Author's Note: First off, I want to thank everyone who favorited, alerted or reviewed my story. All your kind comments are so lovely to read! Gold stars for all of you!
Here's the last (?) chapter, I hope you enjoy it.
Later that afternoon, the entire glee club holds practice in the auditorium. Rachel insisted that seeing the stage will help them all to better visualize their respective choreography. Currently, she is sitting on the stage floor manically diagramming out choreography in glitter gel pens. Girls are glittery pink, boys glittery blue and she and Finn as the leads are of course in gold.
Everyone is either seated on the stage floor pretending to listen, or standing off the side not pretending to listen at all. Mike and Matt are having a cheesy dance moves competition. Mike is apparently winning by doing the running man. Mr. Schue sits in one of the auditiorium seats and speaks rapidly in hushed tones into his cell phone. His divorce lawyer must have called again.
Tina feigns interest in Rachel's and Mercedes' argument ("Oh hell no! Why are you and Finn always up front? What're we supposed to do in the back? Sway?!") but really she's coming up with things she should've said to Artie earlier in the day. She studies the purple laces on her combat boots as she tries to come up with something more clever and biting than "I got slushied". Maybe a haughty "How nice of you to speak to me again" or even an angry and more direct "Screw you".
There's a loud click from Mr. Schue's ancient flip-phone as he angrily snaps it shut. He stands to face the club, pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs loudly.
"Ok, guys, from the top!"
The rest of glee practice goes by quickly. Tina chats with Mercedes and Kurt, Brittany shares a stick of blueberry gum with her ("It looks like your hair!"), and everyone sings backup for Finn and Rachel.
By the time practice is over, Tina is surprised to find herself physically exhausted even though most of her exertions today have been emotional. She promises to call Kurt and Mercedes later so they can all watch Project Runway together, but she's already thinking of excuses to bow out and go to bed early. She's just down the hall when she realizes she left her favorite red beanie in the auditorium. She trudges back, thinking about how weird the school feels when it's empty. Like it ceases to be this prison she's forced to go to for seven hours a day where people slushy her, or trip her and where she occasionally gets to do what she loves which is to go to art studio or glee. It's quiet, almost eerily so. Glee practice ran late again (partly due to some minor squabbling and partly due to Mr. Schue's timeouts for phone calls), so anyone that's still at school are the athletes and they're at the other end of school, on the football field.
She steps onto the stage at the auditorium and finds her beanie—with Artie. He's holding it and when he sees her come in he looks almost guilty.
If they weren't fighting she'd tease him about it, ask him if he's trying out a new look. Instead, she smiles shyly as he hands it back to her and she fits it on her head.
"Hey," he says.
"Hey."
"I, um…forgot my glove," he explains, waving his crumpled yellow glove.
"Oh."
Gee, this isn't uncomfortable at all, she thinks. She stands there, in the middle of the stage with him as if they were starring in a play.
He nods a little to himself, a gesture she interprets to say Okay, now that I got that over with… and wheels away. It's so much like last time, him going away leaving her to chastise herself over the things she should have said that she goes over to the edge of the stage and sits down to compose herself a little.
"I'm sorry," he says in a rush, as if his statement was all one word. She jumps a little, startled. While she was fishing around for her iPod in her messenger bag, he's wheeled back in. He's a couple feet away, adjusting his glasses nervously.
For what seems like the millionth time today, she's shocked. Tina had always thought that of the two of them, if they ever repaired what has happened between them, she would be the one to apologize. She's even practiced an apology speech for whenever that day came. She went over it lying in bed, during first period history, walking home from school .
But now, she can't even remember what she wanted to say except,
"I'm sorry, too." It's nearly a whisper the way she says it, and she wishes she had Mercedes' or even Rachel's bold, brash confidence right about now.
She fiddles with the chain on her skirt, her stockinged legs hanging over the edge of the stage into the orchestra pit. She doesn't receive a reply to her apology.
She's afraid that he still might be mad at her. In her panic, she starts talking at a frantic pace.
"I didn't stutter just because I hated speeches. Well, I do, but that's not it…" This is not the eloquent speech she imagined for herself. "I'm…afraid of people. I'm too weird and awkward and they make me nervous and when I got my first 'welcome slushie' I thought that my suspicions were right. That people only hurt you if you let them in too much…or at all." She takes a deep breath and continues, "But when I met you, it was different. You didn't make fun of me or laugh when I got tossed into those stupid dumpsters. And by the time I realized that I…" she struggled with the next part.
"When I realized that I'd made a friend, it was too late to say anything."
She looks over at him, surprised that he's suddenly much closer. While she was giving her little speech, he has managed to get out of his chair and sit himself next to her. Now, his legs are hanging off the stage too and he's leaned up against his chair, hands folded in hi lap. His blue eyes are gentle as they look into her slightly teary ones and they give her the courage to go on.
"I never meant to hurt you…or anybody."
She tries to lighten the mood. "You should've seen my mom's face when I told her. She looked like her head was gonna explode, like that guy's in Scanners."
He lets out a little chuckle and she's reminded of how she's missed that sound over the past weeks.
"I like you," she says and it takes all of her willpower not to say 'I like-like you' because saying that out loud sounds like one of those dumb notes kids pass to each other in middle school.
Do you like me? Check Yes, No, Maybe.
And even though it's so much more than that, she still hopes that if she were to surreptitiously pass him that note, he'd check 'yes'.
Artie's voice is soft as he speaks.
"I don't like fighting with you. Or being mad at you." He slips his ungloved hand into hers and squeezes firmly, once. "I'm sorry about…that night. I should've stayed to hear you out. I just couldn't then. I'm glad I do finally get to hear your side, though." They both smile at each other, then he lets out a weary sigh.
"It's just..now you get to be someone different. And I'm still me…in this chair."
She turns to look at him fully, but he's looking up at the ceiling, at anywhere except her.
"Artie, I like you. I don't care about the chair." She gently places her hand on his chin to get him to look at her.
"You're the best person I know," she says delicately, searching his eyes with hers. "You're the only person I know who can still be funny, and kind, and help a friend out when she's completely useless at her math homework even after you've been locked in a port-a-potty or pushed down a ramp. I'd like you the same even if you could walk..or even if you had really bad hair like Puck's."
They both laugh.
"Well, now I'm really, really sorry," he says smiling his goofy smile.
"I know," and she gently bumps he shoulder with his. "And I'm not really different now. I'm still the same old me. I like horror movies, the scarier the better, I hate chick flicks, I love the Ramones, I suck at trig, and I've got this best friend who's amazing."
They both sit in silence for a minute, his thumb brushing rhythmically against her knuckles.
"So we're okay?" he asks hopefully.
"More than okay," she answers. Smiling she holds out her hand and they shake, once, and the gesture is so cheesy they both giggle.
She helps him back into his chair and wheels him out of the auditorium. She feels like everything is brand new again, lighter. She looks down at him and is so happy to have him back that she abruptly stops the chair and hugs him from behind. She rests her chin on the soft shoulder of his sweater, breathing in the familiar scent of whatever detergent he uses. She wraps her arms around him and is comforted when she feels him hug her back tightly.
"What was that for?" he asks when they finally untangle.
She rolls her eyes. Boys are so dense.
"It's just nice to be back," she answers vaguely.
He turns around to look at her, a bright smile lighting up his face.
"It's good to have you back, Tee."
He reaches back suddenly and she feels him tug at her hair gently.
"What's this?"
She looks down at her red strand that she dyed seemingly so long ago. She blushes.
"Oh, I was thinking of dying my hair again. I was just testing it out. I don't think I'll keep it though." The dye served its purpose. Now, she can't wait to dye it back. That shade if red is definitely not her.
"I like the blue on you," he says.
"Me too. Although I was thinking maybe purple some time."
"That'd be cool too," he answers, smiling at her.
She gives in to an urge she's been fighting ever since they'd made up. She leans down to kiss him on the cheek—except, she goes in too fast, and he turns to her at the last minute and she really gets the side of his ear.
She laughs at herself and a little bit at Artie who, she is delighted to see, is blushing a dark shade of pink.
She's pretty sure she's blushing too but she ignores it while she rolls him forward again, suggesting they watch Shaun of the Dead tonight instead of doing chemistry homework.
He agrees and they argue a little bit over who in glee would survive the longest in the event of a zombie apocalypse. All they can really agree on is that the two of them would definitely survive and that Karofsky would definitely be eaten first.
They walk out into the bright white sunshine of late afternoon, eyes squinting after being so long in the darkened auditorium. Tina looks at Artie and he reaches his hand back to hold onto hers as she grips the handle of his chair. She threads her fingers through his.
It is definitely good to be back.
A/N Part Deux: Thanks to everyone who's read this and stuck with it! I wanted to get this up before Tuesday and it looks like I *just* made it, haha. Please review? I'll even try and get Mike Chang to demonstrate his awesome running man moves for you ;)