There's a lot of facebook dialogue in the chapter. I hope it isn't too much...

Life in the Friend Zone

"Table full of milfs requested White Chocolate for the VIP room," Dustin said, right before the owner of the place approached and said exactly the same thing to Sam. He sighed and Dustin lifted an eyebrow, "You don't seem to enjoy this as much as you used to. I guess it has something to do with that woman that has you glowing all the time?"

"Yeah, I guess," Sam replied. "I feel like I spend more time in the VIP room than anywhere else in the building," Sam complained.

Dustin retorted, "You went from being one of the least paid dancers here to being the second highest, because of that VIP room. Embrace it, Kid. I mean, they loved you before and everything, but you have to admit that since you began to know what it's actually like to work it in a woman that you've gotten better at the job."

"I've been dancing for years!" Sam said.

"Yeah, and it was hot to them that you seemed so nerdy and inexperienced. It made you a good fantasy, but you know, the big bucks lie in that area where they know that you know exactly what to do with what you have. They want it and in this business, you can't beat that."

Sam sighed and got ready for the VIP room. He really wanted to quit his job, or to move on to something else. It was simply comfortable. He had been stripping since he turned 18 and now, at 21, he was so used to it that it was like second nature. But, Captain Handsome was absolutely right... Since Sam began sleeping with Mercedes, it was like his sexy increased tenfold. Had he not been so crazy about her, he might love it. But, his emotions made his job harder. He had to try to balance out the fact that he promised not to do some of the illegal things that he would do for a bit of extra cash with the fcat that he was now sexier... and he still didn't understand how that worked.

Sure, he felt different. He was happier and more confident and to be honest, probably in a bit better shape, because truth be told, he and Mermaid did it pretty much every night. But, he was the same person. He looked the same, but everyone seemed to see him differently and the patrons noticed enough for him to become a pretty damned hot commodity around those parts. He couldn't complain. Dustin was right – it meant more money in his pocket. But, it also meant more chances to be in awkward situations where he had to reject somebody and possibly lose business.

The store was too busy for Mercedes to actually have a chance to talk to Sam, while he was at his table, selling comics. She and Ronnie were working the registers and the guys were on the floor. Sam watched her smiling with (and seemingly flirting with) some of the customers. He frowned, but kept his silence and his distance. He wasn't her boyfriend, and even though they had a habit of calling each other "mine," he knew that she wouldn't appreciate it too much, if he went into possessive mode... But he also knew what these comic boys thought of her, especially these days.

That 'after sex' change thing worked both ways. And while Sam was delighted that his friend seemed to be more confident and he loved the fact that she was always glowing and he knew it was because of him, he didn't too much care for having to see all of the guys that fawned over her at the shop, during his weekly visits.

Sam stared ultra hard at this guy who was making Mercedes laugh at the counter and sighed frustrated. He knew him, from school. His name was Ryder and he was an okay guy, Sam guessed, but he couldn't be less impressed by the fact that Mercedes was laughing herself to the point of tears and holding her midsection. She reached out and gave the guy a swat on the arm, then rubbed the spot, subconsciously. Naw, Sam didn't like all of that. That was flirting territory. He checked his watch and tried not to look too moody as he continued to sit at the table and watch the guy.

After what seemed like an inconceivable amount of time, the guy pulled out his phone, talking and pressing buttons and Mercedes looked over his shoulder, speaking with him. A couple of customers approached the table, so Sam quickly became cheery and started talking to them. As Ryder left the store, he threw Sam a quick wave and Sam nodded once at him, not meaning to come across as dismissive as he knew that he probably did. At the end of the day, he packed away his table as the store crew began to do their closing stuff.

He threw his bag over his shoulder and went to put the table back into the storage room. He gathered up his box of leftover comics and went to the counter, where Mercedes was counting the money. "Hey – you coming over tonight?" He wondered, standing as close to her as possible, making sure to get within her personal space, having wanted to be territorial all day.

"You have to work tonight, don't you?" She asked.

"Well, yeah – but that's hours from now," He reminded her.

"Oh, well... you'be been here most of the day. I thought that you would want to get some rest before work, so I made plans to do something with a friend," she said, nodding her head and shrugging her shoulders.

"Santana, or...?" He started.

"Um, Ryder? You should know him. I think you two graduated together," She said, pushing buttons on the adding machine and stuffing the money into a cash bag.

"I didn't even realize that you and that guy were friends," Sam said, swallowing down his jealousy, or at least trying to.

"Yeah, he's more like a friend of a friend. Sugar introduced us a while back, during one of those things where I'm not allowed to come stag, so she assigned me a date." Now, Sam's face went pale and he couldn't do anything but bit his lip to keep silent and roll his eyes. Mercedes quickly told him, "But, it wasn't anything like what happened between us." She pointed back and forth between them. "It was more like, neither one of us were each other's type, but we both found each other pretty cool and he works at one of the music stores and lets me get his discount."

"Yeah – totally not into you, with that," Sam mumbled. Mercedes' eyebrow jetted upward, and he sighed and asked, "What are the two of you doing tonight?"

"Going to go see a movie and gave some coffee," she said. "I'm sure I'll be done before you get up to go to work, if you want me to sleep over and be there when you get home." She lowered her voice when she discussed meeting up with him and that bothered him. All of it bothered him. "I'm off tomorrow, so we might be able to do something."

"Do something, or stay in and hide the fact that we even know each other?" He asked. When she gave him a confused frown, he elaborated, "This dude is taking you to the movies and out for coffee. We never do stuff like that, and I'm fucking you," he hissed a little too loudly and only noticed when he heard Gavroche and Ronnie snicker, before rushing away. "I didn't mean to say that so loud," Sam said, quickly. "And I didn't mean it like that," he tried to fix, seeing the hurt and shame on her face.

"Have you ever asked me to a movie, before?" Mercedes asked. "It's not like you've wanted to do stuff with me and I've shot you down. We go places. We do like all of our shopping together. We do all of our browsing together. If you wanted to go do something, all you had to do was ask. I'm not one for nights out, so it wouldn't be my suggestion. But, don't explode on me because somebody asked me for a casual night out and I said yes!" Her nostrils were flared and her teeth were bared, but he knew that she was more hurt than angry. "And I didn't know that we were fucking. I just assumed that it was more than that..."

"It is. I didn't mean it like that, Mermaid," he said and wrapped his arm around her waist. "I was watching him with you and I guess I started to misguide myself and listen to all the wrong thoughts. I'm the one that turned this into an issue. I am so jealous. I don't know why, because I know that you don't sleep around, but... It's more like I'm worried that you'll better deal me."

"Better deal you?" She repeated.

"Yeah. On one hand, you've got an, I guess, attractive guy, in pretty good health, who's pretty nice and very creative. He's and awesome dude who's great at impressions and crazy about you, but he's also a stripper and a not yet there dyslexic comic book artist. He sort of sells his body for other's entertainment and even though he's good at what he does, he's not very proud of it, and he knows that you have a problem with it, too." She raised an eyebrow. She was curious about it, but the main problem that she had with it was that he had a problem with it. She hated that he was doing something that he hated doing.

Sam kept going, "Then there's this dude. I think he got a football scholarship and he's actually working on a real career. The girls always said he was hot, and he was obviously interested in you..."

"Are you almost done, Sam? I have to finish counting the money, and you're disrupting me with outlandishness. I don't give a damn who he's supposed to be, or what he has. You're the best deal in town, Sam. I'd be an idiot to try to trade you for anybody." She leaned up and kissed him, quickly. It barely lasted any time at all, but she heard Jacob clear his throat and the two of them looked over. She quickly removed Sam's hand from her waist and commented, "The store's closed and all of the customers are gone."

Jacob said, "And yet, I would appreciate it if you remained professional, while you're on the clock and Sam, you should have been gone before the doors were locked."

"On my way out," Sam said and rolled his eyes. He pointed at Mercedes and said, "Call me, after your date night."

She pointed back at him and said, "It's not a date."

Sam and Maurice decided to play video games. Well, Sam decided to play videogames while Maurice decided to press a few buttons, then throw the controller at Sam's head. Sam playfully kicked his little buddy off of the table and laughed as the monkey scrambled around before standing up straight and giving him the most "go to hellish" look that he had ever seen him give. "Don't be throwing stuff, Joker," Sam reminded his pet, then summoned him to his lap. Maurice came over and settled on his dad, then turned and began to mess with his chest. "What you doin,' Gangster of love?" Sam asked, swatting him away. Maurice swatted also at Sam's hands and checked his shirt again; then, left.

"Oh, I get it. If I don't have an awesome rack, you don't have time for me. I see you, pompetus of love. You like Mercy's peaches and wanna shake her tree. Them's my peaches, Maurice. That's Sam Monkey's pot o' gold, and none for Maurice!" He chuckled to himself, resuming his game, "And none for no Ryder Lynn, either," he mumbled and glanced at his phone. She hadn't called yet, but the night was still young.

Around nine pm, he heard a knock on his door and he went to it, having just gotten up from his short nap, before work and saw her through the peephole. He smiled and opened the door. "Hey! Maurice missed you."

"Freaky lil' monkey missed my boobs, is what you meant," she said.

"Exactly. That's all you're good for to him. You never should've brought those things in here," Sam told her.

"I probably shouldn't bring them anywhere," she said and sighed. "It was a date, Sam." She pinched the bridge of her nose and said, "I feel really ridiculous, right now, because I didn't know it was a date until that fool tried to kiss me goodnight. Like I would've kissed him if it had been a date!"

"I knew it! I knew he wanted you! What'd you tell him?" He asked.

"I panicked and told him that I had a boyfriend. Then, when he asked me why I went out with him, I told him that I didn't know it was a date. Then, he started asking me about my boyfriend, and after I started getting tripped up with some of my answers, I went into sassy mode on him and told him that my personal business was none of his. Then, he laughed and told me that I didn't have a boyfriend and told me that if I didn't like him, I could've just said that. Then, he got on facebook and told people that I'm a lying liar who lies."

"Seriously? He's like 20 years old," Sam said. He folded his arms and laughed at her. "Next time, you'll know. If a guy wants to hang out with you – he probably wants you, Mermaid. You're hot, sweet, and fun. We hardly ever actually want to just hang out with a woman that we don't wanna really get next to, unless she's like a sister or like an in-law, or something. Like – I can solo hang with Quinn all the time, or Tina, because they're friends from way back and they date my best bros."

"But... I used the word "friend" repeatedly when talking to him," Mercedes said, kicking off her shoes and sitting on the couch.

Sam shrugged and sat next to her, "You use the same word for me," he told her, "And I'm pretty sure that we're a little bit beyond the friend zone."

"I consider us friends," she said, "Sure – you're the closest friend that I've ever had... for reasons. I've never explored the things that we've explored together with anybody else, but at the end of the day – we aren't planning any futures together or outlining any commitments. So... we're friends."He sighed and tried not to roll his eyes as he rested his head on her lap and she began to strum his hair.

"Alright," he told her. "So, you owe me a date, then. If you went on a date with a random friend; your closest friend wants one, too."

"What you wanna do, Sir?" She asked.

"Seriously? I wanna go hunting," he said. She paused from stroking his hair and his eyes shot open. "I'll teach you everything. It is a very good buddy bonding experience."

"How about we do something more traditional, and by traditional, I mean, for me. Like, how about dinner and a movie?"

"Can we go stargazing, afterwards?" He asked.

"Yes, that sounds good," she said.

Sam sat up and said, "You've got yourself a date, Gorgeous."

She washed up for the night while he got ready for work, then curled up on his couch, to catch up on some online reading while he was out. She had coffee that night, so, she would probably still be awake, when he got home. It was a good night to be online. Many of her friends seemed pumped up and since she was online, and not with her nosy face-to-face friends, she was able to brag on Sam, like a lot. It was fun to get some of the stuff out of her system that she might get teased about if she were to do so with her real life homies.

After a while, she went to see if Ryder's trifling ass had said anything else about her and saw that she had been tagged in some photos and there were comments. She began to click on stuff. Sam had tagged her in some random photos, like – ones he had taken of her around his or her apartment, in each of their vehicles, at the comic book store, the music store, and the book store – the places that they generally went shopping together. He'd had an album called 'Mermaid,' for most of the time that they had been hanging out, but to her knowledge, this was the first time he had ever tagged any of the pictures.

Several of her friends liked her pictures, but she also got several comments, such as "I didn't realize that you and Trouty Mouth were hanging out so much."- Santana

"Is it my imagination, or are you glowing in EVERY photo that Sam has of you?" – Tina

"Your smile is literally better than everyone else's. You look really happy in all of these."- Quinn

"Wait... your status says 'Single' and Sam's says 'It's Complicated,' but he's tagging all of these photos like there should be status changes. Am I missing something?" – Sugar

"They fuckin." – Santana

"Santana! Lol. You are horrible!" – Sugar

"Either they are, or he's the most sprung friend zone prisoner in Lima."- Santana

"No, no – according to her, she has a boyfriend, but hey – she is a liar, after all." – Ryder

"Oh, hell no! Who are you calling a liar? Sugar and I are the only bitches bad enough to call our girl a liar. You need to move around, with all of that bull." – Santana

"If she's a liar, unfriend her and be on your way! :( " – Sugar

"Salty ass." – Santana

"Whiny ass." – Sugar

"Musty ass... somebody obviously told you wrong. My girl's page is not the place to try to disrespect or call her out." – Santana

Mercedes couldn't do anything but laugh, but she was wondering why the hell Sam would go there, tagging her in photos, like that? She clicked on his page and saw that his last update had been around the time that he left for work and it was, "My best friend and I are gonna go on a date and I'm super stoked about it. And now, I'm gonna tag a bunch of my pictures of her to embarrass the hell out of her tonight."

She laughed, again and mumbled, "He is crazy."

On that update alone, she saw several likes and some comments. "A date like date? Like, not staying in watching movies and stuff?" – Mike

"Yup. A legit date. She went out with some dude earlier, but he was a douche, or something." – Sam

"She is going to kill you for posting stuff about her on your wall." –Quinn

"Killing me softly..." – Sam

"Why aren't you at work?" – Quinn

"I am. I just can't really give much of a damn about work tonight."- Sam

Mercedes decided to finally interject and left a comment on the wall, "I hope you know that you began wall wars on my page!"

A few minutes later, Sam commented, "Lol! I saw. Was about to step in myself when that dude came at you, but your girls had your back. I was impressed at their quick response time."

"I am not impressed about these tagged photos," she told him.

"Shush. You look great in them!" He replied.

"I'm gonna text you," she said.

"They fuckin." Santana reiterated.

"When did YOU get on Sam's friend list?"Mercedes wondered.

Santana replied, "Around the time that I tore into that RYDE_ALL_DAY dude's ass. Your grouper mouth friend sent me a request."

"Which I am regretting already." – Sam

"Don't get mad. I ain't gonna tell anybody else y'all fuckin." – Santana. Mercedes laughed when Santana's comments disappeared from Sam's page.

"Did you just unfriend her?" Mike wondered.

"I regret nothing!"- Sam.

Mercedes heard her phone going off and she saw a text from Santana, That bastard deleted me. Now, I know that y'all are fucking.

He just doesn't like that kind of talk, Mercedes texted her friend back.

So... you two are NOT? Santana wondered.

We're having a little summer fling, it seems. Mercedes admitted for the first time in damned near two months that there was anything besides friendship between herself and Sam. We spend a lot of time together, but nothing defined and we definitely ARE NOT fucking. She rationalized that at least the last part was true... What she and Sam did defied the timeless, simple tradition of "fucking."

He wants it. I know that much. Getting that damned excited about a real date... You gonna let him hit it? Technically, it won't be like the FIRST date, if you two already spend a lot of time together.

You already know that I am not EVEN about to get into this kind of discussion with you! Mercedes commented, laughing to herself, as she texted and heard her phone buzzing with an incoming text. And, I have to go. It's getting late. We'll have lunch soon, or something.

Night, Chica. PS – I know you're fuckin.' Unlike you, Sam talks to his friends. Sugar told me that shit when it first started. He's talked to his boys about the shit. Deny it all you wanna!

Ugh – go your messy ass to bed! Mercedes finally texted back and checked her text from Sam.

Hey... thought you were gonna text me. We're slow and I'm bored. Probably gonna leave early. What are you doing, besides shaking your head at your silly ass friends?

Mercedes thought for a long time, before finally responding. She could always pretend that she had been online and missed the text. She sighed and typed up a message, then took an even longer time before sending it. Speaking of friends... have you told yours about us? Because I was under the impression that we were keeping things to ourselves...

Sam never replied to her text, and it made her unable to sleep, even if she hadn't been still alert from her caffeine earlier. When he unlocked the door, she set her laptop aside, having been up, social networking all night and she met him at the door, with a worried look. He startled when he saw her. "Hey. I couldn't text you back, because I ended up getting an invite to the VIP room. It was kind of steady after that, so the phone had to go into my locker."

"I understand. I never can text at work," she said. She was still waiting on his answer. He nodded and gave her a soft smile. She tried to force a smile back, but her eyebrows were furrowed and he could tell that she knew the answer to her question, and that she didn't like it.

"To answer your question, from earlier, um... yes – I've spoken with my friends about us, but not in a braggy way, or anything. It's just been mostly stuff like, well – when you were behaving weird, it first came out, that we've been you know, seeing each other, alone. Since then, it's not commonly talked about, and it's never like the center of a conversation or anything. For example, the guys called one night and wanted to go have drinks. It was late and I told them that you were over and I couldn't. That's happened a few times. They know that we're officially friends, but they also know that I care about you more than that and that you sleep over."

She sighed and said, "One of the main reasons that I never talk to my friends about us is because YOU had such a bad time of knowing that we'd talked about it, before!"

"That was different. I'm not talking to my friends about your parts. It's just kind of inevitable that they know at this point, and my friends are different than yours, anyway. Like – my friends haven't said anything, since Puck's idiotic text, when we first did it. But, your friends, post blasts on facebook walls."

"So... it's only being kept between us and your friends?" She said.

"It's... you're friends are busybodies. Look at how they were on your page!" He defended himself.

"Well, Artie told Sugar around the time that we first hooked up!" She fussed.

"He was basing that on Puck's text, not anything that I said, because I never confirmed that for them. Even if I had never mentioned it, the guys stopped by, drunk the other week, and we still had peaches and stuff all over the kitchen floor and panties and clothes. They would've known that we're involved, from that alone."

"I forgave you for not having cleaned up the kitchen by the time they got here that night, but damn – do you know how hard it is to try to keep up this privacy stuff with my friends, only to find out that you haven't been doing the same?" Her voice was louder than she expected.

"Can we not argue again, please? I just wanna wash the club off of me and lay down," he said. "I'm exhausted and I don't even think that I could think straight, if I tried."

"Fine. We'll talk later," she said and stormed to the couch. Sam rolled his eyes and let out a frustrated sigh as he went to go wash up, upset that she was handling things the way that she was. Every instance that he had ever discussed their sex life had been innocent and harmless.

Sam came out and looked in at Mercedes, still on the couch. "Hey – come to bed," he said, gently. She sighed and got up, to make her way to the room. "I don't want you to go to bed mad at me," he admitted and came up from behind her to wrap his arms around her. "I just want you to be happy with me, all of the time and I was worried that if your friends knew and they began to bother you, you wouldn't be."

"I know. I just thought that it went both ways. Whenever it sort of came up around us, I told them that it wasn't any of their business or I deflected. There are times that I want to gush with my girlfriends over you!" She had her lip poked out and he leaned in to suck on it. She giggled and pulled back. "You make me sick! I can't stay mad at you!"

"Good!" He cheered and began to march her to the bedroom. "Because, I am sleepy as hell and I was never gonna go if you stayed mad at me."

"I wanna go on our date tomorrow, and I wanna gush with my girls about it," she said.

"You can do whatever you want. I thought that you wanted to keep things secret, but at this point – I kind of would love for everybody to know what's up." He was actually hoping that with things out in the open, she might not be so reluctant to make them official. It shouldn't matter, because she was his, in every sense of the word, except for title. But, somewhere inside of him, it did matter. He wanted to bring her home to his folks and go on doubles and triples with Mike and Tina and/or Puck and Quinn.

He wanted to have the right to step up when dudes were hitting on her and throw his arm around her and kiss her, then give old dude the single head nod, and a quick "Whaddup?" He just wanted her to be his, really his. Hopefully soon...