Tainted Love

Chapter 2

    Waking up the following day, I felt the sun hitting my face. I sat up onto the edge of my bed so I could grab my phone. When I unlocked my phone, I quickly realized that I already had three missed text messages, and once I glanced at the top right corner of my phone, I couldn’t believe the time was already Ten in the morning.

    “Shoot!” I bolted up to quickly gather all my clothes; tight boot cut jean pants with a dark green T-shirt and my black running shoes. I decided to put my long dark brown hair into a high ponytail; I felt great; I quickly went downstairs to get something to eat which seemed to be only an apple from the fruit bowl on the kitchen island. I began to leave the house when I instantly realized I had forgotten my phone upstairs. Once I got into my room to grab my phone, I heard the butt end of my ring tone handing up. I lifted my phone to unlock it, only to realize that I now had 5 missed texted messages and a missed call. I decided to go through my text messages while heading back to the front door.

    -You better be here soon, girl- Ana

    -Good Morning, baby- Reggie

    -You going to be late if you haven’t left yet- Reggie

    -Baby, I’ll just come to get you. - Reggie

    - Hey, I hope you’re not too busy right now, but I need to talk to you.-Emily

    - You better be safe today, baby girl. I will be home late tonight, so don’t wait up. - Dad

Then I went through my missed calls to realize the missed call was from dad, so I called him first.

            “Hey, baby girl. I just wanted to let you know I would be late to get home tonight and to please be careful today.” My father said quickly.

            “I will, dad. You better be careful, too, since you will be driving home in the dark.” I said, a little worried. I then hung up since there wasn’t much more to say. My father and my relationship are so strange; he can be so concerned and wants the world for me, but then the next, he can be so distant and cold. So pushing what my father said out of my head, I decided to reply to all my text messages. I finally opened the front door to head to the park. Once I got to the sidewalk, I then replied.

-Morning, I slept in, but all is good now. I am already heading towards the park. - I Sent.

 -Almost to you, girl. - I replied to Ana.

            While me walking for about 10 minutes, I then heard my phone ding in response to a text message hitting my phone.

-Okay, I am pulling up behind you. – Reggie

So I looked back, and it was Reggie, and he was getting out of his car.

“I got to your house when I saw your message. So I figured I would just come this way to see if I found you.” Reggie said with a cheese smile and added, “You look lovely today.”

“Thank you,” I replied with a big smile and walked to his passenger car door. We drove for about two minutes when we finally arrived at the park. There were so many people here; I really couldn’t believe there were this many people in this small town. I looked at Reggie, and he said,

” This will be interesting today.”

So I smiled slightly and said, “Yes, this will be; I didn’t think there were this many people that lived here.”  We walked around for a little looking for Ana, and of course, she was at the other end of the park where all the tables are. She placed a table cloth on the table, so we continued to walk toward Ana. On the right side of us when we were walking was a small stage for the concert.

Once we got to the table, we all began to help Ana set up our table for the picnic. Only a couple of minutes went by when I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket; when I pulled it out, it was a text from Emily.

-I guess you’re busy. It is okay. – Emily

            Shoot, I forgot that Emily texted me earlier; I better text her back.

-So sorry girl, I have been busy, but you should come to the concert in the park, and we can talk then. – Cara

I then placed my phone on the table to finish with the plastic forks.

“Hey, Ana, you okay if Emily comes to join us?” I asked her, but Reggie interrupted Ana from answering.

“Why? She Okay?”

“Yeah, I just been meaning to hang out with her, and I just haven’t had time lately,” I answered but a little taken back with how Reggie responded about it. He acted like he was apprehensive.

“Yeah, of course, she can. You can always invite her to everything we do. She is a very nice girl.” Ana said while she was still fixing our plates with food. My phone vibrated again, and without even grabbing I just looked at my phone, which showed a text from Emily.

-Okay, that sounds good actually, be there in 5 minutes.-Emily

I didn’t reply since there was no need to, but someone grabbed me from behind and spun me around before I knew it. When I was placed back down, it was none other than Dylan. I instantly looked at Reggie, knowing he wouldn’t like that, and his face said precisely that.

“I have been looking for you, Cara. Hey Ana, how have you girls been?” Dylan said with almost a cocky look but didn’t mind Reggie even though I thought Reggie’s expression was burning a hole in Dylan’s Face. Reggie then stepped closer to me to get Dylan to look at him.

“Um… I am good. I have been hanging out with Reggie, my boyfriend, all summer.” I said, figuring I should add the boyfriend part to explain Reggie’s anger.

“Yeah, her boyfriend.” Reggie had to add to it.

“Dude, back off,” Dylan said with a deep tone, now looking into Reggie’s eyes. This escalated faster than I thought it would. I glanced over at Ana, who looked not enthused with everyone’s actions.

“You need to back off, Emily,” Reggie stated while he balled both his hands into fists. Then Dylan took one step closer to Reggie in suggesting that he do something.

“Enough, you two. Today is supposed to be a fun friends day.” Ana snapped at them, while Reggie and Dylan did not break any eye contact. So I put my hand on Reggie’s chest to push him a little backward so I could step in between them and look into Reggie’s eyes.

“Stop, Reggie. Walk away. Dylan and I have been just friends for years. Just friends, Reggie.” I then turned around to look at Dylan with my hand still on Reggie’s chest. “Go sit down, Dylan.”

            Dylan walked to the other side of the table where Ana was sitting. Once he sat down, I nudged Reggie to sit across from Ana.

“Hi, Cara, Ana, Dylan, and um Reggie.” I heard Emily’s voice from behind me. “What is going on here?” Emily added, a little concerned. I think she could feel the negative energy around the table.

“Nothing Important,” I responded while turning around to face her. I was trying to ignore the tension from the guys.

“Hey, girl, it’s been too long. I am glad you are joining us.” Ana said, walking up to Emily to hug her.

“Thanks for inviting me; I don’t do much lately other than getting some good pictures in lately around town,” Emily added.

“Take any good pictures lately?” Reggie added. I looked over at him, which had a weird expression on his face that I couldn’t quite read. I feel like something is going on. Every time Emily gets brought up, Reggie gets all weird. Dylan then walked over to us and put an arm around Emily.

“Well, I am happy you came here gorgeous.” Dylan just had to add, which caused Emily to start to blush.

“O stop it, Dylan, you are being too desperate,” Emily added while lowering her head in embarrassment.

“Dylan stops. You are making her feel indifferent. Go sit your weird butt down,” I added while all three of us girls started to giggle. Once I looked back at Reggie had an annoyed expression on his face.

            About thirty minutes went by when I realized I needed to go to the bathroom, which made me a little concerned that I would leave Dylan and Reggie together. I looked around the table to see Ana and Emily talking away. ; then, there is Dylan and Reggie listening to the girl’s conversation but now and then giving each other dirty looks. They are being so childish right now. Even though I know Dylan and I have this strange connection, I am with Reggie now; he needs to back off a little.

“Well, I need to go to the bathroom. “ I announced while standing onto my feet to start to walk to the bathroom.

“I will go with you. I need to go to the bathroom too.” Emily said.

“Wait, Cara, you want me to go with you?” Reggie asked, expecting a yes in response.

“No, I think I can take myself,” I responded since I was a little annoyed that he thought I needed an escort.

We began to walk through the crowd of people sitting on blankets while listening to the band. When I got a reasonable distance away from them, I looked back to see how they were doing, and it looked like Reggie stood up from the table to put some stance on it while watching me walk away.

“Cara, I don’t mean to sound like I am trying to be malicious, but I have been trying to find a way to tell you something about Reggie,” Emily said with nervousness in her tone. It causes me a little concern as to why she way.

“But why Em? “ I asked, wanting to stop myself from having her be in front of me but didn’t want to cause concern with Reggie.

“I wanted to tell you this, but I feel so awkward about it.” Emily began to say, but I interrupted her.

“Awkward about what, Emily.” My eye began to wander around, checking on my surroundings, when I realized we were almost to the bathrooms.

“Reggie asked me out before you. He was pressuring me pretty hard, which you know makes me feel extremely uneasy, so I just ignored him from then on out.” Emily said while stopping in front of the bathroom door. I then looked back at Reggie, who was still standing by the table but looking at others.

“Wait. Are you serious? Why are you telling me just now? Why did you avoid telling me? Are you guilty of something?” I asked with questions after questions.

“Cara, nothing happened. I ignored him after that, plus this was before you got with Reggie, and once you got with him, it was impossible to hang out with you. He was always with you. You have no right to jump down my throat; if I were hiding something, I wouldn’t be telling you right now.” Emily said, defending herself.

“You are right; I am sorry I shouldn’t have snapped at you but thank you for telling me,” I said while opening the bathroom.

Once we got into the bathroom, she grabbed my forearm. “That’s not everything, Cara.” She paused a second while looking at the stalls to ensure no one else was in here. “When I was taking some pictures last week, I saw Reggie talking with another girl, and it didn’t seem right. He was very touchy with her”

I paused, looking at her, confused but honestly, it felt like I just kicked in the stomach. What does this mean? Is Reggie cheating on me even though he just told me he loved me yesterday?

“Cara says something,” Emily said while hugging me, knowing that I was beginning to feel sick.

“I don’t know what to say, honestly. I need to talk to Reggie.” That is all I could say before I bolted into a stall and locked it. Everything seemed so different out of nowhere from all this information.

“I am sorry, Cara. I don’t want to cause you any pain,” Emily spoke with such a soft tone, but honestly, I need to hear his side to figure things out. I mean, what kind of person I would be if I didn’t try to hear everything out. So I finished up and walked to the sink to wash my hands. Emily was standing by the door waiting for me. She is just a good friend.

            Once we walked out of the bathroom door, I was shocked to see Reggie right there waiting.

“What are you doing?” I instantly asked.

“Can we go, I can’t stand that guy, and I want to spend some time with you.” He said, practically demanding me. I glanced at Emily, trying to avoid eye contact while staring at some trees in the park.

I looked back at Reggie and said, “Yeah, we need to talk anyways.” Reggie’s face looked bothered that I said that and looked right at Emily, who was still not making eye contact since she always did hate conflict. “Emily, I will call you later. Can you please tell Ana I need to go?” I smiled at her when she finally looked at me, not looking at Reggie. She began to walk away from us toward the picnic tables.