A Second Chance (8 page)

He runs a hand through his hair. “So, I was wondering if you would like to go out tonight. With, um, me. On a date.” He says, looking nervous.

I look over his shoulder when I feel eyes on me. Tate is standing behind Brent, looking ready to kill him. I look back to Brent and smile. “Sure, sounds like fun. Pick me up at six?”

He lets out a sigh of relief and smiles. “Great, ok. Six. Later.” I turn back around to my locker when he walks off. I feel heat at my back.

“What do you think you’re doing? You are not going out with Brent.” Tate says.

I turn around and notice he’s shaking with anger. “We’re not dating Tate. I can go on dates with whoever I want. I don’t need your permission.” I start to walk off when he pulls me back.

“If he touches you, I’ll kill him.” He says threateningly, then walks off. I watch him walk down the hall and punch his locker.

This date is a bad idea. I know that, but Tate needs to get it in his head we’re over. I go to my first class and take my seat, as I turn to talk to Lily.

“So I have a date tonight.” I tell her, with a big smile on my face.

“Oh really? With who?” She is basically jumping out her seat.

“With Brent.”  Right when I said Brent’s name, Ben walks in the classroom looking terrified.

“What did you do to Tate? He is PISSED!” Ben asks, looking at me up and down. “And I see why he is pissed.”

“This outfit isn’t the reason he is pissed. He is pissed because Brent asked me out, and I told him yes.”

“Brent? From the football team?” 

“Um, yes. Why?”

“No wonder Tate is pissed. Brent also went after Courtney after they broke up. Actually Courtney cheated on Tate with Brent.”

“So they have some kind of a rivalry?” 

“Actually, Brent is second quarter back to Tate. Ever since Tate got picked first Brent goes after what Tate has.”

“Great, so now I’m some kind of toy.”  I say looking a Lily and Ben. They both give sympathetic looks.

I groan in my sit, as Ms. Washington calls the class to attention. Just as she is calling attendance, Ben’s phone goes off. He looks at it then gives it to me. I give him a questioning face.

I look at his phone and it’s from Tate.

T: Give your phone to Ray.

B: What? - Rayleigh

T: Can we talk?

B: We have nothing to talk about, Tate.

T: Don’t go out with Brent. Please.

As I see that on the screen after what I just learned about him, I felt sick. I had already planned to cancel after what Ben told me, but I am not letting Tate know that.

B: No, Go be with Courtney. Giving Ben his phone.

I pressed send, and handed Ben back his phone. I took a piece of paper out and wrote down.

Cancelling my date with Brent, NOT telling TATE. Pick me up at 6 so he doesn’t know?

I handed the paper to Lily. I didn’t want to stay at home and let Tate think he has won. I turn to look at Lily and she nods her head at me.

After class was over, I decided to wait till the end of the day to cancel with Brent so it didn’t give Tate a chance to hear about it.

I
walk out of the school with Lily and notice Tate standing by Lily’s car, leaning against the passenger side. I shake my head. What doesn’t he get? I walk up to the car and try to ignore him, but it doesn’t work.

“Will you please move.” I say not looking at him.

“No, not until you say you won’t go out with Brent tonight.”

I sigh. “Tate, seriously, this is none of your business.”

“It is my business. He’s trying to take what is mine.” He yells.

“I’m not yours Tate. We’re friends. That’s it.” I was going to give in and tell him that I did cancel the date with Brent, but after this whole ‘mine’ crap, I’ll let him suffer all night.

“We’re more than friends, Ray, and you know it. But fine, you want to be friends. We’ll be friends.” He says angrily and walks off.

I watch him walk off; did he really just give in? We are really just friends now. I thought I would feel better now that he finally gave in, but now I feel horrible. I look over at Lily, as she saw the whole thing play out. I shake my head and get in the car.

Lily takes me home and I go straight to my room and change into a sports bra and shorts. I need to get this day off my mind. I thought dressing sexy and getting Tate’s attention would be great, but instead he did the opposite. I grab my head phones and go to the garage.

I stay in the garage for hours, missing dinner, all the way till my mom comes in and tells me that they are going to bed. I just realized that Lily never showed up. That means Tate now knows that I didn’t go out tonight.  Why should I care? He gave in, so should I.

I go upstairs and lay down to catch my breath. A few minutes of cooling down, I grab a t-shirt and start changing as I hear my balcony doors open. I turn around to see Tate coming in my room. I throw my t-shirt on.

“What are you doing!? Get out!” I tell him.

“I wanted to make sure you are okay, I noticed that Brent never came over, so I assumed he stood you up.”

Typical. “No, I cancelled on him when school let out today.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before I walked away?”

“It doesn’t matter, you gave up, Tate. Now get out.”

“Can we talk?” Tate looks at me with sad eyes.

“No, I told you to leave it, and I’m telling you again.”

“You are so stubborn.”

“GO!” I start to push him out of my balcony doors. Right when I got him out I shut them and made sure they were locked, even though that doesn’t even help nowadays.

Mom is letting me use her car today. I was shocked when she agreed, but I’m not going to question it. Lily didn’t show up last night so I’m pissed at her, I called her this morning telling her I didn’t need a ride. And there is no way right now that I’m going to drive with Tate.

I walk outside to see Tate leaning by his car. “Need a ride?” he yells over.

“Nope.” I say, popping the ‘p’. I unlock my mom’s car and hop in. I don’t pull out until Tate does. I want to follow him and see how the heck he gets to school so fast. Lily and I always leave before him, yet he always gets there first.

Come to find out, there Is a secret way in and out of our neighborhood, the very front entrance has horrible traffic,  but the way Tate goes has no traffic and is a shorter way out of the neighborhood.

We pull up at the school at the same time; I get out of the car and head into school. As I was walking across the parking lot, I see everyone almost everyone, pair off. You know, usually around Valentine’s Day, you start seeing all these random couples. Well that is how it is now, but instead it’s a week before thanksgiving.

I get to my locker and hear Tate behind me, saying my name.  I don’t turn around. I roll my eyes. “What do you want, Tate?” I ask him, acting bored.

“I was seeing if you have plans for thanksgiving. It’s usually just me and my parents, but my dad isn’t around here a lot lately.”

I see where he is heading.

“Tate, I will play your game. How about you and your mom come over for thanksgiving.” I smile at him.

He nods, indicating he accepts the invitation.

We keep saying we will be friends, so this is a good start. Tate doesn’t move away from me, and I start feeling a little bit uncomfortable.

“Is there something else I can do for you, Tate?”

He leans in and whispers in my ear “You look hot in those jeans.” He says as he grabs my ass then walks away.

I am too shocked to even move after Tate leaves. This whole friend thing is going to be harder than I thought. I go through the day ignoring Tate every chance possible. This morning was really awkward.

I
get home and notice Lily is in my driveway. I didn’t talk to her today at school and I don’t want to talk to her now. I get out of the car and walk past her to my front door.

“Come on Rayleigh, just talk to me.” Lily says following behind me.

I get in and she sneaks in before I close the door. “Fine, talk.”

“I’m sorry about last night, but I didn’t think what you were doing to Tate was right. You know he loves you right?”

I freeze. “What?” I wheeze out.

“You can tell Rayleigh. He does. It’s so obvious.”

“Um, Lil, you do know we’ve only known each other like, a month.”

“Yeah so? My parents met, and a week later they were saying ‘I love you’. They’ve been married for twenty years now. Sometimes you just know. Plus you two have known each other longer than a month, think about. It’s almost thanksgiving, school started in August.”

“Okay, so you’re right about the month thing, but still he can’t love me. We were only together for a couple of weeks at most.”

“You never know Rayleigh, but really give the boy a chance.”

I shake my head. “I can’t, Lil. He won’t be honest with me, and I’m not going to put myself in a position to get hurt.”

“Just think about it, I got to go. But call if you need me.”

I walk Lily out to her car, as she pulls away. I look over at Tate’s house. No one is at home. He is probably with Courtney.

As I head back inside, I hear a car pass my house and pull up in Tate’s drive way. I turn to see if it’s him. Instead I see an older man, with salt ‘n pepper hair in a suit. I know I shouldn’t spy but I think that’s Tate’s dad. I haven’t seen him since Mrs. Davis and he got into that argument that morning.

I watch him go in the garage and come out with boxes. I realize then, that Tate’s family isn’t all that perfect as I thought it was.

I walk inside and go to the kitchen where I hear mom cooking.

“Hey sweetie, how was school?”

“School is school; by the way, I told Tate that he and his mom can come over for thanksgiving.”

“Oh, I already know. I talked to Mrs. Davis today when you were at school.”

So Tate already knew he was coming over here, then why did he even ask me.

“Oh, okay. Well I’m going to bed.”

“Supper is about done, honey.”

“Mom, I’m tired.”

“Are you sick? You haven’t been acting right.”

“No, I’m fine. Just tired. Night mom.”

“Night honey.”

I go to my room; all I want to do at this moment is just take a hot bath, read and sleep.

N
ext day at school was more of the same. However, I ended up getting a ride with Tate today since mom needed her car. It felt a little awkward but the conversation was the same as we used to have before we started dating. “So, what’s going on with your dad? I saw him loading up boxes into his car last night.”

“Parents are splitting up.” He states, like he doesn’t care.

“I’m sorry. Wow. Can I ask why?”

“Mom caught dad in the back office of the church banging another member of the congregation.”

“You’re kidding me! Isn’t he supposed to be some pastor or something? Isn’t he supposed to follow what he preaches?”

Tate lets out a laugh. “Yeah, you’d think. Hell, just last Sunday he did a sermon all about adultery. Yet he goes and does that. Mom is better off without him. They are just telling people it’s not working for them anymore, but I’m against that, I want to tell everyone what he did.”

I don’t blame Tate for wanting to tell people what he did, but at the same, I wouldn’t want people to know. It would just be another thing for people to talk about.

We pull up at the school, as we got out Courtney runs up to Tate crying her eyes out. I roll my eyes, just another way for her to get his attention. Tate looks at me and gives me an apologetic look. I turn around and walk to Lily’s car.

“And you say he loves me? Look at that, he runs to her every time!” I tell Lily pissed off.

“He does love you. Did you not see his face when she came running?”

“It doesn’t matter anymore Lil. Yes, I like Tate. I can’t say I love him because we didn’t even get to experience the whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing without miss cheerleader over there messing it up. But point is it’s done. It’s over with. “

“So you’re just giving up?”

“Why not? He apparently already has.” I look over at Tate, as he is comforting Courtney. “I can’t do this. I’m going to class.”

I leave everyone outside and run to the bathroom as I feel the tears come to my eyes. I thought moving away would be so much better, but all I have experienced is heartache.

I
go through the day, almost in a daze. Tate talks to me a few times, and I don’t ignore him, I just talk to him like I do everyone else.  No reason why we can’t be friends.  But I’m glad to know that before I gave him my heart, we never would have worked out. I spot Brent down the hall talking to Ben. I start to think back about how I canceled on him, thinking at the time it was for the best. I didn’t really want to hurt Tate like that. But now, it’s not about Tate. We’re over; he has Courtney, and other things going on in his life.

Decision made, I walk over to Brent. “Hey, can I talk to you?”

“Uh, I’ll just head to class, Later Brent. Rayleigh.” Ben says and takes off.

“I’m sorry about cancelling our date. But if you want to try again, I would love to go out with you.”

Brent looks stunned. “Really? Yeah, we can have a picnic down by the lake tonight. I’ll pick you up at seven?”

I smile. “Works for me.” I lean in and give him a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek. “Later Brent.”

I walk off to class. I didn’t find out till later that Tate saw and heard the whole thing.

L
ily takes me home after school, after finding out that Tate was behind me while Brent and I set a date up, I just didn’t feel like seeing his mad face. Plus he has football practice after school, so I’m sure he will release some of his anger.

I get home and look at the clock its already past 5 and I have to be ready for my date by 7. I know two hours should be plenty of time, but instead I’m actually excited about going out with Brent and he is not forcing me to, like alpha male next door did.

I walk to my closet and pull out a pair of skinny jeans and a red top. I take a quick shower. I put my hair in a fish tale braid and curl the sides that hang loose and put a little bit of light make up on.