Wow thanks for all the reviews last chapter.
No! No! No! Santana thinks as she takes off running out of the cafeteria. Brett Pierce is here and saw her. He's going to know that she's still in high school. She wanted him to either not remember her or think of her as the mysterious stranger. Now he's going to think of her as some kid. This is the single most embarrassing thing to ever happen to her. How is she going to be able to look his little sister in the face. Oh god how had she not connected the dots. She's a freakin' idiot. She flings the girl's bathroom door open and glares at the three girls reapplying their makeup.
"Get out!" Santana growls.
The girls scatter out as quickly as possible. With that Santana falls to the floor sobbing.
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"That was weird." Quinn says staring where her best friend disappeared. "Sorry about her." she says turning to Hailey and Brett.
"It's fine I'm sure that it can be nerve wracking to meet someone famous." Hailey says shrugging used to things like this happening.
Brett doesn't hear anything anyone is saying. He just stares where Santana the woman who has invaded her mind disappeared. When it finally clicks that that was Santana the woman he's been pining over he starts to push his way through the crowd of teens around him.
"Brett?" Hailey questions, but he doesn't answer.
He finally frees himself from the crowd and jogs off in the same direction that Santana took off in. Having no idea where she would go he just starts opening doors and looking in every room. He hopes she's still in the school and didn't leave. He feels like he needs to talk to her. They had such a connection that he has to see if it's still there outside of the club.
The only places he hasn't looked for her is in the girl's bathroom. Hesitantly he approaches the door. Looking around to make sure no one is watching he opens the door. He hears sobbing before he sees Santana sitting on the floor. She hasn't noticed that he's here yet. Even with her makeup running and red swollen eyes, he's sure he's never seen a woman more beautiful in his life. He sighs as he stares down at her.
"Hey," Brett finally breaths out.
Santana whips her head around staring at him. There is the very person she is running from.
"What…" Santana trails off choking back tears.
She refuses to cry in front of him. He probably already sees her as a child she doesn't need to confirm it. Wiping away her tears she stares at his shoes unable to bring herself to look him in the eye.
"You're beautiful even in a red and white uniform." Brett says hoping this will cause her to look at him.
"For a kid," Santana softly says.
"What?" Brett asks frowning.
"You mean I'm beautiful for a kid." Santana says picking at lint on her skirt pleats.
"No, you're a beautiful woman Santana." Brett says sighing.
"You really think that even though I'm still in high school?" Santana asks finally looking up at Brett.
"Yes, I wouldn't say it if I didn't think it." Brett says sitting down right in front of her.
Santana smiles at him a little shocked that he's sitting on the floor with her. She can't help, but be happy that he came after her. Her stomach flips at the thought. She pushes this feeling down as she knows he's only being nice because he feels bad for her.
"Sorry I didn't tell you that I'm still in high school." Santana says looking down at the ground again.
"Don't," Brett softly says lifting her chin up. "I could tell that you were younger than twenty-one." he softly says.
"Really? But then why did you buy me a drink?" Santana asks shocked that he isn't angry at her.
"I figured that if you got in then you could handle your liquor. Plus I really wanted to talk and dance with you." Brett says smiling at her.
"Thank you for being so understanding." Santana says.
"Do you want to get out of here and go talk?" Brett asks wanting to know more about this woman before she disappears again.
"Um…..sure the first day back is boring." Santana says willing to spend time with this amazing man so long as he wants to.
"Oh crap that's right you have school. We can hangout after if you have to go to class." Brett rambles.
"No, I'd rather skip and spend my time hangout with you." Santana says blushing. "I'm a senior so I already know my way around the school."
Brett smiles at this. At least she's a senior he thinks. Feeling less creepy with the fact that he wants to spend all his free time with this young Latina woman. He hopes that after hanging out today they can consider each other friends. He figures that being friends will allow him to spend lots of time with this beauty. For some reason she's drawn to her.
"Okay where are we going?" Brett says knowing she'll know the better places to go.
He pulls out his phone and shoots his sister a text saying that he'll see her at home later.
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"Is that from your brother?" one of the Cheerio asks.
They're all now sitting at the lunch table since as soon as Brett left everyone scattered away from the Cheerio table. Quinn decided to just stay here and not search for Santana. She wants to get to know this freshman Cheerio who has a famous brother.
"Yeah, he's headed out." Hailey says shrugging.
"He is upset that Santana took off like that right?" Quinn asks worried he might be upset about that.
"No he's not like that at all." Hailey says. "He understands that meeting him can be overwhelming."
"I still don't get why she took off." Quinn says mostly to herself.
Hailey's not sure what to do. So she follows the other Cheerios lead of not saying anything. Even though her big brother didn't really get to meet either Santana or Quinn before he left she thinks this day is a success. Here she is sitting at the Cheerio's table on the first day of school which is unheard of even for like her whose already on the Cheerios.
"So Hailey we have a party on Friday at Jake Puckerman's if you want to come." Jessica one of the senior Cheerios say.
"I'll ask my mom, but she'll probably only let me go if Brett goes." Hailey says.
"That's perfectly fine." Jessica says smirking.
"Come on Hailey, I'll show you the ropes." Quinn says glaring at Jessica as she stands up.
"Cool,"
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Brett holds open the door for Santana who blushes as she walks in. He's just so nice and she keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop. Something has to be wrong with him. Whoever he's dating is one lucky girl.
"What do you want?" Brett asks pulling out his wallet.
"You don't have to." Santana says.
"I want to." Brett pouts looking down at her.
Santana gives in when she sees his pout and orders a caramel latte' and blue berry muffin. She finds it sweet when just like at the club Brett gives the barista a fifty and tells her to keep the change. They sit down in a seclude corner and Brett is grateful that no paparazzi has gotten wind of where he is or they wouldn't be able to be here.
"So Santana what do you like to do?" Brett says wanting to know more about her.
"Really that's your first question. That's how you want to start out our friendship?" Santana asks not feeling nearly as intimidated.
"Well I have to start somewhere." Brett says.
"There's not much to do here in Lima. When I'm not at school or practicing for the Cheerios I'm reading or singing. Just normal things for a seventeen year old." Santana says smiling. "I also like hangout with my friends."
"Seventeen," Brett says hoping that her birthday is soon.
"Yeah my birthday's in two months though." Santana says hoping he'll still want to hang out with her.
"That's cool," Brett says unsure of what to say.
He's a bit nervous that she's underage, but he has a need to be around her.
"What about you? What do you like to do?" Santana asks.
"I'm more of a homebody. Sure I go out to clubs sometimes, but I really just want someone to snuggle with and watch movies. If I find the right woman I'd cut back on the acting to be home more. Go out on dates and such." Brett tells her.
Santana smiles imagining what it would be like to be his girlfriend. She knows that it will never happen, but she can dream can't she.
"Any girl would be lucky to have you as their boyfriend." Santana says ignoring the jealous feeling in her gut.
After that they continue to ask questions though they're a lot more silly and fun. Such as what's your favorite color, Brett couldn't decide and Santana picked black. They talk for an hour before Brett notices a few girls staring at him.
"How about we get out of here before your face gets plastered all over news again." Brett suggests.
"You don't want to be seen with a high school student I get it." Santana says standing up a little disappointed.
"No," Brett says grabbing her wrist to stop her. "That's not what I mean at all." he softly says standing up.
"Then what do you mean?" Santana asks turning to face him gulping.
"That I don't want the paparazzi to start following you around. I hate when they do that to my friends who aren't famous and family when they come visit." Brett says giving her a soft smile.
Santana stares up at him a loving look on her face. Biting her lip she tries to ignore the fact that she's beginning to develop a major crush on him.
"I'm your friend?" Santana asks.
"I'm hoping you'll be my friend." Brett says holding the door open for her.
"We're friends," Santana says.
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Quinn walks out onto the football field for Cheerios practice frowning. She hasn't been able to reach Santana since she ran from the cafeteria. Normally this wouldn't bother her even with Santana skipping the rest of her classes, but not showing up to Cheerios practice is unacceptable.
"Fabray where the hell is Lopez?!" Sue shouts from her spot in the stands.
"I don't know coach!" Quinn shouts back.
Sue mutters to herself for several minutes before shouting back at Quinn.
"Just run practice!"
Quinn nods and yells at the other Cheerios to start running laps. She'd hate to be Santana when Sue finds her. It won't be pretty as no one is allowed to skip Cheerio practice without a doctor's note or obvious injury. It also pisses her off that she's having to run laps alone. No one else would dare run with her.
"Hey," Hailey softly says.
"Hi?" Quinn questions frowning.
"You looked lonely so I figured I'd run with you." Hailey says.
"Um I guess that's fine." Quinn says a little shocked, but overall just impressed.
She knows who she's going to suggest taking over the Cheerios when her and Santana graduate this year.
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Santana smiles as Brett puts his coat over her shoulders. They just arrived at the park dropping Santana's car off at her house as Brett being a gentleman decided that he would drive his new friend around whenever they hangout. She had forgotten her coat in her car so yet again being a gentleman Brett gave her his coat.
"Thank you," Santana whispers trying not to blush.
She still finds it hard to believe that Brett Pierce wants to be her friend.
"You're welcome." Brett softly says smiling at her. "So do you come here often?" he asks.
"No, mostly only when I want to escape everything. It's really quiet and peaceful here. It makes it much easier to think." Santana says leading him down a seldom used path.
"You know if I wasn't a strong guy I'd think you're leading me into the woods to rob me or something." Brett says taking her hand in his.
He loves how soft and small her hands are compared to his. Not even thinking about it he laces their fingers together. Once he realizes what he's done, he gulps and waits for her to pull her hand out of his. Most woman he's dated only want to show PDA when the cameras are around otherwise they don't want him touching them. Santana though surprises him by squeezing his hand and taking a deep breath before wrapping his arm around her shoulder. He can't help, but smile as they walk neither looking at the other. This is what he's been looking for too bad she's too young.
"This is nice," Brett says breaking the silence.
Santana doesn't hear him as she's in shock of what's happening. He actually grabbed her hand and then laced their fingers together. She's pretty sure that her heart stopped right then. This is way too good to be real. But for once she doesn't think with her head and just goes with what feels right so she wraps his arm around her. When he doesn't move away she snuggles more into him.
"It's getting dark." Brett says causing Santana to look up at him.
"How long have we been walking around?" Santana asks surprised that they basically have been walking around in silence for at least an hour.
"An hour and a half." Brett says hoping she knows the way back. "Which way back?"
"Wow I can't believe that we didn't say anything for that long." Santana says turning them around glad that it's only a twenty minute walk back as they went on a half loop trail.
"When you're in good company you don't always have to talk to have a good time." Brett says his arm still around Santana's shoulder.
"That's really insightly Brett." Santana says.
"Really most people think I'm stupid because I often don't understand big words, I like Disney movies and I didn't graduate high school." Brett says looking down at the ground.
"I think you're smart." Santana says snuggling into his warm body.
Brett smiles feeling his heart rate increases at her words. It shocks him how much her opinion means to him already. The rest of their walk back to his car is in comfortable silence both thinking that despite the feelings their starting to develop for the other they can't act on them for different reasons. Brett because she's seventeen and he's twenty-three, Santana because he's famous and she doesn't want to make a fool out of herself. Once they reach the car Brett rushes to open the door for Santana.
"Thank you," Santana softly says about to take off his coat when he stops her.
"You keep it, it looks better on you." Brett says.
Santana blushes as she snuggles into the oversized leather jacket.
"Thank you," Santana says.
Brett smiles as he smoothly slides over the hood of his car on his way to the driver side. All Santana can do is smile at how cute he is being.
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"You sure she won't mind us stopping by?" Hailey asks Quinn.
"Of course not, she owes you an apology anyway." Quinn says as she pulls onto Santana's street.
After Cheerios practice ended with no Santana showing up Quinn decided that she's going to go make Santana talk to Hailey. She feels like her friend owes the girl an apology for running away earlier. So she offered Hailey a ride first to Santana's house then home.
"How can you be sure that she's home?" Hailey nervously asks not wanting to upset either of her captains.
"That's her car." Quinn says pointing to the red Mustang in the Lopez's driveway.
"Quinn I'm no-" Hailey stops mid-sentence when she notices a green Porsche that belongs to her brother parked in front on the Lopez's house.
"What?" Quinn asks looking over at Hailey.
"That's my brother's Porsche." Hailey says her eyes not leaving the car.
"Oh," Quinn says also now staring at the car.
Meanwhile in Brett's car Brett's laughing at a joke Santana just told him.
"Your cheer coach sounds crazy." Brett says leaning back in his seat.
"Yeah, she's going to be pissed that I missed practice." Santana sighs not looking forward to practice tomorrow.
"Would it help if I told her you were with me?" Brett asks.
"You'd really do that?" Santana asks shocked.
"Of course you're my friend." Brett says taking her hand and squeezing it.
"Thanks for just everything." Santana says smiling softly at him. "You've been amazing with all this and I'm really glad that we're friends."
"It's easy to be your friend." Brett softly says kissing her hand.
"I'd better get going." Santana says.
"Here's my number call or text me anytime." Brett says handing her a piece of paper.
Santana rips off a little piece and writes her number on it.
"Here's my number." Santana says.
"I'll see you later Santana." Brett says waving at her.
"Bye Brett," Santana says waving at him as he drives away.
She sighs as she turns and heads into the house missing Quinn's car completely. It felt like they had just had a date even though she knows that's not what it was. She wishes that it had been. That will never happen though, he wouldn't want to date her.
"That was….." Quinn trails off.
"Are they dating?" Hailey asks.