It's Called Being Sassy

Tortured Relationship

Mike, Mercedes and Quinn walk into As the Page Turns. Mr. Herbert brightens. "Hello! Mercy? You didn't say "It smells like knowledge in here"."

"Mr. Herbert, can we use your back room?" Mercedes wipes away tears.

Mr. Herbert looks at them and sees the girls are crying and Mike is glaring at the floor. "Sure. Do you need some privacy? I could go pick up my medicine from Berry's Pharmacy."

Mike wipes his own face. "Yeah. That'd be great. Thanks, Mr. Herbert."

"You're welcome, Mike." Mr. Herbert locks up, locking the teenagers inside after switching the sign to closed. He looks through the glass door in uncertainty before striding off.

The three head to the back and sit down, not looking at each other or saying anything.

Quinn hates silence and for the first time in their lives, Mike and Mercedes don't rush to fill it for her. "I just feel like you didn't want me to keep Beth."

"What?!" Mercedes is hurt.

"Mikey."

Mike's eyes widen and he looks at Quinn. "How was I in your decision to give your daughter away?!"

"Because you were so mad that I hurt your friends!" Quinn gives into her bitter tears. "You didn't care about me and what I was going through!"

"That's not fair and you know it! And I apologized later!"

"You did?" Mercedes is shocked.

Mike looks down with a frown.

"Marcy was right. We don't hold you accountable because I apologized for yelling at you when I found out Noah was Beth's father."

"You yelled at her?"

"I tried to talk sense into her and she cried. Oh my goodness! You were manipulating me!"

Quinn worries her bottom lip. "I-!"

"Stop lying!" Both brunettes snap.

Quinn breaks down in real tears. "Why didn't you fight harder?! I didn't want to do it! I missed you guys so much and I didn't have you!"

"That's your fault!" Mercedes cries. "You came up with that idea then bullied us into going along with it!"

Quinn wraps her arms around herself. "But you agreed!"

"You blame us for doing what you want and then burn us when we don't." Mike scoffs bitterly.

Quinn shudders. "I just wanted you."

"No, you didn't." Mercedes covers her face. "You wanted popularity."

"I just couldn't be Lucy anymore."

Mike wraps his arm around her.

"No!" Mercedes leaps to her feet. "You chose this! It's what you wanted but when it didn't go according to your plan, it's our faults! That's not fair!"

"I couldn't-! I just-!" Quinn tries.

"It's all about you! It's always all about you!"

"Because everyone compares me to you! You're the good one! The perfect one! You're so good without even trying! You both are."

"You know everyone says I'm like him." Mike says quietly.

"I am not perfect." Mercedes wishes people would stop saying that about her. "I make mistakes. I ruin lives. You're not the only one to rebel and have disastrous consequences."