A/N: This idea came to me based on something I once heard someone say. The comment stuck with me and bugged me, in much the way I have it bug Mercedes here.
A/N 2: I promise I'm working on 'The Truth Is, I Never Left You.' A number of personal issues have come up that stand in the way of the next chapter, but the story will likely be unstuck soon.
Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or the song "In A Perfect World" by Keri Hilson.
In A Perfect World
Mercedes stepped into the kitchen, her fingers clamped around her cell phone. She hoped her face didn't betray her anxiety; she didn't want her mother thinking something was wrong when nothing was.
"Hey, Mom, I want to talk to you about something."
Madeline Jones turned from the stove, where she was stirring a pot of vegetable soup, and smiled at her youngest.
"What is it, baby?"
Mercedes crossed her arms. "It's about Kurt."
"Did that boy finally ask you out?" Madeline's eyes twinkled; her daughter had not been silent about her feelings for the Hummel boy.
"No. Mom, Kurt is…" Mercedes hesitated. "You have to promise not to tell anyone, Kurt isn't ready for everyone to know."
Madeline frowned. "Okay..."
"Kurt's gay," Mercedes blurted, not pausing to gauge her mother's response. "But it's fine, I'm really okay with that, he's still my best friend and everything, I just wanted to make sure that, you know, he could still come over and-"
"Mercedes!"
Mercedes stopped herself. "Yeah?"
"I don't have a problem with Kurt being gay," her mother reassured her gently, smiling in amusement.
"Oh, great." Mercedes was relieved, although she'd expected nothing less, really. It was just that Kurt meant a lot to her and she didn't want anything to change her relationship with her mother.
"Of course," Madeline continued, "in a perfect world everyone would be straight; men would love women and vise versa…but the world isn't perfect." She shrugged, tossed her daughter a smile, and returned to tending the soup.
In a perfect world, everyone would be straight.
This phrase haunted Mercedes for days after, until she slowly forgot about it.
:
It was much later that her mother's words once again rose to the surface of Mercedes' thoughts.
The glee club's performance of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" had gone very well, leaving everyone in a state of satisfaction for a week or so. The girls had gotten a chance to once again swoon over the extremely handsome Dr. Carl Howell and the boys got the chance to, as Artie eloquently put it at the cast party, "get their freak on."
And now things were back to "normal"—as normal as they got at McKinley—and Mr. Schue was about to introduce the next week's project.
Mercedes wasn't really paying attention; she was more concerned about the boy seated next to her. Kurt had been quiet all day, and that just wasn't normal. She had tried to talk to him but he hadn't been especially responsive. She wondered if some of the bullies had gotten to him, but before she got the chance to ask, Kurt was standing.
"Mr. Schue, if I may?"
Their teacher nodded and stepped to the side. Kurt stood before his friends and gave them all a sad little smile.
"My mom died nine years ago today," he began, chin held high.
Mercedes could have slapped herself—how could she possibly forget something important like this?
Kurt continued. "So I have a song to sing for her. It's 'In A Perfect World,' and I know it's supposed to be about a lover…but I think it works just as well when anyone you love is gone."
His eyes already glassy, he opened his mouth and began:
"Ooh
In a perfect world
Angry words are never spoken
In a perfect world
No one's heart is ever broken
True love isn't hard to find
It always lasts until the end of time
You would still be mine
In a perfect world
I'd be all you ever needed
And if leaving crossed you mind
At least I would have seen it
You wouldn't be so far away
There wouldn't be so many things to say
I know you would've stayed
In a perfect world
It's all so clear to me
I close my eyes and see
The way that it could be
In a perfect world
My arms are still around you
Forever isn't out of reach
No one cries and no one leaves
You would still love me
If we could only be
In a perfect world…"
:
Kurt and the glee boys were spending the lunch period together working on some song for glee, so Mercedes sat down with Tina, Quinn, and Rachel. They were joined moments later by Brittany and Santana, who glared when they all looked at her in surprise.
"It's a free country," she said, squeezing in next to Tina.
Within moments, a conversation had broken out, but Mercedes couldn't pay attention. Kurt's voice was echoing in her mind—"perfect world"—along with her mother's words from a year before.
It bothered her. And she couldn't hold it in any longer.
"Do you think, in a perfect world, no one would be gay?"
The others fell silent instantly, heads swiveling to stare at her.
"What?" Tina finally managed, her soda halfway lifted to her mouth.
Mercedes flushed. "It's just…something I heard someone say. It bothered me. Like, the Bible condemns homosexuality, so…in a perfect world, would no one be gay?"
Quinn frowned. "I don't understand. We don't live in a perfect world, hon, why does it matter?"
"Because saying that's true is like saying there's something wrong with being gay. And I…don't want to believe that."
"The question is, why would you want to live in a world that's perfect, anyway?" Santana asked, shrugging and arching her eyebrow as the other girls looked her way.
"I wouldn't," Brittany said unexpectedly.
"Why not?" Rachel asked curiously.
Brittany answered as if it was obvious. "Because it wouldn't really be perfect. Kurt wouldn't be there."
And that, Mercedes thought, summed it all up, well, perfectly.