A tickling sensation under my nose causes me to wake up. The hell is that?
I bring my hand up to rub my upper lip, and what I feel reminds me of everything that happened the night prior. I slowly blink open my eyes to see Brittany's head tucked into the corner of my neck and her arm draped over my midsection.
She's still asleep.
Has anyone ever looked so beautiful while they slept? I always either have drool dried on the side of my face or my hair going wild in all directions when I wake up.
At the thought, my hand shoots up to my cheek to make sure no slobber leaked out overnight.
Whew. We're all good.
Looking down at her, she looks so peaceful. So carefree. Part of me wants to ensure she always stays this way. The thought of this girl being stressed, angry, or upset in any way makes me feel this sense of protection over her. To never have her be anything other than happy.
Being bold, I move my hand over toward the side of her face. I gently brush a strand of hair out of her face and trail my hand down the length of her it. When I reach the end, I twirl it around my finger and marvel at the softness.
Taking a closer look at her face, I never realized she had freckles. And quite a few of them too. There are so many things I don't know about her yet. I really hope I'll get to find them out one day.
My thoughts are interrupted when I see a little movement in her eyelids. Shit! She can't catch me staring at her…that's creepy.
What do I do? Do I pretend to be asleep? Usually, you can tell when someone's fake sleeping though, and that'd be really embarrassing if she caught me.
I decide to just look away and turn my attention to the wall directly in the front of my line of vision.
I can feel more than see when she opens her eyes and lifts her head off of me, and I'm honestly a little sad at the loss of contact.
She pulls her arm back from around my midsection and stretches it out. I think it's safe to look over at her now.
"Morning," She says when we make eye contact. She has a small smile on her face.
"Morning."
"How long have you been up for?"
"Just a few minutes. I didn't want to move and wake you up. You looked really comfortable,"
"Sorry," She sits up and looks down shyly. "I'm a really big cuddler."
I couldn't help but smile at how adorable that is.
"No need to apologize…I actually slept better than I usually do." I reassure. And it's true…I slept better last night than I have in a long time, including these past few days when I was unconscious.
She doesn't say anything in response, but instead looks up and gives me a thankful smile.
She stands from the bed and brushes her hands through her hair. She then moves over to her overnight bag on the table and takes out a small shower caddy.
"I'm just going to brush my teeth and wash my face really quick." She looks over to the wall at the clock hanging there. "Tina should be here in about half an hour, so I'll hurry so you can get in here before she comes."
"Thanks," I respond as she disappears into the room and shuts the door behind her.
While I'm sat alone, I think about last night with Brittany. I've never enjoyed watching a movie that much. Just something about laying there and relaxing with her struck a chord in me. I don't know what about this girl is causing me to feel this way, but I know I don't want it to stop.
Should I ask her to hang out? Even as friends. I just know that I want to get to know her better, and I want her in my life in any capacity.
A few seconds later, the bathroom door opens and Brittany comes out wearing a hoodie and leggings combo. It amazes me how stunning she can look in even the most effortless outfit.
I pull myself together before she notices me looking at her and sit up from the bed to grab my clothes and head to the bathroom myself. When I walk in, I see a disposable toothbrush and tiny toothpaste on the sink that I assume the staff left for me.
I quickly brush my teeth and splash some water over my face before putting my hair up into a messy bun. I don't have a change of clothes, so I just put back on the outfit I had on the day I came in here.
As I walk out, I see Brittany sitting on the edge of the bed, going through her phone. When I get closer, she looks up and smiles at me.
"Hey, ready to go home?"
"Yea, I miss my bed," I say with a chuckle. "Last night was fun though, and I slept really well…despite the hard mattress."
"Me too," She gives me a soft smile and pats the mattress next to her, signaling for me to sit down.
I take a seat next to her and we sit in silence for a moment.
"I had a really good time last night…even though we didn't really do anything special." She says with a chuckle. "You're really cool, Santana," She turns to face me, "And I'd love to get to know you more."
Holy shit…can she read my mind or something? I mean, I'm not that cool.
"I feel the same way," I return with a smile. I'm not too sure what to say next, so we just hold eye contact for what seems like forever, yet still not long enough.
I eventually have to look away before I do something stupid, like lean in to kiss her, and push her away.
"Do you want to exchange numbers?" I ask instead.
"Yea, that'd be great!"
She picks her phone back up and unlocks it before handing it to me. I put my number in the keypad and hand it back to her. I see her typing something out before hitting the power button.
"There. I texted you so you'll have my number."
"Thanks," I look around the room, "But I don't even know where my phone is."
"I think Tina took it home the first night you were in here. She said something about not wanting it to go dead and get lost." She says.
That makes sense. Tina's constantly micromanaging and worrying about the littlest things, even when there are bigger things at stake.
"Sounds about right," I nod my head, "It's not like I needed it anyways," I add with a chuckle.
She doesn't say anything in response, but looks down at her lap where her hands are wringing together. It's almost like she's nervous, but what could she possibly be nervous about?
"I'll make sure to save your number when I get back to my phone though, don't worry," I reassure, in case that's what's making her anxious.
She looks back up at me and nods her head with a smile. She opens her mouth to say something but she's effectively interrupted by a door busting open.
"Good morningggg!" I hear Tina's too-chipper-for-the-morning voice echo throughout the room. "Ready to go? I already signed you out at the nurse's station, so we're all set!"
Is that even legal? It's best to not question it though…classic Tina.
Brittany stands up from the bed and turns around to offer me a hand up, which I gladly take. I give her a soft smile that she returns before looking over her shoulder at Tina and nodding my head.
"Great!" She claps her hands together before turning on her heels and walking out the door. "I'll pull the car around…Brittany, will you lead her out of here? She doesn't know the way out and this place is like a maze."
"Of course."
Tina smiles and leaves the room, leaving Brittany and me alone again.
"Well, we don't want to keep her waiting," Brittany says as she grabs my hand and starts walking down the hallway.
I know it's going to sound crazy, but it's like my skin lit on fire when she grabbed my hand. It was in a good way, definitely in a good way, but I've never felt anything like it. I think when I got shocked by that forcefield, I still didn't feel this much electricity going through my body.
We take our time getting out front, just chatting along the way. By the time we get to the front entrance, I feel dizzy. I don't know if it's because of how many turns we had to take, or because of the contact I have with Brittany. Maybe a mixture of both.
As expected, Tina's car is parked under the awning as she and Mike are leaning against the side of it.
"Bout time!" She rolled her eyes and jumped in the driver's seat. Mike smiled and gave me a wave before walking around to the passenger side and getting in.
"Where are you parked?" I turn to Brittany.
"Oh, just over there," She pointed to a giant parking lot over on the left-hand side.
"That seems like a pretty far walk…do you want a ride to your car?" I offer.
"No, I'm good," She waves her hand through the air. "It won't kill me to walk a little ways…thanks for the offer, though." She gives me a warm smile that I happily return.
"Alright…I guess I'll see you later then?" The question comes out more hopeful than I'd have like. Gee, Santana…way to be cool.
Her eyebrows perk up and she nods with a bright smile, looking just as eager as I am. Yay!
"Looking forward to it," I say as I start walking towards the car.
"Wait-" I hear behind me and feel a hand gently grab my wrist.
I turn back around and glance curiously at the blonde, who looks a little flustered.
"Is it okay if I give you a hug?" She asks shyly.
My heart practically melts at the question. Instead of answering, I step forward and wrap my arms around her back, effectively bringing her into a hug.
I feel her arms wrap around my neck and squeeze for a second before we both let go.
"I'll see you later, Santana," She says as she starts walking backward in the direction of her car.
"Yea, see you later, Britt," I wave. After she fully turned around I couldn't help the goofy smile that took over my face as I watched her walk away.
When I turn back to the car, I see Tina and Mike smirking at me from inside with their window rolled down. Tina starts wiggling her eyebrows up and down, teasing me.
"Oh shut it, Cohen-Chang. You're just jealous because you're stuck with Mike."
"Hey!" I hear Mike call from the passenger seat as I open the back door and get inside the car.
/
The car ride home consisted of Mike trying to explain to me exactly what happened during the accident, but he's speaking in geek so I'm not following along with everything. Eventually, I get enough of it.
"Okay, Boy Chang! Speaking as I'm fluent in two languages, I'm pretty good at understanding and adapting to new languages, and yet I have no fucking clue what you're saying! So how about you use English and dumb it down for the normal people? That would be much appreciated!" I say with mock enthusiasm.
Mike's smart enough to not snap back, so he just takes a deep breath before continuing with what he was trying to explain.
"Basically, what I was trying to say was that when the forcefield malfunctioned and started glitching, parts of the forcefield started to open and close, causing gaps or breaks in the barrier. Well, you know it has a magnetic effect since you saw the bullet sticking to it, so you'll understand this part. When you got closer than the allotted distance I gave you, the forcefield attracted you into it. You must've had metal on your person somewhere, or else it wouldn't have sucked you in like that."
Okay, that part made sense. When I was extremely little, and just learning to walk, I remember my parents telling me I broke my arm in three places when I was trying to come down the front steps on the porch. I obviously don't remember it, but they said I got through the front door when they left it open to bring groceries from their recent shopping trip inside, and I fell down the concrete steps. Because it was so badly broken, I had to get a metal splint in my arm…and it's still there to this day.
"But you didn't just get attracted to it. When it pulled you in, your body got stuck in an opening it created from the glitch. You flew into an open hole, and it closed around you at just the right time, sending energy all throughout your body. It's impeccable timing really. We probably couldn't do that again if we tried."
You'd think it'd affect me more than it did, but I surprisingly didn't feel much of anything hearing about the accident. It's probably a good thing, really, because then I might not have to deal with the mental scars situations like this leave.
"Yea, well, if you do wind up trying to recreate what happened, all I ask is that I'm not involved this time." I roll my eyes, earning a smirk from Tina through the rearview mirror.
/
When we get back to the apartment building, I head on up to our place while Tina falls behind to check the mail. We dropped Mike off at his dance class on the way home.
I place my shoes neatly by the front door and head into the kitchen to get a bottle of water. Looking around, the place looks a little foreign. I haven't been gone for very long, but it feels like I've been gone forever and now have to get reacquainted with my own apartment.
Tina walks in shortly after and comes in the kitchen with her head down, reading and flipping through the envelopes. After a moment she gives me a short stack that looks like 2-3 letters before throwing away the junk mail.
"Bills are due next Friday. You still good for 'em?" She asks as she puts two small envelopes in the kitchen drawer.
"Tina, I only missed 4 days of work…yes, I'm still good to pay my share."
"Just checking…you know I don't mind covering if I need to." She says before walking out of the kitchen.
Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if I didn't have someone like Tina. She's truly always there for anything I could need, and I couldn't wish for anything better.
I flip through the few pieces of mail in my hand. One's from my job wishing me the best in my recovery, one's from Mike's company, formally apologizing for what happened, and the last one's from…
I stare down at the envelope in my hand and feel a rush of mixed emotions run through my veins. Anger, sadness, vengenace…guilt.
Maribel Lopez is written in bold letters in the center of the envelope. Why would she send me a letter? Why now? Did she suddenly decide to care?
I stare at the piece of paper in my hands for another moment before I feel a surge of anger rush through me. I tear the letter in half, and in half again, before dumping it in the recycle bin.
Part of me wants to cry, and part of me wants to kick the shit out of something. So many emotions were coming through all at once, and it was causing me to shake and feel lightheaded.
Before I could even register what happened, the kitchen drawers flew open and all the silverware were flying through the air towards me. The refrigerator shuffled out of its place in the wall, but was still anchored by the cord plugged into the outlet.
My reflexes kicked in in what seemed to be the knick of time, and I threw my hands out to cover my face and block the mass of metal that was headed towards me.
I stood there tensed and ready to take whatever pain would come when they made contact with my skin, but nothing ever came. I peeked my eyes out over my hands to see everything floating in mid air. Spoons, forks, knives, spatulas…anything metal that was in sight was floating frozen still around me.
I slowly lowereed my hands down…and the objects moved with it. Weird. I moved my hands back up, and they once again followed the movement in my hands.
The only thing I can think of in that moment is…what the fuck?
Hey, guys! I know I'm a day or two late on this update, but I got busy and lost track of time. Good news is that it's up now! Yay! This is where all the fun starts!
Once again, I should have another update up within the next week, but I am nearing finals, so it may be a tad bit longer. Feel free to review if you want to, but don't feel obligated! :)
Thanks for reading! :)