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𝐒𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝟐 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝟐𝟏　 ˚ 　　 　 　　　 ˚ 　 . 　 　　　 ˚ . 　 ✧*✫ · 　 　 ✫ 　　 　 * 　　　　　　 . ˚ · 　 ✷ 　　· ˚ ✦ 　　 ˚ 　　 　 　　　 ˚ 　 . 　 　　　 ˚ . 　 ✧*

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𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐆𝐎𝐍𝐄. The furniture, the tv, memories from when life used to be normal, gone. Their home was nothing more than an empty shell now, an echoey hollow hole that was cold and brittle. Astrid sat at the foot of the stairs, cigarette in one hand and black coffee in the other, she had made herself into a human shield after movers had tried to gain access to Lennon's nursery. The honey blonde was dead behind the eyes, all hope of trying to give her kids a better life had long escaped from her mind.

Occasionally, Aerin could hear her break out into silent sobs of defeat and brashly curse at herself, putting everything on her shoulders. And though the younger Cline felt sorry, a small part of her agreed, she was the one who dragged them down to this.

" Mom," Aerin quietly whispered, her hand gripped nervously on the front of the stairwell. "Do you want anything to eat? drink? there's still leftover pizza from last night, it's pineapple..your favourite."

Astrid exhaled the smoke that had been trapped in between her lips, smoke twirled as if it was taking the soul of their empty home. She sent her daughter a fake smile, a smile which told of how broken she truly was, hunger was the last thing on the mother of 2's mind. " Thanks, but crappy Domino's pizza isn't going to bring back our home, or all our belongings. You know what, just take everything in the fridge..give it out to some of your lil friends at school, and that pretty girlfriend of yours...Santana ?"

Aerin felt a large lump form in the back of her throat as she looked down at her gym bag. "No, It's Catalina, Santana's my ex-girlfriend. We broke up 4 weeks ago, before spring break, remember I told you that ?" the Cline girl replied, eyes slowly faltering to the dirty shag carpeting that laid beneath her high tops.

Astrid lowered her cigarette as the dirty blonde's eyebrow simultaneously shot up. " No, I can't remember," the young mother responded in a curious tone. "She was a nice kid, though she was a bit of a bitch. however, the girl could make a mean chicken casadia. You two seemed really happy, kinda reminded me of how I used to feel about your dad....minus the fact that we weren't two teen lesbians madly in love."

Aerin moved towards the stairs to sit next to her mother, when she got there the brown-eyed girl softly placed her head on the older Cline's shoulder, which made Astrid's gloomy frown slightly upturn into a small smile. "I'm Pan, actually, Pansexual and proud," Aerin quietly corrected as her heart began to fill with contentment. It had taken Aerin 12 years to finally figure out who she was, and though labels weren't really her thing, pansexual just fit perfectly. Her attraction lied more with the person's personality, physical appearance came later into the equation. It was what attracted the honey blonde to Santana in the first place, she was a girl who didn't take anybody's shit - a girl who believed.

Aerin could only yearn to be like that.

She lingered for an answer from Astrid as the woman held her cigarette, her only source of life support, at the base of her lips. The term was still new to her as Astrid came from a generation where people believed you could only ever be gay or straight, and nothing in between. Noticing Aerin's worried expression, the youthful-looking 39-year old let out a small chuckle as a way of ensuring her daughter that everything was fine. " I shouldn't have an opinion on what you choose to identify as pumpkin, whether you're bi, pan, demi-sexual, or omnisexual...I'll always love you, no matter what."

Aerin's eyes slightly widened at her mother's vast knowledge of the different types of sexualities. When the Cline girl had come out the first time around, as bisexual, Astrid's knowledge could only extent as far to 'dungaree loving lesbian' or 'boy crazy straight girl.' It was actually one of the many reasons for their rapid fallout, which led to months of door slamming and dirty name-calling. Astrid hadn't taken it well, to say the least, she had expressed bitterly about how Aerin being part of the LGBTQ+ community was essentially her betraying Lennon. Her words still stung like poison to this day, so you could imagine the girl's shock when her mom suddenly flipped the switch.

" T-Thank You," Aerin replied as she tried to bite back tears, "I didn't expect you to say that, I mean just a couple of years ago you were completely against me being bi...what changed ?"

Astrid gently stroked her daughter's cheek, her gaze followed the girl's silent trimmer. "I decided to educate myself on it, try and understand," the blue-eyed woman began. "Growing up, your Nana Hillary believed in tradition, man and woman and all that crap. She made it seem like being homosexual was messed up, a sin that could potentially end in you scorching forever in the pits of hellfire."

Pausing in between breaths, Astrid's eyes shifted down to her tattered furry slippers, a gift from Derek that was slowly ripping at the top. A tiny broken sigh escaped from her lips, and right when she felt a solemn tear about to break free the middle-aged mother quickly took one hit of her cigarette before she continued on. " I remember this one time, my brother, Lyle..he came home from a party once. It was late, around 11:45 which was really odd for him since the kid always came home before curfew. My mother was obviously worried so she rushed over to him and asked what happened to make him this late. Lyle's back was turned the whole time, he didn't say anything, he couldn't reply. My mom waited and waited for a response until she gave up and turned him around herself. The blonde took in a harsh swallow, "Uhm...they broke his face, busted his lip, and one of his eyes were so swollen that it was hard to even see his pupils anymore."

Aerin felt uneasy. "Why would someone do such a horrible thing ?"

Astrid's eyes immediately fell on her daughter's eyes once more, this time, however, watery stains rested atop the apples of her cheeks. "Why do you think ?"

Just as Aerin was about to reply a sudden knock came from the door. The honey blonde tried to ignore it but the noise only increased in size, and whoever was standing at the other side of the door seemed to be rather impatient as well. Astrid began to tense up, she quickly shot up from her position on the stairs and clung onto the guard rail tightly. " Go away, Go away we're not home !" the older Cline shouted, heart racing at uncontrollable speeds. "I mean it, get out of here, I have a lot of weapons and I'm not afraid to use them."

" Calm down," Aerin huffed as she quickly moved towards the latch to unlock it carefully, "It's probably our mailman, he never drops the post in the letterbox or it could be Atticus coming back for his Chemistry homework, there's no need to worry."

Astrid shook her head, uncertainty still canvased her face, she was gonna protect what was left of her house even if it meant doing a stint in jail for assault. "Don't risk it, they're probably standing at arms length with big boxes and a u-Haul in toe."

Ignoring her mother's crass, and rather absurd comments, the girl released the chain anyways. To none's surprise, instead of two hairy old men standing there with boxes, It was none other than Sam Evans, and surprisingly Quinn Fabray who stood behind the boy's shoulder. The pair both glanced at each other out of mere fear of Astrid's threat before they turned back to their good friend, awkward smiles plastered on both of the teenager's faces. The Cline girl nervously crossed her arms as she gave them a friendly nod, whilst Astrid tried to calm herself down in the background.

" Blonde Biebs, Q...What are you doing here, together ?" Aerin asked in a murmured tone, her thoughts racing wild once she caught sight of the Fabray giddish smile.

Sam lowered his backpack strap. "Oh you know, we were in the neighborhood and we, well, Quinn thought that you'd need a ride into school since Atticus didn't give you one," the blonde replied, once he saw Astrid leaning up against the families big grandfather clock with Lennon coddled in her arms he was quick to send a warm in the dirty blonde's direction.

" Mrs.Cline, it's nice to see you again," Sam spoke up, sticking out a hand to greet the lady before he retreated and stuck it back down once Astrid didn't take it. " My mom says thanks for the ginger snap cookies, she really enjoyed them and so did Stevie and Stacy, what's your recipe ?"

A chuckle slowly rose from within Astrid, and soon enough, the mother of 2 outwardly burst into a small fit of laughter. Aerin could only wish herself out of existence in that moment, her eyes widened as she whispered small 'help me's' to Quinn who just solemnly tried to hide her own amusement at the weirdness of the situation at hand. "Recipe ?" the older Cline chortled, "Honey, I bought those ginger snaps off some very friendly homeless guy who was selling girl scout cookies out of a stolen shopping cart."

"Oh I'm so sorry if you thought that those were homemade, I've never really been the type to get my hands dirty."

Sam's lips tightly pressed into a straight line as his eyes moved back to Aerin, who was currently paralyzed with embarrassment. Quinn decided to try her best at breaking the tension that had swept everyone up like a current in a heavy storm. Pushing Sam aside, the medium-statured girl slipped into the Cline residence with a hand behind her back. Aerin craned her neck in the direction of her close friend, eyes trying to peek at what Quinn was concealing.

" I got this for Beth originally, it's a bit tacky but I know how much she likes princesses," Quinn began as she opened her palm to reveal a small plush Snow White doll. Without hesitation, the smallest Cline swiped her new toy from Quinn's hand. A wide and gleeful smile grew on the little girl's lips, Aerin hadn't seen her that happy in a long time.

" What do you say, angel ?" Aerin asked as she turned to Lennon, for the past couple of weeks the honey blonde had been teaching her daughter basic manners. It varied from simple stuff, such as, thank you or yes please. To more intricate words (for the feeble mind of a two-year-old, obviously) like 'more please' or her own name, just for the fun of it.

Lennon slightly lifted her head from Astrid's chest, the little girl, with all her might, managed to spurt out a small thank you before she retreated back down to her comfort spot and new best friend. Quinn's gaze slightly lingered on the youngest Cline for a couple of seconds, Aerin knew that look all too well. It was the same one that she had on back in August just before the Kegger, she still missed her own little girl. A mother's love can never disappear, even at a whim, that bond that you grow will always last a lifetime; no matter what.

Feeling an unwanted tear starting to form at the crevice of her eye, Quinn quickly turned around to walk back outside to the porch haistfully. She didn't stop to wait for Sam or Aerin either, instead, the girl just kept on walking until she got to Sam's car and quickly slammed the door.

" What's her problem ?" Astrid commented, a brow raised towards Sam in curiosity. "Is there some bad blood between you two? lover's quarrel ?..oh I know..sexual tensio-"

" Sam and I are going to be late, we're going to be super late........" Aerin interjected as she rushed out the door and took Sam by the hand, cutting off her mother before the middle-aged woman could continue her embarrassment streak any further, " I'll see you after school! make sure you actually take Lennon to nursery and not to Breadstix, again! Oh and please don't try and threaten anybody else with violence whilst I'm gone."

♫ ♪ ♫

𝐀𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐍 𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍. If she could avoid a mirror for the rest of her life, then that would only be a blessing, to say the least. Everywhere the blonde turned, walked, moved, there always seemed to be a big mirror staring right back at her face; reminder her constantly about every blotch on her scaly, pale skin. Stretchmarks practically crawling down the side of her legs, extra pulsing baby weight from her pregnancy which seemed to never go away. That was the only thing the Cline girl could see when she looked in the mirror, it was like she was looking into a scary vision of her future self.

It especially didn't help when Sue, on a daily basis, would constantly berate her for having 'hammy legs' or hawk at the girl from being 'a tiny baby hippo in a blonde wig'. Granted, Aerin could always shake the cheerios coach's mean comments off by throwing out a couple harsher insults back, thanks to Santana's wise teachings on the art of getting under people's skin. However, Sue's hateful comments still ran rapid in the girl's mind, crawled up her skin like bed bugs in the dark, it sucked.

" Hey, do you think this lipstick screams i'm a sophisticated bitch or i'm a wild wild little mujer malvada," Catalina asked as she puckered her lips at the bathroom mirror with a small bottle of fuchsia coloured lip gloss.

A smirk formed on Aerin's upper lip, slowly, she moved towards the Santos and began to wrap her arms around the girl's waist. "You look hot, like seriously hot," the Cline reassured. "I mean, you always do, lip gloss or no lip gloss."

"True," Catalina replied in agreement, eyes still peeled and attentive to the big stained mirror. " But knowing that you like it makes me love it even more, my ex boyfriend said fuchsia made me look whorey. Although, Finn Hudson did say that he liked the way it matched with my sneakers once ....he's kinda cute, don't you think ?"

Aerin felt herself quickly let go of her girlfriend's waist. " No, not at all, if I ever do please, by all means, bash me over the head with a large rock," the girl responded in a rushed mumble. "Finn is like a brother to me, he's helped me through alot. Besides, the guy's in a budding relationship with Rachel Berry, remember her ? small annoying girl who wears ugly reindeer sweater ? the lead vocalist in that Glee Club ran by Schuester?"

Catalina turned to face Aerin as she tucked her lipgloss back into the upper pocket of her cheerios uniform. " Yentl? Oh, I know her very well..although, the only time i've ever seen that loser up close is when she's covered from head to toe in a nice, cold blueberry slushie from the local 7-Eleven."

Aerin rolled her eyes at Bianca's crass and rather  cliche comment. "Not cool, Santos," she responded, eyebrow halfway raised.

Just as Catalina was about to shot back her own thoughts on Aerin sticking up for the Berry girl, Santana and Brittany suddenly burst through the bathroom door, arms linked. If tension could kill, then the Cline girl would've been nothing more then bare-bones in that moment. Out of all the places to be trapped in with your ex, your new girlfriend, and her new girlfriend, fate had chosen the Bathroom.

" Lopez," Catalina smirked as she folded her arms, briskly gliding towards the raven-haired girl whose eyes bounced back and forth from Brittany's to Aerin's. " I missed you at practice yesterday, you too Barbie, Coach was really mad, she said that you're both gonna do The Walk of Shame today through the school hallway..your costume? two hand-made clown outfits made by Becky Jackson, queen of chic."

Brittany's brows slightly downcasted at the thought of having to walk around in big polka dot suspenders all day. "I don't want to dress as a clown," the tall blonde murmured. " They scare me, especially the ones with big red noses. One of them came to my sweet 16 once and he threw a cream pie in my face, his big creepy smile still haunts me till this day."

The dark brown-eyed girl narrowed her eyes in the direction of a sung Bianca. Unlatching herself from Britt's grasp, she took a couple of steps closer towards the raven-haired girl before the Latina took in a sharp intake of breath, her tactic for trying to ease unwanted anger. "Look, Daddy Long Legs, we didn't do anything. Britt and I were busy with Glee club rehearsals, so was Quinn. So if you're trying to kick me off and climb your way up to head cheerio then think again, hermana, because I'm here to stay."

Catalina inwardly scoffed as she rolled her eyes, grip firming hard on her black handbag. The girl leaned in towards Santana 's left ear to whisper something into it, a mischievous smirk canvasing her lips. " Podrías ser la cabeza de puta de este infierno, el que hace que todos se sientan inferiores. Pero esta máscara que tú te pones pronto se desvanecerá ... y todos te verán por lo que realmente eres ... una niña insegura."

Santana's jaw clenched, as did her fists, and a smoldering flare burned within her eyes. Just like Quinn, Aerin knew instantly what that look meant. She was seeing red, anger was currently bubbling and slowly rising like a volcano ready to erupt. " Tu perra malvada," the girl growled under her breath.

Catalina leaned back with an even bigger grin gaping widely on her face. "La malvada," the raven haired girl jeered stroking Santana's cheek as one last weird jab before she blew a kiss to Aerin and slipped out the door.

Silence filled the room, Santana and Aerin's eyes locked with one another.  Memories old and new flowed through like a riverbank crashing brashly in, hearts skipping intuitively. the Cline girl didn't know what to say first, apologising would only make their situation ten times more inopportune, whilst beginning with a soft hey would send it into overdrive.  This was the first time that they had properly crossed paths since their untimely break-up, or more so, since Aerin decided to call it quits. Sure, on occasion the pair had brushed past each other in the hallways,  or been in the same vicinity whilst they hung out with the rest of their friend group.

" I don't what she said to you, San, but I can only sincerely-"

" It's Santana to you, my friends call me San, even closer ones call me 'Tana,"  the Latina said abrasively, cutting off the blonde without hesitation.

A tight painful knot formed in the pit of Aerin's stomach, eyes metaphorically twisting in confusion. It felt like an agonizing punch to the gut, she had officially been demoted from friend to non-existent specimen. the blonde ran a hand through her hair nervously, a couple of broken laughs seeped through her lips," C'mon, don't be like that San, we're friends, two peas in a semi-dysfunctional pod."

" No, Aerin, you gave up that badge of honour when you decided to dump me like hot stewing garbage for some self-absorbed hyena," Santana began, hands firmly crossed on her waist. " I gave you my heart and you stamped on it with your dainty football boots. That hurt like crap, I've never felt so beaten up and humiliated at the same time. But do you know what hurt even more ? you not seeming to give a damn about the way you made me feel."

Aerin took in a sharp swallow, "I was stupid, I always have been, but we didn't really-"

" Know each other ?" Santana jabbed, cutting in once again. "And you think Catalina 'I shove my tatas at anybody who stares at me'  Guzman does?  Nobody truly knows themselves blondie, get real. We won't know until we're much older, much wiser, and a little less stupid. Sure, we never had a one on one date, sat down, talked about our future cottage options together whilst feeding each other an assortment of store-bought chocolates. But none of that mattered to me, because from the moment that we kissed at that lame party...bumped into one another outside of school in August, I instantly knew what those people in cheesy rom-com's were talking about when they say that they've found their 'twin flame'. " 

Aerin bit her bottom lip in pain, twin flame, the intense soul connection that joins two halves to make one. Or in better terms, a word that people used to describe a person who makes them feel whole. Twin flames are the flame within you that sparks once you've come into contact with the twin soul that captures your heart. The other part of your soul will be the complete mirror and compliment to you. It's felt energetically, that's how to know, energy never lies, nobody can fake an admission to something so deep.

" I have to go, I'll be late for warmups with Coach Bieste,"  Aerin sighed as she wormed her way past Santana, a hand gripped so tightly to the bathroom's handle that she felt a twinge of pain recoil within her, all the blonde could do was walk away, again, with nothing left but the thought that slowly became an instant realization.

Santana Lopez was her twin flame, and that was never going to change

◜ -ˋˏ 𝙍𝙊𝙉𝙉𝙄𝙀'𝙎 𝙉𝙊𝙏𝙀𝙎 ! ˎˊ- ◝

it's official besties, aerin's a pan icon <3

this chapter was a tear-jerker..it was lowkey super hard for me to write.

also, I just wanted to say that aerin's coming out scene was loosely based on how I came out to my mom (not my nana chile-) so reliving it through my character made me really happy. i just want to say that if I described or wrote pansexuality's definition wrong then please correct me, and I'll immediately alter it. I want to put out the right representation, and not the wrong one :)

furthermore, I just wanted to let you know that I'll be adding two more scenes tomorrow, since I wanted to upload for today and keep on schedule I decided to release these two first.

finally, if you want to talk about any of the topics discussed in this chapter then please, by all means, drop me a pm and I'll always be happy to talk

anyways I hope you have a great Sunday evening/morning or afternoon!

i love 3000

made by the ever so talented sceincebros !