Mercy, A Lot.

Taylor exercised just enough self restraint to keep from killing Clyde right then and there, and followed along behind the two of them with her arms folded across her chest. Once they were outside, as compelled as she was to look tough she couldn't help but huddle against the cold. What she was wearing was certainly not suitable for the cold air, bare arms, bare thighs, bare stomach and back. She pressed her legs together and hugged her arms tightly against her sides, but kept her eyes fixed on Clyde and Mercy.

"Clearly." Taylor added unhelpfully from behind Clyde about him not caring what he looked like. She glared at him. Maybe Mercy was a little crazy, but she did not trust Clyde. All she really knew about him was that he got drunk and beat up women, and was from Texas, and all of those things put him squarely in her suspicious category.

Though Taylor had difficulty imagining many girls that he could beat up. He was no bigger than any but the tiny little Japanese girls.

"I'm right here if you need me." She said to Mercy, mostly just to say it. She stood back and tried not to look cold, but bent her knees and bounced up and down a few times just the same.

Mercy stood stoically with her arms crossed under her chest as Clyde went on and on. "Uh huh...' She said with each new sentence uttered from the cowboy, her eyes bobbing up and down as she looked him over. When he was finished, and Taylor had said she was there, Mercy turned her head and threw her an appreciative look back at the blue haired girl.

Mercy then rubbed her temples and glanced at Clyde. "If you had known I was going to be here you would have dressed nicer... Thank you very much." Mercy said in a sardonic tone. Still, the thought that she could influence someone like that DID boost her ego a bit. It was nice to be appreciated even by someone like Clyde.

"What I want you to EXPLAIN, is..." Mercy said sharply.

She then leaned in and grabbed him by the shoulders harshly but her eyes were soft and pleading. "You didn't tell anyone, did you!?" Mercy shook Clyde and her tone was as gruff as her cutesy, cute voice and body could muster. Her eyes remained soft and unsure though.

Mercy pulled away and threw her hands up. She turned and looked at Taylor and frowned. "You know... why can't I just not have the one time I got drunk and slept with some guy come back and haunt my life forever? Now everyone's going to think I'm a slut! I'm NOT a slut!" She wasn't! I know what sluts are and I'm not them!" She urged Taylor to believe her.

Then a worse realization washed over her and her face went pale again.She spun back around to Clyde and grabbed him by the collar. "You didn't go bragging to everyone, did you!?" She said as she shook the tiny Texan. "We... We're not... dating! It was just... a..." Mercy shivered a bit, the cold was starting to mingle inside her suit jacket and easily get through her light dress shirt. "I mean... o-obviously if I were in your shoes, I would tell everyone I could about me!" Her ego must be saved in this ordeal! "Y-You didn't... did you?"

Hearing Taylor's remark. Clyde made a scrunched up, exaggerated face while bobbing his head side to side and mouthed the word 'Clearly' in a mocking manner. He really didn't need her input but there was little he could do about her it seemed. Mercy wanted her there after all.

Clyde rolled his eyes upon hearing Mercy's sardonic response to his honest compliment. "Yeah..." He let out, not having much to say. He then listened to what Mercy wanted him to explain.

Clyde's eyes then went wide as Mercy leaned in, grabbed him by the shoulders tightly and shook him frantically. while cutely asking him if he told anyone. "Mmuuzah! H-H-Eh-Hey! S-Stop!" Clyde let out while he clung onto his hat to keep it from falling off his head while being shook. He was about to speak before the paralegal pulled away, threw her hands up and addressed Taylor, basically laying down the whole story to her. Her version of it making Clyde pull the brim of his hat over his eyes and frown sourly. She acted like he didn't agree to leave a few minutes ago. convenient he guessed.

The cowboy once again found himself startled by Mercy's sudden freakout as she grabbed him by the collar and asked if he bragged to anyone and shook him yet again. "A-Ah.. N-Nnnn..." He tried to say before she told him they weren't dating. "I K-Know!" He replied plainly during the shaking like it was no big deal. He frowned a bit though as she cutely shivered from the cold, that would be no good. He laughed lightly though at her remark about how she would tell everyone about 'Her' if she were in Clyde's shoes. Her last words clearly told him enough.

"No one was told. And I ain't been bragging. Nobody knows... Save for..." He muttered out plainly, tilting his head at Taylor at the end before setting his belt down and getting his leather jacket off him before offering it to Mercy. Taking a moment to eye Taylor as she shivered and just grin slyly. "Freeze up, bitch!" He thought. But unable to deny that it was really cold for him too. Snow was rare where he was from! So the cold really got to him easily.

He then hugged his arms together as stood in front of Mercy. Arms and chest were cold, jeans helped the legs but it wasn't long before he let out a brief cough into the air. Leaving the house with his hair still wet did actually bite him it seemed. Even with the hat on. Oh well.

"...I don't even know your name, So... Yeah..." He assured her. Taylor had said it earlier but he didn't hear.

Taylor glared right back at Clyde as he eyed her. She didn't like the idea of him getting any sort of satisfaction from anything involving her, unless it was out of spite. She tilted her head and cocked her hips to one side in a sultry pose and mouthed the words "see something you like?" at him. Screw him. She knew he wanted her. She wished she was wearing something a bit more conservative... Once you set foot outdoors, flashy wrestling stage gear suddenly went from awesome to trampy.

"You know he wanted to, Mercy. Either he's got no one to brag to or he's got a little class." Taylor said softly, and put a hand on Mercy's shoulder. "It'll be alright. Forget him." She looked Clyde up and down. "Coulda been worse. Only a little, though. Let's go back inside, man, have some fun and stuff."

Mercy watched as Clyde took off his jacket and handed it to her. She took it, lifted it up and took as discreet a sniff of it as she could. She was expecting it to smell like smoke and booze and manure for some reason. It just smelled like leather and dust. But like, dust from not being used. She knew that smell. Still, she blushed at the thought and then looked on at Taylor who was practically naked in her skimpy wrestling gear. She passed the jacket to her in stead. "Probably better for you." She muttered and then nodded at Taylor's words.

"Yeah..." She said with renewed confidence. "Yeah!" She said and pointed at Clyde with her free hand. "You can't just offer a lady a jacket and think everything will be ok!" She said as she nodded to Taylor for affirmation. Mercy then looked at Clyde and sighed. "But seriously. If you tell anyone I'll.. I'll sue you for defamation of character! For libelous slander against my name! And... And another thing!" She added. "I don't know how... or why you're working here but We'll have to lay down some rules between the two of us! I don't want incidents like these happening again, understand?"

Mercy shivered again. "But yeah, It's cold. I have cleared my head enough, I think. We should get back inside!"

Taylor looked at the jacket, and then at Clyde. Without breaking eye contact with him, she took the jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. It was a small act of defiance or spite or whatever it was that she was being, but it was cold and Clyde didn't want her to have his jacket. That was reason enough for her.

Giving Mercy his leather jacket was obviously the suave, gentlemanly thing to do for Clyde to do for a lady and hoped it would score him some brownie points with the paralegal. Despite his disire to get on her good side though, Clyde truly did care for Mercy's well-being and wasn't going to let her just freeze out in the cold and get sick or something. He smiled for a minute that she took it, honestly glad that she didn't just outright reject him.

He had to take a moment to taunt Taylor that Mercy had taken his jacket and was going to be warm while that big mouthed punk froze. Keeping his glare on Taylor, Clyde let out a light chucking huff followed by a smirk in response to Taylor's sultry movements before mouthing "See something you like?" Clyde kept his smirk and just nodded cooly. He saw something he liked alright and it was her cute little butt freezing out in the cold. Still, she was quite the babe and definitely knew how to keep the eyes fixed on her with the way she cocked her hips out like that, wonderful sight, but It Was Still Taylor Friggin Parker after all. And that gave Clyde the reminder that she was a huge pain in the ass despite how attractive she was.

Then Mercy spoke up and made Clyde's face go pale as he comprehended what she said. He immediately turned to Mercy with wide open, startled eyes and saw her without the jacket, he then quickly turned to Taylor with his arms out to hurry up and snatch it away but it was to late! She had it wrapped all around her bitchy little shoulders, spreading her vileness all over it, spreading the GODDAMN Higurashi cooties that she had surely been rolling in. Clyde could only lift his hands up and rake his fingers down his face, pulling his eyes down in sheer inner turmoil as he watched his jacket being violated by the enemy. "You evil, heartless, hedgehog-fucking witch of woman..." He thought to himself before he heard Taylor's words

Clyde clinched his fists tightly at Taylor's words, that she surely wanted to project into Mercy's head, talking like she knew him and jabbing at his class that she seemed to doubt existed, before delivering a brutal finishing blow. "Coulda been worse. Only a little, though." Those words legitimately hurt, he clinched his teeth and scowled at Taylor following them, like hell he'd ever show Her that she struck a cord but she did and it stung like hell and rung in head and chest while his blood boiled as Taylor filled these ideas in Mercy's head that she clearly agreed with. Clyde knew he had fallen pretty low and he honestly wasn't much to look at and wasn't top dog on the most desirable man list, but he knew he wasn't the worst and could be better than the rest. He knew he could be.

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Taylor's words had filled Mercy's head, she clearly agreed with her friend's statements regarding him and was probably more doubtful and against him than ever. "I ain't expectin' me offerin' my jacket will make everything okay!" Clyde tried to defend himself as Mercy went on worrying about who he'd tell and threatened to sue him. "Snazzy." Clyde thought dispiritedly, more debt after being sued the infinite amounts of nothing he owned. Mercy's last words could only make Clyde look on at the girl sourly.

"I don't know how... or why you're working here but We'll have to lay down some rules between the two of us! I don't want incidents like these happening again, understand?" Clyde barely registered the cold at this point as he pulled his hat down and stared at the ground bitterly while slowly kicking the ground below with the balls of his feet as he took in Mercy's words. Clyde then took off his hat and looked Mercy in the eyes sternly, taking a deep breath before he let out all he had to say.

"That it then!? You ain't gon have no opinion of ya own!? You just gon let Her tell you how to think and let her shove what she thinks she knows about me inside your head!? She don't know shit 'bout me, the kinda man I really am and or what happened that night!"

"I'm sorry I ain't much, alright!? I'm sorry you wanna throw up when You see me and that I just don't appeeeaall to you like other assholes who are apparently perfect! I'm sorry all I am is a big goddamn mistake that you wanna just forget about and never see again because I sure as hell wanted to see you again 'cause I just happened to like you more than I should! I don't regret havin' you that night. The only thing I regret is letting you drink so goddamn much when you couldn't hold your liquor and ended up freakin' out when you saw some guy lying next to you the next morning! I rather you rejected me sober than wantin' me drunk."

"Look, I can brag about bein' convenient for ya that night. babe. I really can. But I can't brag about being a mistake that someone wants to forget about and wish never happened or ever see again. Especially when I was dumb enough, depressed enough and drunk enough to think maybe I could meet someone new and start something followin' a drunken one niter. So you ain't gotta worry about me tellin' anybody and gettin' people to think you're a slut. I never thought you were one and I wouldn't take too kindly to anyone who called you that."

"You can go on ahead and lay down your rules, Ms. Mercy. I ain't lookin' to make a repeat of last time. I was lookin' for another chance to try and do things the Right way... With You. Without anyone else tellin' you how to think. Make your opinion 'bout me once you got to know me. Be it Good or bad." Clyde let out before he slapped his hat back on his head.

Yeah I'm a drunk who looks like trash but I'm also the best in goddamn league and damn sure a better man than most in this stupid company. I don't take much to clean me up neither, 'specially if I got someone to do it for...But I'm prolly just wastin' my breeaa--" He added before letting out a few coughs. "...Breath." He finished as he thought back to the events that led up to his desperate night to try and force himself to move on before he went crazy. He didn't know why he was trying hard for Mercy though, maybe it was because Taylor was there and he wanted to shove a victory in her face. Clyde didn't know why he cared, especially when he knew that Mercy could honestly not give a single damn about him.

Taylor's eyebrows crept further up her forehead the longer Clyde spoke. She looked at him skeptically, holding his jacket snugly against her shoulders, and spared a few glances at Mercy to gauge her reaction to all this.

She couldn't help but think that maybe she was being too hard on the little dude. She was just trying to stick up for Mercy and let Clyde know that neither one of them was some giggling schoolgirl ready to swoon over the first guy to show up. She would normally not feel bad at all, but it was just how damn wounded he seemed by it.

By the time Clyde was finished, Taylor had had more than her fill of him and his stupid hick accent. "Ohhh myyyy gawwwwd, lighten up dude!" She cried. "Seriously, I thought you'd have a thicker skin than this! I thought you were some kind of tough guy. Why don't you try acting like one instead of being a little bitch? You got issues, and that means something coming from me."

She gave Mercy and apologetic look. "Sorry. Do you want me to just butt out? I can just chill out somewhere and keep an eye on you in case he, like, tries to get physical or something."

Mercy watched with her arms crossed as Clyde went off on his tangent. She had a cool look of aggravation on her face. When he was finished, she tapped her foot and looked him up and down.

"Mercy Wrenn."

Fine. I guess you can know that much. Ugh. She thought as she looked at Clyde. She then turned and looked at Taylor and smiled slyly at her. "No, you're fine." Mercy turned and looked back at Clyde and lifted up her finger and jabbed it into his chest. "I'm not a sheep!" She scolded the Texan. "I can make my own decisions..." She added a little more quietly.

Mercy then pulled her hand back and shoved her palm into his chest again. She dug her hands into his shirt and pulled him forward, staring him down. "Listen, dude, when exactly did you plan on springing all this stuff, huh? I don't think you understand how important a lady's reputation is! These things can get around! Taylor knows, that's why she's got my back!"

Mercy then leaned in so her cheek was almost pressed against Clyde. "Here's some advice." She whispered into Clyde's ear. "If you want a girl to like you, clean up before you meet her, not after."

Mercy pulled away and adjusted her glasses. "I'm not interested in a jerk ... or a slob!" Mercy rubbed her temples and looked at Taylor. "Maybe I should just stick to girls. At least they smell good." She said and huffed, exasperated with the whole ordeal.

In a matter of mere moments, Clyde went from pretend tough-guy to whiny little bitch thanks to his stupid speech that Taylor called him out on. He scowled at the ground deeply and clinched his fists. He should have known better than to share how he felt, it wasn't what a man did after all. His stomach felt queasy now that he was humiliated in front of Mercy, she was probably dislking him even more now. Still, nothing felt worse than for his masculinity to be butchered by a woman. He swore he was going to throw up at this rate. He could deal with being a slob, a drunk or an undereducated bum, he couldn't deal with being some pussy-boy with issues. He'd rather beg to be sniped in the stomach again.

He found himself more offended though at what Taylor suggested. That he'd get physical with Mercy or something. His mouth hung open at the suggestion. The audacity that anyone would think he was that kind of guy. "Tries to get physical!? The hell crawled up your ass and died today, lady!? Fuck You for thinkin' I'd hurt her! I ain't that kind of man!" Clyde tried to defend himself.

He needed to leave. He was only making a bigger fool of himself and Taylor was probably going to forever convince Mercy that he was the lowest form of scum on the planet and with how Mercy believed everything she said, Clyde was just going to get himself trampled on. This whole ordeal only made him look dumber that he really was. He actually regretted coming here and seeing her now. The ship with Mercy had sailed. It was time to go home.

"Well That's a... lovely name... 'Mercy'..." He replied to Mercy sincerely while putting his hat on, saying the name once for himself. It was really pretty he thought, but he later frowned as he thought about his stupid compliment. Sure he was being honest but he felt he was better off shutting up now.

Clyde looked at Mercy in a dull manner as she poked his chest and declared she was not a sheep and could make her own decisions. Clyde thought otherwise. "Hardly." He answered before she grabbed his shirt and hauled him forward, getting rag dolled a bit by the smaller girl, which could easily be done now that Clyde stood up apathetically.

"...I didn't. Plan. On. Anything. And slob or not I ain't like you hooked up with some bum!" He declared, thinking that perhaps it was his 'status' that was one of the things that bothered her.

Even behind a gaze that was clearly disgruntled, Clyde blushed at the closeness of Mercy's cheek near his own, but her words made his eyes narrow before let out a long sigh. [size=85:2h3a45a7]"Dieu du ciel..." He muttered to himself in disbelief. He didn't know a lot of french and rarely spoke it. The fact that used it meant something. Clyde didn't know what. The Cajun side of him just came out at random. "I told ya I didn't know you were gonna be here. And If I knew you were gonna be here I woulda... Nevermind... " He added one final time before he decided it was pointless to try and excuse his careless attire.

Finally, Mercy gave Clyde a blunt answer and critique. He frowned at the jerk part, unable to see how he earned that title but he figured maybe it was true, just like how he was a washed up slob. All true. "Good. You shouldn't be." Clyde replied to Mercy's statement, her words didn't even really bother him much, he screwed up again. Nothing new these days. He did think about asking her "What If I wasn't a slob?" But he wasn't about to castrate himself and act all desperate.

Putting his hat back on his head, and grabbing the 24/7 title to put it over his shoulder, Clyde let out a harsh cough directed away from the duo before he turned and looked back at Mercy. "Well Ms. Wrenn I think it's best I get going. Wasted enough time here. Take care of yourself." Clyde would tell her before walking past both Mercy and Taylor, forcing an apathetic gaze to try and conceal emotions that he wish he could get rid of, letting out a couple coughs as he went back inside to try and get back home. This whole ordeal had done nothing but waste his time and remind him that he was a loser whose fate had been sealed the day his scumbag dad hooked up with a nice girl in town to conceive a scumbag son.

You're worth something in the ring. But worthless outside it.

It was warm now inside but it was ways away towards the station. His stomach growled as he walked inside and spotted the catering table. He stared at it for a moment before he rubbed his empty belly and licked his lips, he didn't care if he was yelled at but he was going to some damn food! Fuck anyone who told a man who wasted his time here otherwise! He got a plate and started to quickly nab some tiny, triangular sandwiches, fruit and cookies, looking around to see if anyone was paying attention.