alkaline [euphoria]

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Tate McCarthy was a fuck up. He was born into the world silent, he lived his first few formative years screaming, and the rest were spent depressed, angry at the world and hateful.

And yet, to me, he was gentle.

We met in our 4th grade English class, when he sat next to me and asked me to borrow a pen. From then on, it was like an invisible, soul deep connection formed and tied our souls together in a familial bond tighter than any bonds with blood family I've ever had, other than with my dad.

Tate was the one to defend me from stupid boys just stepping into puberty, and he was the one to drive me around wherever I wanted to go, as we got older. He hated my drug habit, and he hated Fez for selling to me, but even then, he kept the words he wanted to say to himself because he knew, if we fought, there wouldn't be anyone to look out for me like he did.

He made sure I didn't take too much, that I kept myself paced and took care of me when I wasn't feeling good, especially after my father died.

And then, Nate Jacobs tried to finger me on the dance floor of that one formal dance in East Highland, and Tate pummeled him into the ground, landing himself in Juvie for 6 months.

And I OD'd, went to rehab, and we exchanged letters for three months.

Then he went back to East Highland, and I came back home a few weeks after him. And he was right by my side again- but changed. He grew taller, somehow, face losing the last traces of baby fat and growing into sculpted features that, if I was into men, I would've settled for in an instant.

Overall, Tate McCarthy was a pretty guy, tall, muscled and intimidating- terrifying to everyone who wasn't in his close circle of friends, of which only me and Lexi Howard were.

And there's the thing- Tate isn't a sexual man. Sure, he loved a good fuck (who didn't? aside from some of the asexual spectrum people), but somehow, he had kept Cassie Howard on a leash for a full year before she cheated on him and he broke things off. And it wasn't that he was bad at sex (in fact, any hookup of his you asked, they'd tell stories and call it the best experience they've ever had), nor was he a bad boyfriend- on the contrary, he gave everything he had into his relationships. He showered them with attention, bought them their favorite flowers every Friday night and gave them a single flower every day- he even bought matching jewelry for him and Cassie, two rings that when pressed together "completed the whole", as he liked to say.

And still, Cassie Howard, the type of person that she was, it wasn't enough for her. She loved to be loved, that girl- but for all that she wanted to be loved, it seemed like her love for others was never strong enough until they went in the opposite direction of her.

•

But outside the romantic life of Tate McCarthy, his family life was as shitty and gritty as one might imagine. His father is an IED, an alcoholic and the textbook definition of a domestic abuser, while his mother was a pain pill addict and a gambler who spent all the time she didn't work at casinos and pharmacies, wasting all her money on pills and dice, never happy and always on edge and angry.
Dylan and Sienna McCarthy we're both from old money families but lived in a modest home and while both worked, to appear like the normal, middle class family, they wasted their money and would've bankrupted their families had Tate's grandparents not left Tate all the money and properties they owned, and his parents not a single dime or item.

And Tate, well. He was soft hearted in truth- and not many knew this. Kat Hernandez saw it, once, when she was walking home from school one day after a few assholes made some comments about her looks. He had driven right next to her in his Jeep, lowered his shades and set his grey eyes on her- calmly asking her if she'd like a ride home. And when she'd accepted, she expected for him to just ask her for directions and drop her off, but instead he looked her in the eye and he told her what he thought of her.

"You're a gorgeous girl, Hernandez. Don't let shitheads who couldn't even handle their own cocks let alone a girl as hot as you ruin your day. Keep that chin up, crown on, and crush them beneath your heel because you're better than they'll ever be.

Now that I got that off my chest, mind giving me directions to drop you off?"

And from that day on, Kat seemed to ignore any of the guys that sent their stupid vitriol her way, and she did hold her head high. And every time she passed Tate in the hallways or see him in class, she'd send him a smile and a wave, thanking him with her eyes, glad she accepted getting a ride with him that day.

And in some ways, this soft heartedness seemed to extend to Maddy Perez as well. Only she used that to her own advantage at first, until it was shit off from her and she could no longer access it.

I always knew Tate had a crush on Maddy. After all, he met her and Cassie in that sandbox years ago, and would always tell me, when we were younger, how he's going to marry her one day- only for her to fall in love with Nate Jacobs. After all, Maddy and Nate were our first impression of love, followed by Cassie and Tate (though that quickly crashed and burned, exploding not too long after).

And then, after Tate beat the everliving fuck out of Nate, Maddy got catty with him just a few hours before he was taken away, leaving him cold and angry with her. Those feelings didn't go away, and only grew hotter the more time passed without so much as a single letter from the girl, as compared to my two weekly letters, Lexi's one every week and Cassie's two a month.

And that, that, brings us to the present. With both Tate and me back in East Highland.

Tate McCarthy
18,♓/♏, introvert
"The Doberman"

Love Interests: Comment to Suggest (interest with most comments is who I'm going to be writing about + possibility of an OC love interest)