Hide Your Fires

16: Fooled

"So what is up with you and Tate Conner?" Allison asks me on Wednesday at school as we're walking down the hallway.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I've seen you talking to him sometimes and he seems to be really into you," She tells me.

I roll my eyes. "He's into half of the female student body."

"True," She concedes. "But still, you're talking to him. Are you friends or something?"

"He's my brother's friend," I tell her, avoiding her question like the plague because I'm not sure if we are friends but even if we are, I don't want to tell Allison about it. I don't think that she'll get jealous or anything, I just think that she'd overreact is all. "It's not a big deal."

"This is delicious. Do you think that you can introduce me to him or something?" She wonders curiously, her eyes brightening up with hope. Although I feel a tiny ping of possessiveness run through me, I tell myself that it isn't a big deal. I'm hardly friends with Tate so what does it matter if he talks to Allison?

"Yeah, I guess," I say to her with a shrug.

"He's down by the cafeteria right now. I mean, it's not like I know his whole schedule or anything, but I know his whole schedule," She tells me with a huge grin. I know that not all of the girls at the school are as... enthusiastic about Tate as Allison is. He isn't some sort of celebrity or anything, the whole student body doesn't drool at his feet. Everybody knows his name, sure, but barely anybody is as invested in him as Allison is.

"Ally, you know that stalking is illegal, right?" I ask her, looking at the time on my phone.  We have seven minutes until class starts so I can get down to the cafeteria and then back to my class with plenty of time to spare but we still walk quickly through the crowded hallway just to ensure that I'm not late to my class.

"There he is," She states, pointing to Tate in a familiar group of guys including Allan but I don't see Matt there with them. They're all standing behind Tate as he's talking to a girl in front of him.

Being a bit invasive, we get close enough to hear what's going on but not close enough that he sees us standing there, and then I hold a hand out in front of Allison. "Hang on, wait. He looks busy, just give it a minute."

She sighs beside me but doesn't continue forward as we watch the scene unfold. The girl standing in front of Tate looks extremely unhappy right now, almost on the verge of tears I'm guessing, but Tate is smirking that arrogant smirk that he's always wearing around his friends. Who are, at the moment, looking at the girl and they seem amused. What could be amusing about a girl about to cry? And why did they feel like her crying needed an audience?

"I just thought that you liked me," She says to Tate, her voice wavering but she doesn't cry.

"Babe, I did like you. For that one night," He tells her, sounding sarcastically sympathetic. "And it was a fun night but it's over now. We're over."

She wraps her arms around herself, glancing back at his friends and then down at her sneakers, probably feeling absolutely humiliated. And by the look on Tate's face, I'd say that's exactly what he's going for. "Why would you do that to me? How could you?"

"Kaitlin, you can hit me or something if it'll make you feel better but we both know that you kind of had it coming. You were putting out, I thought that you only wanted one night," He shrugs.

She glares at him with watery eyes and Allison is feeling restless beside me but I refuse to move. "My name is Kathy. I'm not going to hit you, Tate."

This is when I push myself forward toward them, feeling so furious at myself for ever believing one stupid word that Tate ever said to me. This isn't the real him, he puts a show on for the school, I know the real him. But the thing is that I didn't know the real him, but I do now, and I don't like him one bit. "You're not going to hit him?" I wonder, catching everybody's attention- the heartbroken girl, Tate, and all of his friends behind him turn to look at me and his face falls, looking a bit terrified. "I'll do it for you then."