Chapter 23: Saturday with Sam

ARTIE

Once the idea for his newest film had reached him, it was all Artie could think about. And ever the perfectionist, he utilized the couple of days that followed to hunker down and brainstorm, outline, storyboard, and write his ideal treatment for the final piece of his portfolio. After extensive revisions, Artie finally had a product he was happy with.

Artie had been inspired by Sebastian's movie selection of Footloose a few days before to create an homage to dance on film. Dance had played such an important role in his life and the lives of many of his friends, so it felt right to honor it in such a way. There were so many movies that Artie wanted to pay tribute to, but after meticulous deliberation, he ended up narrowing the options down to six: Roberta, West Side Story, Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Dirty Dancing, and Newsies. Some were obvious choices, while others were just personal favorites of Artie's. He then went ahead and wrote parts with all of his close friends in mind– giving them the ability to show off their dancing and acting chops. Now, all he had to do was call them each up and see if they'd do a guy a favor and lend him their talents.

He knew that some of his friends were more likely to agree to this project than others, so, to keep himself from getting discouraged, he decided to call those friends up first. It would be nice to collect a few 'yeses' before he heard his first 'no'.

Quinn, of course, would have been his first call, but she had left the previous morning to spend the weekend with her dad. Artie knew that her anxiety was at an all-time high because of this, so he didn't necessarily want to add more to her plate at that moment by calling her. They'd already made plans to see each other Monday once she got back, so he resolved to tell her about his new project then.

Calls number one and two then became his good old pals Mike Chang and Brittany S. Pierce. This was a movie about dance, after all, and those two were the most talented dancers he knew. This movie wouldn't be anything without them, and he told them so. To his excitement, they both gave him resounding yeses.

Tina and Blaine were next. He knew that they were both planning to apply to Bachelor of Fine Arts programs for college, so he phrased his little ask as more of a mutually beneficial experience: he got serious actors for his film, and they got tangible acting experience to boost their resumes. It was surely a win-win, and Artie was grateful that they felt the same way. They were on board.

Naturally, Mr. Sam Evans was next in the line of succession.

"Who's there?" Sam answered the phone on the second ring. "I'm talking. Hello?"

Artie grinned. He recognized Sam's Ron Burgundy impression immediately. This was just one of the many reasons they were such great friends– between the two of them, they could spend hours talking in only movie quotes.

"Anchorman? Nice, I like it," Artie told him.

He was always sure to praise Sam's impressions– he knew that their less cinematically-inclined friends usually didn't care enough about Sam's goofy greetings to compliment them. Artie knew, however, that they were a great source of pride for Sam, and since Artie (usually) understood them, he figured that the least he could do was be an encouraging friend. Maybe one day Sam would go on to become a voice actor or something. That'd be pretty cool.

"Thanks," Sam said, clearly pleased with himself. "What's going on? Everything good with Sebastian's foot?"

"Oh, yeah, he's fine," Artie replied. Artie was currently situated at his desk, and he glanced over his shoulder at that moment to see that his roommate for the weekend was taking a snooze on the futon. Seb had pretty much stayed in the same position all weekend long– taking the doctor's orders of 'take it easy' extremely literally. "I was actually calling you today to ask a favor…"

"Yes!" Sam said, immediately.

"You don't even know what I'm going to ask yet!" Artie reasoned. "What if I asked you to do something… dangerous?"

"You wouldn't ask that," Sam pointed out. "I know that much. So, whatever it is, the answer is yes."

"Will you at least let me tell you what it is?" Artie asked, laughing now.

"Sure."

"Well, I have decided to use my last month-and-a-half or so of summer to begin production on my first micro-budget feature–"

"What?! Artie, dude, that's awesome! Congrats!"

"Thanks," Artie told him proudly. "It's called Hollywood Hootenanny– that's a working title, actually– and it's gonna be a tribute to dance on film. Tina, Blaine, Britt, and Mike are already attached, and I have a part written with your name on it, if you're up for it. I can't offer any trailers or per diem, but I'll treat everyone to coffee, pizza, and popsicles on shoot days. What do you say?"

"I'm not known for my dancing," Sam reminded him. "But if you want me anyway, I'd be happy to do it. 'Cause then, when you're famous one day, I'll get to go around bragging to everyone that I was in your first movie."

That got a chuckle out of Artie. He really did have some of the most supportive friends a guy could ask for. "Well, thanks. I definitely want you to be a part of it. I don't want to give too much away, but I'm picturing this 'Greased Lightning'-inspired dance number for you. It's gonna be awesome. I'm glad you're into the idea."

"Definitely into it," Sam confirmed before presenting Artie with a question of his own. "Hey, what are you up to today? Wanna hang?"

Artie found himself a little shocked at the offer. He and Sam hadn't spent a lot of time together so far that summer. Artie didn't think there was anybody to blame for that, of course. They were both busy in their own right. But it would be nice to hang out with the other guy and catch up. Artie supposed the rest of the calls he needed to make could wait until tonight. "I'm not doing anything," he said. "Sure, yes, let's hang!"

"Cool!" Sam exclaimed. "Oh. One little thing, though. It's the weekend, y'know, so the day camp Stevie and Stacey go to isn't in session, and it's my day off from the ice cream store, so I told my folks that I'd watch the kids. But you should still come over!"

Artie laughed, knowing that there was a good chance that this was his friend's plan all along– or his commitment to babysit had momentarily slipped his mind when he'd asked– but Artie agreed anyway, of course.

Just last weekend, Artie had helped Quinn to babysit the kids who are basically her step-siblings, and now Sam was asking the same thing of him. Artie didn't mind though. Kids liked him. He guessed that it was probably easy for them to find him approachable since he was on their same plane and eye level, but still. Artie liked young kids– especially ones as sweet, funny, and boisterous as Stevie and Stacey Evans– and truly enjoyed their company. He knew many other teenagers that wouldn't say the same.

"I was just leaving to bring them to the playground over on South Street when you called," Sam said, a hint of relief in his voice once he found out that spending his Saturday afternoon babysitting without compensation wasn't a dealbreaker for Artie. "Wanna meet us there?"

Ten minutes later, Artie pulled into the first accessible spot in the parking lot, and his eyes lit up when he registered where exactly he was. 'South Street Playground: A Place for All Children' was written on the sign, accompanied by a bunch of stick figure children– including one in a wheelchair.

An accessible playground in Lima, Artie marveled.

Back when he was younger and newly injured, he would have given anything for a safe place to play like this one. He was glad to see that things had come a long way since he was little and that a new generation of disabled kids had somewhere to play just like everyone else their age.

"Hey, this place is awesome!" Artie greeted Sam, who was sitting on a bench and watching Stevie and Stacey spin one another on a merry-go-round (that even had a ramp and stoppers to accommodate a wheelchair!).

"I knew you'd like it," Sam beamed. "You ever been to one of these?"

"Once," Artie nodded. "When I was, like, ten. We were in California on a baseball trip for my dad. But I'm glad to see that Lima has finally become progressive enough to build inclusive spaces. This is great."

"It's close to the new house, which I like 'cause that means we can just ride our bikes here and I don't have to waste gas," Sam told him.

"Oh, yeah, how's the new place?" Artie asked. Sam's family had moved back to Lima at the end of the school year and Artie felt like he may be the only one of their friends who hadn't seen it yet. He tried not to take that personally, though. He knew most people– including his friends– were hesitant to invite him over to their (largely inaccessible, he guessed) homes. They're looking out for me and prioritizing my comfort, Artie chose to think.

"It's good, yeah," Sam replied, heaving a sigh of relief. "I'm glad we're here for good this time. And, y'know, for the first time in a few years, I feel like I can just… be a normal teenager. That feels good."

Artie nodded understandingly. Like him, Sam was a guy who tended to shove his emotions down to appear a certain way to those around him. Artie was glad that Sam trusted him enough to let him in on his more vulnerable side.

"Hey, look who's sitting over there with Sammy!" Stevie exclaimed to his sister, pointing over to where the older boys were sitting. "Artie's here!"

"Hi, Artie!" Stacey waved, and Artie waved back. He was glad to get to see the two youngest Evanses today since he'd missed out on seeing them on the Fourth of July when he and Quinn had stayed in the bed of the truck.

That was a few weeks ago, and he hadn't seen Sam since then either. "What have you been up to lately?" he wondered. "It's been a while."

"Too long," Sam agreed. "That's kind of why I like the school year. 'Cause I'm not good at planning things, but at least I know I'll see everyone every day. I've been hanging out with Tina and Blaine a little bit here and there. Blaine usually puts those things together."

Artie already knew this, of course. He'd seen it on social media. While Artie had been spending most of his free time with Quinn, he'd also been keeping up with the whereabouts of the little trio they'd formed. It still made him feel a little queasy inside, but he tried not to hold it against any of them. After all, Artie had been busy too.

"You should tag along with us sometime! You're gonna be a senior too, so it's only right. And, you know, the more the merrier," Sam added quickly. "Other than that, uh, just work. Usually five or six hour shifts on weekdays. It's not as bad as it sounds."

"How's Seb been doing with that?" Artie asked, pleased by the natural subject change that allowed him to segue from the sensitive topic of the trio toward one that he was curious about. "From a co-worker's perspective. I know he's spent the last few days out of commission, but he got a couple of weeks' worth of shifts under his belt before his fall."

"He's a quick learner, and he's got good biceps. That's important," Sam replied, which made Artie smile. "You know, for scooping."

"Yeah, you can thank his lacrosse career for that."

"You know, you'd be a pretty good ice cream scooper, too, if you wanted to be," Sam commented, reaching over and pinching one of Artie's arms– the one part of his body that he was actually proud of. Artie laughed and swatted his hand away. "It sucks that the freezers are probably too tall for you to reach into from your chair," he continued, frowning.

Artie may not have spent as much time with Sam as he would have liked during the first month of summer, but luckily, nothing seems to have changed between the two of them. Sam is just as well-meaning and a little dopey as he remembered.

"That's alright," Artie told him, unbothered. "I don't think that's my calling anyway. But I'm glad to hear that Seb's holding his own. I'd pictured him acting like the sisters from Cow Belles. You know, acting too clueless and pretentious to busy himself with the goings-on of a dairy farm."

This got a laugh out of Sam, who loved a good Disney Channel movie and appreciated the comparison.

"And, uh, the other thing that's been keeping me busy is, um…" Sam began to say before his voice trailed off and he started scratching the back of his head nervously.

"Oh, gosh, what is it?" Artie asked, setting his elbows on his knees and leaning forward in his seat, intrigued.

"Well, remember when me and Mercedes had that fling last summer?"

Artie's eyebrows shot up with surprise as he nodded. Sam and Mercedes had spent last summer dating in secret before his untimely– albeit, brief– move across state lines put an end to it. They'd tried to pick their relationship back up during the school year but hadn't been successful.

"We've been kind of hanging out again," he said. "Not anything serious, y'know, because she's saving herself for marriage, and I'm not ready to get married yet, so–"

"TMI," Artie cut him off, closing his eyes and shaking his head, trying to erase those images of his friends from his mind.

"Sorry," Sam told him apologetically. "But she's going off to Los Angeles in a few months, so we'll see how long it lasts. We're not putting much pressure on it this time around. Right now we're just having fun, enjoying each other's company."

"We should double date sometime before she and Q leave for college," Artie said brightly. "Us younger guys and our older girls."

"That'd be fun," Sam nodded before adding: "You know, I'm glad that you and Quinn are together." He paused for a minute, and it looked like he was pondering whether or not to ask the question that was on his mind. "This might be nosy of me to ask, so you don't have to answer it if you don't want to, but… how long have you and Quinn… liked each other like this?"

Artie blushed. What Sam probably wanted to ask was, 'Were you crushing on Quinn when she was my girlfriend?', and the answer to that was no. At least, not seriously. Artie wasn't a homewrecker– if the girl he was fond of was coupled up, he didn't plan on using his smokin' hot bod to seduce her. He'd been cheated on one too many times to ever do that to another guy, especially one of his friends.

"Quinn's always been a good friend to me. But that doesn't mean that I ever thought I had a chance with her," Artie confessed. "There was a lot of stuff you missed before you moved to Lima the first time. Quinn's pregnancy, for one."

Sam nodded. He'd been brought up to speed on the existence of Beth on his first day at McKinley, Artie knew. Gossip wasted no time making its way around the school, even when you didn't have any friends yet.

"Quinn and I bonded a lot during that time," Artie filled him in. "We were both different from everyone else. Even from the other outcasts in Glee Club. I was dating Tina, and I could feel her slipping away from me and gravitating toward Mike, so I tried to mentally prepare myself that she'd probably break up with me soon. I backed off, kept my distance. She's a human being, so I wasn't going to, like, force her to stay with me in order to keep myself from getting hurt."

Sam was nodding along as he listened. He was still keeping a watchful eye on the kids, though. Stevie and Stacey were now swinging beside one another, seeing who could get higher in the air.

"Then one day after school, she presented me with this stack of studies she'd printed out from the computer in the library. All about advances in spinal cord injury research."

He hadn't thought about this in a long time, but he could recall every detail like it had happened yesterday.

"Every doctor I've ever seen has told me not to get my hopes up about that kind of stuff. I've seen the scans, and my spinal cord is not gonna regenerate itself anytime soon, so, you know, I wasn't naïve or optimistic enough to believe that I was even a candidate for these kinds of experimental trials that were still years away. But Tina just seemed so excited about what she'd found, you know? I didn't want to hurt her feelings by disregarding it all." Artie heaved a great, audible sigh. "But then she asked me to do a dance number with her in the auditorium."

"Oh, I see…" Sam said, chewing on one of his big bee-stung lips that always seemed to form the perfect pout without him even trying– like some sort of male model Artie saw in Calvin Klein ads. Artie could tell that Sam was trying his best to follow along with the story but was undoubtedly wondering what any of this had to do with Quinn. Artie was getting there.

"And, at this point, I was like, 'Ohhh. This is where all of this is going. She likes my personality, but she wants somebody who's able to dance with her'. So she did her own research and handed it all to me for me to… bring to my doctors? I don't know, those details are still kind of unclear to me." Artie shook his head. "And, you know, I can dance just fine in my chair– at least I think so– but partnerwork is still a bit awkward. Especially to a slow, lovey song like 'Dream a Little Dream of Me'. I knew it wasn't going to be what either of us pictured. So I took the easy way out. Told her that I'd sing the song, but she should pick a different dance partner. Someone who can actually dance the way she wanted. And that was… pretty much the beginning of Tike as we know it."

Sam's eyes grew wide and for good reason. Tina and Mike's was one of the most iconic relationships to have blossomed in the choir room, but Artie knew that their origin story was one they didn't broadcast very often.

"And, listen, I don't hold this against Tina. She was young, blinded by her Asian love for Mike, probably. Plus, I'm over it," Artie insisted. Tina was still one of his best friends. He was sure that she probably didn't even remember this particular incident, so he tried to put it behind them. "But Quinn… she was a little more in touch with my emotions at the time than everyone else in the club," Artie recalled. "She could see I was going through it and she didn't just ignore it because it made her uncomfortable. She was there for me, and she told me that I was great just as I was. That was exactly what I needed to hear at that moment."

"And, you know, I'm perfectly content with not walking," Artie continued. "Like, I already went to therapy and unpacked all of that. But… it's never felt like any of that has mattered to others. Despite it all, walking has always been everyone else's dream for me. First Tina…"

"Then Brittany…" Sam chimed in, understanding what Artie was getting at. He'd been there at the mall sophomore year when Brittany had asked Black Santa to make Artie walk. The ReWalk had been cool, but it broke not long after, and now sat in Artie's closet collecting dust. Artie didn't miss it all that much.

"Sugar, too," Artie added. "But it was never Quinn's. She has always been accepting of me just as I am. Even when I'm, like, crying to her about other girls. That was when I first realized that she's different from everyone else. I mean, she'd just cheated on her boyfriend, got pregnant, and was kicked out of her house! She had her own shit going on that was– let's face it– a lot more consuming than my feelings. But she was there for me anyway." Artie shrugged. "We've always been good friends, but that afternoon was a turning point for us, I think. I just never expected that one day down the line she'd actually want to be with me. In, like, a romantic way."

Sam shook his head at that last part and reached a hand out to place it on Artie's shoulder in a friendly way. "Oh, come on. That's not unbelievable. Not to me."

"I just mean… why would she settle for someone like me– in this body– when the other guys she's been with recently have looked like…" Artie's voice trailed off before he sheepishly looked up at Sam. "Well, like you."

"For whatever it's worth, you've got a great body," Sam quickly assured him, not willing to let Artie get off with talking so negatively about himself. "Like, you're gonna have to teach me your ways 'cause I'm totally jealous of your arms. We should do an upper body workout together sometime and you can give me some pointers."

That got an appreciative laugh out of Artie. Sam always knew the right things to say.

"I don't think what Quinn and I had ever would have lasted very long," the other guy continued with a shrug. "You know I gave her a promise ring once?"

"You didn't…" Artie gasped. This was the first he was hearing of this, and even he could see the issues here. Something like that would have been sure to scare Quinn off in those delicate first months following her pregnancy.

"Yeah. Not my best idea," Sam acknowledged. "I got down on one knee in the astronomy classroom and said something about the ring symbolizing my love for her and that when she wears it, she can know that I'd listen to her problems, and tell her when she has food in her teeth or eye gunk, and that I'd come over to her house whenever she needed something super heavy moved around. And I promised to do all of those things without ever trying to sound like Matthew McConaughey. I wanted to make her feel proud when she pointed down the hall and said, 'That dude's my boyfriend'."

Artie tried not to appear as shocked as he felt, but he knew he was probably doing a terrible job at that. He'd always been very expressive– it was both a blessing and a curse. "Well… if the timing had been better, I don't know how she would've been able to resist that. You almost won me over, right here and now."

"You're right about the timing thing," Sam pointed out. "I think she was still too freaked out after having Beth to go anywhere near that level of, you know, togetherness. It's not like we ever went all the way. I took a lot of cold showers in those days…"

"We haven't either," Artie told him. "Gone all the way, I mean. It's pretty much just been us making out, which I'm fine with. My first time wasn't a great experience, so I'm not really in a rush to do it again. But… last weekend she let me touch her boobs."

"Over her shirt?"

"Under her bra!"

It was nice to get to have a little bit of guy talk with Sam, Artie marveled. Sure, he and Seb talked about this kind of stuff sometimes, but it wasn't the same. Sebastian didn't actually care about the girl aspect of the equation as much as he was just being nosy and wanting to know all about Artie's personal life. The second Artie's stories took a more intimate turn, he'd stick his fingers in his ears and shut down. But Sam was someone who not only had his fair share of experiences with girls, but also had some with this girl. He had his own anecdotes about dating Quinn, and he knew her almost as well as Artie did. That was a perk of the Glee Club dating as incestuously as they did.

"Whoa," Sam said sitting back, clearly impressed. "Junior year Quinn would have never let me get that far. Hence why the whole incident involving Coach Beiste happened. Had to find a way to kill the mood somehow. Looking back, though, that wasn't the best plan."

Artie scrunched his mouth to the side and nodded. While he hadn't taken part in those particular activities, Artie still felt bad for the coach who'd taken a chance on him by putting him on her team.

"You know, I don't think Quinn really cares about that kind of stuff. Body stuff, I mean," Sam said. "She's not superficial like that. I think what's inside is more important to her. She's smart. When I dated her, I always felt a little too stupid to keep up."

"Sam, you have– you're not–"

"It's okay," Sam shrugged. "I just mean that, aside from a couple of killer duets in Glee Club, we weren't a good match. But I think y'all are good for each other. I can really see the two of you working out for a long time."

This got a small smile out of Artie, but he just shrugged. He hoped that was in the cards for them, but the anxious side of him just wasn't sure. Artie knew Quinn loved him, but would it be enough to go the distance?