Chatper One: Tuesdays

Artie had a love-hate relationship with Tuesdays. He loved that Tuesdays weren't Mondays, but he hated that they weren't Fridays. He had a similar relationship with Wednesdays, but it wasn't quite as extreme, because those were Wednesdays, not Tuesdays. He tried to explain that to someone once, and they just looked at him like there was something wrong with him and had muttered something about him making their head hurt.

He had a lot of good memories of Tuesdays. The first time he'd operated his wheelchair on his own, it had been a Tuesday. He had felt so independent.

The first time date he'd had with Tina, after which she had revealed her stutter was fake, had been a Tuesday. He was glad he'd forgiven her for that.

The day he'd been made president of the AV club and had secured the lead spot in the jazz band had also been a Tuesday. That was one of the best days of his school career. He felt so accomplished.

He and Tina got back together on a Monday night, but it was so late that he supposed technically it probably was also a Tuesday.

It was Tuesday, and the school day had been a flurry of activity. He got there early for band practice, and left late because there was an AV club meeting after glee club. It seemed like everything he was part of happened on Tuesdays...except for the yearbook committee. He assumed, as they got closer and closer to the deadline for that, it would probably also start happening on Tuesdays. How would he have time for everything?

He thought about calling Tina to see what she was up to that evening, but at the last minute decided instead to invite Martin and AJ over for some quality Wii time. Sometimes he felt like he and Tina spent too much time together, even if they were taking things slow. He wanted to do other things (now that he actually had people to do things with), and didn't feel like he needed to be with her all the time.

Ever since they'd been back together, he constantly found himself assessing whether or not he had acted in a suitable boyfriend manner...making sure he hadn't spent too much time playing video games, and complimented her often. Because he was so busy with all of his school-related activities, they didn't spend as much time together as they had the first time they'd been dating, or during the summer. He thought sometimes this annoyed her, but she never said anything, and he didn't want to bring it up in case she got mad.

He had talked about this with his friends several times, and they had given him mixed feedback. Martin thought what Tina had done to him was unforgivable, even if he hadn't been the best boyfriend ever. He couldn't believe they were back together. He made it very clear that he thought it was a bad idea. AJ thought that Artie needed to keep trying harder to be a good boyfriend, because he hadn't treated her fairly the first time around. Artie didn't really know where AJ had gotten his information from, because they hadn't been friends at the time. Had he been talking to Tina about it? He knew that he should have treated her better, but at the same time he didn't like that AJ seemed to blame everything that went wrong during their first attempt at a relationship on him.

Sometimes he still couldn't believe he even had friends to discuss these things with. While he had always know that he really was great, it was only recently that other people had started noticing this as well. He had known both Martin and AJ for a while, but they hadn't actually become good friends until just before summer started. He wasn't exactly sure how that had even happened, but he was glad that it had. They had invited him over to Martin's house for some extra jazz band practice, mainly because Martin played the baritone sax and hated to drag it around to other people's houses, and their friendship had just grown from there. They understood him and the way his mind worked. He often wondered why they hadn't become better friends much, much sooner.

One thing he noticed early on was that it was always "Martin and AJ," never "Martin or AJ." It was like they were always together. He admired their epic bromance, but at the same time was glad he didn't have someone like that. He liked his alone time, and the two of them always seemed to be together. He wondered if that was part of what bothered him about his relationship with Tina...she always wanted to be together. He quickly pushed that thought from his mind. He loved her, even if he didn't always agree with how she thought things should be.

Just as he was finishing up thinking about Tuesdays and his relationship with Tina and his friends, he heard a knock at the door. He was home alone, so he went to answer it.

Standing on his doorstep were Martin and AJ...and Tina.

Why was she there? If he could have kicked himself for that thought, he would have. He was in love with her, and he should have been thrilled to see her...right? Why, then, was he thinking that he kind of wished she wasn't there?

"Hey man," said AJ, stepping inside, "we saw Tina walking, so we thought we'd just pick her up and bring her along."

"That's great!" he said. He just hoped it was as convincing as he thought it should be.

They fiddled around with the Wii for a bit, trying to include Tina, but she just wasn't into it. Finally, she said she had to get going, because she still had homework to do. Artie thought she looked kind of mad, and as he walked her to the door he noticed she had that cold, emotionless expression she got when she was upset.

He felt like he had to say something. "Tina, I'm sorry...I didn't know you were coming here tonight. We'd already had this planned, and I just wasn't expecting you."

"It's fine Artie," she said, but he could tell from the look on her face that it definitely wasn't fine. "I just feel like I don't get to see you that much since school started. You're doing so many things now, and I just feel like we're not spending enough time together."

He knew something like this would happen. As soon as he saw her on the doorstep with his friends, he should have said something to make them leave so he could spend time with her. A good boyfriend would have done that.

Wait...did she expect that he'd just shun his friends to spend all of his free time with her? Because that wasn't going to happen. Surely there had to be a middle ground where he got to do everything he wanted, see his friends, and spend quality time with his girlfriend.

He loved her, and he knew he needed to make it right.

"Tee, I'm sorry. Really. Why don't you come home with me tomorrow after school, and we'll have a little alone time?"

That seemed to satisfy her, and she kissed him before leaving.

As he turned to head back to the living room for more intense Wii action with the guys, he couldn't help but think how lucky he was to have Tina, even if sometimes she made things difficult. He knew he made things difficult sometimes too. He was just going to have to try harder to be the best boyfriend he could be. He could do that. She was worth it.

Tuesdays were Quinn's favorite days of the week because on Tuesdays she went to her grandmother's house, where her grandmother was teaching her an assortment of activities, like knitting and baking and cooking pot roast. By the end of her senior year, Quinn was going to be ready to teach a home ec. class straight out of the 1950s. But Tuesdays were kept a secret from everyone, including Finn, even though they had agreed, when they got back together, not to keep anything from one another. But Quinn didn't really feel it was a problem, considering it was only an evening with her grandmother and not wine coolers with his bff. At the same time, she felt a little guilty about it. The real reason she didn't tell him was because she was kind of embarrassed of the home making nights with Grandma. She didn't know other sixteen year old girls who engaged in the same type of pastimes.

Inhaling she gave her wheel a sharp turn, going left, as she drove, that Tuesday, to her grandmother's, not able to stop thinking about Finn. At the end of Junior year, she had felt like her life was in shambles. Her dad had been emailing her, and not those drunken sent at midnight ones but real heartfelt emails where he apologized for his past behavior and told her he wanted to renew a relationship with her. Apparently, he had almost died sometime in February and his perspective on his whole life had changed. Anyway, he had asked her to move to Chicago for the summer, so they could spend some time together. On top of that, she had broken up with Sam because she realized she had just been using him as a replacement Finn, who she still loved, who she had never stopped loving. And to make things that much better, Coach Sylvester said her performance wasn't all it could be so she was thinking of replacing her as head Cheerio…with Brittany.

It had been almost too much to take and she felt like getting away from everything. So that's what she had done. Once the semester let out, her and her mom had gone to New York for three days and played tourist. It had been nice to get away and when she got back, she knew what to do.

First, she told her dad that, though, she loved him, she didn't want to leave her mom. But she promised to visit him more than once. It was a promise she kept.

Second, she called Finn and left a voicemail asking him to go on a date with her, as he was single (she wasn't exactly sure of all the details surrounding the Rachel/Finn break up and she didn't care).

Third, she had marched herself into Coach Sylvester's office and told her that she was the best at being head Cheerio and they both knew that. Coach Sylvester had curled her lip than told Quinn she was proud of her for standing up for herself but to never do it again.

Three days after she called Finn, he returned her call and said yes to the date.

Admittedly, their first date (second first date) was a bit awkward but Quinn was determined to make it work.

By the end of the date, Finn was beyond fidgety. "Look, Quinn," he had told her. "I'm not sure if I can do this. I mean, with all that has happened between us…"

Feeling as if everything she wanted was starting to slip away, she grabbed his hand and forced him to look into her eyes. "Look, Finn, I messed up in the past but I really want this." Then, with a slight hesitation, she had whispered, "I love you." It was really difficult, to allow herself to be that vulnerable, but she had to do something or he was going to end it before it had the chance to begin again. And it wasn't as if she was lying. She meant it; she loved him.

Swallowing, he had paused before agreeing to see where the relationship might go.

Two months later, they were still together. And, best of all, Finn had told her he loved her. She had expected to feel incredibly happy at the words. Not that she didn't feel happy. It just seemed off but she couldn't figure out why. When she kissed him, after his declaration, she let herself concentrate on the kiss and nothing else.

Pulling alongside the curb in front of her grandmother's house, she decided that she would tell Finn about how she spent her Tuesday nights. He wouldn't judge her, after all.

As she exited her car, her phone buzzed, once, then twice. Taking her phone from her bag, she saw that she had received two text messages.

One was from Rachel and read, "When are we voting on the theme for the yearbook? I think it is imperative that we vote soon! The year will be over before we know it and" Wrinkling her nose, Quinn saw that Rachel had sent three other texts, all run off thoughts from the first. She quickly typed in "Tomorrow," then pressed send.

The second text was from Finn. "Wht ru doin?" Rolling her eyes at his text speak, she answered, "I'm actually spending some time with my grandmother." She stared at the screen for several seconds before sending it. Only a few seconds later, her phone buzzed again.

"Orly thats cool."

Grinning, Quinn inserted her key into the lock of her grandmother's door. She should've known Finn wouldn't care. Why would he? He loved her and accepted her, completely, just as she did for him. At least, that was the case this time around and that's the way it was going to stay.