With you on my shoulder
By HeartofSummer
Genre: Brittany and Santana romance
Copyright: If I owned them, a lot of the shows awesome characters would be forgotten, since I'd only be writing about these two. So this is purely for entertainment purposes.

A/N: This weeks episode crushed my heart. I hope it gives me inspiration to write faster, but I can't give any promises! Anyway, third chapter, it's pretty short, but here we go!

Chapter 3: Tanning Privileges

(Santana)

Waking up in Puck's bed was so not my idea of the ideal morning.

As my eyes fought the darkness of the room, I soon realized that it was my cellphone that had woken me up. The screen was flashing in green and blue, telling me that I had 1 new message.

I reached out to pick it up and slid out from under the covers not to wake the giant, that was snoring and taking up the most part of the bed. His Mohawk looked all tussled and it was actually kind of cute. Somehow, even if the room was warm, I felt cold and alone.

Ignoring it, I opened my phone and saw that the message was from Quinn.

From: Q
To: Me

Come 2 my house.
We got business 2 discuss.

I rolled my eyes at her words, picking up my panties off the floor and thinking about Brittany. She'd gone home with Miles while I'd left with Puck the other night. I wondered how it'd gone. Since I'd been sleeping in my shirt and brah, I pulled on my skirt and picked up my shoes from under the ripped, dirty looking couch. A flashback from the night before entered my mind, and I tried to suffocate the thought of how many girls before me had straddled him in that thing. The stains made me sick, and I turned towards the window.

From: Me
To: Q

C U at 8

Then, before being able to stop myself, I quickly wrote another message.

From: Me
To: Brittany

How did it go?

I took one last look at Puck in his bed, sneaking out into the hall, wondering if anyone else had come home. The door that was, typically Lima, unlocked and started walking down the street to get to my house. No one would've missed me, and the clock was half past five, so no one would be awake to see me either. The gravel stung my bare feet, but it was a nice morning. I was swinging my shoes, listening to the loud singing of the birds. The sun was just starting to colour the sky orange on the horizon and even though it was so early, the air was already pretty warm.

I got an answer to my message just as I was outside my front door, noticing that my dad's car wasn't in the drive way, as per usual.

From: Brittany
To: Me

R U kidding me? It was gr8!
C U at practice

" ...- On Broadway!"

I remembered how easy it was sing songing that to Rachel. Both me and Quinn had agreed that it would be that exact line, in that exact tone, that would make her scuttle over to our side.
Sure. She was a backstabbing, self absorbed diva and I despised her guts, but we could make that work for us. So me and Quinn befriended her. Simply by mentioning the Beauty and the Beast musical, which is one of my guilty pleasures, she attacked Mr. Schuester as if he was trying to steal her spotlight.

Mercedes was easy too, to win over. I noticed her staring at Finn and Quinn the other day, looking all sad, and both me and Quinn agreed she was most likely not getting any. I wasn't surprised. Not that I had anything special against the girl, but she wasn't exactly on the small side. Most guys were jerks in this school. I know, I've screwed most of them, and the rest have tried to get me to. Cheerio skirts and bed room eyes was all a guy saw in a girl at McKinley High.

I instructed Puck to meet me in the corridor, and made sure to lure him right into my arms, right in front of her.

"Come here, sexy." I purred at him, catching him by the neck. Naturally, Puck grabbed my waist, and leaned in to kiss me. I made sure to kiss him just deep enough for Mercedes to catch. I watched the gay kid come up to her, catching Quinn's eye across the hall.

"Now get going, fresh meat," I said, giving him a peck on the lips, enjoying the way his eyes revealed just how turned on he was. I felt powerful, and watched him leave with a smirk on my lips as Quinn came up by my side, letting her arm link with mine. We shared a smile as they started moving, and we followed, stalking our pray. As soon as Kurt left, I used the same trick Quinn had used on me. Linked my arm with Mercedes' to make her feel like a part of something, a chain of friendship, and then I fluffed her curls, letting Quinn do the talking. It'd been so easy – killing two geeks with the same stone.

Making Brittany back up on our encouraging glances was nothing. She'd asked me about me and Quinn having our own meetings with Sue, and I'd told her Sue thought she needed to focus on the cheerios. The truth was that we were much meaner than Brittany, and had higher status, so she still had a long way to climb up the social pyramid, even though she was in a pretty good spot on the cheerio one.

But this, I was not expecting. For Sue to use us, just as Quinn used me and Brittany had been a given, but for her to punish us, that just scared the shit out of me.

"Ladies, I'm going to ask you to smell your armpits."

I threw one look at Quinn, and we both did what she told us to. I usually smelled like I'd been sleeping in apricots or something, but Sue had dragged us out at the end of cheerio practice, which meant I was pretty sweaty.

"That's the smell of failure. And it's stinking up my office." I felt a lump form in my throat. Sue Sylvester was a great coach. She was the one who made us winners, but she was not the kind of woman you wanted as a role model.
I was used to grown ups looking past me, and I was used to harassing anyone I wanted, but being picked on is really hard. I never showed off any of my flaws to other people, I made sure to keep my shell intact so that no one would be able to actually hurt me with comments. I made sure to attack quickly, so that they wouldn't get a chance to attack me. I was being a bitch not only because it came with being one of the top cheerios, but also because I needed to be. But Sue still knew my flaws, because being a top bitch on the school came with expectations. The ones that she could so easily tear down and enjoy every second of doing so. I knew how Sue Sylvester worked, and like I said. She scared the living shit out of me.

"I'm revoking your tanning privileges – for the rest of the season." I finally let the fright take over my body, and I sobbed loudly, having to get out of there. The air was way too thick.

"Oh no!" I stood up, crying over both loosing my perfect tan and for being so shallow, and stormed out of the office. "Noo!"

I hurried towards the locker rooms, trying to hide my sobs by walking fast and putting on an angry face, which fortunately I'm never far from. Finally, I busted through the door and found, luckily, peace and quiet. Everyone else had already gone home and I was guessing that Quinn would be in her huge bathtub already. Me on the other hand, would rather use these showers. A quiet school was better than a quiet home.

I dried my burning cheeks with the back of my hand and pulled off the top of my uniform, letting the sobs rock my chest and echo in the silent locker room.

"Santana...?" I cursed under my breathe, and turned around ready to pounce on the unlucky victim.

"Hey lesbo, are you spying on me-?" But the words caught in my throat as I noticed that it was Brittany.

"I'm not a lizard," she said with a straight face and took two uncertain steps towards me. She was coming from the fields, green on her knees and elbows, probably from falling. "Where does it hurt?" A sob escaped my lips and I threw the shirt in my locker, gritting my teeth to stop myself from crying.

"Look, it's nothing."

"It's not nothing," she said, somehow matter of factly. "You don't cry."

"Sure as hell don't!" I snapped at her.

"But you are now," she pointed out, speaking from close behind me.

"Oh, please. It's because I'm on the pill. I saw that wheelchair kid from glee club-"

"Artie."

"Whatever. I felt sorry for him, so I started crying. Happy?"

"Not especially. You're still sad." I couldn't believe it. Lying to Brittany was like throwing lies at a brick wall. They just came bouncing back to me. If this had been any other cheerleader, even Quinn, she would've just gotten fed up with me and left. But Brittany... she just refused to listen. Somehow, that made the lump in my throat even more painful.

"Sue cut my tanning privileges away for the rest of the season," I sighed with one more, lonely tear running down my cheek, hoping she would just laugh at me and go away already.

"Then we'll go to the local gym together," she said simply, even excitedly. I'd forgotten that Brittany wasn't one of the girls who got the chance to tan in school. Finally, that surprise turned me around and she looked at me with her deep blue eyes, worry in them. I had a hard time reading Brittany, but now it was so obvious. I looked to the side, blinking hard a few times to stop the tears and the confusion I felt.

"Santana?" she asked quietly.

"What?" I said, still masking my weakness with anger.

"Can I hug you?" I almost growled in frustration at her sweetness. How could she possibly know I wanted just that?

"No." But despite my answer, I pushed my forehead into her shoulder and she wrapped her long arms around me. It felt good. Almost too good, really.
I kept crying quietly for a while, but allowing myself to hug her back and smell her hair. Bubblegum and lotus flowers. She smelled like a summer evening filled with promises. I felt something I hadn't felt in a long time, starting to weigh down on my chest, but in a good way. I guess it was hope.

A/N: Please give me inspiration to keep writing by telling me what you think!
I'm always interested in suggestions and discussions so don't hesitate to tell me!