DISCLAIMER: On first chapter.

Mercedes was not in the mood to talk to anyone. She was gonna kill Sam when she found him. She stormed down the hallway, her hair flaring behind her as she moved quickly across the school. Mercedes peered at every blond male that she passed by—none of them were Sam.

He hadn't responded to her phone call or her three text messages. Boy, must've known that he was about to get told off. She was furious. Just who did he think he was anyway?

Mercedes could handle herself and she'd thought she had made that fact clear to her boyfriend in the early stages of their relationship, but apparently not. Thinking about it was just making her blood boil.

Sam would be lucky if she didn't smack him.

After ten minutes of fruitless searching, Mercedes was getting frustrated. Sam still hadn't responded to her phone call and she wondered what gave him the right to ignore her. Huffing, Mercedes stopped in the middle of the hallway and glanced around as student bustled past her—heading for the exits.

Extracirriculars were cancelled for today—all the faculty members were having a staff meeting on the updated policies at the school after several fights broke out between the hockey team and the lacrosse team. In Mercedes' opinion, Figgins should've done something about this a long time ago, but—FINN.

Her abrupt turn in thoughts startled Mercedes herself, but after spotting the tall teen walking down the hallway with Mike at his side—she figured that he might know where Sam had scampered off to.

"Finn!" she called after his form and hurried towards the tall teen.

Finn stopped mid-stride and glanced over his shoulder at her. "Mercedes?" he said. "What's up?"

"Hey Mike," Mercedes said as she paused next to them. The Asian nodded at her, a smile on his face. "I was wondering if either of you have seen Sam?"

"Yeah," Finn replied. "He's in the locker room. He spent last period in the weight room."

No wonder he hadn't been in class with her. Yep, her boyfriend definitely knew that he was in trouble. Mercedes gave Finn and Mike a smile and said, "Thanks!"

She took off down the hallway in the opposite direction. She had a blond to talk to.

It was probably bad of her, but Mercedes didn't even hesitate when she slid through the door of the boys' locker room. She had snuck in there so many times after Sam's football practices to congratulate him after an impressive game—that she already knew all the tricks to not getting caught.

And it wouldn't have stopped her this time, anyway. She was pissed enough to risk detention.

Mercedes poked her head around the tiled wall of the locker room, making sure the coast was clear before she hurried over to the aisle where Sam's locker was. She saw his backpack, but he wasn't there which meant that he was probably still in the weight room. She'd have to walk through the showers to get there, and Mercedes hoped that she didn't see too much.

She could hear the water running already, but she was gonna talk to Sam—even if it meant she had to bleach her brain afterwards.

Gathering her indignation and courage, Mercedes strode towards the shower area, her head held high. She stepped onto the tile and walked quickly past the empty stalls and sinks that surrounded her.

She was almost home-free when she spotted him. All the oxygen left her lungs.

It wasn't a random McKinley high football player, but it was Sam. Her boyfriend Sam was in the shower stall—his head bowed under the spray of the water and his blond locks darkened by the moisture.

Suds from the shampoo drifted across his pale skin and all the way down his chest. She was mesmerized by the way his muscles shifted and moved as he scrubbed a bar of soap across his shoulders.

She almost forgot her reasoning for hunting the sucker down, but it came flooding back to her when she spotted the bruising on Sam's knuckles and all arousal was pushed aside.

"Samuel Evans!" she snapped loudly. Her voice obviously took him by surprise because he jerked harshly to the side and the bar of soap flew out of his hands—it hit him in the chin before it clattered to the floor.

Soap suds from his hair ran into his eye and he hissed in pain as he hurriedly tried to rinse it out under the spray of water. Her cheeks warmed in embarrassment and shame as she gasped when she saw him desperately rubbing his eye.

"Crap," she said, "I am so sorry—"

"What the hell, Cede?" Sam asked, slight irritation in his tone as he blinked furiously under the water.

Mercedes felt bad, but he was still the one in trouble here. "It's your own fault!"

"How is this my fault?" he retorted, one eye glaring in her direction. "You're the one who came in here, yelling."

"I was yelling because you were being a douche earlier—"

"About what?"

"I'm not stupid, Sam, Azimio didn't get a black eye, a split lip, and two bruised ribs from walking into a door," she told him. "Don't even try to play that game with me."

The dawning comprehension on Sam's face told her everything she needed to know and Mercedes leaned back against the edge of the sink—frowning at him.

"He deserved it—"

"I don't care that he deserved it—"

"You can't expect me to sit back and do nothing while he insults you—"

"You can't protect me from everything—"

"I can damn well try. He has no right to slushie you—"

"And you don't need to be punching him! You insult my integrity when you make it seem like I need you to win my battles for me—"

"Can you at least let me try and care for you—"

"I'm not a damsel in distress and I don't need to be pampered—"

"You don't need to be pampered, but you deserve it—"

"How many times are we going to have this fight—"

"God damn it, Mercedes," Sam yelled, his hand slamming into the tile wall with a violent smack that stunned Mercedes into silence immediately. She stared at him, wide-eyed and Sam gave her the most-pissed off look she'd seen on his face in a long time.

"You're my girlfriend. I love you, okay? I fucking love you and I'm not now—nor will I ever—let some douchebag treat you like dirt. You can take care of yourself—fine, but that doesn't mean I have to sit on the side and let you get put down in the mean time. This has been going on for weeks, and I'll be damned if I let some other man walk all over my relationship."

"If you love me, then you will accept this as that one flaw that I will never get rid of, because I ain't stoppin'," Sam's southern accent was out in full force, and that only happened when he was extremely emotional. "He's lucky I didn't beat his ass the first day he popped off at the mouth. I'm workin' here, but you gotta give me some slack. I can only take so much."

Sam looked extremely frustrated and Mercedes felt a ball of guilt grow in her stomach. He had held his temper at bay for far longer than he'd ever done before. If it had been last summer, Azimio would've been put in the hospital not ten minutes after he'd slushied Mercedes at school that first day.

Instead, Sam had taken care of Mercedes—forcing himself to take her to the locker room to get cleaned up. She hadn't really praised him for holding his patience. He'd done so well for the past two months, but Azimio shoving her into the lockers had probably been his last straw.

"I'm sorry, Sam," she told him after a long beat of silence. Sam's brow was still furrowed and his mouth was twisted in an angry frown, but his eyes softened at her words. "I've been so caught up in the drama of it all that I didn't even pay attention to how well you've been taking this whole situation. I hadn't realized how much it escalated until I thought about it just now."

"I should control my temper," Sam admitted, "but seeing him put his hands on you—I just lost all semblance of cool."

Mercedes peered at him anxiously. "Forgive me? For being so blind and bossy and ungrateful?"

The anger drained off of Sam's face almost immediately. "Of course," he said, "Can you forgive me for being hot-headed and protective?"

"It is kind of hot…"

Sam smirked. Mercedes blushed.

"I'll remind you of that the next time I get into a fight."

Mercedes rolled her eyes at him in fond amusement. "Don't get arrested."

Sam grinned, before he bent over to pick up his soap. Mercedes got a panty-dropping view of Sam's ass as he leaned over. That arousal that she'd put to the back of her mind came surging back with a vengeance. His nakedness had been almost inconsequential while they were arguing, but her attraction to Sam was almost a painful distraction right now.

Her entire body felt overly warm as she raked her eyes over him from head to toe, taking her time to glimpse every piece of skin that she could see. Mercedes' eyes finally reached his dancing green gaze and tingles spread all over her whole body.

She knew exactly how well those muscles of his worked—and she knew how delicious his skin tasted and felt underneath her fingertips.

Sam's lips slid into a seductive smirk as he peered at her from beneath his wet lashes.

"Wanna join me?" he asked his voice low and sensuous.

The look he was giving her was positively sinful and Mercedes was seriously considering ripping her clothes off and letting him have his way with her. She bit her lip as Sam cocked an eyebrow at her.

"What if we get caught?"

"It's a Friday afternoon, Cede," Sam replied, "Everyone's gone and all the teachers are at the staff meeting in the auditorium."

Heart-pounding, Mercedes weighed her options quickly. She could have mind-blowing wet and wild sex with her attractive-as-fuck boyfriend, or she could be a good girl and—why the hell was she just standing there?

Mind made up, she grabbed the hem of her t-shirt and tugged it over her head. The look on Sam's face when he saw her hot pink bra was priceless.

This was going to be fun.

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