Santana awoke to the sound of the annoying buzz coming from her phone. A little disoriented, she glanced around, taking in her surroundings. She had noticed that the sky had already darkened immensely.

Although Santana was a very quick thinker when she was awake, her thought process was severely slow when she was half-asleep. At times like this, Santana had to go through every thought she was thinking at the moment, and slowly link them together to formulate an idea that actually made sense in her head. First, she knew she hadn't set an alarm on her phone. That meant that someone was calling her. Once that finally clicked in her brain, she reached for her phone.

Santana answered on the sixth vibration, not bothering to check who had called her. "Hello?" she quietly mumbled, her voice thick with sleep.

"Santana? Where are you?" a calm voice questioned. There was a lot of noise in the background.

"Home," Santana simply stated, still not exactly awake.

She heard a small sigh from the other end of the line. "San, you were supposed to be at the restaurant half an hour ago. Did you fall asleep again?' the voice asked.

Hearing the words "restaurant" and "half an hour ago", Santana was wide awake. "Shit," she muttered. "Tina?"

"That's me," Tina stated.

"I'm so sorry. I'll be there in five," Santana quickly replied. She had already jumped off the couch and ran upstairs by the time she ended the call.

In her room, she flung off the clothes she was currently wearing and hastily threw on a white button down shirt and black pants, the dress code for the restaurant's waiters and waitresses. She didn't have time to put on any makeup. Natural it is.

She pulled her hair back into a high ponytail as she ran out of her room.

Rushing downstairs again, she grabbed her car keys and coat, stuffed her phone in her pocket, and was out the door.

Luckily, Santana didn't live far from the restaurant. It was literally a five minute drive from her house.

As she drove, she thought about the phone call. How many times have I been in this situation now? Five? Six? she thought. And every time is exactly the same.

They also always had the same exact conversation too. It was déjà vu over and over and over again, and each time she felt worse about it. Santana didn't understand why Tina wasn't fed up with her yet. She was always so calm and understanding about it, just taking it in stride and never complaining. Hell, Tina covered for her every single time like it was second nature. That was one of the many things Santana loved about Tina, and Santana was definitely grateful to have an amazing friend working beside her.

She parked behind the restaurant, so she could enter through the back kitchen instead of the front doors, where Will, her boss, would definitely see her. It wasn't like he was a mean person; he was actually really nice, sometimes to the point of crossing the line between being friendly and being perverted. The only thing was that he hated when people showed up late to work. His employees had learned very quickly that being late was never an option. From the very beginning, anyone could guarantee that being the cause of one of Will Schuester's hissy-fits was certainly not a good thing. It was a miracle that Santana hadn't been caught at least once yet. Once again, she mentally thanked Tina for covering for her each and every time.

Santana raced up the steps leading to the back door. The composed Asian was already waiting for her, standing at the doorway. As always, there was no hint of annoyance or anger written on her face, just a small understanding smile.

"I'm sorry," Santana started to explain. "I don't know why I keep falling asleep-"

"Hey, it's okay," Tina assured, cutting off Santana's words. "Saving your ass is becoming part of my normal routine," she said with a wink.

Santana smiled and gave Tina a hug.

With Santana's arms still wrapped around her, Tina replied, "You know this doesn't get you out of doing the dishes tonight, right?"

Santana laughed as she pulled back. "Of course not," she answered.

"I think that we should get back to work before Schuester decides to come into the kitchen and check on the staff," said Tina, closing the door behind them.

"Good idea," Santana replied, nodding. "Thanks again," she said sincerely.

"Anytime," Tina responded with a smile.

Tina had been bustling around for the past hour, taking care of both her and Santana's responsibilities. She decided to lean back against the door and take a small break. She smiled sadly as she watched Santana hang up her coat and make her way to the sink, greeting the other employees on kitchen duty along the way.

Although Puck didn't work at the restaurant, he had been there enough times to have gotten to know the staff, including Tina. Puck had also seen Tina at the bar several times because she sometimes tagged along with Santana, and they had become pretty good friends.

Watching Santana, Tina remembered the conversation she had with Puck not too long ago. He had told her about how Santana was starting to spend more time at home, and how he was worried about her being alone all the time. Studying the brunette, Tina wondered if she was lonely, which is what Puck had implied. Santana was super friendly and knew how to easily start a conversation with anyone. That wasn't how Santana always was, but she had definitely mellowed out since she had started working at the restaurant.

Tina couldn't imagine Santana lonely; the brunette was happy at work, and if she had ever been sad, she hadn't showed any signs of it. But then again, Tina wasn't Santana's bestie, and didn't really know how she acted outside of work. She had hung out with Santana a couple times at the bar, but Santana had always been behind the counter, working with Puck. Tina sighed, not knowing what to think of the situation. She walked out of the kitchen with a new basket of bread for one of the tables she was waiting.

Santana was glad that she was on kitchen duty the first night back from the holidays. Although it was a little noisy in the kitchen, she didn't have to run around all night or worry about pleasing all the customers. Since she had been late, she was glad that she didn't have to look "presentable" for the customers. Plus, Santana didn't mind washing dishes. Content, she hummed as she worked.

About ten minutes later, Tina remembered that her friends were coming to the restaurant. They were staying with her for awhile, and had gone out earlier today. Her friends had told her that they had wanted to "explore the city" and that they would come by the restaurant for dinner tonight. Tina had forgotten to tell Santana earlier; she made her way back to the kitchen to do so.

"Hey," Tina said, walking towards the brunette with a few empty plates in hand.

"Hey yourself," Santana replied, smiling. "Are those for me?" she asked.

"Yup," she answered, placing the plates on top of the stack besides the sink. "So my friends from New York are visiting me, and they're coming here later. I kept forgetting to tell you until now. I'm excited for you to meet them," Tina continued enthusiastically.

Santana perked up when she heard Tina say that her friends were from New York. It couldn't be them. Curious, she couldn't help but ask, "They don't happen to be two blondes, right?"

"Actually, yeah, they are," said Tina, surprised that Santana knew that.

"Are their names Brittany and Quinn?" the brunette asked hesitantly, wondering if it could be true.

"Um, yeah," Tina replied, even more confused. "How did you know that?"

"Puck and I went running this morning and we literally ran into them," Santana said with a light laugh.

"Small world, huh?" asked Tina.

"No kidding," Santana stated. "Well, I'd love to meet them again," she said genuinely, trying hard not to let her excitement or nervousness show. She couldn't believe she was actually going to get to see Brittany again, let alone twice in the same day.

"Okay. I'll let you know when they come," Tina replied, smiling.

She left Santana behind, walking out of the kitchen with yet another basket of bread.

So let me know what you think, please and thanks(:

I'm going away for a bit, and then I have camp, and then inevitably, school is starting. I just wanted to let you guys know, but I'll try my best to keep updating. Hope you liked the chapter!