20. Artie
"I am not one of them," Artie thought on his way to the choir room. "I don't want to fight for three and a half minutes under a spotlight. I don't want to rip my friends' eyes out for a solo. I don't want to be the talk of the school because I've been doing one or another. And, obviously, I'm not enjoying this."
What Artie Abrams was referring to was the cold gaze he got from his… friends? Everything was weird. Since the word spread after the wedding, no guy at school had talked to him, so it was kind of a long, long Monday.
There was no cure for it, just more questions. "How can everyone be afraid that the boy in the wheelchair takes their girlfriends away? McKinley logic." And the only answer he got at Glee Club was a silent treatment from Sam, Rory and Joe. He actually didn't care, because they weren't that close. Since the seniors graduated, his only friend was Tina, and things looked complicated with her now. He also had Brittany, but she didn't feel like being with a cheater either.
"So…" Sebastian pulled up a chair right next to where Artie had parked and sat backwards. "I heard you're having fun with a married one, huh? Nice." He held his hand out waiting for a high-five but Artie left him hanging.
"Leave him alone," Blaine said in a tired tone of voice.
"Oh, come on, Blainey, don't tell me you didn't have fun in the wedding either!" Sebastian replied.
Blaine rolled his eyes. It wasn't a day to remember. Things after Tina's announcement didn't get any better. They went home shortly after that, when Quinn threw everybody out.
"It was fun. They got married… and the vows weren't said by the bride and the groom exactly…" Sam intervened. "By the way, has anyone talked to Mike?"
No one could give an answer because Rachel arrived at that exact moment. She took her usual speech place in the middle of the room and started her routine talk. "Okay, first of all, I want to apologize for anything that I could say, do or steal last Saturday. I don't remember anything after that fatidic 'I do'. Second of all, rumor has it that some of you had the nice gesture to think of me this Sunday and gave me a few phone calls, but I lost my entire address book because of an outbreak of paranoia I suffered when I got home and, according to my dads, celebrated something with their best Pinot Noir, the one they were saving for the premiere of my first show on Broadway, 'The Berry Best', the heartbreaking story of a lonely townie girl that finds out that she's called to be the greatest voice of the 21st century."
"Do us all a favor and cut the crap," Tina said while walking into the choir room.
Rachel turned to the girl. "I think you did something really embarrassing, but I don't remember. Could you have fallen into a fountain?"
"No, that was last year, when you promised me that this would be my year to shine."
"Didn't you shine when you sang The one that got away?" Rachel asked back.
Tina burst into laughter. "You're a rockstar, man," she said to Blaine while sitting next to Artie. "Hey, my place, later. You in?" she asked the boy.
"Tina, I'm… I'm not okay with the whole cheating thing. And I'm less into discussing it in front of everybody right now."
"The girl's hungry. Feed her," Sebastian said while elbowing Artie.
Tina chuckled as she shook her head, moving her new bangs. "It's not cheating! Mike and I weren't dating anymore." She stood up and pushed Rachel away, taking her place. "I'm going to say because I don't want to spend the whole year like Berry, talking about her dramatic relationship with Mr. Fabray."
"Wait a moment, please," Sebastian interrupted her.
"What?" she asked rudely. "Feel free to record it. It's a very valuable statement. That reminds me that, Sam, you should show Berry her wedding toast."
Sebastian half closed his eyes as he stared at Tina. "We're all thinking the same, right?" he asked the group.
"That if Frodo stood right behind Tina she'd be an exact replica of Berry? Yes," Santana said while coming into the choir room.
Everybody looked at Santana, and her black eye. "What happened to you?" Sam asked in awe.
"I got a rematch against your Barbie while she was all Gollum trying to find her husband's ring. And now she has neither ring nor hair on the left side of her head," she said while displaying it. Excuse me, them. She took a long lock of blond hair out of her bag.
All the kids grossed out. "Why the hell do you bring this with you?!" Artie yelled.
Santana dropped it on Joe's lap on her way to her seat. "Maybe the little Jesus would like to do any miracle and make a Fabray for himself. Wouldn't it be so biblical? Jesus creating the Devil." She laughed loudly.
"Anyway, as I was saying," Tina resumed her speech, "I want you all to know that Mike and I broke up this summer before he left to Chi…"
"He Finned you too?" Santana kept laughing like a maniac. "What's wrong with all of you guys? Can't you manage with a vagina via Skype?" she said looking at Blaine. "It's easier than you think!"
Blaine made a face at Santana. "Why do you say it to me?"
"Come on, Frodo, there are some rumors we cannot deny." The former Cheerio kept with her nervous laugh. She put Finn's ring on Blaine's middle finger and took his shoes off, throwing them to the other side of the room. "Perfect."
"Santana… are you okay?" Artie asked, worried about her.
"Me? Obviously better than you right after nailing Asian Berry."
"You don't have to use an extra dose of offensive sarcasm to hide your pain. We are over. You can go back to New York." Those were Brittany's first words when she and Sugar arrived to the Glee Club.
Rory whispered to Sam, "is this what you call 'to Finn someone'?"
And, of course, Trouty's response was a wide-eyed nod. Brittany just Finned Santana, in public. In embarrassing public.
Santana had to blink a couple times before making any sound. "Excuse me… you what?"
Brittany walked towards her girlfriend (or ex-girlfriend now, the time needed for break-ups to make effect is kind of blurry). "This is for the best. For both of us."
"You can't just dump me for that! It was nothing! I didn't cheat on you!"
"But you lied to me. And if I can't forgive Lord Tubbington for breaking our pact of no chocolate after lunch, I can't forgive you either for licking Finn's bar."
Sam started retching. "Gross. So gross."
Brittany and Sugar took their seats holding pinkies. "Oh that's a total hell to the no!" Santana yelled.
"Mercedes?" Sugar frowned, given the fact that she got her back to Santana. "I thought she was back in LA?"
Tina stepped forward and started waving her arms up and down. "If you don't mind, I was trying to finish my statement."
"And if you don't mind, big-headed Lucy Liu, I'm trying to fix my relationship here." Santana shooed Tina and stood in front of the blonde. "Brit, please, you can't dump me for this."
"A relationship is based on honesty. I tell you everything. What I do, what I feel, what I see… everything. And if you don't, then I don't know what else you're hiding from me, and I'm not gonna suffer because you don't want to commit to me."
"Oh, my God, Brittany, please! How can you say that I'm not committed to you when I've given everything up for you?!"
"Don't you get it? She doesn't want you anymore. Go away," Sugar said with a very ghetto finger move.
Santana looked at Sugar with truly rageful eyes. "Seriously?"
"I am her friend. A friend she can trust because my Asperger's doesn't allow me to lie, not even to say the things I think. Unlike you, Silicon Lips."
"I'm gonna go because if I stay here for one more minute the chances of me making your daddy buy you a wig are incredibly high."
The Lima Heights girl walked out of the choir room, and Tina resumed her attempt of trading her story for a minute of being the center of attention, but she got interrupted again. "Show a little respect, one of our core couples just broke up," Rachel said.
"Oh, God! And what about mine?!" Another Tinazilla outburst was about to take place.
Nobody answered; they all just went to Brittany and tried to comfort her, but Artie. He rolled towards Tina until he hit her knees. "I am listening."
"Mike Finned me but he didn't want me to feel like another dumped one. We both agreed to keep faking that we were together and…"
"You'd rather make me believe that I'm betraying one of my best friends than admit that you're in the same place where Rachel is when you're doing everything you can to be her clone…"
Tina tried to hold Artie's hand, but he pulled it away. "Mike is not mad at you; he knows that we are having something. And he's happy for us!" Her smile tried to comfort him, to amend things.
Artie sighed after a long breath. "You know what your biggest problem is? That you don't see that you're fighting for something you've already achieved, Mrs. Berry. Stalk the dean of a music school and make out with Kurt and you'll have it all."
And then he rolled out of the choir room, blaming on himself for getting involved in the game. But he only kissed Tina when they were feeling weak after finding out that they were going to be neglected one more year. What was the sin in trying to get a little bit of happiness among all that crap? Damn the kiss, damn the feelings the kiss brought, damn the rest of those successive nights of 'duets rehearsing' that ended up in fulfilling things that they didn't finish three years ago.
In the auditorium, later, both Artie and Santana on the center of the stage, with the only back-up of the band boys. But if felt just like the two of them and their pain. The pain that brought sorrow. The sorrow that fed their voices.
[Grenade – Bruno Mars]
Artie:
Easy come, easy go, that's just how you live.
Oh, take, take, take it all but you never give.
Should've known you was trouble from the first kiss.
Had your eyes wide open, why were they open?
Santana:
Gave you all I had and you tossed it in the trash.
You tossed it in the trash, you did.
To give me all your love is all I ever asked.
'Cause what you don't understand is
I'd catch a grenade for ya.
Artie:
Throw my hand on a blade for ya.
Santana:
I'd jump in front of a train for ya.
Artie:
You know I'd do anything for ya.
Oh.
Artie and Santana:
I would go through all this pain.
Take a bullet straight through my brain.
Yes, I would die for you, baby.
But you won't do the same.
No, no, no, no.
Artie:
Black, black, black and blue, beat me 'til I'm numb.
Tell the devil I said, hey, when you get back to where you're from.
Mad woman, bad woman, that's just what you are, yeah.
You'll smile in my face then rip the brakes out my car.
Santana:
Gave you all I had and you tossed it in the trash.
You tossed it in the trash, yes, you did.
To give me all your love is all I ever asked.
'Cause what you don't understand is.
I'd catch a grenade for ya.
Artie:
Throw my hand on a blade for ya.
Santana:
I'd jump in front of a train for ya.
Artie:
You know I'd do anything for ya.
Artie and Santana:
I would go through all this pain.
Take a bullet straight through my brain.
Yes, I would die for you, baby.
But you won't do the same.
Santana:
If my body was on fire
Ooh, you'd watch me burn down in flames.
You said you loved me, you're a liar.
'Cause you never, ever, ever did, baby.
Artie:
But darling, I'd still catch a grenade for ya.
Santana:
Throw my hand on a blade for ya.
Artie:
I'd jump in front of a train for ya.
Santana:
You know I'd do anything for ya.
Oh.
Artie and Santana:
I would go through all this pain.
Take a bullet straight through my brain.
Yes, I would die for you, baby.
But you won't do the same.
No, you won't do the same
You wouldn't do the same
Ooh, you never do the same
No, no, no, no.
