Here's what you missed on Glee.

Melissa sits next to Artie in Spanish and has a not-exactly-deep conversation about his problems with Tina.

Melissa and Artie get assigned a duet to do together.

During that duet Melissa realizes that she's falling for Artie, and she's falling fast.

And that's what you missed on Glee.

Chapter Four

"Don't look now, but Artie's coming."

Stupidly, I looked up upon hearing Kurt whisper in my ear. Artie had just entered the cafeteria and was comnig towards our table. Immediately, Kurt hit me—however gently—confirming my suspicions that my latest course of action was stupid. However, Mercedes and Rachel (I had never picked up on why Kurt and Mercedes allowed Rachel to sit with us, as at times it was obvious they wanted to kill her) looked up as well, but quickly glanced back as though nothing happened.

"Hey, Artie, nice seeing you," Kurt greeted when he made his way over to us.

"Where have you been all week?" Mercedes asked.

Artie sighed. "Do you really want to know?"

"No," Rachel said, sensing danger. "You don't have to say anything."

There was a moment of awkward silence from all five of us before Kurt said, "So I take it Miss Cohen-Chang will not be joining us?" Bad move, Kurt, was the only thing I could think of at that moment. Mercedes and Rachel seemed to agree with me.

"No," Artie said simply. I could detect a bit of an edge to his voice. Immediately, though, his voice took on the gentler tone that I preferred as he said, "So, what'd I miss after being away from you guys?"

"Her," Kurt said, gesturing to me. "And not much else. Same craziness as when you're here...you know how it is."

He nodded, not bothering to look at me. Ever since he had helped me with my stagefright issues, it seemed that we avoided looking at each other at all costs.

The conversation was light. No one said anything majorly exciting, so I started to zone out. I was straining to remember what had happened last period...

"Melissa, are you listening?"

"Huh? What?" I said, sounding like a complete idiot. I looked down and realized quickly, going red in the face, that I had been completely tuned everything and everyone out, and that Kurt, Mercedes, Rachel, and Artie were all staring at me expectingly. "Sorry," I said quietly to Mercedes.

"About time," she said. "I was just asking if maybe you'd like to hang out tomorrow after school."

"Oh." Of course I would zone out when all Mercedes was doing was asking me a simple question. Mentally, I slapped myself silly. "Yeah, I guess that'd be okay," I said. "I mean, I'd have to ask my parents but I think they'll let me."

She nodded, exchanging a glance with Kurt that I basically took to mean 'she is an idiot'. I agreed.

The following day, when I was due to go Mercedes' house (we had decided I'd be staying the night, considering it was a Friday), I waited until she was done talking to Mr. Schue during glee club and left with her. To my surprise, Kurt was following us as well.

"What-"

"Didn't I tell you?" Mercedes said. "Kurt's driving us, ya know."

"Actually I didn't know that," I said, "but thanks for telling me."

"Oh, get over it," Kurt said simply.

I walked with them to Kurt's car in silence while Mercedes and Kurt argued about something completely pointless. Despite how close they were, they could argue like an old married couple. Now was one of those times.

The route to Mercedes' house was simple. The entire carride was filled with Mercedes and Kurt continuing to bicker about something pointless. Kurt discreetly turned up the radio to try to drown out Mercedes' voice. She turned it back down. At this point, I was terrified of getting into a car accident.

Finally, Kurt pulled to a stop outside Mercedes' house and we all climbed out, to my surprise. I didn't say anything about it at the moment, but inside I was wondering why Kurt would be following us.

"Mom, I'm home," Mercedes called as we walked in. A woman walked towards us. She looked a lot like Mercedes, plus about twenty or thirty years. "Mom, this is Melissa."

"Hello," she said sweetly.

"Hello."

"Did I hear that you're from California?" she asked.

"Yeah, I went to Sanger High before I came here," I said, nodding.

"What made you move out here?"

I felt like I was going through 20 Questions; it almost seemed that Mrs. Jones was interrogating me to see if my staying in her home would be appropriate. "My dad got transferred," I said. "If we moved here, he would get a promotion. The offer was too good to refuse." I sounded almost like a businesswoman.

She nodded. "Nice to meet you," she said, then walked away. Mercedes mouthed 'sorry'.

We went into the living room and did homework before we actually got to do what we wanted. I noticed that, once it started to get later and later, Kurt was still there.

"Uh...Kurt?" I asked.

"What?"

"Uh...not to be rude or anything, but...why are you still here?"

"I thought we went over this," Mercedes said. "He's staying here, too."

"But..."

"I'm gay," Kurt said.

"That would have been nice to know."

Kurt rolled his eyes. I didn't think it was quite worth that, but I didn't say so.

Later on in the evening, in the process of eating dinner (Mercedes' parent's had ordered us pizza), Mercedes asked, "So...do you like it here?"

"It's okay, I guess," I said. "I mean, it's not like I was leaving much behind at home, anyway. The only thing I knew I'd miss was glee club, and the glee club here is a lot better."

"Didn't you leave any friends?" Kurt asked.

That was a difficult question to answer. At home, I had only one 'best friend' and one other person I considered a close friend, but other than that most people avoided me, even the others in glee club. "Well...I had a friend named Monica," I said, "and I had a guy friend named Sean, but other than that I was pretty much disliked."

"That sucks," Mercedes said bluntly.

"Mercedes," Kurt tried to warn.

"No, you're right," I said. "I mean, back in California I was pretty much the target of bullies for being so into glee club and being socially awkward and whatnot."

For some reason, the entire time we were having this conversation, my mind kept thinking back to Artie that day at school. I tried to stay focused, but my mind kept going back to him. That day, both he and Tina showed up to glee club but were nowhere near each other. It was obvious they were not going to be speaking to each other anytime soon.

"So," Mercedes said, "you've been going here for about two weeks now, yeah?" I nodded, confirming. As though she could read minds, Mercedes asked, "So is there anybody you've got a crush on?"

A knot formed in my throat. It was just a basic question, but it was impossibly hard to answer.

"No."

"Liar," Kurt said.

"What? How am I a liar?"

"Oh, please, Melissa," Kurt said, "we may have only known each other a short time, but I've already figured out how to tell when you're lying."

"Come on," Mercedes pressured. "We're all gir—friends here," she said, looking at Kurt. "And it's not like Kurt and I are going to go running off and telling Rachel or Artie or anyone."

My heart pounded at the mention of the second name. I thought back to the way my heart had soared when we were singing together in glee club and how much my palms had sweated when we harmonized.

"Well, there is someone," I admitted, "but I'm not exactly sure it's a crush, you know..."

"No, I don't know," Kurt said, "because frankly, I can't read minds."

I sighed. "Well, what I mean to say is...well, have you ever liked someone so much that you can't stop thinking about them? And whenever you're around them you start acting like a complete idiot? And when you're alone and thinking of them you just want to start blaring sad music and crying?"

Kurt and Mercedes looked at me. "No," they said in unison.

"But that sounds a lot like love," Mercedes said.

I sighed. "Yeah, I guess."

"So you love someone?" Kurt said, putting a hint too much emphasis on the 'l' word.

"Well..."

"That's a yes," Mercedes said. "Who is it? Is he in glee?"

"Yes," I said stupidly, "but I'm leaving it at that."

"What? No fair!" I wished Mercedes had not asked in the first place.

"We won't tell anyone," Kurt said, "it's just that we want to know."

'We'? Mercedes was the one that asked the question in the first place. Ignoring that thought, I said, "Alright, but if I was going to tell you, you can't tell anyone, okay?"

"I believe we've assessed that," Kurt said.

I sighed. "I can't believe I'm about to say this..." I said, shaking my head. "Um...well..." I dropped my voice to a whisper; Kurt and Mercedes had to lean in close to hear me. "Well, this is really awkward, considering he's sort of...around all the time, but...but it's Artie."

"What?" they said. Obviously, they weren't saying 'what' because they couldn't hear me, but, rather, because of the name I had given.

"You wanted to know," I pointed out.

Two weeks and no update? Damn, I'm bad. That was a lame ending. I just didn't feel like writing anymore. So...yeah. Sorry for the suck-worthy chapter. It's a big ball of suck (Glee joke from S2E1?).

-Hatter of Madness