“Mercedes, can I talk to you?”

“Sure, what’s up.”

“I’m going to tell you something and you will hate me afterwards, but please, I need your help.”

Mercedes is looking at me as if Kurt has grown another head. Kurt has just explained the entire situation to her, without telling Blaine’s secret, and she looks downright disgusted. It’s the same look she shot Kurt and Rachel all those weeks ago, only worse.

“What. The. Fuck is wrong with you?”

“I deserve that.”

Mercedes shakes her head. “You deserve worse than that.”

“I know.”

“I can’t get you out of this mess, Kurt,” Mercedes says, “And honestly, I’m not sure if I want to. I said so right at the beginning: leave me out of it.”

“Please, Mercedes!” Kurt is this close to going down on his knees to beg for her forgiveness and help. That’s how desperate he is. He’s also always prided himself for not needing help, but this is another thing he’s wrong about.

“Kurt, we’re supposed to be friends,” Mercedes still looks angry, “Instead I feel like I’m always here to clean up your mess or to help you out. Do you know how I am doing? Or anyone else? Do you care that Quinn’s mom is unwell? Have you even noticed that Tina is upset, because she’s in a terrible fight with Mike? Do you care that Regionals is soon?”

When Kurt doesn’t reply, Mercedes shakes her head again.

“No, because you’ve been too selfish and short-sighted to care,” Mercedes says bitterly, “And now you’ve learned that your absolutely horrible plan is horrible, and you want to fix things. There shouldn’t be anything to fix, but you did this to yourself. You worked on this plan with so much diligence and now you’ve basically worked yourself into a corner. This poor Blaine has no clue what is happening to him.”

A part of Kurt still wants to defend himself. He wants to talk back and tell Mercedes that she’s wrong, but he just doesn’t have the energy.

Or he’s realising that Mercedes is right.

“Don’t do it for me, then. Do it for Blaine.”

“Blaine,” Mercedes says, “Blaine, who apparently told you something big enough that it made you realise how fucking stupid you are.”

“I can’t tell you-”

“I’m not asking you to,” Mercedes cuts him off, “Some things are not for everyone to know. I’m not like you. I’ve known that from the beginning.”

It was a low blow, even for Mercedes’s standards, but it’s still true.

“Yeah,” is all that Kurt can say.

Mercedes shakes her head again. At this rate she’s going to get a concussion from all that head shaking and Kurt will be able to add that on the pile of hurt that he’s caused.

“There’s no way out of this, Kurt. You have to come clean, but it will always backfire, because what you’ve done is terrible. At this point he can basically expose you for the catfishing and a part of me thinks that he should.”

“Mercedes…”

Mercedes abruptly gets up. She still looks angry. “Can you give me some time to think this over? I am really, really mad at you, Kurt, and at Rachel too. Really, what were you thinking?”

“The scholarship…” Kurt already trails off. That doesn’t hold up anymore. Yes, Kurt desperately needs this scholarship, but it doesn’t make any of this okay. That, and Blaine needs it too.

“The scholarship. Right. The NYADA scholarship. The one you so desperately need and deserve.”

“… I do.”

And Kurt does. He really does. But so does Blaine. He knows that now, but obviously he can’t tell Mercedes that.

“You do,” Mercedes affirms, “But who’s to say that you deserve it more than he does? You don’t know that, Kurt. You don’t know that guy. You have no right to know that guy. Blaine doesn’t owe you shit.”

“I know.”

“Now, you do. You’re a bit too late, though.”

“Mercedes, please.”

But Mercedes isn’t sitting down. She looks angry and also disappointed. “If you excuse me, I am going to Tina’s house after class, so I’m going to look for her now to discuss our plans. Then, I’ll try to write another original song for Regionals. Rachel is so certain that she will get the solo, and she’s probably right since she gets everything handed to her, but I’m not going down without a fight.”

“So you’re really not going to help me?” Kurt asks. He’s really messed up, hasn’t he?

But then Mercedes surprises him.

“I’ll think about it.”

“You will?”

“For Blaine.”

“For Blaine,” Kurt agrees.

Mercedes turns on her heel and walks away without another word.