Chapter 6- Hiding Out

Santana P.O.V.

I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna text her. It's been 2 days since I last saw Brittany, and I'm pretty nervous about texting her. I know it's kinda ridiculous to be nervous to text Brittany, but I can't help it. I get the butterflies and the sweaty palms every time I see her. I've been waiting for her to at least text me first, but I got nodda. Nothing. If I really like her then I would want nothing more than getting to know her, but that will lead into feelings then dating. As much as I want to date her, I can't date now. Especially since I'm in town for 10 more days. The thing is I've been thinking of how I could convince Holly to let us live in Lima. I just want Holly to let us stay if Brittany and I make any progress. Enough of this ' not being able to be with Brittany if I don't stay in Lima' business. I should focus on the time I have now with her.

I reach over and grasp my phone off the nightstand and unlock it. Okay now that I've done that I go to contacts to scroll down to the person I've been wanting to talk to for days. I have this fear in the back of my mind that she might reject me. She might say something like she's busy or just might use that excuse as to why she doesn't want to hang out with me. Omg, what if she doesn't want to hang out at all? Wait, this is nonsense, of course she does. She's the one who decided to be friends and hang out. With all of this stuck in my head I raise one of my shaking hands and press Brittany's contact number leading me to a compose text message box.

There's another problem, I don't know how I would start the text message. Do I start with,'Hello Brittany this is Santana'? No I sound formal and I'm not formal at all. Unless I have date which never happens. What about,'Sup Britt. I'm chillin'. What about you?'? No I sound like I'm one of those hippy high people. I just shouldn't text her at all if I don't know how to start a freaking text.

Taking a deep, deep breathe I decide to just get it over with. Taping on my screen I now have a finished, completed, analyzed text saying,'Hey Brittany, btw its Santana just in case you didn't save my number, I just wanted to know if you wanna do something today with me? Text me back and let me know! :)'. I realize that it kinda sounded a little forward, but I don't care at this moment. I hit the send button before I change the message. I just have to wait and see what happ-

My phone goes off noting me that I have a text. Please let it be Brittany, please let it be Brittany, please let it be Brittany! Scrambling to unlock my phone and go to text messages I find it to say,'Make sure you make your bed up please! -Holly'. What the actual fuck? No that's the wrong blond. I'm furious with myself knowing I shouldn't have had my hopes up that high. What was I thinking? Don't answer that question. I knew she wasn't gonna text me back. All that matters now is me going to take a potty to the nearest bathroom, I do my business. When walking out after washing my hands I check my phone to see what time it is. 12 pm and there's nothing for me to do. I look to see if I had any further texts and it turns out I do. It's probably Holly anyways. I go to the text and see it's from Brittany.

Brittany! I'm going crazy over something as simple as a text. But anyways she texted me back! Brittany texted me back! After getting my cool back, I open the text and it reads,' Hey San! I can call you San right? Anyways I would love to go do something today. Just text me details and I'm in! See ya later :) -Britt'. I am close to fainting. This is not happening.

Replying back with a,' Great! Just text me your address and we'll go on from there. See ya :) P.S. yes you can call me San', I hit send. I really can not wait. Now all I have to is plan.

Teeth clean? Check. Junk not visible? Check. Hair not sticking up in crazy places? Check. Smells awesome? Check. Shirt ironed? Check. Shoes clean? Check. Bread in bag/ Check. Car needs gas? Not checked.

I'm furiously thinking of things that I need before I leave to pick Brittany up. Ever since Brittany texted me back I started to think of things we could do. Going fishing didn't sound like a good time to be a bonding moment in. Going out for dinner sounded like we're going on a date and this not a date. Which totally sucks because I was gonna bring her flowers. So a walk in the park sounded nice. Never done that, so I'm in.

I get into my car and turn on the GPS. "Directions to Brittany's house please." See I'm so prepared. Well not exactly I put her address in as soon as she gave in to me so I wouldn't forget to put it in later. The directions pull up and I'm off to Brittany's house.

This is crazy I've only known Brittany for 5 days and I'm crushing on her hard. I think it's kinda too soon to be having feelings, but I can't help it. She's all kinds of sweet, pretty, loveable, and cute all wrapped up in one. I wonder what she thinks of me."Turn left at the light." When turning a neighborhood comes into sight. "4662 on the right." I look out for the number and come to see the place I'm looking for. Pulling up I look at the time, 5 on the dot. Yes, made it on time.

Nice. The house looks pretty big. The lawn has a kinds of flowers planted. The house is surrounded by a white picket fence. This is like your typical family's house. After inspecting the the house I get out of the car and walk to the fence. I open the gate and close it after walking through. I walk up to the porch ringing the doorbell. I realize my hands are shaking. Of course they would be I'm nervous as hell. Thinking about meeting Brittany's family makes me shiver. We're not even dating and I'm meeting the parents. Thing about turning back the front door opens. I come face to face with an older looking Brittany. She has blond hair with streaks of gray and light blue eyes like Brittany's.

"Hi I'm Susan. What can I do for ya?"

"Umm I'm Santana. Santana Lopez and do you know if Brittany's here?"

"Yes in fact she said you would be coming and I know exactly who you are. Got a 13 year old," she laughs. I swear her laugh sounds just likes Brittany's.

"Yeah I met her before and she can be a…"

"Handful?"

"Handful," we say at the same time and laugh about it. I laugh until I realized I pretty much just insulted Mrs. Pierce's daughter. Definitely do not want to me on her bad side, if she has one. I'm serious this lady is sweet as sugar. "I'm sorry Mrs. Pierce for calling your daughter a handful. It was kind of out of line for me to do so," I apologize and give her the best charming smile I can muster.

"Oh sweetheart don't worry about it. It's fine. Let's just not tell my daughter we said those things about her," Mrs. Pierce winks.

"Your secret is safe with me."

She eyes me for awhile but then her eyes become even softer than before."I'm starting to like you." Score! Mrs. Pierce likes me already. Well she's starting to like me, but I don't care it's a start. "Why don't you come in," she opens the door wider for me to step in and I do so. This place is awesome. It's big but not like mansion big and it smells like vanilla. This place makes you feel all warm and cozy on the inside even though it's like a million degrees outside. With just being inside the house it makes you feel at home and safe.

"Brittany will be down soon, I think. Would you like anything? A snack, something to drink," she offers with a warm smile.

"No thank you."

"Okay well you can look around if you'd like. I'm sure…" she stops when we both hear screaming and I feel a body collide into mine.

"AHHH! No way Santana Lopez is inside my house right now. Am I dreaming? Somebody pinch me." It's Brianna. Yay.

"Brianna let the girl go," Mrs. Pierce stresses while rubbing her temples with two fingers.

"I can't she smells so good," Brianna sniffs me. And here we go again with this weird stuff.

"Brianna stop it," Mrs. Pierce say firmly.

"Okay, okay I'll stop," Brianna sniffs me one last time before letting me go.

"Hi Brianna."

"She remembers my name, again!" Brianna squeals.

"Yeah." How could I forget.

"You gotta come up to see my room."

"Umm thanks but…"
"Great! Lets go!" Brianna pulls me by the arm and drags me upstairs. When reaching halfway on the staircase we run into Brittany. And may I say she looks fine! Those shorts hugging her in just the right places and her long blond hair silking its way down. Those eyes too. God those eyes are like magic. She looks wow.

"Brittany, hi." I eventually get out.

"Hey San!" she smiles bashfully towards me. "Where are you going?" she asks curiously with curious eyes.

"Umm Brianna was gonna show me her room."

"Yeah Britt I was gonna show her my room," Brianna huffs out.

"Yeah was meaning not anymore little one," Brittany takes my wrist and pulls me down the stairs. I feel abused with how these Pierce women are treating me besides Mrs. Pierce. That lady can't even hurt a fly. "Mom I'm leaving," Brittany shouts.

"MOM BRITT TOOK SANTANA AWAY FROM ME!" Brianna comes running down the stairs shouting.

Mrs. Pierce enters the living room saying," Quit all the shouting please. Brittany have a nice time." She hugs Brittany. "Nice meeting you Santana."
"You too Mrs. Pierce." I put my hand out for her to shake but she hugs me instead.

"Okay you two leave dishes need to be clean," Mrs. Pierce playfully pushes us towards the front door.

"That's it mom. You're just gonna let Brittany spend time with Santana. I had her first." Brianna pouts.

"Put that pout away. It doesn't work on me anymore. Plus these dishes aren't gonna clean themselves," Mrs. Pierce says warningly. Brianna runs up the stairs and slams her door close. "Works every time."

"You Mrs. Pierce is one smooth criminal."

"I have my ways," she laughs and I join.

"Okay we're leaving. Good bye mother." Brittany pulls me out of the door.

"Bye Mrs. Pierce." I wave at her and walk to the driver's side and slide in seeing Brittany is already in. "Your mom is pretty kick ass." I say as I pull off.

"Yeah she is. So where are we going?" Brittany questions.

"That's for me to know and for you to find out."

"Can I guess?"

"Sure."

"Is it the zoo?" I shake my head no and Brittany pouts. "Are we gonna go skydiving?"

"It's close to skydiving." She immediately sit up straight waiting to learn more. "You want me to tell you?" She nods. "We're going to go rob a bank," I joke. Brittany's eyes widen.

"I…"

"I'm just joking. We're just going down the street."

"Where exactly down the street?"

"I don't know maybe here," I pull into a parking space in the park. I see Brittany's eyes light up in excitement. She jumps out of the car and run towards the pond with ducks. I follow with a bag of bread in hand. "I thought we could feed the ducks and talk a little to get to know each other." She turns around and hugs me. That's totally out of the blue but she smells like vanilla or maybe that's like a sweet cinnamon. Oh no I got it her hair smells like vanilla and she smells like cinnamon I guess. This is kinda weird just sniffing her. Snapping out of my daze I hug her back.

"How did you know I like feeding the ducks?" Brittany asks when she pulls back and looks into my eyes.

"I didn't. Just guess," I grin at her when she grins at me first.

"We can't feed them if we don't have any food."

"See that's where you're wrong Ms. Pierce." I pull the bag of bread from behind my back. "A piece for you and a piece for me." I hand her a slice of bread and she starts to tear pieces of bread to throw them into the pond where the ducks are. "So when was the first time you did this?"

"I was 6 and I never stopped ever since. It's been awhile since I've last done this. 3 maybe 4 years ago," she responds.

"Who took you on your first time?"

"My dad. I miss him. He's not dead or anything he's just on a business trip." she say with a small smile.

"Wish my dad was still around," I mumble.

"What happened to your dad?" Oh no the parent talk.

I don't like talking about my parents. My dad died in a car accident when I was 8. My mom well she was a complete embarrassment. She was never the same after my dad died. She would come home late drunk, sleep all the time, and quit her job. I had to survive without anyone supporting us. I was scared for my life and she seemed she didn't care much. She even came to one of my parent teacher conferences drunk. I was so embarrassed. After she got tired of drinking she turned to drugs and eventually overdosed. I was embarrassed for myself and my mom. I feel like I can ever call her a mother.

"He died when I was 8 in car accident. Ever since he died she went all crazy and overdosed."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Who have you been living with?"

"My manager Holly and guitarist Noah. Yeah we have a place in New York. It's pretty big for just the 3 of us," I chuckle remembering the size of the place. "Holly has taken Noah and I in like we're her own children. Puck's parents left him when he was 14. Oh Puck is Noah's nickname because he doesn't like being called Noah plus Puckerman is his last name." Brittany nods taking the information in. "We lost our parents, became BFFs and turned to music. Which got me a record deal and I turned into one of the most famous entertainers," I conclude. Brittany is one of the few I've ever told this story to. It feels good getting it all out.

"Wow," Brittany says amazed.

"Yeah I know. Okay we're done with this depressing talk."

"Agreed. So about your career do you have any songs that you've been working on?"

"Why does it feel like I'm in an interview?" I joke and Brittany's eyes widen.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfort…"

"Umm Brittany I was kidding," I cut her off before she starts apologizing for no reason. I see her relax and her ocean blues soften. "So about that song, yeah? I've been working on one."

"Oh can I hear it?" she wiggles her eyebrows and laughs so I join. When she laughs or smiles it makes me want to laugh or smile too.

"I don't know maybe you should wait until the album comes out."

"That's not fair!"

"How's it not fair?"

"I don't know it's just not." Brittany pouts. It's cute when she does that.

"I'll give you a preview. Lucky you I have my guitar in my trunk. Be right back," I walk to my car and pop the trunk getting my guitar out. I usually keep one in my trunk in case I'm out and decide to just play for people. Not everyone can afford concert tickets. Walking back to Brittany I suddenly feel nerves kick in. I once again do not know why I'm nervous I've sung in front of her before but not face to face. "Ready?"

"Ready." (we are all pretending she made this song for now)

We keep heading in the same direction.

You've become my own reflection.

Is that your soul that you're trying to protect?

I always hoped that we would intersect, yeah.

You need time to cope and time to heal,

Time to cry if it's what you feel.

Life can hurt when it gets too real.

I can hold you up when it's hard to deal.

I see that Brittany is enjoying the pre-show because she's swaying back and forth. Maybe this is not so bad. A small crowd starts to form so I sing with a little more confidence.

Alive, alive,

Alive is all I wanna feel.

Tonight, tonight

I need to be where you are,

I need to be where you are.

Hey you, look around!

Can you hear that noise? It's a rebel sound.

We got nowhere else to go.

And when the sun goes down, and we fill the streets,

You're gonna dance 'til the morning to the rebel's beat.

You can take everything from me

'Cause this is all I need

The crowd starts to clap when I finish and I grin at them but mostly toward Brittany. I walk to Brittany and sit next her on the grass.

"I liked it."

"Really?" I turn to face her.

"Yeah it was laid back and cool."

"You're not just saying that just to say it are you?"

"No," she giggles,"I'm not."

"Okay I'm gonna trust you on that one." She throws her head back laughing. She looks so beautiful doing that. It's just the simple think she did that makes me go nuts."What's your favorite color?"

"Blue. Possibly all colors. Yours?"

"I'm gonna go with red. Favorite sport?"

"Cheerleading. If you count that as sport." Brittany probably looks hot in a cheerleading uniform.

"I do. Do you cheerlead?" I ask.

"Yeah I do it for my school. It's fun I guess…" she trails off.

"...But?"

"I don't know. I like being fit and all but I can not stand Coach Sue's gross diet milkshakes she makes us drink." Brittany looks down and plays with grass. What kind of coach's name is Sue? She sounds like she's 70 years old anyways. I can tell Brittany is not too fond with coach.

"Maybe this Sue coach lady misses having a hot bod, so she makes you guys do these diets so she can just picture herself doing those moves," I joke.

Brittany playfully slaps my arm while laughing."San that's gross. She's like 70." I laugh, so I was right. We continue to ask each other random questions for awhile.

"I see a unicorn."

"No way that's a horse," I argue.

"Horses are boring. Unicorns are magical and they poop out candy."

"What's your favorite food?" I ask while putting my arms under my head to support it while laying down. When we were talking I guess we just layed down and looked up at the clouds.

"Ice cream for sure." Brittany responds while still looking up at the sky.

"Really?" She nods. "Because that's exactly where we are going to get now." She turns to me with wide eyes and jumps up. I follow."Race ya to the car." Brittany starts to run and I stay back just to look at her long legs run through the wind. I pick up my guitar and follow.

"I won! You lost," Brittany chants while doing a victory dance.

"That's only because you cheated."

"And how exactly did I cheat?" Brittany challenges.

"I didn't say go."

"Don't be a sore loser."

"Get in the car," I say playfully. She giggles and gets in while I put my guitar in the trunk. I get into the car. "Ice cream here we come!"

"Whooh!"

I drive off to the nearest ice cream shop. We arrive to our destination in about 3 minutes. We make our way to the doors and I open one of them for Brittany. "Brittanys first."

"Well thank you. I feel special my name is Brittany," she laughs as she walks through the door.

"Pick whatever you want I'm paying."

"You don't have to I have my money right here." Brittany pulls out her wallet. I quickly take it from her.

"What money?" I ask innocently.

"Okay give it back." She tries to reach for it, but I put it behind my back. She walks behind me, but I turn around so she can't get her wallet back.

"What can I get for ya?" The guy behind the counter thing asks.

"I'll have chocolate," I order as Brittany keeps struggling to get her wallet from behind me," She'll take that rainbow looking ice cream." Brittany suddenly stops.

"How did you know that's my favorite?" Brittany asks incredulously.

"Lucky guess." The guy rings us up and I pay. "Oh look at that I found your wallet." I raise Brittany's wallet up in the air.

"You realize I'm taller than you."

"Are you trying to call me short?" I challenge.

"Of course not. Your height just gives me an advantage." She reaches up and takes her wallet. I've never been insecure about my height, but I'm kinda hurting now. Brittany reaches for her ice cream and walks to an empty table. I follow after getting my own.

"Thanks for the ice cream even though I could've bought it myself."

"You didn't have your money remember?" I smirk. Brittany pokes her tongue out at me and takes a spoonfull of ice cream and sticks on my nose. God I didn't realize ice cream was that cold.

"Awww you look cute." Brittany smirks.

"I do don't I." I take a spoonful of ice cream and put it on her nose. She squeals. Guess she feels my pain now. "Awww you look really cute." Brittany pulls her chair next to mine and takes out her phone. She raises the phone and lays her head on my shoulder.

"Smile!" I look down and see Brittany smile. That smile makes me smile. She lifts her head off my shoulder and looks at the picture. "You didn't look at the screen." Brittany pouts.

"But I did smile." And she smiles at me so I return it. We talk about anything and everything.

"Let's play thumb war," Brittany says.

"You are on." I put my hand out and she takes it. Electric builds up my arm which gives a chill down my spine. Brittany starts counting off then we are in battle. I know that I'm not gonna win because her fingers are longer than mine so I push down on her thumb with my other hand.

"1, 2, 3! I won!"

"You cheated," Brittany says in disbelief.

"Don't be a sore loser," I mock.

"Very funny." We cleaned our trash up and head out.

"Guess I should take you home." She nods and we walk back to my car. On the way back to Brittany's house I see a water fountain. I pull over to it and get out.

"What are you doing? You're not out of gas are you?" Brittany panics.

"Get out for a minute." She hesitantly gets out and walks toward me. I start to walk to the fountain and she follows. I reach into my pocket and hand her quarter.

"What's this for?" Brittany questions eyeing the quarter.

"You make a wish and throw your change into the fountain. Your wish is suppose to come true. Like this." I quickly make my wish and throw the quarter into the water.

"What did you wish for?"

"If I tell you then my wish won't come true. Try it." Brittany closes her eyes and takes a deep breathe then throws the quarter into the water. She opens her eyes and smiles. I wonder what she wished for.

"What happen if you take change out?" Brittany dips her hand into the water.

"That person's wish doesn't come true."

"Oh well I should probably take my hand out." She pulls her hand out of the water and throws a handful of water at me.

"Britt!" I wipe my eyes and see that she's laughing. "That's funny huh?" She nods while laughing. I dip my hand in the water and throw a handful at her. She then stops laughing. "Not so funny anymore is is?" Soon we're throwing handfuls of water at each other. I run up behind her and wrap my arms around her waist and she stops laughing. "Beg for mercy," I whisper into her ear. She shakes her head no. "Fine then." I lift her up bridal style and carry her to the fountain.

"San no! No! Please don't do it!" Brittany wiggles in my arms.

"Too late." I drop her into the water. Not like we're at the pool because come on it's not that deep. She screams.

"SAN!" She stands up soaked and walks towards me. "I appreciate you doing this honestly. Now give me a hug." She keeps walking to me and I back away. She then runs to me and give me a hug. "Yeah embrace my awesomeness."

"Thanks Britt thanks a lot. Please get off me you're wet." I push her off gently.

"You started it," she says while clinging onto me.

"How did I start it?"

"You brought me here and you don't want to be around me when there's water."

I look down at myself when she let me go,"I'll keep that in mind."

"Okay okay. Can we go now? I would like to change if that's okay with you?" She chuckles.

"Of course. Lets go it's gonna get dark soon." We walk to the car and I see her stop before getting in.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't want to get your seats wet." I smile at her.

"It's okay. They'll dry eventually. Get in." She carefully gets in and we drive off to Brittany's place. We arrive around 8. I park in front of her house and we sit in silence. It's not awkward but it's comfortable silence. I'm kinda awkward though because I don't know what to do.

"I had fun today," Brittany breaks the silence.

"Yeah me too."

"We'll have to do this again soon."

"Yeah we do."

"Text me when you make it back to the bus."

"I will."

"Bye San."

"Bye Britt." She opens the door, but when she's about to get out she turns around and kisses my cheek.

"Bye," Brittany breathes out onto my cheek then she's gone into her house. Wow. I'm starting to think that my wish will maybe come true. I drive off with a huge grin.

Brittany's P.O.V.

"Brittany is that you?" my mom asks.

"Yeah it's me."

"Did you have fun?"

"So much," I say honestly with a grin. Today is probably one of the best days of my life. With Santana being around I feel all bubbly all over my body. JUst thinking about her makes me smile.

"Wanna tell me why you're all wet?" I looked down and blush slightly with a smile.

"We were at a water fountain making wishes."

"Uh huh go upstairs and change."

"Kay love you."

"Love you too sweetheart." I give my mom a hug and go walk to my room to change. After changing into my pj's I hop in bed and get comfortable. My phone goes off on my night stand. The text said," I had fun today. Let me know when we can do this again. Sweet dreams:) -San" I smile at the text and decide to text Santana in the morning. I realize that my wish will maybe come true.

I'm done! Godddd sorry it took me FOREVER please review thanks! :)