Fic: Return Journey
Well that was the longest and worst vacation of my entire life. I don’t even get why people call it a vacation I mean really? Being in the middle of nowhere looking at animals which have the potential to kill you is not my idea of fun. Give me a beach, an ocean, although I’d be happy with a pool, lots of hot bodies in bikinis and shorts and cocktails on demand. Okay so I maybe underage, but that’s a vacation right? Not labouring to the rules of everyday life. Of course Brittany would be with me, what’s a vacation without your best friend? But she’s more than that to me. I love her. I know I do, it may have taken me some time and flying thousands of miles away from her to understand that but I do. She’s everything to me and right now I just want to be with her. But here I am waiting for my damn case on the stupid carousel. Why is always the last case that’s yours? And why do you always miss it first time round because some oaf decides to shove you out the way to get his? Airports suck, they are such an inconvenience. I can only be thankful to have flown business class because really, who would want to be stuck in economy with that? I’m looking at a bunch of losers, FYI, you’re not the first people to have been on an airplane. I huff and roll my eyes, my arms are crossed over my chest, I really want to tap my foot, my patience is wearing thin.
“Dad, get my bags please.” I order my father and turn around, I can’t be dealing with this.
“Where are you going?” he asks, he’s frowning, I can tell he’s a little mad, but really, I don’t care.
“I need to call Britts.” I explain, not that I need to. He smiles, I frown before I shrug again and go and find a quiet place where there are no losers or oafs or unhelpful airport staff and definitely no prying parents. I hit my speed dial and wait, it seems like forever for even the ring to kick in. It does and my stomach flips. Jeez, it’s not like I’ve never called Brittany before. When did I become so pathetic? When did my body start to react like this? Oh right yeah, the first time I looked into those incredible blue eyes of hers. That’s when.
“Hi, you’ve reached Brittany’s phone, you’re trying to call me but,” there’s a pause, “San what’s the next bit? Oh right, I can’t answer so leave a message, if you want and Santana will pick it up because I get confused with all the number options, but if it’s you calling San then leave a message and you can tell me later. Bye. This is Brittany by the way.” Then I hear my voice.
“You already said that B.”
“Oh right. Bye.” And then the beep. Sometimes I call her when I know her phone is switched off just to hear the message, it makes me laugh and feel incredibly happy. But I wouldn’t admit that to anyone. Ever. Unless it was Britts, but I don’t want to yet.
“B, it’s me, Santana,” just for clarification purposes, “where are you? I just landed.” I sigh, it frustrates me that the moment I can talk to her, I can’t. “I want to see you. Call me if you get this.” Who am I kidding, the chances of that are unlikely, but one day she’s going to surprise me. I know she can do it, she just thinks she can’t and then she shuts down and that’s it. It’s frustrating and endearing all at the same time, sometimes I think she just uses it as an excuse to get me to do stuff for her. I don’t mind though, I would do anything for her and she knows it. She’s sneaky. But cute sneaky.
I look over at my Dad, oh so my Mom has finally decided to join us. I swear I will never work out that woman, but hey, she’s my Mom, that’s how it’s supposed to be right? People think I take my parent’s wealth for granted. A lot of the time I do, but sometimes I like to save them money, I mean taking stuff from shops is just charity work for my parents and they say charity begins at home. It’s like at Breadstix when I eat all the bread sticks and complain about my meal, I don’t need food for like a whole day and it saves them from spending their money on feeding me. So you see, I like to give back. I’m hot and charitable, I’m a perfect catch. But I only have my mind on one suitor, she’s tall, she’s blonde, she has the perfect body and she loves me for who I am. Brittany often makes me think twice about things, I mean, I can run my mouth off, call out my friends, but then sometimes I think, ‘what would Brittany do?’ and the truth is, she would do the opposite, she’s sweet and friendly and caring. So then I think in order to keep the balance, I have to stay the same. Otherwise it wouldn’t be right, like peanut butter and jello, they have to be different to work so well right? I make one exception and that’s with Brittany. She’s my best friend and sometimes she gets a rough deal, but when she does I make sure it never happens again. Brittany deserves to be treated like a princess and I do my best.
When she called me the other day, I was a little surprised, I mean I told her not to call because of the signal thing and the crazy network costs, but it’s okay, I’ll cover that for her. The message was typical Brittany and although I knew I was missing her loads already, hearing her voice and those words made me miss her more. In fact, it made me bawl like a baby, but no one needs to know that. I had to call her, I had to hear her voice again and the moment she said ‘hello’ it’s like realisation struck me with a wrecking ball. I was in love with her. I am in love with Brittany and she started talking and it was game over, in that moment I changed, I suddenly didn’t care about anything else but her. I play the conversation over in my mind again.
.......
“Hello?” she answered the phone, I frowned a little at the questioning tone in her voice, she had caller ID right?
“Britt-Britt, hey, I got your message.” I said, I knew she would know it’s me, I didn’t bother with an introduction like we were mere acquaintances or anything, “I miss you too.” I said quietly, I wanted her know I meant it.
“What’s the spaghetti like?” she asked. Spaghetti. I love this girl so much, she tries so hard and to be fair, she’s not far off.
“Britt, it’s the Serengeti, in Africa.” I explained, just so she knows exactly where I am, you live and learn right? Every day with Brittany is an education to me, I’m always learning, growing and she says if it wasn’t for me she would know nothing. I doubt that though, she’s taught me more about myself than school can. I thought about her question, “It kinda sucks.” I said honestly. “You’d love it though, loads of cute furry animals.” She loves animals, I didn’t want to tell her just how dangerous these bad boys can be though, it would spoil the image and she would worry unnecessarily over me. Even though I’m a total badass.
“I miss you San.” She told me, I sighed and I felt the tears start to sting my eyes.
“I know B, me too.” I answered, if she missed me as I much as I missed her, we were both in trouble.
“You can’t miss you, you’re like, there.” She says confused and I giggled, I actually giggled, I don’t do that for just anyone you know, her name has to begin with B, end with Y and have rittan in the middle. Then she realised what she said, “I mean . . .” I know, B, I know and I told her.
“B, I know what you mean. I wish you were here.” I just wished she was beside me, “Actually no, I wish I was at home, lying on my bed under the duvet snuggling and kissing you.” And that is the truth, before I would just be concerned about getting my mack on but I actually wanted to spend snuggle time with Britts, taking time to just hold her, touch her, smell her hair, all the post coital stuff couples usually do.
“San?” she asked.
“Yeah?” I replied, a little intrigued with what she wanted to say.
“I like really miss you, I’m sad without you and I hate you being away from me.” I sighed and I know exactly how she feels because I feel it too and she has know, I had to tell her.
“I feel the same.” I sounded different, I felt different, like finally a weight was being lifted from my shoulders.
“I want to see your eyes, I want to see your smile.” Brittany said, it’s like she was reading my mind because it’s what I wanted too. I closed my eyes and pictured her perfect, loving face.
“Close your eyes.” I instructed her to do the same. It was the closest we could get to each other. “Can you see me?”
“Yeah San, I can see you.” She sounded happy and excited for a moment, before she went silent, I could hear her breathing.
“I’ll be home soon, I promise.” I reassured, I mean, if she was feeling anything like I was then I would want to be home too.
“San?” she asked again. I had a feeling I knew where this was going. So many times we’re in sync with each other, it is almost scary. I love her and I wanted to tell her, but if she felt the same and she was going to tell me, I didn’t want it to be while we were on different continents.
“Don’t say it Britt, wait till I’m home and you can tell me when you’re holding me.”
“Really San?” she asked hopefully, I could hear the excitement in her voice and was pretty sure by this point that yes, she did feel the same.
“Yeah and I can tell you. But it’s the rules we have to be together, in the same room and preferably touching each other in some way. Okay?” I explained.
“Yes.” She whispered sweetly. “How long?” the loaded question. I gulped as I counted the days on my fingers, I had already been out here for seven days and that was long enough. I mean there’s only so many days of looking at animals anyone should endure, and I felt my time was up the moment I stepped off the plane.
“Three days B, you think you can wait?” I smiled, three days in all honesty is not that long and the prize would be totally worth it.
“I would wait forever.” She said and again I felt myself welling up. I wanted to curse for what she does to me, but I can’t, I could never because, I love her, I love who I am when I’m with her and despite me being Santana Lopez total badass bitch, she actually kind of makes me want to be a better person. And I know am when I’m with her, I got that covered. I would never do or say anything to hurt her, because hurting Brittany is just not an option. For anyone, and everyone knows that.
“Me too B.” I agreed, well because it’s true, I can’t lie to my B now. I looked up and saw my Dad waving his arms frantically, my Mom I think was trying to imitate eating dinner with a knife and fork which clearly weren’t there, if I wasn’t in the middle of a deep and meaningful conversation with the girl I loved then I would actually laugh at the absurd over exaggerated dramatics of my parents. And they wonder where I get it from. “I have to go Britt, I’ll call you again when I get signal.” I said reluctantly, I could talk to her all day, but you know, parents and expensive phone calls is kind of a killer. She didn’t answer and I knew she was pouting, “Stop pouting B.” Again she didn’t say anything straight away and I could imagine her spinning around looking for me with a frown.
“I lo . . .” I cringed as she started to speak, ‘not now Britt’ I willed and she seemed to catch herself, “Bye San, miss you loads.”
“Bye B, miss you more.” I replied and I know she would argue so I quickly blew a kiss down the phone and hit the end call button. That was much harder than I had anticipated, I was left feeling mixed emotions of happiness and complete emptiness. I turned to my parents and rolled my eyes, at least they would keep me distracted for a short while.
And with a strange sense of déjà vu, there’s my Dad waving his arms at me. I have to smile, they maybe my parents, they’re designed to embarrass me and annoy the hell out of me but I do love them. I am trying not to smile, but when I look at him like that and my Mom rolling her eyes like that, they’re not perfect, but they’re mine and I just can’t help but smile, it just bursts across my face and I can feel the laugh rising and following out of my mouth. That’s when they look weird, surprised almost, but the look quickly fades and they act like nothing’s happened, I think they are scared that if they show they are happy then I’ll recoil. Fine, two can play that game.
“You’re driving me to Britt’s house.” I order as they get closer.
“But honey don’t you want to shower, change, hang out with your folks?” My Dad says, is that his attempt at humour? Because it sucks.
“I’ve been hanging out with you for two weeks.” I said, it’s true, I don’t think I’ve spent so long with them since I was born, and even then it was a bore. “I need to see Brittany.” I say carefully. They look at each other like they know something I don’t. I narrow my eyes with suspicion.
“Fine, we’ll drive you there.” Mom says eventually.
“That wasn’t so hard was it?” I ask. We make our way through customs, nothing to declare here, like I would want to smuggle anything out of the Spaghetti anyway. Yeah, I ended up calling it the Spaghetti, I figured it was more fun and watching the annoyance on everyone’s faces was priceless, besides, I felt closer to my Britt-Britt. I sigh again, this time a contented one, not long till I can hold her in my arms. The anticipation is all but killing me, my stomach is in knots or doing flips or all of the above, I just need to see her. Into the main hall of the terminal now and I feel massive relief, it never felt so good to be home. I mean I’ve always wanted out of this crappy town and it may have taken a couple of transfers to finally get here, but they say home is where the heart is and I know exactly who has mine.
Ugh, what is wrong with me? A couple days back in loserville and I should be back to normal, except for the me and Brittany thing, that is moving onto a whole other level, but I also have a reputation to maintain. I’ve never thought of joining the circus, but this is going to be some juggling act. One more corner and then freedom, fresh air and sweet ten minute ride to Britt’s house. I heard a giggle from behind me, so unnatural, I turned with the biggest frown I could muster and there were my parents whispering and giggling like a pair of kindergarten kids. I really don’t know what is up with them and it’s moments like these I swear I was adopted. They stop and stare at me like they’ve just been caught doing it or something gross like that. I shudder at the thought, ew, that’s just, no. I shake my head, so wrong. Now they are looking passed me, and smiling like they’re smoking a doobie.
I turn around to see what they’re looking at but before I can register anything something hits me and I literally fly through the air. I don’t know what’s happening, it’s like slow motion, but fast forward at the same time and then my back hits the floor and crap that hurts like hell. Santana does not do bruises. Unless they’re caused by teeth, those are the fun kind. I laugh a little but then I remember I’m on the deck and something is on top of me, it’s hard to breath. And I open my eyes, because well, first instincts when I’m flying through the air is to close my eyes. So yeah, I open them and wow, the most incredible blue eyes are staring down at me, a slight frown on her face, but those eyes have me hypnotised. I can’t move, I can’t speak, but apparently I don’t need to. She leans down and kisses me gently on the lips.
“Are you ok?” she asks with concern.
“Uh huh.” I can’t seem to formulate any real words.
“Good, cus I got something to tell you.” She says and smiles at me so sweetly. I can’t ignore the fact I’m lying in the middle of an airport, my parents are less than two feet away, apparently laughing again, note to self - Google ‘divorce your parents’. But then she squeezes me tightly and all I think of and see and smell is her, everything else is fuzzy. I manage to sit up a little and look at the few people milling around, we’re in a bit of a corner, so there aren’t many people, but I really don’t care anymore and besides it’s a small airport. Or a shed, whichever’s smaller.
“I left you a voicemail.” I said. She looks confused and tilts her head to the side.
“I think the monkeys stole my phone.” She said, so simply, so innocently, so sweetly and I just accept it. I’m so whipped.
“How did you get here?” I asked, a little puzzled.
“Kurt gave me a ride.” She shrugged like it was the most natural thing in the world. So I guess she’s friends with Kurt now. But I don’t actually care how she got here, I just know she’s here and on top of me and . . .
“You had something to tell me.” I remind her.
“Oh right.” She smiles and strokes my hair back from my face. “I missed you so much.” She bites her lip and I think she’s a bit nervous. I nod, just to encourage her. She kisses me again, another sweet peck on the lips. “I love you Santana.” I know I’m smiling because her eyes tell me, and I know I’m sort of crying because she wipes the tear from cheek with her thumb and kisses it. The vacation from hell was worth it just for all of this. Brittany, my beautiful B looks so relaxed and happy and I just can’t contain it any longer.
“I love you too B.”
The End.