the woman she once thought she was. Having Santana around created feelings inside of her, feelings that Brittany was scared to admit to herself.

Santana got in, carefully closing the door behind her so their conversations couldn't be heard. She sat near Brittany, who had shuffled on the bed so she had somewhere to sit. "What's going on?"

Brittany straightened up a little and shrugged her sniffing betraying her previous crying. "Nothing. Nothing special, really. Where is everyone?"

"Quinn and your friend are talking to Artie outside," Santana replied. "And I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be crying if 'nothing special' was up," she continued, air quoting her last words to make the blonde smile, which worked a little.

"Don't worry, nothing's up. I'm just really tired." Brittany faked another smile which didn't go unnoticed by Santana, who lied down next to her, in a position similar to the one they had used earlier.

"You're a terrible liar Miss Pierce. But I'm going to let this one slide." Brittany's smile grew, and thus so did Santana's. "What's the midget's name anyway?"

"Santana, don't be rude," Brittany tried to scold the Latina but couldn't help but chuckle at her nickname for Rachel. "Her name is Rachel."

"Hey now, I'm not being rude," Santana laughed. "I'm being realistic. She's so small that she trying to stand her ground against Artie looked ridiculous." Santana cursed herself when she saw the blonde's smile fall again at the mention of the boy. She nudged the blonde's shoulder softly. "Will you tell me what this was all about?"

At first, Brittany shook her head. That had been enough thinking about that night for the day. But as Santana turned to face her and began to stroke her arm, Brittany couldn't help the words that stumbled out of her mouth. "Artie is Arthur. I mean like… Arthur, the ex-boyfriend I told you about."

Suddenly, all clicked into place in the Latina's mind. "The one who screwed you over?"

"Yeah." Santana couldn't believe she hadn't made the connection earlier when she saw that look of fear in the blonde's eyes. But then again, Artie had never mentioned Brittany to his friend in the past, and Santana had never mentioned Brittany to Artie either, by fear that her growing affection for the blonde would give a reason for Artie to tease her.

"Oh," was the single word who escaped the brunette's mouth at first. "I'm sorry I brought him here."

"It's okay," Brittany replied. "You didn't know." The look of confusion on the Latina's eyes was enough for Brittany to confide to her.

Santana's face turned pale and she found it hard to swallow as Brittany went on to tell her what Artie had gotten her through. This was it. The reason why the girls knew Artie, the reason why Brittany had cried, it was all because Artie had tried to force himself on Brittany. Santana felt nothing but hatred towards Artie now, but she also knew that she needed to talk to Artie to get both sides of the story. It wasn't that she didn't trust Brittany; she just wanted to see whether or not her friend would lie straight to her face.

But as Brittany started crying again, Santana decided that this talk could wait a bit longer. She didn't know what the boundaries were between them, but she knew she couldn't leave the blonde like this. Softly, she turned Brittany so they were face to face and pulled her into a hug. Brittany was quick to hug back and buried her face in the crook of Santana's neck, holding on to her for dear life. "I won't tell anyone," Santana said, as if knowing that this was exactly what the blonde needed to hear. "I won't tell anyone about this, I promise you."

Their hug was broken when they heard Artie throwing a fit down the hall, followed by heavy footsteps coming towards them. Santana was on her feet and out the door before Artie could even reach it. Closing the door behind her, she made sure to send another apologetic look towards the blonde.

"Come on Artie, we're leaving," Brittany heard Santana say behind her now closed door.

"See you soon, darlings," Artie told Quinn and Rachel before being forced out of the house by a very irritated Latina.

Brittany heard the door shutting and soon after, Rachel and Quinn were by her side, hugging her as she cried. The three best friends soon fell asleep out of exhaustion.

Santana decided to drive Artie home instead of letting him crash on her couch like she had originally planned. The ride had been quiet but Santana knew she needed to talk to Artie at some point. She knew Brittany wasn't lying about this, for her eyes held so much hurt and pain. Yet, she needed to hear it from Artie.

"So how come you know Brittany?" Santana asked, keeping her eyes on the road.

"We dated for a while," the man simply replied. Santana looked at him briefly. He was turned to the window with a smile on his face. That smile made the Latina even angrier at him.

"You never told me about her," Santana replied, keeping her calm while focusing on the road.

"I don't know. It didn't seem important." Santana noticed how Artie grew agitated and how he kept his answers short. His nervousness was to Santana the first sign that confirmed the whole story. The singer decided to push him a little more, just to see if he would actually admit it.

"She hates you, apparently." Santana saw Artie shifting in his seat again from the corner of her eye. "What happened?"

"I've never really known," he simply shrugged. His voice betrayed him. He was annoyed. "Can we just stop talking about her?"

Santana was now really pissed. She pulled over and stopped her car. "Maybe it has to do with the fact you tried to fucking force yourself on her!"

Artie finally turned to his friend. His eyes were full of surprise, anger and... fear? "Force myself on her? That's what she told you?" He let a nervous laugh. "She hasn't changed. Always making stuff up."

"What do you mean?" Santana asked. She obviously didn't believe a word her so called friend was saying.

"At the time, that's what she was saying too. But I never made a move on her."

"What happened then?"

Artie broke and started yelling. "Fuck this, Santana. I'm your friend, believe me for once!"

This was it for the feisty Latina. She couldn't believe Artie would lie to her face. "Well see, I'm not 'friends' with assholes like you," she said using air quote just like earlier with Brittany. "What you did to Brittany was disgusting. Worst is that you don't even fucking care! Now get the fuck out of my car and I don't ever want to see you again."

Santana drove away as soon as he was out. She was furious. She had known Artie for years, and never had she ever imagined he could be that kind of person. But as she headed home, his last words to her echoed in her head.

"Better be careful, Santana. You're falling for her."