A/N: This started about as something that was just going to be chapters but I just kept writing so here it! I hope you enjoy it!

REVIEWS = LOVE!

"How long?" I spoke aloud in the car. There was silence. "Shane?" I yelled, into my phone that was plugged into my car's hands free hook up.

"Since before your West Side Story audition." he said. I slammed on the breaks. I took a few deep breaths and slowly pulled my car to the shoulder and put it in park.

"Are you kidding me right now?" I said gripping the steering wheel tight, not knowing what else to do with my hands.

"Why do you care?" Shane asked, his voice an octave higher.

"We were together, Shane. Together!" I shouted. I heard him take an exasperated sigh before speaking again.

"We only made out, Mercedes. Why are you even mad, though?" He said the irritation showing in his voice.

"You were my boyfriend. You were supposed to be faithful to me." I answered with an unseen eye roll.

"Whatever. Are you sure that's the reason? Or is it that she's white and not another black bitch like you?" Shane said with disdain. "Besides, you cheated too!"

"FUCK YOU SHANE!" I shouted grabbing the phone out of it's holster. "It doesn't have a damn thing to do with her being white. It has everything to do with the fact that you made me feel like shit for sharing one kiss with someone I actually love when you were mouth raping someone else throughout our entire relationship!"

"Well, I guess you're not the only one that's a good actor." he said, with a chuckle.

"Shane you're a punk ass bitch. I try, as a general rule, not to hate people but you are on that very short list." I said a calmly as I could.

"So. The. Fuck. What?" he said each word slow and deliberate.

"When you see me, act as if you don't know me. Don't talk about me, don't think about me, don't fix your mouth to say my name." I said into phone trying to keep my composure.

"I'm not scared of a girl, Mercedes." he said with a chuckle.

"It's not me you need to worry about, Shane." I said before ending the call. I couldn't believe this. I had heard a rumor that he and this girl, Gabriela were hooking up behind my back but the bastard had always looked me in the eyes and told me he didn't even know anyone with that name. "Son of a bitch!" I screamed, as I laid my head against the steering wheel. In the silence, I heard my phone vibrating somewhere in the car. I had thrown it after I ended the call with Shane. Unbuckling my seat belt, I began to search for it. As I crawled into the back seat, I saw the light from the screen under the passenger seat. I stretch and grab. "Hello?"

"Mercedes?" Finn voice said on the other end. "Where are you?"

"What?" I asked a little confused on why Finn Hudson was asking where I was.

"Rachel said you were coming over here." he said.

"Oh, yeah. I'm on the way." I said, sliding back into my seat.

"Cool. Uh, can you make a stop first?" he asked shyly.

"What kind, Finn?" I asked wryly.

"BarBQ, salt and vinger and uh, the kind with the ridges." he said in a peppy tone.

"One of each?"

"Better make it two." he said. "Thanks Mercedes. See ya soon!" he said before hanging up. I was actually happy Finn had called and sent me on a chip run. It would give me time to work out of this anger and sadness. Kurt would see it and make me spill and I'm just not ready for that yet.

I grab the chips as quickly as possible and bolt from the store as soon as I got my receipt. I just wanted to get to the Hudson-Hummel house. At this point, it was my only sanctuary from the eyes I could have sworn were watching me inside the Sunny Farms Supermarket.

I rang the doorbell and waited. I began fidgeting impatiently. I rang it again. Shifting the plastic bags from one hand to the other, I waited for someone to let inside the house.

"Hey Mercedes." Finn said opening the door wide. I practically threw the chips at him and ran upstairs to Kurt's room.

"Hello, Mercedes." Kurt said when I burst through the door. "What's wrong he said, sitting up from his relaxed position on the bed. I shut the door and told him the whole sorted story of how Shane had cheated on me for basically our entire relationship and then make me feel like shit for kissing Sam.

"And because of all of this...this...bullshit, I've probably lost Sam forever." I said wiping the tears away from my face.

"Oh Mercy." Kurt said pulling me into a tight embrace. "Sam loves you. Everyone knows it. I think that now that you know that you hurt him and yourself for nothing that it would be in your best interest to see if he can forgive you and be with you. I'm sure he'll understand once to tell him the whole story."

"I don't know, Kurt. I really hurt him. You didn't see his face in the hallway. You didn't see his eyes when I sang that damn song. I think this our relationship is broken for good." I said beginning to sob again. Kurt didn't say a word. We just lay on his bed. He hugged me and rubbed my shoulder and arm and kissed my forehead.

"Mercedes?" a voice whispered to me. "Mercedes?" it said again, a little louder this time. I thought it was a dream at first but when I felt my eyes open the whole room was dark except over by the door.

"What? Who are you?" I said blinking and sitting up in the bed.

"It's Mike." he said stepping closer. I reached over and turned the lamp on. "Hey." he said with a nervous crooked smile.

"Hey." I said still groggy. "What are you doing here?" I said standing up. He walked over to me and hugged me tightly. "Mike?"

"I'm sorry Mercedes." Mike said, still hugging me tightly. "Everything that's happened. You and Sam and the kiss and all the stuff with Shane and Gabriela. It's all my fault." Mike said releasing me from the hug and taking a few steps away from me.

"What do you mean it's your fault?" I asked confused.

"Maybe I should start back over the summer." Mike said sitting on the chair at Kurt's vanity.

XXXXX

"Michael?" Julia Chang called to her son. "Michael, Samuel is here for you." she called up the stairs again. Mike Chang jumped off his bed and headed toward the stairs.

"Sam?" Mike said seeing his best friend standing the the doorway.

"Hey." he said with a nod.

"Were you expecting Samuel today, Michael?" she asked inviting Sam inside.

"Yeah." he lied. "We're just going to go up to my room." Mike started back upstairs and Sam followed. Once inside the room with the door shut, "What are you doing here?"

"Nice to see you too Mike." Sam said plopping down on his friend's bed. "I needed to talk to you."

"You couldn't have done this over the phone?" Mike said, sitting down beside him.

"I'm moving." Sam blurted out.

"What?"

"My Dad got a job in Kentucky. So, we're moving."

"That sucks." Mike said sadly. He made to put his hand on Sam's shoulder but he shrugged it off.

"Mercedes." Sam said.

"Mercedes?" Mike repeated.

"I haven't told her." Sam said. Mike looked at him. "Yet. I haven't told her yet." Mike continued to look at him. "I'm going to tell her."

"When? The day before you leave?" Mike questioned. "When do you leave anyway?"

"End of the month." Sam explained.

"You have to spend as much time with her as possible." Mike said.

"Won't that just make everything worse?"

"Sam, if you're here for the rest of the month and you don't see her, when it's time for you to leave it will kill you." Mike said.

"I know. I know. I...it's going to kill me to leave her." Sam said sadly. "I don't want to hurt her."

"You can't help it." Mike said patting Sam on the shoulder. "You should just make the time special, you know."

"That's a good idea. Thanks Mike. I'm going to miss you." Sam said hugging Mike tightly.

"I'm going to miss you too, there's always Facebook." Mike said with a light laugh returning the hug.

"I'll see you later." Sam said leaving Mike in his room.

"Where is this going?" Mercedes asked him.

"Well you know you guys spent everyday at the lake last summer." Mike said

"Yeah, I was there."

"Well, On your last day together...it was my fault." Mike said lowering his eyes to the floor.

"Wait so all the..." Mercedes said gazing around the room. "Oh Mike."

"I'm sorry. I was just doing what I thought was right." Mike said his voice saddened.

"You just have to tell her man." Mike said to Sam in the basement of Rachel Berry. The New Directions had decided to throw Sam a going away party. It was his last night in Lima and they wanted it to be special. Sam and Mike had been planning all day. Sam wanted his last goodbye to Mercedes to be special.

"So that's my idea." Sam told Mike as they opened their beer bottles.

"Well, I support you man." Mike said clinking their bottles together. "When are you going to do it?"

"Tomorrow morning before I drop her off. I'll only have until a few hours before I have to leave for Kentucky so, I'm think that'll be perfect." Sam said taking a swig of his beer. The night carried on and fun was had by all. Early the next morning Sam was the first one awake. He used the downstairs bathroom, rubbed toothpaste on his teeth and went to wake Mercedes.

"Mercedes?" he whispered gently caressing her face. "Come on babe." She slowly woke up.

"What time is it?" she asked groggily.

"It's early. Come with me." he said holding his hand out to her. Mercedes grabbed Sam's hand and he pulled her up from the floor.

"Where are we going?" she whispered and he pulled up the stairs.

"Shhh, just come." he said with a crooked smile. She smiled back and continued to follow him. Once outside he let go of her hand. "Wait here."

"Ok." she said. She watched Sam walk to his truck. He opened he passenger side door and pulled out a few things. "What is all this?" she asked as he set his guitar case and two gift bags down at her feet.

"Sit with me." he said sitting on the front porch steps with her. "I have some gifts for you."

"You don't have to give me anything, Sam." she said looking into his eyes.

"Mercy, come on. Please." he said. She smiled at him and he continued. " Ok, this bag is from my family." he said handing a green gift bag, the larger of the two. She opened it and pulled out what was inside and began to cry.

"It's beautiful." she said quietly. In her hands was a metal picture frame. The Evans family had fallen in love with Mercedes for the month that they had really gotten to know her. Other than Mike and Tina, their families were the only ones who knew about them. "I love this." she said looking at the picture. It was of a day she had spent at the lake with the Evans. Sam had gotten an elderly man to take a so called family portrait. His parents sat on the tabletop, Mercedes and Sam in front of them and Stacey and Stevie on their laps. Mercedes had seen the picture on the nightstand in the Evans motel room. His mom has said it was one of her favorites.

"I was going to make a copy and give you that, but my mom insisted I give you this one." Sam said smiling.

"Thank you." she whispered kissing him on the lips.

"You're welcome." he said. "Ok this one is just from Stacey and Stevie." he said handing her the smaller bag. Looking inside she began to cry again.

"This is great." she pulled out two beaded bracelets that spelled out each child's name. "Tell them I said thank you and I love them." she said handing him the bracelets to tie on her wrist.

"Of course." Sam said smiling. "Ok. One more. This is from me." he said opening the guitar case. On the inside of the lid was a piece of the t-shirt from Nationals that he had written Sam love Mercedes.

"Sam, this is..." she said trying not to cry.

"Wait. Look at everything." he said sliding the case closer to her. She pulled her eyes away from his and looked inside. It was filled with pictures of the two of them. From prom, in New York, from the month that they had spent together. Their prom tickets, program from Nationals, movie ticket stubs, the plastic key card from the Ramada that they shared their first time in after prom and other memories were all inside the case.

"This is so amazing." Mercedes said quietly.

"I just wanted to give you something special. Something that is uniquely us." Sam said reaching up and wiping a tear from her eye.

"I don't have anything for you." she said.

"All I need this memory." Sam said as he leaned in a kissed her lips. "There is one more thing I want to talk to you about."

"Ok." She said closing the case.

"I don't want to break up with you." Sam pushed out on a breath.

"Sam I..." Mercedes started.

"Wait ok. I know that we can do this. I love you." Sam said holding her hands.

"I love you too. You know that but this has been hard enough." Mercedes said sadly. "I think it's for the best if we break up."

"But Mercedes, we can do this." Sam said defiantly. "It's only four hours."

"Sam, you know you'll have to get a job and help out with your brother and sister and it's Senior year. We'll both just be so busy." she said.

"I would make time for you." he said.

"Maybe at first. We both would, but eventually we would just drift apart because of the distance and I don't want that. This is to special for that. We should just end it on a good note." Mercedes said snuggling into his chest. Sam took several deep breaths trying to keep himself from crying.

"Whatever you want Mercy." he whispered pulling her closer. This was the last time he would see her face to face.

"Mike it's ok. Really." Mercedes said hugging him. "Those gifts really were beautiful."

"No wait. You'll probably want to take this hug back after I tell you the rest." Mike said gently pushing her away from him. "So Shane and I had football camp together you know so we kind of got to know each other more, and then when I found out you guys were dating I tried to make even more of an effort to get to know him and let him into my life. Well Gabriela is in my dance classes. You know the ones I teach. Well, I asked some of the guys to come and just spot the positions for me while I rehearsed for my audition. I wanted to do a few of the different dance scenes. Mostly the Mambo scene in West Side Story. Well they were partners. They were for weeks." Mike said hurriedly.

"Mike hun, just because you introduced them doesn't mean that him cheating is your fault." Mercedes said trying to reassure her friend.

"I knew Mercedes." he said quietly. "I knew he was cheating on you but I didn't say anything."

"Why not?" Mercedes asked.

"I didn't want to hurt you. I didn't want to meddle in your life. And at the time I wasn't sure. I walked in on them together but it could have been a hug. It wasn't until after Sam came back that I got real evidence."

"What was it? Did you tell Sam about it?" she asked.

"No. I didn't tell anyone. I'm not sure I should tell you. I mean you're already hurt." Mike said. "And it's my fault so I don't know if I should deepen the wound."

"It's not your fault Mike. I'm ok. Please tell me." Mercedes said grabbing his hand.

"Ok." Mike said taking a deep breath.

"Shane." Mike called. "Shane!"

"Yo man, what's up?" Shane greet him when he caught up to him in the hallway.

"What are you doing?" Mike whispered harshly.

"Huh? Walking to class." Shane said.

"No, I mean with Gaby." Mike said.

Nothing." Shane said as he stopped walking and faced Mike.

"I saw you." Mike said.

"Saw me what?"

"I saw you kissing her with your hand up her skirt." Mike said angrily.

"We were rehearsing." Shane said. "You don't know your own moves when you see them?" he asked with a sly smile.

"Hey man, I'm not stupid. I know what I saw. You need to come clean with Mercedes. She deserves to know." Mike said.

"And if I don't?" Shane said pushing Mike against the locker bank. "What are you going to do about it?" Mike was silent. "That's what I thought. So just keep your mouth shut Chang and everyone will be happy." he said quietly patting Mike on the cheek before he left him standing there. Mike didn't know what to do. He cared about Mercedes. He didn't want her to get hurt. He knew that if he told her she would be hurt, but he also knew that if he told her Shane would kill him.

"So I didn't say anything." Mike whispered. "I'm sorry."

"Like I said before, it's ok. You did what you thought was right. Honestly, if you had told me I probably wouldn't have believed you." Mercedes said smiling at him.

"How did you find out?" Mike asked.

"I saw them." Mercedes said. "You know that bastard lied to me again. He told me they only made out. I've hurt Sam so much since he's been back."

"He's ok. He just misses you." Mike said.

"Really?"

"Yeah. He talks about you all the time."

"I hope after all of this I'll still have a chance. I mean I turned him down a lot." Mercedes said.

"You won't know until you try." Mike said. "Again, I'm sorry Mercy. I should have said something."

"It's ok Mike. I get why you didn't, so we're good." Mercedes said hugging him again. "I guess I'll call Sam."

"I'll see you tomorrow. Good luck with your phone call." Mike said returning her hug and leaving her in Kurt's room. Mercedes pulled out her phone and dialed Sam.

"Hello?" Sam answered.

"Hey Sam it's Mercedes." she said.

"Hey what's up?" he asked.

"Are you busy?" she asked.

"Not at all. Where are you?"

"Kurt's room." she said with a laugh.

"Well why don't you come down the hall? We can talk." he said.

"Sure. On my way." she said hanging up the phone.

XXXXXX

Mercedes walked down the hallway and stood in front of the guest room door. She was having an inner debate on whether to knock on the door. Suddenly she was knocking and before her feet could move for her to run away the door opened.

"Hey." he said with a smile.

"Hi." she said shyly.

"Come in." he said holding the door open for her. Mercedes walked in to the room looking around. He hadn't brought a lot with him from Kentucky. His guitar, some clothes, a picture of his family and a picture of the two of them standing in front of the Tilt-a-Whirl. "So, what's going on?"

"Um, I need to say somethings to you. I don't want you to say anything until I'm done, ok?" Mercedes said.

"Ok. I'll try." Sam said with a chuckle.

"Alright, since Kurt has a big mouth I'm sure you already heard that Shane and I broke up. He was cheating on me with some girl named Gabriela and he called me a black bitch and he didn't even feel bad about hurting me." Mercedes said hurriedly. "I mean I don't know what happened. You know I could see if he had started this thing with her after you and I had kissed but it was before. Like way before, like you were still in Kentucky before. So, you know I can't help but to think that it was my fault in some way, but that doesn't even matter." she said taking a deep breath. She looked at him and he sat on his bed listening intently. "I know I hurt you Sam. After Human Nature and the kiss and then rejecting on Valentine's Day. I know I did but I thought that Shane and I could work through all of it. After I told him about the kiss and he cried and told me that he forgave me and that he wanted to work it out. Apparently, he only said that because he had been sucking someone else's face for months."

"Mercedes..." Sam started but Mercedes cut him off.

"I know that I probably don't have a chance now, but I wanted to tell you that I truly am sorry for any pain that I caused you. I love you Sam. I always have. Even when I was with Shane, I was always thinking about you." Mercedes said quietly. I know that you..." she started to continue but Sam stood up and kissed her.

"As long as there is breath in my body you will have a chance. I love you Mercedes. Only you. Forever." he said smiling at her. He cupped her face and gently caressed her cheek and kissed her again. Mercedes returned his kiss. She slid her fingers into his blonde hair and gently tugged it and Sam deepened the kiss.

"Sam?" Kurt said interrupting the kiss. "Sorry." he said with a giant smile on his face. He winked at Mercedes and left the two of them alone. "They're back together guys!" they heard Kurt yell when he reached the bottom of the steps. Sam and Mercedes continued to kiss as they heard Finn and Blaine cheering and Rachel and Kurt on the phone with the other members of The New Directions telling them the good news.