It's been three weeks since you've started working for Arrow and honestly it's probably been the worst three weeks of your life, mentally, emotionally and physically. Well that's if you don't count the whole needing ankle surgery and having to retire your entire life by the age of twenty-two. But, the whole moving home and getting this job was a consequence of that. So you suppose that this has been the worst three months of your life.
If you're being honest with yourself it's only getting harder. You're not sure how much longer you can take of the whole 'basic, small town life' where all you do is work and go to physical therapy. You've cried a lot about how much your life sucks and you feel bad because you know there's people that have it worse but you're just really struggling right now. You don't like change, especially when it's bad change.
On the bright side though your ankle is continuing to get stronger which gives you hope for the future, even though your physical therapist still doesn't think you're ever gonna dance like you did before and that the best you're going to be able to do after it's fully healed is teach basic dance in a studio somewhere since if you push yourself more to do what you would do before then there was a high chance that you would cause permanent damage and would be lucky to even walk properly. You broke down at that, as in full blown had a melt down, got drunk alone in your bedroom and drunk dialed the only person that would make you feel the tiniest bit better, Santana.
That part wasn't so bad. You still can't remember much about what you said to her but you did remember her telling you that it's not so bad considering a month ago your physical therapist had said that you would never dance again which made you feel slightly better. The brunette was really worried about you the next day at work and kept asking if you were okay in which you lied to reassure her and told her you were fine and just had a bit of a hangover, which wasn't exactly far from the truth. You also kept apologising for waking her up at two in the morning just to talk about your life and how much it sucks which she insisted that it was fine and to call her whenever you needed someone to talk to. After all she preferred you crying to her rather than you ranting about how much her own life sucked. You still felt bad about that. It also reminded you that you still didn't know much about her life even though you had now known her for three weeks and had gotten pretty close since you had gotten her number and had even spoken a few times outside of work. Never about personal stuff though. On days off or when neither of you could sleep you would just send memes to each other or talk about normal, basic things about yourselves, like how she has a fear of balloons and used to collect comics when she was a teenager, and how you have a tattoo of a dinosaur wearing sunglasses and a top hat on your lower back that you got when you were nineteen and drunk after you had been celebrating landing another tour.
Secretly you think Santana still collects comics. She kind of gives of a secret hot nerd vibe and you love it. Especially when she had to wear her glasses at work last week because she had dropped one of her contacts in the sink. You're glad she had a day full of meetings then because you don't think you could have coped seeing them on her all day.
However, despite becoming closer to the brunette in the past month and having nightly conversations over text, you had never seen her outside of work. You really wanted to hang out with her to see what she was like without the pressures of floor manager duties and customers but the only times you both were off work, you either had physical therapy or she would mention that had plans with her family before you would even have a chance to ask if she wanted to do something with you.
That's another thing you've learned about Santana. She spends a lot of time with her family, especially her mom, which you think is sweet. You've never really been that close with your mom. Santana also mentions her abuela a lot and you can't help but notice that she doesn't mention her dad and wonders if he's not in her life just like yours isn't in your life.
Moving on from Santana, you've also finally learned about the whole Arrow love triangle. Actually you're pretty sure it can be classed as a love pentagon or something there's that many people involved. You now know that Quinn has a crush on Tina, Tina has a crush on Mike, Mike has a crush on Quinn, and Matt, another new friend, also has a crush on Mike and that's just the people you know of. Oh and you definitely know that you have a crush on Santana. You wonder if Santana has a crush on anyone.
It's Monday today which is also delivery day, that means that you're probably going to have to spend the entire day stocking shelves which you really hate. It's a mystery how you haven't been fired yet because you're sure you've dropped the equivalent of your paycheck. Santana always reassures you that it's normal and everyone does it and soon you'll learn to just not care if you do it. It also means that you have to be alone the whole shift and you're not going to have anyone to talk to which is always hard for you but especially now that you've become so invested in all the love drama happening at Arrow.
Turns out today gets really sucky before you've even had a chance to clock in. You walk into the locker room and see the back of a brunette's hair that's all too familiar across the room. As you walk towards your locker you keep an eye on Santana as you watch her furiously type on her phone, rolling her eyes every so often before she breezes past you and storms out the room.
She didn't even acknowledge you. There was none of the usual 'Hey Britt', no little wave and no cute smile. She didn't even look up at you.
You give out a sigh before focusing on getting your locker open so you can put on your waistcoat, which you should probably wash.
"Put that away." Laughs Mercedes as she comes up to you and leans on the locker next to yours before poking your pout, which you didn't even realize you were doing. That happens a lot.
"Sorry it's just tha-"
"Your bestie didn't say hi to you?" She finishes. You and Santana are besties? Awesome, you thought you were just normal/work friends. Has Santana told other people you're her best friend?
"Well when you say it like that you make it sound pathetic." You mutter and close your locker after making sure it's definitely your waistcoat you have on. One time it wasn't and all of the customers had been calling you Gerry. You're pretty sure all the lockers have the same code.
"Don't worry it has nothing to do with you she's just in one of her moods. Honestly it's best if everyone just stays out of her way just in case she snaps and takes it out on someone she doesn't mean too." She reassures you. You wonder why she's in a mood. You hope she's okay. "Well I'll see you later, we have our breaks at the same time. Good luck with the stocking."
You don't end up seeing Santana for the rest of the day. Not even on your break and you can't help butget insecure that she's avoiding you since no matter what she always sits with you on your break, even when she's not supposed to be having a break. Instead of overthinking about it you realize that she's probably just busy doing important floor manager stuff or is also avoiding everyone else and not just you in case other people make her mood worse. At least that's what you do when you're in a mood. Or at least you try to because you can't really control what comes out of your mouth most of the time. Especially when you're in a bad mood, or nervous or drunk.
Stocking hadn't been all that bad today, Quinn and Tina had come over to check on you a few times to make sure everything was alright and that you knew what was going where which you were thankful for. Especially because last week you were so tired you ended up accidentally stocking the Arrow branded pregnancy test, which you've been told don't work, in the toy aisle which you thought was pretty ironic.
Stepping off the step ladder, you rubbed your hands together in hope of warming them up since they were completely numb after spending the past twenty minutes stocking frozen dino nuggets. You really need to buy some of them.
Glancing at your watch you notice that you only have about fifteen minutes of your shift left, you fold the step ladder up and place it on top of the carrying cart that earlier held everything you had to stock up. You're about to take the breaks off when you hear Santana talk for the first time today.
Actually she doesn't talk. It's more of a shout and it's definitely a word that she shouldn't be shouting in the middle of a crowded store filled with kids and judgemental moms.
You abandon the cart and go towards the shouting which happens to be the dairy aisle. Turning the corner you expect to find her shouting at some customer or arguing with someone on the phone but once you're actually in the aisle you see that's she's actually alone and is now mumbling to herself about 'stupid fucking yogurt'.
She turns towards you when you call out her name and if you hadn't already guessed by the huge tub of spilled yogurt on the floor that is getting bigger as it drips from Santana and the amount of swearing the brunette is doing, you see that she has almost the entire tub on her shirt.
"It wasn't on the shelf properly and it fell when I opened the door. Fucking thing didn't even have the fucking lid on right, some gross weirdo probably opened it then put it back. Ugh." She scoffs. Yeah that is gross. You remember to never eat yogurt from here.
She's still mumbling 'fucks' to herself as you bend down to pick the tub off the floor.
"What are you doing?" She asks, taking off her red waistcoat.
"Cleaning up."
"Stop." She orders. "I'll get someone else to do that. Go finish what you were doing, your shifts nearly finished."
"Oh, I was finished. I just need to take the cart back into storage." You explain standing up with the tub, your hands now covered in yogurt. You grimace at the feel of it and now feel sorry for Santana even more.
"Well go do that, I'll have Tina do clean this up. She's done nothing today other than flirt with Boy Chang and it's annoying." She rolls her eyes before starting to walk away from you. "I'm gonna go get cleaned up."
"Wait, I'll come with you. This is really gross, I don't like how it feels. Yogurt is meant for eating, not having it all over your body. Unless you're into that stuff.
Santana just laughs at you as she pushes the staff bathroom door open with her elbow, the only place not covered in yogurt.
You're drying your hands when you see in the corner of your eye that Santana has started to lift her shirt over her head and trying not to get yogurt in her hair.
Your eyes widen at the sight of her stomach and you close your eyes tight and turn around before you even have a chance to figure out what the tattoo was on the left side of her ribs and before you saw her boobs. You definitely wouldn't have survived that.
"Fuck. Britt, would you go and get me a shirt from the clothing department?" She grimaces, "I'll pay for it later, just make sure it's not ugly.
"You don't have a spare shirt?" She just shakes her head, focusing on her ruined shirt in the sink, "I have one on my car if you want to borrow that?"
"You sure?"
"Yeah, i'll go get it."
Once you're back in the bathroom Santana is facing away from you in nothing but a black lacy bra and her black jeans and you make out that she's typing away on her phone and you can easily tell that she's rolling her eyes. That's the only thing you've seen her do today.
"Here." You hand her the grey shirt, smiling when your fingers brush against hers.
"Thanks. I'll wash it tonight and bring it back tomorrow. You're a lifesaver, Britt. honestly the clothes here are awful. I couldn't spend another four hours here wearing something like that." She cringes, putting your shirt over her head. You like seeing her in your clothes. It's a little big for her, but then again it's also big on you, but she makes it look good. "How come you had this in your car anyway?"
"Oh, I have physical therapy after work and it's easier to get changed there rather than go home first." You answer, you'll just have to wear the t-shirt you're wearing now instead. You don't mind, it's comfy and has a cactus on it.
"Britt, I can't take it if you need it." She gasps and is already making a move to take it off but you grab her hands to stop her from moving it any further then past her belly button.
"It's fine, I'll just wear this, don't worry about it." You reassure her.
"Oh, okay. Well you better go then. I don't want you to be late."
"It's okay, I have plenty of time."
"Okay. But we're done here. I'll just leave my shirt there."
"Actually, I want to ask you something." You hesitate and hope you're not about to cross a boundary. "Is everything okay?" You see her breathe a sigh of relief when you ask. Maybe she was expecting you to ask her something else? "It's just that you haven't really talked to me today. Or anyone for that matter and you seem mad and stressed. I just want to make sure you're alright." You finish.
She just smiles that special Santana Lopez smile at you for the first time today before rolling her eyes, but not in the way she's been doing for the rest of the day, it's more playful. "Yeah, I'm fine, it's just stuff at home. Nothing I can't handle."
You can't help but wonder what kind of stuff. Did she mean home home, like where she lived or home as in something outside of work? Was it something to do with her family? Maybe she was arguing with her dad about something and that's why she never spoke about him? Or maybe her roommate was pissing her off? You're not even sure she has a roommate but whoever she's been texting with all day must have really fucked up.
The two of you are about to go your separate ways when you have an idea, "Hey, Santana." You begin, and she stops walking to face you, her arms folded, "You wanna go play on the air hockey machine? Mike and Matt set it up earlier for the display but I heard that everyone's been playing it. I think there's a tournament tomorrow too."
She opens her mouth to give you an answer but is interrupted when her phone goes off but she quickly presses decline once she reads who it is.
"Don't you have physical therapy?" She inquires, lifting one of her brows.
"Oh. Yeah, but it's not for a while I have loads of time to get there and I usually have to wait ages in the waiting room and I'd rather beat your ass at air hockey." You joke, kind of, you're definitely going to beat her ass.
"Oh okay, you are definitely on, Pierce, but it's your ass that's gonna get beat." She quips, "Plus I could use a break from dealing with assholes. Go put your waistcoat in your locker so customers don't harass you. I'll meet you up there."
You return from the locker room, waistcoatless and decide to wait until you actually leave to clock out, might as well get paid some more, and head towards the air hockey table. Santana is already there, like she said she would be, holding the red striker and wearing her signature smirk.
"Let's go, Pierce"
You never expected Santana to be this good, she's not as good as you but she's still better than most people you've played.
It's first to nine and you're currently winning three to two, which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that you've been playing for ten minutes already.
You hold your blue striker and get ready as Santana is about to hit the puck but her phone goes off with a text before she gets to hit it.
"Sorry." She mutters, pulling it out of her back pocket and whispering 'fuck off' to whoever interrupted before putting her phone back.
She looks a lot more angry and determined than she was a minute ago and ends up taking all of her anger out in the puck as she strikes it straight into your goal making you tie. Shit.
"You're going down now, Lopez." You joke, but Santana has a look on her face that makes you actually want to lose because you're scared she'll end up throwing something at you.
It's about another minute before you score another goal that makes Santana huff and she quickly places the puck back onto the table before slamming it towards you but you manage to block it.
She looks really angry. Like more pissed then she should be at a fun game on air hockey and this isn't what you planned when you suggested playing. You wanted her to smile to have a bit of fun but it seems that whoever sent her that text ruined that.
She hits the puck at you once more but when you go to hit with your stiker, your hand slips causing the striker to fly out of your hand and ends up hitting some man in the back of your head.
"I'm so sorry." You plead, hoping he doesn't shout at you, which he doesn't. Instead he just rolls his eyes and walks off and you think it has something to do with you not wearing your waistcoat.
You walk back to the table and see that Santana is laughing into her hands at you and you can't help but laugh back at her.
"Finally! I made you smile." You point out, placing your striker back on the table.
"Just because someone is smiling doesn't mean they're enjoying themselves." She quips back, hitting the puck.
"Well, are you enjoying yourself?"
"That's irrelevant." She blushes, as you score another goal, "Fuck! Pierce, I swear to God."
You can't help but laugh at her and finally get to see her be her usual self, or at least her usual self while being annoyed over a losing game of air hockey.
By the end you ended up winning nine-six much to Santana's dismay and she demands a rematch but unfortunately your boss comes over and tells her she has to actually do some work today, plus you probably should have left about five minutes ago.
You may have ended up being ten minutes late for your physical therapy session but you didn't mind, not when you got Santana to laugh and also something new to tease her about.
Whatever was wrong with Santana yesterday seems to have been solved overnight because she's being her normal self again. So, either everything turned out good for her or she just decided to ignore all her problems, which is something you tend to do a lot. You regret it now though especially because you ignored the pain in your ankle and continued to dance which led to surgery. Bad idea.
Anyways, Santana came into the locker room this morning, smiling at you and squeezed your hip in 'hello' and handed you your tank top back. She had definitely kept her word and washed it before giving you it back because it smelt like the fabric softener she uses. It smelt warm and soft and like Santana. Also vanilla. You wish all your clothes could smell like Santana, the smell makes you happy. It's weird.
Right now you're both in the break room on your lunch break and if there's one thing you've learned about Santana over the past few weeks, it's that she doesn't care for rules. For example, like you she's only supposed to have one break a day and at a certain time but whenever she's not busy she always takes another break so that she can sit with you and it gives you butterflies at the thought of her risking being told off from your boss just so she can spend time with you. Actually it's not like Will would tell her off anyways, he never tells anyone off.
"So what do you think of the whole 'everyone having a secret crush on someone else who works here' thing?" You ask, curious about what she thinks since technically they are her employees and there's a lot of potential drama that could cause trouble for her. You're not even sure if safe are allowed to date each other.
"As long as people do their jobs and don't bring their drama into work, I don't care." She scoffs while opening a bag of chips, that you definitely think she just took off the shelf, "Why do you ask?"
You just shrug.
"Wait, do you have a crush on someone?" She gasps and throws a potato chip at you. You're glad you didn't have a mouthful of anything because you would have either choked or spat it on Santana. Then she would definitely hate you forever.
"N-No." You stutter, "Definitely not, I was just curious. Like is it even allowed? Like can you date other staff?"
She grins at your flustered face before answering, "You have to sign a contract or something but it's definitely allowed, happens all the time. It's also annoying, one time this guy broke up with his girlfriend halfway through a shift and he walked out and she ended up smashing up half the store before sleeping with the boss at the time."
Well shit.
"Would you?"
"Sleep with my boss? Fuck no?" She gags, disgusted by the thought, you suppose you are too, "Have you seen him? Fuck, have you smelt him? No fucking way, Britt, that's gross, I can't believe you'd even ask that."
"I meant would you date someone you worked with? Or have you already?" Maybe that's why she's so against it.
"No and no." She answers. Maybe not. "I've never been with anyone in the store. I doubt I ever will either." Okay, that makes your heart sink a little, "What about you?"
"No I wouldn't. I wouldn't want to either." You lie, taking a sip of water.
"Good girl. Make sure it stays that way. I don't want you getting messed up with all the Arrow drama. You're too good for all of that."
Well now you should probably google how to stop having a crush on someone.
It's about 4:15pm and even though your shift finished fifteen minutes ago you're still stuck in the store.
Actually you're not stuck, you could leave if you wanted to but on your way out you had noticed a purple stuffed dragon in the claw machine and now you're determined to win it no matter how much it takes. You've spent about five dollars already but you don't care. You just really want the dragon.
You slap your hand against the glass as the claw, once again, drops the dragon back with all the other stuffed, trapped animals.
"You know they're rigged right?" You can't help but jump at the sound of Santana's voice as she comes up behind you.
You turn to see brunette with her purse and keys in her hands, you didn't know she had finished too otherwise you would have waited. You also would have saved a few bucks.
"Yeah but I want the dragon." You pout and go to put another dollar in.
"You and that pout." She mutters and comes up to stand next to you and you think that she's just coming to watch you fail another time, but instead she gently shoves you out the way and takes your hands from the stick. "Here let me."
All you can do is stand back and watch Santana work her magic on the machine but you're not sure if you should focus on the claw that currently has a strong grip on the dragon or Santana's tongue that is sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrates. It's cute.
You're too busy looking at Santana that you don't realize that she actually beat the machine until you hear a squeal come from the brunette that makes you jump a little and she bends down before returning to her full height again and handing you the stuffed dragon and all you can do is stare at her in shock.
"What can I say? I'm the claw machine queen." She brags and shrugs her shoulders like it was no big deal. You suppose to her it wasn't.
Instead of saying thanks, you wrap your arms around her and laugh into her neck while she squeezes at your waist before pulling back.
"I thought they were rigged?"
"Oh, they definitely are. I just know a few tricks. At least for this oneI do." She winks, this whole getting rid of your crush on her just became a lot more harder. "That and I had a lot of practice."
"I didn't think you'd be the type to have a lot of stuffed animals."
"Oh, you'd be surprised." She grins and the two of you walk out into the car park together, "I have like a whole shrine of claw machine prizes."
"Seriously?" You exclaim, as the two of you walk out the exit doors and into the parking lot.
"No."
"Oh."
You watch as she walks over to her car just a few spaces away from yours and opens the door but not before giving you a wave goodbye.
"Thank you!" You shout as you open your own door.
"You paid for it, remember?"
You suppose you did, "Yeah, but I probably would have been there hours and would have spent my entire wages if it wasn't for you. So thanks."
"Well, how about we just call it even after you let me borrow your top yesterday?"
Once again she's about to get into her car when you shout her name, wanting to ask the question you've been wanting to ask for a while. "You wanna go out?" Her eyes widen at the offer and you feel like you probably shouldn't have just blurted it out like that, especially since there's a woman putting her groceries away in the car between yours and Santana's, "Like for coffee or a drink or something? Like as friends? It's just we're both finished work and it's still pretty early and I'm not busy now?" You ramble. You ramble a lot when you're nervous.
Your heart's beating pretty fast and you look at her as she glances at her watch before giving you a small smile. It's not like her normal smile though. It's a sad smile and you can already feel yourself pouting. "I'm sorry, Britt-Britt, but I have plans I need to go over to my moms. Maybe another time though."
She gives you another wave and this time you actu let her get into her car and drive off.
Maybe another time.
You're lying in bed recovering from doing the exercises for your ankle that your physical therapist told you to do everyday when your phone lights up on your nightstand. At first you just ignore it, too busy focusing on the pain and wondering about why you have to go through so much pain so that your ankle can get healed and have no pain. It really doesn't make sense.
But then it flashes again, which you think is weird since you don't really talk to anyone anymore. Not after you ended up pushing all your friends from LA away. Now the only person that texts you is your mom and she's asleep down the hall, or Santana.
Grabbing the phone, you glance at the screen and squint at the bright screen that now fills up darkness of your room and open the text;
From Santana: Hey.
From Santana: Not sure if u wanted to hang out with just us but people from work are going out for Tinas bday on Friday if u wanna hang out there? I wasn't gonna go but if you go so will i
You had been wondering whether or not you were going to go with them ever since Tina had invited you the other day. You also had been wondering if Santana would be there.
To Santana: Well, if you go so will I ;)
Shit, was the winky face too much?
From Santana: Hey! Thats what I just said.
From Santana: Fine, I'll see you there. First rounds on you ;)
So, the winky face was definitely not too much.
From Santana: Also. Weird question but i'm curious
To Santana: ?
From Santana: What did you call ur dragon?
You giggle at the question and are actually quite glad that she asked. You had put a lot of thought into the name
To Santana: Doris :)
To Santana: Doris the Dragon
From Santana: Yknow what. I expected nothing less from u
From Santana: I have to go now, Britt, but i'll see you at work tomorrow. Goodnight
To Santana: See you! Sweet dreams :)
You place your phone back on your nightstand and pick Doris up, who had been lying on the left side of your bed, and place her on your chest. Staring at the small plush toy, you run your fingers over its features.
"Shit."
You probably should have thought about Santana's offer but you were too excited about finally being able to hang out with her outside of work but now all you can focus on is the fact that you're gonna be drunk around Santana Lopez and whenever you drink you always have end up saying what's on your mind (more than usual) or get half naked (also more than usual) and at this point you're not really sure what's worse.
Maybe you should just not drink as much.
You're rolling your eyes at yourself before you can even finish the thought.
Bullshit.
Last time you said that you ended up with no shirt, a bloody nose and two less friends. Turns out you blabbed that they had been sleeping together behind your other friends back and then you got punched.
Hopefully Friday is better and no one punches you and hopefully you don't end up telling Santana that you have a huge crush on her and that she doesn't end up hating you.
Again.