Hey, y'all! Glad to finally get this chapter to y'all after the couple of weeks I've had! Let's get right to it, shall we?

"I need your help and I need it now," Mercedes said, slightly panicked.

Santana frowned as she stood in front of her friend. "Cedes, what the hell are you talking about?"

Mercedes moved aside to let Santana in her room and quickly closed the door. "I'm going to the party tonight."

Santana gasped. "Shut up."

"Or, at least, I was, on Monday. When Noah Jackson asked me to go."

She gasped again. "Noah Jackson? As in the jock who's been totally into you since middle school Noah Jackson? As in the Noah Jackson that you barely went out with after he had been asking you out for weeks Noah Jackson? As in—"

"Yes, that Noah Jackson. We only know one Noah Jackson."

"Holy shit. Noah Jackson." She smiled. "I have to call Kurt and Tina."

"I promise you, you don't." Mercedes begged her.

"Hey, Tana. Are you at Mercedes' house?" Kurt picked up immediately.

"That's definitely Cedes' house. Why didn't you invite us?" Tina asked, pretending to be offended.

"Cedes is going to B4 because get this," Santana said, "Noah Jackson convinced her to go."

Mercedes winced in reaction to the squeals that took place over the phone. "He didn't convince me, he asked me. There's a difference. And I don't want to go."

"Noah Jackson, as in the hottest guy on the football team?" Kurt asked.

"Second hottest." Tina raised her hand. "But still, the Noah Jackson that practically every girl has had her eye on?"

Santana nodded excitedly. "That's the Noah Jackson."

"Can we stop repeating his name, please and thank you?" Mercedes asked, beginning to regret that she ever uttered his name in the first place. "And did you not hear what I said? I don't want to go."

"What?" Santana gave her a confused look. "If you don't want to go, why did you call me over here?"

"To talk me down from going and letting Noah have any effect on the decisions that I make."

Santana chuckled. "Well, there's no way in hell that I'm doing that."

"Wait, since you now know it's about the party, what did you think I called you over here for?"

"The same reason I called Tina and Kurt, to help you pick out something cute to wear. God knows you weren't going to do it."

"I can pick out my own clothes, Santana."

"Can you prop us up, Santana?" Kurt asked, thanking her when she put them up on Mercedes' dresser, allowing her to see both of them. "Cedes, we love you, but we're not letting the girl who thinks putting on an earring with one hand is a sport pick out her own clothes for one of the hottest parties of the year."

"Yeah, especially not when the second hottest guy on the football team convinced you to go." Tina added.

Mercedes was taken aback by the accusation and her self-defense took priority. "There are two really tiny pieces and you have to fasten them after moving one of those really tiny pieces through a really tiny hole. It doesn't come easily for most people!"

"I know, I know." Santana patted her on the back and sat her down on her bed. "You just sit right there, We'll go figure this thing out. Don't worry, we'll make sure you look amazing." She took their friends into Mercedes' closet with her.

"Cedes, will you be ready to go soon? I- woah." Sam took in the sight before him.

In front of him was Mercedes in her ensemble picked out by her friends. It was far from complex, a fitted black mini dress with heels that Santana was wearing before she let her borrow them for the night. Her gold jewelry shone against her brown skin and her half-up half-down ponytail completed the look.

Sam had seen over the last couple of weeks that Mercedes could dress. She didn't leave the house without making sure that her outfit was carefully curated. She would tell him, "Fashion is a science." Whatever that meant. But tonight was different. She was stunning.

Santana shot him a smile. "Thank you. Very much appreciated." She turned to Mercedes. "I told you you look hot."

Mercedes wrapped her arms around her midsection. "Yeah. I guess. Are you sure I shouldn't throw on like, a jean jacket or something?"

Kurt, who had driven over while still on the phone, crossed his arms and gave her a look. "Mercedes, you're going to a massive high school house party in the middle of August in Alabama. The only place hotter is hell. You don't need a jacket."

"I don't know. It just feels like this is a lot of skin I'm showing." She gestured awkwardly at her exposed skin.

"You look amazing," Santana said. "And 'you know who' will think so too." She wiggled her eyebrows. "I'm going to carpool with Kurt. You and Sam can ride together. We'll see you two there." Santana took Kurt by the arm and started walking out with him.

"But I thought we were all going to carpool for our musical pregame?" Kurt whined as he was being pulled away.

"Will you come on?" Santana ignored him. She could tell that Mercedes' thing for Sam hadn't gone away and was intent on giving them as much alone time as possible.

Are you going to tell me why you changed your mind last minute?" Sam asked as he and Mercedes were on the way to the party.

"I didn't change my mind last minute," she said.

"Every single day for the past two weeks, your friends asked you to go to B4 and you said no. Then, at 7:00 a couple of hours ago, you tell me that you're going to go anyway. Seems pretty last minute to me."

She scoffed playfully. "Are you literally clocking me?"

"No, just wondering why you changed your mind last minute!" He chuckled as he repeated his previous question.

"Whatever. I didn't change it last minute, I just changed it earlier and forgot to tell you," she said in a tone she hoped convinced him.

He simply looked over at her. He was not convinced.

"Stop looking at me like that!" She focused her eyes on the road.

Sam put his hands up. "Hey, I'm not looking at you like anything."

"And stop asking me questions about my choices when you have been practically stalking Quinn this past week." While she meant that as a joke, she also realized that it kind of irritated her. "What's going on with you two?"

"Honestly? I have no clue."

"Do you like her?"

"I think so, yeah." I also like you, though. So that doesn't really mean anything. "It's just really confusing. At first, when I showed up at McKinley, Quinn was like, super nice and super talkative and s-"

"Super desperate." She finished his sentence for him.

"If that's what you want to call it. I thought maybe we would get somewhere with the 'festivities' last Friday but since then, it's like she's pulling away from me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those guys who needs a girl to be foaming at the mouth to be with me. I actually prefer someone who's a little more," he looked at her to find the words, "chilled out."

Is he looking at me right now? I really hope he's not looking at me right now.

Her hands gripped the steering wheel. "But now?"

"It's just so weird that before, she showed me how smart and funny how really cool she was and now, it's like she could care less. So yeah, I've been stalk-ish with her, but it's only because I'm trying to understand what's happening."

"Okay," she sighed. "Normally I wouldn't do this, but I'm going to let you in on a little secret. You're not the first guy Quinn's done that to and you won't be the last."

"What?"

"Quinn is absolutely smart and all those other things you said, but she also knows how to get twice the guys with half the work. We call it moving you in."

"Moving me in?"

"You know, because when you hire movers, they're the ones who are supposed to do the heavy lifting, but there's really more light lifting to be done than heavy lifting so you end up paying them all this money but you still do the bulk of the move yourself."

He shook his head. "I'm far from following."

"Okay, so Quinn is the mover. Or... group of movers or whatever. So when you hire movers, most of the time, they'll take your things from one place to the other, they'll move in a dresser or two or three, maybe a flatscreen here and there. But unless you're trying to pay way too much money for a full-service move, you're going to be the one unpacking, putting things where they're supposed to go, disposing of your packing materials, etc. meaning you did most of the work," she said. "But, you still have to pay them which, where Quinn is concerned, then comes in the form of calling her, escorting her to class, and the eventual date proposal and PLEASE tell me you're not still lost." She noticed the look he was giving her.

"Whoa."

She smiled. "Pretty genius, huh?

"Wait, but what if I am willing to pay for a full-service move? What does that mean?"

Her smile fell. "I- it does run that deep, Sam. Bottom line is, she gets herself in the door and you pull her the rest of the way through."

"But how does she know it'll work?" Sam was confused.

"This is Quinn we're talking about. She's insanely pretty, she's skinny, she's blonde, she's a cheerleader— head cheerleaders, at that— and she's rich. She can find a way to get quite literally anything or anyone she wants. And now, it seems like she wants you." Much to her dismay.

"You think I should go for it?"

She glanced over at him briefly. "I mean, she's a good person." For some reason, she couldn't bring herself to do it. She couldn't bring herself to tell him to pursue someone. But wasn't that what she was doing? The only reason I'm even going to this thing is because of Noah. Not that I want him to be with me or anything. That doesn't make any sense. Plus, I didn't just move here under unusual circumstances.

He pulled her out of her thoughts with another question. "Yeah, but do you think I should 'pay' her? Calling and all that stuff?"

"Sure, if you want to." What?

She sighed a sigh of relief as they reached Bentley's neighborhood, glad the sudden shift in the conversation would be over. Then, she immediately tensed up at seeing how packed his house was. It wasn't even dark out yet and kids were already doing way too much for her liking. Cars were lined up around the block. It would take her forever to find a spot. She offered to let Sam out at the door, but he declined.

As the door to the house was opened, Mercedes flinched as she was all but physically hit by the smell of sweat, alcohol, weed, and the music that was sure to cause some hearing loss if she stood by the speakers too long. I'm going to hate this so much. I already hate this so much.

They barely got a few feet into the house before guys were shouting Sam's name.

"Get your ass over here, Mr. Manager!" One of them shouted.

He looked over to see some of the football team smiling and waving him over. He looked at Mercedes. "Do you mind if I?" He gestured to them.

She chuckled as she looked up from her phone. "No, go hang out with your jock buddies. And, uh, if you see Noah, can you let him know I'm here and looking for him?"

He tensed up a little, sucking his teeth. Despite the sudden annoyed feeling, he joked with her, "So that's why you changed your mind last minute?"

She gave him a scrunched-up smile in return. "You know what? I will find him myself, thank you. Don't get too crazy and keep your phone on so that we can get out of here before the cops undoubtedly show up."

45 minutes later

Mercedes slinked against the wall, cursing herself for coming for the umpteenth time. She knew it was a party and she was going to hate it, but she thought she'd at least see Noah, whom she hadn't heard from all night. She'd even picked a spot by the stairs to stand in case she could catch him going from floor to floor, but nothing. Now here she was, irritated, hot (even without her jacket), and finishing her third cup of some drink that Santana offered her. A drink she probably shouldn't have accepted because was definitely leaving the Land of the Sober.

She went to go get another drink when she heard someone exclaiming that Sarah was about to try her infamous jump once again. She also heard it a little too late, as evidenced by her being knocked around like a ping pong ball as people rushed up to the second floor around her. She let out an annoyed grunt as she made her way across the now scarcely populated floor to the drinks.

"You're not going to catch the final act of Sarah the Great Idiot?"

She turned around, smiling as she saw Kurt behind her. "You know that's not my scene. You?"

"Oh, I would almost never pass up on a chance to watch someone make a fool of themselves, but I'm waiting on a guy, so I didn't want to miss my Cinderella moment by trying to catch it."

Mercedes laughed. "Yeah, me too. But I'm pretty sure my guy is a no-show. Either that, or he doesn't give a shit that I'm here."

"Ugh, same here. My guy was supposed to be here an hour ago and I've barely heard from him." He looked at her abruptly, a sneaky smirk on his face. "Let's get out of here."

"What?"

"Both our guys are no-shows, right? Let's ditch this thing. We can go to my house and have a fem cult classic marathon. Clueless, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, But I'm a Cheerleader. Come on, you know you want to." He smiled as he nudged her.

She rolled her eyes as she gave in. "Let me give my guy a try one more time and if he doesn't answer, I'll make sure Sam has a ride home and we can go."

"Great. I'm going to run to the bathroom."

"Wait, Kurt, I'm not good to drive. Do we need to call an Uber or something?"

"Oh no. I haven't touched anything but diet Dr. Pepper all night. Couldn't risk getting sloppy before my Prince Charming got here."

Mercedes sent Noah one last text, trying to make it good in hopes that he may actually respond. She went upstairs to find Sam but unexpectedly found Quinn first in one of the many upstairs rooms.

Quinn jumped up and rushed over to her, beaming. "Oh, my god. I'm so glad you're here. You're saving a dance for me, right? I still can't believe you came."

"Well, don't suspend your belief just yet. I'm on my way out."

"Seriously? Mercedes, it's not even 10:00."

"And I'm already bored out of my mind. Have you seen Sam?"

"Actually I have." She smiled again. "We've been hanging out for the past 30 minutes almost. He found me himself." She flipped her hair, satisfied.

One part of Mercedes' brain told her to smile and laugh at her friend, while the other part told her to roll her eyes so hard they got stuck back there. She feigned a smile but felt her eye twitching a little. "Good for you two. Where is he now?"

"He went to go get us something to drink, but he might've been swooped into the crowd of Sarah spectators."

She barely let her finish her sentence. "Okay, great. I'm going to go find him. See you later." Mercedes turned on her heels, not caring that she was curt with her friend, and went to find Sam for the second time. It bothered her so much that he sought her out. She was glad to see that he was getting himself out there, but didn't understand why his first instinct was to snuggle up under one of her best friends. It more than irritated her. Seeing him laughing with some other guys who were on the football team, she went behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.

He turned around. "Hey, there. What's up?" He yelled over the loud cheering and music.

"Hey, so I'm getting ready to go. Do you think one of the players could give you a ride home?"

"What's wrong? Are you not having fun?"

She sighed. "Do you want me to lie? Because I could say that I'm having a good time and I'm just tired, but again, that would be a lie."

He laughed. "No, you don't have to." He noticed her looking down at her phone with a disheartened expression. "Did you ever find Noah?"

She shook her head. "It's whatever." It most certainly wasn't whatever. Still with no response, he was here and he was playing her, she just knew it.

"Why don't I come with you? No use in you going home alone."

"It's okay," she said. "I'm not alone and I'm not going home. Kurt and I are gonna go to his house to watch his favorite cult classics that I somewhat tolerate. "

"Are you sure? Because I can join. This party isn't even that great anyway," he said, hoping she believed him.

She smiled at him. "That's so not true, I walked over here and saw you joking and laughing and having a good ass time with your new football buddies. Don't let me ruin it for you. I'll be fine. Just let me know you've made it home okay?"

"Got it."

She said goodbye and walked away. As she approached the stairs, someone caught the corner of her eye. She turned. It was Noah. She felt a sinking feeling, knowing she shouldn't have engaged. She decided to go over and give him a piece of her mind.

She called his name, unamused as he turned and smiled at her.

"Cedes! You made it."

"Yeah, like an hour ago," she said, annoyed. "I got here almost an hour ago and this is the first time I'm seeing you, who convinced me to come and was supposed to be keeping his eyes peeled."

His jaw dropped. "Oh, no. I was. I'm sorry."

"And I've also been texting you like a madman wondering if you were even here or not." She held up her phone.

His eyes widened and he shook his head. "Mercedes, I didn't know, honestly. My phone has been charging downstairs this entire time, I swear."

"What? Why would you charge your phone downstairs when you— you know what?" She stopped herself. "It's fine. I shouldn't have come in the first place." She walked away from him and started down the stairs, ignoring his calls for her.

He followed her down the stairs. "Mercedes, please, wait." He ran across the already trashed living room, retrieving his phone which was indeed plugged into the wall. He held it up for her to see. "I really didn't know you were here. And when I said I'd be keeping my eyes peeled earlier, I was. But then Baxter wanted to show me something and I had to charge my phone and one thing led to another and I never picked it back up. But I was standing here waiting on you, seriously."

"I said it's fine, Noah. You shouldn't have had to look out for me anyways."

"Hey, no." He reached out for her, touching her arm. "I told you I'd be keeping my eyes peeled and I should've. There's no excuse. I'm sorry."

She removed her arm gently.

"You do look amazing, though."

"Well, maybe if you had answered any of my texts you would've seen how good I look for much longer than what you get to see as I walk away." She went to leave again.

"Look, if you're leaving, why don't we both go? Grab a bite to eat or something. I'll pay."

"Even if I wanted to, I have plans," she said.

"Mercedes!" Kurt yelled, running up to her with a boy in tow.

"Kurt!" She silently thanked him for rescuing her. "Ready to go?"

"Okay, so about that. This," he pointed to the guy beside him, "this is Blaine. Blaine, this is Mercedes. Say hi, Blaine."

"Hi, Mercedes." Blaine waved at her.

"So, turns out there's this wild pile-up on the highway and this guy was stuck in traffic and like all of us, his phone doesn't have service there so he couldn't call and let me know! Isn't that great? He's not a no-show!" He looked over at Noah. "And from the looks of it," he whispered, "yours isn't either."

Mercedes glanced over at Noah before shaking her head. "This isn't my guy."

Noah sighed. "Mercedes."

"Oh." Kurt winced. "Anyways, do you mind if we take an eenie meenie tiny raincheck on our cult-classic marathon?" He squinted and pinched his fingers.

Trying to ignore the second round of disappointment tonight, Mercedes nodded. "Yeah, have fun. I'll see you later."

He jumped over to her and kissed her on the cheek. "Yes! Okay, thank you! I love you, you're the best, but you already know that. Say bye Blaine!" Kurt ran off dragging Blaine behind him, who waved.

"Nice meeting you, Blaine," Mercedes said. She looked at Noah again before shaking her head and walking out.

"Mercedes, wait." Noah's pleas fell on deaf ears as Mercedes walked to her car.

Mercedes sat in her car, the engine off and the windows up, a part of her wishing that the southern summer heat would knock her out for long enough to forget this night ever happened.

While reviewing all the events of the day, a knock on her window made her jump. Her life flashed before her eyes and she just knew that someone was coming to break into her car and kidnap her. Instead, she opened her eyes and saw Sam smiling. "I was hoping I'd catch you in time. Wanna open up and let me in?"

She unlocked the doors and he got in. Still panting, she said, "You can't just knock on people's windows like that, you know. I thought you were coming to kidnap me or something."

"If I was coming to kidnap you, why would I knock?" He asked as he got in.

"Whatever."

"Jeez, it's so hot in here. Are you going to turn the car on? How are you just sitting in here with no air?"

"What are you even doing here?"

"I wanted to join the movie marathon. Where's Kurt?"

She blew out a breath. "Actually, Kurt ended up bailing last minute. The guy he came for showed up under extenuating circumstances."

"Well," Sam played with the hem of his shirt as he asked his next question. "What about Noah? He was here. Weren't you here for him?"

"I wasn't here for him." she snapped.

"Whoa, okay." He held his hands up, signaling that he meant no harm. Had she not given off the impression that something happened, he would've been glad she said what she said. "So, we're going home, then?"

"I would be going home, yeah. But there's an accident on the highway and I hate being stuck in traffic. Also, I'm definitely too drunk to even be behind this wheel right now."

He snickered. "You know, I don't know why, but I really took you as the DD type."

"Even the DD needs to drown their sorrows every now and then."

"Yikes." He didn't mean to laugh at her, but he also kind of did. "How many drinks did you have? We haven't been here that long. Shouldn't you still be buzzed and happy drunk?"

She shook her head. "The buzz wears off pretty quick when you're being stood up."

He frowned. "Noah stood you up?" He immediately felt his blood rise in temperature.

Still looking forward, Mercedes didn't answer. It was obvious that she didn't care to talk about it.

"Let's go ahead and go home. Switch seats with me."

"Sam, no. I already told you not to let me ruin your night. It's your first party here, you should enjoy yourself."

"What, and let you have a heat stroke in this car? Ridiculous. Come on." He went to get out but saw that she wasn't moving. "Cedes, I don't want to be here having fun if it means that you're miserable. You're not ruining my night. You couldn't if you tried."

She groaned as she gave in and traded places with him.

While they were stuck in traffic as expected, Mercedes got an idea. She didn't know if it was the alcohol getting to her, but after the night she'd had, she really didn't care.

"Hey, I know we're heading back to the house, but do you mind if we make a couple of stops first?"

"Sure. Where to?"

"First, take this next exit."

"Mind telling me where we're going?"

"No, that ruins the fun. But let's just say it's… a side of the city you haven't seen yet."

Ohhh where do y'all think they're going? The next chapter will tell us a lot more about these two and their stories. Also, for those of you who have been keeping up with my other story, Dreams Come True, be on the lookout for another chapter over there sometime in the next week. If you haven't checked it out yet, please do that if you have a bit! As always, can't wait to hear what y'all are thinking about and hoping for!