Act One, Scene One
He was doing the hurt face. Artie had this thing- when someone did something that really hurt him, he put on this face and it was like she'd just kicked a puppy. It was his own personal form of guilt trip, and Tina knew- she knew if he kept it up she was just going to apologize and throw herself at him again. And then what? They'd be okay for a couple of weeks and then he'd start being a horrible boyfriend and she'd start pulling all the weight in the relationship again? No way, she couldn't let that happen. Artie just had to learn to put on his big boy pants and deal with the fact that she wasn't going to put up with anything from him any longer. She wasn't that person anymore; she didn't want to be ignored- especially by him.
So she did what she had to do. To save herself, to save them as a couple maybe in the future- Tina went for where it would hurt.
"-Like his abs."
Act One, Scene Two
She still sees him out of the corner of her eye, all the time- always in the corners. Artie with his hurt face and his shoulders all slumped like Atlas decided that he would do just as well as Hercules. It made her chest pang and feel like the most horrible bitch ever, but she couldn't go back to him, right? Mike, he paid attention to her. He came over and played scrabble with her and let her use all the words in different languages that she'd picked up at Asian Camp, and he'd teach her all the dance moves she never knew existed, and he was just so nice. So she'd smile and she'd kiss him spontaneously and just be as sweet as possible and she'd look at Mike and try her very, very best to memorize his face.
Because once in a while, when she stared at Mike as hard as she could, she could make herself stop from looking at the corners.