The weather had gotten worse over the last few days. Artie watched the rain slamming against the windows of their apartment and listened to the howling wind. He was thinking about school. It had been two weeks since he went back to St. Jude's and he had the feeling his old friends weren't going to treat him like they did before the accident. He felt really disappointed although he could've expected it. His friends hadn't visited him over the summer or even called or texted him. Still, he had hoped that if he went to school with them everything would go back to normal.
He sighed. The only good thing that happened to him in this past two weeks was his meeting with the Asian girl. He didn't know her name, but she was nice and not anything like the other girls at Constance. He had looked for traces of her on Gossip Girl, but she wasn't on it. He guessed that was a good sign.
"Arthur? You've got a visitor." His mother's voice interrupted his thoughts. He turned his chair. "Who is it?"
"Hey, Artie." Finn Hudson stepped into his room. "I thought I'd visit you. Ask how you've been doing. We haven't really talked the last weeks."
Artie smiled as he saw his friend. He couldn't describe how happy he felt to see Finn. After all the disappointments, it was good to know he and Finn were still friends. Before the accident Finn, Puck and he had been best friends, like a male Unholy Trinity. They had joked about dating Quinn, Santana and Brittany. But Puck had stopped visiting after a few months and the girls had abandoned him too. "Hey, Finn. Good to see you. How were the first two weeks of junior year?"
"Pretty good. School's more fun when your girlfriend is around all day."
Artie smiled and for a second his thoughts went to the Asian girl. "That's good to hear. Are you on the football team again?"
"Yeah, I'm the quarterback."
"Really? Congratulations." Artie said and he tried to ignore the feeling he got from talking about sports. He shouldn't have said anything about it.
"Thanks." Finn smiled. "But how are you? That's what I came for, really. How have your first week back been? Has St. Jude's changed much?"
"The school hasn't."
The school hasn't." Artie didn't feel like telling Finn how disappointed he was, but he wasn't going to lie about it either.
Finn seemed to understand what he meant anyway, because his smile changed into a grimace. "I'm sorry about Puck and the rest. I guess they don't know how to act around you."
"I'm still the same person." Artie argued and he couldn't help but show how angry he could get about this. "My legs don't work anymore, but my brain is still the same. Why does everyone keep treating me as if I'm a fragile little boy?"
"Well, you're not very tall." Finn smirked.
Artie couldn't help but smile. "Okay, why does everyone treats me as if I'm fragile?"
"I don't know. I wished I did so I could help you."
"Thanks. That means a lot to me." Artie said, as he moved away from the window. "It also means a lot to me that you've come to visit me. I haven't talked about this with anyone."
"You should. There must be nice people in your year too." Finn sat down on Artie's bed so they could face each other.
"Well, I've met some nice people." Artie said thinking about the Asian girl. "Actually, one person. The rest has more or less ignored me."
"You'd think they'd love you since Gossip Girl posted two things about you." Finn said with a smile, "But I guess one person is better than none. Is he in one of your classes?"
Artie couldn't help but laugh. "No and it's a she. I met her in the library. She helped me pick a book from the fifth shelf."
Finn laughed. "Sounds great. Who's she?"
"I don't know. I mean, I don't know her name, but she's Asian and she has a stutter."
"Do people at Constance have stutter?" Finn said surprised and they both laughed. Most parents that send their daughters to Constance wanted them to be socialites and a stuttering daughter would be unacceptable.
"She did." Artie said, "I haven't seen her since. Maybe she doesn't even go to Constance."
"But you hope she does." Finn read his face perfectly and Artie's cheeks got a shade redder. "I understand and I hope you'll see her again." He hesitated for a moment and then continued. "Listen, I want to ask you something. Did you hear about Brittany's birthday party?"
Artie gave a nod. He had indeed heard about the party. It had been one of the disappointments this week. Of course Brittany wasn't obligated to invite him, but still, they had been friends for so long, he'd hoped… He bit his lip. "I've heard about it. Why?"
"Well, are you planning on going?"
"She didn't invite me." Artie said confused.
"Yeah, well, I think you should come anyway. He heard her talking about it with Quinn and she's afraid…you know…"
"You know what?" Artie wasn't too enthusiastic about crashing a party of a former friend. Firstly, he didn't want to be disappointed again by his old friends. He knew that would happen and he wouldn't blame them this time. He'd rather have a talk with them some time than crash one of their parties. Besides he hadn't attended any party since he'd ended up in this wheelchair and he didn't know if it would work out. Lastly he would be a stranger at the party. He barely knew the people at school. The seniors and juniors had all changed so much and the under classmen hadn't been around when he had his accident. So he wasn't going to invade a party.
"She's afraid you're too fragile." Finn said with a sigh, "And I get if you don't want to come, but I think that she would like it, if you did. And the others would like it too. They'll see that you're just a normal guy, even if you're in a wheelchair, and maybe they'll start to treat you like that again too."
Artie was in doubt. It could be a good chance for his old friends to see he was just the same guy and get the wheelchair-thing out of the way. If it was true what Finn said, Brittany secretly hoped he would come. How could he refuse that? Still he wasn't sure, because it could go wrong too. He bit his lip. "I don't know, Finn. I don't want to enforce anything."
"You won't." Finn assured him, "But think about it and maybe you can take that Asian girl with you."
Quinn didn't know if she'd ever felt so nervous as today. First she had to buy a pregnancy test without being seen which was hard for an It-Girl. She had managed by going to Queens and choosing the worst-looking drugstore of them all. No Constance student would want to be found dead in that place, including herself, but difficult times asked for drastic measures. Now she was reading how to use the test. Of course she knew how to do a pregnancy test – she had watched enough TV to know how it worked – but she was afraid to do it. What if she got to stripes and the test would be positive? Her father would kill her. She couldn't get an abortion either, because even if she hadn't found such thing horrible, she'd certainly be spotted outside of a clinic. Her father's voters wouldn't like that. She gave a sigh and took the stick that also had been in the box. She just needed to do it. Maybe she was just stressed and she'd get her period later, but a voice in her head told her that wasn't true. She hadn't had her period for two months and most of that time she'd been relaxing on the beach. She hadn't been stressed at all.
She went to the bathroom, pied and waited. Waiting is the worst she thought. According to instructions she had to wait two minutes, but it felt like two hours. First she stared at the test, but nothing changed. So she got up, walked around her room and looked at the clock again. Thirty seconds had passed. She didn't want to leave the test, so she couldn't get a cup of tea. So she sat down again and drummed with her fingers on her desk. She hummed a song and looked at the clock. Half a minute to go. She peeked at the test. The instructions hadn't lied, there was nothing to see yet. She was starting to get frustrated. She knew it was only half a minute, but she wanted to know if she needed to worry or not. She drummed on the desk again and looked at the clock. Ten seconds left. She counted down in her head. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four… The last three seconds she counted out loud: "Three, two, one…"
The alarm went off, but she didn't care. She looked at the stick. There was something to see now. Two stripes lit up on the small screen. It felt like her stomach made a somersault. This couldn't be true. She couldn't be pregnant. She just couldn't. Tears started to fill her eyes and she wanted to scream. How was this possible? From all the girls on Constance, she had to be the one that got pregnant. Now she let out a sob. "No, no, no." She whispered. She would have to tell her mom. And her dad. Another sob escaped. And she had to tell Finn. Tears started streaming down her face as another thought popped up in her head. Finn wasn't the only one she slept with last summer. There was also that night that Puck visited her in Barcelona. How could she be so stupid? She had hoped to forget about it and now that would be impossible. She began to cry uncontrollably.
It took her thirty minutes to relax again. She went to her bathroom and looked in the mirror. She looked horrible. Her eyes were red and puffy and there was mascara on her cheek. She sighed and started cleaning her face. She put on some new mascara and brushed her hair. At least she didn't look like the bride of Frankenstein anymore now.
She walked back to her room where the pregnancy test was still on her desk. She needed to get rid of it and she couldn't just throw it away at home. Their housemaid could find it or her parents. She had it do at a place where everyone could throw things away, but no one could see her: the toilets of Constance. She put the test in her bag. Next thing she'd do tomorrow would be throwing that thing away. Then she would be safe. At least for now.
Tina saw Artie as she walked into the courtyard. This was the fourth time she saw him after their meeting in the library. Never had she approached him. She didn't dare too. It probably had been just another meeting for him, so there was a huge chance he wouldn't even recognize her. She didn't want to risk such a disappointed. She'd rather pretend that there was something between them than learn how he really thought about her. So as soon as she saw him, she looked down and pretended she wasn't there. She didn't want to ruin her dream. But looking at him again was really tempting and she had a hard time keeping her eyes locked on the ground.
She allowed herself a small peek and that was when her eyes with his. He looked right at her and to her surprise she found a trace of recognition in his eyes. He smiled at her and she felt her cheeks turning red.
"Hey!" He wheeled his chair towards her. She was so surprised that he even bothered to talk to her again, that she froze and watched him cross the space between them. He had to think she was a complete weirdo. "How are you?" He asked her enthusiastically, "I'm glad to see you again."
It took her a few seconds to process what he was saying and even longer to think of an answer. She couldn't believe he recognized her and was happy to see her again. No one at Constance or St. Jude's had ever been so…friendly to her. Most of the time they ignored her or looked down at her, because she was shy and liked gothic style. "I-I'm f-fine."
He smiled as she stammered as if it was cute instead of embarrassing. "That's great. You know, I forgot to ask you a really important question in the library."
Tina immediately felt uncomfortable. She didn't know what the question was and she was afraid it was something that would embarrass her even more. What if he wanted to know why she lied about the book she was reading? Or why she had ignored him all the times she'd seen him?
"What's your name? I know it's really stupid, but I didn't think about asking it."
"I'm T-Tina C-Cohen-Chang." Tina said relieved.
"Nice to meet you, Tina Cohen-Chang." Artie didn't make fun of her stutter which Tina appreciated. "I'm Artie Abrahams, by the way."
"I know." Tina bit her tongue as she had said it. He had to think she was a stalker right now. Why couldn't she just have a normal conversation for once in her life?
He didn't give a confused look, but smiled. "Gossip Girl, I guess?"
Tina gave a nod, but didn't say anything. She was happy that he didn't think she was a complete freak, but still she was nervous. It had been a long time since she had talked to someone like this and she didn't want to ruin it right away, but she didn't know what to say to continue the conversation either.
Fortunately, Artie seemed to have more experience with conversations. "Yeah, I'm all over that these days. Anyway, do you want to have lunch together?"
Tina was absolutely surprised by this offer. She really wanted to say yes, but on the other hand she didn't know what to talk about during lunch either. She was scared of the awkward silences and the stares they would get. Still, she was curious how it would be to have a 'sort-of-friend'. She hesitated for a moment but eventually her curiosity won. "O-okay."
"Great." Artie said with a smile. He wheeled towards one of the tables where Tina sat down at the other side of the table. For a moment they stared at each other and Tina feared that this would be thirty minutes from hell, but then Artie took his lunch from his back and started unwrapping it. Tina decided to do the same, so in silence they started eating.
Artie was the one that spoke first. "Tell me, weren't you at Constance before my accident or did I never notice before?"
"I-I wasn't at C-Constance. I'm a s-sophomore." Tina answered.
Artie nodded. "Yes, that's what I thought. There are not a lot of Asians at Constance. I mean, I guess I would have noticed you."
Tina looked down. He probably wouldn't have since she was pretty invisible. It was just a coincidence he met her in the library. Otherwise he'd probably never have known about her existence. Not that she would admit such thing to him. "I guess."
"You're not on Gossip Girl either." He gave her a smile, "I have to admit I looked on it for an Asian girl but I didn't find you on it. Maybe if I searched for your name…"
"Y-you won't f-find a-anything." Tina said, "I-I'm not on G-Gossip G-G-Girl. I'm n-not i-interesting enough f-for i-it."
Artie laughed. "You don't have to be interesting to be on Gossip Girl. Look at the girls that are on it. You think Quinn Fabray is such an interesting person? She's Frannie Fabray's little sister and her father is a senator, but Quinn herself isn't really special."
Tina shrugged her shoulders. "I-it seems like s-she's i-interesting when y-you read Gossip Girl."
"Gossip Girl is 70% lies." Artie assured her and he winked at her. Tina bit on her lip to hide the big smile that wanted to appear on her face. She didn't know what it was, but Artie gave her the feeling she wasn't an outsider. He took away the feeling she had had all her life and made her feel like a normal teenager that was having lunch with a friend.
"Yeah, I r-read w-what she wrote about y-you."
Artie smiled but he looked down as if he was embarrassed by the words Gossip Girl had spent on him. "Well, I have to admit that was true. My old friends are basically ignoring me. If they see me, they make eye contact but they don't talk to me. Gossip Girl was right."
"Y-you don't know that." Tina said. She felt like she had to tell him something to make him feel better. "M-maybe t-they want to be f-friends again b-but don't know how to. Maybe y-you should be t-the one t-that takes the first st-step."
Artie seemed to take her advice in and for moment he said nothing. Tina feared she had said the wrong thing and he was angry at her, but then he smiled at her. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
