Slowly Learning

Sam made Mercedes laugh. She was a person who enjoyed laughing/laughter, so making her laugh was not overly difficult, but it was extra special to her, because many people in her life didn't too much try to do it. They rejoined their friends by the pool about an hour later than when they went inside of the house and Mercedes wore a thin blue kimono over her swimsuit, mostly to hide the marks on her neck and chest from last night, but also to mask the newer ones Sam had proudly and hungrily made on her inner thighs. Damn that Sam!

As soon as Sugar saw them, she said, "You're late. I hereby declare you on shots duty."

"What's shots duty?" Sam asked.

"When someone scores, you pour our shots, like a good Pool Boy," she said.

"Sugar, you're gonna get alcohol poisoning..." Mercedes said, carefully.

"You're gonna get semen poisoning," Sugar retorted right back, then laughed and went, "Ohhhh!" She slammed the bottle into Sam's chest and said, "It's gonna be you, because Cedes is sitting with me, here on the side." She grabbed Mercedes' hand and pulled her to a beach chair next to the pool. "So, I take it you were in there dealing with that deformed penis of his?" Sugar asked, entirely too loud. Mercedes felt her face heat up and she avoided glancing at Sam, who turned red in the face, but followed them over, as well.

The teams in the pool were being quite aggressive. Mercedes watched them and thought, Dang, this is as bad as the time we beat the hell out of them in dodgeball... Do they know that this ISN'T dodgeball? "You, um... you discussed my penis?" She heard Sam's voice ask. She tried to focus on the ball, that Blaine made a score with.

Sugar cheered, "Shots! Pool Boy! Shots!" She lifted her shot glass to him and he frowned and poured her a shot. "Cedes – you too," Sugar instructed. Mercedes held up the little shot glass that Sugar gave her to Sam and he grabbed her wrist, to get her attention,

When she faced him, he studied her with a raised eyebrow, as he poured her shot. "Did you not hear my question?"Sam asked. "You talked about my junk with your friend? Your drunkest friend at the party?"

"It was a group," she said, softly. That probably didn't help. She quickly tried to explain, without passing out from the embarrassment accompanied by this scorching hot shot she'd just taken. "I was just asking, because I'm not that familiar, but it just didn't look like any of the ones that ever sporadically pass on my tumblr dashboard."

Sugar told him, "We told her that it's good to be a little bigger at the top, right before the head and we totally assured her that the fact that it curves upward is a definite plus, Sam. Don't get bent out of shape..." Then, she laughed at the obvious pun.

"I was asking questions for medical concerns," Mercedes quickly said with widened eyes.

"Shots! Pool Boy!" Sugar said, lifting her shot glass without even looking up at him. Mercedes lifted hers, too, but she was watching Sam to try to determine how mad or upset he was. He poured both of them their shots and watched the ladies put them away. Mercedes nearly choked. Whatever they were shooting was hella awful.

"If you had any questions, you could've asked me," Sam said. "They don't all grow the same way." His face was red, but he didn't know if he was angry or simply ashamed. God, he hoped that Santana wasn't in the group that she'd had that discussion with, but rationalized that she had to be. They probably discussed it after breakfast, when it was just she and her former Troubletones. God, Santana was going to have a field day eventually with this. He realized that he wasn't angry, though... Just hurt. He would never discuss Mercedes' body with his friends. That was just private and personal and to be honest, he didn't want to think of anybody visualizing her like that.

"I don't know you as well as I know them. I wanted to know if I should be worried about that thing," Mercedes slurred and pinched the bridge of her nose, "Sugar, what the hell are we even drinking, here?"

"Well, if you must know, Little Miss Spoil the End, I poured most of that bottle out into the bathtub punch. I left some of it inside, and I went on to put in a little of pretty much everything else that I had in stock into this bottle."

"Jesus!" Sam cried out.

"Shots!" Sugar cheered and held up her glass.

Sam told her, "I'm not pouring anymore of this. Mercedes is right – this is dangerous, Sugar. You can't just mix liquor all randomly like that. You honestly could get alcohol poisoning."

"I never get alcohol poisoning," Sugar said, shaking her shot glass at him.

"And what's worse, you let Mercedes drink this stuff?" Sam snapped at her, angrily, took the bottle and walked away from them.

"Hey! At least leave the bottle! You are the worse pool boy ever!" Sugar yelled at him and threw one of her sandals. When he was out of sight, she pulled a flask out from her her seat and said, "That muffugga most not know what my name is!" She pulled out another and tossed it to Mercedes, "And, I've a spare."

"Should I go check on him?" Mercedes asked, her hands tightly wrapped around the unopen flask. "He seemed really bothered about me talking about his body with you guys."

"Yeah, Artie says that Sam's totally self conscious about two things on his body – his mouth and his cock. Both of which he has been told were not normal," Sugar laughed. "Maybe if he whipped it out for us and we gave it some praise, he'd feel better about the misshapenness of it."

"I am so impressed that you still have the ability to say a word such as misshapenness with all that you've drank today."

"Of course, I know that you mean with all that I've drank this weekend," Sugar said and took a swig from her flask. "But, suggest it to the poor fellow. He's got crooked nipples, extra large lips and a misshapen penis. We have to do something to boost his self-esteem."

"Sugar... I am not asking Sam to show everyone his penis so that you can praise him for it!" Mercedes snapped, then mumbled, "I'll praise him enough for everybody, later." Sugar exploded into tear-filled laughter at her friend's comment. Mercedes jumped. Obviously, she'd said that louder than she intended to.

Sam was definitely drunk. He began to drink right after finding out that Mercedes and her friends had been discussing his abnormal genitalia. It wasn't his fault that it was larger near the tip and it curved upward! That was one of the main reasons he generally kept the thing to himself. Girls made comments on it. Since becoming an adult, he had not gotten so much flack for it, but his relationship with pornography had taught him that he wasn't the only man alive shaped like that. He had gotten more comfortable with it, though the moment it was looked at oddly, it immediately fell. He had opportunities to have sex... that had never been the problem. The problem had mostly came down to trusting and being comfortable enough with a woman that his abnormality didn't bother him.

Sam took another sip as the others came in, soaking wet. Mercedes was wet, too, with her kimono stuck to her body. "You're wet. You got into the pool drunk?" He asked, concerned and disappointed.

"Puck threw me into the pool," she said with a laugh. She wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his back. "Why'd you leave us?"

"I couldn't take the talk," Sam said and spun around on the stool, to pull her into his arms. With her there, it was like he didn't even care about how uncomfortable he had been about the discussion. With her in his arms, he felt completely at ease with her and with himself. Puck and Mike both smirked at each other, while Artie looked at his friend, warily. Sam kissed Mercedes' forehead and told her, "Just some personal stuff that I'm still working within myself. You aren't the only one with insecurities." He stroked her face and she smiled.

Suddenly, Mercedes gasped and said, "Oh! Sugar said that you should show it off and see that women actually are impressed with it. That'll help you feel better!" Sam started laughing, as Mercedes reached for his shorts. "At first I told her NO WAY! But, if you're all sad, maybe I'll consider it."

"Hey, hey, hey... No. That is not a good idea, Cedes. That is a very, very bad idea and I don't want to show that to anybody but you," Sam said and kissed her. Sugar turned on some music and began to dance in the middle of the floor, now carrying with her the flask that Mercedes had been drinking out of at the poolside. "If she doesn't die this weekend, I am going to be shocked and impressed," Sam told Mercedes.

"For a little thing, she has a ridiculously high tolerance," Mercedes told him, nonchalantly strumming the front of his shorts while she looked over at her friend. "With me, it's a opposite. I'm a big girl, but I have a little liquor, and my words are all messed up. I feel like the floor is moving and stuff, rooms spinning. You feel that way?"

"Mercedes..." Sam said and took her hand to interweave their fingers. She turned to face him and saw this hungry look in his eyes. "Wanna go lay down for a little while?" He asked her. Mercedes nodded. She was feeling extra drunk and pretty lightheaded, as well.

"I think I need a shower," she told him.

"Funny you should say that! I think I need one, too!" Sam told her and practically pulled her into their room.

"We have got to be two of the most damned awkward people on the face of the fucking planet," Mercedes complained as Sam held the ice pack on her back, and she had a towel draped over her backside, laying on her front.

"I am so sorry, Mercedes," he repeated.

"It wasn't your fault, though. I know that my ass is already clumsy. Plus, I'm the one who's been drinking with Sugar all day and thought that I could handle standing up in a freaking shower!" She said, laughing angrily at herself.

"Yeah, but maybe you could've if I wasn't trying to go down on you in the shower," Sam said, feeling almost as bad as he had when Mercedes' foot slipped in a puddle of shower gel on the tub floor and she went crashing to the floor with both of her legs up. Initially, he was terrified, even though she was laughing, at the time. Now, he just felt guilty while she was in a good amount of pain. She landed right on her ass, and even though she had a nice amount of cushion, she bumped her tailbone... which hurt like a bitch!

Quinn knocked on the door and came inside, "Brought you some soup," she said.

"She isn't sick. She's injured," Sam said.

"I brought you some soup," Quinn told him, handing the bowl over. "You looked green when you came to get the ice, wrapped in a towel, muttering about how she'd fallen out of the shower." Quinn pointed her head towards the door and said, "I forgot your spoon."

Mercedes commented, "I think that was some kinda hint."

"Yeah," Sam said, lifted the bowl of soup gratefully and made his way out of the door, giving Mercedes another look before he walked out.

Quinn and Mercedes watched him go, looked at each other, then burst into laughter. Quinn checked the bruise beneath the ice pack and shook her head, "Your ass is so clumsy!" She teased.

"Well, add the fact that I've been drinking, there was soap on the ground and I was highly distracted from the whole standing on my own two feet thing," Mercedes said.

"So, were you two...?" Quinn asked.

"We haven't did the whole, you know the going all the way part, but it seems kinda soon," Mercedes said, sitting up with a groan. "Where is everybody?"

"We're taking a break. Sugar is knocked the hell out on the couch, so we're just kind of enjoying the moment. Kurt and Blaine went to go rest up. Tina and Mike are probably getting it on. It's just been Artie, Puck, Matt, Lauren and I hanging out for the past thirty minutes, or so. I had some food and washed up, so I don't feel nearly as drunk as I did during volleyball, but I'm pretty sure that I'm done drinking for the night." Mercedes nodded. "Cedes, listen... I know that you were kinda pressured into coming here and spending some time with Sam, but I hope that you know – you don't have to do anything that you're uncomfortable with."

Mercedes stared at Quinn for a while, then said, "I know that, Quinn. What is it that you think that I'm gonna do that I don't want to?"

"You're taking showers with a complete stranger, for one. That's not you, Mercedes. I mean, Sam is a great guy, but I don't want you to move too fast and have everything blow up in your face, if you actually like him," Quinn said.

"Well, Sam and I have agreed not to pay any attention to any of you about us, but thank you for your concern." Mercedes sat up and wrapped the towel that had been draped over her butt around her. "I think that I am going to change into my nightclothes, and cuddle up with my computer." Mercedes glanced at the door and Quinn took the hint. Mercedes fumed at the back of her friend's retreating head and reached for the light green shimmery nightgown that she'd chosen to wear to bed.

When she slipped into the thigh length fabric, she stared at herself in the mirror, traced her fingertips over the marks on her skin. This entire thing felt so surreal... like come Monday morning, she would wake up and all of this would have happened in a snow globe of her imagination. That thought caused her to pull up St. Elsewhere on her laptop and she crawled beneath the covers and began to check her messages and different social networking pages as she listened to her music. Sam soon reentered the room and she looked over at him. Damn, that boy was hot. All he had to do was WALK, and it set her insides on fire!

He sat next to her on the bed and asked, "How's your back?"

"Still hurts, but I couldn't keep laying on my belly with that ice on me. That was so uncomfortable. Maybe when I have some of this alcohol out of my system, I'll take some pain pills and sleep for a while." Sam bit his lip and curved his mouth to the side. "It wasn't your fault, Sam," she reiterated. He nodded, but she could tell that he still felt bad as he climbed into the bed, with her. "You going to bed, too?"

"I think that everyone's retiring for the night, actually. I heard a lot of sex sounds coming down the hall and the only people in the living room were Puck, Quinn and Artie, with a passed out Sugar on the couch." He reached for her laptop and asked, "Whatcha lookin' at?" She closed out of the screen and stared straight ahead, which made him laugh. "Okay..."

"I was just trying to get some insight on some stuff and it was kinda embarrassing," she admitted.

"Insight on stuff?" He repeated, with a tilted head.

"Well, we're both, you know, virgins... but something tells me that despite that – either you know what you're doing or my body is just magically inclined to be receptive to everything about you. I'd like to make you feel as amazing as you make me feel," she said, lowering her head, with her temperature rising.

Sam took the laptop and set it aside, "You make me feel incredible, Mercedes. I mean, I've thought about you for a long time, and it just seemed so unrealistic that you'd ever have anything to do with me that I let it stay this silly fantasy. But, now, that you're really here with me... trust me; you don't have to try hard to impress me. Everything you do is magic." Sam leaned in to kiss her and rubbed his nose against hers, "Besides, everything that I know I learned from porn and hentai."

"Hentai?" she repeated, with a confused look into his green eyes.

"Do you not know what hentai is?" Sam asked.

"Well, yeah – I know what it is, but..." She shook her head and looked away, laughing, shyly. Sam reached for the laptop and settled himself next to her. "Sam Evans, please tell me that you are not going to try to show me hentai!"

"No, I'm not. I'm actually going to show you hentai. You need a guide that material. Too much of this stuff has rape, or incest, or huge demon cocks. I wanna show you some that isn't too scary or gross," he said. "If I don't, I know you'll try to research it later and you'll come across stuff and be like, what the hell is wrong with Sam? Maybe I should stay away from his busted creeper ass," he said that part in her voice and she laughed. "Ah – this one's pretty hot..." Sam said, clicking 'play.'

Mercedes jumped up and winced in pain when she heard the loud knocking on the bedroom door. Sam jumped up as well and when the door flew open, he instinctly jumped in front of her, with his arms out, to defend her from whatever was coming through the door... Sugar's. Crazy. Ass! "Wakey, wakey!" She yelled. "So, I've had my nap and my coffee and I got up in time to go forth with one of my favorite parts of Game On Weekend!" Sam exhaled and turned to look at the CLEARLY pissed off Mercedes Jones.

He strummed her arm, but she barely noticed him as she climbed out of bed and limped quickly towards Sugar, "Are you out of your damned mind?"

"It's Midnight Pajama Freeze Tag time, Mercedes," Sugar said, completely ignoring her friend's outraged question and locked their arms together. "Come on, Sam!" Artie was in the hallway, in his chair, apologizing to everyone.

Puck was in the hallway, completely naked, with his arms folded, "I don't sleep in pajamas," he said when his friends threw questioning glances his way. Lauren bit her lip, smirked and turned away, shaking her head.

Sugar let go of Mercedes and slapped her hands once, "Now! It's only Midnight, folks and I know for a fact that most of you weren't even sleeping. Jesse – it's impossible to sleep with your cock in Rachel's mouth," she said. When Rachel gasped and covered her face, Sugar commented, "Asperger's..." then went right into her issuance of the rules and such.

Sam looked at Mercedes, with her arms folded and her lip pouted. "You do know we don't have to do this?"

"I don't feel like hearing her complain," Mercedes said. She was exhausted. She and Sam spent a couple of hours viewing hentai and she watched as a study guide for how to touch him... and there was quite a bit of touching, and kissing, and tasting... She fell to sleep, after a while and he followed her into dreamland. Then, probably an hour later, Sugar's ass comes storming into the room! On any other night, Midnight Pajama Freeze Tag would sound like a wonderful time, but Mercedes was still in pain from her fall and exhausted from getting off to graphic cartoons with her... whatever it was that Sam was becoming.

As everyone began going outside, Sam asked Puck, "Seriously, you aren't even gonna put anything on, Dude?"

"I don't have no damned pajamas!" Puck snapped, as Quinn looked off to the side, hiding a smirk and scratching the back of her neck.

Sam shook his head and pulled Sugar aside, "Hey, I don't know if you know this, but Mercedes fell out of the shower earlier."

"Oh my God! Is she feeling alright?" Sugar asked, looking towards her slightly limping friend.

"Well, she thinks that you'll be upset if she declines, but she's really not up to the whole moving around thing. Think maybe you could give her a little pass this time, Darlin'?" Sam asked and gave Sugar a crooked smile.

"Sam Evans, there is something extremely hot about you," Sugar mused, which made him blush and look away. Sugar caught up with Mercedes and told her, "Hey, you look like you don't feel good, Girl. Why don't you and Sam hang back and next time we have a game like this, you guys get to start out as "it." She patted Mercedes on the back, then ran to catch up with everybody else.

Mercedes turned around and looked at Sam, with a puzzled look. He held out a hand to her and she met his and walked back into their room, hand in hand. Whatever he was becoming, she never wanted it to end.