Mercedes feigned sleep, listening to Sam's barely audible snoring, the tickle of his breath against the back of her neck, the pressure of his hand cupping her breast. Was last night a mistake? No. No promises, no regrets. Surely he understood that. He snores. Not loud and obnoxious like Puck, not that she ever slept with Puck. No, she's not Puck's type but that dive apartment with paper-thin walls didn't hide any of the sounds of Puck. Snoring she could drown out with music but that other shit? Mercedes couldn't understand how Puck attracted so many women in a big city like LA. Lima? Sure, but girls don't know any better in LA?

Heck, why is she wasting her time thinking about Puck? Mercedes hated to do this but it was time for compare and contrast. Because she didn't have a long list of guys to compare Sam to it wouldn't take very long so she took them in order.

Sam. To be honest, she hadn't enjoyed it that much. She was a virgin so it was painful, they were in the backseat of her car so she was anxious about somebody seeing, and she was fat. She was convinced Sam was just biding his time until his financial situation improves. So why did she sleep with him? Well look at him, that's why. Who'd say no to that?

Shane. Okay, maybe his initial attraction was being totally unlike Sam in every possible way but Shane legitimately adored her. In contrast to what seemed like being Sam's shameful secret, with Shane she felt like a girlfriend, a honest-to-god girlfriend and yeah, maybe she was depressed about losing to New Directions but Shane was standing there with a bouquet of red roses, he treated the Troubletones to dinner cause they're winners in his book, and that night, alone at Shane's house? Well yeah, why the hell not? It wasn't half bad either, though just being in a bed might have been a big factor there.

Sam and a half. Neither one of them knew it at the time but mutual immaturity ruined that relationship. She was still angry about the competition, which Sam didn't realize. He was jealous of Shane, which Mercedes didn't understand. "Did Shane teach you that?" he'd asked her at the worse possible time. Right in the middle of a makeout session after the prom. Who does that? That's why she thinks of him as Sam and a half and wondered why should she start up with him again since she's leaving town anyway?

Drew. totally weird since she's known him forever but she was in a good place during that relationship. Good riddance Ohio! Drew taught her that 90% of good sex is psychological. Once that's in place sex can be damned fun. The deadline buried in their relationship, the fact that come September he'd be back at Hopkins and she'd be at UCLA was more a 'why not' than the 'why should I' it had been in her relationship with Sam. Drew was the standard every other man would have to measure up to.

Morgan. Fricking nightmare. Well, she did learn a valuable lesson, good sex can't counteract a toxic relationship with a jealous, possessive control-freak of a boy. At 25 Morgan was still a boy in every way that counted.

Sam two. Much as she hated to say it, Sam was freaking awesome in bed and that plus the lack of drama and resentment put last night in the 'not a mistake' category. Drew definitely would have competition if she was staying in Ohio. Not! She snuggled closer to him and went back to sleep.

several hours later

Sam stopped staring at the naked woman in his bed, dressed quickly, pulled out his sketchbook and resumed staring at Mercedes. He didn't draw her body, that struck him as an invasion of privacy without asking her first, but there was plenty to document without focusing on the obvious. Her black braids fanned out on the white pillowcase. The curve of her cheek, half hidden in the braids. Her brown leg peeking out of the sheets. Even her feet with their bright blue pedicure.

He settled on sketching her face, the better to notice the moment she woke but evidently she wasn't one of those people who spent a long time in the transition between sleep and wake. She was definitely asleep when he turned around to get his charcoal pencils but he found himself staring into her deep brown eyes when he looked back.

"What are you doing?" She asked suspiciously, sitting up and wrapping the sheets around her.

"Drawing."

"Can I see?" She held out her hand. "Please?"

"Sure." He handed the sketchpad to her on his way out of the room. "Take you time. I'll be right back."

Mercedes flipped through the book, making sure Sam hadn't drawn any naked pictures of her. Not that she thought he would but she figured she should check anyway. No naked pictures. Sam seemed to be focusing on portraits. There was one of every member of New Directions, his family, a couple of girls she didn't recognize. Just then Sam walked in carrying a tray.

"Breakfast in bed." he said with a broad smile. "Don't judge me on the quality, I've never done this before."

"Never? Not even for..." She decided to take him at his word. "Well I guess that makes me special." she said instead.

"You're definitely special." He whipped the cover from the tray and revealed a bowl of cheerios and a glass of milk. "Tada!"

"Thank you." She picked up a handful of cheerios.

"You eat those dry?"

"Usually. You can have the milk if you want. I've developed a taste for soymilk."

Sam sat on the bed next to Mercedes. "So, do you have plans for later today?"

"Yes, sorry." She reached over him for her cellphone on the nightstand, giggling when he grabbed her breast on the way by. "House full of cousins, in-laws and assorted randoms. My mom's gonna kill me if I don't get home by 11 to help feed them."

"Then what?" He asked hopefully.

"Then I have to drive them down to Columbus to the airport. Then it's back to work."

"Work?"

"Yes. Ben's got some interviews for his book. Ohio, Chicago. Then we fly out west and end up back home. Couple of weeks." She tried to turn on her phone. Dead.

"That's a lot of travel."

"It's not typical. Normally I'm only driving back and forth to school."

"UCLA?"

"No, I'm not going back next year. Finances. Ben got a teaching job at a small college near home. I can take courses there at a deep discount thanks to that. It doesn't have the reputation UCLA has but Santa Monica's a nice little school."

"Santa Monica College?" He asked, hope returning.

"Yes." She stood up, letting the sheet drop to the floor. That's something she would have never done before, let him see her naked. She gathered her clothes from the floor as Sam watched. She wasn't skinny, she was far from skinny. She had more of an hourglass figure, ample breasts and hips and a narrow waist. Sam learned in art class that her kind of figure that was popular in the 40s and 50s as opposed to the boyish figure that's the standard of beauty nowadays. "I'm surprised you heard of it."

"I'm going there." He announced proudly.

"Really?" It was not the reaction he expected. She looked disturbed. "Really?" She quickly pulled on her jeans. "Really?" She repeated.

"Yes, really. Why's that a problem?"

"No problem. You'll like it there. I'm just wondering how you can afford that." She mumbled. "That's all."

"Burt helped me. I mean, it wasn't a personal favor for me, constituent services its called. He has someone in his office just to help people with problems. I got a scholarship, based on my family history and all. So since I'll be in LA maybe we could..."

"Sam," She took a deep breath. "I don't mean to be cruel but last night? It was fantastic, really fantastic but I didn't really see it as hitting the reset button."

"So this was a drive-by?" He asked angrily.

"No." She said sadly. "It's just..." She stared up at the ceiling. "Let's face it, I'm not your type."

"Not my type." Sam considered that. "Then why do you think I asked you to stay the night?"

"I don't know. Why did you?" She was fully dressed now and standing by the door, ready to leave.

"What the hell were we talking about for three hours last night? I want to be with you."

"I'm sorry Sam, that's not what I want." She left him sitting on the bed.

Much later that afternoon

"It's like she's this totally different person-or more like she's two different people at the same time. One of them is fearless, get outta my way." Sam watched Lima disappear in the rear view mirror. "But the minute I mentioned LA she's all..." He raised his voice in a falsetto and flipped his hair. "Oh Sam, forget it, I'm not your type."

"Not your type, she said?" Blaine asked as he steered his SUV towards Columbus. "Well, she's probably right about that."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sam snapped.

"All the girls you've gone out with kinda fit a particular type. White, thin. Like Britt, they all kinda look alike."

"Darcy wasn't white."

"Who?" Blaine racked his brain.

"Darcy! Darcy from swim team? I brought her to your pool party last summer? She's black."

"Oh, her." Blaine visualized a tanned girl with long brown hair. "I thought she was Middle Eastern or something."

"No, she's black. Well, well mom was half and her dad's white, but she considers herself black."

"Nobody's mistaking Mercedes for anything but black. I thought Darcy was white, heck Santana had a darker tan, and she's thin so you're just proving the point. But anyway, I thought Mercedes had a boyfriend."

"What?"

"I said, I thought you said she had a boyfriend. That he was at the wedding, singing love songs and such."

"I thought he was at the time. Drew, Andrew, is his name and he's an ex-boyfriend. Last summer. You probably don't remember but she went to Georgia to visit relatives right after graduation?"

"Right, I mean right, I don't remember that."

"Well, she used to talk about losing weight sometimes. Actually she talked about it a lot the closer she got to graduation. I find that when girls talk about weight it's best just to say nothing. If you say they look fine they call you a liar. If you offer to help them they say you're calling them fat. And for god's sake don't say 'more to love'. I never cared about it one way or the other but apparently she was serious and spent the whole summer working out. Drew was her running buddy" Sam remembered how she used to hate exercise, especially running in circles for no reason as she called it.

"And then they started dating?"

"Yeah."

"But they're not dating anymore?"

"No. She said they both had stuff they wanted to get done first and besides they live too far apart."

"He lives in Georgia?"

"No. Actually he lives in Baltimore. He's a doctor."

"Really? He's that old?"

"He's in medical school, sports medicine, so he was glad to try out what he'd learned in school. Then they got to trying out other stuff. Not that I needed to know all that but we'd broken up way before then and it's not like Britt and I..."

"I don't need details." Blaine interrupted.

"Whatever. So neither of them can make a commitment because Dr dreamboat wants to finish medical school and she wants a Grammy."

"And she has a plan to do that?"

"Her boss has a lot of connections. Apparently that's the biggest part of show business success, connections, and she's been doing small shows, parties. Said that kind of thing gives her visibility. She said it's coming along, the singing and all. She says..." Sam laughed "You probably don't give a damn what she said." Sam stopped to listen to the song being played on Blaine's mp3 player. "Is that them?"

"Yup. Coop's all about them." He listened to the indie band they were headed to see for a few minutes. "They're out of LA, where Cooper lives, and they're just starting to get some traction. He got these tickets months ago, acting like he was doing me such a great favor. He's seen them so many times it's like he's a groupie or something. I bet he's missing hearing them more than he misses being with me."

"He loves you man, you know that." Sam lightly punched Blaine's shoulder.

"Probably." Blaine stared straight ahead, jaw clenched.

"Hey, speaking of that. You, Kurt, New York. What did he say when you told him you got into NAYDA?"

"Oddly enough, he acted like he didn't give a damn." Blaine gripped the steering wheel tightly.

"Really?"

"He's all, that's nice, gotta go. I don't know what's up with him lately. I mean, at Valentine's day it's all sunshine and rainbows. Now he acts like he can't get off the phone fast enough."

"Well..." Sam said noncommittally. Apparently Blaine missed the part when he described the brush-off he got from Mercedes.

"I bet he's making out with Chandler right now." Blaine was saying.

"Who's Chandler?"

"Remember that guy he was semi-cheating with last year?"

Now it was Sam's turn. "Not really."

"You don't? He's a dizzy blonde, no offense. Chandler's an ass. Oh, you must have been Cleopatra in a former life cause you've got a great asp."

"Now I'm totally lost. What the hell does that even mean? Wait, Cleopatra killed herself with a snake, an asp, right? So he's talking about Kurt's..."

"Ass. " Blaine said quickly. "He's talking about his ass, not his...Anyway, it's a pretty lame pick-up line."

"I guess." Actually Sam made a mental note to use that one day. No, maybe he should just forget the whole thing, he'd probably screw it up and get slapped.

At The concert

Up to this point the concert was a blur to Sam. Neither one of them had ever heard of these guys but they seemed to have a rabid following. Add to that the fact that Blaine knew half the kids on the dance floor resulting in Sam being quickly abandoned to the care of some girls described as being 'from Crawford Day', whatever that meant. He was at the back of the club with a girl who was telling him for the fifth time how her parents were out of town for the weekend when he heard Mercedes' voice.

There might have been a time
When I would give myself away
Oooh once upon a time I didn't give a damn
But now, here we are
So
Whataya want from me?
Whataya want from me?

Whataya want from me - Pink or Adam Lambert