And I'm back! I swear, I didn't abandon this fic, it's just taking a while to get all the words right. :)

I'm not the happiest with this chapter, I actually think it flip-flops around quite a bit, but it needed to get written and put up so I can move this plot along. Lol. Just a heads up - I'm starting to think of how to end this monster of a fic, so if anybody has any suggestions, let me know! :P

In the meantime, please read and leave a review to satisfy my author heart. :)

And I don't own Glee. Still. Duhhhh.

Chapter 10: An Honest Mistake

Ready and waiting for a heart worth the breaking,
but I'd settle for an honest mistake in the name of
one sweet love.
Savor the sorrow to soften the pain, sip on
the southern rain
as I do, I don't look don't touch don't do anything,
but hope that there is a you.

"Quinn Fabray!"

The sudden noise made her jump up with a start, her covers falling dangerously low on her chest. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she glanced at her clock and cursed softly. It was 9 AM and there was no way she'd be able to make her Psychology class in an hour. Sighing in resignation that she'd have to skip, Quinn leaned back on her elbows and let her head fall to her other side – where a peaceful, sleeping Sam Evans laid. His chest rose and fell with each deep breath and she reached over to brush back several strands of hair that swept across his closed eyelids. A smile curled her lips when she heard a soft sigh escape his mouth and his eyes finally fluttered open.

"Morning," Sam murmured, pulling himself up to drop a kiss on Quinn's bare shoulder.

"Hi," she whispered back. Time seemed to stop between them, as they drank each other in and with the morning glow dancing across their skin – Quinn was fascinated. Nights and mornings had never been like this before, especially not with Sam.

When they had dated back in high school, it was all giggles and laughter, silliness and being carefree. It was a teenage love, high one minute and low the next. But now, lying in bed next to each other, with the seriousness of what they had just done the night before…it was all fitting together perfectly. 'We're older now. Smarter, wiser,' Quinn realized.

"Quinn Fabray!" the disconnected voice that had woken her up earlier reverberated through her thin apartment walls and her eyes widened.

"Is that…" Sam started, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Santana," Quinn confirmed, covering her face with her hands. She took a deep breath and exhaled, shaking her loose hair off her shoulders. "Okay, you can't be here right now,"

Sam chuckled, pressing a kiss to the back of her hand gently, as if he wasn't absolutely terrified of the wrath that would come from Santana Lopez. "I'm pretty sure she's going to find out sooner or later – you're a terrible liar, Fabray," he teased.

"Shut up, I'm being serious," Quinn smacked him on the shoulder. "She's going to flip,"

"Would you relax?" he smirked, swinging his legs over the bed and pulling on his jeans. "We're all adults, right?"

Quinn scoffed. "You're cute," she shot back sarcastically, grabbing the nearest clothes she could find off the floor. "Let's just…get this over with," sighing, she pulled her hair into a ponytail and patted her cheeks, trying to look awake. Before her hand could slide her bedroom doors open, she felt a familiar pair of arms wrap around her waist and Sam's lips ghosted over the skin of her neck, causing a shiver to run up her spine. She turned in his grasp, looking up in to his green eyes, feeling herself get momentarily lost.

"I'm sorry, I'm just…this is all really weird," she apologized.

Sam chuckled again and that all-too-familiar smirk curled its way around his lips – when did that smirk go from annoying to ridiculously sexy? "I'll be out of the apartment faster than The Flash. I'm sure you can handle Santana, right?" Quinn frowned and scoffed, but Sam shook his head, not believing her. "Bring back the Queen of Mean," he advised, a small laugh escaping his lips, before he slid the bedroom door open.

To Quinn's surprise, Santana wasn't holding a chainsaw or an axe in her hands, ready to break something in frustration. Instead, she was standing near the kitchen counter, one hand on her hip, annoyance and worry etched across her face. Beside her, looking slightly hung over, was Rachel, clutching a coffee cup as if it held all the answers to the universe.

"What, are you completely deaf?" Santana spat, her heels clicking against the floor, as she rounded the counter to grab the coffee out of its tray. It was only when she turned back, that she realized there was another person in the apartment – Sam.

"Santana, I can explain…" Quinn started.

The Latina held her hand up to silence her and a sinister smile turned the corners of her lips upwards. "Hello, Trouty Mouth," she sneered.

"Hey, Santana," Sam answered tiredly. "If you don't mind, I've got somewhere to be," he tried to sidestep her, but Santana was faster – she stood in front of him and despite the height difference, Quinn couldn't help but notice that she was infinitely more intimidating than he was.

"Leaving so soon? Because I think I have a few things I'd like to say to you,"

"I know you do and I doubt any of them are complimentary, so if you don't mind – I've got to go," Sam insisted.

Santana rolled her eyes. "I take it you two were just talking? All night long? With no clothes?"

"Wanky," Rachel snorted and a silence fell over the apartment - Quinn didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the whole situation.

"You owe me, Guppy Lips,"

"Look, the only person I owe anything to right now is Tina and Mike and Quinn – I don't know for what or why, and I'll figure that out as I go, but until I do, you're not getting anything from me, Santana," he said, his voice calculated and calm, as he took several steps towards the front door. "I'll see you, Quinn," Sam's eyes conveyed a warm message to her and she waved at him fruitlessly, watching him slip out the front door.

"Well. That was eventful," Quinn started. "Thanks for the coffee, San," she plucked the cup out of her friend's hands and curled herself up on the couch, trying to act as if nothing happened.

"Wait, did I drop into a Twilight zone? Are we going to ignore the fact that Sam Evans just slept over? In your bed?!" Santana screeched, throwing her arms up in frustration. "When did this happen? Does Mike know?" she asked, the questions rolling off her tongue quickly as she rushed to sit next to her.

Quinn took a breath and breathed out deeply, trying to get her thoughts under control. On one hand, she was having fun watching Santana squirm, but on the other, talking about what was and what wasn't made her extremely uncomfortable. When she didn't say anything for several minutes, Rachel chimed in.

"You do know he's still with Tina, right?"

"I thought they broke up," Santana said.

Rachel shook her head. "No, Kurt told me they're still together. And Blaine told him,"

"Well, Britt told me they broke up and…"

"Oh my god, will you listen to yourselves?" Quinn scoffed. "It's like we're back at McKinley,"

"I'm sorry, but aren't you sleeping with your high school ex-boyfriend? Looks like you're the one who's still stuck on school spirit," Santana sneered.

"Sam came over last night because he was upset about what happened with Tina. What he and I did…it wasn't right," Quinn sighed, her shoulders sagging with the weight of the previous night. Leaning back into her couch, she ran a hand through her hair and tugged at the strands forcefully, trying to find some way to justify what they had done.

It hurt her heart to admit that there was no justification, no reasoning, and certainly no way to make it all okay.

"Quinn, what does…what does this mean?" Rachel asked softly, her eyes wide with concern.

"You look like a tarsier," the blonde spat out unnecessarily. "I don't know what it means,"

Santana made a noise that sounded like a half-snort, half-chuckle. "I can tell you - Sam cheated on Tina and Quinn helped. What just screws it up even more is that Tina already cheated on Sam with Mike,"

The silence was loud between the three girls and the tension hung thick in the air. Quinn winced at Santana's words – they cut too close and they were more truthful than she wanted to admit. Sam had never cheated on anybody before, at least not intentionally.

And Quinn knew all too well – the pain of cheating on someone you loved was brutal and led you to do stupid, stupid things.

At ten minutes to 4, Quinn flicked the switch on the stereo and waited, as Mike led their modern dance class into a freestyle session. Happiness bubbled inside her, as she watched her best friend glide gracefully across the floor, his limbs moving fluidly, as if he had no bones in his body. There was a certain glee that came with dance for both of them – for an hour and a half, the world kept spinning, but time stopped inside their studio. But despite the joy that dance class usually brought her, Quinn could hardly concentrate, with her thoughts screaming loudly inside her head.

Checking the time on the clock, Mike dismissed their class and promptly walked over to her, hands on his hips. "Alright, why the sour mood today?"

"I'm not sour," she replied immediately, bending down to pick up her dance bag. "I'm tired. I missed my morning class, which means I've got a ton of reading to catch up on. My professor is a slave driver,"

"And you're Little Miss Liar," Mike chuckled, nudging his sweaty, bare shoulder against hers. "Come on, tell me. It's Sam, isn't it?"

At the sound of his name, Quinn's head immediately snapped back up, her eyes narrowing. "Why do you assume it's Sam? I could easily just be annoyed," she scowled, switching off the lights to the studio and walking out onto the busy sidewalk, heading towards the nearest subway with Mike by her side.

"Actually, it's because Tina called me," he said simply, his shoulders shrugging his dance bag higher up. "But now that you've gotten all defensive…clearly this has nothing to do with your ex-boyfriend who you kissed the other night," Mike chuckled, leaning back against the plastic seat on the subway. He leaned over and ruffled Quinn's hair affectionately, but she ducked away, irritated.

"Tina called you?" she asked, her nose wrinkling.

Mike nodded, his body lurching slightly as the train came to a stop and people streamed in and out of the car. "Yeah. She was worried. Sam hadn't come home two nights in a row, after their fight, so she thought he was with me,"

"He wasn't,"

"No, he wasn't. He was with you. Both nights,"

Quinn took in a deep breath, before leaning down on the plastic seat to rest her head on Mike's shoulder. "To be fair, it was just last night. He left my apartment after we kissed,"

"What happened last night?" he asked, his voice soft. Quinn smiled lazily and lifted her head to face her best friend. Just as she expected, he wasn't angry or disappointed. Mike was genuinely interested and for the first time since she had woken up that morning, Quinn didn't feel guilty about what had happened between her and Sam.

"We just…fit," she tried to bite back her smile.

"That's kind of gross,"

"Shut up," Quinn laughed, punching him playfully on the arm. "You know what I mean, right? Like…like everything just lined up and felt right and like…"

"Like the world finally made sense again," Mike finished. "It's the same way I felt when I saw Tina for the first time in the city,"

Quinn felt tears spring to her eyes, as her best friend's expression turned from soft to heart wrenching. There was a girl he was in love with – a girl he would always be in love with – and she was with someone else. She was calling him to keep tabs on her boyfriend, who wasn't Mike, but Mike's best friend. And how did Quinn – cynical and jaded Quinn Fabray – manage to get what she wanted without even realizing it was what she needed?

She didn't want to hurt Tina or Mike or Sam. But it was uncontrollable and she couldn't stop it – Quinn was tethered and it was going to take all of her fight not to let go.

After Mike hopped off the train to make his way to a study group, Quinn decided to walk to the Red Tree Café for a cup of hot tea. It was calm and cool in the late afternoon and she stopped just outside the shop, adjusting her scarf and digging around her bag for her wallet. Preoccupied as she was, Quinn noticed the glass doors opening and she stepped aside quickly to let whoever it was pass her.

"Quinn?"

Her head snapped back up, her wallet falling to the ground, as the familiar voice hit her like whiplash. Tina, all pink-cheeked and bright-eyed, was standing in front of her, clutching a to-go cup of what was probably pitch black coffee. "Uh…" she stumbled, mentally whacking herself for being so shaken – as if she wasn't so obviously guilty.

"How are you? We haven't seen each other since…"

"Since Finn came back?" Quinn offered.

Tina drew in a breath, letting it out shakily, as if she were debating what to say next. Her fingers tapped against the cardboard sleeve of her coffee cup and she shifted her gaze to a point over Quinn's shoulder. "Actually, since you saw me kissing Mike,"

Her words sent Quinn's mind into a tailspin – did Tina actually have the audacity and the courage to talk about it here, in front of the Red Tree Café, of all places? "Tina, I…"

"You saw me. It's okay. I just…can I ask you something?" Quinn nodded wordlessly. "Did Sam ever say anything to you? About me? This is weird, isn't it? You know what; I shouldn't even be asking you this. It's just; I know Mike probably told you about…everything,"

"No, it's alright," the words spilled out of her mouth before she had time to even think. But the truth was, it wasn't alright. Because all of a sudden, Quinn was struck with a wave of guilt – here was shy, unsuspecting Tina Cohen-Chang, who made one little mistake and was feeling complete and utter remorse about it. She was distraught and worried about her boyfriend – not that he would find out, but she was genuinely worried about his safety and his well-being. Tina was being miles more mature than Quinn ever would be.

"I guess I shouldn't be too worried. I mean, Sam came back this morning and he apologised, so I should be really happy that everything is back to normal," Tina quipped.

Quinn nodded along, half-listening. "Great,"

"I mean, he wouldn't have come back if he didn't really love me, right?" Tina pressed on and Quinn flinched, feeling the conversation steering towards an uncomfortable area. Narrowing her eyes down at her friend, she clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth.

"No offense, Tina, but I don't really want to talk about it," she said, in the haughtiest voice she could muster. A sliver of satisfaction swept over Quinn, as she saw Tina's eyes widen in surprise, before her expression went back to being calm and collected.

"I just thought…you know…since you guys are so close," Tina emphasized the last two words with a pointed look, her eyebrows raised accusingly.

This time, it was Quinn's turn to take a small step back in surprise. It had been easy to overpower Tina – back in high school and even now. But here, outside the Red Tree Café…'she knows. She knows something happened with me and Sam,' Quinn thought, panicking inwardly. Running a hand through her messy hair, she straightened her shoulders and cleared her throat. "Whatever goes on between you and Sam is none of my business – we all look out for each other, you know that," she insisted.

"Yeah, some more than others," Tina scoffed, tossing her blue-streaked hair over her shoulder.

Quinn sighed tiredly. "It's a whole new city, Tee," she said, her tone flippant.

"Like that makes a difference. It's still the same game with the same players,"

Taking a beat to calm her beating heart and willing herself not to rip into Tina right then and there, Quinn just let out a breath and fiddled with the wallet in her hands. When she didn't say anything, Tina spoke up, her voice bubbly with confidence again.

"Well, at least Sam and I are still together. God, I really don't know what I'd do without him in the city – he's just so…reliable," Tina grinned earnestly and Quinn cringed, trying hard not to slap the stupid smile off her face. "Anyway, I've got to run. I'm meeting him for dinner. It's so great to be in love when you're in the city, isn't it?"

With a quick hug, Tina flounced away and Quinn finally realized her knuckles had turned white from clutching her wallet. There was something unnerving in the way she had said those words – as if she was pointed them directly at Quinn, throwing it in her face, that despite everything that happened, Sam had still chosen to go back to Tina.

And the worst part was, Quinn was letting herself get affected.

She had tried hard to distance herself, to disconnect from any old memories of Sam that still lingered in her mind, but when he had stomped back into her life and they had spent one blissful night together, Quinn knew – it just wasn't that easy. Not when the memories that were so long ago buried in the past reappeared with the bright promise of a tangible future. And even though what they did was wrong, Quinn knew in her heart – once the walls had been slowly broken down again, by the one boy who always took the time to search for the real her – that Sam could never be just a forgotten memory.

But now, with Tina in the picture, Quinn was relegated to second choice – a place she was never accustomed with. It was easy to her; Sam and Tina break up, Mike and Tina get together, Sam and Quinn get together. What was so difficult about that arrangement? But she had to keep reminding herself that Sam and Tina were real – they hadn't gotten together to be vindictive or vengeful, at some point, they did love each other. Which made Tina's comments understandable – she was only reminding Quinn what she had clearly forgotten. And although it made her angry and upset, she couldn't dismiss it.

Tina and Sam belonged to each other for now, and Quinn and Mike were merely distractions from the past.