My Funny Valentine
Santana Lopez walked through the main entrance to McKinley High with her best friend, Quinn Fabray close by her side. They'd been friends since freshman year, they were inseparable and together they ruled the school; well, them and the third and final part of their trio, Brittany Pierce. Everyone in that school knew their name. Girls wanted to be them and guys wanted to do them, some of those guys even had the pleasure of boasting that they had slept with a member of The Unholy Trinity.
Being them only made this day that much worse, as Santana looked around the hallway, she caught sight of all the garish pink and red decorations, that hung from the walls or clung to the metal lockers.
All Santana could see around her was pink and red, decorations in the form of banners, hearts, tiny little cupids, anything and everything that symbolised Valentine's Day. Santana had always seen the appeal of Valentine's Day. Usually she had someone to spend it with, or at least someone who could buy her food or some other materialistic item she had her eyes on. Of course, in the past she had been known to buy herself what she wanted, and bill the person she happened to be sleeping with at the time.
But this year was different. This year she had no one; she wasn't dating anyone, she wasn't sleeping with anyone. For the first time in a very long time, Santana Lopez found herself totally and utterly single.
For Quinn and Brittany, Valentine's Day had always gone the same as it had for Santana, they'd either had a date to go on, or had at least had someone to send a card to and receive one from. But this year, they were very much in the same boat as Santana. The only difference was, Santana did have her eye on someone - someone who she had never expected to feel that way about.
She held her head high as she walked towards her locker, doing her best to ignore the loved up couples around her, all of whom were already doing little romantic gestures for their Valentines despite the holiday being days away.
As she arrived at her locker, she couldn't hold back the disgusted sound that escaped the back of her throat, and caught the attention of the kissing couple. The halls of McKinley are usually filled with PDA. You couldn't really avoid it, no matter how hard you tried, but there was no couple worse for PDA than Rachel Berry and Finn Hudson. Santana had lost count of the number of times she'd had to endure the sight of them making out right in the open, for all to see.
She ignored the glare Rachel gave her as she opened her locker; quite frankly, she didn't care how Rachel looked at her, ever, but she especially didn't care whenever glaring at Santana meant she wasn't sucking Finn's face.
"Good morning, Santana," Finn chimed, smirking slightly. Santana glanced at the tall boy who stood fidgeting on the spot, Santana knew that look, she knew all too well what it meant. She had known Finn since elementary school, and he had always pulled the same face whenever he was up to something, or knew something someone else didn't.
She did her best to ignore him, muttering a quiet hello before opening her locker. She was already feeling sick of seeing all the romance when her eyes landed on a pink envelope with her name written on it in scratchy, untidy handwriting. She picked it up, and studied it like it was something that might explode while it was in her hand.
"Q, come look at this." Santana said, her tone making her words sound more like a demand than anything else. She slammed her door shut to reveal Quinn standing next to her with a small, knowing smile on her face.
"What is it?" Quinn asked, Santana looked up at her and saw the same small smirk on her lips that Finn had been wearing just moments before.
"A card." Santana replied dryly, still holding it in her hands but making no move to open it. There was only one person Santana would want a card from, and she was sure that they didn't feel the same way about her. Other than that one person, Santana knew that no one at McKinley was worthy of her, anyone else she had been with had simply been there to pass the time.
"Aren't you going to open it?" Rachel said through a smirk.
Santana looked between the three people standing with her and narrowed her eyes at them, "You all know something." she said, her tone harsh, "Who is this from?" she asked. All three of them shrugged simultaneously.
"I don't know." Quinn replied, her tone letting Santana know she was lying. "You'll have to open it."
Santana sighed, "Q, if you wanna sleep with me, all you have to do is say. I can't promise it'll happen, but there's no need for the theatrics." She smirked, shaking the card at Quinn.
The blonde haired girl rolled her eyes and shook her head slowly, "Just open it."
Santana pushed herself away from her locker and shoved the card into her bag, before walking away from her so-called friends. She didn't even try to convince them that she didn't care about this day, or the card, she knew herself that was a lie. She just didn't want to open it around other people.
All through her first and second period classes Santana's thoughts kept going to the card in her bag, as if it was burning on a hole in there. She didn't know why it bothered her so much, she had never cared about getting attention before. Of course, every other time she had received a card, she had known who it was from straight away.
The only good thing about her morning so far was that she shared her first period with Brittany. They didn't sit together but they'd had a short conversation at the start of their lesson, though the blonde seemed very distracted. She'd been distant with Santana, which she definitely hadn't been used to.
Santana always sat in the row next to Brittany, but three seats back in Spanish. Somedays, she wished she'd chosen the seat next to her up front, but on the first day of school, Santana had been the first one to Spanish class and had picked a chair at the very back of the room. She'd sat there because she was fluent in the language and wanted to use her wasted hour doing something more useful; sitting at the back allowed her to do that.
She'd regretted it instantly when Brittany had arrived to class late and the only seat left in the room had been one right at the very front. Had she known the blonde haired cheerleader was going to be in the same Spanish class as her, she would have definitely tried to get there at the same time as her, hoping they'd be able to sit together.
However, there were some days, like that day, that she was happy to be sat a couple of rows back from the taller girl. Being sat behind her, and slightly to the side of her, allowed Santana the option to watch her during their class.
She had always admired Brittany for many different reasons: her outlook on the world, her talents, and more than anything, her beauty. Santana was sure that she had never met anyone as beautiful as Brittany, both inside and out.
Every once in a while, Brittany had looked over her shoulder, to see Santana looking at her, a shy smile had spread across Brittany's face every time, which had caught Santana off guard - Brittany had never been shy around her, ever.
But Santana would have been lying if she said that coy look hadn't sent her heart racing. She'd be lying if she said Brittany didn't make her race in general; she had never met anyone who had this much of an effect on her in her life.
With ten minutes left of her second period class, Santana saw her phone light up on the table, pulling her attention away from whatever Mrs. Forrest was babbling about. She was almost a hundred percent positive that no one at all in that room cared about why the author had chosen to use the colour blue; she knew she couldn't have cared less.
She quickly covered her phone with her hand, hoping that her bright screen hadn't caught the attention of her teacher. She slowly slid her phone off the desk, and into her lap. She looked at the screen to see she had a text message from an unknown number. She furrowed her eyebrows as she opened the text and read the words on the screen.
From Unknown: Be mine?
Santana groaned quietly, and rolled her eyes at the cliche. She thought that whoever was trying to get her attention could at least try to be somewhat creative with their methods of getting her attention. Santana turned her mouth down slightly, before typing out a reply, she wasn't usually one for texting or calling unknown numbers, and only ever replied to texts from numbers she didn't have saved if they had said who they were in her text. But that day, she decided to make an exception.
To Unknown: Tell me who you are!
She was waiting no more than a minute before her phone lit up in her hand once more.
From Unknown: You've got to say yes first.
To Unknown: I am not saying anything to you until you tell me who you are!
She could feel her anger building; she didn't like games, especially games like this. She couldn't help but think maybe she would be more willing to play games had her secret admirer bought her a present. When she received no reply she locked her phone and threw it into her bag in frustration, storming out of the room as soon as the bell rang.
At lunch, Santana dropped herself into the seat between Kurt and Mercedes. She angrily stabbed at her lettuce and looked around the table to see that the one person she wanted to see was missing. She hated it whenever Brittany wasn't around, she hadn't seen the taller girl since cheer practice yesterday.
She was so much fun to be around and would no doubt help Santana figure this out. The blonde would go into full spy mode if Santana asked her to, and she knew that. As close as she was with Quinn, Brittany was truly her best friend.
However, the line between friend and more had started to get blurred for Santana. She had questioned her sexuality for a while and when she met Brittany, she had questioned it even more. But she had always been able to push those feelings down, trying her hardest to be what society considered 'normal.'
As time passed by, Santana wondered how normal it was to hide herself and be miserable, she knew in her heart that she liked Brittany as more than just a friend, that she had a crush on her, maybe her feelings ran deeper than just a crush.
It hurt her to think about Brittany not reciprocating those feelings.
It annoyed her to think that anyone other than the blonde would send her a card.
She wished she could be open about her feelings. That she could share Valentine's Day with the one person she wanted to. But until she knew Brittany liked her back, she wasn't willing to make a fool of herself the same way her secret admirer had.
She knew the only way she would appreciate the efforts her admirer had gone to, would be if they revealed themself to be Brittany; but to Santana, that seemed like some unrealistic ending to a sappy love story.
She was pulled away from her thoughts of the blonde haired girl by Mercedes grabbing her wrist, stilling her hand. She looked down to see lettuce all over the table from the force of her stabs. "What's wrong with you?"
"This stupid Valentine's Day thing, it's literally everywhere I turn and I'm just..." she made a disgusted sound at the back of her throat to describe her feelings to the other girl.
"I'm guessing you're either going to be alone this year, or you're going to be breaking yet another heart?" Blaine asked from the side of his boyfriend, Santana looked around Kurt to see the dark haired boy.
"I'll be breaking something, but it's more likely to be a skull than a heart if they keep this up. Look." Santana replied, thrusting her phone into Blaine's face. He read the text and chuckled before showing Kurt, and then passing it around the table until it got to Mercedes and then, finally, back to Santana.
"You don't think that's at least a little funny and creative?" Mike asked.
"Maybe, in some strange way," Santana widened her eyes slightly, "Oh god, it's Jacob isn't it?" she asked, scouring her brain to think of who would send her a text so vague. She ducked under the table, grabbing her bag and looking for the card. She pulled out the envelope and sat back up again.
"You still haven't opened it yet?" Quinn asked.
Satana shook her head slowly, "No. Why would I have?"
"Oh, I don't know, because it's a card and you're supposed to open them when you get them?" Quinn replied, giving Santana a look that screamed isn't that obvious.
"Technically, you're supposed to save a card for the holiday it's intended for," Rachel corrected the blonde, "So if Santana doesn't want to open it ye-"
"I'm opening it." Santana said, cutting the short girl off from her rant. Rachel was a lot to handle at the best of times, and if she was being honest, she thought Finn deserved a medal for putting up with her as much as he did. But today, she seemed even more annoying than usual.
Santana ripped the envelope open, to reveal a card with a teddy bear holding a heart on it. She screwed her face up slightly at the image on the front of the card before opening it and seeing the same scruffy handwriting on the inside that had been on the envelope.
Santana, I don't really know how to do this, so I thought I'd put it in a card. Everytime I see you smile it makes me think of rainbows and unicorns, and makes me feel warm and happy inside, especially when you smile at me whenever you see me.
I hope that you'll meet me tonight at Breadsticks at seven. I'll be waiting for you by the doors.
Be my Valentine?
There was no name underneath the message, but something about the words felt familiar to her, almost like home, and she couldn't help but smile as she read them over and over again. She knew who she wanted the card and the text to be from, and reading those words made it seem like so much more of a possibility than she ever thought it could be.
The only thing she couldn't understand was the unknown number. Had the message been from Brittany, she would have known because she'd had Brittany's number saved in her phone for years. As the two girls had grown closer and Santana's feelings had developed, a small smiley face emoji had made its way next to Brittany's name.
Whenever she saw the contact ID flash up on her screen it brought the biggest smile to her face. She read the card one more time, imagining Brittany writing it, and hoped her imagination wasn't wild and could quite possibly be onto something.
She placed the card back into her bag, and when she sat up again she looked around her to see her friends watching her with expectant expressions. "What?" she asked, as she looked around the unlikely group of friends.
"Well?" Rachel asked.
"Who's it from?" Kurt asked.
Santana shrugged, "I don't know, it doesn't say." she replied.
"So what does it say?" Finn asked, the same expression returning to his face that he'd had that morning, by now Santana knew that even if no one else knew who this admirer was, Finn did and as she looked at Quinn to see her smirking, she was sure that she knew too.
"It doesn't say much," she lied, "Just asking if I'll meet them tonight at seven." she admitted with a small shrug, "Obviously I'm not going to go, they could be anybody." she shook her head, "I refuse to meet up with someone when I don't know who they are."
"Honestly, I think it's romantic," Blaine replied with a small smile, "Think of it as a blind date. If you get there and you don't like them you can always leave, it's not like you're marrying them by meeting them."
Quinn nodded her head in agreement, "Blaine's right," she said with a shrug, "I think you should go. Who knows, you might meet the love of your life if you do."
Santana nodded her head and turned down her mouth, "Sure, sure, could happen." There was a beat of silence before she continued her thought, "I could end up in Buffalo Bill's pit, in what would soon be known as the real life Silence of the Lambs."
"I think you're being a bit dramatic," Tina replied with a chuckle, "The worst that'll happen is you don't like them, and when you think about it, that's not bad at all."
"I agree." Mike replied before giving Tina a quick kiss. Again, Santana couldn't help but screw her face up at the display of affection.
"I'd go just for the free food," Lauren replied with a shrug, "Think about it, you go out, get to eat food you don't even have to pay for, and you don't have to spend Valentine's Day alone. Meeting them sounds pretty good to me."
Santana rolled her eyes and groaned, "Urgh, fine I'll meet them." she sighed, "But I die, I am totally coming back to haunt your asses." She replied before beginning to eat her lunch, feeling a butterfly flap its wings gently in the pit of her stomach as the thought of the blonde haired girl writing the messages to her entered her brain once more.
Santana arrived at the restaurant five minutes early and mentally cursed herself; she didn't want to seem too eager, especially when she had no idea who had sent her the text or the card. On the one hand, she know who she hoped it would be and she would wait hours for Brittany, that much she was sure of; but there was something inside her head, a small niggling voice that always told her she wasn't good enough for Brittany, and that in the past, she hadn't been a good enough person for karma to allow Brittany to see her the same way she saw the other girl.
No, knowing her luck and knowing how she had always been warned about how karma worked, she'd be spending Valentine's Day with Jacob Ben Israel. Each minute ticks by slower than Santana had ever thought possible, each one feeling longer than the next, and feeling so much more like an hour than just mere seconds.
She could feel her heart pounding in her chest, and the one butterfly she'd had at lunch had multiplied tenfold, and all of them flapped their wings aggressively in Santana's stomach, making her feel like she might throw up at any moment. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and saw that her date was now running five minutes late.
She felt her heart drop, she hadn't wanted to be there in the first place, and now she was being stood up. She ran through a lot of scenarios in her head, some good, some bad, some her dream situation, and others were downright nightmarish, but not once had she thought about the possibility of being stood up and all of this being just one big practical joke.
She pulled her phone from her pocket and tapped out a text to the same unknown number from that morning, hoping that this time, she actually got a reply that was less cryptic than the others had been.
To Unknown: Where are you. I'm waiting.
She isn't waiting long before she gets a reply and she can't help but sigh in relief when she reads the message.
From Unknown: I just got here. Sorry. I got lost. The GPS was hard to understand.
Santana smiled slightly and put her phone back into her pocket and waited for her date to reveal themself. As she scanned the parking lot, her eyes fell onto someone familiar - someone who she knew well, and if she was being honest, the only person she had wanted to see that night.
"Hey San, are you ready to go inside?" She asked, her voice sweet and cheery, the way that Santana was so used to it being. Santana nodded her head slowly, she had no idea what to say to the taller girl. She still couldn't believe her luck.
Brittany S. Pierce liked her, she actually liked her.
Brittany linked arms with Santana. The same way she always did when they were walking through the halls of McKinley together, but this time, it felt different; Santana could feel the tension around them. Tonight was about so much more than friendship, and she knew that, she could sense that and almost smell it in the air.
As they walked into the restaurant they were greeted by a host, who in Santana's opinion was far too cheerful for someone who was working on Valentine's Day and had to spend the night alone, watching couples give each other googly eyes from across the table.
Usually Santana could think of nothing worse. Even in the past when she had spent Valentine's Day with someone, they had gone to the movies and then driven somewhere secluded to make out, which, in Santana's experience, always went a lot further. Or she would go over to her 'dates' house, or they would come over to hers and they would bypass the food and movie all together and skip right to sex.
But tonight was different. Tonight was going to be special for her, she knew Brittany would treat her the way she deserved to be treated.
She had always been so sweet and kind in their friendship, it was part of the reason that Santana had started to fall for her all those months ago. She had never expressed her feelings to anyone, they had been her own; the secret that she had shared with herself and only herself and she knew she wanted to keep it that way, for now at least.
Brittany gave the host her name and stayed silent until they were sitting at their table and the host had walked away. "I was really nervous about this, I was starting to think you wouldn't come." Brittany admitted.
"I almost didn't." Satana explained, "I had no idea who you were, why not just ask me out? Surely that's easier than all this, not that I mind. Now I know this was you, I like it." She admitted.
A beaming smile made its way to Brittany's face, and Santana could have sworn that the room got a little bit brighter when it did. Her heart thrummed in her chest as she looked at the stunning girl in front of her.
"I got scared that if you knew it was me you wouldn't come, because I'm a girl." she admitted. "I was worried maybe you didn't like girls like I do… I told the rest of glee club how I felt and they all told me to do something nice for you for Valentine's Day, so I did."
As Brittany told her story, everything suddenly started to make sense, the smirks that Finn and Quinn had been giving her all day, how the whole of Glee club seemed to be pro Santana coming here tonight, how they had all wanted to know what was written in the card, and how they had all shared an interest in that text.
"So why no name on the card or text? And how did you even send me a text from an unknown number?" Santana asked, a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth. She wanted to know everything, no, she needed to know everything. She had a feeling this was a story she was going to be telling for a long time.
"Because it's Valentine's Day, hello, secret admirer, that's the whole point, so there was name on the card and Puck told me to use a burning phone to text you, which wasn't burning at all when I used it." Santana couldn't help but smile at Brittany's miss understanding of the term burner phone. "Besides, I told you, I was scared you wouldn't want to be here with me."
"Well, I do want to be here with you." Santana admitted, "I don't know much about a lot of things, but I know that I like you, Brittany, and there is no one else I would have rather been here with me tonight."
"As friends?" Brittany asked, her eyes filled with worry.
Santana shook her head slowly and leaned over the small table, placing a light kiss to Brittany's lips "As your valentine," She replied, smiling at the taller girl before kissing her again.
Santana couldn't help but think about how she would definitely be taking her friends advice again and began to count her lucky stars that she had the friends she did - people that whole-heartedly cared for, and supported, each other no matter what.
It was safe to say that she now, most definitely, got the big deal about Valentine's Day.
A/N: Just a little one shot to start the collection, and since it's almost Valenrtine's Day, obviously I had to go with a Vaneltine's Day theme. Thank you to my amazing girlfriend (username Shananigans402) for editing this one shot for me. You're the best!