"Yo, it's Kate. No. Heyyyy, it's Kate. Eh. Hello, it's Kate. Too formal. Hi, it's Kate, the girl you kissed and never called," I said to myself.
I was practicing how I was going to answer the phone. Just be yourself, I thought. I typed in Finn's number and then right as I was typing the last two digits, Alex walked into the room. Ugh, of course.
"Can you learn to knock?" I asked him.
"Yeah, sorry."
"Why are you even here?" I asked Alex as he stood by the door.
"I need your help."
"With what?" I asked.
"So, I'll stop being so clingy. I texted Olivia and I was just saying hi. And she responded." He showed me his phone.
Alex:
7:01 pm: Hi
7:02 pm: I said hi
7:04 pm: Hello??
7:06 pm: Why aren't u answering me???
7:10 pm: Do u want to break up?
Olivia:
7:24 pm: I was on the phone with Kate.
7:24 pm: U need to stop being so attached to me. It's tiring. No I don't want to break up but maybe we have to. U never leave me alone. I love being ur girlfriend but you just need to settle a little bit.
"Dude. You gotta stop," I said as I looked away from the phone.
"What? I really like her. What am I supposed to do?" Alex asked me as he sat down in my beanbag chair.
"Tell her you're sorry. Tell her that you'll try to be less attached to her. Go hang out with your friends for heaven's sake!" I explained.
Mom shouted from downstairs to "Shut up!" Well, she didn't say shut up, she said, "Please, be quiet." But her tone meant "Shut up!"
"Okay. I'll try my best to work on that," Alex said.
He left my room without saying thank you. Ugh. brothers. No. Ugh, twin brothers.
I picked up my phone and put in the number, again. It went to voicemail, my heart then dropped down to my stomach. I groaned, he didn't answer. I decided to leave Finn a voicemail. I took a deep breath before it started to record. But then, I choked on my own spit as it started. So when the voicemail started, Finn would hear me coughing.
"Uh, hi, it's me Kate. Um, call me back when you get a chance. I don't know what happened with us on the bench but can you call me back?" I said into the phone. I hung up the phone and put my pointer fingers to my temples. Ugh, the coughing, the stupid, stupid coughing, I thought to myself. I looked at the wall in front of my bed and immediately my anxiety took the best of me:
Ugh, it's your fault your parents are getting a divorce. If you hadn't acted so greedy all the time maybe they'd still be happy. Oh and Finn, my guess is he doesn't even like you anymore. He just used you for attention.
I was letting my head get the best of me. My "other voice" was bullying me. I was bullying myself...
Maybe you should just delete his number and forget about him. And maybe you shouldn't hang around Olivia anymore since she's dating your—
I was about to think brother and then my phone rang.
"Oh, gosh," I said aloud.
It was Finn. I freaked out a little and then I answered it.
"Hello?" I said into the phone.
"Hi Kate. Sorry, I didn't recognize your number," Finn responded.
"Oh, it's fine. I forgot your number and that's why it took me so long to call you," I lied to seem cool.
"We saw each other this morning, haha," he said. I had forgotten, it felt like forever. This was bad. I was in—I shuddered—-love.
YOU ARE READING
The Summer of a Teenager
Teen FictionKate Edwards lives a pretty peaceful life. Her Mom and her Dad have a perfect relationship, and she's got awesome friends, and her twin brother Alex and her also get along. But just when she begins to think that her life is as close to perfect as sh...
