Here we are... the update I promised you :)
CHAPTER 10
"Sugar-coat this"
"Is it bad that I think you're more beautiful than the bride?" Brittany whispered in Santana's ear as Artie got up to give Puck a speech.
"No…" Santana beamed. "But don't tell anyone." She added and kissed Brittany's cheek. Neither was particularly interested in what Artie had to say so they kept whispering and cuddling for the whole duration of his dull speech.
When he was finally done it was time for Emma and Puck's first dance. Emma was really nervous about it. Being in front of all those people with everyone watching her was unnerving and when going up there, she sought Santana's eyes for comfort. Santana gave Emma safety and warmth through her gaze and every time Emma turned her head to look at her friend, she still had her focus on the redhead. The music started playing and the couple started moving. Puck wasn't a bad dancer and Emma looked so light when she moved with him.
"They look so happy." Brittany whispered.
"They are." Santana said and kept staring at her friend up there. A warm and fuzzy feeling filled her up and her eyes were magnetically forced to look at Brittany.
"So am I." She added softly and was met with Brittany's eyes. Geez, those things get bluer with every time. Brittany fumbled under the table and found Santana's hand. Their fingers interlocked and with a tight squeeze they both turned their heads back to look at Emma and Puck.
As soon as other couples started joining in the dancing Brittany quickly rose to her feet.
"May I have this dance?" Brittany asked and tried to sound formal but her face couldn't hold back that huge smile Santana had gotten so used to, and loved so much.
"You're a dork, but yes, you may." Santana said and already holding hands she let herself be helped up from the chair.
They walked together to the dance floor and Brittany twirled Santana around as they got on it. As soon as Brittany pulled Santana close it was like the rest of the room faded away and they were the only ones left. They swayed together, cheek to cheek. Brittany was so smooth and she smelled so good. She danced without effort and her hold on Santana soothed them both.
"Mind if I cut in?" Santana recognized the voice instantly. It was Artie and he made it clear he wanted to dance with Brittany since he refused to take his eyes off her. Man whore, Santana thought. She wasn't sure how to respond so she looked for Brittany's eyes to see if she knew how to handle the situation. Brittany plastered on a polite smile.
"If it's okay with my girlfriend…?" Brittany answered softly and waited for a reaction from Santana to see if she approved or not.
"Actually I think I want you for myself a little bit longer." Santana said with a smirk and before she knew it, Brittany had danced them away to a different part of the dance floor, leaving Artie with a pile of rejection. They didn't dance for much longer though before Brittany felt a tap on her shoulder. She was just about to sigh as if irritated when she caught a glance of who it was that wanted their attention.
"Mr. Lopez? Do you wanna dance with your beautiful daughter?" Brittany asked and offered Santana's hand to him.
"Any friend of Santana's calls me Álvaro." Mr. Lopez said and smiled. "And no, I want to dance with you."
"Oh." Brittany felt super nervous and smiled insecurely while she nodded yes.
"Dad!" Santana interjected. "You don't have to, B." Santana assured but it wasn't that Brittany didn't want to, she was just nervous.
"No, of course!" She said, and with some mustered up confidence she slipped her hand out of Santana's and into Álvaro's. Santana wasn't convinced but she felt it could be a good opportunity to check on Mercedes. She had barely said two words to her friend all day.
"Alright... Come and find me later, baby?" Santana said to Brittany and gave her father a look that said don't embarrass me. Brittany nodded and then let Mr. Lopez move her on the dance floor. Santana found Mercedes and sat down in a chair next to her. Santana was still in Brittany's sight and it was hard for her to look at Álvaro, and not stare over his shoulder.
"You're an excellent dancer, Brittany." Álvaro complimented and Brittany giggled shyly.
"You're not so bad yourself, Sir." Upon hearing the words Mr. Lopez twirled Brittany around and even though she wasn't prepared for that one, she handled it gracefully. When she spun back into Álvaro's arms he had a different look on his face.
"You know, Brittany... Santana doesn't do this very often." His voice was serious, Brittany could tell, but she still frowned a little in confusion since she didn't really understand.
"Open her heart." He clarified. "I've watched you two today and I can tell she cares deeply about you."
"And I about her." Brittany said quickly. She knew where this was going.
"I'm her father, I have to look out for her. She's still my baby girl, you know." Álvaro's eyes shimmered with love and Brittany's polite smile turned amorous when she thought of a baby photo she had seen of her girlfriend. Big brown eyes and chubby baby cheeks in a little onesie with a huge diaper underneath.
"She's had her heart broken before." Mr. Lopez stated and brought the serious mood back upon them. Brittany nodded understandingly.
"Don't hurt her."
"That's the last thing I wanna do, Sir." Brittany ensured and felt the truth of that pulsating through her body until it had reached every limb.
"Well then, I trust you."
The dance ended and Álvaro bowed his head politely before excusing himself to find his lovely wife. Brittany's eyes naturally searched for her girlfriend and found her quickly, still by Mercedes's side. Before they had looked like they had a good time and laughed a lot but now their faces grew grumpier and grumpier and Brittany feared that she would soon have to break up another fight.
"I want to meet Emma now." Brittany interjected to Santana in what turned out to be a very heated argument about who had the hottest girlfriend. Brittany spotted the redhead and husband from across the room and dragged Santana with her to greet them. Santana threw glances back at Mercedes who was making faces in Santana's direction.
"Hi, I'm Brittany!" Brittany chirped to Emma and extended her arm to shake hands. Emma was so happy to finally get a chance to greet Brittany properly that she didn't even care that she wasn't wearing her gloves when their skins touched.
"Santana has told us so much about you! I'm Emma and this is my husband Noah!" She smiled at Noah as she said it. Everyone at the reception had obviously seen them getting married so it wasn't like a clarification of that sort was necessary but she just loved how easily the words rolled off her tongue.
"We met earlier." Brittany said and smiled at Puck.
"How are you lovebirds feeling?" Santana asked after she decided to let the Mercedes face-off fight-off go, and join in the conversation.
"It's awesome!" Puck stated and put his arm around Emma who hugged his grip around her waist.
"Well, you are the most beautiful bride I've ever seen." Brittany chirped, with politeness as well as sincerity in her voice.
"Really?" Emma asked and Santana smiled at how she had to ask every time. Brittany just nodded in response and watched how Emma's smile grew bigger.
"Thank God, because it's not a particularity comfortable dress." Emma joked and squirmed in the white gown, it was really quite itchy.
"I can't wait to take it off." Puck shared with everyone and nuzzled up by Emma's ear. Emma blushed enormously at his statement.
"Okay, that's enough!" Santana half-joked. She thought they were adorable but didn't like images of heterosexual intercourse seeping into her mind.
"I almost forgot!" Brittany blurted suddenly and reached into her tiny purse. She pulled out a white envelope.
"Santana told me you guys were holding off on going on your honeymoon until you can properly afford it but I just think everyone deserves a honeymoon. That's the best part right?" Brittany said as she handed the gift over to Emma and Puck. The couple was blindsided by the generosity and they both gasped for air when they opened the envelope.
"Oh… oh… no. This is too much." Emma said coyly.
"No, no, no!" Brittany said and started backing away when the couple tried to hand it back to her. Emma followed but instead of forcing the envelope back in Brittany hand she wrapped her arms around her neck and hugged her. Santana's jaw dropped. In her years of being the redhead's closest friend she had never seen that happen. She filled with warmth when she realized how welcome Brittany was in all aspects of her life.
"Thank you so much." Puck said and shook Brittany's hand vigorously when his wife had let go of her. "This one's a keeper!" He said, looking at Santana, and followed it with a wink. Santana returned it with the most loving smile he had ever gotten from her.
"You're welcome!" Brittany beamed. "But now I really have to pee." Brittany added and looked around like she expected a toilet to fall from the ceiling.
"I know where it is." Santana said and intertwined her fingers with Brittany's. As they made their way across the room Santana loved every pair of eyes on them. It's not like they were the center of attention or anything, people were dancing and drinking and having fun, but they got a couple of glances. Santana didn't care if people were thinking good things or bad things, just the fact that both her and Brittany were in one person's mind at the same time made her feel even more with Brittany.
"You're amazing!" Santana said when they were out of the hotel's celebration hall and walking towards the bathrooms further away in the hallway. Brittany stopped them. With a light push she had Santana against the wall and kissed her lips gingerly.
"You're the most amazing thing in my life." Brittany responded with a shy smile when she pulled away from the kiss. Santana's eyes sparkled.
"Brittany, I… I lo – "
"J-BIRD?" A high pitch-voice echoed through the empty hallway. A woman in a bright pink pant suit, orange accessories, light-brown-reddish hair and a silver headband approached them quickly.
"What's a J-bird?" Santana whispered to Brittany, who seemed to be the one the woman had zeroed in on. Brittany wanted to answer but the explanation was a little long and the woman was now too close to allow it.
"Sugar?" Brittany's face filled up with panic. "W-what are you doing here?" She asked nervously. Sugar? Why did that sound awfully familiar to Santana?
"Business." Sugar answered casually with a shrug. Then she furrowed her eyebrows and turned her head to Santana. "Who are you?" She asked in the bitchiest voice Santana had ever heard.
"Excu…" Santana started to bitch back but was interrupted by Brittany.
"Santana, this is Sugar. Sugar, this is… Santana."
"That's Santana?" Sugar asked and looked at the woman by Brittany's side like she wanted to barf.
"Please don't." Brittany's voice was commanding but she looked at Sugar with big helpless eyes. Sugar took a breath, pursed her lips and tried to hold back the tears burning in her eyes.
"Whatever." Sugar tried her best to sound carefree but it didn't come out like that at all. She turned to Santana again. "You can have her." She spat and started walking away.
"What the hell was that all about?" Santana asked confused.
"Santana, not here with all the people…" Brittany begged. Santana snorted. What people? Apart from herself, Brittany and heels clicking more distantly each time, the hallway was still empty. It was true that anyone could just pass by and interrupt but Santana wasn't gonna let some richy bitch treat her like that and not know why, so she grabbed Brittany by the wrist and lead her into the bathroom.
"Okay, what's up with bitch-face?" She asked after she checked all the stalls and learned that they were empty.
"She was just upset." Brittany explained and fidgeted with her bracelet. She really didn't want to talk about this. One, she still wasn't allowed to and two, there's no way this would just slip easily past her fiery tempered girlfriend. Everything had been so perfect just five minutes ago.
"Why?" Santana persisted.
"She's… sort of an ex-girlfriend." Brittany sighed. There was no way out of this one without lying and she wouldn't lie. She felt like crap last time and no, she wouldn't do it again. She couldn't.
"She was acting awfully psycho for an ex." Santana shrugged.
"I broke up with her pretty recently." Brittany said quietly.
"Oh." Santana was about to let it go when suddenly she started connecting the dots.
"Sugar. On the phone. At the shelter. Wait! How recently?" Santana asked with her eye brows raised.
"Three…" Please say months, please say months, please say months! "…weeks." Brittany stared at the floor.
"Oh my God!" Santana couldn't breathe.
"Santana, it's not what you think…-" Brittany tried to start an explanation.
"So when we met, and out first date, and all the other dates you were - oh God - all the times you cancelled and rescheduled, and showed up late, urrgh, it's because you were with someone else? With Ms. Color-me-crazy out there?" Santana got more and more furious by the second and Brittany just shook her head in an apologetic manner. She had so much to explain but she didn't know where to start.
"All the times you snuck out of my apartment you were going home to fuck her!" Santana almost screamed. Santana wanted to throw up. She felt like she also wanted to cry but her body didn't seem to know how, and wrath just took over.
"No! No, I didn't do that! It was part of it but I didn't..." Brittany said, still in a quiet tone, her big blue eyes piercing through Santana.
"What? You want a medal or something?" Santana said spitefully.
"No, I didn't mean it like that, but since you… I didn't with her…"
"Then why didn't you just break up with her, huh?"
"I wanted to, but I couldn't… And I didn't know how you felt…-" Brittany grunted, frustrated that Santana wasn't listening and furious with herself for having let this happen.
"You wanna know how I feel?" Santana asked, her tone still harsh. Brittany's tears got too heavy and fell down her cheeks.
"I feel hurt." Santana's choice of words made Brittany writhe in agony. Fifteen minutes after Santana's father had told her not to hurt his daughter she did just that. Santana's heart tore at the sight of a tortured Brittany but Santana wasn't finished.
"I feel betrayed… Heartbroken." Santana continued. Her face was radiating pain but her but her tone was cold.
"But I did break up with her! I wasn't supposed to but I did because I…-" Brittany pleaded with more tears streaming down her face.
"She calls you J-bird? What is that? Some sort of cute, disgusting insider thing only you two get?" Santana interrupted.
"She thinks I'm…-" Brittany tried to answer Santana's question and if she would just get to finish one stupid sentence…!
"You lied to me." Santana cut in again with a blank stare.
"I'm so, so sorry but please listen to me!" Brittany didn't bother to wipe the tears away.
"I can't do this… I have to go." Santana shook her head while saying it and turned around to push the door open.
"No, Santana! You can't leave!" Brittany begged. Santana stopped and turned around furiously again.
"I can do anything I want to, baby. I ain't the one who cheated." She walked out, leaving a sobbing Brittany alone in the bathroom.