Epilogue

"Way to go, Santana!" Mr. Schuester cheered as he made his way to the front of the practice room. "I'm very proud of you. That was a great song."

"Thanks, Mr. Schue." Santana smiled softly before heading back to her seat in the glee room.

"I'm going to give you guys a ten minute break and then we'll meet in the auditorium." Mr. Schuester added before leaving the room. Everyone followed at their own scattered pace. Santana was the last one in the room, preoccupied with a series of text messages she was sending.

"That was amazing, Santana." Rachel said in a very quiet voice as she came back into the room. "It was a great song."

Santana didn't know what to say and the silence in the room became more uncomfortable. "Thanks, Rachel." She finally replied and decided to accept the compliment.

"But I know you can do better." Rachel challenged.

"Excuse me?" Santana frowned.

"I heard you practice during the lunch break. What you performed right now was good, but the other song was better?"

"Why were you spying on me?"

"I didn't mean to. I…I was trying to find Finn and when I followed him into the auditorium, I saw you practicing." Rachel confessed.

"Finn was there too?" Santana asked.

"Yeah," Rachel turned a bit red out of embarrassment. There was another uncomfortable pause in the conversation. "I'm not here to talk about that." Rachel continued. "I just wanted to say that I think you made a mistake singing that song today. During lunch, when you sang Love is a Losing Game…it was amazing."

"Listen, Rachel." Santana confronted. "I'm not like you. I can't stand up there every week and pour my heart out in front of everyone. I don't know how you do it."

"How I do it?" Rachel was puzzled. "I don't know how you keep everything bottled in inside without driving yourself crazy."

"It's just another reason why we're so different, Berry." Santana stiffened up.

"We're not that different." She argued. "Aside from suffering very public humiliations during the last few days thanks to our boyfriends…"

"Ex-boyfriends." Santana interrupted with a correction.

"We're both two very proud girls and we're always in our own heads that we get in the way of ourselves. I think that's why you changed your performance at the last minute." Rachel practically hit the nail on the head explaining the two of them.

"You're so right. " Santana agreed.

"And we both think that Quinn is a little bit of a bitch." Rachel joked to lighten the mood.

"It's like we're twins." Santana added sarcastically. "When are you going to get over your pride and get back with Finn?" She asked abruptly and with complete seriousness.

"When are you going to get back with Artie?"

"That's different. Artie cheated on me. Finn lied to you about something that happened in the past when you two weren't even a couple."

"I don't trust him. I accept that what happened between the two of you was in the past, but I won't be with someone who has feelings for someone else."

"Finn is in love with you." Santana defended.

"Why do you think he was in the auditorium watching you?" Rachel questioned, but Santana kept quiet. "He has feelings for you. I'm not going to be someone's second pick. As far as I'm concerned, I'm going to take time and enjoy being single."

"I'm going to need some time to think things through." Santana lied. She knew what she was going to do. She told Rachel to go ahead and she'll join them in the auditorium soon. Santana may not completely hate Rachel now, but that doesn't change how things played out with everyone else.

Santana went back to her cell phone and sent a message with a notorious smirk plastered on her face. "Puck, cancel our plans for tonight. I have better things to do."

No, Santana didn't have a change of heart. She had bigger things up her sleeve. If everyone thought Santana was a bitch before, then they have no idea what they are about to get themselves into.

Santana is back in full effect.

A/N:

So that's it. Done.

A few chapters back, I decided that this story needs to wind down. I know that this is not a clean ending to the story, but that's because it's not completely over...I'm already planning the sequel. I haven't abandoned Artana. I just wanted to close this part of their relationship and then use a different story that skips some time and re-examines Artana in a different way. So let's not call this an ending...just a brief hiatus.

Finally, I just want to thank everyone who read /alerted/reviewed this story. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.