"I've never done it before," Mercedes whispered. Finn lay on his back with his arm under her neck. He smiled, felt a little cool and a lot studly, then smiled again even bigger.

"Yeah, I, wow," he started at the ceiling, "I uh, I was with Santana, but that's all. I mean, Quinn and Rachel-" he broke off. [Soft Break]"Yeah, I know," Mercedes answered, "I haven't even come close until now," she swallowed, cleared her throat, "I liked it," she giggled to herself, "I liked it, Finn." She felt his arm tighten around her shoulder and his fingers rubbed her arm.

"Yeah, me too."

When Mercedes walked into school the next morning Kurt was waiting inside the door for her. He looked at her with raised eyebrows and hooked his arm through her's.

"Miss Mercedes, Miss Mercedes, what am I going to do with you woman!" He steered her down the hallway toward his locker.

"What are you talking about?" She asked innocently, but she was wondering, what did Kurt know? Had he noticed her absence and come upstairs unbeknownst to her? Had he heard anything?

She noticed when she came downstairs, finally, that Kurt was in the kitchen munching on a snack. She figured he has finished his math and gotten a snack, thinking maybe she was in the bathroom.

They had finished checking their math and then talked a while before she told him she had to get home and he told her Blaine was coming over anyway.

"What am I talking about? Come on, Mercedes, you can't just disappear for half an hour during Math Time and not expect me to notice? I'm not one of those unobservant guys, am I? No! I noticed you were gone, I checked around downstairs, I looked outside, Hmm, no Mercedes I thought, I heard a noise coming from upstairs." When he said upstairs Mercedes blushed, she pressed her lips together and pulled him into an empty classroom.

"Shh!" She looked around nervously, "You can't say anything, you can't say a word. Rachel would, she would flip out! She's my friend!"

"I know she's your friend! That's part of why this is so, so, shocking!" Kurt choked out.

"I know," Mercedes shook her head, "I don't even know, I have no idea what possessed me, or him," she shook her head again, but she was smiling and blushing.

"Well, I guess you need to talk to him then, don't you?" Kurt saw Finn go by in the hall and he grabbed Mercedes and gave her a shove right out the door. Mercedes was surprised by Kurt's strength when she found herself bumping right into the back of Finn. He looked at her in surprise and smiled quickly.

"Good morning Miss Jones," he gave her his lopsided smile and she blushed, her cheeks pinking and warming.

"Finn," she glanced around to see if anyone was paying attention, she felt certain anyone seeing them in the hallway would know, would just know! They rounded a corner and came face-to-face with Quinn! She was standing right in the middle of the hallway, she was wearing one of her school marm slash church lady dresses, complete with the three quarter length sleeve sweater.

"Why Finn, Mercedes, how are you two this morning?" Quinn spoke in her usual quiet, reserved voice. The one that scared Finn because he knew a lecture was coming, the same voice that annoyed Mercedes and made her want to slap Quinn so she would raise her voice a little.

"We didn't have sex," Finn blurted out. Mercedes' mouth dropped open and her eyes flew open wide as she gaped from Finn to Quinn and back to Finn again. Something inside her said to run down the hall, or at least walk quickly so as not to create suspicion, but she was rooted to her spot. Quinn's smile vanished. She dropped her books. Her eyes narrowed as she looked from Finn to Mercedes. She knew it was true, she knew they had done it, she knew, she could tell by the way they stood there, by the way they looked at her, by the way Finn's eyes had dropped to the floor.

"Which of you is the biggest whore is beyond me," she said in such a low voice Finn almost didn't hear what she said, but Mercedes did, and so did Santana who was coming up behind them.

"Who's a whore?" Santana asked stepping between Finn and Mercedes. "Well, other than the little mother here," she looked Quinn straight in the eye. Quinn whisked up her books in a fluid motion and spun on her heel and not only marched down the hall, but kept going and went out the door to the parking lot. Santana looked at Finn, then she slowly turned her head and looked at Mercedes, a slow smile played about her lips then she laughed.

"Wow!" she laughed again and hooked her arms through their arms, throwing her head back and laughing again, "Oh, Finn and Mercedes, we have so much to talk about!"

Mercedes had never ditched school, neither had Finn, but somehow sitting in the back of Santana's car driving away from the school during the school day didn't seem like that big of a deal. Mercedes felt her face warm when Santana made a turn too fast and she and Finn slid into one another. Finn smiled at her and slipped his hand around hers. Mercedes had no idea what to think of him. At first she thought yesterday was just one of those moments you hear about, where two people come together unexpectedly, but it is actually quite meaningless. Then she thought, last night while she was falling asleep, that maybe it was going to end up being one of those Friends with Benefits things, but that was so unlike her and so unlike Finn, which, maybe is what made it make sense. But now that he was looking out his window with his hand casually wrapped around her hand she was not sure what to think.

"-and that is how it has been with Brittany and me." Mercedes blinked back into reality to hear the last few words of Santana's sentence.

"I don't know yet, Santana, but at least neither of us is seeing anyone. For Brittany to be seeing Artie and mess around with you, that is cheating, even if you are not a guy," Finn stated with amazing clarity.

"But she is my best friend, we're not lovers, we are just friends who sometimes practice kissing together, it's been that way for a long time. All I'm saying is maybe you two are going to end up, you know, blowing off steam together. There is no harm in it." Santana said with finality, she pulled her car into the parking lot of a coffee shop.

The three of them walked in and ordered drinks and sat down. Mercedes had a brownie, Santana had a muffin, Finn had some sort of big sandwich. It was early in the day, but teenagers can always eat, the waitress thought as she put their tray in front of them. She gave the group one last glance and went back to her work.

"Okay, so, you had sex," Santana began, "Now what? I can counsel you right through this or right into this, whatev." She took a bite of her muffin and rested her chin on her fist, the point of her elbow on the table. Sex was easy to figure out, relationships were too, just because she didn't have things straightened out yet for herself, well, that didn't mean she couldn't help these two, they had so little experience, it would be easy to get them on the right track. "So, first question, do you want to have sex with each other again?" She watched their faces to catch the reaction they may not speak.

"Yes." They said at the same time. Mercedes followed with a giggle and Finn blushed. Santana nodded.

"Okay then, Finn, Mercedes, do you want to date, do you want this to be public? I assume Kurt knows, so if Kurt knows I would assume Blaine knows, and Rachel will know within 24 hours, if Rachel knows then Miss Pillsbury will know, if she knows Schuester will find out, I would guess Puck will know the next time you are in class together…" Santana trailed off, her eyes to the ceiling as she calculated.

"Quinn figured it out," Mercedes reminded. Finn choked on a bite of sandwich and for some reason started laughing. "What exactly is so funny about that?" Mercedes asked. She'd seen Quinn in action, Quinn could really make a person miserable if she wanted, that condescending tone, oh, it was the worst. Mercedes gulped down a slurp of her iced coffee.

"I totally forgot about the prom queen wanna be!" Santana burst out laughing. She took a few moments to compose herself, "Well, then instead of spending our time thinking about who knows I guess we can think about who does not know, but honestly, at this point, you may as well go public. Let's face it, enough of us know."

Finn looked at Mercedes. It wasn't that he didn't want people to know he was dating her, she was beautiful and she did have a rockin' dancing body and she could really sing. He just wasn't sure what people would think of him, going from one girl to another in such a short time. But, who did he care about caring?

Mercedes returned Finn's look, she managed a half-smile. Finn? She just wasn't sure she wanted that much responsibility. Really, look how much work and time and energy Rachel and Quinn had spent on him, trying to make sure things didn't get mucked up. All the time Rachel was with Finn she typed longer and longer texts every day talking about him, about his blunders, about her expectations of him. Mercedes looked at Finn, he was taking a drink of his coffee, his sandwich was gone, he was looking at the tv which was displaying a sports event, looked like golf. Just because he'd had two bossy girlfriends didn't mean it had to be that way if she was his- well, if she was with him. And they were having sex, well, they'd had sex, if they continued, that was a whole different dynamic.

"Do you want to like, go out, or be boyfriend and girlfriend, or whatever?" she asked him. He turned around in his chair to be totally facing her and that Finn grin came over his face.

"Yes," he said.

"This is a blast," Santana said, she stood up, threw her purse over her shoulder and headed for the door. Finn took Mercedes' hand and they followed her, smiling.