I spent the rest of the day kind of giddy from having Santana back. It was a funny thing. When she was gone, I thought that I could live without seeing her everyday. Now that she was back, the thought of not seeing her every day felt awful. Feelings were so weird like that.

When I got to Glee, most of the club was already there, talking and catching up. I looked around and realized I kinda missed everyone. Well, everyone I didn't see during the summer like Sam, Finn and even Puck. Ever since Santana had dumped him, I started liking him again. He really was a good guy and as long as he stayed away from Santana, I had no problem with him.

When Santana came in, she came straight to me and gave me a big smile. We didn't get a chance to talk because Mr. Shue came in and told everyone to take a seat.

Santana and I sat in the back, in our usual seats and watched Mr. Shue stand in front of the club and talk about all the cool things he had planned for us this year. Halfway through his speech, Rachel got up and interrupted him.

"Mr. Shue, if I may," Rachel said, facing us, "This is going to be an amazing year. Our Senior year, well for most of us, is going to be the best! We are going to go out with a bang!"

"You want us to shoot you?" Santana asked, in a very serious tone. It made me laugh.

Rachel ignored Santana and kept talking. She really did love the spotlight and I knew Rachel would make a great performer one day. I turned to look at Santana again and she looked like she was really trying not to get up an walk out. She looked so beautiful and all those six weeks of not seeing her, seemed like they didn't happen. I had so many questions and the whole day I kept trying to figure out which Santana had come back to me. The Santana who was trying or the old Santana who wouldn't even admit we were sleeping together.

"Are you OK, Britt?" I was so into my thoughts that I didn't notice Santana lean in and whisper in my ear.

"I'm fine," I said, "Rachel is just making me sleepy."

"That makes two of us," she said.

Mr. Shue finally interrupted Rachel. "OK, Rachel, have a seat. We have a lot to cover." Rachel frowned but sat down. "So, everyone," Mr. Shue went on, "I want to introduce you to our newest Glee member, Sugar Motta."

A short girl with long hair, that really looked like Santana's mom, stood up in front of the room. I turned to Santana. "Is that one of your cousins?"

Santana gave me a confused look and shook her head.

"Thank you, Mr. Shue," Sugar said, "I'm glad to be here and glad to help get this group into shape cause you guys suck. You haven't won anything. But I'm here now and I'll help you to succeed. Oh, also, I want to make it clear that my dad is not in the mafia."

"You should ask your mom if you have a cousin in Lima," I told Santana. She gave me another confused look. I just shrugged.

###

After Glee, we headed back to my house. My mom had ordered pizza and had left it in the kitchen. Santana and I grabbed a couple of slices and sodas and took them to the living room. We sat on the couch eating and talking about our day since we only had one class together. Once we were on our second slice, I asked her what I really wanted to know.

"So, how was Chicago? Was your job cool?"

She nodded and finished chewing. "It was good. The job was awesome. It was for Advant Advertising and they're the biggest agency for the Mid-West. I'm hoping to work there one day so this summer thing was good practice. I mean, it was mostly grunt work but the last two weeks, they were letting me help with big marketing accounts. It was amazing and the manager said that they want me back next summer too."

I smiled and nodded. "That's so awesome, Santana. I bet you were the best one there."

She shrugged but I could see her try not to smile. "Maybe."

I really was proud of her but hearing that she would definitely be back in Chicago next summer made me sad. She really was setting up her grown up life there.

"And, uh, your family? How was it being with them?" That's what I really wanted to know.

"Fine."

"Just fine?"

"With the job, I didn't spend much time with them. I hung out with Gloria and Alana a few times, but that's about it. You know, besides having to go family dinners and stuff." She put her empty plate on the coffee table and finished her soda.

"And what happened with your cousin, Mario?"

"Nothing," she said, "He's still…you know."

"Gay."

"Maybe, I guess. I don't know. I didn't see him at all." She fidgeted in her seat and stared playing with her hands and I knew that meant she was uncomfortable and didn't want to talk about this. But I did.

"He's gay, Santana." I put my plate and soda down too. "Were Oscar and the rest of your family saying mean things about him?"

She groaned and got up. "Why do you care about him so much? You don't even know him."

"I care that your family thinks he's gross because he's gay," I said, "I care, because I don't want them to think that way about you."

"Why would they?" She crossed her arms and it was almost like she was daring me to tell her why. She knew why.

"I'm gay," I said, " Well, half-gay, but still. I've been thinking of changing my status on my Facebook. I'm friends with some of your cousins and mom, do you think they'd think I was gross? Or half gross? Or tell you not to be my friend anymore."

She shook her head and I could tell she really didn't want to talk about this. Well, too bad. "Don't do that."

I scooted forward and sat at the edge of the couch. "I told my parents I was bisexual and you know what they did? Nothing. They just said it was OK and then sent me to the store to get milk. They didn't care and don't treat me any different. If you tell your mom, I'm sure she wouldn't care either."

Santana dropped her arms to her side and her whole body got tense. She looked so mad. I had never seen her look this mad. "Don't! Your family is not like mine."

I stood up and got closer to her. "Your mom will still love you…."

"I told you to stop! Look, I know, OK? I know….it's not my mom I'm worried about…it's the rest of the family." She ran a hand through her hair and started walking around the room. "What the hell, Britt? I thought we were going to hang out and you turned this into some crazy Bi coming out party ."

I knew she was trying to change the subject back to me so I ignored her last part. "Then why do you want to go to Chicago? They're all there?"

"I'm not going to live with them," Santana said, exasperated, "My parents set up a trust when I was born and I have enough money to live on my own. And the family, well, I don't have to see them if I don't want to, maybe at family gatherings, but that's it. I have to go there for school and this job. I have to."

I let out a breath. She did have to go there and I felt a tightness in my chest knowing that I wouldn't be there with her. "OK." She seemed relieved and relaxed a little. "Can I ask you something?" She didn't move or say anything for a long moment before she nodded. "Did you try? Did you try like you said?"

She closed her eyes and sighed. When she opened them again, I saw they looked a little watery. "I did. I tried. Even when I just wanted to give up, I tried because I wanted to keep my promise to you. You weren't there and I realized I couldn't depend on you all the time to push me. I had to learn to do it on my own. I tried. I'm still trying."

When we were in Cheerios and I had to be on the bottom of the pyramid and have all the girls on top of me, it felt so heavy and when they got off, it felt so good that all that weight had been taken off my shoulders. That's how I felt now, like all this weight had been taken off just by finding out Santana had kept her promise.

I went to her and brought her in for a hug. "I'm so glad. Thank you."

She tightened her arms around me and I felt her relax. "Please don't rush me," she whispered.

I kissed her shoulder and held her. I felt like an asshole. I should be supporting her and not forcing her to do something she wasn't ready for. "I'm sorry. "

"Just give me a bit more time."

I had already given her a year and I really hoped she still didn't need that much more. I didn't know how much longer I could wait.

###

About a month into Senior year, I decided to go into politics. Kurt asked me to be his campaign manager for the Senior Class President elections, but halfway through, he fired me. Apparently, he didn't like my unicorn theme, even though it was awesome. I mean, why would he want boring posters with "Vote 4 Kurt" on them when he could have had one where a unicorn was riding him and the slogan "Horny 4 the Future"?

After he fired me, I felt really sad I had let him down but Santana cheered me right up. She told me my idea was genius and that Kurt wasn't smart enough to understand the whole concept. I fell in love with her a bit more after that. She told me that I should be president and convinced me to run. She was so supportive and even organized a whole school dance rally to get the female vote and it totally worked.

That was happening a lot lately, me falling for her more and more. Since coming back from Chicago, she had been so sweet and caring and it was amazing. But, she still kept her distance and we had only kissed since she got back. It was for the best, I think. In Chicago, we were in like a fantasy world where we were grown ups and had our own apartment, but now we were back.

On the day of the election I was so nervous. I really wanted to win to clean up this school. Santana and I were just outside the gym getting ready to go inside to vote.

"Are you going to vote for me?" I asked her.

"Of course I am," she smiled, "I'll always vote for you."

I really wanted to kiss her right then but there were too many people around.

"Let's go make me president!" I said and we both went in to the voting booth.

###

The next day, I was sworn in as the first ex-Cheerio-Glee-Club member in the history of McKinley. Santana had come to pick me up extra early to take me to a celebration waffle breakfast that day and I wondered how she new I had won, since they didn't announce the winner until first period.

When I walked into Glee club, Tina and Mercedes were holding up a long banner that had my name and and a congratulations message written in crayon.

"Well done, Ms. President!" Rachel said and gave me a hug, "I'm glad we have a female president this year. Girl Power!"

I laughed while I heard Santana groan. "Thanks Rachel."

Sugar let out a loud woot sound. "Way to go Brittany!"

Sugar was weird but she was actually a lot of fun. She reminded me of me and sometimes I could have weird conversations with her and she'd totally get what I was saying. I was still convinced she was related to Santana somehow but I couldn't prove it.

"Congratulations Brittany," Kurt said, "I guess I should have listened to you. The unicorn theme worked."

I gave Kurt a hug. "I hate to say I told you so…"

"She told you so!" Santana jumped in, "You, like everyone at this school, underestimated my girl Brittany. Looks like your toothless posters drove people away."

I tried not to laugh. "Santana, be nice. Anyway, Kurt, maybe you can run next year."

"I graduate. I'll be gone by next election."

"Oh, right." I just shrugged my shoulders. "Oh, well. There's always college elections. Maybe you can be president of fabrics or whatever."

"Yeah, maybe."

Quinn came up to me, holding a present. "Here, this is for you."

I clapped my hands and jumped a little. I loved presents! "Yay, thanks Quinn!" I opened it up and saw it was a journal. "Awesome!"

"It's to write down all your presidential notes. Just, don't put any secrets in there."

"I should probably buy a safe to put this in." Everyone laughed even though I was serious.

After Glee, we all went to Breadstix to celebrate. Senior year was really awesome so far.

###

After a couple of weeks of being president, I realized this school was a mess and all the other presidents didn't even try to fix anything. Santana had helped me a lot even though I told her she shouldn't be spending her free time in boring school politics. She told me she didn't care and that she wanted to help. I was pretty sure that was just her excuse to spend time with me.

We still weren't sleeping together and I was still OK with that. The longer we went on without sexy times, the more I thought it would be a good idea not to sleep together until she could at least admit she was gay. I didn't push her anymore and I stopped brining it up even though I really wanted to. We were just best friends right now.

It was the weekend and I was bored. Abuela Lopez had been in town this week and I hadn't gotten a chance to hang out with Santana as much. I hadn't been to her house either and I wondered if Abuela Lopez even remembered me.

I picked up my phone and started texting people to see who wanted to hang out. My parents and sister were gone all day at some soccer day camp thing my sister had signed up for, so I was home alone for the day. Rachel and Mercedes both had plans with their families. Kurt was hanging out with his new boyfriend Blaine and Tina and Artie were at some comic book convention.

So, I was glad when Quinn said she was free and that we should go to a movie. I also heard back from Eva who said she'd love to hang out. She was the first to arrive to my house.

I heard the doorbell and when I opened it, Eva was standing there with a big smile on her face, looking as pretty as ever. "Hi Brittany." She stepped inside and kissed me on the lips. "I'm so glad you texted, I was so bored at home."

"Me too," I smiled. I let her in and followed her to the living room. My relationship with Eva was still, really friendly. She always kissed me hello, hugged or just touched me when she had a chance and I always let her. I don't know what it was about her but I couldn't stay away. No, wait, that's a lie. I knew why I still kept my special relationship with Eva. It was because she was so open about liking me and wasn't afraid to show it in public. Eva didn't care what people thought and it was really nice to not be a secret.

I had a lot of fun with Eva and we would totally be an awesome couple except for one thing. I was in love with Santana. If I had met Eva first, we'd probably be the hottest couple in Lima.

"So, is it just us or are we waiting on someone?" Eva sat on the couch and I sat next to her.

"Quinn's coming too," I said, "She's probably ironing her sundress or something."

Eva grinned and scooted closer to me. "Perfect." Before I knew it, she was kissing me. I should have stopped it but I just went with it and kissed her back. We only kissed for a little bit before I heard the doorbell. Quinn was here. "Damn, Quinn has horrible timing," Eva said.

I just smiled and went to get the door, with Eva following behind me.

"You couldn't have shown up twenty minutes later?" Eva asked.

Quinn rolled her eyes. "Did I interrupt something?"

"No!" I said really fast, "We were just talking."

"Right." Quinn looked like she didn't believe me. "Well, we should go or we'll miss the movie."

I was actually glad that Quinn interrupted. Kissing Eva wasn't as much fun as it used to be and I didn't want to do it anymore. I didn't want to have this special friendship with Eva. It was the same special friendship I had with Mike and Santana. I didn't want special friendships anymore. I wanted to be a girlfriend. I wanted someone to take me out on dates and buy me things. I wanted someone who I could take out and buy things too.

Quinn, Eva and I had hung out a lot this summer. We were like the Three Amigos. Or Amigas since we were all girls. I was learning Spanish to surprise Santana one day. Every time we hung out, I thought about Santana.

Quinn had really mellowed out and was a lot nicer during the summer without the pressure of all the high school rules. She had even gotten to be friends with Rachel. Sometimes I wished I could talk to her about what was going on with Santana but I couldn't and that was kinda frustrating.

After the movie, Quinn went home and Eva and I went to the park to sit by the pond. I was glad there weren't any ducks around caise they creeped me out a little.

"Today was fun," Eva said, "I never thought I'd be friends with anyone from McKinley but, here I am. I'm so glad we made out at that party."

"Me too. I'm glad we're friends." I looked from the water to her and I guess she could tell something was wrong because she got this concerned look on her face.

"What's wrong?"

Here we go. I had to break up with her. I guess that's what this was but it was confusing since we weren't a couple. "I'm glad we're friends," I repeated, "And I think we should be friends. Just friends. Uh, regular friends."

She turned her body to face me. "We are regular friends, Brittany."

I shook my head. "No. Quinn and I are regular friends. Rachel and I are regular friends. You and I? We're special friends. Friends who kiss and make out. I mean, we've seen each other's boobs! Regular friends don't do that."

"So…you don't want to make out anymore?" She sounded so disappointed. "We've been making out for awhile now. Why the sudden change?"

"I just.. I don't want special friends anymore. I want a real girlfriend or boyfriend. I want to go on dates and go out to dinners and stuff. I don't want to make out just because we can."

She slowly nodded. "I get it. You want to settle down, so to speak."

"I'm sorry."

"No. Don't be sorry." Eva reached for my hand. "I totally get it and as awesome as we'd be together, it's not a good idea for us to be a real couple. I mean, I've thought about it, many times but…"

"But what?"

"We go to different schools now and we'll probably go off to different parts of the country for college. I just think it's a bad idea."

I nodded and agreed with her. I just went along with her saying that long distance would be a relationship breaker because I didn't want to tell her that, for me, it wasn't about distance, it was about Santana. "So, regular friends then?"

She smiled and squeezed my hand. "Regular friends."

One down, two to go.

###

The next day at school I found Mike and I broke up with him. It was a bit weird since we forgot we were sort of standby dating. We did that last time we went out. We just didn't care enough. My talk with Mike lasted like five minutes and it was the easiest break up of all. The hardest one, was the next one.

Santana.

As much as I loved her, she needed to work on herself and concentrate on trying to come out without me distracting her and pushing her to do something she wasn't ready for.

Right before lunch ended, I found Santana at her locker getting her books for her next class. "Hey, are you busy after school? I need to talk to you."

"Not busy. What's up?" She closed her locker and gave me her full attention.

"I broke up with Eva and Mike and I wanted to talk to you about it," I said.

"What?! Wait, were you dating them?"

I shrugged. "Standby dating, but that's over." The bell rang for our next class. "I'll see you after school, OK?"

"Brittany!"

"After school," I said, "I have to get to class." I turned to leave before she could say anything else.

###

When the last bell rang, I went to my locker to drop off some books then headed to the parking lot to Santana's car. As soon as I got in, she asked me her question again.

"Where you dating both of them this whole time?" Santana had her whole body turned to me. "You weren't sleeping with them, were you? No threesomes or anything like that? Because that goes against one of our rules."

I put on my seatbelt and put my bag on the floor. "Uh, that rule was for us, not them and no, I didn't sleep with them. As adventurous as I am with sex, I can't handle more than one person. Too many limbs flying about."

Santana took a deep breath, like she was trying to calm herself down. She turned forward and started the car and drove off. When we were on the road she continued asking me questions. "I thought I told you to put Boy Chang on the no fly list."

"He was! But I realized I never officially broke off our thing. So I had to do that."

"And Eva? She was on the no fly list too, right?"

I swallowed and shook my head. "No. She was on the OK to fly list," I said softly.

Santana gripped the wheel and pulled over and parked behind a red car. "So you were making out with her the whole time we were together?"

"Not the whole time and that's not going to happen anymore."

Santana scoffed and shook her head. "Well, it's nice to know you've been cheating this whole time, but hey, thanks for putting a stop it!"

"Cheating? Cheating, how? I mean, I'm technically single so I can't be cheating on anyone." I took a breath and went on . "I decided that I don't want special friendships anymore. That includes you too Santana. I want a real girlfriend or boyfriend to take me out on dates and stuff. And you need to focus on yourself. You're doing so good and even though we haven't had sexy times since Chicago, we have kissed. A lot. We have to stop that so you can figure out who you are and want you want."

Santana just looked at me and I could tell she wanted to say something but she just stayed quiet. She started the car again and drove into traffic. She didn't say another word.

I expected her to take me to my house but she drove to hers and parked in her driveway. She got her bag then got out of the car and went inside. I stayed in the car thinking she would come back but she didn't. I went inside and found her pacing in her living room.

"What are you doing? Why didn't you drop me off at home?"

"I can't."

"Yes, you can," I said, "It's just like five minutes from here…."

"No!" She stopped pacing and looked at me, her eyes were watery. "I can't go to and Indigo Girls concert with you. Or play golf. Or go window shopping at Home Depot."

"I don't even like any of those things." She looked so upset that I went to her and stood close in case she needed me.

"I like what we have," she said, a couple of tears falling down her cheeks, "I know it's kind of fucked up and that's mostly my fault, but I want to make it better."

I was trying to figure out what she was saying but she was all over the place. "Santana…"

"No, listen." She reached for my hands and took them. "I'm a mess, I know, but you make me less of a mess. Being with you is the only thing that makes sense to me. I want to be with you. I can't… I can't be your…not like normal but I can take you places, if you want. Maybe somewhere outside of Lima…and I can buy you things too. I can't be what you want yet, but maybe I can be something different. Just, please don't break this off. The only time I feel happy is when…when I'm with you."

I felt my own tears fall down my cheeks. Santana's words were what I had wanted to hear for so long. There was no hiding, no denial, no lies. She wanted to be with me. Santana denying me and our relationship was what had hurt the most this past year so hearing her say she wanted me, made me so happy.

I looked into her eyes and I saw just how scared she was of losing what we had and I knew I was lying to myself that I could ever break things off with her. We had tried many times to stop and we always came back to each other. In the back of my mind, I knew that breaking things off today was going to be temporary.

Now, though, I couldn't break things off. I didn't want to. She wanted to be with me.

"I want to be with you too, Santana. Being with you makes me happy."

She let out a long breath, trying not to cry. "So, it's OK if we're…something different? For now?"

I pulled her in and hugged her, tight. "It's OK. It's more than OK."

Santana and I had never had a normal relationship. That wasn't us. Whatever we were going to be now was fine because, at least now, she wasn't denying me or us. This could work.

-tbc-

A/N: A horrible thing happened. The flash drive I had all my stories somehow got corrupted and I lost everything - including the next five chapters I had written for this story and my outline. I was so pissed I really wanted to just stop this story. But I know there are a lot of you who are enjoying this so I'm going to do my best to re-write what I lost. I hate wondering if what I had written was better than the rewrite.

Like I said before, I had planned this story having three parts and switching to Santana's POV, but I lost all that so I'm not sure what I'll do now. Maybe I'll just keep it as one long story and keep on with Britt's side since we didn't get much of that on the show.

OK, I just needed to vent a bit. Ugh! Five (long) chapters just gone. :( I'll try to keep updating every Sunday but if I miss one, I didn't get a chance to catch up.