I woke up in the middle of the night. It felt like I heard something from outside. I got up and looked out but found nothing but parked cars, an empty way and the wind swaying, making the leaves dance. I felt a bit scared, like someone was watching me. I picked up my phone and it was nothing, it wasn't the phone that made a noise. I left it and convinced myself that I was imagining things. I walked over to the kitchen and poured me a glass of water. I drank the whole glass without any hesitation and walked back to my room. I lied on the bed and immediately fell asleep.

The next morning was rushed and I was ready for school in less than 15 minutes. My mother drove me there and I walked out of the car, waved at her and headed to P.E, where Tina agreed to meet me. Finally, I talked her into always coming to P.E. I didn't really like being there alone. When I reached the locker room and got ready to change my clothes, no one was there. Only then did I realize that Tina decided not to show up anyway. I changed into the clothes I was going to wear and put my bag in the locker and locked it. Two minutes after I was done, the door opened and I hoped it would be Tina but I was wrong. It wasn't her. It was the last person I wanted to see right now, the person who actually made me very uncomfortable at this moment. Brittany. I quickly picked my bottle of water and went to the sink to fill it up. I could hear Brittany moving, unlocking the locker, taking her clothes of and letting out small exhales. It annoyed me so much that she didn't even mention it, she acted like she never actually confessed that she had feelings for me through text last night. I jumped to that conclusion, it had to be her. When the water bottle was filled, I took it and walked towards the door.

"Hey"

I turned around to face the person who placed her hand on my shoulder with a raged face.

"What?" I asked.

"Didn't you forget something?" she asked with a smile on her face that was hard to ignore.

"I didn't" I said, turned around and pushed the doorknob down.

"Why are you so stressed?" Brittany said and pulled me back.

"Can you stop touching me?"

"Sorry for trying to bring these back to you," she said and opened the door. She walked out and held the door open for me with my keys pendent on her index finger "catch" she threw the keys my way. "You need to pay more attention to your stuff, don't you?" she smiled as I failed to catch them.

I didn't respond, I nodded shyly out of embarrassment because she was one of around 4 people who watched me make a fool out of myself and drop the keys on the floor like that. However, she walked over to her friends. Quinn and some other girls. They were all staring at me but the only one I noticed was Quinn. The anger inside her showed clearly on her face when she spotted Brittany speaking to me, without being a total bitch. I ignored her hateful look and my eyes wandered around the room. In the left corner of the gym, I found Tina standing pressed into the wall all by herself.

"Tina?" I called as I walked over to her.

"Santana! Why would you do that to me?"

"Do what?" I asked.

"I thought you weren't going to come. I waited for you and you didn't show up. Thank God you're here" she said and hugged me out of nowhere.

I couldn't help but laughing at her hysterical behaviour right now. I had never seen anyone so happy about me showing up to P.E. Her smile was spread across her face and she tied her hair up in a ponytail, looking ready to actually be active this lesson.

"I asked you to show up, didn't I?," I asked her and did the same thing with my hair "that means I'll show up" I smiled and playfully put my arm around her neck, briefly, and we walked to the core of the room.

I was honestly beyond happy that Tina did show up, like she promised. By the looks Quinn threw my way, I could feel she would be a pain in the ass during this lesson. Now that I was with Tina, it would be easier to avoid her somehow.

I walked up to Rachel and Mercedes after biology class to rant about Quinn. I told them about how she refused to work with me on the next lab. The teacher had asked us to pair up with the same person we experimented with last time. And I was supposed to work with Quinn again. I didn't say anything even though I really didn't want that but she, she started a big argument with the teacher and kept it going until she had it her way. At last, the teacher told her she could work with the ginger guy Brittany works with, and I could work with Brittany. That didn't really satisfy her either but she went with it anyway. I can't say I wasn't happy she did that, I'd rather work with Brittany, she's nicer. Yet, although I was happy, it was unnecessary to cause a scene like that. When I was done telling them about it they just looked like nothing happened. I was surprised they didn't react differently, maybe agreeing with me when I said Quinn was acting like a child.

"I don't understand why she's still on your back, but don't expect her to stop. She didn't stop pushing my buttons until I made sure she was suspended for three days" Mercedes proudly smiled.

"How did you do that?" I asked.

"She didn't leave me alone for like three weeks straight, seriously not even once, so I told the principal"

"I don't want to do that" I admitted.

"Why not? She deserves it, doesn't she?," Rachel said "I mean, if someone was on my back like that all the time, I wouldn't take it"

"Yeah right..." Mercedes taunted. "You're the last person to speak, Rachel. We've been going to this school for two years now and Quinn still scares you"

"Look, guys," I said, knowing that Rachel gets really awkward when people mention her situation with Quinn "can we just forget it? I told you because I needed to rant or else I'd go mad"

"Fine," Mercedes sighed "I'd just go to the principals office if I was you, but whatever" she continued and shrugged.

I looked at Rachel who was looking down at the floor beneath her feet, looking like she felt awfully sorry for herself. I didn't say anything yet but I really didn't like seeing her like that. Even though I would never admit it to her, literally, but I was starting to like her. She was a thoughtful friend. We stood up and decided we were going to wait for Tina outside her meeting with the drama club instead. We stood there and nobody spoke for a long time. Everyone was either tired or too annoyed to speak. And I would guess it was the second option. People passed us, boys, girls, teachers.. Basically the normal high school hallway. There were so many couples at this school and all the ones I saw were either kissing in some corner or playfully and very much obvious flirting beside some lockers. Some of them were cute, but the majority of them all just annoyed me. I looked beside me and Rachel was standing with her back leaned to the wall, her face was stared down on the notebook in her hands. It looked like some kind of journal, I didn't bother asking.

"Shouldn't Tina be done by now?" Mercedes asked and finally broke the silence between us.

"I don't know," I peeked into the room and they looked like they were in the middle of a conversation "they look busy"

"The meeting was over ten minutes ago, I think she forgot us" Rachel laughed.

"Obviously" I whined

I looked in once again to find Tina still in that awfully long discussion.

"Can we just go? She'll find us later" I asked them.

"I'm in" Mercedes agreed "Rachel?"

"Yeah, me too"

I was happy they both agreed to go have lunch now, Tina wouldn't have trouble with finding us later anyway. After the short walk to the lunch room, we sat down and began to eat. I on the other hand, wasn't really in the mood for food right now. I couldn't stop thinking about what Brittany sent me last night and how much it affected my view on her. I couldn't be one hundred percent sure that it was her at first, but the moment I saw her in the locker room and noticed the way she was acting, it made it very clear that it was her who sent it.

"Santana..," Rachel smiled and waved her hand in front of my eyes "you're not eating, is something wrong?" she asked and scooched her chair some inches closer to mine.

"I'm fine, I'm just not concentrated on eating anything"

"What's up?" Mercedes asked.

"It's just..," I was unsure, I didn't know if I wanted to tell them about it or not "I got these texts last night"

"And?" Rachel said with her eyes curiously narrowing.

"Forget it, it's nothing"

Both Rachel and Mercedes puffed and leaned their backs on the chairs again, removing their elbows from the table. They shared looks with each other and turned their faces back at mine.

"Santana, we know something is up. You've been acting weird all day," Mercedes said "you can tell us if something is wrong. You can trust us, really"

I couldn't keep it inside me anymore, first because Mercedes was really convincing but then also because it was eating me up alive, from the inside and out. I needed to speak about it, they had to know. I didn't have trust issues when it came to them, not any longer.

"Fine, I'll tell you" I took my phone out from my jacket and pressed on the second message Brittany had sent me. "Read this"

Their eyes were intensely scanning the text until I finally got some reactions. Mercedes put her hand on her mouth and Rachel's eyes widened, they looked like they were in a serious shock.

"Who the hell is B?" Mercedes asked, almost whispering.

"I'm pretty sure that it's Brittany" I said and put the phone back into my jacket.

"Are you sure? Why would she send that?" Rachel questioned.

"I have no idea.."

It was quiet for a while and Rachel picked her notebook out, like she did very often, she started writing stuff in the middle of everything as if nothing else mattered but her stupid notes. She quickly looked up at both me and Mercedes and then wrote again. Mercedes looked her with furrowed eyebrows before rolling her eyes and turning her head back at me.

"What are you writing, Rachel?," I sassed "seriously, I just told you I have a problem and you can't even pretend you care?"

Rachel looked up and closed the notebook and placed it on the table. She looked at Mercedes with hope that she would support her selfish move.

"She's actually right, Rach" Mercedes agreed with me.

"Fine. I'm sorry, Santana" Rachel said and forced out a smile.

"No problem.." I mumbled.

"So, back to the topic," Mercedes reminded "did you answer the text?"

"I didn't"

"You should try calling it" Mercedes pointed out.

"You think? What if she picks up, what would I even say?"

"Confront her, tell her to stop messing with you"

"Really, Mercedes?," Rachel argued "do you really think that's a good idea? To call her? And not enough, even confront her?"

"Why not? She's been a bitch to Santana along with that other little devil for months now" Mercedes answered.

Rachel looked really annoyed, she sat with her arms crossed and looked at her left side. She was beginning to ignore our conversion, she just spaced out and pretended we weren't even there.

"What if she really likes me?" I asked before making my decision.

"Yeah, right" Mercedes laughed.

"No seriously, what if?" I said. This time it caught Rachel's attention. "What do I do then?"

"Nothing, I mean.. What could you even do?" she said now with a serious tone.

"You're right, nothing would ever happen between me and Brittany after all that happened" I said, hoping they would understand what I was saying. By the looks on their faces, I was sure they did get it.

"Yeah.. Um," Mercedes awkwardly smiled "do you.. You know, like girls that way?"

I swallowed a big lump in my throat. I was really nervous. I didn't want them to start avoiding me and everything after I tell them about my sexuality. I collected every piece of strength in my body and a light, almost mute laugh came out.

"Yeah, I do" I finally confessed.

"Okay, I mean, I'm shocked but I'm totally cool with the whole gay thing" Mercedes smiled.

"Me too," Rachel said and her eyes were glued on me. I couldn't tell if she was happy or just very surprised "I have two dads so, I am more than just okay with it" she smiled and patted my shoulder.

"But hey, are we calling the number or what?" Mercedes said.

"Sure, I have nothing to lose, right?"

"Not a single thing" she responded.

I picked my phone up again and pressed on the text so I could press on the number that sent it, Brittany's number.

"Are you really going to do that?" Rachel said before I pressed the OK button to call the number.

"Yes"

"I'll be right back"

"Rachel hold up, are you going to miss this?" Mercedes said as Rachel quickly stood up.

"I need to go"

"Where?" I asked.

"Um - I -," she stuttered "I need to go to the bathroom. It's an emergency" she said and rushed out of the lunch room.

"That girl is so complicated sometimes," Mercedes joked "she even forgot her damn notebook" she laughed. "Okay, call it"

I pressed the OK button so the number would be dialed. I pressed the phone on my ear and patiently waited for someone to pick up. After two beeps, the person on the other line picked up.

"Hello?"

Nobody answered, I could hear that someone was there. Still, they didn't say a word. Nothing.

"I can hear you breathing" I tried again.

After that, she hung up.

"They didn't speak?" Mercedes said.

"Not even a word left her mouth" I said.

"Are you really sure that it's Brittany?"

"Of course I am, who else would B be? Honestly.. I can't think of anyone else that would want to mess with me like that"

Mercedes sighed and looked at her watch. We had 10 minutes left to spend until our next lesson started, that meant we had been sitting here for nearly 45 minutes without even eating. Nevertheless, we stood up and picked up our stuff, I took Rachel's notebook with me. She would probably not come back to the lunch room and I'm not even sure she knows she left it.

We didn't see Rachel anywhere for the rest of the day, she didn't pick the phone up when we called her either. I have no idea what her problem was to be honest but she was acting beyond weird, she was being really secretive and suspicious. It felt like she was scared of something but I couldn't figure out what.

After dinner and the 15 minute talk I had with my parents about school and how their plus my day was, I walked over to my room and sat down on the bed. I turned the radio on and pressed play so my own CD with my personal favorites would be shuffled and played, without any commercials. I picked my bag up from the floor, it was thrown against the leg of my bed so it was easy to grab it. I decided to read some pages of the book our English teacher wants us to finish by the end of next week. When I picked it up, I noticed Rachel's notebook was still in my bag. I hadn't seen her, so I didn't have the chance to return it. I considered the thought of reading what she's writing in it all the time, I wanted to see what was more important than a friends problem. I was still insecure though, it could be really personal stuff and I would cross all limits and invade her privacy if I did it. After a minute or maybe two, I decided to read only a little bit of what's in it. I couldn't help myself, it was to easy. I opened it up and sat with crossed legs and leaned the notebook on my thighs. I skipped to the last page and started reading it.

"She doesn't know."

I didn't understand that part, I didn't want to understand that part. I felt my eyebrows crease in the middle as I turned some pages back in the notebook. I saw what was written and I got flabbergasted by it. I felt disgusted. She had written "be safe" in around 10 different fonts. After I had stared at the paper in front of me, I noticed that the edge of it was ripped off. I walked up and opened the second drawer of my nightstand and held the note I thought was from Quinn in my hands. I tried to match it to the edge like a missing puzzle piece and it matched. It was the same paper, from her notebook.