On my nineteenth birthday, I remember getting that phone call. Tate had called in while I was at home to wish me a happy birthday. Not the phone call you were expecting to hear about, huh. Well, yes, I received a phone call from Linda Mancuso about doing a TV show for ABC Family. But isn't that a little overused? Hardly. But this story isn't about my success on the TV screen. It's about someone else. And it's not me... not exactly. I just like to think of myself as one of the main characters... and the narrator, too. Summer came (how ironic, so did Tate, and her last name is 'Summers.' Coincidence? I think not. It's fate, man), and the guys and I were having the times of our lives, filming and travelling. Tate was in town the whole time, so she provided a couple of laughs along the way. Like, this one time, we were all outside, rough-housing, and somehow she gets pulled into it. And I couldn't help but watch and wish I had gotten all of that footage on tape. Fortunately for me, and you'll soon find out why, I realized that once again, those feelings for Tate surfaced again. I wasn't as freaked out as I had been for the past four years, but I was still a little... not scared, per se, but uncertain. I mean, now was probably the perfect time to tell her, but could I really? Would I say, "Hey Tate, guess what? I've kinda, sorta liked you ever since eighth grade. Okay, maybe freshman year... but who's counting?" No. Pat, however, caught on to me and eventually he and Michael wheedled it out of me. The strange part about it was that I let the cat out of the bag inside my mom's craft store. Well, it's not like everything in my life is ordinary. Some people talk about girls on the phone, others talk about them in their mother's store. I would later learn that Robbie and Tate were having a similar talk in the library. While it's still beyond me as to why the Tang would choose to chat with her there, I admire his wisdom to hang around such a quiet area where they could have easily been overheard. What was their excuse for lagging behind the group while Pat, Michael, and I waited across the street? They had gone to get sodas. LAME. I bet Robbie was the mastermind behind that thing the whole time. And just so you know, there were no sodas. Typical. Things with Tate were going well... that is, until I did the unthinkable and ambushed her with water balloons right when she needed me most. You see, her dog, Kooks, had passed away the day before, and she had come to me for consolation. I knew nothing of this and figured that she just wanted to come over like always. And Ryan suggested in the first place that we welcome her with balloons. That didn't blow over so well. She cried on my doorstep, and it was the first time ever that I'd seen Tate Summers shed a tear. It wasn't a good feeling. And it sucked even more because I figured that now she'd never give me a chance, or even the time of day. I admit I placed all the blame on Ryan at first. It was HE who suggested it, and HE who let me hop on the bandwagon. But at the same time, I didn't read all the signs that pointed to her being upset while on the phone, and I easily could have refused to go along with it. If only I had known better. What got to me though was the fact that Tate had been confiding in Ryan the whole time, the guy who I blamed for everything. I was... jealous, in a way. Thoughts of Delish asking Tate to Homecoming back in freshman year came flooding back to me for one split second. But then Ryan said something that sounded very foreign to my ears. He told me Tate liked me. |
| Love, Brendan |