and i love her ▸ tate langdon ✓

09. teenage whore

I said, "I feel so alone and I, I wish I could die"
I've seen the things you put me through and I, I wish I could die

-

Tate didn't know what he had done to make them so mad at him.

But here he is, laying on the cold tile floor of the senior hallway, blood spilling from his nose and into his mouth as a group of four or five big build jocks kick him repeatedly. The crowd just simply watching as he gets beat up.

But more on that when we get there.

After the movie on Halloween, It was already almost ten and Tate had to leave Marceline's house. She had been "forbidden" to see him so they had to sneak around now.

So he sneaks out, only to run into his mother as he gets back into his house. "Where were you?" Constance asks her son, a cigarette between her fingers. "Marceline's house," Tate answers flatly.

"That girl is not good for you," Constance comments, her eyes scanning Tate's expression that consisted of an angry frown and his usual dark eyes. He stays silent, glaring at the woman known as his mother.

"It's just a phase. What you think is love, it never lasts. Might as well give up now," she says, putting out her cigarette on the ashtray on the counter beside her. He stares at her, not wanting to consider what she was saying.

The woman shrugs, reaching her now empty hand out and patting his cheek softly. "Have fun while you can. Because girls like that what nothing to do with a boy like you,"

Her words cut like knives. It felt like she had not only stabbed him, but dragged the knife up Tate's torso and created an incision from his stomach to his chest. He knew she said it to hurt him. He realized his mother always said it how it was, no matter how much it hurt.

Tate just didn't want to even welcome the idea that Marceline wouldn't want "a guy like him".

He walks up to his bedroom, locking his door behind him as he lays down on his bed. Rubbing his eyes, Tate groans as his thoughts ridicule him. Would she want him? Could she love him? Why would she? He was just some loner kid who everyone hated because he hated them back.

He'd always be the reacher and she'd always be the settler.

-

Marceline walked into school on Monday and it felt like a normal day.

The week after Halloween always felt slow and boring. It was the first week of November and Thanksgiving break was hauntingly close. Following that would be Christmas break.

People were basically counting down the days for break. Some counted down for 1994 to finally come. Some just wanted the end of the school year to hurry up and arrive. Marceline wanted for the Holidays to come, given she loved the break you get. And Tate waited for '94.

Tate had been especially angry lately. He didn't know why, but every little thing ticked him off. The kids at school, when he gets a bad grade, when his head hurts. Everything made him want to go apeshit.

Marceline noticed, but never said anything.

She had gotten her walkman back so she never had to share it with Tate again. Everything seemed to be fine. That was until Marceline saw Tate getting the living shit beat out of him.

Still, not there.

There are two parts to this story. So let's start with Tate's.

It was Sunday night and Him, Constance, Addie, and Larry were sitting at dinner. Dinners were always awkward and uncomfortable but he had to be there or else he got scolded and verbally harassed by his mother.