Every Friday after school Tina would go to Artie's house. It was their little tradition to have a nice relaxing night where they would talk about all the drama of the school week. When she arrived at Artie's house she went straight to where she knew he'd be. The kitchen.
"Hey girl, you hungry?" Artie asked.
"That depends what you have…"
"Please Tina, my mom buys everything."
"Well you are a growing boy. I'll just have a Coke for now."
Artie reaches into the fridge and takes out two Cokes and some leftovers from last night and sets it onto the counter.
"So what do you want to do tonight?" he asks with his mouth full of mashed potatoes.
"I don't know, I'm not really feeling a movie night, I have way too much energy. How about we go to the mall? I have tons of gift certificates from Christmas that I need to spend."
"I thought you hated shopping."
"I do, but I always forget about my gift cards and then they expire. And I need some new clothes, Kurt's been harassing me about wearing the same outfit twice." She sighed.
"Alright, let's do it. Although my outfits may say otherwise, I actually kind of like shopping at the mall, it's very handicap accessible."
"Oh! That reminds me, do you have one of those handicap mirror hanger things?"
"Hell yes woman. I have a few right here." He pulls out a drawer and takes out a blue handicapped sign.
"Sweet lets go. I'm driving right?"
"Yea, I'm not too good with the hand controls yet. It'd probably be safer if you drove." He admitted.
They made their way out to Tina's blue Volkswagen Bug.
"Oh gosh, my car isn't very wheelchair friendly."
"It's fine, could you just put my chair in the trunk after I'm in?" he asked.
"Yea of course."
He quickly transferred into the car and buckled in. Tina folded up his chair and tried to fit it into her trunk.
"Are you having some difficulties Tee?" He asked as he stuck his head out the window.
"Minor, I just have to move all of this crap out of the way. Don't worry I'll be fine." She yelled up to him.
After about five minutes of wrestling with the bags and clothes and all the other stuff in her trunk she finally managed to fit Artie's chair in.
"All set" she said as she climbed in the car.
"Woo! Lets ride woman."
Tina rolled her eyes and turned on the radio to find Lady Gaga's "Alejandro" playing. The whole ride to the mall they belted out whatever song was on to the best of their abilities. Half of the time they weren't even trying to sing on key so they ended up laughing at how bad they sounded.
"Mr. Shue would be so proud." Tina joked.
"Oh yah, maybe if he heard this he'd give us more solos." Artie said sarcastically.
A few more poorly sung songs and they were there. Tina hopped out and retrieved Artie's chair from the trunk and set it parallel to the passengers seat. Artie transferred and they were on their way.
Once they got into the mall they tired to form a game plan.
"Alright so I have gift certificates to FYE, Victoria's Secret, Hot Topic, and a 50 dollar cash card that I can use anywhere."
"So where do you want to go first?" he asked
"I don't know yet, I can see Hot Topic from here so let's go there first."
As they got closer to the store Tina realized it was kind of tight in there. All the display cases and shirt racks were all kind of close together.
"Tee I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to, well, fit." He laughed.
"Yea I was thinking the same thing…do you want to go to FYE while I'm in here? It's right next-door." She said hesitantly.
"Uh, yea sure. I'll meet you over there."
Tina felt badly about sending him off like that but she knew that she'd be quick in there. She knew exactly what she wanted. As Tina picked out the clothes that she wanted Artie searched through the stacks of vinyl records. FYE had a slim selection of vinyl's and an even slimmer amount that he could actually reach.
Just as he was about to give up he heard Tina call his name.
"Hey you. Did you get anything good?" he asked.
"Well I got these new fishnet gloves," she said as she pulled them out, "and I got some new nail polish and hair dye!"
"Am I going to have to help you dye your hair again?"
"Oh don't act like you didn't love it." She said as she nudged his shoulder.
"Ok fine it was really fun. But don't tell anyone I said that! The football guys would tape my wheels together for sure."
"I promise." Tina laughed.
They continued to search the store for CD's they wanted and occasionally play songs on the little search computers they have. Once they were done in FYE Tina wanted to head over to Victoria's Secret.
"I know that's not exactly the first place you want to go but I have to spend this gift card, I'm in dire need to new bras and panties." She explained.
"It's so… pink in there." he stated.
"Well yea that's kind of the idea Einstein."
He gave her a playful mean look.
"You don't have to go in there if you don't want to. I just feel bad that I've been ditching you on our night out. One time I was in there and there was a guy searching through panties with his girlfriend…"
"But that was one time! One!"
"And… how many times do you think I go in there? Not a lot! It's settled, we're going."
Tina took a hold of his handles and started to push him towards Victoria's Secret.
"Hey! Not fair! At all! Taking advantage of your paralyzed boyfriend? Not very lady like!" he screamed.
"Hush Artie you're causing a scene."
"I'm causing a scene! You're the one that's literally forcing me into a women's lingerie store! That's going to call for some crazy looks in there!" he continued.
"Oh poor Artie! Being forced into being surrounded by lingerie and posters of beautiful women! What a terrible thing what was I thinking?" Tina said sarcastically.
"You know what? I give up, you've already taken command of my chair you might as well take my pride too."
Tina chuckles to herself in satisfaction.
"It'll be really quick I swear." She says.
They enter the store and head to the bras. Tina is quick to choose three that she likes and starts to pile them onto Artie's lap.
"Oh no no no, what do I look like a human shopping cart?" he asks.
"Yea kinda. Please Artie! I have to get like 5 more things just deal with it."
"I should get some kind of an award for this." He mutters to himself quietly.
He continues to follow her around the store uncomfortably acting as a human shopping cart and as a bag holder. She has hung her bag on the back of his chair so she could shop hands free.
Tina hold up a pair of panties and cocks her head indecisively. Noticing this Artie mentions that he prefers the color blue on her. She starts to blush and picks up the blue pair and laughs. They head to the desk and checkout getting a few strange looks from the ladies that work there. To Arties relief they leave the store and make their way to the car.
"Now if you weren't there I would have picked the pink ones." She said.
Looking away and scratching his neck, clearly embarrassed he simply says, "Yea… you don't really strike me as a pink kind of person…"
Once they are all situated in the car she reviews her purchases. Artie mindlessly listens to her shopping drabble and taps his fingers to the beat of the music. When they arrive back at his house Tina flings herself onto Artie's bed.
"Shopping makes me exhausted."
"Me too. Let's take a nap." He suggests.
"That sounds perfect."
They position themselves onto Arties bed and get under the covers. Just as Artie starts to drift off Tina gasps.
"What, what is it?" Artie asks nervously.
"Ugh nothing important, I just forgot to use my Visa gift card" she sighs.
"Oh gosh. We'll go back tomorrow okay?" he says.
"Yea I guess. We'll talk after we nap. Sleep tight."