February

until then

Santana tried to keep her eyes on the lecture, but it was hard when she was busy sketching in her notes. Santana started going to her classes and getting back into her groove. Before she knew it, February had sprung upon her. School came fairly easy to her, primarily due to her incredible memory. Her exceptional memory allowed her to recall events in vivid detail, along with storing away history lessons and math equations. She found herself dreaming about her childhood and family lately. Her Abuela made an appearance in almost all of them.

She'd dream of play-doh, shaping the putty into faces and animals at her Abuela's kitchen table. While she played, she could hear Abuela gossiping to her sister, tía Abuela, in the next room over. "Santana" sometimes she'd listen to them call her over. "Tenemos muchos chisme! You won't believe it!".

Her dreams prompted her to think of her tía Abuela and how heartbroken she must be over losing her sister. Even in her sleep, guilt gnawed at her stomach for not being there for the woman.

But while she was awake, she had much different dreams. Daydreams of silky blonde hair and bright blue eyes plagued her waking mind. She hadn't seen Brittany since their date, but that didn't stop her from thinking of her constantly. They'd been texting regularly and chatted on the phone a few times, but Santana was hesitant to see her again.

The last time she saw the blonde, she spilled all her guts. Why did she do that? Now Brittany knew her deep dark secrets. Santana thought that the girl would see the skeleton behind her skin if she saw her again. Naked exposure was not ideal. She already had enough people in her life who truly knew her; there was Kurt and her mom, and… Kurt.

Either way, Santana didn't sign up for sharing secrets and feelings and shit like that. It was supposed to be easy and light. Still, somehow the pressing sensation that stirred under her sternum when she thought of Brittany revealed that easy and light probably wasn't in the cards for the two of them.

Santana's pencil dragged across the papers as she thought about Brittany and all the reasons why they wouldn't work together. Looking at her doodle creation, she realized that the eyes she'd sketched definitely belonged to a certain someone who she was trying not to think about.

"Fuck." She muttered under her breath, earning a perplexed look from the girl beside her.

"You okay, Santana?" The girl spoke. Lila, one of Santana's many friends around campus, had been trying to get her attention.

"Yeah, did you say something?" She turned to the girl idly.

"I was just wondering if you wanted to get lunch after this with Vince and Vida?"

Lunch with Lila, Vince, and Vida, all acquaintances that she really only knew by face and name. It hardly sounded astounding, but Santana kept up with lots of her peers for a reason- you need all the connections you can get in the fashion industry.

"Sure, sounds fun." She replied with a practiced smile. She was good at being popular; it was easy. It was simple. She didn't have to let anyone in her brain to achieve the "campus friend" relationship.

Simple would be the word she would describe the conversation she'd found herself in on the patio of a soup and sandwich restaurant a half-hour later. Her companions would gossip, and she'd pretend that she gave a shit.

"Did you hear that Cora is entering for the internship now? She's a bitch, but she's crafty. I don't need her ruining my shot at it." Vida whined.

"What internship?" Santana asked absently, picking at her nails.

"Well-" Vince and Vida started at the same time. The twins had a habit of speaking over and finishing each other's sentences.

"There's this HUGE competition put on by the CFDA, and the winner gets an internship with them. Rumor has it that they're picking one of their interns to design a dress for New York Fashion Week!" Vince chattered excitedly.

"Why'd you tell Santana? Now we can forget about any shot we had before." Lila muttered, only half-joking.

New York Fashion Week? Santana wondered how she hadn't heard about this before. She immediately knew that she needed to win the internship. She pulled out her laptop and swiftly typed out details of the internship into google.

"Santanaaa," Lila whined. "Between you and Cora, we'll never stand a chance in this thing."

"Not my problem." Santana replied shortly, absorbing the words on the website with concentration.

At Lila's offended scoff, Santana looked up. She really didn't mean to be rude to others; sometimes it just happened… a lot. She wasn't going to apologize for something she wasn't sorry about, though, so she simply gave the girl a shrug before focusing back on her laptop.

Vida spoke up after a beat of stiff silence, the only movement between the group being Lila's arms going up to cross dramatically in front of her chest.

"Not with that attitude, you won't win. Wasn't one of your New Year's resolutions to take what you wanted?"

Just like that, a smile crept up on Lila's face. "You're right, Vida, I got this," She assured. "So, what's your New Year's resolution, Santana?"

She knew it was a light attempt to make amends from their little spat, and Santana complied, not caring enough to argue.

Thinking back to the question, she remembered Brittany. She told her that her goal was to stop relying on other people, which she immediately broke by sharing her burdens on their date. She didn't see how she could achieve her goal if the blonde continued to make her feel like she could say anything around her. She didn't see how she could have Brittany in her life without getting too attached to her. Her head spun at the thought of letting someone else in right now because she could lose them at any given moment. Tomorrow is not promised.

This is why she decided to stick with her original resolution.

"To be more independent." She simplified her answer.

Pulling up to her childhood home never failed to send a wave of nostalgia gushing through Brittany's senses. Long rows of colorful houses, packed closely together, contrasted with the dull cloudy sky. She had endless memories of the place and was currently visiting to celebrate her dad's birthday party.

Pierce wasn't her biological father, which was made evident by his short frame and dark features as opposed to her tall height and blondeness. More noticeably, he was Asian, and she was not. 8-year-old Brittany must not have noticed the differences because when they told her that they weren't biologically related, she cried for 3 days straight. He was always her dad, though. Pierce and her mother met while she was pregnant with Brittany, and they'd been a family ever since.

She walked up the driveway towards the pale yellow house, and before she could knock, a gust of wind blew into her face from the force of the front door swinging open.

"Britt!" Smiling eyes greeted her brightly. Brittany's little sister, Brooklyn, captured her in a hug.

"Brooke," Brittany gasped, pulling back to look at the younger girl. "Your hair!"

Since she last saw her sister, her long, silky, brown hair had been chopped, her hair now curling to a crop just under her chin. Though the extensive length of her light brown hair was one of her most prominent features, her shorter cut framed around her face just as elegantly.

"I got it done last night," Brooklyn informed, bringing her hands up to pose playfully on her face. "What do you think?"

"It's gorgeous," Brittany complimented. "You look so mature. Slow down on the whole growing up thing."

"I'm 16. That's practically grown." She responded, earning a raised eyebrow in return.

Brittany went to ruffle Brooke's hair, but a quick hand stopped her. Brooklyn dragged her sister into the house by the arm, rolling her eyes.

As soon as she walked into the threshold of the house, Brittany could smell her Halmeoni's seaweed soup. Being blended into a half-Korean family meant that she called her grandparents on her fathers' side "Halmeoni and Harabeoji." It also meant enduring rude comments and shameless stares in public growing up. Kids would ask why she didn't look like her dad or why her sister had "Chinese eyes," but she didn't dwell on the comments too much. People's opinions of her family did not stop her from loving them and all of the Korean traditions that they shared.

Which is why the smell of miyeokguk (seaweed soup) made Brittany brighten with familiarity.

"Brittany! You made it!" Whitney, her mother, exclaimed, wrapping her daughter in a bear hug. Her mother's hugs were the best until she started to squeeze so hard that the receiver could feel their bones shifting and cracking.

"Ah, okay, mom, I missed you too." She murmured while trying to break free of the hold. Brittany loved it, though, and it had been some time since she'd seen her family. "How was your New Year?"

Whitney went into a long and detailed description of how the Pierce's spent the holiday at the neighbors' get-together; and how the other neighbors called the police on them for having illegal fireworks and playing Billy Ray Cyrus irrationally loud. If anyone else were telling the story, it would be mundane to Brittany, but her mother always told stories most extravagantly, managing to make watching paint dry amusing.

As they walked further into the house toward the kitchen, the voices of her father and his parents got clearer and louder. She also recognized the neighbors' voices who held said New Year's party, John and Dianne.

After being greeted and hugged by her family (including her dad and his cone-shaped birthday hat), Brittany settled into one of the kitchen stools feeling comfortable surrounded by the chatter of the party and checked her phone expectantly. Texting Santana became one of her favorite elements of the day. She smiled when she saw that Santana had responded to her last text. Apparently, her grin took up too much room on her face because Brooklyn stuck her head over Brittany's shoulder to see what had her cheesing so hard.

"Who are you texting?" Brooklyn smirked while grabbing at Brittany's phone.

"None of your business, you little gnome," Brittany muttered while fending off her sister. She and Brooklyn usually confided in each other when it came to dating and crushes, but Brittany debated whether she should spill the beans about Santana and risk relentless teasing. Sugar had been unsurprisingly too self-absorbed lately to be any help in really listening to any of Brittany's rants, so she decided to spill.

"Come on, Britt, there's no way you got that look on your face because your phone is reminding you to update it. Who was it?" Brooke asks, relenting in her physical attempts to take the phone.

At Brittany's surrendering sigh, Brooke happily plopped down on the stool next to her expectantly. "Don't leave out any details; my love life has been dryer than the Sahara, so this is all I have." Brooklyn jokes.

Rolling her eyes fondly, Brittany began recalling. She lowered her voice even though everyone else was paying attention to conversations of their own.

"Well, it started on New Year's Eve-" Is all Brittany could get out before her sister loudly let out an adoring "awww,". The party turned their heads in the direction of the loud coo. She apologized absently and leaned closer to Brittany.

"This is already giving Netflix Original love story. I need to hear the rest." Brooklyn giggled.

"I'm not sure if that's a compliment or a criticism…." Brittany said thoughtfully, drumming her fingers on the counter. She knew that Brooklyn was at the age where she romanticized anything and everything, so she didn't mind the giddiness that came with it.

"Compliment, go." Brooklyn urged impatiently, her grin still soft on her face.

"Okay, well, I was at this club on New Year, and I saw her, and she was just… like temptingly gorgeous." Brooklyn didn't bat an eye at the feminine pronouns; she was used to her sister dating girls. The whole family knew about her antics- she wasn't exactly secretive or even reserved at all about it.

"So we danced for a bit-"

"Like Cinderella at the ball dancing or like lesbian Magic Mike dancing?" Brooklyn teased while barely holding in a chuckle.

"If you keep interrupting, we'll be gray and old by the time I finish." Brittany deadpanned with a flick to Brooklyn's ear.

"Okay, just one more question." Brooke requested sans the teasing, scooting back in case another flick to the ear was issued. Brittany arched an eyebrow in allowance. "What does she look like?"

Brittany grinned. Describing Santana was easy since she couldn't go long without picturing the girl in her head. "She's Hispanic. She's got this long, dark hair, and it looks shiny and fluffy at the same time somehow. Her eyes are so dark, I don't think I've ever seen eyes as dark as hers, it's like I get what people mean when they say eyes are the windows to the soul when I look at hers, which is funny because she always talks about my eyes and how blue they are, but I don't think mine could hold a candle to hers-"

"Okay, I know you said no more interruptions, but you're rambling, Britt." Brooklyn pointed out with amusement.

"Sorry," Brittany whispered, a light blush coloring her face. Talking about Santana stirred something warm deep in her stomach; Brittany craved the feeling. Suddenly the strong urge to see Santana again took over.

Brittany finished telling all of the details, secretly enjoying all of her sister's silly comments and interjections. Brooklyn seemed to approve of Santana based on Brittany's telling of events. It delighted Brittany more than she knew how to handle. The thought of Santana meeting her family one day caused her heart to skip two consecutive beats. She knew that she was probably catching feelings too fast, certainly faster than she ever had before. Still, she couldn't help it, and she was never one to stifle her feelings.

They sang "Happy Birthday" and cut into the cake. Brittany was pleasantly surprised that her parents hadn't yet complained or commented on her choice to continue streaming. The last time she'd seen them, she promised to think about going back to school, knowing full well that it wasn't happening.

When it was time to open presents, Whitney asked her daughters to help bring her gift in from the backyard.

"What the hell is that?" Brittany muttered when they arrived on the patio.

"Language," Whitney scolded. "It's a robot sculpture! Pierce will love it, don't you think?"

Admittedly, the odd, rusty sculpture did look right up his alley, even if Brittany wasn't quite sure where they would put it. She couldn't blame Brooke when she claimed that she wouldn't be able to sleep if the figure was placed anywhere near her room.

As they started to pick up the sculpture, Whitney's ambush began.

"So, did you give school another thought?" She asked casually when the sculpture started to lift from the ground. Brittany let out a quiet sigh and gripped the statue harder.

"I haven't, mom."

"You said you'd think about it, Britt. I just wish you would start considering your career." Whitney huffed.

Brittany could feel Brooke's curious eyes on her even though her face was blocked by the robot. Stopping once they got into the doorway, the trio set the sculpture down, and Whitney looked at Brittany expectantly.

"It's dad's birthday. Can we not do this right now?" Brittany sighed.

With a disappointed "mom" glance, Whitney left the room to get back to the party. Brittany leaned back onto the counter, her jaw clenched. She didn't know why her parents didn't want her to be happy. They surely remembered how much she hated school; she struggled with keeping her grades all of high school. Not having to do that for the past 3 years had been so freeing. She knew that they just wanted her to be successful, but it was overbearing, and it made her a little insecure about what she was trying to achieve with her streaming.

"Why do you do that?" Brooklyn asked, her body facing the door and away from Brittany.

"Do what?" Brittany responded idly.

"You just let them walk all over you. Why don't you ever stand your ground or something? Tell them no?" Brooklyn turned toward her sister, and something that resembled pity or anger shone subtly in her eyes.

Brittany couldn't find words to reply, so she simply walked past the younger girl and returned to the party.

Lazy Sunday had to be Santana's favorite part of the week. It was the leading reason she still believed in a God because it was a blessing that she could only describe as heavenly. She worked her ass off during the week, keeping up with classes, extra designing, maintaining a social life, and now trying to bag the internship. No matter how much she had going on, she dedicated Sundays to doing absolutely nothing. No homework, no cooking, no designing, no driving- nothing. She mostly spent it sprawled across the couch watching whatever show she'd been binging, eating pizza or some other crappy food she'd have delivered. Sometimes Kurt would join her, but even he couldn't reach the level of pure laze, calling it her "vegetative state."

Usually, when she got a phone call on Sundays, she'd immediately decline it unless it was Kurt or her mother, and that was only because they knew not to call on Sundays unless it was an emergency. So when her phone buzzed loudly against the coffee table during her Euphoria binge, she picked it up with full intent to ignore it. When she read the number, she couldn't help but notice the area code, which belonged to the part of Texas that she grew up in. She also noticed that it was a Facetime call and not a regular one. Not knowing what to expect, she pointed the camera at the ceiling fan and reluctantly answered the phone with an annoyed hello.

"Santana?" A soft voice whispered. Before she could respond, dark eyes popped into the frame and stared into the displayed ceiling fan. A tan teenage face was revealed when the camera shifted back, a girl wearing eyeliner sharper than kitchen knives.

It had been nearing five years since she'd seen her little cousin Valeria, but she was sure that the girl who'd just whispered her name through the phone was her. The last time she'd seen her, Valeria had been no older than 11, still growing into her plushy features. The girl on her screen now looked like the same child but developed angularly where roundness used to be. If Santana had any doubt, though, the small ovalish birthmark above the girl's eyebrow confirmed her identity.

"Valeria?" Santana stuttered in disbelief, finally bringing herself into the camera's frame.

"Oh my god, it worked!" Valeria chattered quietly as if she was trying not to wake someone up. She smiled brightly. "Hi, Santana!"

"Hey." Santana started, a confused grin stretching at her lips. "You're so big now… how did you get my number?"

"I had to snoop through my mom's phone to find it. I'm just glad you still have the same number." Valeria hushed.

"You always were a sneaky little munchkin, huh?" Santana teased, and the familiarity sent a dull pang through her chest. She hadn't talked to, let alone teased any of her little cousins in what felt like ages. She remembered how she'd take little Valeria up to the ice cream shop since it was so close to their Abuela's house. Her younger cousin would always get the rainbow flavor, and half of it would end up a sticky mess on her face.

Only offering a smile in response, Valeria's expression sobered, and she steered the conversation elsewhere.

"I was hoping to see you at Abuela's funeral." She whispered cautiously, looking down at her hands. Santana couldn't have been shocked at the topic of the funeral coming up. She wasn't quite sure if her family knew about Abuela's request for her not to show or not.

Santana gulped and scoured her mind to think of an appropriate response. She didn't know if Valeria knew why Santana left or if she would even accept her. Even if she did, she didn't want to harm her relationship with her family if she knew how bad they treated her.

"I couldn't make it, prima." Santana finally responded, trying to convey her apology through her tone.

Accepting that she wasn't going to get more out of Santana regarding the funeral, Valeria nodded, her bouncily curled hair going everywhere with the movement.

"Well, I just wanted to see how you were doing and all since it's been so long. You look really pretty."

Santana smiled into the camera. "So do you. Who taught you how to do makeup like that? I feel like your eyeliner could cut me through the screen."

"Youtube." She returned the grin. "I remember you always used to have fancy makeup. It's part of the reason that I started learning so young."

Santana smiled wider, but Valeria opened her mouth to speak again before she could respond.

"Why did you leave? I know you went to college, but you haven't even visited once. And I used to hear the Tías whispering about what happened with you, but I never really knew what happened, but now it's like you don't even exist. If I ever try to as,k I just get hushed or told not to worry about it, or just told that you're away at college, but I know it's more than that. It's like they all just pretend you're dead or something." Valeria whispered sharply

Santana's chest panged again, heavier. She figured her absence was avoided in her family, but to hear it confirmed in words was another thing. The people who raised her, kept her safe, loved her, moved on without a blink. She didn't understand how they could move on so seamlessly when she still thought about them every day.

"Valeria…" Santana sighed.

"No, don't give me B.S. like the rest of them. Everyone treats me like a kid, but I can handle it." Valeria insisted.

"Valeria," Santana exhaled. "I'm a lesbian."

Silence. 8 seconds simmered for an eternity as she waited for Valeria's response. Santana couldn't take the silence, so she filled it with more words.

"Abuela and my Papi stopped speaking to me, turned the others against me, so I had no reason to come back. That's why I left." She spoke through clenched teeth.

"Oh"

"Well, if you were to ever come back, I'd still wanna see you," Valeria responded simply.

"Thanks." Santana gave a half-smile, but she was more pleased than she let on. A stream of relief swam through her nerves.

"Oh yeah, and another thing," Valeria chattered like they didn't just have a serious conversation. "You live in San Francisco, right?"

"Right."

"Well, I wanna go to school down there, and I had an idea; what if I came to stay with you and toured some of the colleges? Right now, my top pick is San Francisco State." Valeria exclaimed, tapping her long nails against each other.

"I dunno, would your mom really go for that? I doubt she'd exactly consider me a trustworthy role model." Santana quirked an eyebrow.

The camera was abruptly moved around until a tiny chubby hand appeared in the frame.

"Cocomelon!" A baby voice babbled.

"Nito, stop." Valeria's voice poured endearingly through the phone speakers.

"Sorry, I had to use my little brother's iPad to call you. My mami took my phone because she caught me snooping around in hers when I was finding your number."

"You have a little brother?" Santana asked incredulously.

"Oh yeah, meet Benito." Valeria panned until the toddler popped into view.

Santana smiled and waved at the drooling child, earning her a wave back. So much had changed since she left Texas. Her family was growing in numbers and in age, all without her.

"Anyways," Valeria snatched the iPad back and set it back on her face. "I'll figure out how to convince her one way or another, but I wanted to ask you first, so in theory… could I?" Valeria pouted into the camera.

"You're welcome to visit any time, but good luck getting your mother to ship you off across the country to stay with me." Santana laughed bitterly.

"Perfect!" Valeria laughed. "Don't worry, I'll figure something out. I gotta go, though. I'll talk to you later when I get my phone back, bye Santana."

"Bye, prima."

The call ended, and Santana was left to sift through foggy emotions. Her cousin was doing well and even reached out to her and accepted her, but knowing that the family pretended that she was never a part of it left a lump in her throat. If it was that easy to leave her behind, how important was she to them in the first place?

Disposable. That was the word Santana would use to describe how she felt about herself while sitting at the fabric boutique the next day. The word fluttered around her head as her fingers tapped the back of her phone while she waited for her fabric to be measured.

She unlocked her phone and went to her texts with Brittany. They made her smile without realizing it. She really liked Brittany, so when she impulsively sent the text that she did on that Monday afternoon, she couldn't tell you exactly why.

[Santana]: I think we should just be friends.

After two minutes of waiting, staring at the message, the three little dots popped up, indicating that Brittany was typing.

Then they disappeared.

Then they came back. Dancing on Santana's screen, just to taunt her.

The typing bubbles came back about four more times, and finally,

[Brittany]: where are you?

Not expecting that response, she simply sent her location pin. Without acknowledging Santana's text, Brittany told her to meet her at a nearby boba shop.

Santana's text was so… sudden. As Brittany sat in the modern boba shop, sipping at her drink and tapping her foot restlessly, she tried to think of what she had done wrong.

Racking her brain for an answer, her thoughts drifted to the fact that she was a streamer. Maybe Santana thought it was too stupid or something. Perhaps it was because she was a bit spacey sometimes, but the amused glint in Santana's eye that appeared when she made an odd comment had Brittany convinced that Santana wasn't too bothered by it. Did she have bad breath? Was she too loud? Too quiet?

Before she could settle on one imperfection to blame, the girl in question strolled in through the glass doors. Though it was the most casual Brittany had seen her yet, her outfit was still stylish and intentional. She wore browns and beiges and flared sleeves, and Brittany wondered if the girl even owned a pair of sweatpants.

Brittany smiled, but her compliment died on her tongue when she remembered that she didn't know exactly where she stood with Santana. Unsure what to say instead, she offered a quiet hey.

"Did you want to order?" Brittany asked, her eyes focusing on the yellow straw in her drink. After a couple seconds of no verbal response, Brittany finally lifted her eyes to look at Santana, who merely shook her head no. The silence was almost as thick as the pressure in Brittany's chest.

She didn't think through what she would say once Santana got there, which she regretted immensely. All she knew was that she needed to see her in person to clear up the abrupt message she had gotten earlier. Maybe she hoped it was just a glitch or that someone had taken Santana's phone. That it was a lie. The fact that the dark-haired girl still hadn't spoken a word upon arrival led Brittany to believe that she had sent the message on her own devices.

After taking another sip of her drink while keeping her curious eyes on Santana, she finally cleared her throat to begin speaking.

"So… you think we should just be friends?" Brittany asked cautiously. When she only received a silent nod back, it was clear that Santana wouldn't be opening up any time soon. The blonde leaned back in her chair with a heavy sigh and arched her eyebrow at Santana in question.

Santana knew she probably looked like an idiot, sitting there with her mouth seemingly stapled shut. Still, she couldn't conjure any words to explain herself when she didn't know the reason behind her actions. It was impulsive, and now that she was sitting face-to-face with the consequences of her own actions, she realized that she probably could have thought it through before she sent the text.

But it was Santana, and Santana never went back on her word, even if she had to bullshit her way through things. Which is exactly what she did.

"Look, I'm really just not in the right headspace for dating right now." Santana finally spoke, building up a wall of feigned nonchalance, one that she was sure Brittany could see right through. "Plus, it's just been so busy between school and worrying about grad stuff and this internship I'm working on. It's just a lot, you know?"

And Brittany did know. She knew firsthand how stressful having a lot on her plate could be. Still, she wasn't convinced that it was the real reason for Santana's impulsive behavior. Still, she replied with an understanding I get that, for she was never one to be pushy.

"So you're sure it was nothing I did?" Brittany asked softly, her eyes going back to the bright yellow straw.

"Wha- no, no, of course not, Britt." The use of the nickname went unnoticed by Santana, but Brittany couldn't help but acknowledge how much she wanted Santana to shorten her name like that more often. "You're amazing; I mean, you're funny, beautiful, and your eyes, I mean come on, you should seriously be an eye model or something." Santana continued, her lips curving into a soft grin.

Returning the smile, Brittany nodded and stirred her drink. She was less than thrilled to be friend-zoned on a Monday afternoon, but a friendship with Santana was going to have to be good enough.

"I remember your goal, you know," Brittany spoke.

"What goal?"

"You didn't wanna need anyone."

Santana looked up, expecting to see pity in the other girl's expression, but all she found was a tender empathy. Shifting the attention off of her, Santana spoke again.

"Well, how's your goal going? Are you any happier?"

"I am." Brittany smiled. "My streaming is going kinda good. You should check it out."

"Can't believe you get paid to play video games. You must have a lot of fun with that, huh?" Santana wondered absently. "I feel like there would be a bunch of sexist assholes creeping around Twitch tho."

"Oh, there are definitely some weirdos online. One time a guy threatened to sneak into my house and disassemble all of my appliances if I didn't show my feet. but the good outweighs the bad most of the time."

"Wait, you didn't do it, right?" Santana snickered.

"Do what?" Brittany cocked her head.

"Show your feet," Santana whispered, but loudly enough for the woman behind the counter to give them an odd look, causing the two to burst into laughter.

"No, God." Brittany giggled, shoving at Santana's shoulder playfully.

The two sat there for a bit longer. To anyone else, they looked like friends catching up, not two people trying to navigate a newly friend-zoned relationship. Brittany gave Santana her socials, encouraging her to pop into one of her streams sometime, and in no time, it was time for the pair to part ways. When they got up to leave, a tall man tapping away at his phone ran boba-drink-first into Brittany, spilling brown liquid onto her jeans.

Brittany let out a rushed "sorry" like she usually did when someone bumped into her in public, but Santana wasn't having it.

The man looked down and scoffed, ready to leave like it never happened until Santana exhaled a sharp "excuse me?"

"You aren't going to apologize or anything?" Santana raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry." The man muttered and crossed his arms, dragging the word as if to let the two know that he didn't mean it.

"That's ok," Brittany responded, expecting the interaction to be over.

Rolling her eyes, Santana spoke again, exasperated by the man's inaction. "Well, go get her some napkins."

He turned wordlessly to get napkins, and Santana started snapping her fingers to get him to pick up the pace. By now, she was less annoyed and more toying around with the guy, which Brittany picked up on from the tiny, mischievous grin Santana sent her.

"Have a nice day." The man said sarcastically after handing Brittany the napkins and turning swiftly to leave.

"Prick." Santana laughed under her breath. "You gotta start sticking up for yourself, Britt."

Brittany's stream that night had been filled to the brim. All of her regulars were there, and many new watchers were with them. She was up to 500 viewers, which was more than she'd ever accumulated before, and getting positive reception from the chat. They watched amusedly as she played Minecraft Bedwars, witnessing as she dominated almost every player she came across in the game.

[Hekr390]: these people suck

[Gatortimec87]: POGGSS

[tippyduck0453]: wooo go britt!

Brittany was entirely in her element, playing well and being funny for the livestream, so it was no surprise that the number of live viewers was racking up. In a particularly intense moment, Brittany almost fell off the map but managed to survive and win the round effortlessly. The chat went wild, and unbeknownst to Brittany, someone recorded the moment and posted it to her twitch clips.

Moments like these were why Brittany kept going. She streamed because she loved it, and even though she might not have had tons of friends in real life, connecting with her viewers made her feel so connected. She knew that her parents were blind to the upsides of streaming, blind to her dream, but she kept at it anyway.

That night, she posted the clip from her stream to Tik Tok and went to bed satisfied.

Santana took pride in her social media. A carefully constructed portfolio illustrated The World and Aesthetic of Santana Lopez; Tasteful, social, and promising fashion student who's friends with great photographers, is stylish enough to inspire others to rethink their closets and participates in a respectable amount of social activism. Santana liked social media because she could control precisely how she was portrayed to anyone who stumbled across her online presence. She thought that someone's Instagram page or Twitter account could reveal so much about a person. She considered herself somewhat of an expert on analyzing social media pages.

Which is why it wasn't creepy at all that she was about to go into a thorough deep dive into the online presence of one Brittany Pierce.

"Wait, don't start without me!" Kurt yelled from the kitchen over the loud popping of microwave popcorn. She and Kurt were a particularly messy duo, so stalking people's pages together was a frequent pastime of theirs.

"Don't get your lacy panties in a twist, Miss Priss. I'm waiting." She yelled back.

Kurt came back into the living room with an armful of popcorn and plopped down next to Santana on the couch.

"Are we ready to go stalking?" He asked while shaking up the popcorn.

"It's not stalking. It's just… uncertainty reduction."

"Whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep at night." Kurt quipped, patting her head.

Santana opened up Instagram and typed Brittany's page into the search bar. She found the page quickly since Brittany had given her the user the day before, so she didn't have to resort to becoming an FBI agent and find it based on her name.

BrittzDino had 1,053 followers and 58 posts. She had a couple story highlights which featured gameplay, her other social media links, and one for her cat, titled "LORD TUBBINGTON '' in all caps. Many of her posts were selfies of her in a headset with colored led lights as a background and a caption announcing that she was going live.

"The whole gamer aesthetic kinda works for her, huh?" Kurt mused.

Santana simply nodded in agreement, trying not to acknowledge how cute Brittany looked. Some of the other photos were of her and her cat, or her and the girl that threw up on New Year, or her and a young Asian girl.

After a couple minutes of scrolling, they concluded that the girl was her sister, and she had a few loyal fans who always commented nice things under her photos.

They moved to Twitter, then Facebook, Youtube, Twitch, and even Spotify. Santana and Kurt gathered loads of information from their deep dive, but there were 4 prominent facts. The first was that Brittany's online presence was very organized. She had curated an easy-to-navigate presence where she effectively promoted her streams and youtube videos to anyone who happened to stumble across any of her pages. The second fact was that she was pretty funny and damn good at the games. Santana and Kurt had kind of a hard time navigating Twitch since neither of them was exactly the kind to have ever watched gaming livestreams before. Still, from what they saw, she had very entertaining sessions.

The third piece of information gained was that Brittany was incredibly earnest. Generally, it wasn't a secret that who someone was on social media was the airbrushed version of who they were in real life. Still, Brittany managed to maintain a realness, even through the screen. She was mindful, sweet, and a bit off-kilter, which translated firmly online. It showed in the way she gave thanks to all compliments answered questions genuinely no matter how stupid they were. Santana didn't know how the girl did it, being nice to everyone even though they hadn't earned her kindness. She did it without getting anything in return.

The last tip they learned was that she loved one thing in the world more than anything– her cat Lord Tubbington. Tubbington was a fitting name because Santana thought that his diet must consist purely of large tubs of ice cream. Kurt mentioned that the cat could "easily pass for a walrus," but Brittany seemed to adore him despite his large size. She posted about him often, and her followers seemed to love him just as much as she did.

Besides her weird fat cat, Santana and Kurt couldn't find any significant faults or oddities, but they still had Tik Tok to check.

"I swear if her Tik Tok is full of videos of this damn cat…." Kurt muttered.

When they opened her Tik Tok, their attention wasn't drawn to the chunky cat but instead her latest video… which had 5.7 Million views.

"Holy shit." Santana blinked. Brittany had a good amount of followers and interaction on her other pages, but nothing like this. They watched it and were confused as to what was actually happening because of their lack of gaming experience, but according to the comments, it was really impressive.

"She posted this last night. It must have gone viral instantly." Kurt pointed out, still holding the now-empty popcorn bowl.

"Jesus… well, that'll probably get her some new viewers." Santana laughed.

"Santana, you're gonna be dating someone famous!" Kurt smiled mischievously.

Santana punched him in the shoulder. "I told you we aren't dating. I'm just friends with her." She said while deflating into the couch.

"Right… that's why we just stalked her online for an hour and a half because you're 'just friends with her'"

In response to that comment, the only thing Kurt received was Santana crossing her arms and looking away.

"Look if this is about Dani-" He softened, abruptly cut off by the dark-haired girl next to him.

"It's not." She insisted.

"Santana, she cheated on you. She fucked someone else while you were in a relationship, and that was sad, but you gotta move on, hun. Don't let one bad experience hinder you from having good ones."

Santana knew that her hesitance didn't come from Dani's betrayal (at least mostly), but she didn't wanna unpack that with Kurt at the moment, so she just stayed silent.

"Whenever you wanna talk about it." Kurt finally ended the conversation, squeezing her knee and getting up to go put away the popcorn bowl. He then put on his coat and grabbed his keys.

"Where are you going?" Santana asked curiously from the couch.

"Oh, now she speaks." Kurt laughed. "Just going to see this guy I met on tinder."

"Okay, I don't see how you're qualified to give me relationship advice when all of your relationships end after one night of Manlove."

Kurt rolled his eyes, already walking out the door, offering a flat "Bye, Santana."

Santana laughed to herself and got up to go do her night routine. She joked around about it, but Kurt was seriously starting to rack numbers up in his hookup count. She thought about how if he continued like he was, she'd finally get to ambush him with an intervention instead of the other way around. She went to bed planning her revenge that night, detailing the steps of a "Tindervention".

Thank you for reading! Again, comments and criticisms are welcomed :). Yes, I know this chapter is called February yet it's the 2nd of March :o . I was unfortunately late in getting this chapter up due to me moving and getting started in the school semester. I'm all settled in, so hopefully i'll be on time for the rest of the chapters :DD. I am aiming to get the chapters uploaded sometime during the month, so be expecting that from now on! You all can follow my tumblr (indigokiwis) for any updates or questions you wanna ask :)