Unexpected After Prom Bonding

The following is another ‘deleted scene’ from Tina In The Sky With Diamonds. It always bugged me that Tina never thanked Kitty for giving her her dress, so I wrote a scene where she did, and of course they had to talk about Artie.  As with these other sneak peeks some variation of this will eventually end up in the full version of this chapter of The Ballad of Kitty and Artie, but I have a feeling this one will be quite different. Hopefully you enjoy this version!

***

Kitty was getting Artie and she some punch when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around and saw Tina standing there. Kitty was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, having given her dress to her after Tina’s own was ruined by slushie stains. She was significantly under dressed ….  But she didn’t care.

“I didn’t want the night to end without taking the time to apologize and to thank you,” Tina said.

“For the dress?” Kitty asked. “It was nothing.  I only wish that I’d seen what Dottie was doing in time to prevent yours from being ruined.”

“I didnt mean just the dress.” Tina told her. “Artie told me what you did.  You didn’t have to, and I’m sorry that we didn’t believe you weren’t responsible for those posters.”

“It’s okay,” Kitty told her. “With my habitual lying behavior I would not have believed me either. From what my sources tell me, Bree was responsible. I should have known something was going to happen when she confronted me about not actively campaigning for Prom Queen.”

There was an awkward silence and then she added, “What are you going to do about Dottie?”

“Oh, she’s definitely fired!”

“Don’t be too hard on her,” Kitty said. “From what I was told, Bree bribed her by offering her a spot on the Cheerios, and when she was going to back out, she blackmailed her by threatening to reveal that she wet the bed until 7th grade.”

Tina noded.

“Besides,” Kitty said, changing the subject. “I owed you one for giving me the push I needed to be honest about my feelings for Artie.”

“He’s one of my best friends, and didn’t want to see him hurt.” Tina told her.

“Neither did I.” Kitty assured her.

“Then why did you make him hide what was going on between the two of you?”

“Because I wasn’t just afraid, alright! I was terrified!” Kitty explained. “Are you happy now?! Yes, the coldest, meanest, bitch at McKinley was afraid of being hurt, not only if things didn’t work out with him, but also of what would happen when people found out!”

“What about, Artie? What about his feelings?” Tina plead. “Don’t you think he’s afraid of getting hurt again too? Every relationship he’s ever had has ended badly.”

Kitty gave her a confused look.

“Even your’s?”

“Yes,” Tina admitted, “unfortunately. Mike and I got together over the summer at Asian Camp before I had broken up with Artie.”

“So you cheated on him? But weren’t you supposed to be best friends or something? How could you do that to him?”

“I wouldn’t call it cheating, more of a delayed breakup. I don’t know. It’s something I’ve always regretted. Not the breakup. But how I handled it.”

“Look, this isn’t just some fling for me,” Kitty explained. “I think I’ve liked him for quite a while, although I didn’t see it at first, and it killed me to see the look on his face whenever he followed my wishes and hid things. It took me a long time to get to the point where I was honest with myself and him about my feelings, and I think I was getting close to letting others see, but I needed that push.  Thank you for giving it to me.”

Tina smiled.

“My feelings for him are stronger than I have ever had for a guy, and stronger than I thought possible.  It’s a bit overwhelming. ”

“Love can be,” Tina told her.

Kitty stared at the floor, clearly uncomfortable.

“Kitty, its okay to admit that you love him,” Tina told her, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “We can all see it.”

Kitty stared at the ground, unsure of what to say.

“And for whatever it’s worth, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen him happier.”

“Maybe so, but I still get this nagging feeling that my feelings are stronger than his, and that I’m going to end up getting hurt. After all, he’s graduating soon, and I still have two more years in this hellhole.”

“I really wouldn’t worry too much about that.  I’ve known him a long time and I’ve never seen the look in his eyes I see when he talks to or about you. He’s fallen hard.”

Kitty gave Tina a hug. “Thank you,” she whispered in Tina’s ear.

“Just don’t hurt him,” Tina whispered. “Or you’ll answer to me.”

“I won’t.”

“I’ve gotta go,” Tina said. “I promised Sam a dance.”

And with that Tina was gone, leaving Kitty alone with her thoughts. Maybe Tina was right, but she had to make sure that he was willing to accept everything about her before things went any further.

***

Obviously something changed for Tina after this as we saw in Frenemies, but for this point in the story this feels right.