After being thrown off the tube and coming up like a drowned rodent, coughing and sputtering after being caught off-guard, Kitty swam to the side of the boat, Artie not far behind her. Sam gave Kitty a hand up first, while Amy hopped into the water to help Artie. As Sam pulled him up, Artie looked intently at Kitty, the conversation they'd started right before riding the tube still weighing on him, too. Artie let Sam lift him all the way off the boat and into his seat this time. He muttered a 'thank you' as Amy and Sam returned to the front of the boat.

After arranging himself into a comfortable, natural-looking seated position on the boat, he resumed the conversation with Kitty that they'd started on the tube. "I don't want my freedom," Artie insisted. "We've been through this. I'm gonna be pretty busy with college and you're... you're sixteen. I didn't even tell you this, but I got a job, too."

"A job?" Kitty was always under the impression that Artie couldn't work, as he might risk losing the monthly disability benefits.

Seemingly knowing what she was thinking, he explained. "I don't get many hours," he said. "Or get paid all that much. But when I stopped by the disability services office on Friday, I found out they always need readers for blind students. So, I'm doing that. I'm helping a blind guy with a few of his classes."

"How noble of you," Kitty couldn't help the sarcasm that snuck out with that comment. She was so annoyed at him, that he'd planned, all along, to drop her at this very moment. And that he so condescendingly had to remind her that she was sixteen, meanwhile, he had college and a job.

"Kitty..." But she was looking the other way and strategically moved away from him, knowing full well that gravity had him kind of stuck in the corner at the moment, and if he tried to move towards her, he'd risk going flying off the boat. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Amy looking their way again.

It was kind of hard to go about snubbing him the rest of the day, given that they were now doing all kinds of activities together. But she did it anyway, hoping that Pops and Mimi wouldn't catch on and be offended. She managed to play a board game with the group without really talking to him. Later, when they went out on the boat again, just to ride in the evening and watch the sunset, she claimed she wanted to ride up front and swapped places with Sam. She kind of ruined what was going to be a potentially romantic moment for Amy and Sam...

But what she hadn't counted on was Amy calling her out.

"What happened between you and Artie this morning?" Amy wasted no time in jumping right to the point, looking plainly annoyed that Kitty had just stolen Sam's seat. But maybe more annoyed that there was suddenly trouble in paradise between Kitty and Artie.

Kitty looked over her shoulder, but since the engine of the boat roared behind them, no one could really listen in on the conversation. Still, she caught Artie staring their way.

"That's... between me and Artie." Kitty said, turning to face the front again. She didn't sound nearly as sure of herself as she wanted to when she said this outloud.

"No, it's not," Amy countered, bluntly. As she expected, Amy wasn't about to let her off the hook.

"Look, it was his idea!" Kitty shot back. "And yes, it's my fault, too, I mean, I was going along with the plan to break up..." There was a pause, as she tried to rationalize her thoughts. "I just... I tried to tell myself that I needed to be older, to date him, that it wasn't going to work out right now, but that maybe someday... I don't know." She shrugged. "I... I can see a future with Artie. But if he's not ready, if he thinks the age difference is that big an issue, then I don't want to force him to stay with me."

Amy blinked. It seemed Kitty's outburst had surprised her, enough for her to drop all pretenses long enough to ask, "Do you mean that?"

"Uh, what?"

"Do you mean that you can see a future with him?" Amy clarified. "I'm just asking because, honestly, that's a first. I'm getting tired of watching girls toy with him and toss him aside because they can't make themselves stay when it really hits them, what they're giving up, to choose him."

Kitty folded her arms across her chest, but then unfolded them to grip the side as the boat picked up speed. "He's the one who isn't giving me a choice."

Amy pressed her lips together. "Well, honestly, that's not a first..." she sighed. "Did he ever really tell you how Tina and he broke up?"

"Uh, Tina dumped him for Mike Chang at Asian camp," Kitty answered. "Yes, I know that."

"No..." Amy lifted her shades, as the sun was now going down, and placed them atop her head. "I mean, yes, but that's not all that happened. You see, he kind of ignored her... pretty much all summer, to be exact."

"No, I knew that, too," said Kitty, who had also heard Tina's side of things.

"Yeah, but she will tell you it's because he just wanted to stay inside and watch old movies and play video games all summer," Amy went on. "Doesn't make a lot of sense, when you consider that the guy has a pool and usually has pool parties with his friends all summer."

Kitty frowned. "So, what happened?"

"I'm pretty sure he never even explained himself," Amy said. "To this day, she probably doesn't know. And he might actually be mad at me for telling you but..." she glanced over her shoulder.

Kitty knew she was looking at Artie, but she couldn't do it, too, or else Artie would know they were talking about him. If he hadn't already guessed it.

"Paraplegics sometimes get scoliosis," Amy told her, shifting gears so suddenly that Kitty couldn't figure out what this had to do with anything. "With Artie, we noticed him sitting really crookedly around his freshman year. When he finally saw the doctor, sure enough, he had developed a pretty severe curvature that was going to require surgery to correct. Artie hated the idea of anyone knowing about it, so he hid it from everyone, Tina included. He had the surgery at the beginning of summer break. She went to that camp, and he never saw her before or after camp, leaving her to think he was just ignoring her for weeks at a time."

Kitty let that sink in for a few moments, as Amy sat quietly and gave her time to process the story she'd just told.

"Artie expects me to do what she did," Kitty said, as it all finally made sense. "To move on, at the first sign of trouble. So, he's just protecting himself by being the one to end it first."

"Classic Artie defense mechanism," Amy said, with a nod. "Look, you two, you do what you want... it really isn't my business. I just thought you should know where this is coming from."

"Yeah, thanks..." Kitty mumbled.

Kitty didn't know how to approach him after that. Although Amy's story helped her sort of understand his motives a bit better, it didn't do anything to soften the blow that he trusted her so little. Hadn't she earned his trust? She thought of how quick he had been to assume the worst, after Bree's little social media stunt after camp. And then she had her answer. No, she didn't have his trust.

But it wasn't her fault. It didn't seem like he really trusted anyone. Not if he had to keep something as big as surgery a secret from everyone he knew.

She tried to act normal again, striking up surface-level conversations when they had another s'more bonfire night after dinner that evening. It worked. She had Artie convinced that nothing was wrong by the end of the night, even kissing him goodnight before they went their separate ways.

She was glad Amy stayed up late, sitting out on the porch with Sam, because it meant she didn't have to have an uncomfortable conversation with Artie's sister before bed. Tomorrow would be Sunday, the day they'd drive back home, stopping off at OSU to drop off Artie and Sam on the way. When Amy returned to the room, Kitty pretended she was sleeping, that she hadn't been lying awake wondering what was going to happen the next day.

They had forty minutes alone in the car together, on the way back, and Kitty had been dreading those forty minutes ever since her conversation with Amy. It was after this that he would stay put, with Sam, and she would get into the truck with his sister and drive back to Lima, probably crying the whole way, being that she could already feel a lump forming in her throat now.

"You okay?" How he could ask that with the utmost sincerity, like he really didn't feel every bit of pain that she felt, was just another twist of the knife for her.

"Not really," she admitted.

"What's wrong?" he asked, his eyes darting between her and the empty stretch of road between his grandparents' home and OSU.

"Isn't today the day we break up?" Her eyes were filling with tears as she said this, and Artie looked like he wanted to pull over and hug her, but there wasn't a good way to do it on these narrow county roads.

"I thought we both agreed it was for the best awhile ago..." Artie trailed off. "I mean, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't having second thoughts now, but..."

He had second thoughts. But... but there was always the fact, and she knew it, that her past made her especially untrustworthy, and given the fact that he didn't seem to trust anyone, she doubted he was going to start today, with her. But, since she had him here, on the road with no place to go, she had to find out why.

"Why would you hide something like major surgery from your friends?" Kitty blurted out. "From Tina. You claim she's your best friend now, she was your girlfriend at the time, but you kept that from her."

Artie furrowed his brow, saying, "What? That was like... like four years ago? Did Amy tell you that? That's... that's ancient history. It has nothing to do with us."

"Yeah, it was Amy," Kitty said. "Not the point. Answer my question, because it has everything to do with us. I want to know why you kept that from Tina. From everyone."

"The same reason you don't tell people about your mom!" Artie blurted out. When Kitty dropped her eyes to her lap, and he saw her out of the corner of his, he sighed. "Sorry, that was out of line."

"Yeah, it was," she said, softly.

"I'm sorry," he said again, and the remorse in his voice was so intense that she couldn't let him think she was too angry. She reached over and touched the gloved hand that was atop his steering wheel.

"Well, I'm sorry for calling you out," she said. "I was just... shocked, that's all. You had a major surgery after freshman year, this was after glee club had started, and you still didn't tell anyone?"

"Well, Finn knew," he said, sighing deeply at the mention of their late friend. "Found out is more like it, but anyway, I made him stay quiet about it. And then there was Quinn... and Mercedes... okay, so, a few people knew. I mean, yes, I had glee club, but it was still new, and I didn't want people to treat me like I was even more weak and fragile than they thought."

"You were dating Tina," Kitty pointed out. "I know you were pretty young... well, actually, you weren't, you were almost the same age I am now..."

"I knew it was only a matter of time," he said. "She... well, you know how Tina is. She never treated me like a boyfriend, more like someone she was taking care of. All the more reason I couldn't tell her about my surgery. She would've freaked out."

"I see."

It sort of made sense, but it still seemed like Artie's reaction was a little extreme. More concerning was the fact that Tina never found out. It seemed like she would have known, somehow, if she'd paid any attention at all.

"What does this have to do with us?" Artie wanted to know.

"It just made me realize that you don't trust people very much, Artie," she said, and in a small voice, added, "Me included."

Artie didn't immediately protest that statement. Instead, he fell quiet so long that Kitty thought he might have been giving her the silent treatment. But after a moment, she realized something else. There were tears in his eyes. And this time, nobody had died. Artie was blinking quickly and swallowed hard now.

"Artie, what?"

"Just thinking that you're right," he said, choking a bit on the words. "Kitty... it's hard to tell the difference between a pity friendship and a real one. And even a pity date and a real one. And even now, telling you all of this is the opposite of what I want to do. Everything in me wants to lie and say it's fine."

"And put on saddle shoes and khakis with a belt and an Oxford shirt buttoned all the way up and play the part of the nerd that you think you're meant to play."

It hadn't been easy, but she'd figured him out. And called him on it. That got a laugh out of him, which was a relief, because she knew how very much he didn't want to cry just then.

"Except that you're an athlete," Kitty said, which made him smile. "Seriously, I've never seen anyone as determined as you on your sit ski. And you're a performer. The best white rapper I ever met..." Artie was laughing now, and so was she. "... Not to mention, an amazing lover..."

Artie was pulling over now, having found a truck stop. "Artie, not on the side of the road, that's way too gross..."

Still laughing, he shook his head. "No, I just had to stop so I could look at you," he said, putting the car into park. "Kitty, I just... thank you. I don't know where I'd be without you."

"I don't know either, because you weren't even doing film school until I cornered you into talking to your mom."

"Yeah, that too," Artie admitted. "No, I just... Kitty every single fiber in me says breaking up is not what I want right now. But... but... if you feel even the slightest bit ignored, I need you to dump my ass, deal?"

Kitty grinned. "So, like, as far as my Facebook status is concerned?"

He grinned and leaned over to kiss her, deeply and passionately and definitely not for the last time. "Yes," he said. "We're still a thing. Shockingly, publicly, still a thing."

The End.

... For Now. ;-)

Special thanks and dedication goes out to my writer pal, Quinn Abrams! Thanks for all your reviews and for inspiring me to come back and write again after a nine year hiatus.