Now

'cause after we kissed
I could only think about your lips.

Matt has nice lips. She knows this even if she doesn’t have any other ones to compare them to since him kissing her and she kissing him back was the first time that’s ever happened to her.

“Nice lips.” She smiles and watches him smile back. Nice lips. Nice guy. Really nice guy.

“Thanks. You, too.” Then he’s leaning in again.


I was the one who said,
"Put your lips like this."

He likes her. How she’s all tough, proud, and confident in Glee but not just moments before when she admitted she’d never been kissed before.

She’s sweet. She’s different, way different than some of the girls that have pushed up on him for being a football player.

Those kind of girls don’t interest him. And that means he’s different, too, different from most of the other guys. It’s not like he cares.


Then

Kurt says out loud what she’s only been able to recently admit to herself. That’s she’s got a crush on Matt Rutherford. A few months ago she would’ve went off on him for saying something like that since football players are dicks and she would never crush on someone who throws slushies. Though truthfully she’s never seen him throw a slushie and never heard anyone say Matt totally effed up their day. Still, like her grandmom always says, “You lay down with dogs, you wake up with fleas.”

But then Finn joins glee and he’s not a dick. Like the complete opposite to the point of being a doormat for Quinn. (Like she really has anything to say about that since she’s never had a boyfriend and you know people like what they like.) Then Matt joins and she realizes a couple of things about him, too. He’s cute and nice.

Well, he seems nice because she doesn’t actually talk to him. (She doesn’t actually talk that much to Finn either but she can tell he’s nice so the same goes for Matt.) He hardly talks (at least in glee) at all, and when he does it’s to Mike or the Cheerios, mostly Brittany. (Who’s really too nice to be a Cheerio but also dumb enough that half the crazy stuff that Coach Sylvester says goes right over her head.) She thought that maybe they would’ve gotten to know each other when the club was split up. It didn’t happen. (She still can’t decide if she should be flattered that Coach Sylvester called her Aretha. She probably did it because she’s big and black like Aretha. Coach Sylvester’s really lucky that Mercedes isn’t one of those Jane Adams girls who would totally cut a bitch, even if said bitch is a teacher.)

Since Kurt was honest with her, she’s honest with him. Yes, she has a crush on Matt and no, she’s not going to do a damn thing about it. She doesn’t think he’d be interested in a girl like her. When she and Matt get paired up, Kurt is all, “This is your chance girl. If you’re Beyonce, then you better find your Sasha.”

She kind of finds her when she has to call him and let him know about Mr. Schue’s latest and greatest (insert eyeroll) plan to get them ready for Sectionals.

“Hello, may I speak to Matt?”

“This is Matt.”

“Oh, hey. It’s Mercedes. From glee. At McKinley.” When Matt laughs, Mercedes’ face gets warm. (Sasha would not be proud.)

“I kinda figured that out when you said your name.” He’s not being smart about it, which makes her feel a little better. Not so much so that she actually says anything in response. (Sasha is no help.) “Did you want something?”

“Oh, um, yeah. We got paired up. We have to perform a song together at the next practice.”

“Okay.”

::::::

They agree to meet at his house for practice and she is nervous as hell. The only other boy’s house she’s been over is Kurt’s. (Sometimes she still feel like an idiot for even thinking the boy was interested. Love, or something like it, is blind for real.) They settle on ‘My Boo’ by Usher and Alicia Keys because it’s current and their parts are pretty much equal. Matt really wanted to do "I'll Be There For You/You're All I Need to Get By” by Method Man and Mary J. Blige. She asks him can he rap. He demonstrates. The conversation ends with her having to admit that Matt can rap but not as good as Mr. Schue, “who’s pretty good for a white boy.” Matt says she’s not allowed in his house anymore if he’s going to say stuff like that. She can’t help but say next, “Life must be really hard for you since a white boy can rap better than you and an Asian can dance better, too.” He just laughs and says he must really like her or something for not kicking her out.

They practice almost every day. Half the time they wind up talking about music in general, school, their families, and whatever else pops into her head. She does most of the talking. She’s less nervous around him as the days pass but it never really goes away. Matt’s really sweet and not as shy as she may’ve once thought. He’s also really funny. His impression of Puck is perfect and never fails to crack her up no matter how many times he does it. (Which is a lot because Puck is too damn funny with his attitude, well when he’s not being an ass.) They get along really well.

Still, she’s pretty sure things will go back to the way they were before. Look at Puck and Rachel. Though she realizes their breakup probably had more to do with them both being out of their damn minds than anything else. (Though their crazy seemed to cancel each other out when they were together so who knows what happened there.) Sure they have a good time when they practice but it’s not like they get together outside of practice.

::::::

“So we should celebrate,” Matt says. Mercedes looks up from her bag.

“We lost.” Rachel and Kurt won. (Big surprise there.) Besides her, they have the strongest voices.

“I know, which is my fault. But we came in second out of six groups so you know…” he shrugs.

Mercedes wants to ask, “Are you asking me out on a date?” but she doesn’t want to make a fool of herself because he’s probably just being nice even if that’s what it sounds like to her. “Yeah, sure. We should celebrate.”

He smiles then. “Okay. A movie or something. Saturday. I’ll see what’s playing and I’ll call you tonight.”

“Okay.”

Kurt is waiting just outside the door when she comes out. “Matt asked me out.” They jump up and down for a minute and then Kurt gets serious. “Friday, I’m coming over and we’re going through your closet. If there’s nothing in there from which I can work my magic, we’re going to the mall on Saturday.” She’s pretty sure they’re going to the mall on Saturday. He can never create a complete outfit from what she has. (The boy just likes to shop. A lot.)

::::::

She ends up wearing a dark purple top that’s too long to be a shirt but too short to be a dress with black leggings. Her silver ballet flats match the silver buttons on her black jacket. They go with loose curls that frame her face. Her mother does her makeup even though Mercedes does her own every day. Her mother insisted because “it’s not every day that my little girl goes on her first date.”

When the doorbell rings, her mother and Kurt walk her downstairs. Her dad is there doing his best to look intimidating. Her mother threatens to pull out the camera. That’s when her brother and his girlfriend announce that if they don’t leave now they’ll be late for the movie. Her parents only let her go because her brother and his girlfriend agreed to chaperone.

Chaperoning to her brother means dropping them off at the mall where the movie theatre is and threatening to break Matt’s legs if he tries anything. He says, “Trust me. I’ll know.”

The wait at Fridays is kind of long because it’s Saturday night in Lima and there aren’t a lot of places to eat. She and Matt talk easily like usual occasionally interrupted by somebody from school that knows Matt. They all have this look like they can’t believe he’s with her. Matt either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care because he always introduces her like it’s not a big deal. By the time they sit down for dinner, she’s thinking beyond this one date even if a part of her thinks she needs to slow her roll.

Dinner is good. She orders what she wants – chicken fingers for her main course and for dessert the chips ahoy ice cream sundae – because it’s not like he doesn’t know she’s a big girl. Plus, she’s hungry and she gets bitchy when she doesn’t eat.

They see ‘Paranormal Activity’ because neither one of them have seen it. Apparently a lot of other people haven’t either because the movie theater is pretty full. It’s as scary as everyone says. At one point she grabs Matt’s hand. When she goes to pull away, he won’t let her. He only lets it go when her brother drives up.


Later

'cause after we kissed
I could only think about your lips.

Kurt said to call no matter what time she gets home. It’s not too late when she finally gets to her room, but she doesn’t call. She wants to keep it to herself for awhile. How his lips felt against hers. She doesn’t know if she’ll ever stop smiling.


I was the one who said,
"Put your lips like this."

He’s never said she had a pretty face, a pretty smile because that’s what you say about big girls. Granted he’s never said aloud what he thinks of her face, her smile because nobody ever asked, which is a shame. She really does have a pretty smile. He’ll always remember how she smiled just before and after the kiss.