Hey guys :D So here's the tenth chapter! whow...ten. and i hope you like it. i wanna thank you all for reading and supporting my story, you guys rock. especially my girl amillionyears! you're awesome! so please enjoy and R&R

Chapter 10

I was slumped down on the bench that was going around the water fountain in the middle of the Mall and feeling sorry for myself.

Contrary to what I had expected Britt had actually not run after me to try and make me feel better or whatever. She had stayed with Quinn in the coffee shop.

I could still see the entrance from where I was sat on the bench and couldn't help but glance at it what felt like every two seconds.

I can't believe Brittany stayed with Quinn! What the hell? Since when does she care more about how Quinn feels than how I'm doing? This sucks!

I felt another tear escape my eyes and let out a frustrated sigh as I carefully wiped at it with my finger so as to not smear my mascara.

When I looked up again I saw the two blondes exiting the coffee shop and coming towards me.

Ugh. Great. Look at how sweet they are… strolling through the Mall together…probably coming over here to tell me that I'm being childish or whatever. Why don't they just leave me alone. They don't wanna hang with me anyway.

I sniffed and quickly turned my head away from them to hide my teary eyes.

…okay, wow. Really feeling sorry for myself here. Come one, Lopez, get it together!

I painfully gulped down the lump that had formed in my throat from trying not to cry and sat up a little taller when I felt someone else sit down beside me.

I assumed it was Brittany, so I was a little taken aback when I heard Quinn's voice.

"You forgot to pay."

I just remained silent, wondering why Quinn was the one that had sat down with me instead of Brittany and waiting for her to say something I could respond to without it turning into another fight.

"I paid for you. Brittany wanted to do it but she didn't have any money, so…" Quinn's voice was strained. Like she didn't know how to act or what to say.

I rolled my eyes and turned so that I wasn't leaning away from her anymore. We were now sitting side by side, both looking straight forward or at our shoes. I still didn't say anything. I didn't know what to say. Quinn and I had never been in a situation like this. Normally when we fought we just didn't talk to each other for a few days – well, except for the bitchy comments. But now, now Quinn was breaking protocol.

What the hell is she doing? We're not supposed to talk to each other. That's not how it works. At least not lately. Brittany is supposed to be on my side and she and I are supposed to just avoid each other and then pretend like it never happened until we bring it up in the next fight. This is all wrong!

"Look, Santana, I'm sorry alright?" I was so shocked to hear her apologize, or to be more precise, to hear her apologize sincerely, that I almost forgot to be angry with her. She didn't even sound sarcastic or anything.

"I shouldn't have brought that stuff up. But you kinda started it and bringing that stuff with Beth up… that was just, I don't know, it just got out of control."

I let out a deep sigh and looked up at her. She was staring at her hands in her lap and I thought I saw the corner of her eyes shimmer a little.

Suddenly all the anger and self-pity was gone and I just felt exhausted and sad. And a little empty. Like something was missing within me. Quinn.

"Why is it always like that with us lately? We're always just fighting and trying to hurt each other." I asked frustrated, the sadness vibrating in my voice.

Quinn chuckled coldly. "Was it ever any different?" she asked in return.

I didn't laugh. She was right. It seemed like it had always been this way with us. It seemed like all we had ever done was bring each other down. But we both knew that wasn't true. There had been a time where things had been different, better. Where we had been better.

"Yeah. It used to be. We used to be different. We used to be best friends. Like, real best friends. Not the kinda crab that's been going on the past few years. I used to love hanging with you and watching scary movies and blaming Finn when we accidentally threw that ball through Mrs. Donahan's window." Quinn let out a soft laugh at that and nodded her head in remembrance.

"Where did that go? What the fuck happened, Q?" I asked quietly, bowing my head again and studying my hands absentmindedly.

Neither of us said anything for some time. We were probably both thinking back to those times, that felt like a million years ago when it had just been me and her and life had been so much easier.

Or I was anyway.

"I don't know, S. I guess high school happened and we just sorta grew apart. I mean, all of a sudden we both had a lot of shit happening to us and, I don't know, maybe, maybe we were both too hung up on our own problems to make room to pay attention to what the other was going through."

Quinn offered sadly. Trying to rationally explain what had changed.

I nodded in thought.

Yeah. A lot of shit has definitely happened.

"I didn't have a boob job. Just so you know." I broke the silence and saw Quinn shift to look at me from the corner of my eyes.

When I didn't elaborate any further Quinn asked,

"What? What are you talking about?"

I bit my inner cheek and took a deep breath. Suddenly I wasn't so sure if I should tell her after all.

"Santana? What do you mean 'you didn't get a boob job'?" the tenderness in Quinn's voice that made me feel like she actually cared about me and not some new bit of gossip was what made me go on. It was the voice I used to hear when she had comforted me when I had been crying because of my parents or something when we were younger.

"I didn't get one. I just told Coach that cause I didn't want her to know the real reason why I couldn't come to cheerleading camp during the summer." I said, still biting my cheek.

I looked over at Quinn and she raised her eyebrows at me to go on.

As I started to explain further I held her stare.

"Well, I kinda…" I bit my lip.

God! I had no idea telling this to someone could be so freakin' hard! It was way easier telling Britt…

"okay look, so I went to this one party and some Neanderthal apparently broke some glass on his way out of the bathroom or something, anyway, Britt had a little too much to drink so I helped her. You know, holding her hair up and stuff, but when I got her out of the bathroom I cut myself on some stupid broken glass. So of course my parents noticed that. I mean, they hadn't really cared that I was out all night, I don't even think they noticed I was gone, but when they saw the cut – oh, which was on my wrist by the way – "

I showed her a faint, white scar on my left wrist,

"so when they saw this cut they totally lost it. Saying, like, that they didn't know what to do with me anymore and that I was acting out and hurting myself and blah blah and then they told me I had to go see a fucking shrink!" I threw my hands in the air as the frustration caught up with me again at retelling this summer's events.

Quinn was looking at me with a sympathetically scandalized expression on her face.

"Seriously? They made you see a therapist? Didn't you tell them it was just an accident?"

"Of course I did! But you know my parents, Q! They only listen to what they wanna hear! Ugh! It was so frustrating!" I was shaking my head, once again feeling hurt by my parents' ignorant behavior as I relived it.

"So when I couldn't go to camp I knew I needed a good reason so Coach wouldn't kick me off the team…"

"And you thought telling her you got a boob job was a good idea?" Quinn cut in, snorting and screwing up her face in disbelief.

"Shut up! I'm not good at improvising, okay? -"

"I'll say." Quinn muttered under her breath, but I ignored her and kept on ranting.

"I hadn't come up with a good excuse yet and when she ordered me into her office and started to babble about how I had gotten a boob job - no idea where she got that from by the way... I bet JewFro with his fucking gossip-fetish had something to do with it - anyway, so like I said I didn't have a better explanation anyway, so I just didn't tell her I hadn't." I said a little defensively.

I frowned at Quinn. Well, not at her, more at the whole situation I had just told her about. It had been a really shitty time and I almost regretted telling her. But after the next thing she said I noticed why I had told her. Why she was the only other person I had told aside from Brittany.

"That's screwed up." Quinn finally concluded.

It was as simple as that. I loved Quinn for that. For putting things simple sometimes. She was like me in that way, I never knew what else to say in those types of situations either. Any maybe that was okay, maybe nothing else needed to be said.

"Yep." I gave back hollowly. We were quiet again for a while until Quinn let out a small laugh.

"So, you're still seeing a therapist only because some dude dropped his beer bottle at a party and Britt had one too many?" she let out another laugh.

I felt my frown shrink away and chuckled.

"Well, I'm not seeing him anymore." I giggled.

"I told him that it was just an accident and after six weeks he came to the conclusion that I was actually probably telling the truth. But I managed to convince him that it would be better that I told my parents myself. Seeing as it wasn't his finest hour, since he had told my parents something might be really wrong with me in the beginning and he didn't want to fess up to them that he had screwed up, he agreed to that awfully fast." Quinn was now joining into my giggling.

"So now I go over to Britt's every Tuesday afternoon or just do whatever and my parents still pay Dr. Lieberman a hundred bucks every week which he probably invests in a new yacht or something, I don't know." I ended, snorting.

Quinn was shaking her head in amusement and chuckled quietly, looking back over to the Italian restaurant that was opposite from where we were seated in front of the fountain.

I grinned. I like talking with her like that. I really missed that. Maybe we actually could get back to the way we were before. Being friends and stuff. I really hope so. Cause otherwise I just told my number one frienemy a hell of a lot of stuff about me she could hold against me.

I was actually a little queasy at the thought of that happening, but right now it seemed so far away that I could easily push those scenarios to the back of my mind.

Besides, it would be so awesome if the three of us could do some stuff together sometime. Like some real stuff we actually wanna do. Not the scheming and hazing shit Sue had us do to Glee club and the Cheerio freshmen. Although, admittedly, those were kind of fun. But we could have, like, a scary movie night together. Britt would love it! She loves watching scary movies with me. Mainly cause I'm always the one who is more scared but whatever. Q's super scared too so she won't even notice. She never did when we were kids anyway. I should ask Britt what she thinks of that.

I looked around and turned back to Quinn.

"Hey, where's Britt anyway?" I asked, only now noticing that I hadn't seen her since she had come out of the coffee shop with Quinn.

"Oh, she said she would go ahead and check out that comic store. I didn't know she's into those sorts of things. I guess she just wanted to give us time to talk it out." Quinn mused, staring blankly at the sign of the restaurant. She seemed like she was deeply in thought about something.

I nodded and hummed, looking down at my hands in my lap again. I couldn't help but smile a little.

Brittany is really good at that. At knowing when people need to talk and stuff. She's just really smart. God. Why can nobody see that?

The smile slipped away from my face and my brows creased instead. That makes me so mad. People are so stupid!

I was so wrapped up in my thoughts, that I almost forgot Quinn was there until I heard her take in a breath and I glanced up at her.

She was still wearing that same thoughtful expression, only now it looked like she had decided to share those thoughts with me.

"I'm sorry about your parents, Santana. I know how much that must suck." She said simply, still not meeting my eyes.

I looked at her confused. "What are you talking about? What would you know about shitty parents? I mean, yeah, your dad totally reacted like an eighteenth century priest to that whole teen mum business last year, but, come on, they got back together not a month after your mum threw him out and now they seem totally fine with it. With you living there again and everything." I stated. And I almost got a little mad again.

What had she to complain about? It was like a freakin' story from a teeny book. I mean everything good happened to her in the end. She got knocked up – The baby got a somewhat decent mum who moved close by and allowed her to visit, plus she lost the baby weight in under a month and was back on top of the school in no time. Her parents split up – her dad moved back in, everybody's happy. For Quinn, it seemed like, things always eventually worked out. Well, almost always. But still… Right?

She let out something between a huff and a humorless laugh and shook her head sadly.

"Yeah, it seems that way, doesn't it? After all, they're still really good at keeping up appearances. Playing house. Constantly worried about what others might think of us and what they might say." She let out a heavy sigh and I bit my lip, eyeing her carefully. I guess I had been wrong.

"I thought that would finally change when my mum threw him out, but no, he somehow convinced her that she had to take him back so people wouldn't gossip about that too, on top of everything I already screwed up by getting pregnant." She continued and I leaned closer to her when her voice broke on the last word, putting a hand on hers on the bench.

"Ugh! He still won't talk to me except to tell me I should help my mum wash the dishes or something and now my mum's totally on his side again. Well, at least when he's around! It's horrible! I'm almost never home now because I just can't stand being in that house with them. With him. I hate it." She sniffed and wiped at the tears that had started falling down her cheeks.

I was shocked. How could something that seemed so good and wholesome on the outside be so broken and ugly on the inside? I had to swallow hard to hold myself back from crying with her. I had been so wrong. And I should have been there.

"I should have been there. I'm sorry, Q! I'm really sorry." I said huskily, squeezing the hand I was still covering with mine.

To my surprise she laughed hoarsely, finally breaking her stare from the 'Pedro's Panini Paradise' sign to meet my eyes.

"Man! A lot of shit sure happens to us, S. We must have really jinxed it when we wrote that 'We love our shiny princess lives so much' song when we were eight."

I snorted. "Oh my god! I totally forgot about that! We should spruce it up and make it a duet for glee." I joked as another loud laugh escaped my mouth. We chuckled a little, happily remembering those days, until we calmed down again.

After a second I leaned my head against Quinn's shoulder and closed my eyes.

"I miss you, Q." I sighed almost inaudibly.

I felt Quinn smile against my head and then she squeezed my hand that was still holding hers.

"I miss you too, S."

I grinned and kept still for a moment before lifting my head and turning to look – no, scowl - at her before saying in a mockingly warning tone, "But not as much as I miss being queen bitch, so you better watch it, Fabray."

She snorted in return and wrinkled her forehead in amusement.

"Yeah right, Lopez. Bring it on." She nodded her head at me in a street gang kinda way and that made me laugh even harder.

She just shook her head grinning and nudged me to get up.

"Come on, Lopez, let's help Brittany choose one of those 'graphic novels' for our ex." She giggled and I sighed and stood up, linking my arm in hers before we went off to find Brittany.

When we got to the comic book store Quinn and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Britt? What are you doing?" Quinn asked chuckling.

Brittany was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the store on the floor, four or five comic books sprawled around her, and seemed to be deeply engrossed in one of them. She didn't react.

"Hey, whatcha reading there, Britt?" I asked gently as I crouched down beside her. She gave a little jump and looked at me with doe-in-the-headlight eyes before she relaxed and grinned first at me and then up at Quinn.

"Oh, hey guys! I was just looking for something to get Sam, but then I remembered that I didn't know what kind he liked so I just looked through a lot of them hoping I would see one that reminded me of some of the weird stories he tells and then I found this one and I really liked it and then you guys came. Oh, but I don't know if Sam will like it, I've never heard him tell stories about ducks." Brittany pouted, slightly frowning at the fact that she had lost focus on the goal.

Quinn chuckled again. "Well, that's all very nice Brittany, but why are you on the floor?" she asked, eyeing something I couldn't see from my crouched down position. I got up and followed her line of sight.

Two rows behind the one we were in stood some pale, pimply kid in a blazer. He looked like he could maybe be the manager and it seemed like he didn't quite know what to with us. Or rather with Brittany. I guess he didn't get too many hot seventeen year-old girls sitting down on the floor to read his comic books. I pressed my lips together as I tried to swallow my laughter and winked at him. His eyes grew big and he scurried away quickly. I laughed, turning back around to Quinn and Brittany.

Brittany looked up at us confused. "What do you mean? I wanted to read the comic books, and I got tired of standing so I sat down. I knew it would take you two a while to – OH MY GOD!" she screamed and both Quinn and I flinched together at the sudden increase in volume.

"Ah! What? What?" we both asked in hushed tones to remind her we had to be quieter.

Brittany beamed at us. "You guys made up!"

I rolled my eyes, grinning, and looked over at Quinn who was looking at me amusedly.

"Yes. Santana and I talked about some things." She smiled at me.

"Yay!" Brittany squealed and clapped her hands happily before she jumped up and pulled the two of us into a bone-crushing hug.

"God, Britt. It's not like we cured cancer or something." I said, but I was still grinning. Especially when Quinn croaked that she couldn't breathe and Brittany hastily released us, looking sheepish.

Quinn coughed a little, holding a fist in front of her mouth while the other hand was pressed against her collarbone, and then pointed down at the almost forgotten comic books on the floor.

"So which ones have you got there?" she asked after clearing her throat.

Britt whirled around and picked them up. "Oh, I got Spiderman and Batman and some other 'man' – " she counted off as she showed them to us, but Quinn shook her head at all of them. "and then I got the one with some woman who has a lot of muscles and throws guys around and…"

"No, no, no, Sam has all those three already and this one looks more like a weird fetish or something." Quinn told Brittany as she took the comic books out of her hands.

Brittany pouted and looked really disappointed that she hadn't found the right present for Sam.

"Sorry." She muttered, biting her lip and looking at the floor. Ugh, Quinn!

"Oh, no Brittany it's okay!" Quinn said hastily as I went over and put a soothing hand on Brittany's back.

"I'll just go look for something. Really, it's alright." She looked at me, worried she had offended Brittany.

"Yeah, Brittz. Quinn will find something. She knows Trouty Mouth better than either of us anyway." I said quietly and nodded to Quinn that it was fine for her to go.

Quinn gave Brittany one last apologetic smile before she went to look for a good comic book to buy for Sam.

I continued stroking Brittany's back but she seemed to be lost in thought. "Hey." I said quietly so she would look up. She didn't. "Are you still upset?" she shrugged her shoulders. "Quinn didn't mean anything by it."

"I know." Brittany mumbled. I frowned. "Then what is it?"

"I just, I don't know. I really wanted to find something for him. Sam is a good guy and I always try to listen to him when he talks about comics and stuff, but it's just so boring. I always zone out. I just wish I knew more about comics." Brittany sighed.

I stepped in front of Brittany. She was still looking at the floor and still seemed a little sad, so I grabbed her by her shoulders to make her look at me and when she finally did I said,

"Hey, come on, we both know that even though she tries to hide it, Quinn is really a nerd." A smirk crept on her face and that made me smile too. "I'm telling you," I went on. "It's not that you don't know much about comic books. It's that she knows too much." I said, eyes wide and nodding my head for emphasis.

"HEY! I heard that Santana!" Quinn called from two rows over. Brittany and I giggled. "I am not a nerd." Quinn huffed, her voice getting closer until she appeared at the end of the row.

"Well have you found the right one yet?" I sniggered, turning around to face her, while Brittany was still giggling behind me.

"Yes." Quinn said defensively, a stern look on her face.

I looked back at Brittany and raised my brow as if to say 'see? She already found it…what a nerd!'. Brittany snorted and buried her head against my shoulder. I grinned broadly and we began walking toward Quinn who was rolling her eyes before she whipped around to go to the check-out counter.

When we reached the end of the row, I felt Brittany turn around. "Oh! San, wait." She hurried back to where she had sat and picked something up.

"What is that?" I asked, raising a brow at her as she came up next to me. She stopped so she was standing really close and I unconsciously held my breath for a second.

She smiled shyly and pushed something against my hand that was hanging just below my hip. I glanced down and grinned at the comic book she was giving me.

"Can I have it, Sanny?" Brittany pouted, batting her eyelashes. So cute!

"Sure, Britt-Britt." I said warmly.

She squealed and hugged me tightly."You're the best." She whispered into my ear and I felt a little shudder run down my spine. Oh fuck.

I just smiled awkwardly and went to pay for the Donald Duck comic.

On our way out of the store Brittany and I walked behind Quinn who was flipping through the one she had bought for Sam. Brittany held her new comic happily in one hand and with the other she linked our pinkies.

When I looked at her she had this huge smile on her face like I'd just bought her a new car or something and then she leaned over and quickly pecked me on the cheek.

I felt my face heat up and grinned.

I love comic books!

okay guys? so whatcha think? i really wanted to explain some stuff in this chapter and take a closer look at the quinntana friendship and what happened there. I hope you liked it and i'm looking forward to your reviews! thanks:D some more brittana coming up though, don't worry...and of course there's sam's party to look forward to ;}