Chapter 3

The week had been hectic and awful for Mercedes. She had three papers due and two exams on top of her homework, finals prep, and vocal coaching that she did two evenings a week. She'd also been invited out with some graduating friends and probably should have skipped, but felt guilty about doing so after cancelling with them so much already. Exhaustion had become her best friend, and the tea and coffee weren't doing the trick anymore.

There was a knock on her bedroom door, where she'd been struggling to finish a paper in the wee hours of the night, playing a mix of upbeat music to help her stay up. "Come in," she said.

Her mother, Gloria, poked her head in. "You're still up, baby?"

"I have to finish this paper. It's due in the morning."

"You really should get some sleep, Mercedes. At least an hour," Gloria suggested, opening the door wider to lean on the frame.

"If I finish this, I might still have time to get some sleep," she said, unable to control the bite in her voice. Mercedes sighed, "I'm sorry, Mama. Why are you still up?"

"I heard your music playing and wanted to check on you."

"Oh," she replied, feeling bad that she'd woke her mom up, "I'll turn it down or put in my headphones. I don't have that much left to write."

"Do you want me to bring you anything? Tea?" her mother asked, forehead creasing with worry.

"No, Ma. You go back to bed. I'm okay." To reassure her, Mercedes flashed a bright smile and almost fooled herself into thinking she wasn't a makeshift pillow away from falling asleep right there at her desk. When Gloria didn't move, Mercedes insisted, "Go to sleep, Mom. For real. I'm going to finish this paper and go to bed."

"Okay...don't work yourself too hard. You're doing great. Your father and I are proud of you, sweets."

This time, her smile was genuine. "Thanks, Mom. I needed to hear that."

Gloria came over to her daughter, kissing her forehead. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Once her mother left the room, shutting the door behind her; Mercedes ran her hands through her hair. She was starting to have a hard time forming a complete thought. To make matters worse, she hadn't been able to finish the reading material on which this paper was supposed to be based and had barely written two pages when she needed at least five.

There was one solution to her sleepy dilemma that she hadn't yet tried.

Mercedes looked to her nightstand, her eyes immediately drawn to the hospital bracelet lying on top of it next to her alarm clock. That was the one thing that stopped her in her tracks—exactly was it was supposed to do. It was a reminder of summer's mishap when she'd taken on way more than she could handle. Getting up from her desk, she sat on her bed and picked up the wristband delicately. That had been months ago. She was better now.

Slipping the bracelet into her nightstand and out of sight, Mercedes traded it for the bottle of pills. Two would be okay. Two and that's it. No more. This paper had to be finished before her English class in three hours, and all she needed was a pick-me-up to keep her awake. She could take a nap between school and work. Going to the bathroom, she downed the red and white tablets and put the bottle in her medicine cabinet. Mercedes stared at herself in the mirror as if she would suddenly transform into an unrecognizable monster. But nothing happened. She was fine. She could handle this. Now it was time to work.

When Mercedes walked into Castle Records that afternoon, she happily greeted Rachel and Quinn, who were at the cash wrap—Quinn flipping through a magazine and Rachel pretending she wasn't trying to look over her shoulder.

"Someone's extra cheerful today," Rachel said, confusedly waving back to Mercedes.

"Yeah, don't talk to me, Hobbit," Quinn replied without a glance in her direction.

"I wasn't, Queen of the Night," Rachel snapped back.

"Just making sure," the sour-faced woman picked up her magazine, "Bitch."

With a huff, Rachel adjusted her short floral skirt as Quinn walked away, going upstairs to the second level of the store. Hearing the door of one of the sound booths slam shut, she muttered, "You're the bitch."

Finn was arguing with Will in his office when Mercedes reached the backroom. She looked over at the couch where Brittany and Sugar were sitting, watching it all unfold through the open blinds, and decided to join them.

"What's going on?" she asked, sitting down next to Sugar.

"Finn and Artie swapped shifts without telling Will. Artie was supposed to lock up tonight," the brunette quickly explained. Sugar was Brittany's other partner-in-crime, a rich and eccentric girl who they met in high school at show choir competitions. She had been at a rival school until the year they won Nationals, and then transferred because she only associated herself with winners.

On her first day, Sugar pranked the entire glee club by bringing in a batch of her "Totally Baked!" cookies that had affected them in all the wrong ways before a performance in front of the entire school. Student-baked goods were banned from the grounds for the rest of the year, which had ruined plans for the fundraiser bake sale, but since then, she and Brittany had been nearly inseparable.

Despite seeming to lack a few brain cells, Brittany was an amazing dancer with aspirations of becoming a choreographer and performing on one of those dance competition shows on television. Sugar was calling herself her manager. The pair often created dance circles out on the Castle sales floor, and were never short on fun—whether stoned or not. It was in their dispositions. Santana had even taken a liking to Sugar, referring to the party queen as her and Britt's daughter from the future.

"Last time I let you lock up, you smoked two of my cigars, drank half of my beer, and I found you here the next morning slumped over in my chair, holding my guitar, wearing my sunglasses with money all over the desk!" Will shouted, one hand on his hip, the other gesturing wildly in Finn's direction.

"That was almost two years ago! Don't you think it's time you gave me another chance?" Finn asked.

"No, I don't." Will shrugged. "You need to get your act together, Finn."

"What act, Will? I can only be me," he snarked.

The girls watched as the store manager walked to the office door, pretending to have their own conversation as soon as it opened. "Go to work," Will said. "Sugar, Mercedes, can one of you lock up tonight?"

"Sorry, Will, I can't stay late tonight. School stuff," Mercedes said regretfully.

"I don't want to," Sugar replied bluntly.

Finn began talking again. "See! I can—" He stopped when Will held up his hand and pointed out. "Fine, but you can't run from it forever!"

"I'll cross that bridge when I get to it."

"Ladies," Finn said to them as he passed.

"Why can't you lock up, Will? Got a hot date tonight? Rawr..." Sugar asked.

He scratched the back of his head. "Something like that."

"Been having a lot of those lately. So when do we meet her?"

"Never, I hope." Before Sugar had a chance to be offended, he kept talking, "Are you still on break? It's been an hour!"

"We were counting the quarters Sam glued to the floor," Brittany piped up. Mercedes looked down. Sure enough, there were quarters placed seemingly at random all over the backroom floor. "I think he got them out of the register," she said with a snicker.

"He didn't," Will corrected her. "He was selling drawings to people for fifty cents on Saturday. He made about five bucks before I stopped him."

Mercedes smiled, a little sad that she'd missed it. Will let them get away with a lot, but no one ever tried to take advantage of his cool nature...too much. The foolish ones who did never lasted long.

"All right, lemme go call him. Sugar, get back to work. You two, clock in so Quinn and Rachel can go home," he said to Mercedes and Brittany just before going back into his office to call Sam.

Without much room to turn him down, Sam agreed to come in at eight. His family needed the money—another thing holding him back from committing to furthering his education. Going to school meant less time he could be working to help cover bills. In addition to Castle, he sometimes delivered pizzas and secretly stripped Friday and Saturday nights at a club across town. Some of the money he used for art supplies and some he put into savings so his parents didn't get suspicious about the chunk of cash he was bringing home on the weekends. Typically, when he wasn't working, he was sleeping.

Mike, his girlfriend Tina, and Mercedes were talking in front of the cash wrap when he came in. "Hey, hey, hey, guys! Why aren't you working?" he said authoritatively after grabbing his lanyard from the back.

"Shut the hell up, Sam," Mike joked, punching his arm lightly. "This store is d-e-a-d."

"We just had to kick a bunch of kids out for trying to have some make-out slash orgy party in the sound booths upstairs. Be jealous that you missed that," Mercedes said, poking him in his side.

"I am jealous that I missed that!" Sam exclaimed, and then leaned down toward her. "You're in a good mood," he said in her ear. He knew she had been swamped the past several days and it had been wearing her down. They'd barely even spoken to each other outside of work, and even then, she'd been sluggish and distracted.

Mercedes tilted her head up, lips grazing his cheek, and Sam bit down on his lip as she spoke, "I'm feeling better." She'd had to skip the nap earlier and taken another two pills, saying she wouldn't take anymore, and studied for a last minute quiz before work instead.

"Mmhmm..." Tina said, sharing a knowing look with Mike.

"Whatever!" Mercedes laughed. "I can't whisper to anyone now?"

"What were you whispering about?" Tina raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms.

"Nosy! He was just checking up on me, that's all. That's what friends do."

Sam chuckled even though he didn't like the way she'd stressed the word "friends," but he had no leg to stand on if he complained.

"Look, we've got company," Mike said, interrupting the moment as the same group of teenagers returned. He loudly warned them that if they started causing trouble again, they'd be banned from Castle Records indefinitely.

"I have to run," Tina said, pulling her boyfriend down for a kiss. "Test in the morning," she explained. Turning to Mercedes, she asked, "I'll see you at school tomorrow? Lunch?"

Mercedes nodded, hugging her goodbye. "You and Sam better be good," she whispered and Mercedes jerked away.

"You need to stop," she said, giggling. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Tina left the trio alone just as Finn came down the stairs. They'd completely forgotten he'd been cleaning the booths, and he was not happy.

"I thought you guys were coming to help me!"

Instead of responding, Mike, Sam, and Mercedes took off in three different directions, leaving him standing at the foot of the stairs, bucket in hand.

"Guys!" Finn yelled. They laughed in response and he furrowed his brow, already plotting his payback.