Part Three: It's Just You and Me and Everyone Else
After cheerleading practice, Brittany and Santana were waiting for Quinn on the edge of the field. Because they hadn't done so in quite some time gave Quinn a mental pause but she accepted their greetings in as friendly a manner as she could manage and walked with them toward the locker room.
"Listen, Q, here's the deal," began Santana, right before they entered the girl's locker room. "Artie belongs to Brittany."
"Belongs to him?" Quinn asked, incredulously. "I'm pretty sure he belongs to himself."
Stamping her foot, Santana answered, "You know what I mean. So don't think you can charm him away from her, Barbie."
Raising an eyebrow, she stared Santana down, inwardly feeling triumphant when the other girl glanced away, then turned toward Brittany. "You have nothing to worry about, Britt. Artie is an amazing guy but I like Sam…"
Twirling the hair from her ponytail around her finger, Brittany responded with a joyful, "Okay!" then skipped into the locker room.
As soon as Brittany was out of earshot, Santana gripped Quinn's forearm, preventing her from leaving. "You don't sound too sure about liking Sam. And you really seem to think Artie's an amazing guy."
"So?" Yanking her arm out of Santana's grasp, Quinn spun on her heel, away from Santana and towards the locker room. "He is an amazing guy. Any idiot with half a brain could figure that out. Which must mean Tina has less than that. Anyway, you have nothing to worry about. I don't plan on stealing Brittany's boyfriend." From the glimpse out of the corner of her eye, it almost seemed like Santana looked disappointed but Quinn believed she must be imagining things.
"Two weeks to the dance," commented Tina, sinking into the seat beside him. "Are you excited?"
Without looking up from his gamer magazine, Artie shrugged.
"I'm not," Tina continued. "Mike's all…happy about going with Penelope what's her face." Hunching her shoulders, Tina slumped in her seat.
"Tina," said Artie, without moving his line of vision from the article about Halo. "You have nothing to worry about. Mike's devoted to you." Even though you're clearly only dating him for shallow reasons, he added in his head.
"I guess." Interlocking her fingers, she waited for Artie to say more but, when he didn't, she moved to another seat, further away from him.
A few minutes later, Quinn had taken her place. It wasn't unusual for her to sit next to him in the front row. More often than not, it was her preferred seat. "Hey."
Smiling at her, he responded, "Hey."
Twiddling her thumbs, Quinn appeared poised to say something else but didn't.
"What's up?" he asked, furrowing his brow.
"Oh…it's…it's nothing." Biting her bottom lip at his extended stare, she focused on the piano. When she just couldn't take his penetrating gaze anymore, she faced him again. "This dance, it's…it's not really like a date. I'm not really but kind of am with Sam-"
"Oh!" he interrupted, turning a light shade of red. "I wasn't thinking of it like a date date. Because I'm not really but kind of am with Brittany and so there's that." Stumbling awkwardly over his words, he kept talking though his brain was yelling at him to shut up. "And, I mean, you're hot but not just hot but also beautiful, not that I spend a lot of time thinking about that… All I mean is that, even though this is not a real date and we're kind of with other people, I'm honored to be your date, though it's not a date date. But not just because you're hot but, you know, you're smart and funny and…I should probably shut up now." Clamping a hand over his mouth, Artie eyed her, waiting for her to say something, anything.
Instead, she laughed, amusement dancing in her hazel eyes. "Thank you for that barrage of compliments, Artie," she said, through her continual laughter. Taking a few breaths, she calmed herself, then said, "I think you are all those things too and I'm honored to be attending with you as well."
Confused, Artie tilted his head. "You think I'm all of those things?"
"Yes…" Counting off on her fingers, Quinn listed back what he had said. "Smart, funny, hot…beautiful." Smirking, she leaned forward, her breath itching across his cheek. "Especially the last one."
Letting out a strangled chuckle, Artie averted his eyes just as Mr. Schuester entered the room. He probably would've laughed harder had she not admitted that she thought he was hot and had been completely serious about it. He had actually never been called "hot" per se. Not even by the girls he had dated (all two of them). It was…interesting to have finally been labeled hot but he wasn't sure what to make of it. It entered his mind to ask her if she really thought he was hot but figured that if he did, he would make things so awkward he would surely be given the most awkward person of the year award.
Once glee club was over, he hurried out of the room.
Quinn watched him, unsure of the reason for his mad dash out of the room. For the briefest of seconds, she contemplated that he had left in such a hurry because of something she had said earlier but that seemed highly unlikely.
She was in the middle of gathering her things, when Sam sauntered over and slung an arm around her. Surprised, since he had recently been keeping his distance, more or less, due to the whole fiasco where Quinn had admitted to maybe still having feelings for Finn. She had since told Sam that was untrue, though Finn was her first love. It's not as if those feelings could fade over night and, of course, she would always have a special place for him in her heart. But she couldn't tell Sam any of that. "Hi…" she said, trying not to stagger under the weight of his arm.
"Hey. So, I was thinking that you, me, Artie and Finn could all get a limo for prom."
"Oh." Jutting out her bottom lip, Quinn though about his offer, almost accepted then remembered something. "Oh, no…we couldn't do that. We have dinner plans and I know you two also do. I think it would be best if we went separate." Opening his mouth, Sam started to protest but Quinn pressed a finger to his lips. "We'll have plenty of time together at the dance."
Disappointed, Sam let his shoulders sink a little. "Oh, okay. Yeah, the dance." Dropping his arm from around her shoulders, he shuffled toward the door, not even looking at her as he left.
He had just exited through the door when Finn practically attacked him. "Hey, guess what?" Quinn heard Finn saying excitedly. "I got us a stretch hummer for prom, man! Isn't that awesome?"
"Uh…yeah, that's awesome."
Letting out a small laugh at Finn's exuberance and Sam's apparent lack of it, Quinn put the strap of her bag over her shoulder, heading out into the hall, stopping when she spotted Mercedes leaned up, sad expression in place, against her locker. Blinking a couple of times, Quinn walked past her, not even slowing down in the process.