If It's For Her,
Written by WickedSong.
Disclaimer/Note : In the first chapter. This was originally a oneshot but I decided to continue it. It's not going to be extremely long, under ten chapters at least I think but who knows? Still spoilers from 3x10 because I am incorporating an important song into this chapter. You'll see ;)
About halfway through the period was when Sam and Puck managed to make their entrance into the choir room for glee club.
"You're late," Mr. Schue pointed out in a stern voice but upon seeing Sam, still with some slushie on him, his tone softened. "What happened? Do we need to see Figgins about this?"
He shook his head, sitting down on the nearest available seat at the front, next to Rory, while Puck walked up to the seat behind him. Sam threw his bag on the floor. "Just some idiots throwing slushies." He sighed, knowing it wasn't going to change. "The usual."
Rachel frowned in surprise. "But no one's been slushied." She looked to her boyfriend. "Well except Finn but that was at the beginning of the year." Finn gave a small frown and Rachel gave him a reassuring pat on the arm.
Sam shrugged. "Well, whoever it was it doesn't matter." He looked across the line to see Mercedes, who looked down, refusing to make eye contact with him. Leaning back on his seat, Sam smiled. "It's worth it."
Not everyone in the room knew what he meant but those who did gave a small smile and then discreetly looked to Mercedes, who still didn't lift her eyes, resolutely looking down.
"And last year I said he had no game," muttered Santana to Brittany and Puck.
"Right, right, let's get back on track now," Mr. Schue told the group, as he went to the whiteboard and wrote a few song suggestions. These included a few by Journey, to no one's surprise, some new music and some other classics.
The rest of the period flew by and Sam was surprised to have Santana standing in front of him, waiting to talk to him. Puck stood by her side while Rory was waiting for Sam and looked in fear at Santana.
"Oh don't worry, I'm not going to do anything to you," dismissed Santana. "No, I have to talk to Trouty here."
Sam quirked his lips into a smile. "What do you want, Santana?"
"Well see it's more about what you want," replied the Latina, as she took his arm, Puck on his other side, while Rory trailed behind them.
"I got to go anyway Sam. I said I'd meet Sugar to help her with a song for glee," his Irish friend said, waving bye.
Sam waved goodbye to him and then continued walking in step with Santana and Puck.
"What do you know about what I want?" he questioned.
"Oh come off it," Santana demanded. "Ever since those oversized lips of yours came back to this school, you were hell bent on two things. Win Sectionals," she still sounded bitter over that one, "and get Mercedes back. While I still don't think the first one was fair-"
"Santana, get to the point," Puck told her, folding his arms, as they continued walking down the corridor.
Santana grimaced at him. "Only speaking the truth." She shrugged her shoulders. "Anyway, we want to help you."
"Help me with-" Santana's 'are you being serious right now' face caused him to give up the act of not knowing what she was talking about and he gave her the same look back. "Why are you going to help me? What's in it for you."
Santana looked around the doors of classrooms before she answered, probably looking for an empty one. When she eventually found one, she dragged him in and Puck quickly followed, closing the door behind him.
"Look, I know that people think I'm a heartless bitch and maybe I am," Santana replied, shrugging her shoulders. "But if there is one thing I've learnt in the last year it's that you can't wait forever for something." Her confidence seemed to crack slightly. "I love Britt. I love her so much. But because I wasn't willing to do something about it, I almost lost her." But with that confession her walls rebuilt themselves and she found herself looking directly at Sam. "We all know you're trying here. We can all see it. She just doesn't want to see it. You need help."
"Like I said, it's obvious she still wants you," Puck commented, from the desk where he sat. "And I told you we were all rooting for you."
"And we mean it," Santana said. "I'm not saying that Shane's a bad guy by any means but they're not together for the right reasons. If it had been any other glee member I probably would let it self-explode on its own but 'Cedes means a lot to me now since we were in the Troubletones together." She shrugged. "I don't want to see her get hurt. I don't want to see her unhappy. And I know with you that both those things won't happen - or at least I hope they wouldn't."
At her warning eyes, Sam put his hands up. "I never have - and never would - hurt her intentionally. I know when I left I did. But I couldn't help it then. All I ever wanted was for us to be together."
Santana only gave a quick smile, left the room and said nothing as she sauntered off down the hallway.
Puck gave Sam a pat on the back. "I think that means you gave a good answer, dude."
Sam gave an equally hopeful smile as the two walked out of the room.
"What exactly happened between you two during the summer anyway?" Rachel asked at lunch that day. The glee girls along with Kurt had decided to eat outside taking advantage of the nice weather which had presented itself that day.
Mercedes rolled her eyes at Rachel and gave her an expression that said 'give it a rest.' But when everyone else nodded their head in agreement of wanting to know, she replied, simply and clearly. "We had a summer fling."
Everyone looked at her, some disbelieving, Quinn and Santana, some not so believing but not as obvious, Rachel, Tina and Kurt, and some accepted it for what she said, Brittany and Sugar, although Brittany did have that hint of doubt in her eyes.
She thought back to the moment in the hallway when she had told Sam the same thing and how much of a liar she had been there as she was being now.
She felt a hand slip into hers and in an instant she knew who it was. Warm, calloused and a firm grip.
Sam.
Subconsciously, Mercedes held on tighter but in another second she realised it was December, not June.
In June there was Sam.
But in December there was Shane.
"What are you doing?" she asked, trying to mask the way her heart kind of sped up when she felt his hand in hers. She was trying to sound irritated, annoyed at him.
"Holding your hand," he replied as if it was the simplest answer to the simplest question in the world and she knew that he knew that, yes, she was annoyed, but that the annoyance was slightly outweighed by the feeling she had when his hand was in hers.
She let go quickly and had to stop herself from feeling as if there was something missing when she did so. She tried to stop herself from missing the way their hands just fit.
"Don't. Sam, look, I-"
"I also heard about your new boyfriend."
He didn't sound angry or betrayed, just inquisitive.
Before he could say anything else, Mercedes went to stand in front of him.
"Then you heard he's built like a bulldozer." Stepping in front of him she held a hand out for him to stop walking and he did so, giving her that grin but she was not going to let it stop her from what she had to say. Steeling herself, she held onto her books and clarified, "We had a summer fling."
If it had been anyone else they probably would have believed her and she sounded convincing but no, the person in front of her was Sam. He knew her. She had stupidly decided to let him in.
"I think what we all want to know is what happened between Sam and 'Cedes over the summer. Come on dude, spill!"
Sam sat at the top of the bleachers looking down at his friends, who looked ready and assembled to listen to the story. Everyone looked equally as interested as the other and he felt like he wanted to tell them but he didn't want to give everything away. There were some things that just had to stay between himself and Mercedes and that was what he preferred.
"Yeah, something big must've happened. Everyone can see you're jumping through hoops for her," Mike commented. "You had to be more than a summer fling, right?"
The guys made a huge murmur of noise, hoping to get it out of him, but Sam wouldn't budge not yet. His thoughts were somewhere else, that first conversation with her in the hallway after he came back.
He still grinned, even though anyone else would take that as a rejection. "It was more than that." Still wearing that stupidly adorable smile she knew he was remembering and so was she. Those moments in summer, moments that were more than a fling. Kissing, hugging, other things. Memories she didn't want to remember but ones she'd hate to forget.
He deserves the truth though. "I'll always have a special place in my heart for you," but a slight deviation from the truth wouldn't hurt anyway and maybe he'd believe her, "but I've moved on and you need to do the same."
With one last look into those green eyes, unsure what they were holding, she turns and walks away and she wasn't sure what she was expecting.
"I don't care how big or bad your boyfriend is I'm gonna fight to get you back."
Sam grinned down the hallway, knowing, somehow, that she was smiling at his words, knowing that despite her declarations of 'so June', summer flings and moving on, he was still in her heart.
Because despite the distance, neither had left the other.
"Guys, I'm sure you don't want to hear all the details!"
Their shouts of disagreement proved him wrong.
"You really want to know what happened between us?"
The girls and Kurt all nodded attentively.
"Summer lovin' had me a blast."
"Summer lovin' happened so fast."
Sam stood up from the bleacher, smiling.
"Met a girl crazy for me."
Mercedes couldn't help the smile that crept up on her face when she thought of him.
"Met a boy cute as can be."
"Summer days drifting away but uh oh those summer nights."
The guys all crowded around Sam, as they wanted to ask him all sorts of questions.
"Tell me more, tell me more."
Blaine seemed to be the one to get there first. "Did you get very far?"
"Tell me more, tell me more."
Sugar questioned her friend, as did Quinn, "Like does he have a car."
As the guys continued to crowd around Sam, he began to tell them more about the summer.
"She swam by me, she got a cramp."
With an amused smile, Mercedes went on.
"He went by me, got my suit damp."
"Saved her life, she nearly drowned."
"He showed off, splashing around."
"Summer sun, something's begun, but uh oh those summer nights."
Both had smiles on their faces thinking about these events while the rest of the club saw this as their opportunity to get in their multitude of questions.
"Tell me more, tell me more."
Appreciating the theatricality of it all, Rachel and Tina had to ask, "Was it love at first sight?"
"Tell me more, tell me more."
And Puck just wouldn't be Puck without wondering, "Did she put up a fight?"
"Took her bowling in the arcade."
"We went strolling, drank lemonade."
"We made out under the dock."
"We stayed out till ten o'clock."
"Summer fling don't mean a thing but uh oh those summer nights."
All the glee clubbers seemed fully invested in the story of their romance now, the guys running around the bleachers trying to ask more and more questions while the girls and Kurt excitedly listened as they sat at their outdoor lunch table.
"Tell me more."
Finn and Mike quickly added, "But you don't got to brag."
"Tell me more, tell me more."
Both a seemingly unimpressed Kurt and Santana joined in, "'Cause he sounds like a drag." But they quickly left their looks of derison behind to hear the next part of the story.
"He got friendly, holding my hand."
She remembered the moment at prom, when he told her she was beautiful and the moment in The Lima Bean when he had held her hand and smiled and reassured her that nobody knew. She even had a small smile thinking about when he held her hand in the hallway the previous month.
"She got friendly, down in the sand."
"He was sweet just turned eighteen."
"She was good, you know what I mean."
He smiled, knowing what he meant went way beyond how much of a physical relationship they had. Because she was good to him, he was good to her and they were good to each other. You could argue they were a perfect fit.
"Summer heat, boy and girl meet but uh oh those summer nights."
"Tell me more, tell me more."
The excitement reached a boiling point as Brittany jumped up and down while asking, "How much dough did he spend?" Brittany clearly didn't remember that Sam's family had been homeless at the time.
"Tell me more, tell me more."
Rory questioned, "Could she get me a friend?" Obviously, in the moment, he had forgotten that Sam and Mercedes were no longer together. Puck quickly sat the younger boy down on the bench as Sam turned from his friends and walked to the top of the bleachers.
Mercedes also felt this sadness as she walked away from the girls and Kurt.
Both were reliving their heartbreaking goodbye.
"It turned colder, that's where it ends."
"So I told her, we'd still be friends."
"Then we made our true love vow."
"Wonder what she's doing now."
It had been late when Sam had shown up at her door, and he had quickly told her that his family were leaving the next morning. They were going to Kentucky. His dad had found an amazing job that he couldn't turn down.
She told him she had expected this. That their summer had just been too good to be true to be more than that. It still didn't stop the lump that was in her throat as she said these words and it didn't help the tears she wanted to cry so badly.
So they said goodbye. It was simple, one kiss, one hug, and a promise that they would try to stay in touch but that no matter what they'd never forget the other.
"Summer dreams, ripped at the seams, but oh, those summer nights."
Holy crap, this was long wasn't it? So, what do you think? Originally this was oneshot but then I forgot to mark it as complete overnight, people wanted more, I asked on tumblr and I got an overwhelming 'do it!' response to continuing this.
I really enjoyed writing this chapter. Especially the Summer Nights section. I don't know how it's going to play out on the show but this is probably my ideal for who sings what line and when. I wasn't even going to do that but the temptation took over me. Hope it isn't too weirdly written out. And also the flashback of the hallway scene was something I originally posted on tumblr and slightly edited to incorporate here so if it seems familiar that is why! :)
Anyway, please, please, if you're reading this, can you review? Please?
Reviews just make me happy. Haha! But thanks to everyone who has reviewed already and who has added this to their favourites. Hopefully this didn't disappoint you as a follow-up!
WickedSong x