"Allison, I really can't believe this. Are you sure Nate heard right?" Tara questions her friend. "I don't think that Jenny would do something like this and much less drag Liam into it."
"Trust me T, I have never seen Nate more serious. He was shocked too. His best friend is leading Quinn on and Jennifer has been staging this whole thing since Greek week."
Tara needed a moment to take in all of this new information. She never expected this from Jennifer. She knew that her friend came from a mightier than thou, we get what we want type of family, but she thought for sure that Jenny and Liam were nothing like their parents.
"So now what? I mean do we confront Jen? Are you going to tell Quinn?"
Allison can't find a response. She doesn't know what to do.
On one hand she believes her boyfriend and wants to give Jennifer a piece of her mind, but on the other hand she knows that she may lose her best friend.
"Why would Jen and Liam do this, Allison? I mean they literally have a million admirers to choose from. They're Grayson's for the love of god. They don't want for anything."
"I don't know what's going on, but we need to make sure before exposing anything or anyone." Ally continues to slowly pace her room.
"A lot of people and feelings are involved and frankly I don't know how Santana would react if she found out."
"Oh, I know." Tara replies with a humorless chuckle. "We would finally get a taste of that Snixx character everyone keeps referencing. Call me crazy but things are going so well with Brittany that I'm scared something like this may even affect what we have going on."
"That's it Tara!"
"What?" The redhead questions.
"Brittany."
With a confused expression, Tara motions Allison to elaborate.
"We can tell Brittany and she can help us figure out what to do. She can keep her friends occupied while we try to figure out what the hell Liam and Jen are scheming." Allison's excitement makes it seem as though she just solved world hunger.
"I don't know Ally, Britt is pretty protective over Quinn and Santana. She might go rip Jen's head off herself. Do you really think that's the best option?"
"Well what else can we do?" Again with the pacing. At this rate, she knows she may walk a hole into the carpet soon.
"Jennifer and Liam are playing with people's lives and honestly, you and I both know that Quinn and Santana want to be together. Quinn is totally in love with her. There is no denying that and I'm disgusted that our friends are getting some sort of twisted pleasure over this."
Tara lets this plan marinate in her mind. She knows Allison is right about Quinn and Santana's unrequited love for eachother, but she also really hates the thought of it disturbing any kind of progress she's made with Brittany.
She plops down onto the chair in front of Allison's desk, resting her forehead on the cold wood before responding.
"Ugh, ok. How should we tell Britt?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~CM~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tara had rehearsed the words in her mind a dozen times, as she made her way through the performing arts building.
Her heart started beating a little quicker with each step she took, until she looked into the final studio to the left and became paralyzed as soon as her eye caught site of the blonde she has come to adore.
She was effortlessly flowing through a lyrical routine, while everyone in the room quietly watched.
Tara thought she was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
The blonde rose to her feet slowly turning to face the front of the room. She opened her eyes as the last few notes rang through the air, the hint of a smile gracing her lips as she noticed Tara watching her through the open door.
The studio filled with applause as Brittany's peers congratulated her for her amazing routine. She glanced back toward the door, holding her index finger up for Tara to give her a second.
Moments later the students started to file out studio and Brittany made her way to the nervous red head.
"Britt, that was amazing."
"Aw, thank you." Brittany smiles brightly. "It's the piece I had to prepare for my midterm. I think it went well, but we shall see."
Tara notices the bashful smile that has taken over Brittany's lips and can't think of anything looking more adorable. God, this girl is beautiful.
"Don't down play it Britt. You know it was perfect and I'm feelin' kind of special about having witnessed it."
"Hmmm" the blonde taps her index finger against her lips, as if in deep thought.
"Sounds to me like someone is trying to butter me up." Brittany teases.
"Well actually yes, I do want to talk to you about something." Tara hates to change the subject, knowing that it will most likely spoil the blonde's playful mood, "but I'm not buttering you up, just appreciating your beauty is all." She makes sure to give her at least one more compliment. Brittany's smile will help her through the next topic.
"Out with it Casanova."
Here goes nothing.
"So um, Ally and I…well…you know how your friends are dating my friends…and well they…" The redhead begins to stutter; All of her rehearsed words slowly slipping away and replaced with nerves.
"Tara what's up? Did something happen?"
"Britt, Jen and Liam are…well they kinda...but I don't know what they…"
Brittany tilts her head to the side trying to make sense of what the babbling girl in front of her has to say. She can tell that whatever it is has Tara acting like a nervous wreck, so she decides to put the girl at ease.
"Come here." She beckons Tara with her finger, placing a hand on her cheek as soon as she steps forward.
Without hesitation, Brittany brushes her lips against the soft trembling ones in front of her. She lightly kisses the redhead, pulling away after a few seconds.
"Better?" Brittany asks, as she stares into wistful green eyes.
Tara's pretty sure she forgot how to inhale any kind of oxygen that surrounded her body, but recovers quickly enough to breath out a response.
"I'm not sure, maybe you should try again?"
With a playful eye roll and brilliant smile, Brittany places another sweet kiss to her lips.
"You know," Tara begins "I would have been a blubbering mess a long time ago, had I known that the outcome would include your lips on mine."
"Well maybe if you tell me what's on your mind we can move on with our day and do some more of that."
With her fear temporarily forgotten, Tara takes a deep breath and decides it's time to really talk.
"Britt, Jennifer and Liam…" She quickly inhales "Well I don't know how much you know about their family, but they are pretty well off and even though their family has always been kind of snooty, Jen and Li have always been down to earth…at least, we thought they were." Tara finishes.
"Ok, but what does that mean?"
"See, Jenny kinda fell for Santana and I guess she would stop at nothing to have her. Even if it meant recruiting her brother to handle any obstacles."
Tara knows that she is slowly revealing the truth to Brittany, but continues to tread lightly until she can get her point across.
"Ok, well we know she recruited not only her brother, but also our entire sorority to ask San out. So what's the big deal?" Brittany isn't sure what Tara is getting at, but she's becoming somewhat frustrated.
What does this have to do with anything? Brittany wonders if her Tara had an accident or some sort of head trauma she failed to see.
"Tara, did you fall and hit your head?" She runs her hand through curly red locks, checking for bumps.
"You know, one time Lord Tubbington fell off the porch swing and hit his head and we had to get him a Cat Scan and he-"
"No Britt," Tara quickly interrupts, "I didn't hit my head. What I meant was that Jen hasn't been honest with Santana, or any of us really."
She looks away briefly gathering her thoughts before continuing, "She's wanted to date Santana ever since we met, but we aren't sure about her motives. We think it was more as a slap in the face to her parents, then her actually falling in love with her."
If Brittany seemed somewhat frustrated before, it has absolutely graduated to full blown frustration now, with a hint of what the hell is happening, on the side.
"Wait, what are you telling me Tara?"
"I'm saying that Jennifer is a liar that's playing your best friend and Liam is an asshole that's playing Quinn. He only started to date her because Jennifer saw her as a threat and didn't want anyone getting in the way of her being with Santana."
She's finally on a roll and can't stop. Operation blab to Brittany is in full swing and she intends to finish what she's started.
"Allison and I know that Quinn is in love with Santana and at first we thought that maybe you and Quinn were just being overprotective because you each had a past with her."
Tara slows her words a bit. The thought of Brittany still wanting Santana causing her heart to skip a beat.
"but then you and I started to get to know each other and-"
"Is that what this is?" Brittany stops the rant. Her eyebrows furrow, as crystal blue eyes take on a darker tint.
"Wait, what?" Tara questions in confusion, as the blonde takes a step back.
"You?" Brittany lifts her chin towards the offending ginger. "Is that what you've been? A distraction for me, so that I could forget about San too?"
"Britt, no, I really do-"
"You really what?" Tara is sure she has never seen this side of her angelic blonde. "Jennifer the mastermind of all masterminds sent her two minions out to distract the obstacles, right?!"
"Brittany please, this is real. You and Me" Tara points her finger between their bodies, in an attempt to accentuate her statement. "This is real. Why would I be here telling you all of this?" She steps forward, running a reassuring hand down a pale arm before continuing.
"Britt, I am on your side here. Ally and I had no idea what Jen and Liam were up to. I hate that I'm even associated with people who think its ok to play those type of mind games."
She waits for a response, hoping that Brittany believes her. Her nervousness is back and she feels as if the blonde could slip right through her fingers at any moment.
"Britt, please believe me." She pleads with the blonde in front of her. "I want to be with you. I want you to want me just as much as you did five minutes ago. I hated having to be the messenger because I knew there would be a chance that it would mess everything up for us."
Brittany stands in complete silence. Eyes downcast and trying her best not to cry.
"Please look at me. Listen to what I'm telling you, please." Tara refuses to give up. "I want to continue seeing you. I want us to keep getting to know each other. I want to one day be lucky enough to call you my girlfriend."
If this is the last time Brittany gives her an opportunity to speak, she wants to make damn sure she knows all of her truths.
"Please don't let this situation mess all of that up. I want to help. I'm here because this is important. Not only because they're your friends, but because Allison and I, well we consider Santana and Quinn our friends too."
"Tara, I need a minute to wrap my mind around this."
For a moment, Brittany considers what Tara just said.
Of course, she's falling for the redhead. She's falling harder than she ever thought to be possible after Santana, but then she remembers what Jen and Liam have done. How they have purposely caused Quinn and Santana grief, heartache and driven a huge wedge between their friendship; All for their own benefit.
All of a sudden Brittany starts power walking down the hallway with hell in her eyes and determination in every step she takes.
Tara rushes to catch up. Grabbing Brittany's hand, she brings the blonde to an abrupt stop.
"Brittany wait! Where are you going?"
"You know exactly where I'm going and you have two seconds to let me go."
She tries to shake the girls grip but Tara holds on, bringing her other hand to the blonde's shoulder in an attempt to hold her in place.
"This isn't right and we need your help Britt." Tara wraps her arms around Brittany's waist, pulling her close and gently speaking beside her ear. "Please help us figure this out. Please don't push me away. Just wait a minute and let's talk about this."
"Tara I'm not the violent type, but Jennifer is about to see what years of dance have done for my muscle mass."
"I know" Tara states, running soothing circles against the blondes lower back. "I know, ok? And I will let your inner She-Hulk have her moment, but not right now Britt."
She pulls her head back to look into her favorite blue eyes as she speaks.
"Please, let's figure a few things out first and then we can discuss how you will rearrange Jen's face."
She can feel the blonde slightly relax in her arms.
"Jen has no idea who she is fucking with…if Santana finds out what's been going on…"
"I know, I know…Snixx, right?" Tara chuckles as she yet again mentions the Latina's alter ego.
"Ha, yea…Times a hundred." Brittany responds, knowing that Jen won't even be the one that gets the worst of Snixx, "I don't even want to think about what she would do to Liam."
"You think she would be more upset with him than Jen?"
"Tara, I know you and Allison think that Quinn is the only one that's head over heels in love, but Santana is just as much in love with Quinn. Liam has done everything in his power to make sure they don't stand a chance and now I understand why. Does he even like Quinn?"
"Well from what we know he may like her, but it's not love."
"What about Jennifer?" Brittany wonders if Jen ever truly even loved her best friend and it makes her blood boil.
"She claims to love Santana, but it seems she just needs a woman like Santana to help her get validation from her parents. They don't have the best relationship and Jen just has a really messed up way of trying to outdo herself in front of them."
"You know I have to tell San and Quinn, right? I'm not just going to keep quiet Tara, they are my best friends and roommates. So whatever you and Ally think you have in the works, save it. I'm telling them."
"Of course. I understand. All I'm asking is that we come up with a way to not completely screw everything and everyone up around us. We are still in a sorority and with the holidays coming up people have family around and we just don't want total chaos."
It's true. Brittany knows that the Lopez family will be arriving any day now for Thanksgiving and the last thing she wants is for Santana to be a raging mess for the holiday.
"Fine, where's Allison?"
"She's waiting outside. I'm surprised she hasn't come to check on me. She knew I was dreading this conversation."
"Well, I was mad at you" Brittany pouts, shimmying out of the embrace before lacing her fingers with Tara's "But, I get it and I guess I didn't want you to have just been a distraction too. At least not in this situation." She winks at the redhead as they start walking hand in hand.
Brittany has so many things running through her mind, but can't help the flutter in her chest at remembering Tara's earlier statement.
Not wanting to let the girl off the hook so easily, she looks over at Tara, "So you want to call me your girlfriend, huh?"
With wide eyes and a giggling blonde by her side, Tara opens the door leading them out of the building.
Holy shit guys. How long has it been? Years LoL
Started as writers block and then life got in the way.
This was obviously a bit of a filler chapter...we have to ease into this beast.
By the way, shout out to Samantha Harvey and her cover of Naked by James Arthur...if you haven't heard it, check it out on YouTube. You can thank that cover song for ending my writers block and freeing me from my Chasing Memories coma LoL
I PROMISE our girls will be in the next chapter...when will that be uploaded...HmMmMM maybe I need to make sure you guys are still alive and able to review LoL