His Name Was Tate

please say yes dad

"I'm happy you made a friend my love. She sounds like a badass." He said with smile.

"She is. She's really sweet, and funny. And I would like you to meet her, so wanted to know if she come over Saturday and spend the night?" I asked all in one breath. I'm hoping to god he says yes.

His nose began to scrunch and he began to squint his eyes. He does that when he's debating with himself. "I don't know, Nemo. With everything going on, I don't think having company over would be a goo-"
I cut him off before he could finish.

"Pops, I know your worried. But I can't stay cooped up in my room forever. This will be one of the first real friends I have. I want to be able to do normal things with her. You know like sleepovers, shopping sprees, all that good stuff. And I can't do any of that if I'm stuck in my room all day." Granted my situation isn't really normal, but I spent most my time in my room or a doctors office. I would like some type of normality.

He stayed quiet and his face grew tighter. "Please, pops."

He took a deep breath and finally relaxed his face. Meaning he finally gave in. "Fine, she can stay the night. You two can stay in the den, I don't think your room will be ready by then." A smile spread across my face. I squealed with excitement. "Thanks pops." He winced at the sound of my squeal. I knew he would break. He always does.

After a few J. Cole songs, we finally arrived home. He slowly pulled in the drive way of our new house. It was the dream house he had been saving up to build for years. He was so happy when they finally finished it. After, all the stuff we been through, my dad deserved the house. It was like a reward to himself.

Dad turned off the car. And he had that look on his face again. He was thinking about something. And he was thinking about it really hard. "Pops, you ok?"

He turned to looks at me. I think he realized I was concerned. "I'm ok, Nemo. Just got a lot to think about at the moment. Let's go inside, and get something to eat ok?" There was a slight hint of wariness in his voice. I could tell he was forcing a smile. Dad was never a really open person when it came to his feelings. However, no matter what he was feeling, sooner or later he will tell me. So though it's making me uneasy now, I know he'll come to me when he's ready.

After dinner with my pops, I went up to my room and called Becks. Before the phone could get a chance to ring, she had picked it up.

"Hello?" She said.

A smile spread across my face. "My dad said yes. You can spend the night. Oh, this is Meloni, by the way." I said excitedly.

A low giggle came from her side of the phone. "Good? Are you as excited as I am? How about tomorrow after school you and me go grocery shopping for the sleepover? That way we won't have to bother your dad so much about food." I nodded my head.

"Hello?" She said . I just realized she can't see me nodding my head. "Oh yeah. Let's do that." I said out loud.

"Okay. Cool. I'll see you tomorrow." She said.

"Okay bye." I hung up the phone and held it tightly to my chest. I was so excited. I started jumping around in joy.

"Yes! Yes! Yeeess!" As I was celebrating to my self, my lungs and my heart began to scream at me. My heart began to pound, and my breath began to quicken. My lungs burned. I slowly moved over to the pull out couch in the den and sat on it quickly. I quickly tried to slow my breathing before my vision began to blur again.

I'm okay.

I'm ok.

I got too excited again. I took slow breathes and laid down in the bed.

"No physical activity. Right? Catch your breath girl." I slowly began to calm down and stared at the wall above me. I can't believe I'm really gonna have friend over in two days. Wow, I'm really doing it. I'm really finding a normality in my life. I couldn't help but smile to myself. "Your doing it, Loni. Your doing it."
My eyes began to get heavy and drifted my way into dreamland.

I waited outside for Becks after school. Sadly we only had one class together today, but she had told me to meet her at the entrance of the school, near where we first met.

"Are you lost?" a voice said to me. I turned and saw that the voice came from none other than the Second Mancini boy. Timothy 'The Sweet Heartbreaker' Mancini. His smile was just as bright as when I first met him. He looked like he was heading to practice or something. However my eyes quickly left him, when i saw Tate standing quietly next to him. He wore a white short sleeve shirt that fit tightly. It outlined his arms perfectly and helped show off those delicious tattoos. He wasn't too buff but you could tell that he was muscular. He still had that dark look on his face. Like he was fed up with everything. I couldn't help but laugh to myself. What annoys him so much for him to just always looked so pissed off.

"What's so funny?" Tate said with an assertive tone. Our eyes locked for but a moment and my stomach began to turn. I rolled my eyes at him, mostly to avoid eye contact with him. To be honest I don't think he likes me.

"Like id tell you either of you what's on my mind. And no I'm not lost. I'm waiting on Rebecca." I could tell that Tim's  smile dimmed a bit. Tate had also seemed a little off as well. "What's wrong?" I asked them both.

"Hey! Loni!" speaking of the devil. I turned toward Rebecca walking over to us. She walked up calm but she seemed to be a little annoyed. "I swear everywhere i go there's always a Mancini boy waiting for me." I waved at her and a smile spread across her face. Though it was forced i knew her animosity wasn't toward me, or at least I had hoped it wasn't.

"Hey Becks. How you been?" asked Tate. A small smile formed across his face and my heart felt like it was doing back flips. It was the first time Ive seen him smile. Kind of jealous that it was another girl that made him smile though.

Did i really just think that?

My breaths began to come out uneasy at the sight of his small smirk. I began to take a deep breath and tried to slow my breathing, luckily no one noticed. It was so cute on him.

She looked at him with sheepish smile. "Hola boys, where's your brother?"

"He decided to skip school today. You know how he is. School really isn't his thing." said Tim.

I could tell that Becks relaxed immediately. The tension from before was barely there. Its clear that she has no ill will towards Tate and Tim, its just Mike. But whenever Mikes around she treats the other two like she treats him. What the hell happened between the four of them?

"Well pendejos, I would love to stay and chat but me and Loni got a date to head to." We began to walk away, until she suddenly stopped, "I heard you had a fight tonight, make sure you don't come back with too many bruises." she turned back and locked her arms with me.

As we walk away I can hear Tate faintly say, "I wont coach." We finally made it to her car and once we were inside i was ready to ask a thousand questions, but before i could even open my mouth she spoke. "I know you must have many questions, and i promise you i will answer them, but for tonight can we just go grocery shopping and prepare for tomorrow. Deal?" I nodded my head.

"But I do have one question? Are you okay?" she took a big breath before answering me, she started the car and said "Im getting there. "

Nick Robinson as Kyle