Sam
Sam thought it was pretty cool of Quinn to go and dance with Artie while he and Rachel sang Time After Time. She even sat in his lap, though Sam had to stop himself from going over there and telling her not to sit on his bro right now, on account of his back issues. He was trying to let Artie take care of Artie, but living with the dude and learning firsthand about many of his daily struggles, well, sometimes Sam couldn't help but run interference.
Rachel caught Sam's eye just then and made some kind of weird googly eyes in his direction. She was clearly a little tipsy. Sam gave an uncomfortable smile and looked away. Rachel Berry was someone he might have dated in high school, too, if they hadn't always been with other people. Now, however, he couldn't think of her in that way.
He couldn't seem to think of anyone in that way, except for Amy. That was how he knew this was something different. In fact, his mind was not at the party that evening, it was back at the Abrams' house, where he wouldn't have minded scrubbing the shower or mopping the floors alongside her, just to enjoy what little time they had together. Sam was looking forward to seeing her at the end of the night, though, as she'd dropped them off and agreed to pick them up later.
As he and Rachel exited the stage, Mercedes passed him on her way up, with Roderick trailing timidly along behind her. "I couldn't resist the urge to sing with this guy," she said, and Sam had to grin at how Mercedes went out of her way to encourage Roderick.
"Yeeeaah, it's pretty clear, I ain't no size two! But I can shake it, shake it, like I'm supposed to do!"
As the song brought the energy up, the drinks came out faster now. Someone also snuck upstairs to Rachel's bedroom to borrow a box of silly stage props and costumes, to which she gave a half-hearted protest before shrugging and taking another sip of the drink someone had handed her.
Sam took it easy on the drinking, though, not wishing to make a fool of himself when the only person who could legally drink came to pick them up later, while stone cold sober.
Another person who was surprisingly uninterested in getting plastered was the elder Puckerman. Sam figured the older brother in him just wanted to look after Jake, who was currently getting trashed with notorious goody-two-shoes, Marley Rose.
"I heard from Tina that you and Amy made it official," Mercedes said, casually joining Sam on the couch after she and Roderick's duet had ended. Mercedes was drinking a soda. She'd gotten pretty wasted at Rachel's last basement party, but it wasn't really her style. And the Mercedes sitting beside him now seemed comfortable enough in her own skin to go against the grain.
"With Artie's blessing," Sam added, although maybe blessing was a bit of an exaggeration. More like with Artie's reluctant concession.
"So, Sam Evans finally settles down," Mercedes teased, tucking her feet under her on the couch and, Sam wasn't sure if he imagined it or not, but she seemed to be cozying up a little. Or maybe there was more alcohol in Brittany's "giggle juice" than he'd thought, and it was causing him to imagine that every girl was flirting with him.
"Hey, you had your shot," Sam said, scooting away ever so slightly. He gave a nod to Artie, who was currently making his way to the stage. "Pretty cool of Rachel to get a ramp for her basement stage thing. I mean, you'd be surprised how many public places still don't have ramps in 2013."
"This was my audition song for glee club," Artie was saying into the mic, which someone had graciously lowered for him. "Maestro, hit it!" He gave a nod to Roderick, who'd appointed himself as D.J. after his performance.
"I'm just a bachelor, lookin' for a partner. Someone who knows how to ride... without even falling off..."
The newbies who didn't know Artie well enough to expect the guy to bust out with Ginuwine picked their jaws up off the ground and started laughing. Artie's song effectively turned it up. Everyone chimed in loudly on the chorus, though Artie managed to sing over them.
"The name of the game is audition song!" Artie announced, when his song was over. It seemed like he'd gotten over being pouty about Kitty, enough to have fun himself tonight, and Sam was glad to see it. Artie could be the life of the party, when he wanted to.
Hopping to his feet, Sam joined Artie on the stage. "Well, 'cause you're already up here," he said. "Why don't we do mine? Since you helped and all."
Artie gave a smile, mingled with sadness, as he quoted their friend. "What song you got in your back pocket?" He said, recalling what Finn had asked Sam right after they'd all met him.
Sam cast the same, sad smile down at Artie. "Billionaire," he said, glancing across the room at Puck and Mike, who weren't far behind Sam, as they climbed onstage, too. He and Puck promptly put on their guitars and Mike stepped in to improvise his famous moves.
"I wanna be a billionaire so freakin' bad..." Sam started off, grinning down at Artie as they both easily remembered the song that introduced everyone to Sam's voice.
Artie supplied his rap with a little teasing nod to a smirking Kitty as he rapped "been a couple months that I been single so, you can call me Artie Claus, minus the ho-ho!" If she minded, she didn't let on.
A few others jumped in with their audition songs next. Quinn, Santana, and Brittany got up and did 'Say A Little Prayer for You,' and not a single one of them had forgotten their dance moves. Tina, however, was too drunk to remember most of the words to 'I Kissed a Girl,' so Santana promptly joined her on stage to help her get through the song. Mercedes pulled Jane up on stage to help her with 'I'm Telling You,' when she found out Jane had sung the same thing.
When they finally ran out of audition songs, Artie got back onstage to do Hey Ya, with Jane and Madison singing back up.
That was the last song, as everyone started to disperse with designated drivers or on foot, if they lived in walking distance. Artie's team of jocks hauled him back up, this time including Ryder, Mike, and Sam, since Puck had already taken Jake and Marley home for the night. Artie gave a reluctant thanks at the top of the stairs, to Mike and Sam, and Sam didn't miss the fact that Artie had intentionally avoided looking at Ryder.
"Artie has that goofy sleepy look he gets when he drinks too much," Amy observed, as Sam had to help Artie with the transfer out of his chair this time around, while Artie meanwhile dissolved into giggles and promptly took up the entire backseat, laying his head in the opposite seat.
"You get to take him to the bathroom before he goes to bed and babysit him tonight," Amy said, as Sam finished stowing the chair in the trunk and climbed in the passenger seat. Artie was snoring softly before Sam even sat down.
"So, what about you?" Amy eyed Sam, curiously. "You look like you feel alright."
"Well, I knew you were picking us up," Sam said, smirking as he clicked his seatbelt into place. "And, seeing as this is still pretty new, I'm still trying to impress you. So I took it easy on the drinking."
"You impress me, Sam," Amy assured him, as she backed out of the driveway. "By the way, your family got in early. But it's late, so they're already sleeping. I thought you should know, though. I met your little brother and sister, and they're adorable. And your parents told me some stories about you already."
"And yet you still say I impress you, so it must not have been all bad," Sam cracked.
Amy was shaking her head. "No, your mom told me about how, when you were a junior, you got a job at the Dairy Queen and consistently brought home enough money for bills and groceries while your dad was out of work," she said, as Sam promptly ducked her head and blushed. "Said she figured you were doing something else to get that extra cash, but seeing as she was pretty sure you weren't selling drugs, she left it alone."
Sam sighed. As there was still at least one person alive who knew the story — namely, one Rachel Berry, he figured he might as well tell it. With a glance back at Artie, to ensure the other guy really was asleep, he fixed his eyes straight ahead and spit the next part out quickly.
"I worked at a strip club," he said, quickly. "I got a fake ID to pose as eighteen, even though I was only sixteen. Found out I wasn't the only guy there doing that either." He glanced at her. "You aren't laughing."
Her wide eyes met his, and she shook her head. "Because it's not funny," she said. "Sam, I'm really sorry you had to do that. I don't think your mom even knows, to this day..."
"And don't tell her," Sam interjected. "Please. My dad doesn't know either. If they suspected it wasn't just me putting in a lot of hours at the Dairy Queen, well, they never let on."
"Your secret is safe with me," Amy said, glancing back at her brother momentarily, too. "I guess that must be what drew me to you, Sam..."
"What, that I have a secret past as a stripper?"
"No!" Sam realized she kind of resembled Artie when she twisted her mouth to the side. And yet he still found her attractive, despite the fact that she bore a strong resemblance to his friend.
"Just that..." she went on. "Just that you and I have both always taken care of the people we love. I think that must be what drew me to you in the first place. I just sensed that you were that sort of person."
She was parking now, in the Abrams' driveway. She didn't get out when she turned off the car. Instead, after casting one more peek Artie's way, she leaned over and pulled Sam in, grabbing him by the collar. Sam had to admit, her aggressive nature and the way she was always initiating things between them was a huge turn on. He, too, cast one more sideways glance down at the sleeping Artie before commencing a full fledge make-out session with her, right there in the driveway.
"Wanna see the old treehouse?" she said, breathlessly, as Sam choked out a surprised outcry that wasn't really a coherent word, as he was a little tipsy and not thinking clearly. Meanwhile, he knew she was as sober as the night was long. Sam cast a questioning glance down at Artie.
"He'll be fine for a minute," Amy said, as she turned the car off but left the heater running. She giggled and shrugged it off, and Sam felt extremely guilty for abandoning Artie. If Artie did wake up, he was going to find himself stranded, since the chair was stowed in the trunk. But he was pretty solidly out cold at the moment. And Sam really wanted to follow Amy to the treehouse. And, he had to admit, sneaking around was pretty exciting.
Sam had noticed the treehouse before, whenever he'd been swimming in the pool, but he had never given it a second thought. Now that he thought about it, it was kind of sad to him, that they had this treehouse that Artie couldn't access anymore.
"Dad built this when we were little," she said, as they climbed the latter, Sam following behind her. "Talked about tearing it down and making a new one on the ground but he never did get to it. Artie then said he didn't care about having a playhouse anyway, so that was that. But I still used this old thing with my friends."
"I always wanted my very own treehouse," Sam said, wistfully. "Just, like, a place to hide out and do whatever I wanted..."
"Well," Amy shyly traced the lines on the boards. "Wish granted. We can do whatever you want..."
When they finally climbed back down to find Artie, he was still snoozing just as soundly as he had been when they'd left him in the car. Sam ended up just carrying him in like a sack of potatoes, as Amy brought the chair in behind them.
After Sam had woken Artie up long enough to coax him into the bathroom, they put him to bed. Amy then postioned Artie's legs into a comfortable position, pulled the covers up over him, and tucked him in.
"Looks like you've done that before," Sam said, with a nod to Artie's sleeping form.
Amy took a seat by her brother on his bed and gently pushed his hair out of his eyes, staring down at him. "There was a time when he never seemed to get any sleep," she said. "In that first year after the accident. He just couldn't get comfortable. I used to sit by him and wait for him to doze off. I didn't sleep much myself. But I'd sing to him and stuff. Eventually, we started singing together, a lot, and we found out we sounded pretty nice..."
"You impress me too, Amy Abrams," Sam said, leaning in to kiss her. Then they both looked down at Artie again.
"He'll murder us if he finds out about the treehouse," Amy commented.
Sam bit his lip. "Yeah, let's not tell him."