A Second Chance (4 page)

“Actually, I came to apologize; I didn’t mean to offend you or your religion.”

“It’s not that you offend my religion, Rayleigh. It’s what you called me. I hate being known at the preachers kid. Yes, I know that most preacher kids are the one that get out of hand and all. But I’m not like that. I act like a normal kid, play football and have sex. But I do not party and do drugs or even drink.”

Now that he confirmed that he has sex, that single thought, just makes my stomach crawl. Because that means he does it with Courtney. Ick. I really don’t want those imagines in my head.

“I am sorry.” I give him my innocent face and puppy dog eyes. “Forgive me?”

“Yeah, just because you didn’t know. But next time isn’t going to be so easy.” He says smiling at me.

“Yeah, Sure.” I walk over and kick the leaves that he had been raking.

“Oh, you’re in trouble now.” Tate picks me up and throws me in the pile of leaves and pins me down tickling me.

I try to fight him off laughing but it doesn’t work. I beg him to please stop, as soon as our eyes connect, we settle down. Tate leans down and I become nervous, knowing what is coming next. I don’t move as he leans down to kiss me, his lips brush mine.

As Tate pulls back we hear a car honk. We look around but didn’t see a car in his driveway. Then I remember that I’m supposed to hang out with Lily today.

“That must be Lily.” Looking into his eyes, Tate didn’t even attempt to move off me. “Tate?”

“Oh, yeah sorry.” Tate gets up then helps me up.

I tell him I will see him later and ran back to my house. I knew my face had to be bright red. Tate just kissed me, and I let him.
Oh, I’m in trouble now.

I
hop into Lily’s car and buckle up. “Did I just see Tate kiss you?”

I blush. “You saw that?”

She shakes her head and chuckles at me, “Courtney is gonna skin you alive.” Right, how could I have forgotten about her? I should have put the stops to that kiss right away. I’m not going to be the person that ruins someone else’s relationship.

“Don’t worry about it. I can handle Courtney.” And Tate. I quickly try to change the subject, “So, you have the hots for Ben?” I look over at Lily and see her blush. “I knew it!”

“Hey, it’s no big deal. Guys like Ben don’t even see people like me. But Ben likes you.”

“Not even going there.”

“No you should. Tate likes you. Really likes you. I think if you let Tate in, he’d finally leave that skank. But, I think you should make him jealous first.” Lily smiles at me like a Cheshire cat.

“You’re nuts!” I say laughing at her.

She laughs along with me. “No, I’m serious. I think Tate would hate it, he is only with Courtney because...” she trails off. Now this has me intrigued.

“He’s only with Courtney because? Come on, don’t leave me hanging.”

“I can’t say. I’ve heard rumors about things, but only Tate and Courtney know the truth. I think you should ask him about it. I don’t want to say in case I’m wrong. No need to start unnecessary rumors.” Ok, I guess I could give her that... “But the point is. Tate likes you. Give him a little jealousy push, I think it will have him pissed enough to put a stop to whatever he and Courtney have.”

“Oh, come on. I just moved here not too long ago, I rather NOT be known as the home wrecker.”

“Just saying. I would be ok with you going on a date with Ben. Next time he asks, say yes.” Deciding to change the subject, because this conversation just got way to weird. “Where are we going?”

“Oh, um, I don’t know.” I look at the clock and notice its lunch time. “How about we find somewhere to eat?”

“Sure, we can go to the restaurant a few streets from here. Just small, but they make amazing food.” She smiles as she says it.

We pull into a small little restaurant. Parking lot is full. “Wow, this place is busy.” The front of the restaurant looks like a small home. With a few windows in the front to look in, the door was half glass window and half wood. Kind of like the doors that you see that split where you can just open the top to let some air in. The rest of the building is brick with windows all around it

“Don’t worry, we’ll get in.” She says as she closes her car door. I follow behind her and take in the look of the inside. Wow. Lily and I walk inside to see round tables in the middle and square tables against the walls. Along the walls were pictures of different place that people could look at, while they waited. And just like the front, the inside looked like a home that had just been remodeled in to a restaurant.  “Mom, Dad, I’m hungry.” I whip my head around and look at her, eyebrows raised. “Oh, um, yeah, this is my families’ restaurant.” I just shake my head at her and smile.

I had the pleasure to meet Lily’s parent, they are really sweet and I can see where Lily gets her attitude from. Lily and her mom, Mrs. Zane, could pass for twins, if it wasn’t for her mom being 20 years older than her. It feels great to have a friend, and getting to know their family. At my old high school, this never happened. People worried too much about what people looked like and judged them before giving them the time of day.

Lily ordered a chicken sandwich with a salad on the side. For her to be so small, she sure can pack away some food. I order a side salad. Lily gives me a look, like I am crazy for ordering something so small.

“You know you can order more?” Lily raised her eyebrow at me.

“This is fine, I’m not really hungry.” I tell her.

I then hear Lily mumble under her breath, ‘I wouldn’t be hungry either if I had a hot neighbor kissing me.’, I swat Lily on the arm.

“I heard that!” I tell her. Lily and I burst out laughing, knowing what she said is true.

As we sit and eat, the door opens and hear I the devils voice.

“Well looks who is here.” Courtney says snappy.

“Courtney, leave us alone. Okay? I’m not bothering you and I’m not around Tate.” I turn around and my eyes grow wide as I see who she with.

“Randy...” I whispered, he’s still the same height that I last seen him at. Just with a shaved head. Randy looks at me and stares, I pray that he doesn’t recognize me. No one heard me say his name, as Courtney is still giving her snooty looks and Lily is trying to get my attention.

“Lil, I think it’s time to go.” I tell her and grab my bag.

I run out to Lily’s car and get in. I slam the door and slouch down. I close my eyes shut, hoping that it was just a dream seeing him. A few minutes later, Lily gets in the car and looks at me. I know she is going to want to know what just happened. I look at Lily and I can tell by her face that she has a lot of questions.

“So I know Courtney is not the reason you just ran out of my parent’s restaurant, considering that you told her off just the other day.  Care to explain?”

I take a deep breath. “Before I moved here, I went to a high school that kids were not very nice to me. I was picked on every day. But then again, I didn’t look like this. I weighed over two-hundred pounds and wore glasses. I blocked myself from everyone. The only person that would talk to me was that guy, which is in there right now with Courtney. His name is Randy, I thought that he was a nice person and we got along great. But when he made the soccer team, he acted like he didn’t even know me. He turned on me and talked bad at me, his true colors came out, called me all these dirty names, told me that I should just kill myself because no one would ever want me. He was supposed to be my friend. ” I feel the tears start rolling down my cheeks.

Lily leans over the seat to give me a hug. “It’s okay.”

“I don’t want anyone to know, if they do, I have to start back over. The first 3 years of my high school was nothing but hell. I talked my parents into moving, I picked up kick boxing to help me lose the weight and with my anger problems. I changed my self.”

“It’s okay. Your secret is safe with me.”  Lily tells me, smiling at me. It’s nice to know that I actually have a friend, one that I can trust.  I don’t think for one second that Lily would actually tell anyone what I went through.

“Can you just take me home? I rather hit my punching bag for a while.”

Lily nods her head towards me, on the way home it’s silent. I didn’t want to tell anyone what I went through before I moved. But seeing Randy, I knew I couldn’t hide. And seeing Courtney with him, I just hope that he didn’t notice me and then tell Courtney about the old me. She would make sure that my senior year is a living hell, no doubt.

After I get dropped off at home, I walk inside to find the house empty. I walk to my room and walk out the balcony to have some quiet time to myself.

I hear a ball bouncing and some yelling. I look past the tree, and see Tate and some other guys playing basketball. You know for him to be the star football player, I sure do see him play basketball a lot. I watch Tate play for a minute, as a smile formed on my face as I think about the kiss from this morning.

I back into my room and close the doors to change into my sports bra and shorts. Instead of putting my head phones in this time I took my IPod dock with me to play some music.

I get down to the garage and put on ‘Roar’ by Katy Perry. If any song explains me it’s this one, how you don’t back down, and you let everyone hear you.

As I start pounding on the punching bag imagining that all those faces from my old high school. I start to feel a whole lot better. I start smiling and start jumping around hitting the bag and kicking it. Feeling more alive than I have ever felt in my whole life!

I don’t know how long I’ve been working out, but after a while, my arms feel like Jell-O. I take a break and grab my water bottle. I then notice someone standing over in the corner of the room. I let out a scream before I see who it is. Tate. “What the hell?”  I yell.

He laughs. “I was just watching you. You look amazing doing that.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“Are you coming over tonight to help me out?” Oh yeah, I forgot I was tutoring him.

“Yeah, but you should probably call your girlfriend and let her know so she doesn’t have a freak out. Oh by the way, I saw her today with some guy.”  I say, casually.

“Don’t worry about Courtney. She won’t be bothering us tonight. Her cousin Randy is in town. ”

Finding out that Randy is Courtney’s cousin is not what I wanted to hear. “Yeah, sure. Alright, let me go have a quick shower and I’ll be right over.”

He doesn’t say anything, but as I make my way towards the door, I noticed he wasn’t leaving. I turn around to ask him what he’s doing, but the minute I turn around, I find myself moving backwards and pressing against the garage door. “I need to kiss you.” Tate says, as he pushes his body against mine. “I don’t think that is such a good idea.” I say, and then his head descends. His lips against mine are firm, yet soft. Before the kiss can go any further, I hear a girl call out for him.

Shit, Courtney. I shove him away.

“Why would you do that? You have a girlfriend!”

Tate shoves his hands through his hair. “You think I care? All I can think about is you; I don’t want to be with Courtney.”

“Then why are you?” I ask him.

Before Tate could answer, we here Courtney call out for him again. “You better go.” I tell him.

“But you are supposed to come over and help me.” Tate gives me sad eyes.

“Not tonight, apparently you have some thinking to do. Because to be honest. I’m not going to be any ones secret and I’m not going to be the one that gets hurt.”

Tate doesn’t say anything. He turns and walks to the door, before he leaves, he turns to me. “This isn’t over, Rayleigh.” With that he left.

I walk out of the garage, just as I see Tate leave my house. How the hell does he keep getting in?

I go to my room and take a nice hot bath. I get out and dress in my purple pj pants and a baggy shirt. I walk down to the kitchen and grab an apple. I head to my room and out to my balcony and sit against the door frame thinking about the day.

As I’m sitting on my balcony, I hear yelling. Wondering what it is, I can’t help it, I’m nosy, and I lean over the rail and see that Courtney and Tate are yelling at each other. “It’s her, isn’t it? I knew it.” Courtney yells.

“It’s not just her Courtney and you know it! I told you, I’m still here for you always. I wouldn’t just end our friendship!” Tate says, trying to calm her down.

“But Tate.”

“No, I know you have feelings for someone else. You think I’m stupid and didn’t know you were cheating?”  He says, but doesn’t sound mad.

I don’t hear what else is said, as I back away, letting them talk this out.

I wake up the next morning feeling better. It’s Sunday, so I know I’m alone in the house, since everyone is at church. I hop out of bed and make my way down stairs. As I’m digging through the fridge, I hear someone clear their throat. I jump around, and drop the milk jug I was holding. “What the hell. How do you keep getting in?” I say, as I realize it was Tate, yet again.

“Your mom leaves the door unlocked. Told me to come over anytime.”

‘I’m so going to have a little chat with my mother.” I say under my breath but low enough that he couldn’t hear me.

I notice he isn’t looking at me, more like looking up and down my body. Shit, I just realized I’m only in a t-shirt and panties.

“Um, yeah, be right back. Gotta throw some pants on.”  I start to run out of the room, when an arm goes around my waist and I’m pulled into Tate’s body.

“Go on a date with me tonight.” He says.

“No.”

“I’ll pick you up at 6.”

“I said no.”

He kisses me on my neck. “6, tonight. Later beautiful.” Then lets me go and walks toward the doors. “I’m not going out with you, Tate.” I yell out at him right as he is shutting the front door.

What the hell just happened?

I run up stairs and put some pants on, just in case he pops back up. He is throwing me around the whirlpool! I really don’t want to go out with him, well ok, I do, but I’m not going to let him boss me around. Instead I decided to ignore that he demanded me to go on a date with him and laid around in my pjs all day.

Plus, I have a huge history project that is due Friday and I rather get that done. I hate waiting till the last minute. I pull out my history book along with the card board that my mom picked up for me, along with all the glittery pens that I picked up when I went school shopping.