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𝐈𝐅 𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐋 𝟔 𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐒 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐊, 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐖𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐎𝐈𝐆𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐓 𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐑 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐈𝐓 𝐅𝐄𝐋𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑 𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐒𝐏𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐒,, where boundaries are are almost non-existent. Aerin thought she could handle inhaling the sour milk and cheap perfume smell for a couple days, or the loud bangs that always came from her new neighbors across the hallway. But after having to ingest more than the recommended amount of sleep pills just to take a 1 hour nap, that small spark of hope that had kept her motivated throughout the past couple of weeks had dwindled enormously.

The only way she could truly ever escape the turbulent shakiness of her life was by plugging in her earbuds and listening to Taylor Swift's Fearless album.

Sitting upright in her crappy stale mattress single bed, with the rhythm of 'Fifteen' still ringing in her ears, Aerin held up two ruby red bracelet, one with charms and another that was supposed to look like a semi replica of the one that Santana had lost during the gettogether at the Cline girl's house.

Only this time, she had scraped up enough of her extra allowance to change one small detail about the quartz metal bracelet, she'd managed to convince the jeweler on a £60 charge to carve' S.L - Twin Flame' on it's inside.

" I must say, I truly admire your boldness," Atticus commented with a smirk as he shuffled his way out of the bathroom, toothpaste residue smeared under his lip, " Getting an expensive gift for your ex, whilst leaving your actually girlfriend in the dust is a great way to get broken up with."

" Says the guy who bought Brittany a new scarf when it was Quinn's birthday," Aerin retorted back, lowering the metallic bracelets from her eyeview to place them back in their ink black box. Atticus sat on the corner of the Cline girl's bed to further inspect if they were fakes or not, since she had made her purchase at one of the most notoriously dodgy trade shops.

" I was just being friendly, there's nothing wrong with that," he replied, swiping the box much to the annoyance of his sister, " And anyway, I gave Fabray a much better birthday present than Brittany Pierce could ever dream off."

Scrunching her nose in quaint disgust, the blonde turned to her brother and harshly wacked him in the arm.

" Why'd you hit me ?!" Atticus said in state shock, wincing at the surprising pain his sister's slap had caused on the upper half of his arm and back. Aerin's brow shot up, and she subtly pursed her lips as an indication to say that he definitely why she'd felt the need to whack him.

Once the boy had finally put two and two together from Aerin's fixed stare, he quickly shot down her inappropriate assumption."Christ...why would...do you seriously think that I would violate Fabray like that ? What kind of a person do you take me for Dilhole," he remarked with the box still clamped tightly in his grasp. " Now, onto more important topics, where are you going to hide this ?"

" Nowhere, they're safe in my hands," Aerin replied with confidence, snatching the box from her brother's hold. Atticus rose to his feet, and moved towards his suitcase full of t-shirts to find a clean one whilst a small sigh left his lips. " Look around you, Lou, we're in one of the most dangerous Motel's in the area, it's ranked lower than the Old Faithful...and the Old Faithful has had a rat infestation for 15 years now," he began, racking through his pile of clothes for a fresh t-shirt that smelt reasonable.

" You're also dating a girl whose bite is more deadly than a poisonous cobra. Azimio took Cat out to dinner once, way before you two became an item, during their date he looked at the waiter in 'a suggestive manner' after ordering the Endless Stix Special, and as payback she totally wiped him clean and bought every single item on the menu until he admitted into eye flirting with her."

" So? What does Cat rightfully giving Azmio a taste of his own medicine have to do with two bracelets," Aerin scoffed inwardly, arms crossed as she watched Atticus pick up another one of his shirts. " Catalina's changed, she's sweet, nice, thoughtful, and she's also hardworking...do you know that Cat's also on the debate team, a youth carer at Local Care Homes and has been working to improve the curriculum for kids with disabilities at our school."

Atticus let out an amused chuckle from his sister's oblivious words. " God, you are so gullible Lou," he remarked, still rifling through the selections of tops that were in his suitcase. " The only team she's part of is the Cheerios and those pack of moles that Sue always puts out to spy on other clubs, more specifically - Schuester's Glee Club."

"You haven't known her for as long as I have, the girl's a chameleon," he replied and Aerin instantly felt a rush of annoyance swell in her. It was one thing for her friends to dislike and weirdly disapprove of the raven haired girl, but for her own brother to also take on the 'concerned' figure role and wean her away from Catalina just didn't sit well with her.

Catalina Guzman had her faults, and past mistakes that didn't make her look so great in the eyes of others, but that was just what growing up was all about. One can't simply learn to adapt and evolve without making at least one error, or minor pass of judgment.

Like when parents teach their children about how throwing tantrums won't solve all their problems, or when teens learn that saying everything that comes to their mind via Twitter doesn't always work out for the best. Aerin liked to see the good in people, look past their wrongdoings and get to know them for their real selves, no matter how fake they seemed.

Wanting to swiftly change the topic to something more light-hearted, Aerin got up from her bed to help her brother choose a shirt after having to watch him swap between red and blue for over 30 minutes. " You can't wear that," she huffed, pushing him to the side and dropping the box on his bedside table," The red one has a massive barbecue sauce stain on the back, and blue makes you look ten times more doucheir than you already are. And also, quit calling me Lou..I hate that nickname."

Atticus crossed his arms. " What's wrong with it ? I find it pretty nice," he responded as the Cline girl threw his black Abercrombie and Fitch t-shirt directly in his face without warning.

" I do too," Aerin replied with a silent sigh, " But Dad used to call me that, remember? every time I'd score a touchdown during Little League Football he'd call me his 'Lucky Lou'. At first, I never questioned what his reasoning was for calling me that when my middle name is Louise and not my first name."

She then took a sharper breath, " Then I found out that Lou was also what Mom and Dad used to call our older sister, Amie-Louise. I was named after her appearance, mom says we could've passed as twins."

" How old would she be now ?" Atticus asked as he shook his body spray. " 20..21..22-"

" 19, dumbass," Aerin responded through a chuckle. "She was born in 1992, January 1st to be exact. Don't you know that that's the reason why we always send red and white balloons into the sky once the New Year comes around ?"

Atticus shook his head, " No, I always thought it was Mom's way of saying her favorite alcoholic beverage was Budweiser."

Before Aerin could respond to her brother, the front door of their room suddenly banged shut. Both twins looked at one another with the same worried expression on their faces, eyes peeled to the lone singular hallway as they froze.

" Uh...we don't want room service," Aerin called out, a shiver running down her back from the memory of their first experience with the 'room service' in Motel 6.

" I sure as hell hope you don't," a voice called out, one Aerin didn't initially didn't recognize until the familiar scent of cigarette smoke and hazelnut hit her nose. " Because if you do get room service, it'll most definitely be coming out of both of your allowances for the entire month."

Aerin playfully rolled her eyes. " Good morning to you too, Mom," she smirked as she then scooped Lennon up from Astrid and gave the girl a small peck on the cheek. " And good morning to you as well, Baby Bear, did you enjoy sleeping over with Granny."

" Aerin, what have I told you ?" Astrid sighed as she lowered her cigarette. " It's G-Ma, not Granny. Every time you make her call me that, I always feel 30 years older than I actually am."

" Well maybe if you quit smoking, it would knock at least 3 years off and make you look more youthful," Atticus suggested, as he reached over his mother to grab his bag whilst she playfully slapped his wrist.

As the Cline girl opened her mouth to throw out her own opinion to back up Atticus, the loud blaring of her watch beeped in her ear. That was then subsequently followed by pinging, more so the annoying repetitive tune of her uncatchy ring tone, from the sudden string of text messages that were coming from Mercedes end. " Crap, we've gotta go Mom," Aerin called out as she picked up Lennon and placed her in her stroller. " Mercedes is gonna literally murder me if I make her miss the 2 for 1 breakfast deal at the Bean again."

"That's okay, breakfast's important honey," Astrid replied through a breathy chuckle, biting down on her lower lip as she watched her kids exit the Motel room door, a rumble of chaos as usual.  Her smile faltered however once she realized that she had forgotten to give them her news,  a secret she'd been holding back for days since they'd landed in the Lower Lima Heights area.

" Wait !" The older Cline called out in haste, rising from the bed and quickly fixing her dress robe.  She managed to collectively draw both Atticus and Aerin's attention before they made it past the threshold, though Aerin was still concentrated on trying to stop Mercedes from spam texting her. " I haven't been honest with you guys about something, and it's been eating me on the inside for the past few days. Look, I know you'll be late for school, so I'm going to keep this short," both kids looked at one another with confusion, usually, whenever their mother rambled it always meant she had done something bad.

And they most certainly couldn't afford to clean up and pay the consequences for her messes.

Aerin felt her grip tighten on Lennon's buggy handle,  a lump formed in her throat as she tried to keep her composure. " Did you lose money again ?" she asked, hands getting even tighter. 

" What? No, I- my financial situation is very good nowadays, why do you think I've been working all those hours at that horrible grocery store," Astrid retorted, raising her cigarette up to her lips. " But that's not even the point. Look, Aerin..Atticus, you know that I love you both very much with all my heart and soul. You're my miracle babies, right after Lou, and that means something to me. And that's why I'm going to be abandoning you both for a couple of days."

A shocked expression canvased the blonde's face. " Huh ?"

" Why," Atticus asked with bemusement, looking at his mom for clarification if she was truly joking or not," Who are we even going to stay with, and where are you going ? I don't mean to be an ass, mom, but you don't exactly have a lot of friends."

Astrid pinched the bridge of her nose, taking a sharp intake of breath the middle age woman decided to swiftly ignore her son's crass comment. " You'll be staying with the Hudson-Hummel, or more specifically, that tall spunky kid and his mom. I ran into her at the grocery store during one of my shifts, and she told me that if I ever needed anything, she'd be there. So, I decided to take my chance before she revoked her favour card and got you three a free place to stay while I'm gone."

" But you still haven't answered the question," Aerin shot back, " Why are you leaving ?"

" To Arizona," Astrid finally croaked out, removing her hand from her nose. " I'm going over there to interview for my old job again, and I also talked to a few people and we might be able to get our home back from your father's alcoholic relatives."

The lump in Aerin's throat finally loosened, vanquished, but she still felt nerves creep within her. " You didn't answer the questioned," she responded, already knowing the de pleating answer," Why are you leaving?"

" Because I making the final arrangements for us to move," Astrid finally choked out, watching the light disappear from her little girl's brown orbs.

" Forever"

𝐌𝐂𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐋𝐄𝐘 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐁𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐍 𝐁𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐄 '𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐋 𝐏𝐄𝐏 𝐁𝐔𝐆' 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐀 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐄 𝐀𝐒 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐒. Streamers hung sporadically from every inch of the sealing, its black, bright red, and gold colour masking the usual depressive feeling people got once they entered through the front door. Banners big and small were hung high over every noticeboard with words of encouragement for the football team, or offensive slogans directed at their competitors.

It was at times like these when she remembered Aerin, and the plans they'd made for this week before their sudden break-up. The blonde had promised that if she scored the touchdown at their game, she would make sure to show the whole school how much she loved her by dedicating it to her in some way.

A small part of her still wondered what that 'some way' was, if it would've been something big like a musical number, or small like taking her out to the Lima Bean for espresso's.

Aerin had always talked about wanting to go to a car movie drive in as well, with her feet resting on the bonnet of her mother's busted ford fiesta, and Howard Deutch's 'Pretty in Pink' playing on a homemade movie screen.

And though Santana personally never saw what was so enjoyable about watching the same dramatization of a cliche coming of age movie from the 80's, it had always made the Cline girl smile, more wider than she normally ever would have.

But now, of course, she would be doing all those things with her new ungrateful, and rather distant girlfriend.

" God, all these decorations are honestly going to make me throw up," Santana murmured as she leaned up against her locker whilst Brittany unloaded books into her own one. " Like, I'm all about team spirit and school hospitality, even if our school is the worst in the county. But having to hand out badges and tell people to 'keep their McKinley pride alive' is draining me mentally. Do you know that Sue made me order her a Confetti Bazooka from the dark web yesterday ? I had to go to one of the most sketchiest areas in Lima to pick it up, and that's saying something considering that I live in the same district as an ex-con who liked to collect human feet."

Brittany knitted her brows together in confusion whilst she continued to unload the contents of her backpack into her locker. " Feet ? Why would anybody want to hoard feet...they stink," she commented as she toyed with a half broken pen that had fallen from the top shelf.

Santana shrugged her shoulders. " Beats me, my abuela told me that he had a massive foot fetish back in the day. Apparently the dude used to charge people 10 bucks to see how ticklish they were, it's gross but it's also a great way to make easy money," the Lopez girl replied, mind racing with thoughts of how he'd managed to commit such a heinous crime without getting caught for 20 years.

Not that she applauded his actions of course, but it made her wonder if Lima Heights crime rates were actually due to the sheer stupidity of some of its residents then the actual area it resided in. Mostly all the robberies that occurred there were mostly due to someone leaving their front door open due to laziness, or the fact that locks on the door were made out of hardened aluminum.

" Why couldn't he have just had a bakesale if he wanted money," Brittany suggested, now closing her locker and leaning against it next to Santana. " We did that for Artie when we couldn't afford to get him that shortbus for Regionals, and it totally worked for the most part," she suggested, though Santana's attention had long shifted to the 'doting' couple which was behind Britt.

Aerin had been wrapped in Catalina's arm, and for the occasional lip bite and quiver that faltered whenever she opened her mouth, it was obvious that the Cline girl was upset about something.

Though Catalina, who had made it her mission to occasionally look up and smirk when she caught Santana's gaze, didn't seem to care as much by her body language. Sure, the girl patted Aerin's back on occasion and probably exclaimed that 'everything was going to be okay' but there was no doubt that she didn't truly mean it in the Latina's mind.

Catalina had a way with her words, she could dial up the sensitivity or pure rage at any situation, and once they finally hit your core it hurt like a brutal gut punch. Santana could still remember her first interaction with the now Senior back when she was no more than a turbulent young freshman, who was starting to experience feelings that weren't usually natural to her.

She had been her first crush, right before Brittany, and once Catalina had found out this piece of information she had began to slowly flirt with her. It started with cute compliments, and the occasional glance that made Santana's cheeks burn sheepishly. But then, it digressed massively, and their 'friendship' turned from 'i think your really sweet' to 'i think i love you'.

Soon enough, Santana found herself caught in the Guzman's conniving grasp. She had been practically blinded by good graces to see the evilness lurking right next to her, but thanks to Quinn Fabray and her ability to snoop, she had soon learned that there Catalina had been tricking her to find evidence of her sexual history as a way to veer Sue off of making her top Cheerio.

And now, Catalina had found her next target, in the form of a soft spoken yet determined girl who always saw the good in everyone. Even when they were pure rotten on the inside and out.

" She's such a bitch," Santana sniped under her breath with a snare, folding her arms and bouncing her gaze back to Brittany.

The blonde immediately looked towards Catalina without question, she knew that whenever Santana described someone as a 'bitch' without context, it only meant that the raven haired girl was talking about two people. Rachel Berry or, of course, Cat. But Brittany noticed the harsh drawl in her tone when she said it this time, like her hatred for the girl had massively grown from them looking at one another.

Brittany hummed in agreement. " She took all the marshmallow bits out of my Lucky Charms once," the blonde huffed, lip slightly forming into a pout once she remembered the disappointment she felt upon opening the box just to only see plain cereal.

" I ate it anyways though, because as much as I hate cereal without surprises inside of it, I also hate wasting food. A Nat Geo Wild Documentary about Dolphins told me that plastic and unused waste can apparently murder them Jack the Ripper style."

" Uh, My hatred for her has officially skyrocketed even further now," Santana scoffed, moving closer to the Pierce girl and rubbing her shoulder for comfort. " I don't trust her one bit, especially around Blondie. Haven't you noticed that she never hangs with her outside of school, or like in any area where alot of people can see them doing that gross half bear hug thing. And whenever one of us goes near them both, she always has to suddenly 'go'."

" Yeah...that's cause she's Sue Sylvester's mole," Brittany responded with a nonchalant tone, as if Catalina being Sue's mole was common knowledge. Santana's brain practically stutterted from the blonde's revelation, her eyes widened and caught the flickers of natural light cascading from an adjacent open door.

Everything went on pause, it all made sense as to why she'd suddenly become attracted to Aerin. One spring break doesn't make someone fall head over heels for another, especially when that specific person was still in a committed relationship prior.

She was playing the evilest game in the books, relationship manipulation. She was using Aerin for a reason, just like she had with Santana 3 years ago, but the Latina still had no idea what she was aiming for, and what her ultimate prize was at the end of the line.

Once the shock factor had left Santana's system, and a new feeling of warmth, most likely rage had kicked in, she removed the hand that had been on Brittany's shoulder and pulled it down to her side. " Wait, are you serious ?" she finally murmured out with one breath, as she tried to connect the metaphorical dots in her head.

" Totally," Brittany whispered softly, moving closer once she saw Aerin and Catalina walking towards them. " Becky told me, and at first I didn't believe it considering her weird jealousy problem. So, I stayed after school to check if it was 100% true before I told you....stake out Sue's office for any mysterious behaviour behind the bins. And then, after 3 hours I saw Catalina sneak into Sue's office and lock the door. I couldn't see through the blinds, but it looked like they were laughing about something on her phone. "

" You need to get better evidence, Brittany," Santana sueded, a blistering amount of seriousness inked in her toning. " We can't let her get away with messing with Aerin, she's gonna crush her sweet little spirit and that girl is already super messed up as it is. It's down to us to stop her before-"

" Before what ?" A familiar, yet rather shaky, voice asked, and Santana instantly bit the bottom of her lip to refrain herself from saying anything further. Aerin stood behind the girl with a hand behind her back and another placed on her hip. She seemed to be less upset, though her gaze wasn't as full of life and bright as it normally would be.

Santana and Brittany both looked at each other before the Lopez girl cleared her throat to speak up. " Uh...Before we- Uhm....Before we ruin your surprise gift," she responded, internally cursing at herself for not coming up with a much better, and more convincing lie. " We've been planning it for months, but since you know now I guess it's not much of a surprise. So, thanks a lot for ruining it Blondie...well freaking done."

Aerin felt no need to ask if they were telling the truth, she'd gradually grown to learn their lying behavior tactics.

Whenever Santana lies a translucent fake smile would slightly flicker on her lips as a way to try and seem more genuine. If that failed she would usually hike her brows up after speaking, and fold her arms whilst she stared at you with narrowed eyes that were almost unreadable. Trying to contest her lie would always, for the most part, end in her dishing out one of her infamous insults before walking away.

Brittany, however, was completely opposite to her accomplice whenever she told fibs. The blonde was fidgety, and an almost scared innocence glimmered in her hazel blue flexes. And once somebody would ask the girl for an explanation, an overflow of truth would rush from her lips out of the goodness of her own heart ( or to assert how much better she was than you at everything if the situation was competition related ).

" I'm sorry?" Aerin replied back, her gaze shifting Brittany who immediately looked down at her nails.

" Okay, I have no idea what's going on with you two, but I actually came here to give you guys a real surprise. One bittersweet and another not so sweet," as those final words left her lips, the Cline girl felt a dry lump deep in her throat. She couldn't do it, it didn't feel real, Lima was her home and the people in it were her very weird family. Telling Santana meant she was finally coming to terms with the move, and that stung too much.

" Is it one million dollars ?" Brittany questioned as she picked at a hangnail. " I got a fortune cookie yesterday, at that run-down Chinese restaurant in the Food Court Mall, and it said that I would receive great fortune in my life. "

Aerin shook her head whilst a small chuckle parted from her lips, Brittany always knew the right thing to say when she felt down, even if the girl didn't know she was helping her to untense. " " No, though, I seriously wish I did have a million, my life would be so much better," she huffed, finding herself falling into a nonsensical reality where she owned a home that scaled wider than George Clooney's 100 million dollar estate.

" I'd never want to be a millionaire," Santana exclaimed with confidence, resting the back of her head on the cold red metal of her locker. " I love money, obviously, who doesn't? But I also like being happy as well. And from the voluminous amount of drama that comes from MTV and all those other boogie gossip websites, it seems like they never get privacy without getting attacked by the paps."

Brittany furrowed her brows. "Millionaires don't get attacked by the paparazzi, celebrities do," she corrected, looking up from her nails. " Like Britney, or Halle Berry or that guy from the Batman movie nobody saw-"

" Val Kilmer ?" Santana guessed, with a chin stroke, "My mom used to love him back in the mid 80's."

The Pierce girl shook her head immediately. "Santana, you can't just make somebody up,"she replied through a chuckle, though Santana had completely lost the punchline of her supposed joke.

" But I'm not, Val Kilmer's real Britt."

Again, another unconvinced head shake. "No way, tooth fairies and the Loch Ness Monster are real," she retorted, her toning firm yet almost fluxed at the same time. " Val Kilmer isn't, he's like the Boogie Monster. You hear about him, people tell stories about him, but when you look under your bed he's nowhere to be found."

Aerin was getting impatient, and her hand had begun to severely clam from having to grip onto the sharp, but poignantly soft edges of the bracelet box. Her heartbeat's palpitation was increasing, beating, drawing her nearer and nearer to just blurring it all out. It was crazy for her to feel this way about moving, people left all the time...she was one of them.

From home to home, each destination was different from the next. Lima, Ohio was the pitstop before her druid journey to whatever was eventually planned for the girl in the future. But Lima also had a lot of things Arizona didn't have. It had a Cafe, with a close knit warmth that just wasn't all too familiar to Aerin.

It hosted Fall Festivals, and had one of, if not the only Breadsticks themed restaurant she'd ever come across. The small blink and you'll miss it town had her friends, who had grown on her since she unfortunately had been traded to McKinley from Carmel High.

Quinn, Finn, Blaine Warbler, Kurt to Mercedes. Sam, who had quite literally become her surrogate twin over the past couple months whenever Atticus chose to be a complete dick to the girl whenever his mood swings kicked in. Even Rachel Berry for what it was worth, she'd helped in her own weird and sometimes rude ways through some of her struggles.

But most importantly, it didn't have Santana. And for some reason, a small part of Aerin couldn't see herself co-existing in a place where the raven haired girl was nothing more than a memory.

With one sharp breath, she prepared herself. "Hey, San I-"

" I'm telling you, look, he's real !" Santana had already brought out her phone by the time Aerin has brought the box within eyesight. The Lopez held it up to Brittany and pointed at a clear photograph of the guy in his Batman outfit.

" I still don't believe you, even if you're hot," Brittany retorted back, folding her arms.

Aerin felt like she was on a carousel, a constant, never ending turning circle of back chatter and aimless arguments until one of them decided to finally quit. Every time she'd open her mouth, one of the girls would suddenly think up an argument upon why Val Kilmer was either nothing more than an illusion (or the Boogie Man ) or why he was authentic and irrelevant.

Once the had finally fallen into silence Aerin perked up, box in hand, and ready to finally gift Santana her bracelets. " Santana," the girl said, grabbing onto the Latina's shoulder. " I need to talk- well not talk, actually, I need to give you something. It cost me a lot of money actually, which is weird because I got it at the same place where people get cigars."

A furrowed formed between Santana's brows. " Uh, I didn't understand a word of what you just said Blondie," the girl responded through a chuckle," That was pure alphabet soup."

" Oh I've had that, " Brittany remarked. " It tasted really nasty, and I'm pretty sure half the numbers were made out of cardboard.

Aerin opened her mouth to continue, but of course, she was subtly shut up by the blithering chime of the school bell. Santana looked to the girl with a soft smile and rubbed her shoulder. " We'll see you later, lunch perhaps ?" she offered.

" Of course," Aerin responded, her neatly wrapped gift box in her grasp, " Whatever you say Tana, Whatever you say."

𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐊𝐄 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐔𝐒'𝐒 𝐒𝐊𝐈𝐍, 𝐀 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐘 𝐆𝐀𝐒𝐏 𝐖𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐀𝐋𝐌𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐋 𝐈𝐓𝐒 𝐖𝐀𝐘 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐀𝐓. It ached, every part of his body, the surfaces of his hands were pulsing in pain as he tried to pull himself up on the Pull-Up bar.

The easiest piece of workout equipment out of everything in the room, and he couldn't even manage to lift himself from the ground without heaving, struggling, gasping, he was crumbling. If this were a couple weeks ago, the boy would've managed to easily go up and down with ease, and even lift both his legs completely and do mid-crunches in the air.

But now he was stagnant, and permanently stuck to the ground. Forever trying to pull himself up from all the crappy life had to throw at him, whilst he used every bit of his last strength, every last breath, and that sucked. Luckily, before he could let out another exasperated breath with pain, Sam Evans had managed to stop him by reaching to rip the earbuds out of his ears that had been blasting Ramones tunes into his ears.

" Dude, are you okay ?" he asked, handing an extra bottle of Gatorade to Atticus. The dirty blonde obviously wanted to answer with the obvious response, which was big fat NO. However, saying no would make him seem weak compared to Sam, the lighter blonde was the new Quarterback replacement for Finn and the appeal for the girl he still cared for. And with those sizable lips that sat square in the middle of his face, he practically had the whole package to make any girl swoon.

Atticus scoffed unintentionally as he took the bottle, though once he met Sam's blue flexes, he sent the boy an appreciative smile, "Yeah...I'm just tired," he responded, dabbing his towel on his sweaty forehead. " The motel where we're staying at has super thin walls, and most nights the only thing that can put me to sleep is the sound of our neighbor's car backfiring over and over again. It sounds weird - but I like the churning sound, it really reminds me of home."

Sam understood what the Cline's were going through, more than anyone in the school if he had to be truthfully honest. When his own family had become homeless, his father losing his job and his mother never having one, trying to live through it and getting by, was the hardest experience he had to endure.

Every nickel, or dollar bill that had been tossed his way when he became a male stripper in Kentucky mattered, because it had been his only source of income to provide food for them eat, or buy toys to make his younger siblings happy and shield them from what was really happening. It wasn't easy, but with the Glee Club's help he had managed to escape the harsh storm that was practically almost knocking at his door.

" You know, if you ever need a place to stay, we've got an open room at my house," Sam made sure to make his tone friendlier, " But I can't really fit your whole family in there, unless your fine with sharing one room with your sister, a baby, and your mom."

The Cline boy shook his head at Sam's offer. "Sorry, bro, but the Hudson-Hummel's already beat you to it." he replied, taking a sip of his lukewarm drink, and let the sap glacier cherry really seep into his tastebuds before sucking his teeth together and responding again, "Mom's making us crash at Finn's place until she gets back from Arizona and finalizing if she got her old diner job back again."

Sam raised a brow. " Old diner job? Are you guys-"

" Moving," Atticus confirmed with ease, cutting off the boy before he could finish. Sam took a minute to process the news, or more so, why Aerin hadn't told him yet. Sure, they weren't the 'best of friends', but the pair had still had a lengthy amount of time to get to know and grow a small bond with one another, " Yup, after Homecoming. We're going back to our hometown after not living there for almost a decade, it's so dope right ?"

" Dope," Sam mumbled, taking a small sip out of his own water bottle. Before he could continue the conversation, an weirdly overzealous Mike Chang burst through the gym room doors with a pile of jersey's in his hands and a smile spread widely across his naturally kind features. Sam instantly knew what there purpose were for the t-shirt without Mike having even explaining it, they were the entity to every Homecoming season and the seal deal for anybody's relationship status. Mike tossed two of the blazer's in Atticus's and Sam's direction without warning. " You two need to hurry up and give these out to someone before your options dwindle," he said, leaning up against the wall.

" Who'd you give your extra jersey to, Chang ?" Atticus asked, holding his own jersey up into his eye view.

" Tina," Mike responded, arms folded. " I was going to give mine to Brittany, but she said that she'd rather wear Artie's old one."

Sam looked up at Mike with slight confusion, " You can't give yours to Tina, she's not on the cheer squad," he explained, moving across from the bench over to the water cooler where Mike stood. " Not that there's anything wrong with Tina, she's really nice...understanding, and great at making the costumes for our performances when Mr Schue's too lazy to find someone else to do it for him."

" And talented, don't forget talented," Mike added with raised brows, and a look that could only suggest his clear frustration with how people treated Tina, and him as well. He enjoyed his friends, and the atmospheric euphoria that came with being in Glee Club, but it was getting rather tiring for him to constantly nod with sheer uncomfort whenever someone referred to him as the 'other Asian' or 'boy Chang'.

" Well I know who I'm going to give my jersey to," Atticus said with a sweep of confidence, already picturing a certain blonde wrapped up in the black and red material print with his name bold on the back.

" Catalina Guzman ?" Sam questioned with a smirk on the base of his lips as he unscrewed the cap of his water bottle to refill it again.

Atticus's face shrivelled. " No, she's my sister's girlfriend, that's messed up," he spat, throwing his sweat infested towel at the blonde's head. " I'm asking Fabray to wear mine as a peace offering. Or a subtle apology for the way I treated her when we were going out together."

Sam bit the inside of his cheek. Out of all the girls in the school and Atticus Cline had to go for the one girl who he'd fallen for again. It slightly stung to hear her last name slip from his lips, like a buzzing whisper. But what hurt even more was knowing that there was a high possibility of her saying yes.

" Are you sure you wanna do that ?" was the first question he immediately blurted out towards Atticus, whilst his eyes were still glued to the water pump.

" I said I was going to, didn't I ?"

Passive-Aggressiveness, the ultimate way to shut any person up. Sam removed his hand from the button and took a sharp intake of breath.

There was no reason to argue any further because rebutting would only end in one of the latter asking if he had feelings for Quinn. A question he couldn't answer because he didn't know himself. Not truly anyways. They'd dated in the past, and it was good for a while, but once Quinn began to become more domineering and controlling the relationship got sour.

" I think I'm gonna leave, don't want Coach getting angry at me for being late for practice," Sam briefly announced with a huff, as Atticus and Mike exchanged glances at one another. " I'm the Quarterback, It'll suck if I get cut."

The Cline boy looked to Sam and furrowed his brows. " Samster, is this about me giving my jersey to Fabray ?" he responded through a chuckle, and Sam instantly felt a sharp twinge of annoyance run through him. Samster sounded like the name of an unfed gerbil, or pug who dribbled excessive drool from the sides of its lips.

" Don't be silly," Sam called out, already halfway out the door. " You should definitely ask her, 100%. She'd love that, more than anything, because she loves you more than anything. You two have history, Quinn told me about it. And I think it's cool that you want to repair your relationship with her."

◜ -ˋˏ 𝙍𝙊𝙉𝙉𝙄𝙀'𝙎 𝙉𝙊𝙏𝙀𝙎 ! ˎˊ- ◝

just two more chapters till the end ;( kinda bitter-sweat
i'm so sorry if this seems incomplete, my wattpad completely bugged out on me at the last second I'm and practically wiped everything from my computer before I could update. So, I had to quickly rewrite everything ( to the best of my ability ) and fill in the gaps for other things.
this chapter was supposed to be longer, but it's already at 6.6 k words and i don't want to make you guys fell like you're reading an essay.

anyways,  i hope you guys have a good afternoon or evening and know that
I LOVE YOU 🤍