All Alone

Chapter Twenty Two

"Why does my mom hate me?"

Brittany glanced down at the small girl in her arms sadly. After her break down panic attack, Brittany had crawled into bed with her and gently caressed her hair.

"What's so wrong with me that she hates me so much?" Santana's voice was so soft you could barely hear it.

"She doesn't hate you."

"No... She does." The Latina said sadly. "She's made that clear my whole life."
The girl sat up suddenly. "Is it because I'm... Because I like girls?"

"What?"

"Because I thought about what that therapist said, and-"

"No." The blonde said firmly. "Don't listen to her, okay? You know what she said wasn't true!"

Santana fell back down onto the pillow. "I know, but... It keeps making me think..."

"Don't think about it!" The blonde urged. "We'll get you a new therapist, I promise! A better one!"

"I don't want another. I'm too... Scared to try that again."

Brittany frowned. "But you need the help, Santana. Someone else can help you. I promise."

The Latina sighed again. "I'm not ready to go back to school..."

"You don't have to."

-

"I heard she tried to kill herself. She is such an attention whore!"

Brittany whipped around to see two of her fellow Cheerios, Lacey and Sara talking. She marched right up to them, uncharacteristically angry. "What did you say? What are you talking about?"

Sara, the one who had spoken, turned to Brittany. No one saw her as threatening because people thought she was such an airhead and a push over, so the girl sneered. "Santana Lopez. Duh."

"What about her?" The blonde fumed.

Sara tossed an eye roll at Lacey, who returned it. "How she pretended to be all depressed in a desperate grasp for attention."

"Don't say that! You don't even know what happened!"

Lacey stepped up, smirking. "We know enough. Go back to lesbos island." She punctuated this sentence with a shove.

Brittany stumbled backward.

"Hey!"

All three girls whipped around to see blonde hair coming to them. Quinn.

"Lacey, Sara, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

The girls cowered in fear. "N-nothing."

"Good." Quinn said with a sweet smile. Then it fell. "Now get out of my sight."

The two Cheerios scurried off in a hurry.

The shorter blonde turned to Brittany. "You okay, Britt?"

"Why do you care?" The other girl huffed.

Quinn sighed. "Brittany... I'm really sorry for all the things I said and... I heard about Santana and... I wanna be your friend again if you'll let me. Please."

Brittany smiled. "I'm not even that mad." Then her grin faltered. "But Santana's not doing so good."

The other cheerio frowned. "I'm really sorry to hear about that, B. I... Well you know about my aunt."

Brittany nodded. Quinn's aunt killed herself when Quinn was thirteen. They had been very close and Quinn never quite got over it. That was part of the reason she was so ice cold. Her family pretended that Aunt Cheryl had simply died in a car accident. Mental illness was not tolerated, nor discussed in the perfect Fabray family. This affected Quinn so deeply.

"Well... I just wanted you to know that I've been telling everyone I hear saying bad things about her to shut up. I... Hope that helps." Quinn said shyly.

Brittany was slightly taken aback. She hadn't seen this side of Quinn since the seventh grade. It made her realize just how much she missed it.

"Quinn, I miss you."

"I missed you too, B. But now we're friends again!"

"No, I mean... I've missed you for years. The old you. The real you."

The head cheerio's eyes watered. "I know, B." She whispered. "I miss me too."

AN: IM SUCH A BAD AUTHOR I KNOW! SO SORRYYYYYYYHFGJBFDGG! But I'm back! And yay, progress with the Fierce friendship! So I feel like I don't thank you guys enough. The truth is that I have 16k reads and that's pretty damn amazing! I feel so lucky to have you all and thank you so much! Especially those of you who have been here since the first chapter was published! But just thanks to all my beautiful, wonderful, ah-mazing readers!

- G. Schreiber