"You gonna sit down?" Hunter asked, turning away from the game of Halo he was currently wrapped up in and addressing Kitty, who was presently pacing behind the couch.
"When are Logan and Collin getting here?" Kitty wanted to know. Their older brothers lived together, in a small bachelor pad in Dublin, a smaller suburb just outside Columbus. It was about an hour's drive from there to Lima.
Kitty had picked tonight — the Friday after she'd been the guest of honor at Artie's place — because her oldest brothers had said they were free to come meet her new boyfriend. She knew she should've told them an earlier time, however. The twins were notorious for being late.
"I just texted Logan and he said thirty minutes," Hunter replied. "Seriously, sit down, Kitty. You don't need to worry. We're gonna be nice to him. Probably."
Kitty jumped, as the door opened, but it was just her father, coming back from the grocery store.
"Hope this new guy of yours likes red meat," James Wilde was saying, as he came into the kitchen with several grocery sacks. Kitty rushed in to help him. "They were having a sale on ribeyes. Looks like we're grilling tonight. I figured it might be nice to eat outdoors, while the weather's so good."
"Oh, um..." Kitty didn't know what to say to that, because as she pictured their back porch, she realized there were a couple steps down to get to it. Plus, their actual porch was old, there were broken boards, boards sticking up that Kitty tripped over all the time... it wasn't going to agree with the chair.
She hadn't said anything to her dad or her brothers about Artie's chair. And, seeing as none of them were really on social media, they had yet to see pictures or connect the fact that this guy she was dating from glee club was the one in the wheelchair. She was still deciding how to present that little tidbit, when the doorbell rang. Oops. She was out of time.
"I'll get it," Kitty ran to be the one to open the door. Flinging it open, she smiled down at Artie, who was wearing the fitted red polo shirt that she'd told him she liked him in on Monday. He'd actually found it in himself to leave the top button alone. He also had on jeans. She'd never seen him in jeans before. "Wow, hi, you look nice."
She stepped back to allow him to roll himself inside, which he did, doing a quick wheelie to get over the doorframe.
"Thanks, Amy got me—" Artie stopped, mid-sentence, and looked up as Kitty's dad and brother approached the front door. They stopped right behind her. Kitty could immediately tell she'd done something wrong by the look on Artie's face. It was a split-second, however, and then he looked normal again. "Hi, I'm Artie."
Hunter and James took turns exchanging handshakes with Artie, introducing themselves.
"Logan and Collin will be here soon," James said. "If you'll excuse me, I've got to get our steaks on the grill. Hope you like ribeyes."
"Definitely," Artie said.
"I'll help you, Dad," said Hunter, who excused himself as well, leaving Kitty and Artie there in the entryway.
She couldn't quite look Artie in the eye as he wheeled his way inside. But she could feel him staring her down. "What?" she asked, innocently.
"Kitty, it's pretty obvious you didn't tell them," Artie chastised her, shaking his head. He was smiling a little, though, and he didn't exactly look mad. Frustrated, maybe, by her lack of knowledge. "You need to prepare people. I'd prefer they already know about the chair before they meet me. It spares us all those awkward first impressions."
"Oh," she said, in a small voice. "That makes sense. Um, I can... uh, text Logan and Collin, if you want. That way they're prepared."
"Oh, I'm about ninety-nine percent sure that your other brother will take care of that," Artie said, with a shrug. "Nice house."
"Thanks," she said. "Um, it has... tile." She felt so bad about making things awkward for him that she couldn't seem to carry on a natural conversation about things. Instead, she was just word-vomiting the thing she was thinking about before Artie had arrived. At least this place has tile, so it's sort of accessible.
"Oh yeah, nice," Artie said, looking at the floor. "And you just moved here right at the beginning of the school year?"
Kitty nodded. "It looks like we're still moving in," she said. "Even though we've been here for months. The decorating is kind of up to me, so that's going a bit slowly, because I'm not good at it."
Artie opened his mouth to say something, but seeming to think better of it, closed it again and said nothing. They were interrupted by Hunter reappearing, as he flung open the back door. "You guys want to come out here?" he asked. "Oh, hey, Artie? Me and Dad probably will have to carry you over some steps, to get out on the porch, if that's cool with you, man."
Artie couldn't very well say no, so he agreed to that, which made Kitty feel even worse for a moment. She didn't need to worry, however, as Artie took the whole thing pretty graciously. And Kitty was seriously going to have to thank Hunter for being pretty chill. Well, or at least, she would have, had he not been an idiot two minutes after they'd all gotten settled around the table.
"So, Artie," Hunter began, as he pushed a chair aside to make room for the other guy at the table. "Tell me about yourself. Full name, age, social security number, all your previous addresses for the past three years..."
"Ignore him," James said, poking Hunter with the tongs. "Here, your turn, take over the grill. It's my turn to interrogate." James turned a chair backwards and sat. Kitty rolled her eyes at the way her dad always tried to act younger.
"Hit me with all you've got," Artie said, though he didn't really sound like he meant it.
But James just grinned. "Gamer tag?"
"Oh, on XBox?" Artie looked happy to be in the presence of a fellow gamer nerd and hadn't seen it coming from her dad. "Wheels94."
"Like 1994, like the year you were born," Hunter supplied helpfully, glancing over his shoulder from where he stood at the grill. "Yeah, Kitty did mention you were like, my age. How come you're still a senior?"
Artie shot Kitty a look that clearly said you could be bothered to mention my age but not the chair? Kitty hoped he'd forgive her after some serious groveling later. And maybe some heavy making out, which usually let her off the hook for just about anything, as far as Artie was concerned.
"Oh, well, my car accident set me back a year," Artie said, as Kitty wished for a way to go back in time and do this all over again. James and Hunter both exchanged looks at this, and now it was Artie who hadn't been told something and looked confused.
Just then, they were interrupted by the sound of a car pulling up, on the other side of the gate. The engine shut off and the sound of car doors opening and shutting followed.
"I told them we're back here," Hunter said, and Kitty figured out, when her brothers emerged through the gate, that they'd also been given the heads-up about Artie from Hunter, as they didn't so much as flinch when they saw him.
"Logan, Collin, meet Artie," Kitty said, as her two oldest brothers took turns reaching across the table to shake Artie's hand. "Logan's got the ponytail, Collin doesn't."
"Logan, long-hair," Artie quipped. "That's easy enough to remember."
"Collin, cool soul patch," Collin added, indicating the spot of hair beneath his lower lip. Kitty pretended to try to wipe it off as he swatted her away.
Until a couple years ago, they twins had still been so identical that no one outside of the family could tell them apart, and they'd always had fun with it. Kitty had been stunned when Logan changed his look first, then Collin also tried to do some things to set himself apart. They'd still chosen the same college, same major, and had been roommates for their entire lives.
"You guys are kind of like the Weasleys, minus Percy, Bill, and Charlie," Artie observed, which was rewarded with grins from all three guys, four including James.
Kitty didn't even have to worry about whether they'd like Artie after that comment. Her brothers, she had to admit it now, had always been complete and total nerds. And it was inherited directly from their father. It might have sort of explained Kitty's interest in Artie, being that she'd been accustomed to nerds her whole life...
Hunter had just been given permission, by way of Artie's comment, to showcase the Harry Potter themed board game he'd actually created last summer. "It's based on a real game called Bang," Hunter explained, enthusiastically. "It's this wild-west themed card game that's made in Italy. I adapted all the rules and characters, using Harry Potter, and created cards and everything. I had to use this really thick laminate, and then it was a bitch to cut it all out, but the end result was pretty sweet. Wanna play it after dinner?"
Artie had actually met his match in fast-talking, in Hunter. Of course, even if he hadn't wanted to play, he would have had to say yes. "You don't really have a choice, dude," Logan told him, patting Artie on the shoulder.
"Just say yes and let's move on," Collin added, helpfully, patting Artie's other shoulder.
"Will Ferrell quote?" Artie guessed, with a curious grin. Kitty guessed that he didn't know many people who could quote all the best SNL lines from The Best of Will Ferrell.
"Good job picking this guy," Hunter said, with a nudge to Kitty, who just rolled her eyes. "He fits right in."
"So I've noticed," Kitty muttered. But she was pretty relieved, actually, to see things going so well. She continued to be more of a spectator than a participant in these conversations, which continued over her dad's delicious steak dinner, complete with grilled veggies and bacon-wrapped jalapeños. Artie then started up a conversation about cooking with her dad, and Kitty couldn't help but marvel at Artie's quick way of winning them all over that night.
Later, Kitty walked him out to his car, when it was time for him to go home. As she did this, they both fell silent for the first time in awhile that evening.
"Can... can I ask you something?" Artie stopped in front of his car door and fixed Kitty with a serious expression. "It's just that you don't mention her. Did your mom pass away?"
Kitty drew in her breath sharply and just nodded, as he reached for both of her hands. His yellow and black gloves were currently still stowed away after dinner, so his palms gently touched hers.
"When I said I was in a car accident, Hunter and your dad kind of exchanged these, uh, these looks," he went on. "Was it—?" The question was left unfinished, as Artie didn't even need to ask, by the way her tough exterior crumpled as soon as he'd spoken.
"She died in a car accident last summer," Kitty could barely force herself to say it to him. "That's why we moved."
"Come here," Artie said, and Kitty obliged by crawling into his lap, curling up against his chest, and sobbing harder and longer than she had in awhile.
"I'm so sorry, Kitty," Artie said, his arms pulling her in tightly. "Why didn't you tell me before?"
"I didn't want people at school to know," she said. "I'm still not ready, so please, don't say anything. If people knew, they'd treat me differently, and I don't want their pity."
Kitty fully expected him to tell her she had to tell people about her mom, so it surprised her to hear what he said next.
"I respect how you feel about that," he said. "Your secret's safe with me. But if you ever want to talk about it, I'm here, okay?"
"Thanks, Artie." Kitty wiped her eyes and got off of his lap. She didn't know what else to say, so she just gave him a quick kiss and turned to hurry inside, not even waiting long enough for him to get into his car.
At the sound of clanking metal in the dark, as Artie dismantled his chair to prepare to pull it across his body and into the passenger seat, Kitty broke down once more. Her sobs were so heavy that she had to stop and catch her breath at the front door before heading in. She composed herself as quickly as she could, before going back in to face her dad and brothers.