Artie Abrams

"Can you go now? I think I need to close the door and cry." Emma Pilsbury

I'll take a lot of the blame for That Day, because I deserve most of it. Line up the facts and you always come back to me, because I was the one who left. Not that Karofsky wouldn't have just beaten up the two of us, not that my awesome physique (snigger) would scare them off, but because with two targets there's always less punches to go around.

It's why birds of a feather flock together.

Anyway, the rest of the gang are probably the only people who knew the whole story, from start to finish (start being El Paso). The rest of Ohio figured out bits and pieces thanks to the constant media attention on the subject. Glee asked me about my part in That Day. They've been there since the beginning, so I was embarrassed, I was guilty, but I told them.

I'll take a lot of the blame.

Apparently, you had asked Quinn to drop you off at the park, because you were hoping to run into Finn and he'd called Quinn, saying he was meeting Puck there. I was at the park. I'm always at the park. Tina and I usually meet there to take a walk (and recently I've been thinking that maybe it may be a "walk") but she didn't show up that day, so I was circling the park solo, moving with the sun, Midsummer's Night Dream open on my lap.

"Hey, Artie." I always jump when someone touches my shoulder while I'm reading. I just don't register people moving when I'm deep in a book.

I managed to mostly cover up my twitch by adjusting my glasses. "H-hey Kurt. Thought you had a doctor's appointment today?"

"Yesterday. My nose is officially healed, and they took my arm out of its cast." You lifted up your right arm, which had been casted for months now and looked white and slightly smaller than your left. Still, I couldn't help remembering how it had first looked when we found you in that alley, with bone sticking out past the skin, broken at the elbow.

"Can you use it?"

"Not really." You ran the hand through his hair, smiling awkwardly. "Have you seen Finn? Or Puck? I thought I might meet them here…" You blushed, because just about any mention of Finn made you blush now. You'd been crushing before El Paso, but you were smitten now that Finn was one of your knights in shining armor. And that was okay – healthy, even, in my opinion. At least you knew that someone was looking out for you.

And you were even trusting Puck to have your back. Puck, who had continued to throw you into trashcans until the week of El Paso, was your fiercest protector by far. Maybe you hadn't noticed his assorted "football injuries" but the rest of us have.

None of us liked Puck. Not really. Unlike the other football jocks, he'd always made it quite clear that he was separate from Glee, that he was better than it. But since those bruises started appearing, and because we all knew exactly where they came from, everyone had been…more civil to him. Friendlier, maybe.

None of us really liked Puck. He used to tip my chair over twice daily. But we all love you, Kurt.

"I saw them over by the basketball courts before." I tucked the book in my backpack, started off down the pathway. God, it was gorgeous that day. People don't believe me when I mention how clear the sky was, how warm, how fresh everything smelled. It's like, whenever something bad happens, it's almost better for it to be nasty weather. But that day (since then, it's become That Day, hasn't it?) was beautiful.

You walked next to me, hands tucked deep in your pockets, whistling a song from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I'm not saying that what happened in El Paso was good, or justified, because it wasn't, not even remotely, but it had…matured you, I guess. Matured all of us. Before, you couldn't go a minute without talking, or singing, or being the center of attention in some way. Now you were…more mellow. Calm. And, yeah, a part of that was you still being too scared to be in the same room as a grown man, and jumping at loud noises. But another part was just you, us, growing up.

"So…are you going to prom, Artie?" You stared at the lake. Like I said, it was a really gorgeous day, and everyone had turned out to the park to enjoy it. The lake was dotted with children playing in the shallows, catching tadpoles and running to their mothers with the slimy things in their hands. Your lips twitched up in a sad sort of way.

"Yeah. Tina asked me." I was still a little taken aback by that gesture. Just a few months ago Tina and I had been laughing about how pointless prom was – to get all dressed up and waste all that money on one night? It wasn't her usual MO. "I don't know how I'll get my hands on a tux, though. I asked Tina if she was going to the mall to get her dress and she, like, bit my head off because I asked if I could come."

You laughed quietly, in a way that made me think I was missing something important. "Artie, you know that Tina thinks this is a date, right?"

"What?" I'm a little ashamed that my voice jumped up an octave. "No she doesn't. We're just friends!"

You looked at me, a are you for real look plastered all over your face. "She's been crushing on you for at least four months. Remember El Paso? You and her were like this." You held up your hand, two fingers intertwined.

"No we weren't." I defended, feeling myself get more and more red, "And how do you know that? Weren't you supposed to be drugged up to your eyeballs."

"I know all, Artie." You smiled cheekily, the smile only growing wider when you noticed something behind me. "And it looks like you're getting a crash course in girl safety." I looked over my shoulder to see Tina coming towards me, "Just remember, when she shows you pictures, say you love her dress. And try to be…tactful."

"Yeah. Yeah, okay." I swallowed hard, because AP Calc does not freak me out as much as girls. You started walking away, probably because you didn't want to stick around for a train wreck in the making.

"See you tomorrow, Artie." You headed towards the basketball courts, just around the next bend, where Finn supposedly was. I let you walk away. I didn't even think twice about it.

"Yeah, see you Kurt."

I didn't.

(Last letter written by Artie Abrams, 8 June 2010)

So we're insanely happy that Glee is back on. It was our goal to make this story stretch from November to April, just so everyone would keep Glee in the back of the mind. Guess it worked, huh?

Anyways, review.