Hey everyone, here's chapter 22! All mistakes are mine, enjoy :)
Brittany awoke to the sound of gentle tapping on her door.
"Come in." She yawned as she checked the time. Almost 12 pm. She had always been an early riser, wanting to make the most out of each day, but knowing Rachel was gone made her lack the motivation to do anything.
Hayley, her younger sister, entered the room with a tray filled with food for two. Despite a 7 year age gap, the two girls had always been extremely close, often confiding in one another.
"Hungry?" The younger girl asked laying out a plate filled with bacon, eggs and pancakes, accompanied by a hot chocolate.
"Not the healthiest thing in the world, but I read that carbs improve your mental health." Hayley added, taking a bite out of her pancake tower.
"Thanks Hay." Brittany replied, smiling at her sisters comment about mental health. She knew her sister was worried about her, which she felt awful about. The SAT's were coming up, so the last thing the girl needed was the added stress of taking care of her 24 year old sister.
"I don't want you worrying though. I'm going to be fine, I'm heading back home in a few days so you can finally concentrate. Us Pierce girls are made to be geniuses." She lightly elbowed her sister causing a small smile. Hayley was definitely the caretaker of the family, and was most protective of her older sister. She had idolised Brittany from a young age, so knew this was her time to step in. While Brittany was at her lowest.
Brittany could see the uncertainty in her sisters eyes.
Hayley was almost identical to her, except being shorter with amber eyes.
"Do you think you'll ever feel better? I didn't really know Rachel, but I can't imagine loosing one of my friends."
Brittany stroked her sisters hair, still finding it hard to process when people spoke about Rachel in the past tense.
"I don't think I'll ever fully feel better, but I'm hoping the pain will ease somehow. When I said goodbye to her, I told her I'd see her again. We don't come from a religious family, I'm not sure what I believe in, but I'm definitely going to see her again."
"Does it makes you feel any better, knowing you'll see her again?" Unlike some people, who could be quite black and white, Hayley had similar beliefs to Brittany.
"Not yet, but things take time. Grieving takes time. Maybe it never ends."
The sisters finished their breakfast in silence, with Hayley refusing to let Brittany help her clean the dishes and insisting she takes a bath to try relax.
While it helped slightly, Brittany still felt lost as she drained the water from the bath and wrapped herself in a towel. Just as she emerged from the bathroom, her mom walked by on the way down the stairs.
"There's a package downstairs for you Britt. Hayley and I are about to bake cookies if you want to join?"
"Thanks mom, I might join you guys later." She replied as she followed her mom downstairs to get her package. She ordered a gift for Gracie a few weeks ago and had been checking the mail everyday to see if it had arrived, so was disappointed to see a flat package waiting for her.
She ripped it open to find a short note and a dvd, both with her name written in familiar handwriting, however she couldn't seem to work out who's it was.
She slowly walked back up the stairs, reading the short note as she made her way back to her room.
Dear Britt,
You know, don't you? I have no idea how you do it, but you just have a way of knowing things. Whether you were 100% sure what was going on or not, you weren't oblivious to it like the others.
I've been writing letters to everyone to help them through my death. But you kind of knew, right?
I'm so happy Finn captured this moment, as it was the most fun I've had in my entire life, spent with my favourite people in the entire world.
This is just something to make your day a little better. Even if it doesn't, I hope it makes you smile.
I love you Britt,
Until the next one,
Rachel x
Rachel was right, Brittany had suspected that Rachel was hiding something for the past few months, but couldn't exactly put her finger on it. Yet she had noticed Rachel carrying an A4 notebook with her wherever she went.
She quickly grabbed her laptop from her desk and inserted the dvd. She pressed play and a smile instantly grew on her face.
A blurry video of Rachel and Brittany appeared on the screen, both girls blind drunk as the danced to the loud music blaring in their favourite bar.
Quinn and Santana then appeared in the video, stumbling towards them, and the four girls made their way to the drinks bar, where Santana was meant to be working. Using the bar stools, the four girls climbed up onto the bar and made a drunken attempt to re create the scene from 'Coyote Ugly.'
"I think I just pissed my pants!" Rachel screamed as she continued dancing, tears rolling down the other girls cheeks from laugher.
Brittany wipes away a few tears and laughed as the video came to an end. She hardly remember that night due to the amount of cocktails involved, but she never realised Finn filmed the entire thing.
She returned her laptop to her desk and picked up a framed picture of her and Rachel from her wedding day.
"You always know exactly what to do. Thank you."
She knew talking to a picture was silly, but she just watched a video of her drunkenly dancing on a bar with her best friends. What could be more crazy than that?
Brittany continued to replay the video over and over, constantly trying to re live that night over and over in her head.
A knock on her bedroom broke her from her thoughts as she yelled 'come in', expecting to see her little sister. Instead she was greeted with the warming smile of her fiancée.
"Hey pretty." Santana greeted her, kissing her lightly on the lips as she sat down beside the blonde.
"Have you been crying?" Brittany asked, noticing a black tear stain left by the mascara on Santana's cheek.
"Yeah, I got something in the mail. I don't know if I can tell you cause I'm guessing it's a surprise but..." the girl trailed off, suddenly noticing a folded piece of paper identical to hers resting on Brittany's lap.
"You got a note from Rachel?" Brittany asked excitedly, wondering who else got a message from Rachel.
Santana gave a small laugh. "Well, I wouldn't say note. More like a pretty lengthy letter. Shocking for a girl who hated English in high school. What did she tell you?"
Brittany opened her laptop which she had quickly closed once she heard a knock on her door. It was something that she wanted to keep private, almost like a personal connection between her and Rachel, but Santana was apart of this crazy night, and more than anything wanted to see her fiancée smile.
The video began playing, Santana's eyes going wide and mouth falling open once she realised what the video was.
"That was the best night ever. Look at Quinn, she's hammered!" She laughed once they began dancing.
"You're not far behind her San! I totally forgot about that until I saw this. Rachel gave it to me to help make my day better and to make me smile, which is exactly what it's doing to you too."
Santana continued beaming at the screen until the video ended, breathing a happy sigh. "That was the night Finn popped the question, right?"
Brittany gasped at the memory. "Oh my god! That was the same night?"
"I'm pretty sure, we'll have to ask. This is definitely one of those videos we'll embarrass Gracie with when she's older."
The girls lounged on Brittany's bed for a while, reminiscing about better times with Rachel until the sound of Brittany's ringtone broke them from their conversation. She had recently changed it to a recording she had of Rachel singing 'More than a feeling'. Being one of Finn's favourite songs, it brought Brittany a kind of comfort every time her phone rang.
"Hey Sam, what's up?" Brittany greeted once she'd read the caller ID.
"Hi Britt, is Santana with you?" He answered with a nervous tone to his voice.
"Yeah."
"Great. I'm not sure if Hayley mentioned anything to you, but the school's been working on a memorial thing for Rachel. She's a legend around here. Anyway I just wanted to let you guys know so you could spread the word."
As Sam was speaking, Brittany suddenly got a brain wave, remembering a conversation she had with Santana.
"Sam that sounds lovely, we'll spread the word to everyone who's still in town. Could Santana and I organise something for the ceremony? It's just, we were taking about doing something in memory of her in the town so it could be a nice way of tying them together."
"That sounds awesome, let me know if you'll need a hand with it. We'll probably do it on Friday evening. Also I..."
Sam paused, not sure how to bring it up. It was embarrassing that he was asking for help with what seemed like the most simple thing to do with the ceremony.
"What is it?" Brittany prompted.
"Do you mind mentioning it to Finn. I've tried calling and texting but he isn't answering, he hasn't even read the messages. I tried going to his parents but he was out. I don't want him to feel like he's obliged to go, it's totally up to him."
"Sure, I'll try talking to him. If I'm being honest, I haven't seen him much since the funeral." She admitted, suddenly feeling like the worlds worst friend.
"Neither have I, actually now that I think of it, has anyone? I was taking to Mike, Puck and Quinn earlier and they pretty much said the same thing as you. Is he doing ok?"
Brittany tried to swallow the lump in her throat. Is he doing ok? How is he coping?
"I'll try get in touch and I'll keep you posted."
"Thanks Britt."
As soon as she ended the call she turned to Santana, who had been standing right beside her listening to the entire conversation.
"Should we call or go over? Maybe we should check with Kurt. Is both of us going over a bit much?" Thoughts we're rushing around the blondes head as she suddenly felt panicked.
"Britt it's ok, deep breaths, it's ok." Santana rubbed her back as she tried to calm her down.
"I don't mind going, and if he's not there I'll go looking for him. I'm sure Kurt would have told us if he was struggling badly."
She tried to convince herself it was true as she spoke, but Santana wasn't so sure she believed herself.