A Study of Attraction
Chapter 4
Santana glares down at her phone. Her silent, motionless, locked phone.
It's now Tuesday afternoon and Brittany still hasn't called her. She's sitting in the lab tapping her fingers on the table, completely distracted by her phone even though it isn't even fucking doing anything.
She's also a little stressed because she was so blind-sided and positively stupefied from Brittany asking her out on Monday that she gave three of the participants she had that afternoon the completely wrong task condition and is now supposed to be trying to find more participants, going through her data files to figure out which ones she can't use, and actually tuning in to the fact that the participant she's seeing now has been trying to get her attention for the last two minutes.
"What?" She quickly turns to the annoyed freshmen.
"I said I finished. Can I have my course credit now?" He replies stroppily. She doesn't take so lightly to his tone but bites her tongue to stop herself from snapping at him as he hands over his credit log sheet for her to sign. And then she literally bites her tongue when her phone starts ringing.
"OW, fuck." she jolts before quickly signing and dating the sheet and slapping it into the first-year's chest as her phone continues to ring. She picks it up without looking at the screen, frantically waving one hand in front of her mouth in a useless reflex to numb the pain in her tongue as she answers the call.
"Hewwoo?" She forces out angrily, trying to speak coherently but also trying not to move her tongue.
"Uh...Are you trying to say 'hello'?" comes the curious reply. Santana's heart skips a beat at the voice, but she can't help but curse the timing. Of course it would be Brittany that's calling, right after Santana just tried to chew off part of her own face.
"Uhm...yah?" Santana tries to play it cool, ignoring the pain.
"Wow, you're just terrible at greeting people using your phone in all formats, aren't you?" Brittany observes, causing Santana to let out a laugh, which sends a few specks of blood across the desk in front of her. Santana smacks a hand to her mouth and lets out a yip of horror.
"Santana? Is everything okay?" Brittany catches onto the odd noises at the other end of the line.
"Uh...I bhit my touhnge." Santana tries to explain without moving her hand away or opening her mouth as much as possible.
Brittany giggles. "If you'd waited until tomorrow I could have bitten it for you."
Santana's about ready to respond when her mind starts thinking of other things involving both Brittany and her tongue. "Wanky." she whispers, completely frozen as she's overwhelmed by images of-
"Did you just say something?" Brittany asks, snapping Santana out of her daze – and none to soon, frankly, as she has another few participants to see today and this is not the fucking time to get horny.
"Nope, nothing. What's up?" She speaks meekly, not totally sure whether or not her tongue's still bleeding.
"I was just thinking about what we could do tomorrow," Brittany explains. What a coincidence, Santana's mind replies. "Any ideas?" Brittany asks.
Well we could start out on the couch and work our way through-
"No! Uh, I mean, not really. Anything. Whatever you want." Santana fumbles to clear her mind a bit before coming up with something more solid. "How about dinner and a movie, like you said?"
"Sounds great! What time?" Santana smiles at how genuinely interested Brittany sounds.
"Let's say...seven? Half seven?"
"Seven's good. Where should we go to eat?"
"I don't mind. Any preferences?" Santana's pretty sure Brittany could recommend cannibalism and Santana would nod along and let her have her way.
"How about Italian? There's a restaurant near the multiplex that does the best lasagne I've ever had."
"Sounds great. What movie are we watching? I don't really know what's showing."
"Oh, there's a new Pixar that came out last week that I haven't seen yet!" Brittany sounds so excited that Santana's not sure she isn't being sarcastic.
"Pixar as in...the kids films?" She asks sceptically.
"Pixar as in the kids films that can make grown men weep." Brittany defends, her voice completely deadpan. Santana gives her the benefit of the doubt.
"Uh, okay then. What's it about?" She can't quite believe she's going to spend her first date with Brittany rolling her eyes through some kids movie -
"Household furniture and appliances who all live together. The dining table and the refrigerator fall in love."
- about, well, that.
Santana takes a deep breath. "Sounds great!" She really does make an effort to sound enthused, but apparently Brittany isn't buying it.
"You're not into it? We could see something else?" She suggests, but the disappointment in her voice is so blatant that Santana instantly feels guilty.
"No, no! I want to see the furniture movie, I swear. Cross-commodity love stories are the best kind." She says. Brittany laughs.
"It sounds weird but I bet you anything you'll enjoy it." Brittany says. Santana's ears practically perk up at that one.
"Really? Anything?" She says, attempting to sound mock-seductive.
"Yep. Anything. In fact..." Brittany replies so confidently that it makes Santana a bit nervous. "How about we make a bet. If you don't enjoy it, we can do whatever you want afterwards."
"Listening..." Santana mutters, grinning smugly to herself.
Brittany giggles again, clearly aware of what Santana was thinking. "But if I win..." Brittany says slowly. Santana leans forward, suddenly nervous. Brittany says nothing for a moment.
"What if you win? Brittany, c'mon." Santana practically begs, Brittany's hesitation has her at the edge of her seat. Brittany audibly smirks.
"If I win, you have to-" Santana's ripped from her conversation by a knock at the door. She starts and turns to see the next participant. She groans. The one time they arrive early. Brittany hears the commotion and giggles softly, "I guess you'll have to wait and see."
"Yeah." Santana sighs. The knock at the door obnoxiously repeats, louder this time. "I'm sorry, I really have to go."
"I'll call you later." Brittany says.
Santana melts slightly just hearing Brittany say so, and lets out a smitten giggle – and then chokes on it out of mortification that Brittany's making her act like a love-struck dumbass over the fucking phone. Santana stammers out a "Bye!" and then hangs up as quickly as possible. She puts her phone down, crosses her arms on the desk and slams her head down onto her forearms.
It clicks that Santana agreeing to go on a date with Brittany is essentially going to be Santana flailing through trying to function like a regular, socially-capable human being, and no doubt totally failing – like she usually does around Brittany, except this time she's voluntarily doing it in public.
She lets out a long, frustrated groan into her forearms.
"Are...are you okay?" Santana hadn't noticed her next participant had stepped inside. She raises her head and turns slowly, and then proceeds to stare at him for a minute, in total silence. The participant just stands there like a deer in headlights, and then apparently decides that maybe he's not this desperate for course credit, as he slowly backs out of the room and closes the door behind him.
Apparently, embarrassing herself when she's talking to Brittany takes a lot out of her, so Santana finds she doesn't even have the energy to care about her missing participant. Santana puts her head back down and mutters profanities to herself until the next appointment shows up.
Santana's finally home. Lacking the energy to even attempt to open the stubborn front door, she just knocks pathetically and waits for Mike to open it.
Except she comes face to face with their friend Rachel, whose aura alone is so totally fucking obnoxious that Santana promptly decides she's not ready to face that right now. But it's too late and Rachel has already stated addressing her. Santana groans.
"Good evening, Santana! Did you lose your ke-" Santana reaches forward and pulls the door shut in her own face to cut off Rachel's greeting.
Despite choosing not to be in the apartment at that time, Santana's too shattered to try and find something else to do, and instead just sits herself down in the hallway with her back against the door, waiting until long after she hears Rachel's huffy footsteps disappear to even consider standing back up and tackling the door herself.
She gets to her feet and finally makes her way into the apartment, makes a mental note to put some ice on the shoulder she seems to have completely fucking shattered by trying to barge the door open later and then drags herself into her room, ignoring anyone else in the apartment.
Santana's in the shower, trying to work the shame-tension out of her muscles – she's pretty sure she's going to need daily professional massages if she doesn't start getting her shit together whenever she's in the presence of Brittany sometime soon. She's just starting to wash her hair when she hears her phone start ringing from where she left it in her sweats pocket on the bathroom floor. She instantly panics and sucks in a quick breath, inhaling shampoo in the process.
Choking slightly and practically falling out of the shower, Santana lands in a heap of discarded clothes and finally digs out her phone. She's short of breath when she finally picks up in a frustrated grumble, shivering slightly at the cool air.
"Yeah?" She grinds out. She moves to sit up, the slapping of her hand against the floor tile reverberating around the small room.
"Hi! Sorry, did I interrupt you?" Brittany's perky voice instantly causes Santana's brain to short-circuit.
"Um, yeah you kinda did..." Santana suddenly turns bashful, realising that she's talking to Brittany whilst completely naked. She blushes, suddenly paranoid that Brittany can hear nudity. She lets out a small groan as she reaches for a towel to quickly cover herself before continuing. "So what's up?"
"Uh, I was just-" Santana lets out a small squeak and gasp as she tries to stand up and almost smacks her head on the sink. The noise causes Brittany to change track. "If you were busy, I can call back when you're done? I mean, not that I know when that'll be so take your time! I mean..." Brittany's sudden loss of eloquence has Santana raising an eyebrow. Did she know I was in the shower? "I mean, take your time! I'll text later. Have fun! I mean that's the point but- oh God. Bye!" Brittany suddenly ends the call and Santana's left reeling trying to figure out exactly what she should be 'taking her time finishing' when she realises what Brittany thought she was doing. Santana actually gasps, and quickly draws the conclusion that she will never be able to talk to Brittany ever again.
Her horror quickly turns to a smirk about the fact that the blonde's mind would actually go there.
I mean, just...wanky.
Brittany texts half an hour later, just as Santana's digging through her washing trying to find something clean to sleep in, just saying 'Hi?'. Santana quickly calls her back.
"Hey." Brittany answers meekly, clearly she's still worried she's interrupting something even when this time it's Santana ringing her.
"Hey." Santana responds coolly. After letting her embarrassment over the last phone call settle, she realised that in comparison to speaking to Brittany when Brittany thinks she's getting some happy-hand-time in whilst on the fucking phone to her, speaking to Brittany when she's at least temporarily clothed and has nothing to be embarrassed about should be a breeze.
"Sorry to interrupt your...you..." Brittany trails off.
"Masturbating furiously?" Santana guesses, laughing. Santana suddenly feels a little brave about how nervous Brittany's being. Tables turned, much? "I wasn't...I was in the shower." Santana informs her.
"Ohh!" Santana can hear the realisation in her voice. "Well, you could've been doing it in the shower." Brittany mutters so quietly Santana barely hears it.
"What?"
"Nothing!" Brittany says, and Santana decides to give her the benefit of the doubt and move the conversation along.
"So, about tomorrow...Meeting at seven? Do you want to get dinner first, or eat after the movie?" Santana asks.
"Santana, you're supposed to get dinner first. That's why it's called 'dinner and a movie' and not the other way around." Brittany confidently assures her and Santana smiles, finding it way too cute. "Wanna meet outside the multiplex? We can buy the movie tickets first and then head to the restaurant." Brittany suggests.
"Sure."
"Awesome." Brittany replies. "So, what are you wearing?" Brittany suddenly asks and Santana's caught a little off-guard. She looks down at her outfit. Is she seriously asking me this question?
"Uh, a towel." She replies. Brittany laughs at the other end of the phone and Santana realises she might have missed something.
"I meant for the date. Unless that's what you meant, which would be totally fine with me." Brittany replies, turning the tables the full 180 back to Santana being the bashful dork.
Santana gulps. "Oh, um," She starts to panic, realising she hadn't actually thought about her first-date outfit. "Something red?" She guesses, causing Brittany to giggle.
"Looking forward to it." Brittany flirts. Santana swoons. "I have to go. Lord Tubbington needs to use the phone." Brittany says, sounding genuinely sad about having to leave the call, and Santana's way too caught up in it to be concerned that she's about to go on a date with a girl who apparently lets her fucking cat use the telephone.
"Okay. See you tomorrow then." Santana says.
"Goodnight, Santana." Brittany replies. Neither of them hang up.
"Uh...you hang up first?" Santana facepalms herself for the cliché but it gets one last laugh out of Brittany.
"Alright. See you tomorrow!" Brittany states before hanging up.
Santana lets out a dreamy sigh, and then instantly pretends she didn't as she places her phone on her desk and starts rooting through her floordrobe to find the perfect date outfit. She grabs for the first spot of red she can find, hoping to pull out some kind of clean, hot, ass-hugging dress, only to reveal...a red towel. She lets out a groan. Damnit.
A/N: Hi there. Super sorry for the delay on this, I wrote most of it a couple of weeks ago but then had writers block and had other stuff to do. Also, sorry that it's not their date yet! I thought it would be - or at least begin - in this chapter but alas nope! However the next chapter will definitely be date-based and like I say the date itself might be stretch across two chapters! Though I will warn you now I have deadlines approaching so I really have no idea how long it'll take me to get around to scribbling it all out. Sorry! As always, hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading :)