Author's Note: The last month of school was crazy, so I have had very little time to update until now. Thanks for the reviews and hope you enjoy!


Five Years Later

It was early winter and a couple of girl friends of mine and I walked down the streets of New York to check out a new restaurant and bar. It was semi-fancy. There were tables all around a smallish stage in the front with fantastic lighting. Shortly after we sat down a band came out on stage and began to blare. Then I heard a voice that took a few minutes to place, but after that it was unmistakable.

"Maybellene, why can't you be true?

Oh Maybellene, why can't you be true?

You've started back doin' the things you used to do..."

"Oh my gosh!" I exclaimed before I could stop myself. It didn't take nearly as long to place the face of the singer. My friends stared at me expectantly. "That guy singing..."

"An old flame?" my friend Anna asked flirtatiously.

"Uh...yeah..." I said biting my lip.

"The one in the wheelchair?" Anna asked bending her head so that she could see the stage better.

"He's cute," my other friend Marissa commented while sipping her drink.

I looked up at the stage more closely and was almost startled to see that Artie looked like...well, old Artie. He had glasses on. They were bigger than the ones he used to wear but were still similar. He was wearing a grey suit with his white shirt buttoned all the way up and a red bowtie. He sat a little to the left of the stage with the band and had a shortened microphone stand in front of him that he had one hand on.

I hadn't seen him since our drive to Chicago together. Well, at least not in person. In this day and age there are so many ways to keep in contact. None of us Glee kids could really be strangers, at least for a while. The truth was that it turned out more like what Mr. Schue said to us after our first Regionals loss. We would struggle to remember.

"He was in the glee club with me," I said, turning back to my friends before I could once again reminisce about the early days of Glee. "We dated for a little while..."

"What's his name?" Marissa asked.

"Artie."

"So, what happened?" Anna began her interrogation. I sighed.

"We just...grew apart. He wasn't...what I expected for a boyfriend." Yeah. I'll just leave it at that. I sipped my drink.

"What'd he do?"

I looked at my two friends. Anna had been my college roommate in sophomore year and I met Marissa through Mike. They helped me through a lot of our issues and I considered myself close to them, but I didn't tell them much about Glee or Artie. Especially not about my stutter. I was always nervous that people would think I was crazy or react the way Artie did.

"Guys, I really don't want to talk about this."

They looked at each other, shrugged, and took more sips from their drinks.

"So...does that mean you're not going to reunite with him?" Anna asked.

"I don't know. I guess I could say he did well with the song." I looked up at the stage again. He had finished the song and he was acknowledging the applause for him with a nod of his head and his version of a bow.

Honestly, I was pretty curious about him. He was leaving the stage though and I had no idea if he was performing again or anything, so I shrugged. "He probably wouldn't recognize me anyway."

I was proven wrong when I bumped into him a little while later while leaving the restaurant. It was slightly crowded and I hadn't seen him come next to me and I accidentally hit him with my swinging purse.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" I said turning towards him, thinking I had hit someone's arm when I heard the "ow!"

"No problem, Tina" he said with a chuckle as he realigned his glasses. "I was hoping to catch you on the way out! Long time no see, girl!" He smiled at me.

For some reason I thought it was really weird. Eery, even. It was like we were back in time. He was wearing a greenish jacket, a scarf, and gloves. I couldn't tell which Artie I was looking at—old or new.

"Artie! This is just so...it's great to see you," I was so flustered from hitting him in the face and from how there was a bit of a crowd trying to get past us. I nudged my friends over farther inside so we could step away from everyone. "Artie...this is Anna and Marissa. They're my friends from college."

"Yo," Artie said without a beat. Anna and Marissa looked at me before giggling quietly.

"Artie, please don't tell me you do jazz songs and then go around saying 'Yo wassup homies?'" I teased. "Speaking of which, I'm surprised. I didn't think of you as much of a jazz singer."

He rose an eyebrow up at me. "To be fair, Chuck Berry has a rock and roll flare in his songs."

"I mean...you were usually...rappy, I guess, in high school. The last thing I saw you doing was Dynamite by Taio Cruz." That was in a video someone posted on his facebook wall some years ago. Anna and Marissa began giggling again.

"Oh, so you saw that. My girlfriend at the time posted that just to spite me," he laughed. "Calling her my girlfriend to you guys is my revenge. She'd sock me right in the face if she were here."

"'Maybellene' was lovely, Artie," I said after laughing a little. "How'd you get the gig?"

"Oh, I have been helping the management here figure out how to make this place more accessible. I came closer to the center of the city not too long ago after graduating. Now they just let me sing or play here occasionally. To help a little with the bills and stuff. Nice people."

I smiled at him. This reminded me how he really could be a great and charitable guy sometimes. It was just the other times where he made you forget that about him.

"That is so cool," Marissa commented before I could say anything. "Where did you graduate from?"

"New York City College of Technology. I managed to get some education about accessibility and all that worked in for my Entertainment Technology major."

It was evident then that Marissa was going to attempt to flirt a little with him. Anna and I awkwardly let them have their fun for a few minutes. I could tell that even after five years Artie was not much better at flirting, but he didn't say anything that induced eye-rolling.

"Well, it was nice running into you again, Artie. Looking sharp in your glasses too," we were standing there for a while so I started to wrap it up.

"You too," he said while turning a little more towards me. "But you haven't been very vocal about yourself. How have you been?"

"Oh, you know." I shrugged. "Mike and I are still together, trying to make our way up here." The truth was, we were going through some rough patches, but I definitely did not want to get into it with Artie. Thankfully, he got the hint and didn't press me further.

When I got back to my place I flopped down on my bed and wondered if I should call Mike. It might be weird to bring the meeting up with him especially when we are having problems, but I thought maybe that the eeriness of it all would wear off if I talked to someone also from the past.

"Hey, baby" Mike's voice came through the receiver. He sounded somewhat surprised. I didn't blame him. Fighting wasn't exactly new between us and he knew when I needed my space, but this silence between us was a little longer than usual.

"You'll never guess who I ran into tonight at that new place." It was probably stupid to begin the conversation this way, but I didn't know what else to say. I just got to the point.

He didn't answer.

"I saw Artie. He's in the city now. He was singing."

"Do you want me to come over?"

I smiled and looked down at my free hand. My fingers were fiddling with the stitching on my bed cover. Mike always wanted to come to my side when he thought something might be wrong.

"Sure."

We didn't live that far apart, considering that we were originally supposed to live together. Soon I was opening my bright red door for him. And when I opened the door to his face I realized how much I had missed him. For some reason I burst into tears.

Mike's smile quickly disappeared and he latched on to me so fast he could have been a super hero.

"Are you okay? Is this about Artie? Do you have feelings for him again?"

I almost laughed, despite myself, because of how fast he was talking and how concerned he sounded. It was nothing. I didn't even know why I was crying.

"No! Yes! I mean, I don't know..." I pulled away from him and wiped at my tears. I sat at the island in the middle of my kitchen. The truth was that there was something irritating about the whole reunion.

"It's not like in the movies, where you see an ex-boyfriend after a long time and all the sudden you want them to sweep you off your feet again." I said after regaining my composure. Mike had sat down in front of me and handed me a tissue.

"It's been five years since I drove him to Chicago. And before then we only really bickered a bit and then Brittany and Puck took up all his time. He didn't seem interested in me anymore. There's not really much there to stir up old feelings."

Mike rose one eyebrow. "So...there was nothing?" From his expression I could tell that he didn't believe me.

"Well...I don't know. It was strange," I said while recollecting the meeting in my mind. "Last time I saw him he was in jeans, a t-shirt, not glasses, and was smoking cigarettes. Tonight he looked like he used to. He was performing, so he dressed nice. It was like he was doing a Glee performance again."

"I can understand that being freaky. Like a ghost or something."

"I was with Marissa and Anna so I didn't ask him too many questions or mention the car ride. He started to flirt with Marissa a little. She seemed to like him. She always liked nerdy guys."

Mike gave me an inquiring look. "Did that bother you?"

"The flirting? No! I mean...not in a 'Hands off, bitch, he's mine!' kind of way..."

"Like you would be if someone were flirting with me?" he teased while giving me a cheesy smile.

I laughed. "Of course. You're not going to test that theory now, are you?" I gave him a hard look.

"Not if you're going to look at me like that. You're scary!"

I playfully shoved him. "But, I don't know...I did find myself getting turned off by the whole thing. The Artie and Marissa thing, I mean. Something still bugs me about it."

"Is this about not wanting Marissa with him?"

"No, not really. I mean, I guess it's like..." I groaned in frustration and put my elbows on the table with my chin in my hands. "I keep thinking about when he was my boyfriend, and then when he was Brittany's boyfriend, and when we were in the car ride together, and I can't help but wonder if there's something wrong with me."

Mike clearly did not understand what I was saying.

"I mean, he made an effort to be nice to Brittany. Remember that Christmas? And tonight he wasn't that bad either. But when we rode together? He still seemed oblivious to the reasons why I broke up with him. Why wasn't he nice and romantic to me? Why did he ignore me? Was I not good enough for him? It just had me wondering if he even liked me enough in the first place."

Mike took my hand. "Tina, you became a very confident woman. Even as early as junior year in high school you broke out of your shell. Maybe once or twice you gave in, but in the end you always stuck to your guns. Why does it matter what Artie thinks of you?"

I took my hand away. "Because...I really liked him. I cared a lot about him and I did so much for him. To come to the realization that all that might have been easily brushed under the rug for him really sucks." I pouted.

"Well, to be fair, you were taken at the time he hooked up with Brittany. Maybe he just didn't want to mess with us."

I smiled. "That's a nice thought." I leaned over the table to kiss him. "You're right. I shouldn't be letting Artie bother me."

"It's nice to be talking to you again," Mike commented as we kissed again.

"Yes, it is. I'm sorry about all the drama I've been pushing on you lately. How about for tonight, we forget it all?"

Our kisses at the table progressed as the night trudged on and we soon became wrapped into each other in my bed. There was something I still couldn't shake off and forget though. I kept wondering about what if I gave Artie the story of my life instead of staying quiet during the car ride. Artie sometimes left me so tongue-tied and frustrated as if I really did have a stutter.

In the morning I found Mike still here making us both a cup of Asian tea.