More Than A Summer

Chapter Four

When I woke up the next morning and reached over to unplug my cellphone from it's charger, I grasped empty air. I sat up in the bed and looked around. The phone was nowhere to be seen. I looked around the room in an increasing panic. Paige, Jessie, and EmmaLee were still asleep but Dacotta was gone. She wouldn’t have taken my phone would she? Who would she even talk to? I thought to myself. I remembered the dream I had that night and it all clicked into place. Tyler! I leaned over EmmaLee and shook her a little. “EmmaLee,” I whispered “Wake up Girlie! I need your help.”

She groaned a little, but opened her eyes. “What is it you need?” She asked in a grouchy tone.

I could tell she was mad and it made me smirk at her. Then I remembered what was going on and said, “Dacotta has my phone. I bet she's talking to Tyler. I don’t know where she is, but I woke up and her and my phone was gone.”

EmmaLee's eyes bulged, “No way!” She sat up and looked around, “Where is she at?”

I looked around the room again to make sure everyone was still asleep, then said, “I don’t know. Let's go find out though. Right now.”

EmmaLee got up and nodded. “Yeah, I agree. Before she does or says something that'll hurt you.”

I nodded and we snuck out of the room being as quiet as possible. I stopped suddenly and mouthed “Listen” to EmmaLee. She leaned closer to the bathroom door.

“No, I think she's out of the shower now. But I'm not giving her the phone 'til she comes and gets it.” A brief pause as Tyler replied to her then, “No, not even for you.” I looked over at EmmaLee and shook my head. I just couldn’t believe it! Dacotta brought my attention back to her as she laughed, “Oh, you're so silly Tyler. You say the funniest jokes!”

I had had enough. If she was waiting for me to come and get my phone, it was going to happen right now. I pushed open the door and rushed inside. I was way too mad to be nice. “Give me my phone. Now!” I heard Tyler say something on the other end of the phone and watched Dacotta's hand extend the phone towards me. I tore the phone from her hand and left her sitting on the edge of the tub with a dumbstruck expression on her face. Even though I had my phone back, I still wasn’t at all happy.

I could hear Tyler speaking so I raised the phone up to my ear. “What is going on? Are you there?! Keanah? Dacotta?” His voice mellowed me enough to speak without screaming and hitting someone.

“I’m sorry. Dacotta took my phone while I was asleep and apparently ended up talking to you. I’m not in the best of moods right now, so I'm really sorry if I snap on you.”

Tyler was quiet. Hopefully he'd tell me about what he had said to her. “So wait.. When did you wake up?”

I looked at the time; 9:47AM, “I've been up for about ten minutes now at the most.” Tyler cussed. “Why Tyler? What's going on? Please tell me.” His anger had zapped all mine away. Now I was concerned and a little worried.

Tyler let out a long sigh, “Well, I thought I've been talking to you since around eight this morning, and I told 'you' some things that were extremely important to me and things that I NEEDED you to know! And all of it was messed up by a twelve year old little girl! Grrrrr!” Whatever it was that he told Dacotta seemed to be very important to him. I could hear it in his voice, he was TRULY upset.

“I’m sorry Baby. I didn’t know it was so important to you.” I said in a small voice.

“Its fine. I'll talk to you about it later, when NO ONE is around. And Keanah, don’t talk to Dacotta about any of this. Please don’t go through your texts either. I'll call you after I take a nap. I’m still tired.” He was still angry and I understood why.

“Alright. Sleep tight and I love you.” I smiled.

“Baby Girl, I love you more than anything else in this world. You are my everything” I was completely speechless. He gave a weak laugh and said a quick “Bye”. He hung up before I could even respond.

I thought time had froze at the beginning of that day. The hours passed and Tyler never replied to any of my texts and he wouldn’t answer any of my phone calls. EmmaLee kept asking me to stay the night again, and finally I agreed. I knew she was going home in the morning so this would be the last time we'd see each other for a little while. I would leave when she did. That's how it always worked.

I made a promise to myself as well; As long as I'm there, I wouldn’t say ONE word to Dacotta. My day was passing by slowly because she had taken my phone and ruined something that Tyler had worked really hard to say. It was really hard for me not to talk to him and it was all her fault. I tried telling myself that Tyler was trying to build his courage back up so he could say whatever it was to me. I had to admit, I was completely terrified to find out what it was that had Tyler so worried. I was afraid that I wouldn’t like what he had to say. No Keanah, don’t think like that. You love Tyler with your whole heart. He wouldn’t do something that would hurt you. I wanted to believe that so very badly.