Disclaimer: I own neither Glee nor any part thereof. No money is being made off of this story and is intended only for entertainment purposes; therefore it falls within the parameters of "Fair Use"

A/N: Sorry it's taken me a couple of days to get back to update this one. I got stuck a little bit plus my other story is building to an emotional crescendo so I've been heavily focused over there. Anyways, here's the second half of movie night. Hope everyone enjoys and thanks to all who take the time to review.

Chapter 7

A Non-Date Gone Sideways

"So can I ask about the glasses?" Artie asked. After the movies, both Quinn and Artie had found themselves famished so they'd gone to nearby diner called Eddie's. They'd been seated right away and put their order in and were now waiting on their food. Quinn was busy trying to tell herself that even though she'd spent the better part of last three hours holding Artie's hand and even though he'd bought the tickets and even though she kept saying things that would imply otherwise, this was still not a date. It was just two friends hanging out like friends do.

"I don't know that there's much to say. I'm horribly nearsighted, always have been. I got contacts as part of the transformation when I went all Professor Higgins on myself," Quinn laughed to herself. "This is kind of dumb of me, but my eyes were irritated this afternoon so I debate with myself, 'Do I leave them in and deal with the irritation?' 'Do I take them out and call to re-schedule the movie?' for like twenty minutes back and forth and then it dawned on me. This is Artie I'm going out with… I mean, um…"

"You know you don't have to constantly correct yourself like that. I know what you mean."

Quinn smiled and said, "Thanks. So anyway, I'm like 'It's Artie. He's not going to judge me for anything, and even if he did, he's certainly not going to judge me for wearing glasses.' Then I just felt silly."

"You should feel silly, Woman," Artie responded quickly. "You're glasses make you look even hotter than usual. I don't know how no one has ever told you that before."

"How do you figure that?" Quinn asked skeptically.

"Because they make you look smart. I mean, obviously you are smart, but the glasses are, you know, an external representation of an internal quality so that someone who didn't know you could look at you and see that you're smart."

"And looking smart has what to do with being hot?"

"Pshhh, Quinn, you clearly don't watch enough Big Bang Theory. Smart is the new Sexy. Exhibit A, this guy," Artie said pointing to himself. Quinn had learned pretty early on that Artie's bravado was a cover for some sort of insecurity that she hadn't quite figured out yet. He wasn't being genuinely egotistical; he was just making a joke.

As she usually did, Quinn laughed at his bravado, but this time, for some reason she also said, "Can't argue with that." The words tumbled out of her mouth without her thinking about them and far too loudly to have been missed. Quinn flushed and clapped her right hand over her mouth.

"Quinn, what's up with you today? You're acting weird and nervous all of a sudden, what gives?"

"I keep saying flirty things to you or about you," she said lifting her hand from her mouth, sliding it up to her cheek. Their waiter returned with drinks and the conversation stalled while they waited for the man to depart.

When he had, Artie looked her in the eyes. "So what? We always say and do flirty things. It's like part of our routine by now. I know you didn't just notice you were doing it and somehow miss that I do it too," Artie replied.

"Okay, but you don't keep saying that we're going out or that I asked you out and all manner of colloquialisms that imply that we are dating."

"True enough but I hadn't actually assumed that we were based on you tripping over your vocabulary. I'm not twelve. I don't think that just because a pretty girl smiles at me that she's in love with me," Artie explained. "Quinn, what happened to you today? In two weeks I've never seen you so worked up over basically nothing."

Quinn pressed her forehead against the upturned palm of her hand and closed her eyes and gently shook her head. "I, uh, before yoga class I went to get coffee and I ran into Mercedes and she was there with Kurt and Blaine and I took the chance to apologize to Kurt and Mercedes for pushing them away this year."

"And Kurtcedes, the gossip monsters, said something, didn't they?" Artie intuited.

"We talked for a while and I may have mentioned your name a couple of times and the fact that we're hanging out. They all got that giggly, knowing look on their faces and I maybe possibly protested too much that we were just friends and then Kurt laid out a pretty compelling argument for how we're more than just friends, and then all the sexual tension tonight and the hand holding in the movie and just… it's all a little too familiar. At the beginning of this year, the school year, I had plans to work on me and get my life in order then Sam came along telling I had nice eyes and two weeks later we were dating and then the whole thing with Finn and before I knew it the whole year was gone and I hadn't done any work on me, and I just don't to fall back into that pattern."

"Okay, so don't," Artie said simply.

"Just like that?" Quinn said, chuckling at how simple he made it sound.

"Yeah," he replied, "It's not Kurt or Mercedes or Blaine or anyone else's place to define our relationship. No one but the two of us get to decide whether or not we are dating."

"But the sexual tension…"

"That's not a relationship, that's attraction, and yeah that's sort of involuntary, and okay, cards on the table, I'm attracted to you Quinn. You're smart and funny, beautiful and talented. I'd be an idiot to not be attracted to you… or gay, I guess."

Quinn blushed and smiled. "I'm… I'm attracted to you, too," she said, "For all those reasons as well as your big heartedness and your openness and your kindness."

Now it was Artie's turn to smile. "Thanks. But I'm also just a couple of weeks removed from getting my heart stomped all over, as are you. Is another relationship what either of us needs right now?"

She gave a non-committal shrug. "So what then?"

"So then we do what we've been doing, hanging out, having fun. You work on you and fill up your Happy List. I'll work on me and get over being dumped, and we'll see where things go but you don't have to freak out just because you want this," he said, again indicating himself. "Don't worry. Everybody does." His trademark cocky smile stretched proudly across his face caused Quinn to bust out laughing, and finally the tension was broken. "So how long have you been a fan of Hitchcock?" Artie asked trying to change the subject.

Quinn looked at her watch and back up at Artie, "About three and a half hours now."

"Seriously? This was your first Hitchcock experience? You haven't ever even seen Psycho or The Rear Window on like AMC or something?"

Quinn shook her head. "Good Christian girls don't watch movies about murder and mayhem, Artie," she said with no small amount of contempt at the rigid and seemingly arbitrary rule structure of her old life. Rolling her eyes she added, "My old life was so stupid."

"But you like the movies tonight?" Artie asked.

"I did. They were great."

"Then you should come over this weekend and we can watch some more. I've got a mountainous DVD collection and a whole summer to burn through them."

Quinn smiled and said, "That sounds awesome. Mom's going on another one of her trips this weekend, so I was thinking I'd come over Friday night, stay the night. Don't want to miss Pancake Day after all."

"Heavens, no."

About this time their server returned to the table with their food. They both took a break from the conversation to make sure that their food was to their liking. Quinn had ordered a Chicken Caesar Salad no croutons. Artie had the club sandwich, extra mayo with a side of potato salad. Both had approved of the food, although Artie picked the accompanying pickle spear touching it as little as possible with two fingers as though some disease infested thing, offering it to Quinn whose eyes went wide in excitement accepting it. "Left over pregnancy craving," she explained.

They sat in relative quiet for several minutes eating. Finally after they were both around halfway through their food Quinn spoke again, "Okay, I need to be serious about something and ask your advice. Jumping back to an earlier subject, I had coffee with Kurt, Mercedes, and Blaine and made my apologies to them and they all accepted, but they said that for us to really be friends again, I was going to have to mend fences with Rachel."

"Wait! They're… like holding their friendship for ransom? Make nice with Rachel or else?" Artie asked confusedly.

"No, nothing like that," Quinn clarified. "It's more like, they, Kurtcedes, as you called them, spent most of this year getting to know Rachel, becoming really close with her and I was given to understand that they spend a lot of time with her, so spending time with Kurtcedes would necessitate spending time with Rachel as well…"

"Team Diva," Artie put in.

"Team Diva? Do we have portmanteaus for everyone in glee in every imaginable pairing?" Quinn asked.

"Pretty much," he replied.

"What would ours be?"

"Quartie," he responded.

"Quartie?" she said questioningly.

"Would you rather be 'Abray?' of 'Fabrams'?"

"Okay, no I think Quartie works. What about your bromance with Puck?"

"Oh come one, Quinn. That one's easy. Puck and Artie? Partie!"

Quinn chuckled and shook her head. "Oh my dear God. Alright, we're getting off course. I have to figure out some way of making three years of horrendous treatment of Rachel right and not just because of Kurtcedes, but because I have treated her like hell and she didn't deserve it. The problem, and this is where I need your advice, is how to go about that. I have no clue. Just apologizing seems weak. Thoughts?"

"I have an idea that might work, but it's very dependent on one variable," Artie said.

"I'm all ears," Quinn said excitedly.

"Do you happen to know or does anyone you know happen to know Barbara Streisand?"

Quinn's brow dropped and she threw her napkin at him. "Jerk," she said playfully, "I thought you had a real solution. I was about to pledge my undying fealty to you for your assistance in this, my greatest challenge, and you're making a joke."

"Hey!" he protested. "It could have been a real solution." Quinn glared at him. "Okay, it wasn't likely to be a real solution, but it was possible." He sat and contemplated for a while. Quinn sat silently enjoying her meal while he thought. "It's weird, you know? I've known Rachel for years, even before Glee Club we had classes together and 'Abrams' 'Berry' pretty close together alphabetically so we've always been in proximity, but I couldn't honestly say that I know Rachel all that well, aside from the things she makes known, the stuff you already know. I'm friends with people that are friends with her, but it's not a math problem, the transitive property doesn't apply. I know this isn't a simple question, but where do you two stand? I mean, I know the whole Finn thing, but aside from him, just between the two of you, aren't you guys okay? I mean you did that 'I Feel Pretty/Unpretty' thing together, right, and went with her when she thought she wanted a nose job."

"Heh," Quinn huffed, "yeah, and then Prom Night happened." Artie remained silent bearing a quizzical look. Quinn sighed, "Okay, long story short, when I lost Prom Queen I yelled at her that it was her fault and stormed out. She followed me into the restroom where I slapped her in the face. I apologized immediately but she wasn't even mad, said she appreciated the drama of it. Then… then she basically told me that I didn't have to and shouldn't settle for being just some pretty face, which honestly, I think that touched off the whole journey of self-discovery. So not only do I have to apologize for making her life Hell for the last three years, but I also have to find some way of thanking her for changing my life. It's a little daunting."

After another couple minutes of contemplation Artie spoke again, "Okay, this may be overly simplifying things but can you not just tell her that? I mean, it does kind of sound like something out of a movie or TV show or something, right? Bully attacks victim and recoils from herself in horror of who she is and learns to change her terrible, terrible ways. Think she might appreciate the drama of that? Even if you guys don't end up best friends or whatever, you can bury the hatchet."

"Could it really be that simple?"

"Brittany always said that things are almost always simple. It was only people who were complicated."

"Brittany said that?"

"Well, that was the distilled essence of it, anyway, but it's kind of true. I can't tell you how Rachel will react, but you can say your peace and if nothing else, you'll feel better and you'll have satisfied Kurtcedes' condition for being friends again."

"Thanks, Artie," she said looking like maybe she had just a tiny bit more peace of mind than she had before. "I guess I should be getting you back home, huh?"

"Yeah," Artie agreed looking at his watch, "it is getting on to be that time." Since dinner after the movie was his idea, Artie paid over Quinn's objections to split it. They loaded back up into Quinn's car and Quinn delivered Artie back to the Abrams house. The porch light was on but all the interior lights were off. Quinn marveled at the notion that not only was Artie trusted enough to not break curfew that no one even had to wait up on him but that knowing no one was waiting up on him, Artie never even thought of a second about breaking curfew.

Once Artie was again unloaded from Quinn's car she took one of his hands in hers and said, "Thanks for coming out with me tonight, Artie. As always with you, I had a ton of fun, and thanks for talking me through my freak out."

"I'm reasonably certain that's what friends are for," he said with a smile.

"So with the understanding of a mutual physical attraction that neither of us is prepared to act on and that things may occur that on the surface are a great deal more intimate than a strictly platonic relationship and that said things don't necessarily mean anything, would you mind if when I hug you good night in a minute that I do so while sitting on your lap? I always feel awkward bending at the waist and wrapping my arms around your head. It's a little strange."

Artie, trademark smile on his face, said, "A beautiful blonde wants to sit on my lap? Who am I to say no that?" Quinn climbed onto Artie's lap wrapping one arm around his shoulders, hooking her hands together. She rested her cheek against his temple and Artie wheeled the two of them towards the front door. When they got there, Artie asked, "You want to come in? We can watch Psycho, continue your Hitchcockian education?" He could feel her shake her head against his.

"Friday night. If I go in now, I won't want to leave and my mom expects me home at some point tonight.

"That's cool," he said.

"Hey, Artie?"

"Yeah?"

"You're the best friend I've ever had, and I mean, it's not exactly stiff competition or anything, but considering who the competition is, I thought you might like to know that." Artie understood that she meant Santana. The woman who'd beaten him in the competition for Brittany's heart was losing to him at something. That's what Quinn meant.

"Thanks, Qu…" His words were cut off by Quinn's lips pressed against his. Quinn had been aiming for Artie's cheek and he'd accidentally turned into it. Quinn's eyes were open, at first, wide in surprise at what she'd done, but then they'd quickly fluttered closed, so Artie closed his as well. Quinn reached up to cup Artie's cheek and then they weren't just kissing. They were making out. Quinn knew that she should stop this. They had an understood buffer that they would occasionally do something beyond what friends would do, but this was well beyond that. Quinn understood all this, and yet she didn't want to stop it because as it turned out, Artie was one hell of a kisser. A moment later their mouths were open, tongues were sliding together, and Artie's very strong hands were pressed against her back, pulling her into him. Finally Quinn broke contact with Artie. Before she could say anything, Artie looked her in the eye and said, "Quinn, do me a favor please, and don't freak out about this."