"Wow, you look amazing," her date had remarked, when she got into his car, right in front of her dorm.
She did happen to look pretty amazing, especially since she'd been to the hair salon earlier that same day, to get ombré caramel colored highlights and had chopped her locks into a more blunt style, that fell right past her shoulders. Her hair was curled in soft waves and the new color looked perfect with the bright pink top and fitted dark blue skinny jeans. She wasn't able to wear heels, yet, but her white converse shoes worked with the outfit and were comfortable enough.
"Thanks!" she exclaimed, tossing her hair playfully. "I wanted a change. Of course, you're used to seeing me in my goofy bathing cap."
"I am," Kevin said, flashing a winning smile. He looked handsome himself, in a light grey polo shirt. "Hey, they just opened a new place near the university. It's a chain, I think, but it's supposed to be pretty good. Would you like to go to Breadstix?"
Tina giggled as she nodded in agreement with the plan. If he only knew. Any good date in Lima ended up being at Breadstix, since that was the nicest restaurant in the small town. Here in Providence, there was more to choose from. But it did seem only fitting that her date take her to Breadstix.
When they arrived, there was a bit of a wait for the table. They squeezed into the remaining seating in the crowded entryway and, out of the blue, Tina found herself thinking about Artie and how it would have been a struggle to create enough space for his chair.
"So," Kevin began, interrupting her thoughts. "Tell me about yourself. What do you like to do, besides swimming?"
"Well, singing," she said. "In high school, I was part of a glee club starting in freshman year that went to Nationals. During my junior year, we won. Senior year, we came in second."
Tina paused, with the realization that when asked about herself, the very first thing that came to mind was still high school glee club.
"Oh, that's awesome," Kevin commented. "I wish I could sing. I'm terrible. I do like music, but usually if I sing along, people ask me to stop."
And now, without warning, she'd thought of Mike. Mike had gotten a lot better, with practice, but he'd never quite gotten to the point where you'd call him a singer, as well as a dancer. She remembered their first duet, when they'd done Sing to debut Mike's voice to the rest of the club. Mostly, she remembered how that was the first time, in a long time, that she'd done something to crack a smile from Artie. Mike. Artie. Where is all of this coming from? Focus, Tina, focus on the guy in front of you now.
"I didn't get a lot of solos," she commented. "I did get featured when we did Gangnam Style but that was due to me being Korean." She paused. "Even though I'm adopted and my parents are white."
At this, Kevin's eyes lit up. "I'm adopted, too," he said. "And I'm both Japanese and Chinese, by birth, but my parents are also white." He grinned now. "Wow, I've never met another Asian adoptee."
"Me neither," Tina said. "It kind of sucks when people find out, doesn't it? Especially other Asian people. They make all kinds of assumptions."
"Oh, I know," he said, shaking his head. "One time, I tried to pretend to have an accent, just to fit in better with my Asian crowd. They were really mad at me when they figured it out."
"Sorry you felt like you had to do that," she told him, grabbing his hand to give it a squeeze. He held on, looking over at her, and she was hit with mixed feelings over pouring out her heart to this guy she'd just known a couple weeks. Then again, she'd never met another Asian adoptee either.
"Well, it doesn't bother me as much now," he said. "I guess I've grown up a little since then, gotten more comfortable in my skin, you know."
"My biggest insecurity has always been my eyes," Tina confessed. "I don't like how they look completely shut anytime I smile in pictures. Once, my Asian boyfriend called me out for getting blue contacts."
"Asian boyfriend, huh?" Kevin commented. "I've never gone out with another Asian American. You're the first one. And, for the record, I happen to think your eyes are beautiful."
Tina blushed. "Well, tell me more about yourself, Kevin," she had started to say, as the buzzer they'd been given went off, signaling that their table was ready.
After they'd gotten settled, ordered drinks, and then ordered food, Tina ended up telling him more about herself, her major, her job, her general reasons for choosing Brown. Before she knew it, the meal was halfway over and she hadn't really learned anything anything beyond the fact that Kevin was adopted like she was. But by the time she started to launch into her own questions for the new guy, the check was brought out and he'd paid before she decided if she wanted to stop him.
"Ready for axe-throwing?" he'd asked, with a grin.
Am I ready for Kitty and Artie to wreck this for me? she'd thought, bitterly. Not at all.
They beat Kitty and Artie to Stumpy's, which meant that they waited around on the couches first. Soon, Lauren spotted them and approached, curious to meet the guy Tina had been telling her about.
"I'm Lauren," she addressed him. "I work here and I'm also the roommate who can gladly leave if you come over, anytime you two need privacy." As Tina raised her eyebrows and gave the smallest, imperceptible shake of her head, however, Lauren caught her drift and dialed it down. "Only kidding, uh, anyway, have you ever been to Stumpy's before?"
"A few times," Kevin responded. "I came on New Years' Eve when they did the party to midnight with the all-you-can-eat buffet and you could sign up for as many escape rooms and as much axe-throwing time as you wanted, plus the arcade was unlimited all night. It was great."
"Oh, awesome," Lauren said. "I hadn't heard about that. I just started working here in February. By the way, I mentioned to my manager that my roommate was coming, and he said I could give your group my family and friends' discount. So, you all get 15% off tonight. Now, if you'll just head over there please, and fill out the waivers. You need to do it each time you come, just so you can't sue us if you get hit by an axe." As they stared up at her, she laughed. "Only kidding, I've just seen that happen once."
As they started to get up, the door opened, as Artie pushed through it, Kitty trailing behind. He smiled amicably at them, but Kitty looked puzzled. "Oh, hey, Kevin," she said. "Are you here with Tina?"
Tina looked back and forth between the two, confused. "You know him?" she asked, glancing back at Kevin for confirmation. "How do you two know each other?"
"He's in a couple of my classes," Kitty said, nonchalantly. "He's currently helping me out in algebra." By the look on Tina's face, Kitty had obviously just realized this was brand new information. She paused before continuing. "He's... like the smartest kid in my grade."
"You're what?" Tina turned back to Kevin. "How old are you?" Now it was beginning to make sense, the coy way he kept most of the conversation centered around Tina. She felt her face growing warmer and warmer.
"Uh, I'm... sixteen," he said, quietly. "I take a couple of classes at Brown, because I needed dual credit and I got early acceptance due to my GPA..." His eyes were pleading with her now, begging her not to go off on him.
Tina needed to sit. The couch was right there, so she sat. She raised her eyes and found herself subject to the sympathetic gaze of one Artie Abrams. She quickly looked away.
"I need to go to the ladies' room first," Kitty suddenly said, breaking the awkward silence that had fallen over everyone, including Lauren, who had witnessed the whole scene, too. "Artie, didn't you say you needed to go, too?"
"Huh?" Artie replied. "Oh, oh, yeah. Me too. Not the ladies' room, er, the mens' room. We'll be right back." Kitty was already pushing his chair, ushering him out of the way.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you," Kevin said, taking a seat next to Tina. Meanwhile, Lauren had walked off, pretending there was something she had to do. "I really liked you and I didn't want you to know how old I was until we'd gotten to know each other better."
"Kevin, I'm nineteen," she replied, staring at her hands. "You seem nice, except for the whole lying thing I mean, but this isn't gonna work."
"Even if I tell you that I'm going to be doing most of my classes at Brown next year?" he asked, earnestly. "I'll be seventeen. In, um, August."
"And I'll almost be twenty," Tina said, flatly. "No, Kevin, I'm sorry but that's not going to work. Maybe if you were in your early twenties, or something, but not now. And probably never, actually, I'm really turned off by guys that lie."
"It wasn't... exactly a lie?" Kevin tried to say. But then he just sighed and looked down at his hands, too. "I'm sorry. I should have told you."
"Tina?" Later, back at her dorm, Artie obviously didn't get that he wasn't welcome.
Lauren wasn't home yet. She was still working. After Kevin's stunning revelation, they'd gone on to drop the subject and tried to have a nice time throwing axes. Tina threw her best round ever, with rather surprising accuracy, as she pictured Kevin's head on the target. Once, when she'd been throwing a round against him, her axe bounced off in his direction. She figured she'd made her point.
"Tina?" Artie knocked again, on the other side of the door. The boy could not take a hint. "I know you're in there. I don't want to make it worse, I just want to make sure you're okay."
Tina looked at her puffy, red face in the mirror once before getting up. When she threw open the door, Artie took one look at her and sighed. He was holding a bag of red Twizzlers, her favorite, with a couple cans of soda tucked between his knees.
"Your knees are going to freeze without you knowing it," was all she could find to say to him.
"It was just there for a second," Artie replied, handing hers to her as she moved aside to let him in. Tina decides she had nothing else to lose by letting him come inside and gloat a little. Given all the jabs she'd made at him for agreeing to junior prom with Kitty, she probably had it coming.
"So, now, if Tina likes a guy, he's either going to wind up being gay, married, or too young to drive a car," she complained, derisively.
Setting her soda aside, she threw herself down on her bed. She knew she was being dramatic. She didn't care. Artie was here now, whether she liked it or not, so he might as well listen.
"I won't tell anyone," Artie said, quietly, pulling out a Twizzler and passing it to her. He knew she likes to bite off the ends and use them as soda straws. He did that, too. It was one of their quirky similarities that they'd noticed way back in seventh grade, when Tina had shared Twizzlers with Artie at lunch.
Tina sat up, accepting the candy, and gave him a small smile. "Thanks," she said, biting both ends of her candy to make a straw, as Artie did the same.
"Kitty won't either," Artie went on, locking his chair in place alongside her bed. "We already talked about it, okay? And actually, I kind of think you should forgive the kid, Tina. He's nice enough. You remember the kind of mistakes we both made around that age..."
"I guess," Tina said, reluctantly, as she made her "straw" and took a swig of her soda. "It was just crazy, Artie, like... he was adopted by white parents, just like I am, he understood everything about what it's like to be Asian but not really Asian..."
"I mean, I totally get that, too," Artie replied. "I also somehow wound up with a family of white people, you know..."
That got her to laugh. Grinning, he laughed, too. "I meant to say earlier..." he added. "That your hair looks really pretty. I like it."
Tina blushed. "Thanks, Artie."
"I have an idea," he said, changing the subject. "Don't hate on it until you've heard the whole thing, okay? Promise?" As Tina just gave him a nod, he continued. "So, I overheard Kitty talking to Kevin about prom, and as it turns out, he doesn't have a date..."
"Yes," Tina interrupted, cutting him off. "Yes, I absolutely think Kitty should take Kevin to her junior prom. That lets you off the hook."
"Hold on," he said. "That's not what I meant. I think Kitty should take me and Kevin should take you." He paused, smiling. "Then we could sort of... trade. I never really got a prom with you, Tina. It could be fun. Nobody has to know we're old-ass college students."
Tina studied him for a minute, then sighed. "Artie, why are you doing this to me?" she wanted to know. "Enough."
"What am I doing?" he asked, innocently.
"Don't give me that!" she exclaimed, yanking another Twizzler from the package he was holding and biting into it, angrily. "You have done nothing but flirt with me since you came here. So, then, I ask you to officially be a couple and you give me this crap about how you don't want to drag me into it. Well, guess what? I'd like to be dragged into it, but you don't give anyone you could ever be serious about half a chance!"
Artie fell silent. "That's fair."
"It is!" Tina shot back. "It's always been true about you, Artie, you go after girls that aren't even right for you, on purpose, so you don't have to get hurt in the inevitable fall-out."
"Also accurate," Artie said, in a small voice. "Look, Tina, forget about it." He put the Twizzlers on his bed. "You can have these," he said, unlocking his breaks and wheeling back a pace.
"Wait, don't go," she pleaded, and she grabbed the first thing that she could get to, which happened to be his armrest. He stopped and she dropped her hand. "I mean, I won't force you to stay here. But we need to talk about it. Artie... I had the best time with you Friday night. Much better than my date tonight, and I'm talking about before I found out he was fourteen."
"Sixteen," Artie corrected, smiling a bit, in spite of himself.
"Whatever," Tina replied. "The point is, I always have a good time with you. And yeah, we could call ourselves best friends, because that's what we are, but I want to be more than that, Artie. And when I really think about it, I always have. Why can't you give us a chance?"
Artie swallowed hard. "I didn't sign up for this life, Tina," he said. "But you would be signing up. I don't think you know how much I don't want to subject anyone else to my life. You're gonna miss out on a lot of experiences, being with a guy like me."
"I'm gonna miss so much more if I'm not with you," Tina replied, tears filling her eyes.
"I never get to be spontaneous," Artie went on. "I plan everything I do. Even my trips to the bathroom are planned, scheduled, and I need this backpack full of medical equipment to get the job done. You remember how much I freaked out when the jocks stole my bag off the back of my chair once, right? And if we have sex? I don't really feel a thing. That's only part of what you've signed up for, if you're with me."
Tina froze, absolutely unsure of how to answer any of this. It was clear that Artie already regretted their conversation. He turned to go.
"Wait, Artie—"
"I said way too much," he mumbled. "I'm sorry your date didn't go well. I'll see you later." With that, he let himself out, just as Lauren was heading back in, ruining any chances Tina had of being alone.
Lauren seemed to sense this, by the expression on her face. "I'm just here to change into my gym clothes," she said, quickly. "I'll be out of here soon."
Tina sighed and curled up in her bed, facing the wall. She grabbed another one of the Twizzlers Artie had left for her and bit into it agressively. She didn't know how to change his mind this time.