Chapter 5
An Unexpected Phone Call
Tegan did her first crazy thing that summer. She went to a rock concert. Crazy, right? But something like that was way out of her comfort zone normally. Something was changing in her that summer. She had even gotten up the nerve to call Mike and ask him to a movie. He declined of course but it was a big step for her. As much as she wanted Mike, he did have a girlfriend. Tegan became a bit depressed and lonely.
She also started her first job outside of school, an Arby’s where Gayle worked. A boy worked there a little older than her whom she’d normally never have any interest in. But when he asked her out she surprisingly agreed since she’d never been on a date before and never had any boy ever show any interest in her.
The date was simple, just walking and driving around. In the car, he asked Tegan her favorite type of music. In the past, she would normally just listen to the newest hits on the radio but had recently found an alternative band she could finally call her favorite for the first time. Theirs was the rock concert she had attended.
“Depeche Mode.”
“That’s good music to have sex to,” he said.
Tegan was immediately uncomfortable.
At the park, as they walked around, Tegan found herself feeling something she’d never felt before. As she watched him throw rocks into the pond, she suddenly felt a desire to take care of this person, this person she hardly knew. She found herself imagining cooking for him and being there for him on a bad day. She had no idea where this feeling was coming from.
They agreed on a second date and that was that.
A few days later Tegan received a phone call out of the blue from Kathy of all people. Why was Kathy calling her? But what she had to say was even more surprising. She said Richard’s brother had seen Tegan at the graduation party, was mad he hadn’t been introduced, and has been wanting to call for the past six weeks. Kathy, finally sick of his hemming and hawing, decided to take matters into her own hands. She wanted to set up a double date with her and Richard.
Tegan was stunned. She wasn’t sure what to say but not one to easily say no and with no excuse she could think of to get out of it, she agreed. However, because her family was going camping soon, the double date would have to wait until she got back. In a state of shock, Tegan went to her friend, Gayle’s, house that night and told her what had happened.
“That’s the guy who tried to date my sister!” Gayle exclaimed. She explained that Charles and her older sister had gone on one date but it had gone nowhere. She explained to Tegan that he is a genius and the way she made it sound, also a little weird. Her sister had said he was probably on the autism spectrum.
“He’s lost a lot of weight,” Gayle said. “You need to ask him his secret. Everyone thinks it’s drugs.”
The next day, the day before leaving for camp, Tegan went with Gayle to the airport to say goodbye to Gayle’s good friend who was going into the army. Having passed the allotted time to be home, Tegan received an angry phone call from her mom yelling at her to come home.
Tegan was beginning to feel some contention towards her mom. Up until recently, she had been a mommy’s girl, looking up to her mom as the authority on everything. It wasn’t until Gayle had told her a parent should never call their child “stupid” that Tegan began to notice other things weren’t quite normal within her family.
At first, Tegan didn’t agree with Gayle, telling her it was completely normal. Her parents often called Kerri stupid because her grades weren’t as good as hers or her brother’s. This gave Tegan a false sense of pride over her sister. She may be prettier but Tegan was definitely smarter.
Yet, Tegan was beginning to notice the subtle differences between her home life and her friend’s. Gayle had a comfortable and relaxed relationship with her father. Tegan longed for a relationship like that with her own dad. But Tegan dared not call her father by his first name. She would sometimes try sitting quietly on the couch behind her father’s easy chair when he watched the news in the evenings, hoping he would notice her.
But the only time he ever talked to her was in a raised voice and she had difficulty looking him in the eyes. Tegan’s dad had already been in his 30s when she’d been born and had already experienced a full adventurous life. Tegan rather felt like nothing more than a little blip on his radar. As a toddler, she had loved her dad. She had been a daddy’s girl before her sister came along.
Tegan went home, fearful of her mom. But Tegan’s mom was nowhere to be seen when she walked through the door. Everyone was already in bed. Gayle had given Tegan a bucket hat to keep with her during the camping trip. Tegan laid down on the couch downstairs and clutched the hat close to her.
Having something of Gayle’s with her made Tegan feel a bit more secure and rebellious. She wore the hat the entire trip, to the amusement of others, as an act of defiance against her mother. Tegan spent a lot of the trip sitting alone, hat on, listening to Depeche Mode on her Walkman.
A week later Tegan was back at Gayle’s house when she received another call from her mom. This time Tegan was told she had to be home by 10 PM because Charles had called and would be calling back then. Tegan had planned on calling him the next day but apparently, he wasn’t going to wait another day. Nervous about this phone call, not knowing what she’d even say to someone she hardly knew, Tegan went home and sat, waiting on the couch next to the phone. Right at 10:15, it rang. Tegan picked up and said apprehensively, “hello?”
When she replaced the receiver, it was two hours later. Tegan’s mother was still up, sleeping on the couch in the other room. When she came into the room her mother wanted to know what two strangers talk about for two hours. Tegan sat in the recliner opposite the couch and looked up at the moonlit ceiling. A moth was bouncing off the light.
To be honest, she didn’t really know. It was a bit of a blur. They had talked somewhat about college life, about whether they liked to take walks to which Tegan had agreed she did but in reality, did she? And… how many syllables are in their first names?
Suddenly Tegan had that odd sensation again that future her would wish their first conversation had been recorded. Why was her subconscious self already so certain there would be a future? Either way, she was glad it hadn’t been because she imagined she had sounded dumb.
They had set up a date and Tegan realized she had a conundrum, one she never in her wildest dreams thought she’d ever find herself in. She was supposed to go on a second date with the boy from Arby’s. Tegan didn’t feel comfortable dating two boys at once and she didn’t have much interest in going on a second date with a boy who nonchalantly says Depeche Mode is good sex music. So, she found herself in the very uncomfortable position of calling this boy and canceling their date. He wasn’t surprised and was completely okay with it. As she later found out, he had only gone on that one date with Tegan because she was the exact opposite of his girlfriend who had just broken up with him. Tegan had simply been rebound.
