5 years earlier in a dance studio - Downtown LA.
"He's staring at you again." Brittany pulled Santana forward as they continued to stretch, so she would be able to subtly look up. "Who even is he?" Santana shrugged, it wasn't like she cared anyway. "Do you wanna do coffee after, or?" Brittany shyly turned her head when she was caught glaring. "Hey! Brit-Brit? Coffee?"
They didn't have coffee that day.
And Brittany didn't call Santana that night, like she normally would've done.
Because that was in fact the day when Brittany met the man from the gym, who would later become her husband.
Since a very early age, the two girls had had a strong connection.
They'd met on the playground at the age of 5. Brittany was sat building sandcastles and Santana had walked right up, to steal her bucket. "You're not using it anyway." Brittany's eyes had begun to water. "But, I was." Tears started to flow freely down her cheeks, which had made Santana feel a bit guilty, she watched Brittany run towards the monkey bars, only to come back holding a yellow bucket. "Here, you can have this one. Now give me my bucket back, please?"
They had been inseparable ever since that day. Santana had told her that she only did it, to see Brittany's reaction.
Santana knew that things between them would never be the same again.
She knew that even if she did tell Brittany her reasons for not wanting them to get together, it would make no difference. Santana also knew that her feelings for the blonde would always stay the same, she was true to her heart and her words.
She contemplated the pros and cons of telling her the three big words once more, knowing how hard it had been the first time.; 'I just have to accept the fact that I love you. I love you! And I don't wanna be with Sam or Finn any of those guys. I just wanna be with you. Please say you love me back, please.'
Santana had poured her heart out and Brittany had completely shut her down, yet she claimed to have been hers, proudly so. She had always been hers though, no question about it.
At the age of 10 Brittany had asked her; 'Why do you like me?' Preparing herself for the typical answer Santana would usually give her in situations where the word why was involved. But that hadn't been the case this time, because Santana didn't say: 'cuz.' Instead she had blurted out everything she could think of, when being put on the spot like that. "I like you because you're my opposite and you dress in dorky clothes. You like the color pink and you wear funny hats. You leave out milk and cookies for Santa and you always try to wait up for him, so you can make sure he got your wishlist. You couldn't care less what people think about you and you're nice to me, even though I can be really mean."
When they were 15, she had asked the same question again; 'Why do you like me?' This time around, Santana didn't even have to think about it, because she knew the real reason, why she liked Brittany so much. "Because the first time I saw you, I stole your bucket and if that's now love then I don't know what is. Sandbox love never dies, unless you let it."
As they got older, the reasons as to 'why'become clearer and Santana was able to verbally express her feelings. "Because you are my soul mate and I love you."
And because of their immediate connection, they were rarely seen apart. If it did happen, they would call to say good morning, make time to talk at some point during the day.
Then they would text back and forth at night, whilst watching stupid reality shows and they would do so until one of them fell asleep.
There wasn't a day where they didn't see each other.
But ever since Brittany had met him, things had definitely changed and the Latina didn't like it, not one bit.
Santana let a week pass her by, until she worked up to courage to call her best friend. The phone rang once, twice, three times, before the call got forwarded to voice-mail. This made her frustrated, because it had never happened before. What would cause Brittany to ignore her?
"Hey Britt, it's San. I was just calling to check in on you. You've been blowing me off all week, what's up with that? Anyway, call me back, yeah? Love you."
But Brittany never did call her back.