AN: Here's the next chapter! Thank you to my reviewers and I want to say hello to all of my readers. I hope you enjoy this chapter and leave me a review, they are my fuel :D I love you all and I apologize for spelling errors.
Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or its characters OR any of the other movies/tvshows/characters mentioned.
Chapter Three: Ways to keep a distance
It has been nearly eight whole days since the incident at Rachel's party. Mercedes was once again resuming her role as semi-best friend to Kurt. Although Kurt hadn't really been paying neither Mercedes nor Blaine that much attention lately, the two of them thought that it would be wisest to keep a distance from one another.
Now Mercedes sat alone in her room staring out the window. It was raining outside, and all was quite in the Jones household. Her mother and father had taken her brother TJ to the movies since he was so eager to see The Green Lantern before any of his friends did. (He was a big little kid at heart and didn't mind being out in public places with his parents) TJ was always a little bit of an overachiever. Ever since he paraded out of his mom's womb with the strong lungs of Louie Armstrong, he has been the "picture perfect" child.
At the age of sixteen, TJ was already class president for the tenth grade, the first chair for the trombones and a shoe in for quarterback when he could join the varsity team of Lima High. Mercedes parents treated him like a god, but Mercedes was never jealous. She went to his debate day, sat in the front row for every concert and lay in the weedy grass at the Lima Bay view Park to watch him practice football drills, everyday for as long as she could remember.
She was proud of her brother, and even looked up to him in a weird way. Her phone vibrated on her glass topped nightstand, breaking her train of thought. She leaned over a pile of fluffy blue and yellow pillows to stare at the call-waiting icon. Her heart sped up as she recognized the number. It was Rachel.
Normally Mercedes would have no problem talking to Rachel. After all, they were both competitive divas and Rachel only calls when she wants to argue. But after the party, things have gotten strange. Rachel has been smiling knowingly every time Mercedes would text someone in class. She has been asking very inappropriate questions regarding Mercedes relationship with Kurt. And she even trailed Mercedes all the way to the library on Hurst Street to find out if she was meeting someone.
Mercedes gulped before pressing the deny button on her phone. There was no way that she'd talk to Rachel. She was notoriously known to blab about everyone to everyone else and Mercedes really didn't need that right now.
She was still coming to terms with her sudden attraction to Blaine. There wasn't enough room for someone to be bombarding her with questions about him, when she still had a few questions herself. With a huff, Mercedes stood up from her bed and out her room door.
She allowed her fingers to trail the cream colored walls, while she observed pictures of her younger self hanging from the walls loose nails. The rain was a soft swishing backdrop noise allowing her to breathe evenly in and out of her nose. She'd never felt so calm on a day like this.
After heading down the stairs, Mercedes made a beeline for the kitchen. She reached into the highest cabinet and pulled out a large yellow mug with a black swirling pattern on it. Without thinking, she set the worn box of hot cocoa onto the counter, taking it from its hiding place among the spice rack, and began to make herself some of the warm drink. As the water began to bubble, she placed the mix into it, watching it swirl for a moment before molding itself to blend with the hot water.
The room began to fill with the homey scent of cinnamon and cocoa. Mercedes poured the cocoa into her mug, turning off the stove. She brought the mug to her face and sniffed the heady scent in, before taking a long gulp. The cocoa was extremely hot, just the way she liked it. She licked a few drips from her mouth as she began to head towards the living room.
A long brown leather couch sat at an angle on the far wall, giving way to a much smaller loveseat with a long fuzzy dark green cover draped over it. She plopped down onto the loveseat, careful not to spill the cocoa (her Mom would kill her if she did) and turned on the television. As usual there wasn't much on but she settled in for a rerun of The Nanny. Though it wasn't her favorite TV show, it was close to the top twenty. She loved how Nanny Fine always had a solution to everything, how she was genuinely funny. But her weakness was Miles, him and Cece always had Mercedes cracking up with their bantering. She was secretly happy that at the very end of the entire TV show they ended up together.
There was a ring at the door, but she ignored it. It was probably someone trying to sell her 'stolen goods' again. Living in Lima didn't really change the fact that yes there were still crooks that thought that stolen goods were the best kind of goods. This isn't Bedsty, but they obviously didn't get the memo.
The doorbell rang again, this time the person ringing knocked afterwards. With a groan, Mercedes set down her cocoa and pulled the green cover around her shoulders. She trudged through the living room nearly tripping over TJ's discarded dirty cleats and over to the door. She didn't even bother to peak through the peephole, instead she unlocked the door and threw it open. "We don't want any of your-" she closed her mouth when she realized that it wasn't any salesman. It was Kurt and Blaine.
Mercedes was shocked when she found both men standing in a wet heap on her front door step. She averted her eyes from Blaine's, maintaining focus on Kurt instead. He looked awfully disheveled, as if he were still hung over from the party last week. "Hey 'Cedes! You going to let us in or not?" he asked shaking his bed head and spraying water all over her. She crinkled her nose. "Nope, you guys smell like wet dog" she replied. Blaine laughed causing her heart to sputter in her chest.
"C'mon please? I locked myself out of my house, and no ones home" Kurt complained, "And Blaine figured that it'd be better if we camped out here until Dad came home, instead of lounging in the dorm"
Mercedes glanced at Blaine and he blushed from behind his dark red scarf. Mercedes grumbled a curse word under her breath before stepping out of the threshold. With an unenthusiastic wave of her hand, she allowed them inside. "Ooh! We're just in time for The Nanny!" Kurt clapped his hands excitedly after he shed his thick white parka. Blaine brushed past Mercedes, purposely bumping his chest against hers making her gasp.
This wasn't apart of the plan, Mercedes thought. They were supposed to go on pretending like nothing happened. Mercedes gulped as she watched both Blaine and Kurt sprawl across the living room, Kurt lay on the couch, his head dangling off the side. Blaine was on the loveseat, legs curled up to his chest, his eyes fastened to hers. She froze by the front door, taking in his perfect strong looking shoulders before dropping her gaze back towards his soft red lips. Mercedes could almost feel the heat radiating off of his simple gaze. It felt as if he were right beside her again, breathing soft warm breaths on her neck and tracing her body with his fingers. Mercedes glanced away as she walked over to the coffee table positioned in between both the loveseat and the couch. She shook her head and sighed. Whatever weakness they'd both had at the party could NEVER happen again.
She placed herself on the dark green rug, resting her back up against the couch, fixing her legs so that they were underneath the coffee table and tugging the cover so that it muffled the sound of her frantic heartbeat. She stared at the screen, not really processing what was happening. Her mind kept going back to the fact that the room felt quite tense. The air was suffocating her. She glanced at Blaine whom was now staring at the TV, nervously pulling a hand through his hair every few minutes.
"You got any cocoa?" Kurt's voice was muffled. She turned to find his face mashed into the armrest, the only part of his head that was visible was his hair. "Yeah its in the kitchen" Mercedes rose, quickly running into the kitchen to grab Kurt's favorite mug.
Back when they were extremely close friends, they'd always made hot cocoa during cool months like these. They'd sit in front of the TV (usually in Mercedes room) and just watch a whole stack of romance movies. Sometimes they'd have pillows fights and use both TJ and her room as the battlegrounds, usually including TJ in their childish play. She sighed as she pulled out the blue heart shaped mug from the bottom shelf of the cabinet. Those times used to be so easy for the both of them.
But it seemed like now they both were finding ways to keep a distance.
AN: The end of this chapter!
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To be Continued...