The next day at school, Calum and I are standing at my locker talking about the weather. Yes, the weather. The cliche small talk. But we were talking about it because for the first time since I had moved here, it had been raining all day. Suddenly, Tate comes over and throws his arm around Calum.
"Hey guys, did I hear you two talking about the weather?" He laughs.
"Yeah, we're a couple of losers," Calum replies as he throws his arm around Tate too. Tate gives him a look before Calum speaks again. "Well I'm gonna go to class early, I'll see you in a few Allis," he says before walking away and giving Tate a wink.
"So, are you gonna entertain me with the weather as well?" He leans up against the locker next to mine and flashes his bright, white teeth at me.
"I'm sure I could if you wanted me to," I smile back.
"Well maybe we can talk about that and other things over dinner sometime?" He says as he moves a little closer to me. His cologne is so strong as if he just put it on right before he came over here.
"Sure, that sounds nice," I say nervously. I'm not really sure how I feel about Tate. He is cute, but I'm not good with guys at all and something in the back of my head is holding me back, I'm just not sure what it is.
"Cool, how about tomorrow night?" He's now close enough to where he has to tilt his head a little to look down at me.
"Sounds great," I say as I try not to blush.
"I'll pick you up tomorrow at 6, see you around Allis," he smirks and with that, he's gone.
The rest of my day goes by pretty slow again. Today at lunch, I see Luke walk by our table with a different girl in his arm. As he walks by he makes sure to give me the dirtiest look he can before kissing his new girl on the cheek.
"Looks like Luke has a new friend," Michael says as he puts air quotes around friend.
"He has a new friend everyday," Calum responds and shakes his head.
This girl is even weirder than Myra. Her arms are covered in tattoos like Luke's and not only does she have as many piercings as Myra did, but her ear gauges are big enough to fit three fingers in at least. Her hair is terribly dyed a bleach blonde with noticeable black roots at the top of her head.
"Your hair is dyed better than her's and you're a guy," I say to Michael with his freshly dyed red hair. The boys all laugh and I smirk at the comment I made.
I planned on confronting Luke at some point, I just didn't know when or where to do it. Or how I was going get the guts to.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The next day at school is filled with comments from the boys about my date with Tate. They all make bets and predictions on how and when he's going to kiss me and where he's going to take me for our second date. I wasn't even thinking about a second date yet.
I was actually pretty nervous for tonight. I hadn't been on a date in a long time and I was never good at flirting with guys, let alone talking to them. Being the good friend that Linley is, she somehow sensed that I was feeling uneasy about the whole thing.
"So, are you excited for tonight?" She asked me at lunch while the boys were talking about band stuff.
"Yeah, I'm just kind of nervous," I responded quietly, not wanting the guys to know.
"It will be fine I promise. Just be yourself, he already likes you!" She reassures me and puts a hand on my shoulder. "What are you wearing?"
"Yeah about that..." I start. "I'm not really sure, I don't really have any date clothes as you can tell."
"I'm coming over after school and helping you get ready, I'll bring a couple outfits and we can pick," she said excitedly, as if this was her plan the whole time. It probably was. "And then this weekend we are going shopping, whether you like it or not!"
"Oh fine," I sigh then smile at her. "Thank you," I say as I smile and pull her in for a hug.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
After school is finally over, Linley drives Bradley and Josh, the neighbor boy, home and takes me and her to her house to get an outfit for tonight. Her house is about 10 minutes away from mine and is a little bit smaller.
Her room is covered in various band posters and canvases with quotes and flowers. I imagine she painted them herself, considering she's in an advanced art class. She opens her closet which is filled with colorful sheer shirts, dresses, and all kinds of floral outfits. I browse through the shirts, automatically skipping the bright colors.
"Allis, you can't just immediately go to black or grey," she says and lightly pushes me aside. "Let me find something for you, and no arguments," she points at me and I sigh and stand back.
After a few minutes she pulls out a maroon crop top with very light blue stripes. "This would be perfect with a pair of ripped skinnies," she says and I actually don't hate the outfit. "Oh and one more thing," she says as she digs in her closet once again.
This time she pulls out a pair of black combat boots, which I've never worn. I'm not so sure about these and she can tell by my face.
"You'll put them on and get used to them," she says as she closes her door and walks out of her room. She comes back in less than a minute with a big makeup bag and a curling iron. "Alright, let's go to your house and make you look hot."
The first thing she does when we get to my house is throws the clothes at me and tells me to change. I go to my attached bathroom and change quickly into the shirt and my own jeans. The top fits tight and cuts off in the middle of my belly button, not showing off too much skin.
"Oh girl, you already look good and we haven't even gotten to the makeup yet," she says as soon as I step out. She sits me down and immediately starts curling my long, brown hair. In about 20 minutes she has finished and starts on my makeup.
"So, what's the news with Michael?" I ask her. The last time I checked, they had gone out on a date to the movies.
"Well, we're obviously not official yet," she begins. "But I'm going to his house tonight and he keeps flirting more every second so who knows. Now stop talking before you make me mess up," she winks.
By the time she is finished it's 5:50 and I have plenty of time to check myself out. When she puts the last touch of eyeliner on, I walk over to my long mirror. I had to admit, she didn't make me look bad. She actually made me look pretty good. "One more thing," she says and pulls out the boots from her bag. I slip them on and lace them up and she was right, it did complete my outfit.
"You look great Allis," she says as she puts both hands on my shoulders and makes me face her. "Now, just let yourself go a little and have a good time, okay?"
"Yeah, okay," I say and bring her into a hug. "Thank you for doing this, I love it," I say before pulling out of the hug.
"Anytime, that's what friends are for." She smiles and I can tell that she is going to be a great friend. "Now I better get going before he gets here. Have fun tonight," she says as she hugs me one more time and packs up her stuff.
Not even 5 minutes after Linley drives away from my house, I hear a car horn and look out my window to see Tate parked in my driveway. I run downstairs and decide to leave a quick note for my mom.
Mom,
Went on that date that I told you about. Don't know what time I'll be home, but I won't be eating dinner with you and Bradley. See you when I get home.
Love you
I stick the note on the fridge and walk out to Tate's car.
"Wow, you look fantastic," he says as soon as I get inside.
"Well thank you, you look pretty nice yourself," I reply as I smile at him. He was wearing a maroon and navy blue and white checkered button up with the sleeves rolled up and jeans. The car is filled with the familiar scent of his cologne.
It takes us about 10 minutes to get to a nice Italian restaurant. We are immediately seated and the lights are dim and romantic. As we wait for our food, we tell each other about ourselves. I tell him about my mother and Bradley and about how I moved here, not revealing too much about my past since I don't really tell anybody about it.
After a few minutes, he gets up to run to the restroom. So far the evening isn't going too bad and I send Linley a quick text to update her and ask how her night with Michael is going. When I finish and look up from my phone, I see a familiar face coming towards me.
"What on earth are you doing here?" Luke stops and puts his hand on the table. He was dressed in all black and looking as handsome as always, which I cursed him for in my head.
"I should ask you the same thing," I say back as I glare him up and down.
"It's none of your business why I'm here," he shoots back at me.
"Well it's also none of your's as to why I am. Why does it matter to you anyways?" I snap back before taking a drink, acting as if I could care less about him.
"It doesn't. I just don't wanna have to see your face in here while I'm busy working," he says as he looks around the room.
I let out a small giggle. "You work here? That's weird, I thought you had to be nice in order to be a waiter."
"I'm not a waiter, I bus tables."
"Oh, that sounds like great fun," I laugh again.
"At least I have a job," he says and laughs back.
"I don't need a job right now. And by the way I'm on a date, so I'd appreciate it if you could leave before my date returns."
"And who would take you on a date?" He asks as if he is repulsed by my statement.
"Your friend Tate, actually," I say with a smirk.
"He's not my friend, he let me perform at his house once but other than that we're not friends. And you need to stay away from him," he says and I actually almost spit my drink out at his statement.
"How the hell are you going to be a total ass to me and then try to tell me who I need to stay away from?" I actually laugh at him.
"If you know what's good for you, then you'll stay away. Just do what I say," he says as he looks around again as if making sure Tate wasn't coming.
"Please leave Luke, I'm having a great time and would like to get back to that." I'm angry now.
"Whatever. I can't wait til you get hurt and I'll be right, like always," he smirks.
"Stay away from me," I say and I have to force myself not to get out of my chair and punch him.
"Gladly," he says and walks away from my table and I don't see where he goes.
Why the hell would he tell me to stay away from Tate? He doesn't even care about me, he hates me! My thoughts are interrupted when Tate finally comes back and sits down.
"What was he doing over here?" He asks me with a confused look.
"Just pestering me as usual," I say back and he can tell I'm annoyed.
"Do I need to go have a talk with him?" He looks concerned.
"No it's fine. I thought you guys were friends though?"
"Luke doesn't really have friends, besides the band. He's not a very friendly person," he says with a small chuckle.
"Yeah, I can see that." I catch a glimpse of him and before he can notice me staring I look back at Tate. "Let's stop talking about him, where were we?"
The rest of the night goes good. We talk all throughout dinner and the food was delicious. When he drops me off at my house, he walks me up to my door.
"I had a great night, we should do it again sometime," he says as we face each other on my porch.
"I'd like that," I smile back at him.
"Awesome, I'll see you tomorrow." Before I can say anything, he is leaning towards my face. I can't tell if he is going in for a kiss or not so I just kind of stand there, awkward I know. Luckily he goes for my cheek and plants a small peck on it. He pulls back and smiles as he walks away.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
As I lay in my bed that night, the events of tonight replay in my mind. I want to like Tate, but there's something in my mind that won't let me. Of course I think he's cute and I had a great night, but something is weird about the whole thing. I just don't know what it is. Then Luke floods my thoughts again. Why would he want me to stay away from Tate, why would he care if I got hurt? And why would he tell me to stay away from someone who is obviously so sweet? I needed to understand what was going through Luke's head, but I couldn't ask him. He made me so angry and I didn't want to be around him.
But at the same time, I did want to.