Chapter 26:
"Ok so, whatever Maribel says you'll listen, alright?" Brittany asked Alice, who was hoisted on her mother's hip. We came at my uncle's house to leave the kid with my mother for three days, until Monday.
"Abuela." Alice corrected while nodding, making my mother smile.
"Please call me if she throws a tantrum." Brittany told my mother. She seemed to be hesitant to leave the kid, that was the first time that they would spend two nights in a row apart. Maribel understood that because she opened her arms, gesturing for Brittany to give her her daughter.
"Don't worry, mija. I had a toddler too." Maribel said and I rolled my eyes. "Everything's gonna be fine. We're gonna learn how to make cinnamon cookies." My mother said, trying to make little Alice drop the pout that appeared on her face when her mother let her go. And she succeeded.
"Do you have any?" I asked and left the living room to go in the kitchen. Those were my favorite cookies but Maribel never let me eat when I was a kid.
"They're for the guests, Santanita!" Maribel shouted from the living room and I huffed while I started looking for them.
"Well, I don't live here so I'm a guest too." I answered. I could practically hear my mother rolling her eyes.
I opened another cabinet and found them just in time for little Alice to come in the kitchen to find me. I smiled and opened that old cookie jar that I remembered from Lima and gave one cookie to Alice. I put my finger in front of my lips, silently telling her to not tell anyone, making her giggle. Then I grabbed one for me before closing the jar and putting it back where I found it.
"Quickly!" I exclaimed whispering and we started eating. "You have to make lots of these cookies because they're my favorite." I told Alice with a full mouth and she giggled.
"They're my favorite too." She told me, making me smile and hold up my free hand. She high-fived me just in time for Maribel and Brittany to come in the kitchen as well. I quickly straightened up and put the rest of the cookie inside my mouth, reminding me of my teenage self. I looked next to me to see Alice mimicking what I did.
"We didn't eat cookies." She immediately said, her words muffled because of the cookie. I shut my eyes and sighed. I heard Maribel clicking her tongue and Brittany snorting a laugh. I opened my eyes to look at my girlfriend and I was glad that she didn't seem to be as nervous and hesitant as she was that morning about going back in Chicago. When we were about to book the tickets she almost changed her mind but thankfully I managed to convince her. I didn't want to pressure her too much though, that would cause more harm than good.
"You're not fifteen anymore, Santanita." Maribel scolded but I ignored her and went to stand next to Brittany. I slid my hand from her lower back on her hip and pulled her until she was leaning against me.
"You ok?" I whispered against her ear. She bit her pierced bottom lip, nodding at me slowly and so I kissed her jaw.
Just then Maribel appeared in front of us, holding the cookie jar and offering Brittany to take one. But my girlfriend shook her head 'no' so I quickly grabbed one before my mother could say or do anything and ate it. Maribel frowned disapprovingly at me and I shrugged just in time for my uncle to come in the kitchen.
"Are you ready? We're gonna be late." He said. Mario would take us to the airport.
"Yes." I said before Maribel could start scolding me. "Remember that blowing thing." I told my mother and she nodded. Brittany went and crouched in front of Alice.
"We'll be back before you know it, ok baby?" She asked and Alice nodded. She didn't seem to be very sad anymore, she was probably looking forward to making cookies with Maribel and learning Spanish with Mario. And that was good, Brittany didn't need to worry about her daughter too. She kissed her forehead and hugged her tightly before standing up.
"Brittany." Maribel called and my girlfriend turned to look at my mother. Maribel gestured for Brittany to go near her and Brittany did. I went to little Alice so they could talk. I was sure Maribel had something to say. She always did.
"Ali girl, whatever you want we'll just be a phone call away. Whenever you want you can call your mommy, ok?" I told her and she nodded slowly before frowning.
"You?" She asked me and grabbed my hand, effectively making my heart melt once more.
"You can call me too whenever you want." I said and crouched in front of her.
"Promise?" She asked and held up her pinky and I smiled before linking our pinkies.
"I promise. And remember to make lots of cookies." I told her and she giggled. She fell in my arms and I hugged her for a few seconds until Mario called for us again.
"The plane's gonna leave." He told us and I sighed before kissing Alice's forehead one last time. Brittany did the same and followed my uncle out of the house. I went to follow too but Maribel grabbed my arm to stop me.
"This is gonna be difficult. You have to be there for her." She whispered and I sighed before nodding. I let my mother hug me before leaving too.
I figured Maribel was right, this was going to be difficult for Brittany. And I would be there for my girlfriend no matter what, there was no argument about that.
…
"Turn it off!" Brittany whined in my ear and I rolled my eyes. We were seated in the plane and it was about to take off.
"Just a sec. I have to cancel an appointment for today." I said. I had just remembered that I had an appointment on Saturday. I had only told Marley to cancel appointments for Monday.
"But it's Saturday." Brittany stated.
"Yeah, I know. It's not at the firm, I was supposed to meet the kids for a divorce case." I mumbled.
"You're supposed to meet the kids?" She asked and I nodded, while sending the text and then turned off my phone. "Then why didn't Blaine want to meet Ali?" She asked.
"Well, now I'm extremely offended." I said, pretending to be hurt. I shifted on my seat to get comfortable and turned to see my girlfriend frowning at me. "What?" I asked.
"Why are you offended?" She asked me.
"Because you're comparing me with fucking Anderson." I said and she huffed.
"Seriously, San. Why didn't he want to meet Ali?" She asked me again.
"Because he's not a good lawyer." I said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Brittany arched her eyebrows at me and I sighed. "He tried to win based on your past, not your present. And that was his only card. He couldn't say that you can't afford for her or that you're abusing her or that you're doing drugs. So he tried to prove that you were still a prostitute, or that the fact that you were once, was enough to make you not good enough for her." I answered whispering so only Brittany would hear. "He's seriously not a good lawyer." I mumbled again.
"And you are?" She asked me challengingly and I narrowed my eyes at her.
"I won, didn't I?" I asked back and she shrugged.
"Almost." She told me teasingly and I rolled my eyes.
"Please! I owned him. He couldn't even prove his accusations. Fucking bastard, he's so incompetent that he had to lie like that to win the fucking case. I did whatever I could to defend you, ok? And I managed to prove your innocence, but it really depended on the jury. It'd be unfair if he won anyway-" Brittany cut off my ranting by leaning in to connect our lips. I breathed sharply through my nose in surprise but as Brittany's lips massaged mine, I relaxed again and kissed her back. I sucked her pierced bottom lip and when she softly moaned I remembered that we were in public and so I reluctantly pulled back.
"I'm so glad that you insisted to represent me. You're seriously the best. I don't think anyone else would understand." She told me and I smiled, happy that she finally acknowledged it, before pecking her lips again.
We fell in a silence and only then I realized that the plane had already taken off. Brittany grabbed my hand and brought it on her lap. She was suddenly nervous and I frowned.
"What's wrong?" I asked and she turned to me.
"Nothing. I just don't really wanna go." She mumbled.
"Do you want me to go find the pilot and tell him to go back?" I asked her she flared her nostrils at me. I chuckled and leaned in to kiss her cheek. "Baby, it's fine. We don't have to go if you don't want to, ok? We'll just go to your house. Baby steps." I said. I would tell her about going to their grave later again. But at that moment she needed to relax and thinking that she had to go to her parents' grave after twelve years, certainly wouldn't help. Brittany sighed and nodded slowly. So I decided to take her mind away of everything. "So, what was your first thought when you met me?" I asked her and she turned to me with an arched eyebrow.
"You want the truth?" She asked and I narrowed my eyes.
"Always." I answered and she sucked her lips inside her mouth, staring at me for a few seconds before telling me.
"I thought that I had to control myself and not touch your skin. It looked like it was the softest." She whispered and I bit my bottom lip to keep my composure and not lean in to kiss her.
"Why didn't you?" I asked her and she looked at me pointedly.
"You'd freak out if a stranger touched you like I wanted to touch you." She told me.
"No, I wouldn't. I'd be like 'Yes! Another conquest!' and I'd fist pump the air after you'd leave." I answered teasingly and Brittany narrowed her eyes at me.
"That's what I am to you? A conquest?" She asked me.
"Basically yes." I shrugged. No, I thought. She was the best thing that had ever happened to me. The first person that I fell completely in love with. And the last. Brittany brought her arm around my neck and tugged me against her.
"I don't believe you." She whispered against my ear. I ignored the shivers that went through me and I shrugged.
"That's your problem." I said and she hummed. I turned to see her looking at me pointedly and I clicked my tongue. "I love you." I said pointedly and she sighed.
"I love you too." She told me softly while her fingers started going up and down my arm. I honestly thought that I would never get used to my heart beating so fast whenever Brittany was touching me like that. Especially when she was saying those words too. "What was your first thought?" She asked me then.
"I don't remember what I thought but I remember how I felt." I told her. She crossed her legs and she shifted on her seat to face me, her arm still around my neck and her fingers still going up and down my arm. "I felt that strong need to know you. You were so guarded, and intimidating, but I was drawn to you from the first second." I whispered and she bit her bottom lip.
"Intimidating?" She asked me and I nodded. She sighed and looked away from me. "You know, my dad used to tell me to never look the other in the eye, because then you become a mirror and everybody breaks you into a thousand pieces. I wasn't paying much attention then, but now it seems like he knew what was going to happen. That I'd have to protect myself from these people." She told me and I let out a long breath. I cupped her chin and turned her face so she would look at me.
"What your dad used to tell you makes absolute sense. So I can't blame you for not looking at me in the eye, Brittany. I'd never break you though." I whispered.
"You're not like them." She said back and took my hand in hers and brought it up to her lips to kiss my knuckles, effectively making my heart melt inside my chest. "He also used to tell me that people try to save themselves from their ugliness by accusing others for their sins. But you should never tell them how ugly they are, those who are disgusted by you, because they'll just sit and stare at you. Ok, I'm not really following his advice and I'm not proud of this, but not only I've told people about their 'ugliness', I punched them in the face because of it too." She said and I sighed. But she didn't let me say anything. "I'm just having a hard time believing that what he used to tell me is a coincidence of what would come in my life later." She whispered.
"Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous. And I told you this before, everything happens for a reason." I whispered back and she nodded.
"Yeah, I remember." She told me and I arched my eyebrows at her. I didn't think she would remember, I had told her that when we had just met.
"You do?" I asked.
"Of course I do. I remember everything that you've ever said to me." She said.
"You didn't seem to pay much attention." I mumbled.
"Well, I did. You know, I tried to keep you out but do you know how hard it is fighting with yourself every single day? To not be able to control how you act and feel, what's in your mind. It's frustrating and scary and I wasn't used to it. But I completely trust you now. The harder I tried not to love you, the harder I fell for you. I'm completely in love with you. Is it early to tell you this? " She asked me and I immediately shook my head, ignoring the fast heartbeats that Brittany's confession caused.
"No, I feel the exact same way. I don't think that just because we've been together for a month then it's early. Because one month ago we just made things official. I was sure that I'd be yours from the moment that I looked in your eyes. I hadn't admitted that to myself and I didn't know if you'd feel the same way but I couldn't really control it. I love you and I don't think that will stop happening any time soon. Actually I think that it'll never stop happening." I shrugged and sighed.
It felt good to finally tell her how I really felt about her, and I would be scared if at that moment she wasn't looking at me with those beautiful blue eyes full of trust and love.
She leaned in and connected our lips. She kissed me like never before. I felt like we were sealing what we felt for each other with that kiss. Declaring an eternal love and making a promise. A promise to be each other's forever, no matter what would come in our way.
…
It was late in the afternoon when the cab arrived at the house. We quickly got out and grabbed our bags from the back. I didn't know how Brittany was feeling. If she was nervous or angry or sad. She was frowning though so it couldn't be good. I went next to her and with my free hand I entwined our fingers.
Her house was on a relatively quiet neighborhood. It wasn't big but it wasn't small either. There was a small garden in front of the house with flowers and small trees.
"What the fuck?" Brittany whispered and I turned to see her staring at the garden.
"What?" I asked and she looked at me.
"Why?" She asked me and pointed with our joined hands the flowers and I frowned confused. "Why aren't the flowers dead? What the fuck?" She wondered again and frowned angrily. I figured she was right being confused. The garden seemed like someone was taking care of it and Brittany hadn't been there for nine years.
"Maybe Anna watered them?" I offered and she shook her head.
"No way. She didn't come here, she'd tell me." She told me and I frowned skeptically. I honestly had no idea what was going on. "Let's go inside." Brittany said then and tugged my hand to follow her.
Brittany unlocked and opened the front door and we got inside before closing it. We left the bags down and stepped in the living room. My girlfriend dropped my hand and left the room but I didn't give too much attention to it. My attention won a photograph that I saw when I stepped in. I went next to the TV and took the frame in my hands.
On the picture was a blonde couple, a man and a woman. I figured they were Brittany's parents. It was an old photo but I could clearly see how much Brittany looked like her father. Their blonde hair and their cat-like blue eyes, the structure of their faces and their stature. George Pierce looked like an intimidating and imposing man with authority. But at the same time I could recognize the softness in his eyes, maybe it was because I knew those eyes. Eyes that would soften only for their loved ones.
Next to him was Lysanne Pierce, Brittany's mother. She was a beautiful woman too. You could tell that she was Brittany's mother but Anna looked more like her.
"Those are my parents." Brittany whispered next to me. I was startled at first and turned to look at her. She was looking at the picture, sucking her bottom lip inside her mouth.
"You look so much like your dad." I commented and she nodded slowly. "He was really handsome." I added and watched as her lips shifted to form a small sad smile.
"He definitely knew it. I remember my mom rolling her eyes every time he'd say something about himself. How handsome he was, how all the ladies wanted him, how every night he'd go out with his 'friends'. He was joking though, it was the most obvious thing how much he loved my mom." She said and I smiled.
"You're like that too." I said and she turned to me frowning.
"I am not full of myself." She defended and I shrugged.
"You are a little bit." I said teasingly and she huffed. I smiled amused and put the frame back to its place. "Did you figure out what's going on?" I asked.
"No. The house is fucking tidy and clean. I definitely didn't leave it like that. I'm not neat." She said frowning.
"Really? I had no idea." I said sarcastically and she turned to me with narrowed eyes. What I had learnt the last month was that the blonde was messy. Not messy enough to bother me but messy enough to tease her about it. Another thing that I had learnt was that, although she was messy, she didn't like it when Alice wasn't tidying her room.
"Let's not talk about that right now." She mumbled and I rolled my eyes. But I agreed anyway because the house really seemed like someone was living in it. "Let's go see if my room is clean too." She said and tugged my hand so I would follow her.
We went up the stairs and down the corridor until the last room. Brittany opened the door but didn't get inside. She stayed still, staring at it. The room was tidy but you could tell that it was Brittany's because it had a big picture of her on the desk. But the picture was of her when she was a teenager. And in front of it was a lit candle inside a glass box.
"That's creepy." She finally said after a few seconds of silence. She was right, it was creepy. It was like she was dead and someone was honoring her memory. "Who the fuck lives in here? I don't understand." She mumbled and dropped my hand to get in the room. But I stayed at the door and watched her.
She went at the desk and blew out the candle before taking the frame with her picture and placed it on the floor, so we wouldn't be able to see it. She sighed and looked around her room. She looked like she was remembering what her life was like and let out a shaky breath.
"Is Anna's room like that too?" She wondered but I didn't say anything, because I had no idea. So we left her room and went to Anna's to see a picture of her when she was a kid and another lit candle in a glass box. Brittany frowned and went to blow out that candle too and take down the picture.
She sighed and sat on her sister's bed. She leaned her elbows on her knees and looked around the room.
"I was sleeping with my sister because she was scared." She told me quietly after a while. "I'd be scared too if I didn't have to be the strong one. I had to leave her alone almost every night though. But she wasn't saying anything, she was just waiting for me to come home so we'd sleep together. Sometimes she was falling asleep but when I was coming back she'd wake up and tell me all about her day. I was really enjoying that, it made me feel like what I was doing was ok. Like I was doing something right. I knew it wasn't but I just couldn't stand hearing my sister telling me that she's hungry." She said whispering. I sighed and went to sit next to her. I put my arm around her shoulders and pulled her so she would lean on me.
"No one's judging you, baby." I reminded her and she nodded slowly. I kissed her temple and my girlfriend leaned in to my touch.
"I'm so glad you're here with me." She whispered and I tightened my hold around her.
"I'm glad too." I whispered back. We stayed like that until we heard the door opening from downstairs.
Brittany immediately stood up and left the room to go downstairs. I followed her and reached her just in time to see her stilling frozen on the stairs and a blonde woman, about my mother's age, closing the front door behind her. She didn't seem to notice us at first but when she did she dropped the groceries that she was holding in surprise. She looked like she was scared but then she focused on Brittany. She was staring at her like she was trying to remember her and Brittany was looking at her the same way.
"Aunt Linda?" Brittany finally whispered while she went down the rest of the stairs. The woman frowned confused and blinked a few times. I could see her losing her focus and Brittany could see that too because we both went slowly near her. "I'm Brittany." My girlfriend said then and the woman finally lost her balance and fainted but thankfully we reached her just in time to catch her before she would fall down.
She was petite so it was easy to move her and sit her on the couch. Brittany put her legs on the coffee table and quickly left the living room. Before I could understand what was really happening she came back holding a glass of water. She was oddly calm, she was probably still in shock and not really comprehending what was going on.
"Aunt?" She called when she sat next to her and patted her gently on the cheek so she would wake up. And thankfully she did after a few seconds and my girlfriend gave her the glass to drink some water. "Are you ok?" She asked and Linda nodded while she sipped some of the water.
"I'm sorry, I thought I saw my niece. Who are you? What do you want?" She asked, not looking at Brittany.
"I am your niece." Brittany said and bit her pierced bottom lip. She watched as her aunt turned to her and studied her face. Linda's blue eyes filled with tears and brought a hand up to cup Brittany's cheek.
"Brittany." She whispered hesitantly, like she was afraid to acknowledge my girlfriend's presence. "Oh dear god." She said then and pulled Brittany in a tight hug.
I was standing next to the couch, silently witnessing this emotional family reunion. It was obvious that both of them were overwhelmed. I figured Linda had the impression that Brittany and Anna were dead, that would explain the pictures in Brittany's and Anna's bedrooms and it would also explain why she fainted when she saw her supposedly dead niece.
I didn't know about Brittany but she never said anything about her aunt Linda so I figured that she hadn't been in my girlfriend's life for a really long time.
"I thought you were dead." Linda whispered and Brittany sighed, pulling back from the embrace to look at her aunt.
"Why would you think that?" She asked. She seemed to be more angry than happy.
"Your grandma just told me that the accident happened to your parents so I assumed that you were with them." Linda said.
"I know it wasn't an accident." Brittany told her aunt and Linda arched her eyebrows in surprise. "Why didn't you just come to see if we were with them or not? We were left with her, you must've known that we needed you." She said with an edge in her voice and her aunt sighed.
"I was in prison, Brittany." She said and there was a brief uncomfortable silence.
"That's why everybody suddenly stopped talking about you." Brittany commented and Linda shrugged.
"I guess. Your grandma was manipulative like that. But I guess she wasn't wrong…" She trailed off not looking at her niece. "But what happened to you?" She changed the subject. "Is Anna here too?" She asked looking around. But her gaze fell on me and she frowned confused. Brittany seemed to remember that I was there too because she stood up and came to me.
"Yes. We live in New York but we came for our parents' death anniversary." She whispered and Linda nodded knowingly.
"Well, where is she?" She asked.
"She's staying with her boyfriend at a friend's house." She said and her aunt widened her eyes.
"Boyfriend? But she's just a baby." She said and Brittany chuckled.
"She's twenty." She said and Linda shook her head.
"You're both grown ups. Look at you, you're so beautiful, you remind me of George." Linda said quietly and Brittany let out a shaky breath.
"Aunt, this is Santana, my girlfriend. San, this is my aunt Linda, my dad's sister." Brittany introduced us then, ignoring what her aunt just told her.
"Girlfriend?" Linda wondered while standing up.
"Oh I guess I'm coming out." My girlfriend shrugged and I sucked my lips so I wouldn't laugh at Brittany's nonchalant behavior and Linda's obvious surprise. It wasn't funny though. Those two obviously had a lot to talk about and catch up with each other's lives.
"It's nice to meet you." I told her and she smiled at me.
"It's nice to meet you too, dear." She told me and then turned to her niece. "You're full of piercings and tattoos and you're gay too? What happened to you?" She wondered. Brittany's piercings were on display but the only tattoos she could see were the flower on her chest and the tiger on her thigh. That wasn't 'full of tattoos'. Brittany narrowed her eyes.
"Nothing could happen to me to make me bisexual. And I don't really need you criticizing me." She said pointedly, making clear that she wasn't about to welcome her aunt in her life that easily. But her aunt probably had her own story to tell. So I slid my hand on my girlfriend's lower back, hoping that my touch would calm her down.
"I'm not criticizing you, honey. I just want to know what happened to you and Anna." Linda said. It was obvious that she wasn't judging her niece. She was genuinely interested. She also seemed to feel a little guilty for leaving them with their grandmother. Brittany sighed and pulled out her phone.
"I'm gonna call Anna and tell her to come here." She said and turned to leave before either of us could say anything.
I let out a long breath and ran a hand through my hair. Brittany could make the phone call here but I figured she needed some time alone to comprehend that she just reunited with her long lost aunt. It was probably a big deal to her, going from not having any family to her father's sister back in her life. I looked back to see my girlfriend's aunt staring at me.
"Do you want any help?" I asked and gestured towards the groceries that were on the ground. Her gaze made me feel uncomfortable. She had the same piercing eyes like Brittany and her dad.
"Oh no. I don't want to bother you." She told me and I shook my head.
"It's no problem, really." I said and went to pick up the bags.
She started towards the kitchen and I followed her. I put the groceries on the counter but I didn't know where everything's place was so I stepped back and leaned on the opposite counter and watched Linda as she put the groceries away. It was awkward being in a room with just her, she wasn't even up to date with her niece's life, what could we possible have to say?
"So, what do you do, Santana?" She asked me without looking at me.
"I'm a lawyer." I answered and she hummed.
"Like George." She commented and I arched my eyebrows in surprise.
"Brittany's dad was a lawyer?" I asked her and she turned to me frowning.
"Yes. Didn't she tell you?" She asked me.
"No." I mumbled thoughtfully. Brittany hadn't really talked about her parents much but I thought that she would tell me if her father was a lawyer too. Apparently I was wrong.
"You know what?" She asked me while closing the fridge. "I'm gonna go find her." She said and I sighed. I certainly wasn't about to tell her what to do, I just hoped that Brittany wouldn't snap at her aunt. They both had a story to tell and they both had a story to listen to.
…
I was sitting on the couch, reading through my emails. Brittany and Linda were in the backyard for the last half an hour and that was good. It meant that they were really talking. Just then the door opened and I looked up to see Anna and Jake coming in.
"Hey, legal stuff." Anna greeted me and I rolled my eyes. She had recently formed that new habit to call me that. Jake had complained at first but Anna said that when he would get his degree he would call him that too. Like it was a title.
"Hello, kids." I said just to get a reaction from Anna. She huffed at me and I smirked.
"God, I haven't been in here since I was eleven." She said while looking around. "I heard aunt Linda is back too." She said while both of them sat on either side of me and I hummed.
"You don't really remember her, do you?" I asked her. She seemed to be really relaxed and entertained by the idea to have an aunt.
"I remember her but not many things." She said and I nodded. "Where are they?" She asked me then.
"They're outside." I answered. She nodded just in time for my girlfriend and her aunt to come in the living room. Anna stood up and Linda immediately went to her and cupped her cheeks.
"The last time I saw you you were just kid. Now you're a woman." She said and hugged her tightly. Anna smiled while Brittany snorted and came by my side. She put her arm around my waist, effectively making me lean against her body.
"Britt thinks I'm still a kid." Anna said pointedly and Linda chuckled.
"I know honey, your dad was doing that to me all the time. They think that just because they're older, they're wiser and smarter too. But they just fool themselves." She said making Anna smile sadly at the memory of their father.
"We are wiser and smarter." Brittany said making us roll our eyes. Linda shook her head at her niece and turned to Jake.
"You must be the boyfriend." She said and Anna chuckled while going next to him.
"This is Jake." She said and Linda smiled at him.
"I think you two and I are gonna have to have a talk." She said teasingly, pointing at me and Jake.
"Don't worry, Jake had a lot of talks with Britt. Actually I don't think she let him say anything, so they were monologues." Anna said and Brittany huffed. "But I don't think anyone gave legal stuff over there any warnings." She said smirking at me and I sighed.
"She doesn't need any." Brittany said before I could say anything and tightened her hold around me. I was pretty sure I got my warnings from Brittany herself. "Let's go upstairs." She told me then and I nodded.
"Come back down in an hour, dinner will be ready." Linda said and we nodded.
"Come on, I'll show you my room." Anna told Jake and grabbed his hand to guide him upstairs.
Brittany and I grabbed our bags and followed them until we reached Brittany's room. She closed the door when we got inside and we let down the bags before I went to sit on her bed. I watched her as she went to the bookshelf above her desk and studied the books that were there. She wasn't saying anything but I wanted to know how she was feeling.
"Is everything ok?" I asked her and she hummed while she grabbed a book. She turned to lean on her desk and opened it.
"Everything's fine baby." She told me while she started going through the pages.
"You seem…" I trailed off, not knowing what to say. She didn't seem to be in that mood that she was in before she talked with her aunt.
"I'm really happy that I found my aunt again, San." She told me softly and I sighed before nodding. "She was in prison for possession and supply of drugs. And she's been living here for the last five years. She's clean for the last ten years." She told me.
"That's good." I mumbled.
"I told her what happened with Anna and me too. She was supportive." She said and came to sit next to me. "I just don't know how to feel. I am happy that she's here now but I still don't know her and she still doesn't know me." She whispered.
"Give it some time, honey. You'll get to know each other again. The difficult part is out of the way." I said and she nodded her agreement. She looked back down at the book that she was holding and snorted a laugh. "What's so funny?" I wondered and she pointed towards the book.
"Algebra." She told me and I rolled my eyes. "What does a mermaid wear to math lessons?" She asked me and I sighed. I was pretty sure that it was going to be a lame answer or something mathematical that I wouldn't understand.
"What?" I asked anyway because I enjoyed looking at her smiling like that.
"Algae-bra." She told me and started laughing uncontrollably. I chuckled too, not because it was funny but because Brittany was acting like a five year old.
"Why are you so lame?" I wondered and she immediately stopped laughing. She threw the book on the bed and straddled me, effectively making me swallow thickly.
"I'm not lame, I'm the most interesting person that I know." She told me. Her hands started going up and down my arms.
"And not full of yourself." I said sarcastically and put my hands on her bare thighs, enjoying her soft skin.
"You love me anyway." She whispered and brought her lips half an inch from mine.
"I do." I breathed. I wanted to lean forward and kiss her but I knew that she was in her teasing mode and wouldn't let me. So when her gaze fell on my lips I darted out my tongue to wet them, intentionally touching it against her lips too. It caused her to whimper softly and give in herself.
She immediately put her tongue in my waiting parted lips and when our tongues made contact, she swallowed a moan that came from deep within my throat. My hands went from her thighs on her lower back and pushed so our torsos would come flushed against each other's. But there was one more thing that I wanted to ask her so with great difficulty I pulled back from my girlfriend's addictive lips. We were both breathing unevenly.
"Baby, why didn't you tell me that your dad was a lawyer?" I asked, not bothering to make an introduction to the subject. She arched her eyebrows in surprise but then she sighed. She put her hands on my shoulders and pushed to get up from me but I tightened my arms around her so she wouldn't be able to. I didn't want her to think that I had a problem with it, I just wanted to know the reason why she didn't tell me.
"I just didn't want you to freak out." She whispered, not looking at me.
"Why would I freak out about that?" I asked. I really had no idea why that would freak me out.
"I don't know, San. I'd tell you at some point. How do you feel now that you know it?" She asked me and I frowned.
"Scared that you're comparing me with him." I answered honestly and she looked into my eyes again.
"Well, I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to feel like that. I already told you that I think you're the best and I'm so glad that you represented me and your clients are really lucky that you're representing them. Because you don't do it for the money but because you really love your job and you're so fucking good at it and I love you." She told me quickly and I stared at her, processing what she told me before leaning forward to kiss her exposed flower tattoo.
"I love you too." I mumbled against her skin and she cupped my cheeks to tilt my head up and bring me in for another breathtaking kiss. But that time a knock on the door interrupted us. I sighed disapprovingly when my girlfriend got up from me to go to the door. She opened it to reveal a nervous Jake.
"What's up?" Brittany asked.
"I..Anna said something about table football?" He asked unsure and Brittany arched an eyebrow.
"Are you afraid of me, Jake?" She asked and went to stand right in front of him. They were about the same height, maybe Jake was an inch or two taller than Brittany.
"No." He said and shook his head but the blonde obviously didn't believe him. They were getting along better when Anna was present but when she wasn't Jake was getting nervous around Brittany, even when the blonde wasn't saying anything to him. She wasn't even glaring at him. I honestly didn't want to know what she had told him to intimidate him like that.
"Ok, because you shouldn't. The only thing you have to worry about is not hurting Anna." She said and Jake nodded.
"I love her, I told you this before." He said frowning and Brittany nodded.
"Yeah, I know. Relax." She said and patted his shoulder. "The table football is still there?" She asked then and Jake nodded. "I don't know." She said, not really liking the idea.
"Well, Anna said that you'd say that and she told me to tell you that she wants her big sister back." He said looking at Brittany pointedly and my girlfriend frowned at him.
"If you have something to say you should say it, Jake. Don't hide behind my sister's words." She said, catching a point that was lost on me. Jake took a deep breath, like he was preparing himself for something big.
"You're going on and on about how I shouldn't hurt her but you do that by yourself. Do you know how many times she cried in my arms because of you?" He asked, his tone almost angry. Brittany narrowed her eyes at him and took a step closer to him, invading his comfort zone. Jake shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other, obviously regretting what he just said. But he shouldn't.
"What do you mean?" She asked and Jake shrugged.
"She misses you, Brittany. She feel's guilty for whatever happened, she doesn't even talk about it. I'm desperate, I don't know what to do. She seems fine but she isn't. And she doesn't want to talk about it with me. You're the only one that she'd talk to." He said. Brittany wasn't looking at Jake anymore. She had her arms crossed in front of her chest and she was biting her bottom lip, looking at her feet. I stood up and went to them before anyone could say anything else.
"We'll be right there." I said and forced a smile to ease his tension. He smiled appreciatively at me before throwing a last glance at Brittany and then leaving. My girlfriend turned to me frowning.
"Fuck." She whispered.
"Britt, I think you should have a talk with your sister before tomorrow. Tell her that it wasn't really an accident." I said and she shook her head 'no'.
"She's gonna be mad." She said and looked away from me.
"Well, she has the right to be mad until she understands why you didn't tell her." I answered and she let out a big breath before going to sit on the bed.
"I don't even know if I want to go tomorrow." She mumbled and rubbed her hands on her thighs. "It just felt so good talking with my aunt, I don't want to ruin that." She said and I went to sit next to her.
"I'm not gonna push you but I think you'd feel even better. You already looked better before Jake came here and I really love seeing you like that." I said softly. She bit her bottom lip, seemingly thinking about it.
"Ok." She finally whispered.
"Ok?" I asked and she nodded.
"Ok, I'll talk to Anna and ok, I'll go tomorrow." She said and I smiled before kissing her cheek, happy that she wasn't shutting down again.
The first day at Chicago went better than how I thought it would go. Brittany had a pleasant surprise, reuniting with her aunt and although at first she wasn't too happy about it she finally seemed to be willing to include her in her life.
She was also willing to talk to her sister and although the reason was how their parents died, I was pretty sure more things would come clean, just like Jake had told us. But if they would be completely honest with each other it would only mean good things.
And Brittany going to her parents' grave only meant finally dealing with it. But that also meant a breakdown that I wasn't sure how she was going to handle. Because she was so unpredictable and she proved it to me that day, because I had thought that she would be a wreck. But she wasn't. I just hoped that her relatively good mood wasn't superficial, but I figured that the next day would determine that.
A.N.: This chapter was getting really long so I had to split it. Let me know what you think.