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Chapter 9
You walk into Schuester's Restaurant and the first thing you see is someone lying across the bar on their back. The door is swinging closed with a bang behind you and you suddenly feel trapped. The person on the counter lifts her head up lazily and you flicker your gaze to her hand where she holds a bottle of something transparent. The woman has blonde short hair and she looks to be in her mid-thirties. She slurs something incoherent and she is for sure smashed.
You slowly twist your head to the right and you look at the rest of the place. It's exactly how you remember it when you first had your interview here last week. The booths are pretty small and there's a stage at the corner by the windows. The place is cozy and reminds you of a place called 'bredstix' from your home town. They had the best shrimp.
A shrill voice is heard through the restaurant and you whip your head back to the counter where the woman is still lying. But now her feet are in the air and you think that she's singing on a song. Though you're not sure what song, it's hard to make out the words, or the melody.
"Brittany!" A door swings open right next to the bar and Will Schuester comes sprinting out with an apron lazily tied around his waist. He waves his hand above his head and even though it's pretty dark in the restaurant, you can make out a very large smile on his face.
"Hey," you say timidly as you take a step further away from the door. Will stretches his hand out and you step forward to take it.
"Hi," you say and when he lets go you try to sneakily dry your hand off on your jeans. You don't know if he was really sweaty or if it was something else.
You really hope it was only water.
After Will hastily introduces you to the woman who's been lying on the bar counter, he tells you she will show you around and then you can come to the back room to get your work clothes.
Somehow, the knowledge that you'll be in the back room alone with Will later to get your clothes, kind of creeps you out. You don't know what it is with him, but something is definitely creepy.
The woman, who Will introduced as April, swings her legs off the counter and she keeps singing that song that she was singing earlier. Apart from her voice, the restaurant is dead quiet. You faintly wonder if there's anyone else here or if Will, April and you are the only one's working. The guests are probably coming in soon though, since it's still pretty early.
You feel cold glass against your arm and when you look down, April is dragging the bottle up and down your arm.
"Have a taste, sweetheart!" she slurs and you take a step back.
"N-no thanks," you say and you shiver because that bottle was really cold.
She shrugs and then takes a long sip herself, "suite yourself," she says before starting to walk away from you.
Or more like, swaying, away from you.
You decide to follow her, since Will said she'd show you around.
"Okaay," April drags out and comes to a halt in front of a booth. "You'll be workingz as a waitress, as Williz probably already telld ya."
You have a hard time hearing what she's saying but you focus more on making sure she doesn't break anything with that bottle, which is now swinging in her hand dangerously close to a vase on the table.
"Great," you say while April almost knocks down around twenty wine glasses on a tray nearby and you sneakily take the bottle away from her hand, pretending that you want a sip. You can't watch her swinging it around anymore.
There's a door opening behind you again and when you turn around, an Asian girl is running towards you, and much like Will, her apron is hanging loosely around her waist.
"April!" she screams and you subtly place the bottle down on the table, making sure she never saw it in your hand.
"TINA!" April screams back, a little louder, and you have to cover your ears not to become deaf.
"You must be Brittany, hi!" Tina says while taking April's hand and dragging her across the restaurant towards the door that everyone is walking through.
You don't have time to answer before they're gone and you're alone in the restaurant.
"I'll help you, sorry!" suddenly Tina is back, without April, and she's coming closer to you. She stretches her hand out and you shake it, relieved that she isn't drench, like Will.
"Sorry, it's kind of a mess here in the morning. Welcome!" Tina says and you smile timidly at her.
XxXx
Tina turns out to be a really cool girl, and after she shows you around, she comes with you into the back room, so that you're not alone with Will.
She tells you that he can be a bit weird sometimes, but once you get to know him, he's mostly just really nice. She also says that he's sad right now because he just divorced his high school sweetheart and you just nod because you've heard a lot about that already.
Tina is with you the entire day and when the guests start to come in, she gives you advice on how to be an awesome waitress.
At the end of your workday, you smile, because you think you'll like this job, after all.
XxXx
When the clock is 9 p.m. you exit the elevator in your building and you spin to the music playing in your head before you gracefully shuffle your feet towards your front door. You bend down to pick up the keys that's in your flower pot. You've just stopped keeping them in your purse because you always lose your keys when they're in there. Having the key in the flower pot makes it harder for you to misplace it.
You fidget with your lock for a while before you finally get the key inside. Just when you're about to twist it to the right, someone else exits the elevator and you hear someone laugh and then heels are clicking against the floor and you turn around to see who it is.
The first person you see is a girl with dark caramel skin, long flowing dark hair and sunglasses covering her eyes. She's wearing a short summer dress with a purse hanging off her arm. Her teeth are white and her smile is infectious.
You must admit she's gorgeous.
The girl then turns towards another person and when you meet brown warm eyes; your heart flutters a bit. But then you feel your brow dip and something in your chest kind of burns. You watch the two of them, and they really look good together. You don't know who the other girl is but you decide, in this exact moment, that you don't like her one bit.
But then Santana takes a step towards you and her lips turn into a bashful smile and she looks you up and down, before she says:
"Hi." And you lift your hand up and you wave at her.
You make a mental note to yourself to stop waving at people that are right in front of you.
Suddenly the girl beside Santana pulls her sunglasses off and you see her eyes for the first time.
However, she doesn't meet your gaze.
Her eyes fall down your body, then they come right back up again, but not before resting a while at your chest.
And that burning feeling in your chest slowly fades and instead a smirk is spreading across your lips.
"Whoa," the girl in a sundress says, and your smirk only grows. If you should take her leering as a sign, the girl is probably playing on your team, but she's not very interested in Santana at the moment. You mentally fist pump the air when she takes a step forward.
And when Santana awkwardly shifts her feet on the ground and introduces her as her cousin, you mentally do a cart wheel, because you're just kind of happy and you were right about the fact that this cousin is not very interested in Santana. And your chest doesn't burn at all anymore and you don't feel to urge to hate her.
"I'm Olivia, by the way," and she stretches her hand out and you shake it and she doesn't let go right away. You smile awkwardly while Olivia keeps staring at your face. She looks at your lips and then Santana steps forward two steps.
"Great," Santana squeaks and claps her hands together. You take your hand back from her cousin's vice grip and Olivia only smiles brightly. "We should probably go back inside now, Olivia; we have a movie to watch!"
Santana gives you one final smile before she turns around to walk towards her door. But Olivia remains in her place right in front of you and then she asks you if you would want to watch the movie with them.
You quickly look up at her face and then you look at Santana, who has her mouth agape and you gulp audibly while Olivia encourages you with her lopsided smile. "Come on, it'll be fun! Right, San?" She turns around to her cousin who has just unlocked her door and Santana forces a tight lipped smile before answering with a "sure".
Olivia doesn't let you answer, she only takes your hand and before she leads you away, you snatch your keys out from the lock in your door.
Olivia places a hand on your lower back and you can feel the warmth through your button up shirt. When Santana holds up the door for you, she looks down to where Olivia's hand is resting and she scrunches her face up. Olivia is very oblivious to her look, or she just doesn't care, because she just keeps pushing you forward until you're in Santana's kitchen. She tells you to sit down on one of the bar stools and to make yourself at home, and you hazily wonder if that isn't something Santana should say and not her, because she doesn't even live here.
But you sit down and you don't miss the scowl on Santana's face when Olivia sits down right next to you.
"We were going watch this movie, because Santana has never seen it-," Olivia starts to explain right by your ear. Though she's not whispering, you guess she wants Santana to hear your conversation as well. Because Olivia gives Santana a playful scowl. "-which is so totally crazy, cuz this movie is awesome!"
You watch as Santana places a paper bag on her counter and you notice how quiet she's being. She was laughing with Olivia when they got out of the elevator but now she's being all stiff and you don't really know if it is because you're here. Maybe she doesn't want you here, maybe she just wanted to watch this movie alone with her cousin and you're totally crushing their party.
But Olivia doesn't seem bothered, especially not when she places a hand on your knee and she leans even closer to your face.
"The movie is called 'The Notebook', have you seen it?" she asks and you snort because duh, everyone has seen The Notebook.
But then you remember how Olivia just told you that Santana hasn't seen this movie and you suddenly gasp.
"Santana!" you say and she turns around to look at you curiously. "You've never seen The Notebook?" you ask, like it's the worst thing that she hasn't done.
Santana's lips quirk upwards and she shoots you a playful smile and an eye roll. "No," she says and you shake your head, while smiling.
But then her smile quickly fades and the look of playfulness in her eyes is replaced by a look of… disappointment?
Then you follow the line of her sight and you see that Olivia's hand is still resting on your knee.
And you suddenly realize that maybe Santana wants you here with them. She just doesn't want Olivia to be so close to you. Maybe Santana would want her hand on your knee instead.
Well, you know that Santana wants her hand on your knee, among other places on your body. She's informed you many times before.
And you lift your eyebrows at her but she doesn't respond to your gaze. Instead she turns around to the counter again and she places six bottles of beer beside her.
"You can go into the living room while I get the snacks ready," Santana mumbles and something in her voice seems off.
You don't get to think about it because Olivia is pulling your hand towards Santana's living room and then you suddenly realize that you've never been here before. You've seen her hallway, and maybe a little bit of her kitchen. But you've never been in Santana's apartment. You kind of want to go inside her bedroom and see what it looks like, but you resist the urge.
Olivia urges you to sit down in the corner of the couch and when you do, she sits herself down right next to you.
"You like beer right?" she says and you bob your head while pulling your lips into a smile.
She smiles back and she stares at your lips until Santana enters the living room with three bottles of beer and a bowl of sweets.
Santana doesn't look at the two of you; she just puts what she has in her hands on the table and then walks directly to the TV to put the movie in. You feel Olivia's eyes on the side of your face while you watch the way Santana's shirt rides up when she reaches her hands up to turn the TV on, revealing soft caramel skin.
And then suddenly your breath hitches, because her shirt rides up further, and reveals two back dimples.
And you tuck your lips into your mouth and you forget how to breathe, because back dimples are your weakness, along with Spanish.
Then Olivia is talking to you and you reluctantly shift your face towards her. You missed what she said so you ask her to repeat.
She smiles at you and then she says: "I said; do you like sweets?"
And you sigh and you bob your head up and down while she's offering you the sweets that Santana put on the table.
"Thanks," you say and then you see Santana standing up and walking towards the couch.
Santana comes closer to you and you see in the corner of your eye how she comes to stand right in front of Olivia.
You look up at her face and her jaw is clenching. Santana moves her hand up in the air and she waves it in front of Olivia's face before nudging her foot to Olivia's leg.
"Move," Santana says. Olivia only gives her a confused look and you bite your lip while watching Santana's stern face. "I said shoo, this is my couch and I want to sit here," Santana points to the space that Olivia's now occupying.
"What?" Olivia snorts and she looks up at her cousin with disbelief written across her entire face. "Can't you sit over there?" she asks then and points to the other side of the couch.
You tuck your lips into your mouth again and you just watch the scene that is taking place in front of you.
"No, just fucking move," Santana says, this time a little harsher. Olivia visibly jerks back but after a few seconds of intense staring, Olivia moves to the other side of the three-seated couch and Santana sits down gruffly in the middle.
You keep your lips tucked into your mouth not to let your amusement show. But you look at the side of her face and Santana still looks really pissed.
When she turns her head and meets your gaze, Santana's frown softens slowly and she bites her lip, as if she has a hard time concealing her smile too. Her cheeks start getting red and she ducks her head down while picking up the remote to start playing the movie.
"Shut up," she breathes out still clutching the remote with both her hands and looking down into her lap.
You snort and you let your lips form a huge grin. "Didn't even say anything," you answer back in a whisper and you watch Santana's cheeks grow even redder.
XxXx
Santana leaves in the middle of the movie, mumbling something about a 'bathroom'. She hasn't put her hand on your thigh yet, like she did last time you watched a movie together. But it's okay, because she was still super hot being mad at Olivia for being so close to you.
Olivia decides to break the silence between you too, even though the movie's still playing on the TV.
"You want another one?" she asks as she points to the empty beer bottle in front of you on the coffee table. You shake your head quickly; you definitely don't need another one. You already feel light headed, even though you've only had one.
"So, you're new in the building?" she asks instead and you smile at her while bobbing your head up and down.
"Yep, just moved in a couple of weeks ago," you say and she smiles at you.
Olivia then places her hand on the space between your bodies and you suddenly feel like she's gonna come closer to you. Somehow, the way her eyes are locking at your lips and the way the corner of her mouth is slightly tilted upwards make you think she wants to kiss you.
And when her body shuffles closer to you on the couch, you're pretty sure your suspicions are right. Your palms are starting to sweat and you look in to her eyes while she still has her gaze locked on your lips.
When she's so close to you that you can smell her perfume and see her eyelashes flutter, she whispers solemnly into your ear.
"You're single, right?" she says and you can only nod at her question, not able to trust your voice. Even though you'd rather have another Latina this close to you, Olivia is still really pretty. Your eyes are wide open and you feel your mouth go dry. Is she really going to kiss you?
Are you going to let her?
Then she lets her fingertips slide down your jaw line and you swallow the lump in your throat.
"You know…" Olivia lifts her gaze and now she's looking right into your eyes. "When Santana talked about her hot neighbor, I didn't realize you would be this hot…"
And your chest suddenly tightens and your palms get sweatier and your heart starts beating the shit out of your chest.
She talked about you?
You wonder what else Santana said. She said you were hot. Maybe she said more things. You wonder if she talks about all her neighbors with her cousin. Maybe she just said it in passing, like 'oh hey, I have a new neighbor and she's kinda hot'. Or maybe she said more stuff about you to Olivia. Maybe she talks about you with her friends. Like, Puck said that she had talked about you, but you thought that he was only joking. Maybe she talks about you?
Your heart flutters again and you feel your lips curve upwards, and Olivia must have taken it as a thanks to her compliment because she's leaning forward and you only notice that's she's coming closer when her nose brushes your cheek and her hand moves to the back of your neck.
Something is off, somewhere. You don't know if it's in your head, or if it is Olivia, but you're not feeling anything. You're not feeling her. You're numb to her touch and when her lips brushes the side of your mouth, you're just about to pull your face away, but then you hear something colliding with the floor a couple of meters away.
You quickly turn your head towards the source of the sound and Santana is standing on the threshold between the living room and the kitchen. Her mouth is opening and closing slowly and she looks from you to Olivia and something in her eyes is making you gulp like you just did something that you should feel guilty about, like you just did something that would make Santana feel sad.
Suddenly you look to the floor and you see a chocolate bar laying there. Then you see Santana bending down towards it and she picks it up before tentatively taking a couple of steps towards the couch.
This time Olivia doesn't complain and just shuffles to the other side of the couch, away from you.
Reluctantly, Santana sits down beside you, but this time she leaves some space between your bodies and you're not sitting as close as you did before.
You look at her face and you want her to meet your gaze but she doesn't even slightly turn her head towards you.
Instead she looks straight ahead at the TV, but it's more like she's looking through the screen, rather than at it.
You sigh but don't try to get her to look at you any longer. You're totally getting the silent treatment for something you haven't even done. She has no right to be angry with you right now, and still, she's clenching her jaw like she's really mad.
XxXx
The movie is playing the last song and the credits are rolling. Olivia breaks the slightly weird tension by telling you that she should probably head home, it's starting to get late. You look at the clock on Santana's wall and it's 11.30 p.m.
Olivia stands up and you give her a small smile when she looks at you. She returns it and Santana is still sitting next to you with her arms crossed, not even bothering saying something to Olivia.
You watch as Olivia gathers her purse and her jacket and then she walks towards you and you stand up to shake her hand or whatever. You guess you should say goodbye to her, somehow.
Instead, Olivia stops in front of you and leans forward until she whispering in your ear.
"Can I talk to you outside?" she asks and you widen your eyes, realizing that maybe it's not a good idea to be alone with her. But you say 'yes' and you follow her out the door.
You walk with her and you don't turn around to see the look on Santana's face. Olivia closes the door behind you when you're both out in the hallway.
She comes to stand in front of you and she gives you a timid smile. You return it and then you gaze into her brown eyes. They're not the same brown, but they're still brown.
They look a lot similar. Well, they are cousins after all.
"I just wanted to ask you," Olivia whispers and you duck your head to look at her through your eyelashes. She smiles before she continues. "Would you like to-" she stops and then she shakes her head and you quirk your eyebrow as if to tell her to continue. "Would you go on a date with me?"
And your mouth drops open and you close your eyes for two seconds before you open them again. But Olivia is still standing there, a girl you only met like three hours ago, asking you out on a date.
And you look into her brown eyes and oh, how you wish they were that other shade of brown. And how you wish her eyelashes were longer and thicker, and that her smile would drive you crazy in the best of ways. And how her dimples could make your stomach flutter with butterflies. And you wish that the touch of her skin on your skin would make your whole body tingle.
And shit, how you wish it was Santana's lips that just formed those words.
You would do anything to hear those words being uttered from Santana's mouth. Anything.
But it's not Santana. Santana would never say something like that. She doesn't date people. At least not anymore.
No, this is Olivia. Her cousin. Santana's freaking cousin is asking you out and the only thing you can do is make a weird sound from your throat and slowly bob your head up and down, because fuck it.
If Santana doesn't want to date you, you might as well go on a date with her cousin. That is the closest you'll ever get to dating Santana.
And Olivia is grinning from ear to ear and she asks you "really?" and you say "yes, really" and then she hugs you and places a tiny kiss to your left cheek.
"Give me your number, I'll text you a time and a place," she says and her grin is only growing when you pull your phone out of your pocket.
When she's done she gives you one more kiss to the cheek and you wish she'd stop doing that because that's kind of Santana's thing.
"See you then," Olivia says before she's disappearing inside the elevator, and the doors close between you.
You take three steady breathes before you walk back into Santana's apartment.
She's in the kitchen and you sit down on one of the bar stools while she makes herself a sandwich.
She hasn't looked at you yet but you weren't expecting her to so you're not even disappointed. She's putting pieces of cucumber on her sandwich and when one falls to the ground, you're quickly on your feet to pick it up for her.
You're holding it in front of her face and she has no other choice than to look into your eyes when she takes the cucumber from your fingers.
"Your cousin sort of asked me out," you blurt when her fingers slightly brushes against yours.
Her eyes take a double take at your face before she tosses the cucumber into the sink. She slowly shifts her gaze all over your face and you feel yourself grow hot under her stare.
"What do you mean 'sort of'?" she snaps and your eyes widen slightly, because she's being really snappy today. "What did you say? Did you say yes?" She looks at you with wide eyes and she's piercing her gaze through your face and she's looking at you like she can't believe what's going on right now.
You look into her eyes and she's searching your face frantically, like she really wants to know what you said but at the same time dreading the answer.
"You're not going out with her, are you?" she snorts like that idea is the craziest thing she's ever heard. Santana scoffs and crosses her arms.
You kind of slowly nod and her jaw drops.
You're standing really close to her and you're both resting a hip against the counter, facing each other.
"What?" Santana breathes, not even pronouncing the word firmly.
You dip your head and you shrug and then you poke her toe with your own toe.
"Are you jealous?" you ask slowly while looking at her wild stare.
Santana scoffs again and tightens her arms across her chest.
"No, why would I be jealous?" she says and her voice shakes in the middle of the sentence and you watch her face while she's staring right back at you. Then she shrugs and she looks away. "I just don't understand what's so fucking great about her… She's not even that hot." Santana raises her arms over her head and pulls an infuriate face.
"Santana," you laugh. You poke her toe again and she looks at you questioningly. "Your cousin is hot," you say and her face only gets bitterer and she crosses her arms again. "Maybe not as hot as you, but still very much hot."
There's a tiny smile playing at her lips for a couple of seconds but then her face turns sour again.
You suddenly feel the need to clarify something. So you meet her gaze again and you poke her toe, (for the third time).
"If you had asked me out on a date, I would have said yes too." And Santana shuts her mouth quickly. "But you don't date people, so…"
Her jaw unclenches and it looks like she wants to say something but then she bites her upper lip and she swallows. Something flashes behind her eyes and then she gives you a tight-lipped smile.
"Yeah, you're right."
You sigh because something in your heart was hoping she would have said something like: 'no, Britts, I want to date you. Let's go on a date right now. And then we can come back here and we can make love to each other the entire night and then we can wake up together the next day and cuddle the whole day. And then I can speak Spanish for you and we can have hot steamy sex in the shower and we'll moan each other's names until be both fall asleep in the bath tub and then we can build a fort in my living room and live there and then we can get married and have three kids and one dog and we'll buy a house and-'
You shake your head, because no.
This is Santana, and Santana doesn't date. Let alone build forts or get married.
So you bob your head up and down and you poke her toe, (for the fourth time).
"Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't want you to be my girlfriend or whatever…" she says suddenly and she meets your gaze with a newfound intensity. You widen your eyes a bit and you suck in a deep breath at the word 'girlfriend' and more disappointedly at the word 'not'. That was the complete opposite of what you wanted to hear. But you give her a strained smile and you bob your head a few times, again. "I'm just not that kind of girl. And since you don't want to just sleep with me, I guess it's better if we just try to stay friends." Santana flicks her eyes to the floor before swallowing thickly and then looks at you again. "Like, no more kisses on the cheeks. No more almost kissing on the floor by your couch..." It feels like something is stabbing you in the chest but you hold yourself up and you keep bobbing your head and blink your eyes to keep salty teardrops from escaping down your cheeks. You wouldn't want to cry, you don't even have a good reason to cry.
You're still standing close to each other and her brown eyes are boring into you but you keep holding her gaze and you poke her toe (for the sixth time).
You tuck your lips into your mouth and you dry your hands on your jeans. For some reason you feel really nervous, or anxious, and you think that if you open your mouth, you'll say something stupid.
"And now, you're going on a date with my cousin, so… I guess it's for the best."
You feel your chest tighten and you open your mouth to say something back to her but you don't even know what to say.
But then you straighten your back and you intensify your eye contact.
"Yeah," you start and your voice sounds a bit hoarse so you clear your throat before continuing. "We want different things with each other, and that's okay. We'll just have to stay just friends," you say and Santana's gaze doesn't waver.
However, she tucks her lips into her mouth and she shuffles her feet on the floor.
"Yeah," she says and then she pokes your toe with hers.
XxXx
How long do you think they'll be able to stay 'just friends'? And what do you think about Cousin Olivia?