Author's Note: This is my first planned multi-chaptered story, so I hope you enjoy it. It's mostly as an exploration at what can be done with these characters after recent revelations on the show, but deeper than the show will probably ever go.

When I first met Artie it was when we were signing up for Glee. We didn't talk much, but after our auditions and first couple of rehearsals we became close to inseparable. We were the two that felt the most skimmed over in Glee. The boy in the wheelchair and the girl with the stutter. We seemed, on the outside, to be perfect for each other. To him we were perfect for each other.

Now we were standing on the curb in front of William McKinley High School some short years later staring at each other like we were strangers. It was well after graduation and the end of summer was near. His destination was along the way that mine was, so I agreed to give him a ride. He still didn't have his license. Maybe that's something he will be looking at while at college. I didn't ask.

It was a hard thing to explain to Mike, who still had some suspicion that Artie and I had unfinished business just waiting to come up and bite him in the ass. He was here now for the goodbye. I stopped staring at Artie and turned to him and gave him a kiss.

"I love you," I said with a smile. He kissed me back. It wasn't a big deal, I said to myself. We were both going to the same college soon. But Artie looming there as a blur behind Mike seemed to be a reminder that things don't always work out, especially during a big change. I continued to kiss him and wrapped my arms around his torso.

There was a cough and I realized it was Artie waiting for us to finish kissing. "I'll call you as soon as I get there. Maybe even earlier." Mike nodded before kissing the tip of my nose.

I turned back to Artie. He had moved to open the car door on the passenger's side and transferred inside.

"Oh, right," I said sheepishly, taking his chair and storing it in the back where he had already put his other stuff. Once I was in the front seat I realized that this could be a really awkward car ride and I had no conversation topics in my head. It was strange to think about. We were really close once. Sometimes I used to ache for the time before romantic feelings got involved. He did most of the talking because my secret about my stutter had kept me back, but back then I wouldn't have gotten mad at him for being distracted by Halo. I might have still wanted to punch him for making me watch the same movie over and over, but still.

"So...you're heading to Chicago?" I asked after some silence.

"My dad's there for work and stuff," he says simply. "I wanted to be with him for the next few weeks and then we'll head to New York City for college. My mom didn't want me to go, so I asked you when I saw you were going to Wisconsin. I didn't think you'd actually agree, but it was worth a shot. So, uh, thanks."

I can't really put my finger on it, but Artie seems strange. He seems sad or bitter or something. Come to think of it, he seemed to become more and more like that as time went by. Another thing that made him different from the Artie I once called a best friend was his attire. He was not quite as nerdy in his clothing choices and no glasses rested on his nose either, a move he instigated at the beginning of senior year. He was just in a simple t-shirt and jeans. I had to admit, he looked good.

"Uh...sure, Artie. So, New York City for college? It's funny, it seems like a lot of us Glee kids are heading in that direction."

"Yeah. I'm going to the New York City College of Technology for, at the moment, Entertainment Technology, I think. There's a couple of things I'm looking at though."

"Sounds ambitious!"

"And it's the hell out of Lima." There was his bitter tone again, followed by another silence.

"Uh...Mike and I are going to New York for school too. We're going to NYU. Rachel is too, as you know, since she announced it a lot during Glee. Mike and I have set our sights on Tisch for Performance Studies and...Dance." I said the last part carefully, not knowing if it would be awkward. That felt like such a long time ago.

He didn't seem to miss a beat. He didn't really say anything for a while until he asked me why I was going to Wisconsin. I lamely told him I was visiting my aunt.

"So...Mike seemed well," he commented after clearing his throat.

"Yeah, he's good. Really seems to know what he wants to do in life," I said with a smile.

"And you?"

The question surprised me. "Well, I know I want to do something involving the arts. I feel like I'm heading in the right direction. You?"

He shrugged. "It's good to finally head out to the college you always hear about in high school." He didn't go into further detail and it appeared that the conversation was over.

Later he told me we hardly knew anything about each other outside of Glee anymore. He asked me what happened to us. I knew the answer, but I wasn't sure he really wanted to hear it.

I used to sit in Artie's room on his bed while he strummed the guitar. He liked to play a lot of Beatles. One song he played and sang a lot was "Across the Universe." Y'know, Nothing's gonna change my world. He would sing that line over and over as if trying to make sure it was true. But what happened to us was Artie let everything change his world.

Maybe he never really changed and I was just oblivious to it in the beginning, but ever since we tried to patch things up after stuttergate, he had changed, at least in my eyes, and not really for the better. Quite frankly, he was a jerk. Then he started to hang out with people he previously despised, at least to my knowledge. I personally thought that maybe the stutter reveal and dancing incident were more of a blow to his pride than he let on.

I bit my lip and wondered if I should tell him what I really thought. I settled for shrugging my shoulders. "It's high school, things change."

He made a "hmm" noise as he rested an elbow on the car door and placed his chin into his palm. He started tapping his index finger on his lips to the beat that was softly playing on the radio. Then I decided to stop side-eyeing him while driving and turned back to focusing on the road.

I thought back to when Mike and I had started dating. I was feeling neglected and there was Mike, right in front of me, offering something new. He made me want to be wild, something that I thought was always inside waiting to come out. It was totally different from how I felt with Artie.

Suddenly Artie laughed lightly, his hand curling over his mouth.

"What?" I asked, eager to know what had caused his amusement and hoping it could break the ice between us.

"I was just thinking...this is kind of, but not really, similar to this movie I saw my mom watching once, where two strangers go on a road trip together and then never expect to see each other again after, but eventually do. It was called, ah, When Harry Met Sally."

"Oh, I know that one. Mike and I watched it once."

"Oh, now I feel lame for admitting that I watched it with my mother."

"You watched it with your mother? I thought you saw her watching it," I teased him.

"Uh, well, I joined her," he shrugged with a roll of his eyes, "for a bit."

"Didn't that get a little awkward though? I mean...like, during the orgasms and stuff or whatever," I stuttered in the awkwardness. It was strange, almost like we had gone back in time and were awkward buddies again. Almost.

"Yes," Artie said with a poker face. It reminded me of how hilarious his faces could be. "Nah, it's not really that bad to watch with your mother. I may have actually cried. Don't tell anyone that though."

"Aw, it's okay, Harry," I said while laughing, not thinking about how it may be kind of awkward to imply that Artie was the Harry to my Sally.

Then Artie looked at me with a genuine smile. He stretched his back a bit and placed his hands behind his head before paraphrasing the movie.

"So, Sally, we have a longish drive ahead of us, why don't you tell me the story of your life?"

It was then that I realized that even back then when I was close to Artie, we still didn't know that much about each other. He never let me tell him my side.