Artie

Wednesday was a day of feeling like the third wheel... fourth wheel, and fifth wheel... anyway. Point being, that ever since he'd given Amy and Sam permission to be Samy, they'd sort of abused that. They didn't, like, make out in front of him or anything, but they definitely huddled together a lot or held hands under the table while they were all out enjoying cronuts and coffee at the Lima Bean that morning.

"So, what will you do tonight if you're not going?" Sam asked, pouting with his giant lips, after Amy told him she wasn't going to be at Rachel's basement party, on account of it being too risky, if she wanted to keep on taking sub jobs at McKinley.

"Probably clean the house to get ready for your family coming tomorrow," she said, shrugging. "And then help Mom prep for Thanksgiving dinner. You know, Cinderella stuff."

Artie noticed she looked at him when she said that, like he was somehow at fault for keeping her from making a bad decision, professionally. He held up his gloved hands.

"Hey," he protested. "I am not the wicked step-mother who made you stay home. I merely pointed out that it wouldn't be in your best interests to get wasted with your students."

Amy narrowed her eyes. "And is that always what happens at these glee parties?"

"Yes," said Sam and Artie, in unison.

"But save me something to do tomorrow," Artie said. "I like making stuff for Thanksgiving, too. At least leave me the cherry pie or something."

"You have to take that one up with Mom," Amy said.

"So, do you guys always make a big deal out of Thanksgiving?" Sam asked.

Artie knew, for Sam had said before, that for Sam's family, it had depended on the year. Some years, there had been enough money for a big dinner, some years, not so much. One year, they'd even eaten Thanksgiving dinner at a shelter. Although, Sam had shared that it had been kind of special, since his church had hosted. He'd both served and eaten, and no one shamed him for it.

"Well, usually," Amy said, exchanging a look with Artie. "There were a couple years that it fell on the twenty-fourth. That was sort of hard for Mom, so I think it was a little less of a big deal."

"Though maybe things will be different in 2016," Artie offered. When Amy looked puzzled at the randomness of that comment, he explained. "I checked the calendar. It falls on the twenty-fourth again in 2016. But, with any luck, I'll be celebrating as a Paralympic athlete by then."

Artie raised his coffee cup and Sam did the same. "Hear, hear!" he said.

When they'd finished coffee, Sam looked at him and awkwardly asked what he'd like to do next. Artie sensed correctly that what Sam was really asking, was if Artie planned to hang with them all day or if he and Amy could have a little time together, without him.

"Uh, maybe I'll text some people and see who's free," Artie said, thinking that he'd like to hang out with someone else for awhile anyway. Maybe Mike or Tina or Puck. Or all of them. "You guys just drop me off back at the house. I'll figure it out."

Amy, who had stood up to toss her coffee cup in the trash, had stopped in her tracks to hear Artie say this. Behind Sam's back, she mouthed a huge, exaggerated 'THANK-YOU.'

So, Artie checked to see who had plans, and since he wanted to maximize his chances, he separately texted Mercedes, Mike, Puck, Tina, and Quinn. He figured, out of the group, maybe at least one of them would be free and would want to hang out ahead of the party that night. (And he was hoping it would be Quinn.)

He didn't count on getting a yes from everybody except Mercedes. Since Artie had the empty game-room upstairs, and mostly, everyone just wanted to veg out and order pizza, he ended up inviting them all over to hang around the house. He inched his way up the stairs and got comfortable, stretching out on the couch before his friends arrived.

Tina was the first to arrive. He could hear her briefly greeting his mom downstairs, before she came thundering up the stairs to see him.

"How are you doing?" she settled on the floor by Artie's feet. "Since seeing Kitty and Ryder, I mean, I know that had to be rough..."

"Not as bad as I thought," Artie said, for he'd never admit that it was just as bad as he'd expected it would be. "I'm just sorry I missed Tuesday, I heard everyone was great..."

"Not everyone," Tina said, making a face, and Artie remembered she'd gotten stuck with Sugar.

Artie patted her shoulder. "You did the best you could," he told her. "Actually, I didn't just hear about it. Amy recorded them for me. I thought it might be fun to watch them again, when everyone gets here."

Mike arrived next, and for a moment, Artie wasn't sure if Tina would be able to act normally around her ex. Even though they hadn't been together for a long time, Artie knew Tina still had feelings for Other Asian. She'd since dated Kitty's brother, then some other guy, who'd turned out to be gay, but apparently, neither of them were Mike Chang. Which was kind of a problem, since she went to school in Rhode Island now and he was in Chicago.

It wasn't long before Puck and Quinn arrived together, and Artie wasn't sure what that meant. It was weird that Quinn, who was rumored to have sworn off dating anyone from Lima again, would be spending time with the guy who got her pregnant four years ago. Somewhere, a small child carried both of their DNA. How could they spend time together and not think about that?

The five of them (Artie had somehow still appointed himself as fifth wheel... sixth... and seventh) sat around, watching the mentees' performances. To avoid starting any unnecessary gossip about Sugar, he casually skipped hers, and if anyone noticed, they didn't mention it.

"He looks exactly like Prince Eric from 'The Little Mermaid,'" said Tina, who sort of swooned when Mason was singing. He'd just gotten to the part that Mercedes had added for him, after they made their two songs a mash-up duet. When Jane sang the line "I'm a princess," Mason had responded with this haunting echo of "you're a princess."

"Tina!" Quinn looked shocked. "He's like, underaged."

"So was Joe Hart," Tina shot back, which effectively silenced Quinn as Mike leaned over to her and helpfully chimed in with: "Burrrrn."

After they finished watching and debating who had the best mentor/mentee performances, they split a pizza and hung around, just talking about college and how much everyone missed being onstage together. Puck had joined a band, but they only liked to do funk covers of songs. It wasn't his style, but the group had quite a following already and even some paying gigs, so he stayed. Quinn said she'd briefly considered college glee club, but being that it was Yale, their glee club was much more traditional. And boring. Tina was too busy teaching Zumba classes and attending her classes to be on stage, although teaching the classes was sort of like performing. Mike, of course, was living his dance dreams in Chicago, but he was a little weary of ballet. He took some hip-hop classes outside of The Joffrey, just so he could have some fun every now and then.

"Artie, you're not performing either, are you?" Quinn had said, graciously making sure to include everyone in the conversation.

"No, I'm either swimming or going to classes," he said. "Mine and the ones for my job." He then told them about the classes he attended with the blind guy (there had to be a better way to say that, he thought, as he wouldn't have appreciated being known to anyone as the wheelchair guy).

"Well, maybe you can dust your voice off for us tonight," said Quinn, as she got to her feet from where she'd been sitting on the floor by Tina. "Sorry to cut out early, but Puck and I are meeting up with Shelby. Can you believe Beth is three-and-a-half now? We'll take pictures to show everyone when we see you tonight."

So it looked like they did think about the baby afterall. When Puck and Quinn left, Mike lingered a bit longer and then he left, too, leaving just Tina.

"Mercedes told me Sam's really into your sister," Tina blurted out, when they were alone again. It looked like she'd been waiting for a chance to talk to him about that. Then came the inevitable: "So, how are you handling that?"

Artie liked Tina, as a friend, but did she ever coddle him! It was one of the biggest reasons he couldn't imagine ever dating her again, not to mention, it would ruin what they had as friends. But even as a friend, woman needed to stop with the coddling.

"I told them I was okay with it," Artie said, which was a true statement. He told them he was okay with it.

"I know when I dated Kitty's brother, I—" Tina stopped, mid-sentence, when she realized she'd brought up Kitty again. "My bad."

"I'm gonna talk to Kitty tonight," he said, shrugging and studying the couch cushions. "She wants to. Maybe we can still be friends or something. As much as I regret how things ended, I think my biggest regret is not talking to her now."

"Sure," Tina said, shrugging. "I mean, we dated, broke up, and look at us, we still talk. All the time. About everything. Well..." Tina paused, and it looked like she was debating with herself. When Artie gestured for her to just spit it out, she then added. "Almost everything."

"Like what don't we talk about?" he asked.

"Oh, I don't know. How about..." Tina did that thing where she looked like she was struggling with whether or not to just say it. "How about the fact that you had surgery over the summer that we dated and, instead of telling me that, you just let me think you were just ignoring me for Halo nights?"

Artie's jaw dropped. He stared at her, completely stunned and speechless, running through the short list of people in his mind who'd known, who could have told her.

"Finn." She saved him the trouble of asking. "Finn told me when we got back to school. I asked him why you were trying to join the football team, of all things, and he said it was to impress me so I'd dump Mike and get back with you." She paused, as though smiling sadly at the memory of their late friend. "And then he told me I should stop you from doing that, because it wasn't a good idea, especially with you having just had surgery and all."

"Oh." You knew all this time?

"I knew all this time." Tina was nothing if not a mind reader, that was for sure. "Plus, I know you pretty well, Artie, and I also noticed that you were sitting much straighter without your foot always slipping to the side like it used to." She cast her eyes downward. "I didn't want to call you out on keeping that from me. It's not like I didn't keep something pretty major from you too once."

Artie chewed nervously on his lower lip. He knew he needed to start talking soon, as he was just staring at her now, and she'd stopped talking, so naturally, the laws of conversation said it was his turn.

"I screwed up my back again," he finally said. "Probably when I was working out. I probably should have gone to a physical therapist, to do it the right way. They said I don't need surgery, at least, not yet. But I have to start wearing a brace soon, so it doesn't get any worse. I'm going Friday to get fitted for one. I thought you should know." He paused and gave her a small smile. "I'll try doing this thing where I don't hide stuff from my best friend, okay?"

She smiled back. "I'd like that."

Artie's entourage, which consisted of Jake and Sam holding either side of his chair with Puck grabbing the bar — and commenting that handles on the old chair had made this a little easier — hauled him down to the basement that evening.

He'd been fashionably late, but mostly just because he'd been trying to work up the nerve to figure out what to say to Kitty when he saw her. He and Sam had arrived conveniently at the same time as Jake and Puck, which was how he'd had a full team of jocks assembled for the task of carrying him.

Why did these parties always happen in basements anyway? At least Rachel's was a very nice, finished basement, complete with a bathroom that was wide enough for Artie to get into.

He needed a few drinks, so he could worry about all of this stuff less. And he kind of wished he'd had a few drinks before he saw her. But there she was, perched on the edge of the bar, laughing at something Unique had just said. She was surrounded by the girls though. And a quick scan of the basement revealed no sign of Ryder.

The real question was, though, where were they going to talk? It would take either help from three guys again or him scooting back up the stairs on his butt — not a thing he was comfortable with doing at Rachel's house — to find a quiet place.

They settled on a relatively quiet corner in the basement, and Artie hoped everyone else would have the common sense and decency to leave them alone for a minute.

He had thought of what he'd say first, if she didn't immediately start the conversation, which she didn't. "Thanks for coming on Sunday to my wheel birthday," he said, as she knelt beside him, always considerate enough not to make him look up at her.

"That was really clever of Sam," she said, as Artie nodded in agreement. "Listen, you know I still care about you, Artie, and I know you care about me, too. I also think the distance is harder than we thought. Or... harder than I thought and just as hard as you said it would be."

"It's not so much the distance," Artie added. "Because it's less than two hours. I mean, it's not New Haven and Chicago..."

He turned and looked at Mike and Tina. Tina was already easily the most drunk girl at the party, and Mike had clearly had a few himself, because she was perched atop his lap, laughing hysterically at something he'd said.

"... it's just where we are in life," Artie said. "And I can't blame you for that. I can't..." he trailed off, as Ryder emerged from the bathroom. "... keep you from doing the high school thing and dating people and finding out who you are, just like I did. I think that would be sort of wrong of me."

Kitty swallowed hard, not breaking eye contact with Artie as she took both of his hands. Ryder was either the most tolerant new boyfriend, or else he was thoroughly unconcerned about Artie stealing Kitty back. Artie noticed that Ryder didn't even flinch as he approached, about to interrupt.

"I just wanted to say how much I can't stand to lose your friendship," he added the next part for the benefit of Ryder, who was now in earshot. "So, please, don't... don't stop being my best friend."

"Of course not." Kitty was fighting tears, though, as she rose up to stand by Ryder, their height difference comparable to Quinn and Finn. In fact, Artie sort of felt like he was looking at Quinn and Finn, the high school power couple. The pair everyone wanted to be like.

Artie turned his chair to face the stage. Rachel and Sam had just started off karaoke by singing 'Time After Time,' as couples met on the dance floor and swayed to the music. Artie kept his chair angled to the front, but he didn't have to turn around to know that Kitty and Ryder were dancing behind him.

From across the room, Quinn was staring at him.