Artie

"You," said Julie, over their coffee date that Friday morning. "... have a birthday coming up soon. Nineteen, right?"

She'd said it with a wry smile, as she already knew the story of how last year, he'd let his friends think that he was turning eighteen, because he was still that uncomfortable with being a year older than everyone. In college, though, it mattered less and Artie found he didn't care now.

"Or twenty," he said, with a toothy grin. Artie's grins were always toothy. It was just what happened when you had big teeth. Julie kind of had big teeth, too, just another way in which they matched. "But I've told Amy and Sam we need to have a gender reveal thing for their baby instead. They're finding out as we speak."

"That's awesome!" she exclaimed.

"It is," Artie added, with a nod. "I told them that twenty weeks is a much bigger deal than twenty years. So..." he trailed off. "Do you wanna come? Sorry, I meant to ask sooner. I'm leaving this afternoon. Zack's actually coming, too."

"Oh..." she trailed off, looking disappointed. "Oh, Artie, I do but... it's my grandma's birthday this weekend. And, well, we're getting together with some family and friends and everything. My roommate's going to take me to the airport right after class today. I thought I told you."

"No big deal," Artie said, realizing that she did tell him but he hadn't really paid attention to the fact that it was this weekend. "I'll call you later when we all find out about the baby."

"Thank you, that would be amazing," she said, flashing her toothy grin. "Oops, I better get going. I have class. And you're meeting up with Zack, right?"

"Right." He unlocked his breaks as she leaned down for a kiss. Gone were the days of those awkward little pecks she would give him. She stooped down, fully bracing herself against his knees, and kissed him fully and deeply. Anyone who passed by them at that moment was treated to a display of their hotness.

Despite the steamy kiss though, if Artie was really honest with himself, he'd been a little uncertain of things with Julie ever since he'd heard about Trevor flying in with her family to see the competition last weekend. On the one hand, this guy was involved in diving with her in high school, he was still a friend of the family, and a national competition was a pretty big deal. So, why wouldn't he support a friend? But for someone who was just a friend, would you hop on a plane to fly across the country with her family?

He contemplated these things, as he used the time spent wheeling alone across campus to really do some soul-searching. Did he possibly want a way out? Before, say, early June, when any girl who chose to hang around was going to get treated to seeing him at his most helpless? It would be convenient if they could just acknowledge that, hey, maybe it was time for a break. But Artie knew enough to know that you couldn't just hit the pause button on a relationship and expect to just pick back up where you left off, when you were ready.

He was feeling jealous of Zack, when he spotted him with Dana. They'd actually been dating since the seventh or eighth grade. As Zack explained, he would say seventh, but Dana said it was really eighth. Whatever it was, they were now college students, and that was a long time. And if she'd known him for that long, that meant that they'd actually started their relationship before Zack lost his vision, and that same relationship had survived something as serious as the guy losing his vision.

Dana, his pretty brunette girlfriend, was presently leading Zack, as he held her elbow. His white cane held aloft in the opposite hand. As they stopped, Dana smiled and greeted Artie. She'd been dragging his rolling suitcase for him in her opposite hand. (As soon as they finished Zack's college algebra problems, they were getting into Artie's car and heading for Lima.) She handed that off to him.

And then Zack seemed not to care one bit that they had an audience. People stared even more at a girl kissing a blind guy than a girl kissing a guy in a wheelchair. Artie didn't know if it was better or not, that Zack couldn't see any of that.

Dana typically walked with Zack from their usual Friday coffee dates to the library, where he'd meet Artie. It wasn't because he didn't know the way or couldn't go on his own, but because it was just their routine. They'd also arranged to have a lot of the same classes, but as Zack had explained it, Dana hadn't signed up with disability services to be his reader because "then they'd never get anything done."

"How do you do it, man?" Artie wanted to know, once Dana was safely out of earshot. Zack typically pulled out the cane and used it at this point. They'd already figured out that Artie, in his chair, was not great as a sighted guide.

"Do what?" Zack asked, as they headed into the library and stopped in front of their usual table. He began folding his cane up. "Are you asking me how did I trick a girl like Dana into staying around?"

Artie laughed. "Well, yeah, I guess I am," he said. "Seriously, but who dates the same girl since middle school? I mean, I liked a girl in middle school... didn't date her until high school. Ruined that in less than six months. Then I dated another girl. That didn't even last two months. Then I did some stuff I'd rather forget about..."

"Stuff like hooking up after your teacher's wedding with her cute niece that was in a wheelchair like you?"

Artie scowled. "Okay, you're not allowed to talk to Sam again while you're waiting for me in the dorm, not if he's going to tell you all my secrets."

"Sorry, go on," Zack said. "I think there's a little bit more to your tumultuous dating history, am I right?"

"Well, just Kitty and now Julie," he finished. "But my sister said something the other day that kind of got me thinking. She said I break up with the girl I'm with anytime it looks like we're going to have to endure something hard."

"Something like that surgery you're having this summer," Zack rightly asserted. He was a really, really good listener.

"Something like that..." Artie trailed off. "Anyway, you're not being paid to listen to my problems. I'm the one on the clock here, so we'd better get started."

"Right you are," Zack said, as he reached for his math notes, all of which were taken by Artie in a spiral notebook that he'd bent the bottom of, to tell it apart from a few other spirals in his bag. "We can pick this discussion up where we left off on the drive to Lima."

"...Dana was the first person who I told when I found out I was probably going to be losing all my vision," Zack was explaining later, as Artie drove them from Lima to Columbus. "And she never freaked out about it. She was just like, okay, well let's take it one day at a time. And that's what we've done, ever since. We've sat and cried about it together, at times, but we've laughed a lot about it too."

Artie had been gripped by the story of Zack and Dana for nearly the entire time that they'd been driving. Since they always had to use just about every bit of their time together on Zack's assignments, there hadn't been an opportunity thus far to really hear the other guy's story. He couldn't imagine not seeing the face of the person you loved. Zack explained that he felt fortunate to still be in love with the same girl whose face was forever etched in his memories.

Zack noticed when Artie was silent. "You okay, dude? You're not usually this quiet."

"Oh, sorry," Artie said. "Just... thinking about your story, man. Does Dana, uh, ever get like... tired of the way people act? You know what I mean by that, right?"

"Like she's a saint for dating me?" Zack supplied, as Artie nodded, forgetting that nodding was insufficient, and then promptly vocalized his response instead.

"Yeah," said Artie. "Like she's owed something for doing it. Like she's doing you a favor."

"All of the above," Zack confirmed, unbothered by the bluntness of the conversation in a way that Artie found refreshing. "People will make these comments, too, about how she's so pretty. And I'm not stupid and neither is she, we know that they're saying her beauty is just wasted on someone like me, because I can't even appreciate it."

"People suck," Artie said, emphatically.

"Dana's trying to come up with a snarky response for that, but usually I don't give her a chance..." Zack smirked. "I'm usually saying something like, 'Oh, my God, she's pretty?! This is the happiest day of my life!' Once, I saw just enough of a shadow to grab the random lady by her hand and shake it enthusiastically, thanking her for letting me know, because I just wanted to be sure before we procreated."

Artie roared with laughter, as did Zack.

"Dana keeps me around because her life would be pretty dull without me, and she knows it," Zack concluded.

Artie couldn't agree more. He actually felt like his life would be considerably more dull without Zack, too.

"Hey, dude, have you thought about living on campus?" he asked. "As a disabled student, it would be free. Well, minus the meal plan, but that was actually heavily discounted..."

"Well, there is the fact that my house is ten minutes from campus," Zack said. "But you know, actually, I have thought about it. I feel like I should give Dana a little space and a break from driving me all the time. Right now, she knows a bunch of people but I basically just know her... and you..."

"I could help you get plugged into campus life," Artie said, wondering why he hadn't already done so. Well, there had been classes and physical therapy three times a week to contend with, sure, but he'd never once invited Zack to hang out on the weekend with Sam, Garrett, Brent, and Lee. He vowed to fix that, and soon.

"Yeah, man, that sounds good."

"You wanna maybe be my roommate in the fall?" Artie said. "I don't know if you heard, but my sister stole mine."

Zack laughed. "Yeah, I did hear something about that," he said. "I also know you have a lot of stuff that I'm gonna trip over, if you move any of it. But if you can keep your crap in the same spot, I think we might have a deal. Is this your house?"

He'd asked because Artie was now pulling into the driveway. "Uh, yup," he said. "Two-story. We converted the old den into my room. You can stay in my old room upstairs. You'll be next to my sister's room. I've told Amy and Sam to be quiet, since your hearing's like a bat."

"Vision too," Zack added. "Oh, yeah, uh, you did remember to tell your parents that you brought the blind guy home, right?"

Artie certainly did, of course, remember not to do what people always inadvertently did to him, when they introduced him to new people without warning said people about the chair first. He hadn't counted on the youngest Evans siblings being there, but they were surprisingly chill when they realized Zack was blind.

"Sam and Amy are babysitting us while Mom and Dad go on their date," Stacey explained. "It's their anniversary."

"Their nineteenth," Sam added, as he helped get their suitcases out of the trunk . "Married in April, baby by May, that's Mom and Dad. I've got your suitcase, Zack."

"Thanks," Zack said, unfolding the cane and looking pretty uncertain about his surroundings. Artie wasn't the best sighted guide in his chair, but Sam did a decent job without really any coaching, just following that natural intuition he seemed to possess about people and their needs.

"He'd be decent at Orientation and Mobility, too," Artie whispered to Amy, with a nod to Sam, as he let Stacey enjoy the task of pushing him.

"Basically, we know he's just supposed to do something with his life to help people," Amy sighed, clearly very much in love. Artie took in the sight of her. It was warm out, so she'd finally ditched the baggy sweatshirt. Her tighter-fitting shirt clung to the bump right at Artie's eye level.

"It's only been a week since I saw you," he said, eyebrows raised. "But, uh, you look much pregnant-er this week."

Amy chuckled. "I had to tell my students this week," she said. "You should have seen the fit that little pain in the ass, Leah Sarfati, threw. And even after I assured her that I'll probably be back in plenty of time for Sectionals next year..."

They followed Sam and Zack inside, and Artie just let Sam take over as he described the layout of the house for Zack and showed him important things like the top of the stairs, the direction of the kitchen, and the locations of the bathrooms. Zack skipped the tour of the upstairs for the moment, opting to settle on the living room couch. Sam and Amy joined him, as did the two kids.

"So, the doctor could tell right?" Artie asked them, as he pulled his chair up beside them and remained in it, since the couch was full.

"Right," Sam said, grinning. "We have an answer and it is in... this sealed envelope." He picked up the sealed envelope on the coffee table. "So, we'll just wait on your parents and my parents to get home."

"At first it was hard to wait," Amy said. "But we've been waiting since this morning, so what's a couple more hours? Anyway, the rest of the news is good. Baby's healthy, I'm fine, all that. Still due August 20th."

"Amy's going to make your old room into the baby's room," Stacey added, at which point Amy gave Artie a look most apologetic.

"Well, we, uh, might still be living here for a little while when the baby comes," she explained. "Just to save money and get a decent place later on..."

"Alright, but if you must paint it pink," Artie began. "Then at least get a good brand and make sure to apply a few coats so it's even."

"Pink? Who said anything about pink?"

"I just think it's a girl," Artie said, shrugging.

"Me too," Stacey added, enthusiastically, as Stevie shook his head firmly and scowled at that notion.

"Why do you think so?" Amy wanted to know.

"Because Sam can only make girls."

Zack smirked and extended a fist, as Artie returned the gesture by making contact with his own fist. Amy rolled her eyes at what she'd probably call their "toxic masculinity."

"Shouldn't we, like, blow pink or blue smoke out of a cannon or something?" Stevie asked. "My friend, Todd, has a little brother and he got to hit a ball with a bat that exploded in blue powder."

"Or something a little easier," Artie suggested. "Like a cake. It can double as my birthday cake, too." He grinned at his sudden inspiration. "And I'll even make it. Just a box cake, it'll be fast. But the double layer kind with pink or blue frosting between the layers."

Amy looked at Sam, who shrugged, and then turned back to address Artie. "Well, then you have to open the envelope and see what it is, and we'll have to stay out of the kitchen 'til you finish."

"Sounds fun," Artie agreed. "C'mon, let me have it, I've got a great poker face."

"He does," Zack chimed in, without missing a beat. "I can attest to that."

"Come on, I won't give it away," Artie insisted, and after one more moment of hesitation, she finally picked up the envelope and thrust it forward.

"Cool," Artie said, setting it in his lap and unlocking his breaks. "I'm going to the store to get what I need."

"Can we come?" Stacey and Stevie asked, in unison.

"We'll help you reach stuff and push the cart," Stevie added, earnestly.

"Sounds great!" Artie said. "Zack, you coming with or staying here?"

"Ah, I'll hang out with these two and get your sister to tell me embarrassing stories about you while you're gone."

Artie was kind of relieved, if he were being perfectly honest, because he had no idea how he'd navigate a grocery store as Zack's sighted guide, while maneuvering his wheelchair down aisles, with two hyperactive kids in tow. And Zack had probably been thinking the same thing. He tucked the envelope safety between his knees and headed off, with Stevie and Stacey hurrying along behind him.