Sam
He'd wondered if Artie would be speaking to him, after he and Amy had crashed his date. But lucky for Sam, when Artie finally did roll in late Friday night, he was all smiles.
Sam hadn't been back for long himself. After he and Amy left the student center, they found a coffee shop where they could hang out and talk for an hour more or so, before she finally drove back to her friend's place for the night. Sam figured that he and Amy's evening was the last thing Artie wanted to talk about, so he kept the conversation focused on Artie's date instead.
"She wants to do a documentary about my journey to Rio," Artie had told him, when he got home that night. "After she finishes the one she did about you."
"She's like a girl version of you, Artie," Sam had said, shaking his head in disbelief. "I mean, right? A female film enthusiast who also likes swimming and nerd stuff. It's weird, I thought opposites were supposed to attract."
He knew Artie didn't take offense to him calling his interests "nerd stuff." Sam was just as big a nerd as Artie was, if not bigger, which was why they had so much fun being roommates.
Saturday night, Sam was glad that Amy had made plans with the friend she was staying with, because nothing could interrupt Dungeons and Dragons Night. It had been a couple weeks since they'd all been able to gather, due to the holidays, but everyone was happy to pick back up where they'd left off. Their regulars — Garrett, Brent, and Lee — showed up at the usual time. Garrett brought the snacks this week, and Brent always provided the refreshment, some variety of craft beer, since he was the oldest of the group, at twenty-one. They usually met at Sam and Artie's dorm, since their room was a little bigger than most.
"Julie said she plays," Artie had innocently mentioned, while they were sprawled all over the room. Artie was on his bed and Lee was actually playing around in Artie's wheelchair, leaning back and looking like he might tip backwards at any point.
"Uh-uh, dude," Lee said. "No way. No girls. Bro code." And at that very moment, he tipped too far back. Without warning, he fell backwards, narrowly missing hitting his head on the wall on the way down.
"You break it, you buy it," Artie said, laughing as their friend scrambled to his feet, after seeing that he was okay. "And you can't afford that, believe me. Also, just so you know, this isn't the He-Man Woman Hater's Club. We could invite girls."
Lee kept all the wheels on the ground after that, but he continued to use it as his personal chair. If that bugged Artie, he didn't show it. Besides, as Dungeon Master for the night, Artie was kind of preoccupied with running the game.
"Hey, guys," Artie said, after it had been a few hours. "We need to find a stopping point." He held up his phone. "Julie wants to drop by. She finished the documentary she did about Sam, and she wants to show it to him and talk about the one she's got planned for me."
"Well, you need an audience for this advance sneak preview, right?" Brent was grinning, and Sam knew his face was bright red. It was the curse of blonde hair and blue eyes. His face could blink like a stoplight at the first twinge of embarrassment.
Artie was shooting Sam an apologetic look now. Neither of them were the least bit homophobic or afraid of doing "gay stuff" (I mean, hello? Glee club!) But they'd had many, many discussions about how Sam was more than a little uncomfortable with being the sole male competitor in a traditionally female sport. And these guys were somewhat of reminiscent of what Puck and Finn used to be like, pre-glee club. Not that Sam knew personally, since it was before his time at McKinley, but he'd heard stories of dumpster tosses that usually targeted Kurt Hummel. At least, when it came to all that "gay stuff."
"Let us stay," Garrett pleaded. "We'll be good. And you can have a code word, Art, if you want time alone with your woman, and we'll all leave. And we'll take Evans with us."
Their new friends had taken to calling Artie 'Art,' sometimes, and he hadn't corrected them. Sam thought it was kind of fitting. New Artie, new nickname. Except he'd personally never be able to shorten it to just Art.
"The code word can be boobs," Lee added, unhelpfully. "Just, you know, weave that into the conversation somehow..."
"Riiight," Artie narrowed his eyes in Lee's direction. "Okay. Out. Vacate my chair. Find someplace else to sit. I need it for when she gets here."
"But it's like a chick magnet," Lee complained, clutching the wheels dramatically. "I mean, I've been here a year. Nothing. You've been here, what, three months? I bet if I wheeled around campus in this thing for a few hours, I could get a girl to follow me to class. She'd probably want to give me a push, you know..."
"Uh-huh." A smile played on Artie's lips. "Well, maybe, considering the fact that you just suggested 'boobs' for a code word, there might be a few other reasons you haven't gotten a girl. Now, out."
"Burn," Brent added, as Sam just looked impressed. Artie wasn't usually known for zingers like these.
Just then, there was a soft knock at the door, which could only be Julie. Artie made wild, frantic gestures at Lee, who jumped up so that Artie could transfer back into his chair before Sam let Julie inside.
Sam opened the door to reveal Julie, clad in a baggy yellow sweater, skinny jeans, checkered vans, and her hair in braided pigtails. She'd added a pair of blue framed glasses, which Sam hadn't seen his teammate wearing before. (Of course, she usually had on goggles.) A messenger bag with all kinds of funky anime patches was thrown across her body. She looked instantly terrified to be in the room full of guys. Then she relaxed a little, when she saw what they were doing.
"Oh, neat, I love Dungeons and Dragons," she said. "You'll have to let me know next time you play..."
Artie looked at Lee before he could say anything about it being for the guys only and gave him a look that clearly said you-better-not. It was Brent, though, who spoke up next.
"Sure!" he said, a little too eagerly. "Know any, uh, other girls who like Dungeons and Dragons? You can totally bring them. I mean, we might have to move elsewhere, we can't fit too many more people in here..."
"Unless you sit on Artie's lap." It looked like Lee couldn't help himself. Garrett promptly stuffed one of Sam's pillows in his face.
Julie gave a nervous laugh. "I mean, it's not typically a girl thing, I guess?" She shrugged. "But I've never really been typical, though, so..." She cleared her throat and looked nervous, and Sam was even more convinced that he was looking at a female version of Artie.
"Typical is overrated anyway." That was Artie, who looked completely enchanted by her.
"Yeah, it is," Julie said, beaming at him. Sam felt like they were all intruding on some kind of moment between these too. Julie did another nervous throat clear and then reached into her bag. "Uh, Sam, I finished this. It came out to roughly ten minutes, but I like the finished product. Short but sweet. We don't have to watch, though, if you guys are busy..."
Sam thought that Julie was giving him a great opportunity to get out of having all the guys be their first audience. Unfortunately, Artie's plans involved Julie staying, one way or another...
"We were going to finish the game another time," Artie said quickly, as Sam shot him a look that went completely unnoticed. He wheeled forward to take the DVD from Julie, putting it into the TV/DVD player in the corner of the room. Sam let Julie take a seat in his desk chair.
Julie had taken some shots of Sam walking to and from practice and his dorm, with his duffel bag slung over his shoulder as the voiceover of Sam taking played. "My name is Sam Evans," he said. "I'm from... a lot of places, actually, but most recently... Lima, Ohio. At one point in my life, my family was actually homeless. We lived in a one-room motel for awhile, then I lived with friends so that I could keep going to my high school for junior and senior year. Now I'm the first male member of the nationally-ranked, synchronized swimming team. Ohio State has won a whopping twenty-eight National championships since 1977. They're always known for doing ground-breaking things. And now, uh, their newest way of breaking ground is appointing me to the team. I just hope people like what they see..."
Cue gratuitous shot of Sam taking off his shirt and a close up of his chest and back as he flexed, in preparation for diving in. And this, of course, received wolf whistles from the rest of the guys.
"Are you just gonna sit there and let your woman film another guy's muscles like that?" Lee could not help himself. Artie picked up the closet thing he could find to throw at Lee, which happened to be an empty beer can that bounced off Lee's head. "Ouch, dude, no need for violence."
"This was before I was 'his woman,'" Julie added, with air quotes and a smirk. So, it seemed, she could be sassy. "It was strictly professional. And anyway, Artie's next."
"Strictly professional, of course," Garrett added, after making sure Artie didn't have anymore cans within his reach.
On screen, Julie had apparently enlisted someone else to film the routine now, since she was in it.
Sam's presence on the team was definitely noticeable, as he was much bigger than the girls and also wearing a different style of swimwear, but he was able to match their moves seamlessly. It was definitely thanks, in part, to all that time spent polishing glee club routines. And then another part, of course, was due to Coach Roz always yelling at him and scaring him into complete submission. He could still hear her encouraging him to swim like the fish he was meant to be, on account of those guppy lips of his.
The other guys, to their credit, just made a couple of teasing remarks. Besides, thanks to Julie's stylistic presentation, she'd actually made Sam look cool for being a part of the synchronized swimming team. When it ended, the three visitors complimented her work before promptly filing out of the dorm (without need for the code word, 'boobs').
When it was just Sam, Artie, and Julie, Sam debated on whether it would be obvious and more awkward of him to leave in that moment, rather than stay in his own room. He ended up staying put, as Julie kept involving him in the conversation.
"Did you like that voiceover at the beginning?" Julie was asking, looking at the both of them. "I wanted to tell Sam's backstory without showing his face, so that you could really focus on what he was saying. That's why I layered it over the shots of him walking to the pool."
"It was really cool," Artie replied, grinning ear to ear. "I liked the overall effect. It makes you feel like you're just strolling along beside him while he's telling you how he got where he is today."
"You managed to make a male synchronized swimmer look bad ass," Sam added. "Not an easy thing to do."
Julie blushed, then turned her attention to Artie. "So, I was thinking," she began, suddenly avoiding his direct eye contact. "That that's what we'll do with you, Artie. You know, you could start by introducing yourself, maybe share a little background about yourself and your disability and what that's like, and then talk about your plans for competing at Rio..."
"Uh, y-yeah, I could do that..." Artie trailed of just then, and Sam knew why. He avoided talking about it, to the point that Tina once told Sam it had taken him three years to finally explain it to her. Sam had only found out Artie's story from Finn, not directly from Artie himself.
"So, what I need you to do is maybe work on a script for yourself," Julie said, taking all of that in stride. "Uh, and if you want me to just, like, read it and help make any edits, we could do that."
"Okay, that's a good plan," Artie said. "So, uh, do you have to be anywhere right now? Maybe we could talk a little more over coffee."
At this, she agreed, and it was Sam who was left alone in the dorm room. He was quite content with them going out. They weren't yet to the point in their new relationship where it was comfortable to be alone in a private space like their dorm room. And yet, that apparently hadn't stopped Sam from moving way too fast with Artie's sister.
Speaking of Amy, he decided to call her to see if she was still up. Most people texted but not Amy. She always said she preferred a call, and if she wasn't awake, she just set her phone to Do Not Disturb. Luckily for Sam, the phone was not off and Amy was still up.
"Hey, stranger," she drawled, when she answered the phone. "Miss you. How was Dungeons and Dragons night?"
"It was good," Sam said. "And I miss you too. How was hanging out with Hayley?"
"Oh, she's great," Amy said. "And you're going to laugh, but she is dragging me to a church service tomorrow morning. I guess the universe doesn't want me to be a heathen afterall."
"Maybe I'll have to come with," Sam mused. "I'd bring Artie, but something tells me he'll be up late. He just left for a spontaneous coffee date with Julie."
He could imagine Amy's expression as she chuckled lightly on the other end of the line. "My brother, spontaneous?" she replied. "Those words don't even go together in the same sentence. But that's good, I'm glad he likes this girl. He needed to know there was someone besides Kitty who would swoon over him, too."
"They're good together," Sam agreed. "Uh, hey, Amy? Have you ever noticed that, like, sometimes it's like pulling teeth to get Artie to explain why he's in a chair?"
There was a long pause at that. "Yeah, that's not his favorite topic," she said. "I mean, Sam, can't you sort of relate? I know you were homeless for awhile. Did you enjoy explaining that to people?"
"No, not really."
"Well, exactly," Amy said, sagely. "And they can't tell by looking at you, that something happened. Artie told me once that he never knows what else to say after the conversation heads in that direction. When he told Tina about it, he then said, 'But I still have the use of my penis.' Artie's word-vomit is considerably worse when he's flustered."
"Oh," Sam said. "Well, I hope he's not down there right now, explaining his penis to this girl, too."
"Let's hope not," Amy agreed. "Also, new topic please, I don't feel like discussing my brother's penis. So, do you really want to come to church tomorrow? She's a Methodist, so I feel like it's going to be hella boring. But it starts at 9:00, if you wanna come."
"Yeah, I'll be there," Sam said. "Your brother, I know, will not be up at 9:00 if he doesn't have to, but I want to see you. And get my church on."
Amy laughed. "You're too much," she said. "I love you."
It was one of those after-thoughts, not so much a direct assertion, but Sam's heart soared just the same. He cradled the phone on his ear, casting a nervous look at Artie's side of the room, but then he spoke the words on his heart.
"I love you, too, Ames."