AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Hi all!
I'm sure that some of you have been wondering where my frequent (well, weekly) updates went, so I wanted to provide a little bit of an explanation for that! The desktop version of the FanFiction site servers have been periodically going down since I last updated, so I wanted to make sure that the site was up and running before I tried to post a new chapter. I also know that the website has been having some major (and majorly frustrating) difficulties with sending email alerts. From what I hear and have experienced, nobody is getting any sort of email alert for story updates, PMs, reviews, etc. I have been trying to avoid uploading a new chapter until this issue has been resolved because I want you all to be alerted to it! I don't know if the issue has been fixed, but I've decided to go ahead and post this new chapter and hope that my loyal readers see it, read it, and leave me a review. If you're here, definitely go back to the last couple of chapters as well, and make sure that you didn't accidentally miss an update!
Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has been consistently reading and reviewing thus far. You know who you are!
Chapter 31: Fight Night
ARTIE
Artie's Monday was spent bouncing from one appointment to the next, hoping to fit in seeing all of his doctors and specialists before school started in a month. Everyone on his healthcare team– which was made up of his neurologist, his orthopedic surgeon, his urologist, and his SCI specialist: all the same people Artie had been seeing annually since he was eight years old– said that he was looking great, and his ortho confirmed that, no, he wouldn't be growing any taller (Artie always tacked this question onto the end of his annual visits, and each year since he was sixteen, he'd received the same answer, to his grand disappointment. By now, the question was a bit of an inside joke, but it didn't keep him from asking anyway). After all of his doctor's appointments, Artie capped the day off by heading to PT. There, Kyle ended up persuading him to come in for a second time later in the week, so this week would be a double session on Monday and Thursday. Awesome.
A day full of doctor's appointments meant that Artie still had yet to look at any of the footage from reshoot day. Though he was exhausted from being pulled and poked and prodded all day long, he knew that he had to take advantage of every spare moment he had to make this movie his best work yet. The days were passing by quickly, college application deadlines would be here before he knew it, and his whole future may or may not depend on the success of this project. No pressure or anything.
He didn't get the chance to start looking over what they'd shot until after he'd eaten dinner and completed his bedtime routine. He tried not to make a habit of getting back into his chair after he'd already stretched out (after all, replacing his body into that position pretty much defeated the whole purpose of loosening his muscles like that), but he did so tonight. He wanted to use his external monitor setup to help him view the short film footage better, and that was all situated over on his desk. He'd just have to make an effort to stretch out extra in the morning, since, surely, his muscles would be tight.
Reshooting Kurt's Newsies dance number to get some extra footage was the right call, Artie concluded as he watched it back over. His friend had never really been known for his dancing (not in the way that, say, Mike and Brittany were), but he wasn't all that bad either. He was lanky and thin, which made him believable as a malnourished, impoverished newspaper boy struggling on the streets of New York City, which made him perfect for this role. Kurt was a hard worker, too, which Artie had always known and appreciated, but he was extra grateful for Kurt's heart and hustle during this particular project. Kurt's success did make Artie feel a bit guilty for not casting him as a lead in their production of West Side Story last fall. He wasn't right for the role of Tony, but Artie probably could have found him a better role than Officer Krupke if he'd tried a little harder.
Speaking of West Side Story, the reshot footage of Santana, Finn, and Mercedes' dialogue was a lot better, too. Even if it wasn't entirely clear what kind of accent Finn's character was supposed to have. His friends were amateur actors, after all, so Artie supposed he really couldn't hold too much against them. After all, they'd been doing him a favor by donating all of their time to him this week.
And then there was Footloose.
Initially, Artie hadn't been receptive to Sebastian and Quinn's (well, mostly Seb's, Artie assumed) idea to get him in front of the camera. It was the opposite of what Artie wanted this project to be. He didn't want to be looked at differently, or be the center of attention, as he so often was in his real life. He wanted to be invisible, just for the half-hour or so that his film ran, so that those watching it could see him without really seeing him. Artie wanted his vision to come to life through this project, and his vision of what dance was supposed to look like did not include himself.
But… Sebastian did have kind of a point about the film needing a big closing number. And Footloosewas kind of perfect, since that was the movie Seb had chosen that had ignited the spark of the idea for this project in the first place.
There was something else weighing heavily on his mind, too, though.
What about the kids like him? What if Artie does make it big as a director someday, and this goes down in history as the first of many great films by him? He'd grown up without the privilege of seeing himself and his life displayed on screen. If other disabled kids watch this someday… how would they feel to see somebody who looks like them represented and showing them that they can dance, sing, act, direct, or whatever they put their mind to? The arts are for everyone, and without even realizing it, Sebastian had reminded Artie of that fact.
So Artie gave in. He executed the choreography well, and– aside from a few minor nasally or pitchy moments during the verse he'd sung– his voice sounded pretty decent, too. As he watched the footage back just now, Artie was grateful that he'd listened to his brother and his girlfriend. He was proud of himself for stepping outside of his comfort zone by being so spontaneous like this, and he hoped that if any other disabled people ever got the chance to watch this film someday, they would be proud as well.
Around ten-fifteen, Artie's eyes were beginning to get weary from staring at the screen of his computer for so long. He decided that he should call it a night as far as editing goes. Clad in his pajamas with his water bottle wedged between his thighs, Artie headed out into the kitchen to fill it up once more before tucking himself into bed and reading a few chapters of his book. Just as he was filling his bottle up with ice, though, he heard the front door open.
"Oh, hey. You're up," was Sebastian's greeting upon entering the kitchen and finding Artie there.
"Hello to you, too," Artie retorted wittily since, after all, that was a fair comment for Sebastian to make. Except for this past week, Artie was usually the first to fall asleep and the first to rise in the morning. It was pretty unlike him to still be awake past ten o'clock– unless, of course, there was a good movie on TV.
"That's good, actually," Sebastian continued. "Because I've gotta tell you something. Regardless of whether or not what I'm about to say will upset you, I feel like you really need to know."
Artie had finished filling up his water bottle by then, and after screwing the lid back on, he glanced over at Sebastian, perplexed by any sort of conversation that started like that. "Uh… okay."
"Did you hear from Blaine or Tina at all tonight?" Sebastian asked.
Artie– still as confused as ever– shook his head. Of course, there was the possibility that his phone had been on silent and he'd missed a notification from them due to being so engrossed in his editing process. Artie pulled his phone out from where it was tucked in the space between his leg and the side of his chair to check. Nope. No missed notifications. Artie shook his head a second time.
"Well, I just finished working a shift with Sam at the ice cream place," Sebastian told him.
"Is that unusual?" Artie asked, tilting his head as he wondered what was wrong with that. Up until now, it had seemed like Seb liked working alongside Sam.
"No, that's normal, but it's what happened while we were there that isn't," Sebastian clarified. "And I'll get to that, if you'll just let me finish…"
"Right. Sorry. Go on."
"As I was saying…" Sebastian started again, sighing as he plopped himself down on one of the stools at the kitchen island. "I was working with Sam, and then Blaine and Tina showed up. They came all the way there to ask him if he wanted to hang out at Tina's house once his shift ended."
Artie felt his heart sink. Oh. Now he knew what Sebastian meant when he'd said that what he was about to share may upset Artie.
"Oh," Artie verbalized, shrugging and putting on his best show of pretending this simple fact didn't bother him. He'd found himself doing that pretty frequently this summer when it came to the other rising seniors in Glee Club. "Well, that's okay. I had a lot of stuff to get done tonight anyway. You know, with the movie and all. I started editing what we shot on Saturday."
"Why am I more angry about this than you are?" Sebastian asked, though it didn't seem like he was surprised by this fact. "At the beginning of the summer, you said to wait and that all of this would just blow over. But now, here we are, just days away from August, and it's still happening. And, you know what? This was my last straw. I'm not just going to just stand by and let you get treated like this. You may be fine with it, but I'm not."
"You didn't say anything to them, did you?" Artie asked, his heart jumping into his throat.
"No," Seb told him. "But I wanted to."
"Maybe they thought I was busy doing things for the movie," Artie reasoned. "Or maybe they assumed I was with Quinn. That was what happened last time…"
"Enough about Quinn, Artie!" Sebastian argued, growing more frustrated by the minute. Artie wasn't sure if the frustration was aimed at him, or if it was just annoyance on his behalf. Probably a mix of both. "They know that you're not with Quinn every hour of every day, okay? You know, I saw how the three of them continued to be cliquey on the shoot last week, and it bothered me. You may have been too busy and focused on your production to notice that, but I wasn't."
Artie didn't know what to say to that. Deep down, he knows that his friends aren't leaving him out maliciously. Deliberately, maybe, but not necessarily with any ill intent. Plus, he'd had a long day today. Even if they had invited him, he probably wouldn't have said yes. He had things that he needed to get done.
"They know that they can just do whatever they want– with or without you– and you won't speak up to tell them that you want to be invited," Sebastian continued. "And, you know, for someone who has longed to be included in so many things over the last decade, I'm disappointed that you aren't standing up for yourself. When is enough going to be enough for you? Don't you have any self-respect?"
"Of course I do," Artie said, surprised that he was even being accused of such insanity.
"Yeah, but never in instances when it matters," Sebastian argued, rolling his eyes. "You just keep letting them walk all over you."
"We've had this conversation, Sebastian," Artie said firmly. "What if I've already done something that bothered them– like, yes, hanging out with Quinn too often– and I don't know that that's the issue? What if there is an actual reason I'm being excluded?! I don't want to ambush them like that and start blaming everyone else, potentially creating an irreparable divide between us in the process."
Artie was gritting his teeth as he could practically see the steam billowing out of Sebastian's ears. The last thing they needed was for this to escalate into a screaming match that would wake up their sleeping parents upstairs. They'd already had that happen once since they'd started living together, and the parents hadn't been happy.
"You can't possibly understand any of this, or where I'm coming from," Artie told him. "After all, these are my friends. You won't have to go to school with these guys and see them every day after all of this, but I will."
"That doesn't change the fact that they need to ditch this 'trio' bullshit and start treating you like they value you," Seb replied, very clearly showing Artie that they held opposite viewpoints on this particular situation. "You can't just keep convincing yourself that it's fine that they keep doing this just because you've been spending time with Quinn! Because guess what, Artie? She's going to college. And then it's just going to be you, Sam, Blaine, and Tina leading the New Directions. What happens if they continue to exclude you all school year because you allowed them to do it all summer? They need to know that it bothers you! They need to know that it's not okay!"
It was becoming nearly impossible for Artie to keep himself from lashing out. He was fed up with Sebastian meddling in his business all the time.
"Sebastian, I know you mean well, and I get that you're upset. In a strange way, I'm honored that you feel this strongly on my behalf. But I don't expect you to understand where I'm coming from," said Artie. "I'm not going to accuse them of being horrible friends or anything. Because they're not. Just because I don't always get an invite to wherever they're going together doesn't mean that they hate me and don't want to be around me."
That was what he said out loud, anyway. Internally, Artie was still a little wary– about that last part especially. Because, after all, he didn't really know what had caused his friends to break off and form their own little group. What if things never went back to the way they once were? Artie nearly shuddered at the thought. He couldn't bear to think of what his senior year would look like without people like Blaine, Tina, and Sam. They were constants in Artie's life– friends he assumed would be there for him until the end of time. He just had to hold out hope that this wouldn't be the end for them.
"Tina has been my best friend since we were in seventh grade. And ever since Blaine and Sam transferred to McKinley, they've been some of my best friends, too," Artie maintained. "I'm not going to risk upsetting them and burning bridges between us just because they've been having fun with one another lately. I'm faithful that everything will work out in the end, so just drop it, okay? Please."
Artie's somewhat desperate pleas didn't seem to strike a chord with Sebastian, though. Artie guessed Seb felt that the magnitude of his reaction was warranted. Artie thought it was excessive.
"You know what?" Sebastian asked, shaking his head in disbelief at the way Artie was choosing to respond to the situation. "After spending the majority of last year purposely trying to make your life a living hell, I moved on from that. I got to know you, and– though, I probably wouldn't admit this to most people– I care about you. A lot. More than I ever thought I would."
Part of Artie's heart softened at that, because if there was one thing that Artie had learned about Sebastian over the last year, it was that the other guy wasn't very good at analyzing and understanding his own feelings. Whenever he was able to put his emotions into words– which wasn't often– Artie was privately happy for him. But, right now, as much as Artie wanted to be gentle and understanding with his step-brother, he was too preoccupied with being stubbornly annoyed at Seb for being all up in his business. Caring for someone didn't mean that you were automatically granted permission to act on all of their life issues as you see fit. That's not how that works.
"After a year of being enemies," Sebastian continued, "I wanted to try something new. I wanted to be somebody you could depend on. We're brothers now, and I want to have your back, even if, you know, I don't always agree with you."
It doesn't feel that way, Artie couldn't help but think to himself as he frowned, crossing his arms over his chest.
"But now, three of your good friends are hanging out without you all the time, and, even though you try to hide it, I know that this makes you upset," Sebastian said. "And I hate to see you like that, so I try to help. I try giving you advice for handling the situation on your own– since you sure as hell won't let me give them a piece of my mind– and you're being ungrateful when I am trying to help?! You're crucifying me for caring?"
Sebastian slammed his fist down on the granite countertop, standing up from his perch at the kitchen island. "You know what, Artie? I'm done with this shit."
Artie's eyes widened and he remained still, stunned into silence, as Sebastian pushed past him, shaking his head as he made a beeline for the front door, grabbing his blue and green rugby shirt off the hook in the entryway
"Screw you," Artie heard Sebastian mumble under his breath.
"Hey! I heard that!" Artie called out loudly– caring very little about waking up his mom and Harrison by now– as Seb swiftly grabbed his keys from their designated basket on his way out.
"You were supposed to!" Seb yelled back over his shoulder before slamming the door behind him, the sound echoing through the foyer and leaving Artie shaken in his wake.