It was her first day on the campus of Columbia College in Chicago. She stood back and gazed at all of the banners, signs, and announcements that adorned the South Michigan building. She developed a tiny amount of anxiety, but that dissipated when she felt the cool breeze on her face. She reminded herself of what her best friend told her: You are Mercedes Jones. You are going to do great things. She took a deep breath, smiled, and started toward the building, tugging her mother's hand slightly. The bittersweet smile on Mrs. Jones' face stopped Mercedes in her tracks. Mrs. Jones was more unprepared for college than her daughter was.
"Momma, I'll be fine." As soon as the words escaped her lips, she was unsure of whom she was trying to convince. "I know, sweet pea. It's just…" Mrs. Jones took a deep sigh and gave her daughter an adoring look. She brushed her hair with her hand and said, "I'll be okay." Mercedes smiled back at her mother. She wrapped her arms around her and successfully held back the tears she fought since this morning. "I love you, Momma. Let's go inside and check out some of the clubs before we flood the streets with tears." Mrs. Jones' knew her daughter could always make her laugh. She released Mercedes from her embrace and they walked arm in arm into the building.
A couple of hours after perusing every organization Columbia had to offer, Mercedes and her mother left the building with bags full of pamphlets and other goodies. Mercedes thought about the wonderful people that she met at the booths for the Black Student Union and the Columbia Urban Music Association. The BSU group was extremely friendly and seemed excited to have a freshman member, since it sometimes took students a semester or two to get warmed up and start choosing organizations. She was a little intimidated by CUMA, particularly when they brought up the YouTube video. Fucking Sam, she thought as she smiled, remembering his pep talk when he showed her the video. You ain't no skim milk, baby. The thought of his voice made her smile ear to ear. She really missed Sam, so she made a mental note to call him that night.
"Alright, sweet pea. I got to get going," Mrs. Jones said with tear-filled eyes. The sight of her mother crying and the thought of not seeing Sam until Christmas break was too much for Mercedes. She threw her arms around her mother and the crocodile tears streamed down her face, dripping onto her mother's shoulder. "I love you, Momma!" "I'm going to miss you too, sweet pea. Go on now, before you make me take you back home."
"Mrs. Jones, you'll be back up here this weekend," Mercedes replied. Mrs. Jones knew that sass well. She rolled her eyes playfully and pointed to University Center, Mercedes' new home for the next nine months.
The ladies laughed infectiously in unison. "Yes, ma'am," Mercedes responded. Mrs. Jones loved that she had such a respectful and mature daughter. She kissed Mercedes on the cheek and promised that her Dad would be with her this weekend with the rest of her things. "Enjoy yourself. Explore the campus, make some friends, and contact your professors." She waved to Mercedes and headed to the car. As she watched her mother drive away, she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. It was a text from her best friend and future roommate, Tina. *R u there yet nerd? Lol*
Tina had been picking on Mercedes for weeks because of her decision to move in a full week before classes started. She giggled and text back: *ha freaking ha yes I am. Nerd? Didn't u take summer classes? * As soon as she hit the Send button, she remembered the mental note she made earlier. On her way to her half decorated dorm, she got another text from Tina: *w/e! I'll see u Thurs 3* She loved Tina and couldn't wait to see her. But for now, her mind was on Sam.
She closed the dorm room door behind her and made the call. "Why am I so nervous?" she thought. With each ring, the amount of butterflies in her stomach tripled. Then, she heard a strange voice on the other end. "This is James Earl Jones. Leave Sam a message or be forced to join the Dark Side." That voicemail message tickled her every time. "Sam, you are such a freaking nerd. Anyway, I'm about to get settled in so give me a call when you can. And why are you being so secretive about what you're doing this fall? I'm going to need you to answer that when you call. Bye!" She blew a kiss into the phone before she hung it up. She plugged her headphones into her phone and listened to Whitney Houston while she cleaned. After belting along to "All The Man That I Need," she sat her phone down and it rang almost immediately. She let "Summer Nights" play for a little while before she answered it. "Hello, Samuel." He could hear the smile in her voice.
"Hey, Ms. Pretty. How are you liking your new place?"
"It's… fine. Tina will be here in three days and once she gets situated it'll be AMAZING."
"Oh, that's right. You two went shopping for décor together. How fancy!"
Mercedes laughed, "Shut up, Sam!"
"I love hearing your laugh, Mercy. I was thinking… I want to write you a letter or maybe send you a care package, but I don't know your dorm number."
She rolled her eyes, "You dork. It's room 417. Do you need the address, too?"
"Nope! I got it. Gotta run, babe!"
"Okay?" Why was he being weird? "Love you!"
"Love you too, Mercedes." –click-
She sighed, "He's so weird sometimes." She stared at the prom picture of the on her desk and set her phone down next to it. She hadn't seen Sam in three days and was already starting to experience symptoms of withdrawal. She went back to playing music on her phone sans headphones and continued to put away her things. After noticing that she was thirsty and out of water, she stopped the music on her phone and checked the time on the home screen. 2:43 a.m. "Damn! Where did the time go?" She shook her head and left the room to seek refreshment. I think I saw a pop machine down stairs. She grabbed some change from her purse, propped her dorm door open with her shower flip-flop, and went to the elevator. It was a smooth ride all the way down. In the short amount of time it took her to reach her destination, she remembered her senior prom. She and Sam rode the elevator up to the hotel penthouse that, her fellow TroubleTones diva, Sugar's dad rented for the post-prom party. She remembered how everything about Sam Evans ignited everything about her: the smell of Cool Water and Irish Spring as she stood next to him, the feel of the suit's fabric on her cheek, how gorgeous he looked in his grey suit, his deep and sultry voice, and how she couldn't fight the rush she felt when she tasted his lips.
She snapped back to reality at the ding of the elevator doors opening. It was still pretty well lit in the lobby for being almost 3:00 a.m. There were a few students sitting on couches and chairs talking. She was taken aback when one of the students said hello to her. She turned and waved with a very polite "Hello" in response. She went to the pop machines and located the one that sold Aquafina. She dug in her pocket for her money and as she approached it she heard footsteps behind her. Mercedes froze up immediately. "It's uh… you don't need any money. All of the soda machines are free here." She turned to look at the kind person that helped her out. He was tall, caramel skin, grey eyes and stunning. "Hi. I'm Mark." He extended a hand to Mercedes and she nervously shook it. She couldn't believe that, not 5 minutes ago, she couldn't get Sam off her mind and now she was ogling this beautiful creature. "I'm M-Mercedes."
"Mercedes Inferno! I knew I recognized you from somewhere! I loved that performance. You were amazing."
She laughed out loud. "You can thank Sam for that."
He smiled while confusion spread across his face. "Who's Sam?"
She smiled, held her head down, and blushed. "He's my boyfriend."
Mark chuckled and said, "Well if he's got a gorgeous woman like you smiling like that, he must be special."
Mercedes smiled respectfully. "He is. I got to get going. I left my room door propped open."
"Oh! Okay, no problem! It was nice to meet you. I'll see you around."
"Take care," she replied as she walked away. She went to the elevator and pushed the up button. It took almost 5 minutes for the next elevator to show up. She was beginning to grow impatient, partly because of the mysterious way Sam acted before he got off the phone. Was he planning to write me a letter breaking up with me? Mercedes' brain had an odd way of working in the wee hours of the night. Even though she knew Sam loved her, her insecurities sometimes had a way of creeping up to the surface and fabricating lies. She shook her long black hair to rid herself of bad thoughts and got on the elevator.
On the way up, she found herself humming "Disco Inferno." As soon as she realized what she was singing, she started giggling and decided to text Sam when she got back to her room. He would probably be up playing Star Wars: The Old Republic anyways. As soon as she got off the elevator, her "Spidey-sense" told her something was amiss. She approached her dorm room with great caution, as she had seen too many scary movies. The light was on in the room. Mercedes was always raised to turn the light off when you leave a room. Mr. Jones was sure to always remind her. She heard the shuffling of papers and a man's voice coming from inside the room. Who the hell is that? She repositioned her water bottle so that she held it by the top, ready to attack whoever was in her living room. She crept up to the door and leaned in to peek through the small opening. Suddenly, the door opened and a figure stepped out in front of her. Mercedes and the figure shrieked for a second until they realized they knew each other.
"Tina! What the hell?"
Tina threw her arms around her friend. "Sorry! I meant to tell you. Mike and I decided to come early too! He wants to meet the dancers and he has an audition tomorrow any, so… here we are!"
Mercedes was excited beyond belief. Tina was one of her best friends in high school, but over the summer, Mercedes would consult with Tina about relationship matters and they grew closer. The girls stepped into the room and closed the door. "Cedes!" Mike stood up and gave her a hug. Mercedes loved having her friends there. After gabbing for a half hour about Mercedes' eventful day, she and Mike followed Tina into her room to help her unpack most of her things.
"Whew!" Tina exclaimed. "Well, that's one less thing to worry about. Thanks for helping, MJ. But seriously, you could've sat on the bed and painted your nails and I wouldn't have thought twice about it."
Putting her hand out on display, Mercedes joking sassed back, "Um, this is a FA-RESH manicure. I know you're not saying my nails look at mess." The trio laughed and yawned, while simultaneously checking the nearest time-telling device (Mike watch, Tina's phone, and Mercedes' alarm clock) before realizing how late it was. "Holy shit, I'm tired! We gotta go, babe. I think there's a hotel ope-"
"Wait, what?" Mercedes was confused.
Tina continued, "Well, we thought about it earlier, and we don't want to make you uncomfortable with us staying here so we were just going to get a hotel room."
Mercedes chuckled. "Make me uncomfortable? Child, please. You two can stay here. Why would I mind? This is OUR dorm, Tee. Plus it's not like we're in the same room, let alone the same bed. Plus, why would you pay a hundred dollars for a room to do the hanky-panky in when you have a room here?" Tina blushed as Mike put his arm around her. "If Mercedes says it's okay, I think she means it. Plus, I'm way too tired. It's after 5 a.m. and we really need to get some sleep. I've got that audition and I want to make sure I at least get a nap in before I go." Hesitant in doing so, Tina agreed with Mike. They all joined in for a group hug and went to their respective rooms.
Not ten minutes later, Mercedes heard the faint sounds of a very satisfied woman. Sound proof walls, my ass, she thought. It oddly made her think of Sam and the last night they spent together before she left for Columbia. He told her that he didn't want to do anything and opted to just lie in his bed instead. She remembered how disappointed her libido was, but the fact that he just wanted to talk to her made her heart smile. She loved their talks. He was a lot smarter that he led on in school and she wished people could have seen that side of Sam. She decided that she would make him a video. She double-checked her remaining makeup, smudging or removing until it looked decent. She opened her laptop, started the necessary software, and began recording:
"Hi. Um… I'm up late and I'm sure you are too. I would call, but I figured you would like a video better. I miss you so much and I don't want to wait until Christmas. *sigh* So, here's a little present for you. I hope you like it."
She sang the first verse and the chorus of "Human Nature," one of their shared favorite songs. "Oh my god, that did NOT sound good *laugh* See? Everything is better with you in it. I miss you so much and I love you Sam. Goodnight." She blew a kiss into the camera before stopping the recording. After she emailed the video to him, she turned off her desk lamp, crawled into bed and stared at the picture on her desk. She could feel the warm tears pooling in her eyes. She missed him so much it hurt. She wanted to see him and more importantly know that he was okay. She continued to cry until her body decided that it needed rest.
Six hours later, she climbed out of bed and stretched until her body felt limber enough to walk. She opened the door to her room and saw Tina in the kitchen making a pot of tea. "Morning, MJ!"
"Morning, Tee. Where's Mike? Oh, the audition?"
"Yeah. He's been gone for about an hour now. Do you need some tea?
"Ooh, yes please." Mercedes headed toward the pantry to grab the honey and sugar. She only drank hot tea if it tasted like her momma's. With that thought, she began to feel homesick. Before she could concoct her drink, she heard "Summer Nights" playing from her room. Dropping everything she had in her hand on the counter, she ran to her room and answered the phone.
"Hey, you!"
"Hey you, yourself. What were you doing up so late?"
Mercedes told him all about last night. Sam wasn't particularly fond of the Mark part, but he didn't feel any twinge of jealousy.
"So guess what I'm doing right now?"
Mercedes didn't care for guessing games. She was happy to hear his voice, save the suspicious grunts he was making, so she played along. "Um… do I want to know?"
Sam laughed, "You probably don't but I'm going to tell you anyway. Kind of."
"Kind of? What the fu-" Mercedes stood there in shock after the call had dropped. Tina walked into Mercedes' room. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Sam is just playing the guessing game again. But he hung up on me. Maybe he lost service." With that thought, Mercedes called him again. It went Straight to voicemail. Mercedes was furious, sad, and puzzled. The girls jumped at the sound of the lock being turned in the living room.
"I gave Mike my key just in case we were still asleep when he got back."
Mercedes nodded in response. The girls walked to the living room and Tina threw her arms around Mike.
"Guess what I found wandering around the hallway," Mike said with a smile. And as if that was a cue, a tall figure walked into the room, green eyes blazing with excitement and fixed on Mercedes as soon as they found her, wind-blown blond hair, and a smile that could light up Las Vegas.
She couldn't believe it.
He was here.
This was his surprise.
"SAM!"
