A Second Chance (12 page)

BR- Is Courtney with you and Tate? She isn’t answering her phone.

L- Call me!

Once I read all of the messages, I knew right then that something is not right. I start to feel sick to my stomach as I think about how long Tate has been with Courtney. I call his phone; it rings five times then goes to voice mail. I start to call Lily. But instead of letting myself believe that Tate is cheating on me with Courtney, I grab my car keys and head out to my car.

I pull up at Lily’s parent’s restaurant, as I debated to get out. Once I saw Tate’s and Courtney’s cars there; I knew what was going on. I park my car and walk in, not bothering looking for Lily; I look straight for Tate and Courtney. I spot them in a corner both with Tate’s arm around Courtney comforting her. Before I would put myself in any more heartache, I knew I had to do what was right for me. I took my phone out, when I got into my car and shoot Tate a text.

R- You know how I feel, about her, but yet you still run to her. You could have saved us both a lot of heartache by telling me the truth.

I turned my phone off and headed home. I wasn’t sure if I should just break up with Tate or if I should let him explain himself. But like I told him all he had to do was tell me the truth and we would never have been in this place.

*****

I
get home and walk inside.

My family was in the living room watching Finding Nemo. My mom looks up and sees me.

“Hey honey, wanna join us?”

“Actually mom, can I talk to you for a minute.”

I head to the kitchen, as my mom stands up and follows behind me. I get a glass of water while my mom stands over to the side.

“What’s wrong, Rayleigh?”

I can tell my mom is concerned about me. I haven’t been myself since my aunt died. I think now is the time to tell her the truth and get everything out in the open.

“You know, I never told you the truth.”

My mom looks at me with a confused look.  “What do you mean?”

“When the kids use to make fun of me for being fat, and smart and all the other stuff. You and dad thought I was just strong. But really I wasn’t.” I look at my mom; she looks like she is trying to figure out where I am going. “You always thought I didn’t let them bother me but really, I cried every day, I even got notes that use to say ‘no one would care if I killed myself’ and other things. One day Aunt Cindy walked in and saw me. She was the only one that I trusted to talk to. So I talked you and dad into moving and letting me take up kick boxing to help myself. I was being selfish when I asked everyone to just pick up to move. But when we moved here, I didn’t expect to fall in love with the alpha male next door.”

“Wait, did you just say alpha male?” My mom smiles at me. I guess the part of me being in love with Tate did not faze my mom once bit.

“Long story, but he keeps hiding something from me and it’s to do with Courtney. He won’t answer anyone’s calls or texts, she isn’t even answering her boyfriends.”

“Honey, calm down. Maybe you should talk to Tate and see what is going on before you start accusing.”

I take a deep breath and blow it out slowly to calm down. “Maybe, but I’m scared that I am always going to get hurt.”

“I don’t think Tate would ever hurt you on purpose, I believe that Tate loves you.”

I nod my head at my mom as I head up stairs.

“Oh honey.” I turn to my mom. “You weren’t being selfish when we all moved here. I knew what was going on. Your Aunt told us, when we moved. She thought it was a great idea for you to start over. She never wanted to betray you, but she also was looking out for you.”

“Thank you mom, for not pressing me to talk about it.”

My mom nods her head at me, as I turn to go to my room. I head into my bathroom and start the hot water, all I want to do right now is relax. I grab my iPod and turn on ‘Kerosene’ by Miranda Lambert, as I listen to it; it explains everything that I feel right now. I give up on love; maybe those kids were right when they said no one would ever want me.

I stayed in the bath, till the water got cold and I couldn’t take it anymore. I get out and dry myself off and throw on a baggy shirt, as my stomach starts growling. I slid on some shorts to go make a sandwich. I myself a quick sandwich and head back to room, as I pick up my book that I am reading and start eating my sandwich. I see a shadow at my balcony doors; I knew it had to be Tate. I went to get up, but instead of letting him in, I pull my curtains shut and turn off all my lights. While I lay in the dark I fall into dream land.

*****

M
y alarm went off the next morning. I roll over and hit it, not wanting to get out of bed just yet. I lay there for few more minutes till I heard my mom get my brothers up. I get up take a quick shower, I get out and blow-dry my hair straight and put a little bit of make up on. I head to my closet and grab the first thing that I see. I throw on a purple t-shirt with blue jeans and slid on my flip flops.

I grab my phone, keys , my school bag and head down stairs. I grab an apple as my mom is cooking breakfast but I told her that I want to talk to Tate before class. I get in my car and turn on the radio to ‘Blow me one last kiss’ by P!nk. Arriving at school, everyone is standing outside. I spot Tate standing by his car, weird, I figured since I didn’t talk to him last night he would try to talk to me this morning at my house, but he wasn’t even waiting on me.

I get out of my car and walk over to Lily. “Hey.”

“Hey, I tried texting you last night but you didn’t answer.”

“Yeah, about that. After I got your text and everyone else’s, I rode over to your parent’s restaurant and I saw both of their cars, I even went in and saw them together. So I just cut off my phone and went home.”

“Oh.”

I’m looking at Tate as Tate is looking at me, when she asked if I spoke to him about last night.

“No, I told you after I seen them, I shut off my phone. But he did show up at my balcony doors last night. I didn’t let him in; I shut the curtains and went to bed.”

Before Lily says anything, Tate looks at me confused and speaks up. “I didn’t show up at your balcony doors last night, Ray.”

“What do you mean?”

“After I got your text, which we are talking about later, I just went home. I figured I would give you time to cool off.”

As he gets done talking, Courtney comes over and pushes against Tate. He tries to push her off, as he did she moved some hair from her face and I see a bruise across her face. He moves her face to his and looks at her face. After looking at it, she moves her face into his shirt. Tate doesn’t even try to move her again.

I am getting pissed now. “One, we have NOTHING to talk about, I’m serious this time Tate. That was my last straw. Two, I hope you are happy now.” I directed the last comment towards Courtney as she is staring at me.

I turn and run into the school, I hear Lily and Tate behind me calling my name. I know Lily just wants to be by my side like a good friend. But Tate, I’m done listening to his excuses every time he runs off to be with Courtney and he didn’t even try to push her off of him. Way to pour salt into a wound!

I start sniffing, as I turn the corner to the hall were the bathrooms are. I see my picture everywhere. I grab one off of the wall and look at it. It’s an old picture of me before I started recreating myself, at the top it says “Rayleigh Bell” and at the bottom “Fat Much”.  I turn to run back out, but instead I run into Tate’s chest.

Tate guides me out of the building to his car, I start to feel my throat close up and tears blur my vision. I can’t believe this is happening. I have tried my best to forget about my past life, but this just proves that it will always follow me. I feel Tate hold me, brushing my hair out of my face. “Shh it’s okay. I’m here,” is all he keeps saying to me.  It takes me a while to gather myself together.

I look up at Tate and remember what he has done to me. I push him away. “You have no right to try to take care of me now!” I yell at him.

“Ray, please let me explain last night.”

“Yeah, how about you explain last night, and how she pushes herself all over you and you do nothing! Oh, and how my picture, which I HATE, IS POSTED ALL OVER THE DAMN SCHOOL NOW TATE!!!”

“Time to come clean.” Tate sighs

“Time to come clean? Now you want to come clean, YOU SHOULD HAVE COME CLEAN BEFORE WE EVEN STARTED DATING!!!”  I know yelling does nothing but hurt the situation but right now, I am beyond pissed.

“Look, Courtney was my sister’s best friend, actually my twin sister. My sister, Tess, and her became friends when they were 15. When my sister became sick with born marrow disease. There was nothing anyone could do, but me. With me being her Twin, I helped her  the best that I could, but the doctors said that it didn’t take. So within 3 months of Tess being diagnosed, she passed away.” Tears start coming from Tate’s eyes.

I didn’t say anything for a moment. “Your tattoo? It’s for you sister?” I ask him. He nods his head.

I feel for him but that doesn’t explain why Courtney is always around.

“What about Courtney?”

“Courtney is still around, because when Tess passed away she had no one. So she went off the deep end. She still has no one, but me.”

“What about her parents?”

“That’s not my place to say, let’s just say her parents aren’t good ones. Courtney only calls me when they are around.”

I don’t know what else to say. Courtney was telling the truth when she said she didn’t have anyone but Tate. But they really need to draw a line where her friendship goes with Tate if he wants me around.

“Okay, I get that she isn’t going anywhere but, Tate you really need to draw a line if you want me around. I can’t take seeing her push up all against you. She is dating Brent; she would be able to talk to him also.”

“I agree, but I am the only one that can protect her right now.”

I take a deep breath. “Tate, I’m serious if you want this to work. We need to draw some kind of boundaries.”

Tate picks me up and kisses me. “I promise you, I will, no, we will make this work”

I roll my eyes at him. “Now I am going home. I can’t deal with school today.”

*****

I
get home and go straight to my room; I didn’t want my mom to stop me and ask why I was home so early. As I change back into my pj’s, I hear someone knock on my balcony doors. I slowly walk over and pull the curtain back. Randy is standing on my balcony. I unlock my door.

“What are you doing here?”

“I want to apologize.”

I look at him shocked. “For what you did to me in high school? Well, at my old school.”

Randy nods his head, “I came last night to apologize but you pulled your curtains shut, so I waited.”

“How did you know I was home now?”

“When I saw you at the restaurant that day, I asked Courtney if she knew you. When she told me that you went to high school with her.  I told her all about you, she didn’t want to do anything to hurt you. But the past couple of days I seen how miserable she was without Tate being around and well I got mad. So I wanted to get back at you. And seeing how you changed so much, I knew this would get to you. Well, but now, I can tell that it didn’t ruin you. I just hurt you and I’m sorry for today and back then, and when you left school and came home, I just followed you.”

Okay, that is just plain creepy.

“Thank you Randy. But now because of you, I have had an awful morning and I just really want to lay down.”

“I understand, and take care.”

As I watch Randy walk away, I felt so much better than that day I had before. Now knowing that he is sorry and he means it, means a lot to me and if I can forgive Randy. Then I know I can give Tate another chance.

*****

A
fter taking a long hour nap, I turn my phone on and notice I have 5 text messages along with a voice mail. I scan across the messages, which were all from Tate asking me if I was okay, then the voice mail was from him threating that if I didn’t answer him soon that he was going to show up at my house.

I decided not to answer him and let him worry. Not even 30 minutes after listening to his message, Tate shows up at my balcony doors.

I open the doors and smile at him. “Don’t you ever use the front door?”

“Not when I don’t want your parents to know I am here.” Tate smiles at me, as he leans down and gives me a hungry kiss. He pulls away as we both catch our breath.

We sit on my bed, as Tate holds my hands looking at me. “Ray, I want to thank you.”

“No Tate, I want to thank you.”

“How about we just thank each other for everything, as we both come to realize that we are meant to be.”

I laugh, “First, Did you talk to Courtney?”

“Yes, I did. She has agreed to keep her boundaries.”

“Really, no fights?”

“Nope, she understands.”

“So we really get to have our chance now?”

“However many chances you want, you get.” Tate smiles at me, as he bends his head down and touches his forehead to mine. I look into his eyes as he leans in a little closer to kiss me.

“I love you, Rayleigh Bell.”

I slide my arms around his neck. “I love you, Tate Davis.”

Epilogue

5 years later

Tate

Holding the ring in my pocket, I feel like it’s burning a hole though. Five years ago we graduated from high school.  Remembering back, I just shake my head. All that un-necessary drama. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. Ray is stubborn.  I graduated from college last year as a journalist. And tonight is Rayleigh’s turn, as a sports therapist. Tonight is the night I’m asking her to be my wife.

I slid in between Ray’s parents and her brothers. I asked her dad for permission the other week, while Ray was out with her mom running errands.  He never once hesitated as he gave me permission to marry his only daughter. I already have everything planned out, as Ray knows that we having a party for her but she doesn’t know where we having it at.

The old ware house we used before for her 18
^th
birthday party, I bought for her to use as her own studio when she is ready to start helping people. Lily and Ben have stayed there to make sure that everything was in place and I also got a ring to put in there for her, so she can have the place to herself if she wants to work out some.