Chapter 14

With a soft groan Santana rolled onto her back, kicking the bed sheets off of her suddenly uncomfortably warm skin and wincing as the movement sent a faint rush of nausea through her whole body.

She brought her hand up slowly as her stomach settled, resting it on her clammy forehead and gently rubbing the sleep from her eyes, before carefully lifting her head to squint at the digital clock that sat on her bedside drawer.

11.49am

She fell back onto the pillow with a sigh, her hair fanning out beneath her and let her eyes fall shut again, noting how exhausted she still felt.

She never woke up this late. Unless of course she'd drank copious amounts of alcohol before going to sleep, which the soft pounding in her head confirmed she had.

But when?

Her memories of the night before felt fuzzy and out of focus but she breathed out, thinking hard and trying to sift through the night's events in her head, wondering at what point exactly she had ended up so drunk.

There was Will's party, she remembered going to that fairly clearly. Having a few too many glasses of wine as she watched Emma fawning all over Will, whilst she'd had to make forced conversation with the few people she only half knew. She vaguely remembered being hit on by one of his neighbours, but then she had left pretty early, bored and ready to go home drink to alone.

But she hadn't headed back to her apartment straight away, she had gone...gone...she paused, where had she gone?

Screwing up her face, she tried to remember where she had gone next, recreating the walk out of Will's place in her mind to jog her memory. She had wanted cigarettes, so she must have stopped at a shop somewhere. But where? She tried to picture Will's neighbourhood, trying to remember if she had dropped into a garage anywhere around there but her brain was slow and her dry throat distracted her, forcing her to give up at least until she'd had some water and an aspirin.

So she rolled out of bed slowly, her tired limbs reluctant and her headache beating a steady rhythm behind her heavy eyes as she padded to the kitchen. She propped herself against the sink as she half filled a glass and swallowed it thirstily, refilling it to the top before she sat down heavily at the table, 2 painkillers clutched in one hand.

After throwing the pills clumsily into her mouth and chasing them down with a large gulp of water she rested her head heavily against her hands, her eyes squeezed shut as she waited for the aspirin to take effect.

After a few minutes of sleepy silence, she heard a gentle buzzing, the noise making her groan and look up, her eyes automatically searching for her blackberry.

Her bag was on the worktop behind her and she leant around in her chair, dragging it off the counter towards her and fumbling inside to pull out her phone.

She had 4 missed calls.

12.30am, 12.45am, 1.00am and one this morning at 9.00am. All from Will.

She frowned at the screen, why had Will called her? She sighed and rubbed her hand over her eyes once again, still not feeling quite awake.

She flicked back to the menu display and clicked on the little envelope icon, a scarlet number 3 lighting up next to it.

The first text was from Will, sent at 1.02am and reminding her that she had promised to ring him when she got home and he was starting to get worried.

That explained the phonecalls she realised, tapping out an apologetic reply and feeling a little guilty that she had obviously gotten so drunk she had forgotten.

The next was also from Will, sent this morning at 8.13am, but presuming it to be another reminder to contact him, she clicked past without reading to the third one, staring in confusion at the number she didn't recognise before glancing down at the text, sent at 10.47am this morning.

Hey, how are you feeling this morning? Brittany xx

"Brittany?..." She muttered quietly, her head tilted in confusion "Why does Brittany have my numb-"

Santana paused for a moment as her eyes read and then re read the name at the end, blinking in shock as her her mind began to race and her heart beat painfully against her chest.

With a sudden rush of panic, the mist that had temporarily obscured her memory cleared and drunken flashes of what had happened ran through her head, leaving her wishing she could go back to the blank unknown of a minute before.

The shop...John's..or Joe's..or something like that..she had gone to get some beers and then...then she had ran into Brittany...they had talked for a bit...then she had gone outside and ordered a taxi...and then they sat down together on a bench to wait...and then...and then...

"Fuck"

Santana's phone dropped to the table as she brought both hands up to her face, squeezing her eyes shut tightly to try and make the image disappear. But the memory was too strong and she couldn't help but remember as the surreal scene she had thought was a dream played out again in her mind.

With her eyes shut she had leant forward, her mouth grazing Brittany's as the fireworks exploded behind them. The blonde had seemed surprised, gasping quietly into the dark, but responded at once, taking Santana's breath away as her soft lips moved expertly, with a gentle insistency that the woman hadn't expected.

They leaned into each other, impatient to feel their bodies closer together and as she felt Brittany's arm wrap tightly around her waist, an anxious weight seemed to fall away inside Santana. All the stress that she had been carrying, all the effort of trying to ignore her feelings, to hide them even from herself, seemed to dissipate as Brittany pulled her closer, the blonde's warm, safe hands holding her firmly, fitting against her so perfectly that she didn't know how she hadn't missed them before.

Shifting position, Brittany ran her tongue lightly over Santana's full bottom lip, as though she were too nervous to push further without the woman's permission, and smiled gratefully into the kiss when the brunettes lips parted immediately, granting her access. The cheerleader tasted sweet, like Malibu and coke, and her gently probing tongue made Santana's head spin, her heart hammering furiously against her chest.

With her free hand she had reached for Brittany's, interlocking their fingers as the kiss deepened and she squeezed gently, unsure of how to communicate how amazingly perfect this felt but praying that Brittany felt it too.

The blonde had squeezed back softly, affectionately, and Santana's heart had beat even faster, it's thundering pace almost deafening, blocking out all other sound until everything was Brittany and she could barely even think with the intensity.

Eventually though, breathing had become an unfortunate necessity and they broke apart, brown eyes meeting blue as they gazed in wonder at each other. Santana had lifted her hand slowly, touching her fingers gently to the blonde's face as she breathed out slowly.

"Brittany..." she started, her voice low "Brittany, I-"

But she was interrupted by the bright headlights of an approaching taxi, and whatever she had been about to say was forgotten as they instantly flinched back, keeping their hands linked but moving their bodies into less conspicuous positions as the car pulled up a few metres away.

Santana ran her thumb reassuringly over the back of Brittany's hand as they both stood up, the moment broken, and turned to her with an unsure smile, her voice barely above a whisper.

"...I don't really know what to say..."

Brittany squeezed her hand gently

"..me neither"

A moment of silence as Santana hesitated, before holding her phone out resolutely to Brittany.

"..maybe you could, take my number?.."

She took a breath as though she was going to add something but floundered, shutting her mouth with a nervous swallow when she realised she couldn't think of anything else to say.

The blonde nodded wordlessly before typing Santana's number carefully into her contacts and then pressing the phone back into the brunette's hand, brushing her fingers lightly against the woman's wrist as they stared at each other nervously.

Santana broke the silence, the intrusive eyes of the taxi driver distracting her from the mesmerising blue gaze in front of her and pointed her thumb towards the car.

"I should probably go..."

Brittany nodded again reluctantly, her fingers still interlaced with Santana's and unwilling to let go.

"Yeah..I guess you should"

"..But, we could maybe talk..in the morning..or something" Santana suggested as they moved towards the car, her lips still tingling with the taste of Brittany's and having to stop herself from leaning forward to kiss her again.

"Yes, definitely...I could ring you?"

Santana had to bite back a delighted smile as she bobbed her head slowly in agreement

"Yeah ok"

Finally letting go of her hand, Brittany leaned in to open the car door for Santana, stepping back to help the woman climb somewhat unsteadily into the car.

The taxi driver, a short, overweight man with a cheerful smile turned to nod at Brittany before asking Santana where she was heading. She recited her address as Brittany stood waiting and she turned to the girl once she had finished speaking with a small smile and a soft, quiet sigh.

"Goodnight Brittany..thanks for waiting with me"

Brittany smiled back

"..no problem..Goodnight Santana"

She shut the door with a soft click and stepped back onto the sidewalk, her hand raised in a half wave as the car pulled away.

In the taxi, Santana turned in her seat, unable to stop looking at Brittany as they drove up the road and only reluctantly turning back to face front when the cheerleader became a tiny, indiscernible blur, so small that she got swallowed up by the darkness and disappeared from view.

The memory flooded her mind, the taste and feel of Brittany, of everything that had happened, so vivid now that she couldn't believe she had briefly forgotten, and Santana let out a soft whimper.

"Oh fuck, fuck, fuck"

Her head was in her hands and she sat rigid in shock , a steady stream of muttered expletives falling from her lips as she tried to put her frantic thoughts into some kind of coherent order.

What was she supposed to do now?

This was serious. She could be in real trouble, it wasn't just some stupid little crush any more...she had kissed a high school student. A female high school student.

They had kissed, and it had been perfect, and it had been brilliant and it could absolutely never happen again.

"So unprofessional" she said aloud. Fuck, it was probably illegal too.

She swallowed nervously, Jesus Christ, of course it was illegal. She had committed a crime. She could go to prison.

Even knowing that Brittany would never tell anyone couldn't get that thought out of her head. She could actually go to prison for what she had done last night.

A shrill ringing made her jump and she looked down nervously at the blackberry on the table. It was face down where she had dropped it and she reached forward tentatively to turn it over, her jaw dropping in horror when she saw the number flashing on the screen. She was pretty sure that was the number she hadn't recognized earlier, Brittany's number.

She couldn't answer it.

What would she say to her?

She shouldn't be saying anything to her. She had to forget about Brittany, nothing could happen again and answering the call would only encourage it.

Of course she wouldn't answer it.

Her hand crept forward hesitantly, gingerly lifting up the phone with all the delicacy of a bomb disposal expert and she stared down at the screen, agonising over what to do.

It was so wrong. She shouldn't even entertain the idea of answering.

She definitely wasn't going to do it. She would just let it ring out and hope she didn't call again.

She waited until the phone was silent and breathed a sigh of relief when the noise stopped abruptly, only to feel her pulse race again when a quiet buzz told her she had a new text 30 seconds later. Her fingers trembled slightly as she clicked it open.

I guess you're still asleep, I hope this doesn't wake you up but I just wanted to check that things are Ok between us? Really hope you're alright. B xx

Reading the text with Brittany's voice in her head made Santana's chest feel tight. She could hear the worry and confusion in it and she hated to be the cause of that, it was so unfair to the cheerleader but she didn't have a choice. She was a teacher, Brittany was a student, and that had to be the end of it.

So ignoring the uncomfortable pricking behind her eyes, she turned her phone off and placed it back in her bag without replying.

She took a deep breath to steady herself before getting up, and made her way decidedly into the bathroom, peeling off her pyjamas and stepping wearily under the hot blast of the shower. She closed her eyes as the droplets cascaded over her, and a dejected sigh escaped her lips as the water she had hoped would cleanse her mind did nothing to ease her tension, leaving her mind racing with the memory of last night and her resolve weak when she couldn't stop herself from remembering the feeling of Brittany's soft, sweet lips on hers.

...

Ok firstly Grammarnazi:...Did you just tell me off?...Because really, if you can't bear me forgetting to use full stops (I assume that's what a 'period' is?) then maybe just don't read it? And Jesus Christ, try to remember it's only fanfiction, I'm not trying to be Dickens here. But, aside from that, a genuine thank you for reminding me in a kind and condescending way that I am in fact 19, because sometimes I am just so busy using poor grammar and abusing sentence structuring that I do forget my how old I am. So cheers.

Anyway, sorry if the full stop things annoys other people too, I will try to remember them in future.

Annnd, I know it's late, it's real late and not even a very long chapter and I'm sorry again, but I've been really busy with uni stuff and work etc. I'll try and keep the updates more regular but I can't promise it will be every week. But I do promise I'll never just stop writing halfway through so don't worry about that.

So, thanks for reviewing, I hope you like. I have way more hits for this story than I ever thought I'd get which is crazy so thank you so much for reading, really.

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