Mercedes rested on her bed listening carefully to her song playing on the laptop that sat on her desk. When it ended, she remained frozen, staring at her ceiling as if she were waiting for something.
"Wow," a voice breathed from her laptop. The young woman sat up and smiled Mike's face on her computer screen.
"And what exactly does 'wow' mean?"
"I mean that was good," he clarified, grinning. "Like, really good. When is it getting released?"
"I'm not sure yet," Mercedes explained. "We still have to finish up the album but I'm really proud of it so far. Of course I had to fight with the producers about a couple of things but I think it really sets the tone that I always dreamed my first album would have, you know?"
"I get it," Mike nodded. "People are going to love it, Mercedes and my autographed copy of your first album is going to be worth millions in a few years. So it's win-win for both of us."
"You know it," she laughed. They continued to talk about the album for a little while but soon Mike got interrupted by another Skype call from Jake. He offered to let Mercedes join in but she wanted to take a shower and get ready for bed so they said their goodbyes. Once she shut her laptop, Mercedes combed her fingers through her hair as she looked around her room. It felt so weird being back. She felt like Los Angeles had changed her so much but when she stepped back in her room, it was like traveling through time. Each picture that hung on her wall held a frozen memory that she couldn't help but smile at. Her bed sheets reminded her of the sleepovers she used to have with Kurt and Rachel. Her dresser was still covered in the beads and ribbons she used to accessorize some of the clothes she wore. She walked over to the window to touch her curtains and instantly she remembered the original ones that used to hang there. She had to replace them because Sam had ripped the first ones trying to climb through her window. Only he could be so romantic and clumsy at the same time, she smiled to herself. Soon after going through a few more memories, she decided that it really was time to take a shower. So she grabbed her things and headed to the bathroom.
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"Dude, that was close!" smiled Sam, getting up. He stayed crouched near the ground a little longer but once he was sure the coast was clear he stood up straight and began to wipe the leaves and dirt from his shirt.
"Close?" asked Blaine sarcastically as he got up from the ground and dusted himself off as well. "She barely touched that curtain! There was no reason to tackle me to the ground!"
"I had to be safe," the blond shrugged. Sam moved closer to the house, studying the distance from where he was to the second floor.
"Oh really?" his friend laughed. "You know what the safest way to watch Mercedes through her bedroom window is?" Blaine demanded rhetorically. "Don't do it!"
"Whoa," Sam said. "When you say it like that it sounds creepy. I'm just checking up on her," he claimed as he moved closer to the house. Blaine simply rolled his eyes.
"Do you plan on staying out here all night because I then I should have brought a chair or something," he quipped.
"Okay someone's snippy," Sam laughed, looking away from the house for a moment to glance at his friend. "I promise we won't be here all night," he assured before looking back at the home. "But you know what I should do!" he realized, grinning. Sam's smile gave Blaine a sinking feeling in his stomach. This was not going to end well.
"Sam, don't do anything stupid," he warned.
"I'm not going to anything stupid," the blond insisted. "I'm just going to climb up this wall and knock on Mercy's window." Blaine stared at Sam, wondering if his friend was not listening to him on purpose.
"That is the definition of 'something stupid'," the brunette claimed as he rubbed his temple.
"No, 'stupid' would be getting caught by her parents," Sam explained as he grabbed hold of some of the vines hanging from the wall and started climbing. "That's why you're going to keep look out."
"This just isn't going to end well," Blaine decided. "I know it."
"Will you stop worrying and do your job?" Sam asked.
"Fine!" The brunette stared at the downstairs living room that Mr. and Mrs. Jones were sitting in a moment before but they were gone. "Did they go into the kitchen?" he asked himself. Blaine switched positions but didn't see them in the kitchen either. "Where did they-"
"Hello Blaine," Mr. Jones stated from behind him causing the teen to jump.
"H-h-hi Mr. Jones," the brunette replied nervously. "And Mrs. Jones!" he realized as he noticed the woman standing nearby.
"Do you want to tell us what's going on?" the older woman demanded.
"Um, I just wanted to come over and talk to Mercedes," Blaine responded.
"Then why didn't you come to the front door?" Mr. Jones asked suspiciously.
"Uh, I came here to give her tickets to a concert and while I was walking up to the house, a gust of wind came and blew them right out of my hand."
"A gust of wind?" asked Mrs. Jones.
"Yes, ma'am," Blaine nodded.
"Well, where are the tickets now?" asked Mr. Jones and Blaine patted his jean pocket.
"I found them in the bushes, put them in my pocket and I was on my way to the front door."
As Mr. and Mrs. Jones eyed him suspiciously, Blaine watched his friend climb up half the way up the wall. If the adults turned around they'd have a clear view of Sam scaling their house.
"Okay then," agreed Mrs. Jones. "Let's go inside then." The brunette sighed in relief as they headed in the opposite direction of Sam to enter the house. As he and the Jones' made their way to Mercedes room, Blaine wondered what he'd do if they asked to see the tickets. "Did you tell Mercedes that you were coming?" asked Mrs. Jones as her husband knocked on their daughter's door.
"Um, I-" he began but was interrupted as Mercedes' door opened and the diva stood in her doorway in body towel with her black hair resting on her shoulders in full curls.
"Yea?" she asked.
"Oh we didn't realize you weren't decent," Mr. Jones noted. "We'll wait for you downstairs."
"Wait for me for what?" she asked, clearly confused.
"Blaine brought over your concert tickets," Mrs. Jones explained.
"Concert tickets?" she questioned again.
"Could this get anymore awkward?" Blaine mumbled to himself and as if to prove that it could, a loud bang was heard on Mercedes' window.
"What was that?" asked Mr. Jones.
"I don't know!" His daughter claimed.
"Neither do I!" Blaine added, trying to play it safe. The loud bang subsided to gentle knocking and Mr. Jones and Mrs. Jones moved towards the window. Mrs. Jones grabbed a bat from Mercedes' closet and Mr. Jones signaled to swing when he opened the window. Blaine held his breath as Mr. Jones opened the window without moving the curtains.
"Hey 'Cedes," Sam said as he entered the room feet first. "I'm so glad that-" He couldn't get any more words out as Mrs. Jones started to attack him with the bat and Mr. Jones wrapped him in the curtains.
"Stop!" yelled Blaine. "He's not dangerous, he's just stupid!" The Jones' stopped attacking but Sam was already wrapped up in the curtains and when he tried to move forward he ended ripping them from the window and crashing into the floor.
"Sam?" realized Mercedes.
"Hey 'Cedes," he replied dizzily before passing out. When the blond was knocked out, Mercedes and her parents turned to look at Blaine who began to chuckle nervously.
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"Mercedes wait!" Sam called as he tried to catch up to her in the halls. He knew that she could hear her because she turned around but as soon as she saw it was him she took off. Sam groaned as the morning bell went off. Looks like I'm going to be late for class, he decided as he headed in the direction that Mercedes ran off to. As kids pushed against him to make it to class, the blond tried his best to keep his eyes fixed on the diva who trying to disappear into the sea of high school students. Eventually he caught up with her in the glee room.
"Mercedes-" he began but she put her hand up to stop him right there.
"No," she said, shaking her head.
"No?" asked Sam, looking extremely confused. "But-"
"No."
"Will you let me-"
"No Sam," she practically begged. "We can't do this." She turned away from him to go sit in one of the chairs. He could sense that she wanted him to leave but he couldn't, not like this.
"What do you mean?"
"This!" she exclaimed gesturing in between the two of them. "Us!"
"Can we at least talk about this?" he asked. "I feel like I should explain."
"Explain what exactly?" she shot back. "How you ignore me for months on end and then suddenly try to break into my room with my parents there?"
"In all fairness, they weren't supposed to be there," he tried to joke but she clearly not amused so he tried a more serious approach. "I wanted to see you."
"So," she said slowly, moving closer to him. "Because you wanted to see me, you just came over. Is that how relationships work with you Sam?" she asked accusingly. "You just show up when it's convenient for you?"
"No!" the blond answered quickly.
"Then what is it?" she shot back. "Because you're obviously not thinking of how I feel when you decide to act so brashly!"
"Um," Sam started but the way Mercedes was glaring at him was making the blond extremely uncomfortable so he decided to pace the room a little bit. He combed his fingers quickly through his hair before answering. "I thought you liked it when I was spontaneous," he offered. Mercedes watched him in silence for a few moments before taking a deep breath.
"We aren't together anymore Sam," she said regretfully before getting up out of her seat. "You can't just show up whenever you want." Mercedes tried to walk past him but Sam wasn't done yet.
"Can we at least be friends?" he asked crestfallen. She turned around to look at him and bit her upper lip.
"You know we can't 'just be friends' Sam," she explained sadly. "We really shouldn't-"
"So you're basically asking me to give up?" the blond demanded, barely able to grasp the concept in theory. There's no way that she-
"Yes," she nodded. Sam's face fell. What?
"You...I...you want," he fumbled over his words trying to understand the jumble of ideas going through his mind, none positive. "You want-"
"For us to be over," she finished. "Forever." Sam looked at Mercedes with complete despair, he noticed that her bottom lip was quivering as if she was about to cry. It made him feel a little better to know that this wasn't easy for her either but it didn't seem to soften the blow that much. He could feel his eyes begin to sting and he started to blink a little more rapidly. You will NOT cry in front of her, Sam Evans. His eyes felt like they might be listening to him but his legs were set on betraying their master. I'm going to collapse, he realized. He wanted to tell Mercedes to leave but he was afraid that if he tried to speak it would just come out as weird combination of crying and screaming. Sam took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a couple of seconds and tried to talk.
"I need to be alone," he said sternly but he couldn't stop his voice from cracking. To Sam, Mercedes didn't seem to notice his voice since she simply nodded and left but he figured it was better that way. Once the door was closed, Sam let his body fall to the floor. The world had never felt this heavy, not when he had to leave glee club, not when he had to start stripping, not when he had to drop out of school to take care of his family, in fact, Sam didn't think that all his past struggles combined could measure up to this feeling. He felt like someone was stepping on his lungs while tightly holding on to his neck. He had never been so happy that the glee club wasn't meeting today because he felt like he wasn't going to leave that cold music room floor for a very, very long time.