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"Speech"
Thoughts
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Things were starting to look up for Tina since she was going over to Artie's once they were released from glee club rehearsal. She couldn't help the smile that blossomed when she thought about getting Artie back in her life, where he belongs but when she thought about the boy with blue eyes being her boyfriend; she felt a weird feeling in the pit of her stomach and not the good kind of feeling either. Shaking her head, she pushed the thought away because she wanted and still wants Artie for her boyfriend, so she wasn't sure why she'd feel weird about it now. A small voice in the back mentioned the name of another boy but she ignored it because there was no way that the voice had any idea what it was talking about. A tap on her arm brought Tina out of her thoughts and she looked to her right where Artie was sitting and saw that he was looking at her.
"Are you alright, Tee?" he whispered and she nodded her head in response. There was no need to worry him about nothing especially before they had a chance to talk everything through after all. She turned her attention to the front of the room and tried to concentrate on what Mr. Shuester was saying but she found that focus was difficult for her to achieve with her mind running at a hundred miles per hour. Feeling someone's gaze on her, she turned slightly and saw that it was Puck looking at her with a weird look on his face before turning to stare at Rachel. Ignoring the weird feeling that she got, she returned her attention to their teacher for the remaining of the time that they had their meeting.
Once the group parted ways to head to their individual homes, Tina fell into step with Artie and they headed to his house. She was trying to figure out what she wanted to say to her friend beforehand so that she didn't stutter or anything when she was trying to tell him exactly how she felt. It was finally time for them to move on from this and she was glad that Artie had been the one to approach her because even though she shouldn't have lied about her stutter at all, he was the one to roll away from her and not vice versa. The walk passed quickly and soon they approached a familiar house that she had not visited in weeks and it looked like the charming house had not changed much in that time. Grabbing the handles on his chair, Tina pushed her friend up the custom ramp that was on the side of the house and she grinned when she heard his mother singing along to the radio as they entered the house.
"Mom, I'm home and I brought home a friend!" Tina couldn't help rolling her eyes at his greeting for being very blunt. A woman with light brown hair and grey eyes stepped out of the kitchen when she heard her son and smiled brightly as she caught sight of Tina then walked over to her, where she embraced the younger female. "It's so nice to see you again, Tina. After all it's been awhile since your last visit." Leaning in, the older woman whispered in her ear, "Maybe now, Artie will get out of whatever funk he's been in lately." Letting her go, she smiled at the pair. "It's wonderful to see you as well, Mrs. Abrams." Hearing Artie cough, she laughed lightly as she waved at her friend's mother then followed in to his bedroom, where they would be able to talk in private.
The room was just like how she saw it the last time she was here except it showed that the it dealt with a lot more wear and tear lately than what was usual and she could guess as to why that was. Placing her bag on the floor near the door, Tina moved into and took in all the little things that she liked about Artie and showed that this was his room and showed off his personality. Deciding that it would probably be best, Tina moved over to his bed and sat down on the edge of it, just like she used to. The Asian girl looked over at her friend and saw that he was smiling the smile that he usually reserved for her and she could guess why as she returned the smile with the one she saved for him. She was about to say something to him, when Artie beat her to the punch.
"Tina I owe you the world's biggest apology. I was such a huge and dumb prat to you, something that you never deserved. I'm so sorry and I'm sorry that I didn't realize what was exactly at stake when you were being completely honest with me." Tina processed what he said while he took a moment to adjust his glasses. "Instead of being honored that I was probably the first person you told about that and admiring the courage that it must have taken for you to tell me at all, I just got defensive and ended up hurting the one person besides my parents that I never, ever wanted to." He rolled closer to her until he was as close as he could get without either being on the bed with her or having her in his lap and kept staring at her in the eyes. As she was about to say something in response, he held up his hand to let her know that he wasn't done. "I've missed you, Tee, a lot. Since the moment that we met, you've been my best friend and these past few weeks have been the worst in my life since the accident and I'm surprised that I didn't give in sooner." Tina couldn't help herself as she reached over and grabbed his hand so that she could squeeze it. "I really am sorry; Tina and I hope that you could forgive me though I'm not sure that I deserve it." Artie flashed her a small and soft smile as he waited for her to respond to his apology.
As she listened to her friend talk, Tina was processing the words that were coming from his mouth and what that could mean for her and them as a whole. It seemed like he was saying everything that she needed to hear from him and she bit her lip as she tried to figure out she wanted to say in response to his words. After a couple minutes, she knew somewhat what she wanted to say to Artie.
"Thank you, Artie. It means a lot that you've thought about all of that and came to that conclusion. You're right, it did take a lot of courage, every drop that was in my body to tell you one of my deepest and darkest secrets because you meant that much to me. Do you have any idea just how much your reaction hurt me, how many nights I've cried myself to sleep because of you." Her voice started off soft and calm but it quickly rose in pitch until she had jumped off of the bed and stood with her hands on her hips. The Asian girl looked down at the floor when she realized how she had spoken to him and was about to apologize when she felt Artie grab her hand and squeeze it. "You're right, I have no idea exactly how much my actions hurt you but I have some idea because you're not very good at hiding your emotions on your face and in your body language." Tina looked at him then leaned down and hugged him tightly, relishing in the feeling of his arms around her. A few minutes later, she pulled away and smiled at him which he returned.
"So….can we give us another shot, a real shot? Tee?"
It was another day at William McKinley High School for one Tina Cohen-Chang, not that she really cared at the moment. Her mind was running at what seemed like a million miles per hour so she really wasn't focusing on what was going on around her and that almost got her in trouble a couple times if it hadn't been for her friends, Kurt Hummel and Brittany Pierce funny enough. She didn't understand why the blond helped her and the other girl didn't push the matter because she thought Tina was being like her for once. However, the same could not be said for one Kurt Elizabeth Hummel, who prevented her from getting slushied by grabbing her arm and pulling her away before the jocks noticed her.
"Tina, what the heck is going on with you lately? You don't seem to be all here." She raised an eyebrow at her friend. "What do you mean Kurt?" The fashionista stared at her for a couple moments before answering. "Oh, I don't know, maybe you seem to not be paying attention to much of anything lately that's going on around you." The Asian girl just shook her head at her friend. "I'm fine, just have some things on my mind is all." Seeing that her friend seemed skeptical, Tina flashed him a bright smile at him. "Thank you for your concern but I'll be alright. If I need someone to talk to, I know who to come find." She started walking away because she needed to get to her locker before she headed off to lunch but her stomach was already starting to growl because she was really hungry.
Deciding that she didn't want to deal with people, especially Artie at the moment, Tina got her lunch then headed outside to find a nice quiet place to eat her food and just relax a little bit. Eventually, she found the best spot and sat down at the table before digging into her food and got lost in thought as she tried to figure out what she was going to do about Artie as well Puck even though she still didn't understand why he was on her mind since she hasn't talked to him in a couple of days. Funny enough, her thoughts seemed to act as a summons because Tina was startled out of her thoughts when Puck dropped his tray on the table and sat down next to her.
Looking over at him, Tina raised an eye brow in reaction to his presence. "Well, this is a surprise." Puck looked back at her with a similar expression on his face. "Hello to you too, Girl Chang. What's that supposed to mean?" She watched him as he opened his soda and take a sip of it. "I thought that you were avoiding me, so excuse me if I wasn't expecting to be graced with your presence." Tucking some hair behind her ear, she picked up her sandwich and took a bite of it as the pair fell into silence as they ate their lunch. Once she had finished her sandwich and was working on her chips, the boy broke the silence. "So Quinn still won't let me have anything to do with the baby." He let out a sigh and ran a hand over his Mohawk and she felt her heart go out for him because even if he had made a mistake, he was trying to own up to it but the blond former cheer leader wouldn't let him. "I'm sorry to hear that. She really isn't thinking this through, is she?" He looked over at her with an indecipherable expression and she thought that he was going to say something but didn't.
As Tina got up to throw her trash out so that she could head to her locker, she was stopped in her tracks when he spoke up. "So, heard about you and Wheels." "Yeah, we decided to give our friendship another try." Puck looked at her with his head to the side. "So, he didn't want to pick your relationship back up then?" She paused and bit her lip to figure out what to say to him. "No, he did but I thought that we should rebuild our friendship first before potentially making that leap." The can that he was holding fell to the ground as he processed her words. Looking over at him, she walked over and kissed his cheek before stepping back. "Things will work out in the end, Puck. I'm sure of it." Quickly walking away so that she didn't see his reaction to her action, the Asian girl missed the funny mix of emotions – shock, happiness and panic – that took up residence on his face.
Later when she was walking to her car because Glee had been canceled, Tina was surprised when Kurt and Mercedes came up to her. "Tina! Tina! Tina!" She patiently waited for them to catch up and catch their breaths so that they could tell her what they obviously had to share if their expressions were any indication. "You'll never guess what we just found out." "What?" The pair exchanged crazy smiles before dropping the bomb. "Puck is dating Rachel now."