Love Fool

Don't be afraid of life, because your belief will help create that fact

Your reading Glee fan fiction, so, I'm assuming; like me, you've seen the scene in season 5:15 that takes place in Mercedes' living room in New York when she comes downstairs to tell Sam to turn the TV down and end up on the couch with him, watching the facts of life, and talking about Edna's Edibles while he stuffs his face with cereal.

I know girls like Mercedes Jones, might be a little bit of a one myself, so I know when the can of worms about his ex-girlfriends came up that night, it might have ended in a kiss, which was so cute, but the writers missed out all the juicy stuff, you know the stuff any girl worth her salt would have come back at him with. And it's not that I think it's about time Sam got a hard time or anything like that about his past relationships, he's a sweetheart, but I do think there's a conversation to be had. So, I thought I'd share my take on how I think the conversation should have gone that evening.

"You never told me why you broke up with me" he threw into the conversation before stuffing his mouth with another spoonful of cereal

"I never told you?" she rolled her eyes at him "Come on Sam" she ripped her fingers through her hair and sat up "If you were female the guys at school would have changed your name to bike"

"That's a bit harsh" he stopped eating concerned at where the anger was coming from "All I asked was why we broke up"

"Let's see" her eyes looked up at the ceiling

"Here we go" he thinned his lips and rolled his eyes, ready for another one of her outbursts, wondering why the hell he'd chose to bring this up tonight. He put the bowl down on the coffee table and grabbed the remote to turn the TV off before she accused him of not being interested in anything she had to say

"Fucking right here we go" she snapped back

"I'm 'listening"

"Fabrevans, remember that?" she mimicked Quinn's voice as she hissed it at him "I guess the clues in the ship" she cut her eyes at him

"You called us that not me"

"Every fucking body called you that" she snapped "If it wasn't that it was Barbie and fucking Ken"

"As a jeer I'm sure" he sat up to look at her "Mercedes I can't believe you're throwing this in my face"

"Your face?" she huffed "She told me everything, every single little fucking thing" she twisted her nose at him in disgust "Your opening line was, I think I love you, melted her putty heart apparently"

"Come on Mercedes, I didn't even know what love was then"

"Oh, but you do now?" she jammed her hand on her left hip "Now that you've, to use Puck's favourite word, sawed through the entire school" she rocked her head in anger

"Slight exaggeration" he rolled his eyes smiling

"You think this is a joke?"

"No" he laughed "It's you, you're making all this out to be something it's not"

"You gave her a fucking promise ring"

"Will you stop swearing"

"No, I will fucking well not" she whined at him in defiance "Promised to wash gunk off her fucking face, and oh" she swung her head with so much attitude he thought it was going to pop off "Let's not forget making her proud to be on your arm"

"Mercedes"

"Sam" she snapped back "Am I lying?" she looked into his eyes "Then you want to come at me with" she shook her head telling him she wasn't having it "Boy" she flicked her hand at him "You're not telling me that everything in your body didn't know she was cheating on you?"

"Why are you flipping the conversation"

"Because these are the answers I need" she looked at him "So?"

They sat looking into each other's eyes for a short while before he carried on "I just wanted to be the popular guy, and to do that I thought I'd hook up with the popular girl" he sighed "She's a really nice person, just drew a short straw in her life"

"I know that, she's my girl, I helped deliver her baby into the world, which is why it's so hard for you to be my boy"

"I'm not a boy Mercedes" he looked at her seriously

"She told me she was going to work hard at getting you back when you came back to school"

"Is that why you wouldn't finish with that fool and get back with me back then?"

"Maybe"

"Are we done with this subject?" he was angrier about that than any of the rest of it, Quinn knew he'd come back for Mercedes, so why did she choose Mercedes to tell her hearts desires to

"No" she crossed her arms defensively "We have more skeletons"

"Seriously, we're not getting into the Santana of all this" he sat back angry, trying to restrain himself

"You have jokes" she frowned at him "What was it she said you were?"

"Mercedes" he warned

"As dumb as a bag of wet hair" she widened her eyes at the shock of it "And somehow, even after that insult you wonder into class with that girl clung to your damn legs"

"That's not fair"

"Oh, it's not fair when I say it, but when the other half of Lopevans says it, she gets your hands on those rambunctious set of twins on her ribcage"

"Now who's got jokes?" he laughed "You really pay attention to detail, don't you?"

"Trust me, it was hard keeping up with you" she snapped "Did you sleep with her?"

"No"

"So, you want me to believe that you dated two of the hottest girls in school and you didn't sleep with either of them?"

"It's the truth" he snapped "I was with Santana for a hot minute"

"Oh, that's right" she nodded her head and waved her finger around in the air "A really hot minute" she chuckled sarcastically "You just felt on her ribcage, right?" she chuckled again "Did she react I mean..."

"Mercedes" he hissed through clenched teeth "Nobody ever told me she was into girls before that day with Dave"

"Everyone else in the room knew she was into Brittany, why didn't you see it?"

"Oh, you mean like when you didn't see that Kurt was gay?" he barked at her

"This isn't about me" she snapped back

"You're the one dragging all this back up again, and if having no gaydar applied to me it applies to you too" he sat forward "Actually yeah, I want some answers too"

"Yours can wait" she snapped at him

"Santana went off with David, and then ended up with Brittany, that was the end of that, I think we can close that one down" he snapped back

"And you're sure you didn't sleep with her?"

"Mercedes" he whined

"I just want to be clear" she grinned

"So, now are we done with the ex's subject?"

"We would have been had you not took it all a step further"

"Fuck" he rolled his eyes and slammed his back on the back of the couch "Brittany" the air left his mouth from the bottom of his lungs

"Yes, and don't lie about this one"

"Okay yes, but she wasn't my first"

"You say that like you're proud of something" she turned to look at him "Wait, so she wasn't your first, Quinn was your first girlfriend, I know Santana was the second, so there's a lie in there somewhere"

"No, there isn't, it happened during the summer break, before I came back"

"You're just so fucking nasty" she screwed her face up at him

"You're judging me with the same brush everyone else does, I don't sleep around"

"Oh, you don't?" her eyes popped at the contradiction in his words and the situation

"No, I don't"

"So, what happened Sam" she huffed "I mean weeks earlier you were stood at the train station telling me, there was never going to be anyone else for you, and in the blink of an eye I'm back to McKinley to find" she widened her eyes at him in shock "Pierevans" she laughed "Notice all these women take on your name, they're not just girlfriends are they, you allow them to think they're the one" she huffed "Well take it from me Evans, if that's what you're up to, I'm not the one, not today, not ever"

"You keep throwing these names at me like I made them up, they were nothing to do with me"

"But you didn't stop it did you?" she looked at him "Why didn't you just say actually I'm in love with..."

"Someone else, because that someone else wasn't there, remember?"

"No Sam" she stood up angry "You should have told her you were in love with me" she turned away from him for a second "Oh, I get it, out of sight out of mind, you weren't in love with me at all, were you?"

"Mercedes" he stood up, trying to defuse the situation, she was getting heated "If I'm honest I was trying to get you out of my mind, you broke up with me remember"

"Whatever I did Sam, you said I was the one"

"And you are"

"But you married Brittany?"

"That was a fake marriage"

"You didn't know that at the time"

"Of course, I knew that at the time, you know I only play the idiot, I'm not actually an idiot, she needed rescuing, and I got into her world to do that, that's what friends do for each other, isn't it?"

"What fake marry them so they can take them to bed and fuck the hell out of them for three days?"

"We weren't fucking for three days" he rolled his eyes at her "Her parents were in the room next door"

"Oh, my bad, sorry, not sorry" she snapped at him

"I know you're not sorry" he laughed "Can we get back to us?"

"Then we come to Nurse Betty"

"Gosh Mercedes, it lasted as long as it took us to do that Gaga week, not even that long to be honest, that shouldn't even count"

"Excuse me" she rung her neck and held her hand up at him, telling him there was a question coming "There was a kiss wasn't there?" she asked

"Two at most"

"So, you're saying they didn't count?" he didn't answer there was a trick in there somewhere "Cat got your tongue?"

"What does that even mean?" he looked at her blankly

"Nothing to say?"

"I said it, two kisses at most"

"So, if Betty didn't count, what about the other perspective Mrs Evans' don't they count, are you technically denying everything now?" she huffed "I hate men, they're such fucking liars"

"I'm not lying, I'm just saying it was a quick kiss or two"

"Not according to the stories that came back to me"

"Did anything happen at that damn school that you didn't hear about?"

"You supposedly fell in love with her while watching her inject a fucking sausage, I'd say more but..."

"No, no say more, you, or should I say your friends, seem to have all the facts"

"She was dumb Sam" she huffed "Didn't she get sacked for swopping a urine test with some vaccine or something, who the hell does that?" she flung her hand up in the air "And somehow that turned you on"

"It didn't" he looked into her eyes "If you must know I was lonely, you weren't coming back as often as you said you would because of the Brittany thing, and I was lonely"

"Poor Sam, you don't think I got lonely out there on my own, I didn't hook up with the first warm body to approach me, no, because I was thinking there was someone back home that was in love with me" she knocked her chest with her finger "So you can imagine how hurt I was, not only had you hooked up with Brittany weeks after we split, but then you throw salt in the wound, by hooking up with some thirty year old Betty"

"I didn't mean to hurt you Mercedes, that was the last thing I wanted to do, but it hurt when you froze me out" he looked at her with sad eyes "You said I needed to enjoy the year"

"Oh sorry" she stood searching her mind for the conversation they'd had back then "No" she grinned "I don't recall saying go enjoy yourself, get married, sleep with Brittany, date a fake nurse, we didn't agree none of that Sam"

"There were no specifics" he laughed

"Still funny to you?" she huffed "I said do well with your life, good grades, win nationals, that kind of stuff" she smiled "How did that thing with Betty end?"

"I know you know her name was Penny" he laughed "If you don't already know, she fucked up again and that time I didn't defend her, she was way too clingy anyway"

"She was thirty something Sam, and for all you know she might have been being a mother" Mercedes waved her hand in the air whimsically

"Can we stop this before one of us says something we don't mean?"

"Something we don't mean?" she asked for confirmation "That brings us to that debacle, the trio"

"Trio?" he asked puzzled "This is getting..."

"Blamtina" she confirmed

"Who the hell is that?" he laughed "You're just making shit up now"

"The Blaine, Sam, Tina triangle"

"Was that a thing?" he asked shocked

"Well, there was a rumour that you kissed Tina, and before that Kurt mentioned that Tina and Blaine had kissed and then there was some love song between Blaine and you, so..."

"All just good fun, Blaine and I had nothing, he's my best buddy as well you know" he laughed at her ridiculous

"Tina?"

"I guess we were missing our other halves, we quickly learned we were more like brother and sister and of course she has code"

"Kissing each other doesn't sound much like code to me" she laughed sarcastically "And didn't she ask you to be her date for some dance thing, was it prom?"

"Sadie Hawkins" he corrected her "But that didn't happen"

"Yeah, she called it off"

"Was that something to do with you?"

"We had words yes" she frowned "She went for you because she thought I was getting super friendly with Mike, but we cleared that up"

"Mike?" he ears perked up "What happened between you two?"

"Nothing happened between us" she laughed "But what would you have to say if it had?"

"A lot" he looked at her his voice warning

"I hate the way you've painted your perfect picture of me, and then you fucking expect me to stay on that damn pedestal you put me on"

"Swearing Mercedes" he hissed at her "Please stop it, you're talking to me"

"I'm pissed off Sam, you can't ask me to behave when I'm pissed at you"

"Look" he sat beside her again "Tina and I formed a relationship based on our relationships with you and Mike, we really were just testing the waters, I think we both knew before it happened that we were too invested in you two for things to go any further. Everyone else was hooking up getting back with their ex-partners and we weren't I suppose we just thought for a split second" he looked at her "We were lonely, and maybe a tad jealous of everyone else"

"I hear that" she smiled

"And Blaine" he rolled his eyes "He was just as lost without Kurt as I was without you" he smiled as he got closer to her "I know you know that was all one sided, he knew that too, we had the conversation, and Tina knew Blaine belonged to Kurt, I guess he was just a safe crush, someone she knew Mike would never take serious"

"I guess we were all going through something"

"Yeah, so the fact that you only take note of my reactions and not the reasons behind them, concerns me"

"Don't bull shit Evans, you just used my move on me"

"Proves I listen" he laughed

"And I'm proving you're a love fool" she smiled

"What does that even mean?" he scrunched his face up asking

"You fall in love too easily"

"I beg to differ on that one" he huffed "I've gone out with someone to be the buzz, to make someone else jealous, to help a friends cope, but love..." he looked at her "I keep coming back for love Mercedes, I've tried to shake this off, tried to feel something about someone else, but, it's not working for me, you're the one I really love" he moved closer to her "Don't you get that?"

"Don't do that" she pulled away from him "I still have something to say"

"About?" he rolled his eyes frustrated

"The one that changed your name"

"I've never changed my name" he looked at her puzzled

"Well, she double barrelled it" she rolled her eyes correcting herself "Evansberry" she hissed at him

"Come on Mercedes" he jumped up off the couch "That was all in her head"

"According to the story, you guys shared a look or something, that would have turned into a kiss if others hadn't been in the room"

"No fucking way" he hissed "You listen to too much bullshit" he snapped

"Oh" she raised her eyebrows "Seems now we're on the same page"

"When it comes to Rachel, we're never on the same page" he huffed "She was missing Finn, I was there, I'm no substitute" he laughed sarcastically "She already knew that, because I'd told her, the time she asked me to the prom"

"When we asked you to the prom?" she looked at him puzzled

"No" he rolled his eyes at something else he'd kept from her without even meaning to "Before you two came to me about that she'd already asked, and before you start making up theories, I knocked her back, so obviously she knew I was into you back then because I said yes"

"She never mentioned it" Mercedes sat wondering what was going on "She told me you asked her to rub oil all over your body, and you enjoyed it"

"That's a lie" he laughed "She was being human, helping me out with my modelling thing, I thought I'd totally screwed up with the Bitchette interview, she was the one who got me the impromptu shoot, then offered to rub oil in at the photographer's request, she didn't wait for me to respond. And just so you don't get things twisted there were other people in the room, and yeah, at the time I thought she was getting off on it. The whole thing was awkward Finn had just passed and I didn't want to knock her confidence at the time, so I said nothing, that didn't mean I was up for anything with the girl"

"You have an answer for everything, don't you"

"Note they're answers and not excuses" he looked into her eyes smiling "Since you froze me out over the Brittany thing, I took notes, I think now, before I do anything, I ask myself how this will affect us, even without knowing if there is an us"

"I can't say I've notices" she laughed

"You did" he laughed "That's why you finally came to New York, I know you better than anyone Mercedes Jones"

"You do, do you?"

"Now can we get back to the question of us?"

"I told you..."

"Don't come at me with that didn't know who you were shit, nobody knows who they are at seventeen, I want to know how you felt"

"I loved you, no doubt" she smiled

"Loved me?"

"Fishing much" she laughed "Okay, I love you Sam" she chuckled "But you've always known that haven't you?"

"There were some seriously quiet times that made me question that" he looked at her

"That was usually..."

"My fault, I know" he laughed with the guilt "But I've always known I had a special place in your heart" he looked at her smiling

"You remember that?" she smiled back at him

"Steal trap" he pointed at his head "There's a reason we've never ended things between us on bad terms Mercedes; I believe that"

"What's the reason Sam?" she smiled shaking her head at the man

"One of our first conversations was so real, so honest we bonded as friends before we became anything else"

"That summer?"

"Yeah"

"No matter what happens between us, I'd never want to lose you as a friend"

"Me neither, but I couldn't just be your friend, I couldn't watch you with someone else"

"Really?" she looked at him with concern on her face

"I know" he frowned "One rule for one and all that, but it's true what you said, it's different with you"

"Why is it different?"

"Because we've always believed in each other, you taught me to trust in our love, we've never been able to lie to each other, and to be honest you never tried to change me, you just let me change myself into someone you'd one day be proud of"

"I've always been proud of you"

"Plus, you love me hard enough to make me want to love you back"

"You got moves Evans; I'll give you that" she laughed, watching as he got up

"Do you remember this one?" he walked over to the music station in silence, she watched as he tapped his phone and set it into the pod

"The station" she smiled at hearing the first few notes to 'Come Back to Me' by 3 One Oh filled the air

I would swim across the ocean just to find you, cause your love is like a potion, made me see the truth

I can't sleep when you're not around, I can't eat when you're out of town

Baby come back to me oh, baby come back to me oh, baby come back to me oh, baby come back to me, back to me

I've got something to admit about that day" he turned to look at her "You hardly spoke to me when you came back when we lost the music program at school" he sat beside her "Even I was overwhelmed at having everyone I'd ever made out with in one place, so I don't know how you coped and to be honest, I thought I'd broken us, I thought that was the end"

"Paused, never broken" she turned to smile at him

"You made me sweat" he laughed

"The number of times you made me cry" she frowned at him "Is unmeasurable"

"I'm sorry" he pouted "But this isn't a love fool talking, this is me Sam" he leaned his head to look at her "And I don't want to give you a stupid promise ring, feel your boobs just for the absolute fun of it, or wait until there's an apocalypse to marry you, and you can be sure, every time you allow me to touch your lips, I'm not imagining someone else" he smiled "This is someone in love, with you" the silence was filled with the song

Flashback

The morning after graduation, she'd made plans to leave, no one knew she was leaving except Rachel, so when Sam turned up at the station, she knew who to blame. He was more upset than she was, he'd asked her to get back with him, but she couldn't see past the Brittany thing and was trying to get over him. He was stood in front of her and she knew for sure it hadn't worked, just one look into those eyes of his and she was his again.

"Almost" she gasped as he kissed her, when she came to, the song was playing from his phone into her ear.

"What she said" he nodded at her ear, letting the song play a while before he unplugged her, turned, and walked away, leaving the ball in her court.

Every time you look at me, I'm drowning in those eyes, baby when you're holding me, I lose all track of time

Cause I can't see you walk away from me; I see you're everything I need, yes you are

Baby come back to me oh, baby come back to me oh, baby come back to me oh, baby come back to me oh, back to me

End of Flashback

"I know we love each other Sam, but is that enough?"

"It's enough for me"

"You're nineteen years old, how can you be ready for what I'm asking for?"

"I'm ready"

"You know me, I need you to be absolutely sure, because if you're telling me you're in, this is about to get real for me, and you" she sat back on the couch watching him fling his leg onto it

"I'm in Mercedes" he looked at her seriously "It's like this thing between us has been over so many times before it's even started, and I need to know"

"Know what?"

"Will we work, we won't know until we try" he pulled the throw over his legs "I'm in, question is, are you?" he picked the remote up and turned the TV back on, smiling at leaving the ball in her court again. He sat half watching the TV and half waiting for her reaction, she was never one to not take his bait, suddenly she pounced on him grabbed his head and kissed him hard

"Of course, I'm in" she giggled "Now I've got everything off my chest, we'll never talk about them again"

"Thank god for that" he pulled her in and kissed her again "The only girl I'll ever kiss again is the one in my arms right now"

"Unless I give you permission to kiss someone else"

"I don't see that happening any time soon" he giggled