Thank you for your continued support.
This chapter is a continuation of chapter 2, which refers Mercedes' life back then.
Standard disclaimer.
The drive home to Mercedes' and Brody's apartment was a quiet one, punctuated by vibrations frequently coming from his phone.
Mercedes was a mess of emotions. Being around Sam tonight, stirred her mind and made her look at him differently.
She just doesn't understand, what is causing her to feel the way she's feeling towards Sam.
'I love Brody. Me and Sam are just friends…besides, he's with Rachel. He was just being kind to me…like he always is. But it felt so good being in his arms tonight…no…no…no…he wouldn't look at me that way, would he? No way! I'm hardly his type, anyway.'
They pulled up to their apartment and as soon as they were on the inside, Brody grabbed her hand roughly and barked,
"What the hell was that all about…you and Sam…in front of all our friends, not to mention, his girlfriend? Were you trying to humiliate me? Well, I've got news for you Mercedes…you did. And quite successfully, too."
Mercedes was shocked speechless.
During the three years that they have been together, she's never seen Brody acted this way.
The only other time he's raised his voice, or snapped at her, was earlier tonight, just before they left home.
She tugged her hand from his grip and stood facing him, with tears in her eyes.
"I don't know what you're implying, or what you think you saw, but I never set out to humiliate you…and for your information, I'm not after Sam. For all of the time that I've known him, he's always been kind to me and I happen to enjoy talking to him. Rachel didn't seem to have a problem and we weren't doing anything inappropriate…but for you to assume, shows just how much you know me. I love you…and if you can't see that after three years, then, there's obviously something wrong."
She turned on shaky legs and headed for the bathroom, where she locked herself in and cried her heart out.
As the weeks rolled by, things got gradually worse between Mercedes and Brody.
Mercedes started to notice things about him, like whenever his phone rang, he would distance himself from her, to answer it.
One day, she'd finally had enough, and she called him out on it.
"Why can't you answer your phone in in front of me?"
"What?" He looked stunned.
"I think you heard me."
"I have stuff I'm dealing with at work...and I don't want any distractions."
"Bullshit!"
"What's gotten into you?"
"Nothing. But you're always running off to another room to answer your phone...and it rings any hour of the night or day...even when it's silent, you can hear it vibrating."
"I don't have to tell you anything. You're not my mother...and guess what? It's none of your damned business!"
This caused an argument and he stormed out of the apartment that day, returning in the wee hours of the morning, as drunk as a fish.
For the next two days, both ignored the other, until they received news, that Sam's father had died of a heart attack, plunging the entire group into sadness for their friend, as he was now fatherless and motherless, having lost his mother a few years before.
His younger sister and brother returned home from studying abroad, deciding afterwards, to take some time off, to be with him.
Mercedes and Brody attended the funeral, in full support of their friend, and although Sam had his siblings and Rachel there with him, he sought out Mercedes, as usual, to talk to and she ended up being the comfort needed.
This didn't sit well with Brody, and he told her about it, as soon as they got home.
"I don't get why you have to be the one to comfort Sam. Stacie and Stevie were there...even Rachel was there…and the others were there. What is it with you two? And what is it, that you and him always find so interesting to talk about…?"
He was sharply cut off by an angry Mercedes Jones.
"Enough! Where the hell do you get off telling me what I should and shouldn't do? Sam is our friend and we stand by our friends…because we love them and care for them. It's just done! Why couldn't you have gone over to him and talked to him…offer him your condolences…and your support? For once, couldn't you have thought about someone other than yourself? Put yourself in his place and take that stick out of your ass and get with it. You're not immune to tragedy…neither am I."
She stormed out of the apartment and headed for the nearest bar, with the intention of drowning her sorrows, and Brody just stood there, with his head to the ground, properly chastised.
The two of them didn't speak to each other for four days and only resumed, when she enquired about his health, after he kept sneezing and seemed to be suffering from a bad headache.
A couple weeks later, Sam and Rachel broke up, after she tried to weasel a huge sum of money out of him, citing health problems, but he later found out, she only wanted to have her breasts enlarged.
He took it in stride, because, while he cared for her, he wasn't in love with her and she happily moved on, to the next wealthy man she could grab on to.
Sam, on the other hand, suddenly found himself at the helm of his father's very lucrative company, as its leader, with a whole new list of responsibilities.
Stevie and Stacie, although they didn't know that much about the business, like Sam did, threw themselves headlong into it, to aid him as much as they could.
Most of the group already worked at the company, in various departments, except Mercedes and Brody, who worked as a pediatric nurse and head of a theatre company, respectively.
Things continued to go downhill for Mercedes and Brody, to the point of him staying away from home, until the wee hours and leaving very early in the mornings.
Mercedes' attitude and demeanor changed drastically.
She went from being bubbly, vivacious and sometimes witty, to constantly being stressed, anxious and depressed.
It affected her work and social life and for others, these three complications meant losing weight, but for Mercedes, it was the opposite.
She became an emotional eater, by turning to food, as a coping mechanism. And it lead to a vicious circle, because, weight gain from depression can make a person more depressed, and that is what happened to Mercedes.
Her two closest friends and Mike, noticed the changes in her and they came up with a plan, to secretly help her regain control of her life.
They took their idea to Sam who was swamped, being the new CEO/CFO. He was always busy and sometimes he had to travel and didn't get to be with them, as he'd like.
With that in mind, he never saw the changes in Mercedes, but he listened to everything the others had to say and he too, became concerned, immediately.
With a promise of relaxing some of his duties, after he had everything under control, he gave them his full support, behind their venture of love and ask that they frequently update him, with whatever was happening.
For the next few weeks, Kurt, Tina and Mike, started finding different forms of distractions for Mercedes, like calling her everyday and every night, whether she was at work or not. Stacie also got involved, and they all started going for long walks, all conveniently on the times Mercedes was off and inviting her along.
They soon began to see signs of the old Mercedes, and it made them happy to know she was doing better.
Until this happened...
Mercedes had just came off a long emotional shift, where a young patient had died of an Asthma attack and she was feeling pretty sad.
She entered the apartment, walked straight to her room, threw her bag on a chair and started changing, to go for a shower.
While she was in the shower crying her heart out, at the loss of someone so young, Brody came home.
He was in a particularly nasty mood and the problems he was having at home with Mercedes, didn't help.
As soon as Mercedes entered the bedroom from showering, she saw Brody, and she became apprehensive.
They didn't participate in sexual relations anymore, due to them constantly fighting and her being sensitive about her body, after the weight gain.
She went to her dresser and took out a big T shirt, and a pair of baggy pants, with the intention of leaving the room to get dressed.
Brody caught on quickly and with the speed of lightning, he grabbed her hand and snatched the clothes from her.
"Where do you think you're going?" he angrily asked her. Shock and fear gripped Mercedes, seeing so much rage on his face. She remained silent.
"You never had cause, to leave the room to dress before. You always dressed in front of me. Do you think your body is too special for me to see? Well it's not. You're fat and being fat makes you unattractive…I've seen better. There are dozens of beautiful women around me every day, just clamoring for my attention…and I could have any one of them, with just the snap of my finger. I bet your friend Sam would be disgusted, by the looks of you," he nastily spat.
Once again, Mercedes was reduced to tears.
She snatched her clothes from him and fled the room.
He left the house, soon afterwards, not even bothering to check on her, or apologize for his actions.
Mercedes came out of the bathroom, from where she'd been hiding, as soon as she heard the door slam.
She gingerly went to it, locked it and slid the bolt in place.
For a while, she leaned against the kitchen counter and allowed tears to fall silently down her face.
Sometime later, she went to the bathroom, cleaned herself up and re-entered the kitchen.
Remembering her favorite comfort food, Rich Layer Chocolate Cake, stashed in the back of the fridge, in a sealed container, she opted to get it and by the time she was ready to go to bed, she'd eaten the entire cake, whilst crying and subsequently descending back into a depressive state.
That night proved to be a turning point in her life.
She gradually began to get worse and she found herself gaining more weight.
By this time, she had resigned from, her beloved job and refused invitations to go out with her friends.
The only people with whom she regularly kept in contact with, was Tina, Kurt, Mike and Sam…when he was available.
Brody remained unconcerned about her and whatever was happening to her, partly because, he was responsible for most of it.
So, he started staying away and slept out most nights.
Months later, things came to a head, when a strange woman called Mercedes' phone, wanting to know, who she was and why was her number was in Brody's phone.
Mercedes didn't hold anything back.
She explained who she was and politely asked the woman, not to call her phone again.
She was hurt and the sting of betrayal turned to anger.
She called Brody and told him about the exchange and he wasn't too happy about it.
He came home about an hour later, all cylinders firing and a big bust up ensued.
Many things were said, hurtful, disgusting things, mostly by him and he ended up leaving that night.
In Mercedes' mind, they would never be able to come back from this, besides, it looked as though their relationship was at the end of the line.
Keep safe. Much love to you.