The girls exit the hut together and make their way down to the kitchen area, it's about a 5 minute walk; about half way down, Jake, Sam's dog comes running towards them and jumps up at Brittany.
"Hey buddy," she says as she bends down to stroke him, she turns towards Santana who is looking at her with her head titled to the side, "this is Jake, Sam's dog; he comes over to stay too during the holidays." Santana walks forward to stroke his back, accidently grazing over Brittany's bare arm too. Santana moves her arm away quickly but Brittany grabs her wrist as she you does.
"Hey," she whispered, "you don't have to be shy bumping me or touching me, unless you have cooties or something," she continues, pulling her face making Santana smile.
"No, I don't," she replies, taking her arm back to stroke the dog, "Sorry, I'm still just feeling awkward with myself," she mumbled. "I question every movement I make around people and I'm always assuming people are going to pick up on the fact I'm different."
"Of course you are different Santana, but why do you see it as a bad thing, you are totally awesome and yes you like girls instead of boys but why are you letting that define you as a person?" she looked up to gage Santana's reaction. "I think you are making more of a big deal of it than other people would if they found out," she finished softly.
"Not the people I know Britt, not the family I come from,"
"So you think they would rather you carry around this weight with you for your whole life, where you are second guessing every movement you make and holding back from making friends with girls because you don't know how to act, you are missing out on life San, on feelings and memories you could be making every second."
With watery eyes, Santana gasped, "You make it sound so easy Britt,"
"I'm not saying it's easy, I'm just saying stop being so hard on yourself, give yourself a break from the punishment," as she finished, she leaned over and tucked a stray piece of Santana's hair behind her ear, Santana stilled at the touch, "I wish I could be more like you Britt,"
"Don't be silly, by the end of the summer my aim is to get you to relax and have fun,"
Santana laughed, "wow Britt, you like a challenge I see."
"I sure do," she replied.
The girls got up and continued to walk down to the kitchen, Santana felt a calm surround her as she walked next to Brittany; the girl had a great way of looking at things that Santana thought she could learn from. It was still light outside and in the distance they could hear lots of people talking. As they were about to go to the clearing Santana grabbed Brittany's arm and pulled her to stop.
"How many people are going to be at dinner," she muttered, clearly nervous at the prospect of a large number of people.
"Erm, probably about 40, mostly kids our age, some younger and then a few adults," Brittany replied but saw Santana's shoulders droop at the confirmation. "But hey," Brittany continued, placing her hand on Santana's arm, "don't worry about it, stick next to me and I'll introduce you to anybody I think you need to know and then after we've eaten dinner, remember we have plans," she smiled, "I want to show you something."
Santana couldn't keep the smile rising on her face. "Great, ok, I can do this," she said to herself.
"You can totally do this," Brittany smirked, placing her hand on Santana's lower back to guide her forwards.
All Santana could think about though was the soft, warm feel of Brittany's hand on her back, as she looked up at the girl again she was overcome by how pretty Brittany was, Brittany felt her stare and turned to catch her eye, both offering up a smile.
Dinner past without too much attention on Santana, Brittany did well distracting her and introduced her to a small group of her friends, who all seemed nice and didn't ask too many questions, she spent her time talking to Brittany and Sugar and unfortunately an annoying girl called Rachel, who spent the whole time talking about how she was going to be a big star some day and asking everyone did they want her autograph now before she started charging for it. Santana raised her eyes at Brittany and Brittany used this sign as the time to get them away from dinner.
After washing their dishes, which Santana did and Brittany dried, they began their walk away from camp, Brittany led the way pointing out things as they passed, the sun was shinning it's last rays as they began the steep incline up the hill.
"So how well do you know the three guys from before?" Santana questioned
"Well, I've known Mike, the Asian boy, since we were both 3, we met at dance class and have been dancing together ever since," she continued, "he's really cool and I get on really well with his girlfriend."
"Oh, you dance, makes sense," Brittany looked up confused, Santana continued, "your body, it's like, well, amazing!' she stumbled over her words and her cheeks felt hot.
"You're such a goofball San," Brittany laughed
"Am not," she retorted, "anyway what about the other two boys?"
"Erm, I've known Finn since I was 8, he started coming here then, he has hooked up with Rachel a few times but I think she drives him crazy with her singing obsession so they are more off than on most of the time."
"I can see that" Santana laughed.
"Yeah, and then there's Sam, who I've known since I was like 5, we actually go to the same school at home," she paused as she climbed over some rocks to cross a stream, Santana still following her. "I used to think he was awesome and we actually dated for a while but now we are just friends," she finished.
Hearing Brittany talk about dating someone else made Santana's tummy flip and not in a good way, she found her fists had curled themselves up and her mood darkened, knowing she had no right to be mad though she tried to carry on the conversation, but instead found her mind drifting to Sam's huge lips and picturing them on Brittany. Her breath caught in her throat and she had to cough loudly to clear it.
Brittany's hand grabbing Santana's wrist, pulled her out of her thoughts, she looked up to find Brittany leading her to the top of the hill, as they came to the top, Santana could see the sun setting over the water, it was really beautiful, "wow" she let slip from her lips, Brittany smiled, "there's more, come on quick, I want us to catch the last of the sunset, from somewhere else." Santana followed Brittany again and this time her hand was in Brittany's, instead of panicking and stressing about it, she decided to take Brittany's advice and just enjoy the feeling.
They walked in silence for a few more minutes to the right of the hill and then came to the trunk of a huge tree, there was a rusty old ladder perched against it and Brittany planted it firmly in the ground, against the tree.
Seeing what Brittany had in mind, Santana began to object. "There is no way in hell I am going up that thing Britt, it looks like something that was around in the war," Brittany stuck out her bottom lip pouting at Santana, "oh, man, don't do that to me Britt," Santana giggled, "please don't make me!"
Rolling her eyes, "you're so dramatic San" Brittany laughed. "How about you go up first and I hold the ladder to make it safer,"
Santana mulled this over, "what about you though? Who will hold it for you?"
"Well you can, from the top," she smirked, "come on, let's go, I want to catch the sunset,"
"Fine," Santana huffed, "but if I die, you'll be responsible."
Brittany laughed, "You're not going to die, now get up there!"
Santana made her move towards the tree in front of Brittany and lifted her leg up to start climbing. "Now I know you are going to be tempted to stare at my ass as I climb up, but try to control yourself," Santana smirked.
"Wow is this Santana relaxing and trying to make a joke?" Brittany mocked rolling her eyes. "I'll try my best to control myself." She replied laughing.
The sound of Santana laughing made Brittany laugh harder and she quickly removed one hand off the ladder to grab her phone out of her pocket and quickly snap a picture of Santana climbing the tree, the sound of the shutter closing on the camera caught Santana's attention and she looked down to find Brittany still aiming the phone at her.
"You best be bloody kidding my Brittany," Santana laughed.
"I have no idea what you are talking about," she joked as she put her phone back in her pocket, grinning. "I just want to catch moments like this, this is what I was talking about when I said about making memories."
Santana rolled her eyes, "whatever just don't show anyone else."
Once both girls were in the tree house, which was pretty big, three of the walls were closed off but the wall facing the sunset was open, Brittany pulled up the ladder to make sure no one would disturb them and moved over to where Santana was perched at the open wall with her feet dangling out, they weren't too high up but it was still a much better view up here.
Sitting side by side they took in the view. "Pretty cool huh?" Brittany commented.
"Totally, it's breath taking" Santana responded, "so how many people know about this?"
"Just me, Spencer and my Dad, it's been pretty hard to keep it a secret because I'm always worried the others might stumble across it and then want to use it all the time," she paused as if she wasn't sure what to say next but she continued, "my dad built it for us the summer before I was 9, he wanted somewhere for me to go if I wanted to be on my own but also that he would know where I would be if it got late."
"Oh, makes sense I guess," Santana replied, feeling as though she needed to let Brittany talk. They were silent for a few minutes before Brittany continued.
"It's been my secret place ever since, I've never brought anyone up here."
"Not even Sam?" Santana asked
"No, no one, you're the first one," she smiled.
"wow, I'm honored, but why me?"
"Because I want you to use it if you ever get sad or you need to get away from things, then if I think you've had enough brooding time I can come and find you easily and cheer you up." She smiled bumping shoulders with Santana.
"Thanks Britt, it really is beautiful up here," she said surveying the room, her gaze lingered on a picture stuck to the wall, it was an old picture, of a lady, with light brown hair and blue eyes, she was holding two children, one was a girl around the age of 8, which was definitely Brittany, she was stunning even at that age, her eyes were bright and her smile was huge, Santana could pick her out of any line up she thought. And next to her was a little boy, around the age of two; he wasn't looking at the camera, instead tucking his head into the neck of the lady. It was a lovely picture, Santana thought.
Seeing Santana's eyes linger on the picture Brittany got up and took it down from the wall and brought it back to where Santana was sitting. Handing the picture to her, Brittany started talking.
"This is the reason my dad built the tree house." She paused. "Just before the summer I turned 9, my mum was driving to pick me up from a dance class, she was running late and was worried that I would be the last one being picked up and that I would be upset, she decided to take a short cut through the lanes around the back of my school and some boys from the high school had thought it would be fun that day to try and drive a tractor which had been left in a nearby field," a small tear fell down her cheek and Santana rushed to catch it with the pad of her thumb.
"Hey, don't cry, you don't have to tell me this," Santana rushed, moving closer to Brittany and rubbing her back.
"I want to," Brittany continued, "So as my mum came round the corner, she saw the tractor coming towards her which was swerving back and forth, so she tried to avoid it and ended up veering off the edge of the road, the car spun once in the air and landed upside down in a ditch, all four boys ran off and left her there, if one of them had called an ambulance straight away she might have made it, but instead a lady found her an hour later and she was already dead." More tears tumbled down her face, and Santana moved to catch them.
Pulling Brittany into her arms she stroked her hair, "I'm so sorry Britt, I'm sorry all that happened to you, ergh if I could get my hands on those idiots that did that…"
Pulling her head up to look at Santana, Brittany interrupted her, "San, I told you this story so you would see how important life is and that it can all be over in the blink of an eye, not so that you would feel sorry for me or want to hurt those boys. I want you to see how pointless all the time is that you spend worrying and stressing about what other people think, I want you to see that you have to make the most of every minute you have and with the people you love."
Hearing that and something clicking in her brain, Santana lent forward and attached her lips to Brittany's. She had to make the most of every minute right?
Hey guys, if you want the next chapter up over the weekend, you gotta review let me know what you think!