A Forbidden Love
Chapter One: Mike Chang
I raced to an unconcious Tina's side.
Lifting her gently into my lap, I brush a comma of inky black hair out of her face.
"Mr. Chang." Mr. Gregory's voice was not angry, but severely concerned, "Please take Miss Cohen-Chang to the nurse's office. Mr. Abrams," He turns to Artie. I check out of there before I have to hear what Mr. Greg has to say. I felt numb, my feet barely touching the ground as I sprinted down toward the first floor, an unaware Tina wrapped tightly in my arms.
The door slammed behind me as I charged into the compact waiting room. Mostly younger highschoolers filled the seats, Kleenexs pressed to their noses, or busted lips, or black eyes. I let out an infuriated sigh, leaning back against the wall, Tina still scooped in my arms. Even now, she was slowly starting to revive.
"M-Mike?" Her voice was quiet and shaky. A tint of puzzlement surfaced her expression.
"Sh, go back to sleep, Tee." I assured her quietly, ignoring the glances exchanged from the other patrons in the room. Fuzzily, she complies, taking her previous position in the crook of my neck. I stare down at her muted expression. Caked mascara and eyeliner lined closed amber eyes, cotton candy lips pursed, a pixie nose sloping smoothly in the center of her face. Hidden dimples under facial tissue.
"Oh, my." I almost jump, turning to see a short blond woman -the nurse's apprentice- holding a clipboard, which she immediately ditched, after seeing our unscheduled appearance. She opens the door wider so I can fit through, "Come in."
"Who's that?" An older woman with frosted-gray hair peeked out of a side office. The short woman turned for an answer.
"Tina Cohen-Chang had a nasty fall in science. Probably slipped on frog guts, or something." I offer, glancing back down at the Asian beauty in my arms. The apprentice's nose wrinkles in distaste. The elder doesn't bat an eye.
"We get one every year," she tells me, before pointing to an empty bed, "You can lay her there for now. Do you need a note, Mr.-"
"Chang, Mike." I tell her, "And, no. Mr. Gregory sent me here."
She hums, "Okay." She then heads to her office again, before returning to check Tina out. Meanwhile, the apprentice ogles at me.
"So, you play football?" She twirls a curly strand of golden hair around a manicured finger.
"Yeah, I'm a running back," I say, thinking hey, why not throw her a bone?
The blond perks up, "Oh, yeah. My brother's a college baller and he plays-"
"Sheila!" The nurse turns from where she's feeling Tina's head for bruises, to glare at her apprentice, "Hush."
The blond shrinks back, embarrassed, and crosses the room to assist her mentor. The nurse, content, turns to me and motions me to come forward. "She'll waken in a few minutes, you can stay and wait for her, correct?"
"Yeah, totally."
"What do you have next period; do I need to call anyone?" I shrug. I only had a study hall, before the end of the day, but I didn't know what Tina had. I tell her this, and she goes to look it up, while calling to Sheila-the-apprentice to get the next patient. I close the barrier curtain between us and the rest of the injured patients, just as Tina starts to revive.
"Where am I?" she asks, reaching up to clench a hand over the cold compress the nurse had left on the bump on Tina's temple. She winces.
Immediately, I go to reach to aid her, "Hey, sleepyhead. We're in the nurse's office. Are you okay?"
Tina's eyes peel open, "Yeah, just a little dizzy." She starts to lose balance, so I reach out and grab her shoulders. After a second, I let go.
"You ready to go? What class do you have?" I bombard.
"I have Mr. Schuester, but he's sick, so.. he gave us a study hall." Tina whispers. I race out to tell the nurse, who excuses her from class.
"Do you want to go to the library?" I ask her as we exit the office, earning slight glares from other uncured patrons, who I choos to ignore, "I have some Spanish homework and readings I have to catch up on."
"Sure," Tina immediately bubbles, "I mean, I love Mr. Schue and everything, but he gives way too much work."
And after that, we set off toward the library, our conversation never pausing.
.
.
We're in the library when it happens.
Tina chooses a secluded table toward the back for us, while I skim the shelves, looking for a Spanish-English dictionary, and some volumes I'll need for English.
Fifth period immediately melted into lunch, and we're still studying. I help her with Math, she helps me with Spanish. A fair exchange.
"Be right back," I tell her after I realized one of the books I needed was missing. Quickly, I get up, maneauvering through the aisles quickly. Ever since Asian camp, Tina and I've been close. I'm glad about that, now that I have a great friend, and someone to talk to at the parties the Asian community always throws, and it saves me of all the preteen girls who evidently had crushes on me.
I'm so deep in my reverie, that I almost don't hear Tina whisper-yelling. I turn the corner to see Artie wheeled up to our table, speaking quietly, but fiercely, "I just don't think it's fair that I'm being judged, when you kissed Mike first!"
"Leave me alone Artie. You hurt me enough, I don't need any crap from you." She sputtered, turning back to her homework, attempting to ignore him. But he doesn't leave.
"I needed someone I could trust, Tee, and you just weren't it at the time-" Artie tries again. Pausing, I wait for her response.
"And Quinn was trustworthy?" Tina asks, her voice leaking hysteria, "She's still in the midst of babygate, after lying to both Finn and Puck, and if you haven't noticed, you're just going to be another guy on her list!"
Artie doesn't respond, the silence of the library enveloping them, and he replies, voice quieter, "Tina, I just don't think it's fair that you kissed Mike. All I wanted was someone to love me, but you didn't. I trusted you!"
"And I trusted you, too!" her voice is angered, fierce, "But then you went off to kiss Quinn. Just because I shared one little kiss, you go on to have an affair with some other chick, that went on for months. Artie, you should be the one at fault here!"
She takes a sobering breath, before standing and gathering her things quickly and messily, not saying a word as she leaves the library. She passes me, but I don't think she sees me.
Artie stays at the table stock still for a moment, before wheeling in a circle and rolling away.
Slowly, I return to my table, traumatized by the events, and gather my own things. The period's almost over, so I pack my homework and head to my locker, getting ready for Glee Club.
I turn the lock, and it opens with ease, when I heard wheels rolling toward me.
I look up to see Artie Abrams, eyes calm, but I could see a tad of mischief brewing in his dark orbs. I cradled my army green book bag over my shoulder, trying to act as civil as I could muster, "Hey, dude."
"We need to talk about Tina." Artie didn't beat around the bush.
"Sure, what's up?" I ask, fiddling through my locker to keep myself under control. Artie sighs, leaning back in his chair, watching my every move.
"Well, I love her. Quinn was only supposed to keep my mind off my anger toward Tina. But I want her back. I need her back. Think you could help?" His expression is hopeful.
I curse inwardly. Under all this crap with Tina and Quinn, Artie was a nice guy. But the way he'd treated those two.. it just wasn't fair.
"Sure, see you at Glee," I say, hinting him that he could leave now. He smirked as he left, obviously proud of himself.
I wait until he's around the corner before I punch my locker closed, anger seeping in my body.
"Hey Mike." Tina cries, skipping down the hallway, radiating oblivion as she leaned against a neighboring locker. She cringed as Azimio walked past with a grape slushie in hand.
"Hey Tina," I attempt a smile, avoiding the urgency to kiss her.
"Artie keeps looking at me," Tina sighs, "I'm starting to wonder if this is all just one big misunderstanding."
"You should really get back with him." I state encouragingly, swallowing the sour taste in my mouth.
Her eyebrows crinkled in confusion.
Rolling my eyes, I slam my locker, "I gotta get to class."
She grabbed my arm and pulled me back, "Class can wait; what's wrong?"
"Tee-" I groan as the bell rings overhead. Attempting to walk off again, I get the previous results. Sighing, I almost snap at her. She jumps back, fright filling her expression.
"Mike. Do you not want me here? I really don't mind. It's just I mean. I really want-" She stutters timidly, tugging on the rubber band around her wrist, snapping it on the skin a few times.
"Want what? That cheater-freak you call your boyfriend. He uses you. He wants you back and I just don't want you to waste your time!" I state loudly, earning a few dirty looks that only last a second, before the owners return to their in-between-class update.
"I'm not wasting my time, Mike." She bites harshly, "I'm just glad I have someone who loves me, not a jock like you." With that, she turns on her heel and trudges off to class.
After a long moment, I repeat my punch to a locker. The skin around my knuckled stung, bruising with little cuts from the metal, but it overrode the daggers stabbing into my heart.
Slightly.