This is my first multi-chapter fic, something I never thought would happen. I'm not really going to say much about what inspired it, but the next chapter's author's note will include how this story came about.

Also, I want to thank my brand new beta, the wonderful and amazing Miranda, (aka fioncat36). You should go read her stories and follow her on tumblr and generally just worship her for being so awesome.

Disclaimer: I don't own Glee.

"I kissed Mike."

In that moment, Artie Abrams was almost sure that he had stopped breathing. He was pretty positive that his heart had stopped, too.

Today was supposed to be a happy day for them. Tina had arrived home from the camp she works at every summer mere hours ago. They had been waiting weeks to see each other and were suppose to meet up tomorrow to spend an entire day together. But Tina had called and insisted that they needed to see each other immediately. Of course, he agreed, because he had missed her terribly over the last few weeks. Not only had his girlfriend been absent, but also his best friend. And it sucked.

He'd been expecting her to run up the front walkway and jump into his lap and kiss him. In any case, he had been sure that she would be insanely happy to see him, like she always was. But instead, she was distant and shifty until she finally dropped the bomb on him.

After what seemed like hours of him just staring at her in disbelief, he finally said, "I forgive you."

The change in her eyes was almost immediate. From distant to…angry, "Dammit, Artie! Why can't you stand up for yourself for once! Once!"

Artie cringed away from her words. Ever since he was little, he had had a fear of confrontation. He had never enjoyed being yelled at by his older sister or his parents, but it got especially bad after the accident. Every time someone raised their voice, it rang loud in his ears like the impact of the other car hitting theirs'. Whenever he heard people arguing now, he had to start singing something in his head and pretend he was somewhere else.

His parents used to argue. A lot. About money and doctor's bills that were causing them just scrape by on all their other bills, and their opinions of how they should go about helping their son adapt to his new lifestyle.

His father was of the opinion that he should get a feel for his chair and his new life more independently. He didn't want his son to be unable to take care of himself when the time came. He knew the conversation so well that he could barely count to one before his mother would say, "Artie is eight, Richard. And he needs me. I refuse to let him do this on his own."

Artie knew that they only had the best for him in mind when they had these conversations. Neither of them had faced anything like this before. They could deal with bumps and bruises and failing grades and a million other things, no problem. But this. They didn't know what to do. He knew the emotional toll the accident had put on his family.

For most of his post-accident life, his family would be his only allies, up until he joined glee club.

In his opinion, his parents marriage was stronger than ever. He hadn't heard them have so much as an argument as to what to have for dinner in years. And when they did, it was nothing but playful. His mother laughing, "You're such an idiot," to his father was almost a term of endearment between them.

He truly believed that this was just a bump in the road for him and Tina. He reasoned with himself that she had probably been lonely at camp and didn't want to tell him. Things happen. He understood.

Or at least, he tried to.

"Don't you have anything to say to me?" she asked. He thought for a moment, "Of course you don't. You don't have anything to say unless has to do with yourself."

"I don't know what you want to hear," he told her finally, "Do you want to me to yell at you? Or storm off? I forgive you. I just do."

He couldn't really explain it. He wasn't particularly happy about this whole situation, but he couldn't bring himself to angry at Tina either. But she was acting as though he was saying to her: You cheated on me? Great! Fantastic! He just wanted to get past this and move on.

Despite the fact they had their disagreements, he still loved her.

She sighed, "Why do we keep doing this, Artie? We should be able to fall in love and keep falling and have it be this never ending cycle of falling. But it's just…stopped. We've hit the ground."

"Why does that have to be a bad thing?" he asked, "Why does being comfortable in our relationship mean that we've…hit the ground?"

"That's the point, Artie. This means two completely different things to us. Maybe…maybe you being so calm about this is proof it's not working."

He opened his mouth, as if to say something, then closed it. He was able say after a few moments, "Are you breaking up with me?"

She didn't even skip a beat as she said, "Yes."

He pressed his lips together as his heart skipped a beat, then started up faster. He didn't have a sarcastic rebuttal or a tearful good-bye speech. He wasn't going to call her names or say that he could do better than her. He just turned around in his chair so he was facing the door. He didn't want to look at her. "If that's what you want."

He didn't turn around until he knew she was gone.

Once she was out of Artie's line of sight, Tina decided that that was the hardest lie she had ever told.

First of all, she hadn't kissed Mike.

It started a few months back, when Tina's grandparents came over for dinner and met Artie. Of course, they had been cordial to him when he was in the room, but the second he left, his grandfather had chided her over the fact that Artie wasn't Asian. "You're disgracing our family," he had told her, "What do you think our community will think when they know?"

Her grandfather was extremely traditional in this sense. He always brought up the fact that her mother was only half-Korean and he absolutely refused to be nice to her maternal grandfather, who was not Asian. To him, Tina didn't have to be smart. She didn't have to know how to cook the meals that his mother cooked for him in Korea. But God forbid her boyfriend wasn't Asian. All hell broke loose.

She had tried to insist that Artie was a sweet boy who really, really loved and cared about her. That was what mattered, right? But her grandfather's opinion had been made. It was like a giant elephant in the room every time she saw her grandparents. He would always ask, "Are you dating that Polish boy." It was worded like a question, but never asked like one. Always a statement.

"Artie is Welch, Grandpa. There's a difference. But yes, I am still dating him."

"They're all the same, aren't they?"

The decision had to end this cycle eventually been made for her, by her parents. They told that she had until the time she got home from camp to break-up with Artie.

Tina knew that the fact that she and Mike Chang were put in the same cabin as counselors was no coincidence. She figured out fairly quickly that he was attracted to her. And wasn't it convient? The grandson of her grandfather's best friend just happened to end up working at the camp she had going to for years?

She fought her parents orders tooth and nail every single time she talked to him. It was hyprotical of them to do so, because this same argument had happened to them when they were dating. They hadn't taken the easy way out then, but now they were. Because they got what they wanted. And she had to suffer.

She hid her distress from Artie, because she didn't want to worry him about something that would most likely just blow over.

Of course, it didn't. She made her decision when her parents told her that they wouldn't pay for college and make her quit glee. With college, she could get a scholarship. She could get a few part time jobs. But glee, that was irreplaceable. The feelings it gave her couldn't be duplicated. So she agreed to break-up with Artie.

She tried to remain as calm as she could as she made her way up the stairs. Her mother asked her what she was doing and Tina told her that she was going upstairs to call Mike. She noticed the satisfied smile on her mother's face as she walked away.

She didn't know what she was thinking, exactly. She was dying inside from what she had done. But she called Mike and she set up a date for the next day.

The haze of what she had done began to fade when she actually did kiss Mike. Because only then was what she had told Artie not a lie.