Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter 16

It was three am when Santana called her chauffeur Julio so that he picked them up from the diner. First, they drove to the quarter where Rachel and Finn lived, after that, they brought home Puck, Mike, Quinn and Artie. Finally, they brought Sam and Chandler to Chandler's mansion.

Before he got up, Chandler looked back and forth between Santana and Brittany. "I…" He cleared his throat. "Thanks for tonight."

"You are welcome", Brittany said warmly.

"Next time get drunk with us, Blondie, not with that douche Beauford.", Santana said, and Sam threw her an angry glance.

"What?", she said, but Sam just shook his head before he dragged Chandler to the mansion, and Santana was sure she had seen him smiling.

"Where to next, Senorita?", Julio asked Santana when he drove out of the driveway.

"To Brittany's, please."

Tired, Santana leaned her head back before she turned back to Brittany. She noticed that the blonde had looked at her all the time.

"Don't look at me like that", she said, amused.

Brittany cocked her head to the side, blinking innocently. "How did I look at you?"

Suddenly, the atmosphere at the backseat was tensed up. Sexually tensed up.

"You look like you were thinking about our past.", the Santana answered after a while.

Brittany looked a bit sad. "Shall I stop?"

Santana laughed, and her laugh kind of sounded desperate for a reason. "Yes."

"But…but why?"

Santana looked her deep into her eyes. "Because you need to let go of these memories so that we can replace them with newer ones."

Brittany looked at her with wide eyes, opening her mouth and closing it again, confused.

"Smythe and I decided to put an end to this play pretend." She took a deep breath before she went on. "During dinner with our parents and my sister, we decided to come out officially to them and to tell them that we don't want to get engaged to each other."

The blonde just took Santana's hand, squeezing it softly and listening.

"Smythe's parents weren't that surprised because he didn't really hide it. And my parents…" Santana exhaled.

"What did they say?", Brittany whispered. Her soft tone was like balm to Santana's heart.

"My parents and Nanda…they took me by surprise. They were scared because I got nervous, but when I finally told them, they were relieved it wasn't something bad. Nanda told me she knew it all the time, but she wanted to wait until I'm ready to tell them."

"That's good, right?", Brittany asked her quietly. "They are not mad at you."

Santana shook her head. "No. They told me they will support me no matter who I love." A tear was running down her cheek. Britt wiped it away softly.

"My parents are preparing everything for the press conference in Madrid where I will come out to the entire world. I want to do it because it just feels right. Now that I know that my family supports me."

Brittany smiled faintly. "That's great. You will be the first Lebanese princess in the world."

The Latina needed to laugh. "It's still called lesbian, Britt", she chuckled. "I love you so much." Santana just said the sentence without thinking about it.

Britt opened her mouth and looked at her, stunned. "What did you just say?"

Santana gulped. "I told you that I love you. I loved you since the day you took me by the hand the first day in America when I was five and had no friends." Back then she had been sitting alone in the sandbox, crying, and a smiling Brittany just walked over to her, pulled her to her feet and introduced her to the rest of the clique, declaring that they were friends from that moment on. Santana could still remember it as if it happened yesterday.

"And I'm sorry I gave you the feeling that I don't feel like that."

These words were touching Brittany, Santana could see that.
Santana didn't say those three words often, but she couldn't help it. She was in love with Brittany S. Pierce, the most awesome woman in the world.

"I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Britt, because I'm yours, forever."

Tears were running down Brittany's face and she didn't do anything about it. In the next moment, she leaned over and grabbed Santana by the neck, pulling her closer.

"I love you too, San", Britt mumbled into her hair. They stayed like that for an eternity until they needed to pull away because they arrived at Brittany's.

"Do you want to come in?", Brittany asked Santana when she opened the door, smiling a bit insecurely. "I don't want to say goodbye to you yet."

Hands still intertwined with Britt's; Santana smiled. "I would love to."

The blonde cocked her head to the side when something came to her mind. "Do you think I will be a good princess?"

Santana needed to laugh. That was so Brittany. And to be honest, that was the character trait she loved so much about her. "If we marry, you are going to be something like a Spanish duchess because I'm only second in line after Nanda."

Brittany smiled. "Okay. Sounds good as well. Although I have no idea what a duchess is." She leaned forward, touching her mouth with Santana's softly before kissing her completely.
This little touch was enough for Santana to see fireworks in front of her eyes.

The following week was like torture for Mercedes. Firstly, she got bad grades at two tests, that's why her parents were disappointed. Secondly, she couldn't help but think about Sam all the time, much to her annoyance.

Whenever Rachel or Finn were talking about Sam before the event management club meetings started, about how he started to get used to his new home, Mercedes needed a lot of force not to let out a scoff disdainfully.

"Are you okay?", Kurt just asked her over the phone. She was on her way home, face timing with him. But actually, she just wanted to bury her face in her pillow in her bed and wait until this crappy week was over.

She sighed. "This week sucked for me.", she answered, looking down her bright pink boots. They really didn't fit to her school uniform, but she couldn't care less. She hated wearing pumps or high heels with her uniform, like McKinley's trendsetters Quinn, Santana or Brittany did.

But unfortunately, they didn't cheer her up today.

"I also wrote a C in chemistry, but who cares?", Kurt tried to cheer her up. "Don't worry about that, Cedes. It's not the end of the world."

"Says the straight-A student", Mercedes muttered under her breath. "Nerd."

He gasped. "Excuse me? What did you just say?", Kurt asked, feigning indignation.

Mercedes grinned a bit. "I just said that…" She trailed off when she saw that someone was waiting for her on her porch. Kurt's eyes went wide when he spotted the person as well. "What is he doing at your home?"

Sam.

He was there.

Right on her porch.

Mercedes bit her tongue. She was mad, but at the same time, she felt insecure. She hadn't heard anything from him since last weekend. She had no idea what he wanted now.

"Look, Kurt, it's not what it looks like, Sam and I, we…"

"I understand", Kurt said, grinning knowingly. "I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to."

"But…"

"I'm going to give you some privacy. We can talk later, okay?"

"Wait, Kurt, we are not…" But he had already hung up. Mercedes put her phone into her bag, took a deep breath and came closer to her house. But then, she changed her mind and turned around to walk to the park, not saying anything to Sam.

"Wait!", he shouted, running after her.

Mercedes ignored him.

"Of course we are friends, Mercedes", he shouted after her.

She halted in her tracks and gritted her teeth. Sam came closer and stopped in front of her. It hurt too much looking at him, so she stared down his grey Converse shoes. But that didn't help that much.

How could it be that she had invested so much in their friendship within that short amount of time?

How could it be that she was still caring about him so much?

"I know that the answer comes too late, but … we are friends", Sam repeated more energetically.

Mercedes dared to look him into his eyes. "It didn't feel like that last week", she answered. "I thought we wanted to tell the others of our friendship. And then, I learn from my best friend that you throw a party you didn't invite me to."

"I'm sorry", he said, ruffling his blond hair.

Mercedes shook her head. "You didn't reply for one week. Or gave me any sign of life. Friends don't act like that."

"I know and I'm really sorry." He searched for the right words. "But this party… all of my friends came. I just couldn't invite you, Mercedes."

It felt like he had just punched her in the face, and Mercedes backed away. They had talked and texted to each other for hours. She had been there for him when he needed someone to talk in the middle of the night. She had helped him to cope with the new situation. She thought that they were good friends.
But apparently, she was wrong.

It had hurt not to hear from him the entire week, but it couldn't be compared to the pain these words were causing her. At the same time, something else occurred to her.

"I didn't spend years to learn to love myself just to let someone else destroy it", she hissed.

Sam shook his head, stepping closer to her. "I didn't mean it like that. I just didn't want you to get a wrong impression of me or my friends. And after your text… I didn't know what to answer. Or if you even wanted to hear from me. I didn't think about how it must have looked for you."

"It looks for me like you want to meet me in secret only", Mercedes answered tonelessly.

She almost expected that he would say no or something. She waited for an answer.

Ten seconds.

Twenty seconds.

After more than thirty seconds, she realized that she wouldn't get an answer. Gulping, she looked into Sam's green eyes, at his lashes and his good-looking mouth.

And then, she forced herself to look away and cleared her throat.

"Goodbye, Sam", she said, turning around and entering her home. At that moment, she realized how sweaty her hands were.

How fast her heart raced.

And how bad it was aching.

"I have a surprise for you", Finn said.

Rachel looked up from her book. He was sitting at the chair next to her in their garden, holding a stack of papers in his hands.

"That sounds mysterious. What is it?", she asked, curious.

"How do you find surprises?", he asked her back.

Rachel needed to think about the surprise when he took her to their first date. Back then, he had surprised her, and it was one of her best memories.

"If the surprises come from you, I like them, I guess." Finn needed to grin after she had said that sentence.

"I want to drive away with you over the weekend."

She sat up and her book almost fell down her lap. "When?"

"Now. If you are in the mood."

She couldn't do anything about the smile on her face. "Where?"

"That's a surprise", he answered, still grinning.

"Finn!"

He laughed. "You need things for an overnight stay."

Now, Rachel felt giddy. "And we are driving off now?"

He nodded. "After you have packed your things."

She got up and went inside, feeling how Finn looked at her. When she turned around to see his face, her heart skipped a beat.

He looked happy. Really happy.

When she passed the kitchen, she saw how Hiram cut onions while LeRoy put oil into the pan.

"Finn invited me to a trip", she informed them, not quite successful to hide the excitement in her voice.

Hiram turned around. "We know. He had asked us first whether it is okay."

"Do you know the destination?"

He smiled knowingly. "Maybe."

Rachel opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Hiram pointed at her with the knife. "Forget it. I won't tell you anything."

"That's unfair", Rachel pouted. "You also tell dad everything, even surprises."

"Because my arguments are great and I know what to say to find out what I want to know", LeRoy grinned and put chopped peppers into the pan.

Rachel felt how Finn stepped to her and caressed her back softly. Only shortly. It was always like that around their parents: Only short, secret gestures and touches, that was all.

"Do I get at least one small hint?", she pleaded.

Finn leaned forward; his mouth almost touched her ear. "I want to fulfill one of your wishes, Rachel Berry."

His voice gave her goosebumps. "Well, I will go pack my things, then", she answered with a rough voice.

A/N: Well, the next chapter will be the quiet before the storm...

And no, I didn't forget about Burt, Carole and James ;)