Mercedes walked into the library and looked at her ex-boyfriend, the public boyfriend, sitting on the sofa. He was draped across the sofa, in defiance of the posted rules, daring the librarian to say something about it. She didn't. There was a stack of Sports Illustrated magazines by his hand. He was just laying there, flipping through them and tossing them aside.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Sam asked, letting go of her hand at the doorway.

"No, it'll be okay. He's not crazy." She walked over to Shane.

"Hey, Shane."

He looked up briefly and returned to his magazine. "Hey."

"Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure." He sat up and cleared a path through the magazines on the floor. Then he waited for her to sit down and start.

"I want to apologize. For what I did to you. I didn't want anybody to get hurt."

"How'd that work out?"

She looked down at her hands. "I said I'm sorry."

"Well, to tell you the truth I understand how it happened. I mean, you yourself said you were looking for a guy completely different than Sam. And I was looking for someone different from Lisa. Hell, if Lisa walked in that door right now I would have probably felt the same way you did when you saw him. 'Cept I wouldn't have lied about it."

"I guess I deserve that."

"Yes, you do. What you don't deserve is the shit I said to you yesterday. You're a big girl, you can pick your own friends. I just wanted to hurt you. That was unnecessary, what I said. I'm sorry for doing that." He started picking up the magazines he'd thrown on the floor.

"Anyway, something good came out of it. Lisa and I had the same clean break policy you had with Sam. Seeing what a ridiculous idea that turned out to be I sent her a text congratulating her on leading the girls basketball team done home to a statewide title. We ended up talking for hours. She got a scholarship to Ohio state. We're meeting down there this weekend, to check out the athletic facilities and stuff." He smiled thinking about seeing Lisa again. "So," he said standing up. "goodbye Mercedes. I'm not interested in being friends so it's just good bye."

"So how did it go?" Sam asked, sitting down in the seat Shane just vacated.

"Not as bad as it could have." she answered.

"And you picked me?" he asked eagerly.

"Of course I picked you."

"That's a relief. Listen, I thought about what Shane said and it wasn't all BS."

"I hurt Shane. I didn't mean to but I really hurt him. And he was trying to hurt me, that's why he said those things."

"Well, I don't know whose idea it was or why we thought it was a good idea, but no more secret relationship. I'm yours, you're mine and the rest of the world's going to have to deal with it. Okay?"

"Okay." She smiled at him and took his hand.

"Second, I'm really sorry about sectionals. I should have thought about how important that was to you. How it was more important to you than it was to me. I was just so excited to be back that I got caught up in the competition. Did that really bother you?"

"Kind of." she admitted.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I don't know. I guess..."

"You guess what?"

"I don't know, I didn't want to cause problems. You were here, you'd made up your mind. What right did I have to say no, you can't do what you wanted to do."

"What right did I have to ask you to leave Shane? He was a good enough boyfriend, he was your only friend for a while. But it was what I wanted, what I thought you really wanted. I thought we agreed on that, that you just wanted to let Shane down easy. Didn't you want to leave Shane?"

"Yes, I want to be with you."

"But..."

"I feel bad about the whole situation. It's better with everything out in the open now."

"Okay, anything else we need to discuss?"

"No. If I think of anything I promise you'll be the first to know."

"Okay, there's something I want to discuss with you." He reached into his backpack and pulled out a paper rose and tucked it behind her ear. "It's a flower that never dies for a love that never dies. Mercedes Jones, I love you. Forever."

The End