Unthinkable (Tate Langdon)

011

October 30th, 1993.

Evangeline had never seen Tate in such a frantic, kinetic state as the day after her acceptance letter came.

His blonde hair was disheveled from running his hands through it and he had all but paced a hole in the floor of her bedroom floor from walking back and forth for the better part of a half hour.

"Whatever it is, just tell me," she prompted him worriedly. Her imagination had gone wild with possibilities as to what could have been so difficult to spit out.

"I can't," he argued for the sixth time in response to her pushing him to talk. She let out an audible groan of frustration.

"Tate, please. You're freaking me out," she insisted, "what could be this bad?"

He stopped in his tracks, taking a few deep and shaky breaths before nodding his head. He walked until he was directly in front of where she sat on the bed and knelt down in front of her.

What happened next took her what felt like forever to process.

"I love you, Eve. You're everything that was ever missing in my life, and you make me so, so happy," be began his flowery speech as tears filled his eyes. "I'm s'posed to be with you and I don't ever wanna lose you, so..."

Her heart stopped cold as he produced a small velvet box from the breast pocket of his sweater and held it out to her.

"Will you marry me?"

She stared at him as though he'd recently sprouted a second head, her eyes flicking between his face and the ring in the palm of his hand.

It was an old piece, that much she knew, expensive and gaudy looking. Not some trinket from the fake jewelry section of a department store, but a very large and very genuine diamond staring her right in the face.

"Are you serious?" she asked him bluntly, watching as his face fell once the reaction seeped in.

"Of course I'm serious," he said as optimistically as he could, forcing a smile to his lips.

"We're seventeen, Tate," she laughed humorlessly, taken aback by the fact that he appeared to be genuinely asking. "We can't get married."

"Well, not right now," he agreed, face reddening as he grasped at straws. "But we'll both be eighteen soon, and 'til then, we can at least be engaged."

She shook her head at him incredulously.

"You're talking crazy," she said with wide eyes, staring at the velvet box in his hand and the ring in the center of it. "Where did you even get that?"

"My mom's got tons of old jewelry she doesn't even remember. She won't miss it, never even wore it," he answered with too much enthusiasm. It was all more than Eve could handle.

"Please, just get up," she said and rubbed at her temples with her fingertips, willing none of what was happening to be real.

"What? I don't understand... Isn't this how it's supposed to go?" he asked in confusion.

"None of this is how it's supposed to go. Please, just get up and stop this," she pleaded with him. She knew they were treading into more dangerous territory with every second the charade continued.

"I thought you loved me," he spoke barely above a whisper, tears flooding his dark eyes. "I thought you wanted to be with me."

"I did, Tate. I mean, I do, but not like this," she tried to explain gently. She did not want to hurt him, not with everything he had been through as of late, but she wasn't going to entertain his insanity, either.

"If you love me," he grumbled angrily, the beginnings of a temper shining through as he hauled himself to his feet, "why won't you just say yes? Then we can be together forever."

The earnest pain and frustration in his eyes made her stomach turn. She was placed in the horrid position of being responsible for bringing him back to reality and trying to do so gently.

"That's not how this works," she whispered, placing her hands on either side of his face as she tried to calm him.

"We're still in high school, and then we've got college to think about," she explained, voice soft as she edged towards the real point.

"We've only known each other a few months, and I'm probably going to New York next fall..."

She realized she was still not saying the one thing that kept repeating in her head.

"Forever is a long time, Tate."

His face was a mask of anger and hurt, fine features contorting in an expression that was difficult to look at. Eve struggled to hold his gaze until he finally snapped his head away.

"So, it's over then, just like that, you're leaving?" he croaked through a sob, twisting out from her embrace with his fists clenched at his sides.

"I didn't say that. I didn't say that at all," she said and backed away from him a pace or two.

"But it's what you meant, isn't it?" he snapped. The raise in his tone caused Eve to jump, but she tried to appear unfazed by the change in his demeanor.

"That's how it has to be? Either say I'll marry you or break up with you, nothing in between?" she asked in frustration. The logic behind the equation made no sense to her whatsoever.

"Am I not good enough for you, it that what it is?" he shouted, slowly stepping closer to her. "Haven't I made you happy?"

"You need to go and calm down," she spoke quietly. She wrapped her arms around herself and stared at her feet; she couldn't bring herself to look at him directly.

"You have to answer me. You at least owe me an answer. You can't just leave me," he continued hysterically. Despite the trembling in her hands, Eve was determined to appear strong.

"Tate, please go, now."

"Wait, Eve, I'm sorry. I love -" he started to apologize, but she held up her hand to silence him.

"I'm not taking that back. I won't," he spat, hurling the ring onto the bed.

"Don't. Just... Fine. I'll see you tomorrow, okay? Halloween. We can talk then," she gave the final say on the matter, unwilling to budge.

She watched numbly as the fight in him died out and he skulked from her room, continuing to watch from her window until his form disappeared from view down the sidewalk.

She had never seen him so angry with her before, so much rage barely leashed below the surface of him that he practically vibrated with it.

There bad probably been warning signs before, things she had missed either honestly or by choice. She had glimpsed that rage before, but had never considered that one day, it might be directed at her.

Now, however, she couldn't be so sure.

×××

Oi! As always, poor misguided Tate. But also, poor Eve for being stuck in such a predicament, realizing that the person she loves just might be legit crazy.

As usual, I'm dying to hear what any of you think! We're getting close to the end of this.