The Girl With The Tattoo

63. date disaster

Sophie

"Do you want to take a seat over there?" The waiter asks both Tyler and I as we enter the building.

"Yes, thanks." Tyler smiles at him.

I follow Tyler over to a table at the back of the restaurant. My hands shake as I'm extremely nervous about this date tonight but Addison texted me to reassure me that everything will be okay. I'd like to believe her but I worry too much.

"I'll just get that for you." Tyler pulls out my chair.

"Oh, t- thanks."

He then pulls in my chair for me before sitting down opposite me on the table. I look around nervously, waiting for him to start a conversation.

I decide to speak first though "So... this is nice."

"Yeah, my dad used to take me here when I was a kid."

"Oh." I say, surprised.

He furrows his brows a little.

"Sorry, it's just that when my parents took me out for food we'd go someplace like McDonald's or Dunkin'!" I try to explain "We were never ones to make a big deal out of things. I mean, I didn't even know how to hold a knife and fork until I was like five! I ate with my hands and I was super messy!"

"Oh, sounds fun, I guess." He says and I don't know how to take that.

The waiter approaches us and Tyler and I both decide on what food we'd like to order. I get pasta because I don't want to look like a mess in front of him. And after we've ordered, Tyler begins to ask me questions about my life.

"So... you said that your parents took you out a lot as a kid." He says "What are they like?"

"My parents?"

"Yeah."

I gulp "They're sort of crazy, I guess."

He laughs slightly as I say that to him.

"What do they do for work?" He asks me.

I reply with "They own a dance studio in town. Well, my mom practically runs it on her own but it's actually both of theirs."

And then my heart drops into my stomach when I hear him ask me this "And what does your dad do?"

I take a while to reply because I don't know if to tell him the truth. I think about creating a fake dad so that I don't bring attention to the fact that I grew up with two mothers. Some people might find it strange and I honestly hate answering the million questions that people have once they find out.

But, for some reason, I decide to tell him the truth "Actually I have two mothers... I've never had a father figure in my life."

"Oh..." he seems like he's processing it.

"You know, a lot of people are doing things that way recently." He tells me "I've heard of a lot of people making kids via test tubes. I do worry for the kids sometimes, it's probably not easy to grow up different."

I try to process what he's saying to me but I don't know what to think of it. He's slightly confusing.

"I mean, it never really changed who I am." I tell him "It's not that important."

"But it's not fair on the kids to have to deal with the backlash that comes with it." He says.

I start to wonder whether Tyler is slightly homophobic. And because I want to know whether he is or not, I decide to tell him about my own sexuality. If he wants to be with me then he'll have to accept every part of me.

"Actually, I'm bisexual myself..." I reveal to him, my heart pounding against my chest.

He leans back now, looking over me with a perplexed look on his face.

"Yeah, a lot of girls are saying that right now." He says, confusing me further "Even Addison started fucking a girl a while back."

"Huh?"

"You didn't know?" He asks me, almost shocked that this is news to me "Yeah, she was like madly in love with this girl from another town. I honestly don't remember her name but I just know that it took over her life. And when things went downhill between them, she was crushed! Then she ended up dating that fucker-."

He stops himself before continuing on with what he was saying. I then process the fact that Addison has been in a relationship with a girl before. I honestly thought that the was straight and I would never have expected it.

"Addison was dating a girl?" I ask him.

"Yeah, they were fucking every weekend when Addison would go and visit her." He reveals to me.

"Why hasn't she said anything about it?"

He scoffs "Probably because she's embarrassed! I think this girl was the only person that she's ever truly loved. She says that she loves Ryan but they're always arguing."

"Oh..." I say, not wanting to gossip about their relationship.

"Yeah, Addison is pretty psycho."

He then continues "I was actually kind of surprised when I saw that you'd made friends with her. I mean, you seem pretty normal and she's far from that."

"She seems like a good person." I tell him.

He shakes his head "No, she's crazy. Like, really crazy! She's got this weird obsession with Ryan and she's jealous of any girl he might even glance at."

"And get this, she drove his car into a street sign when she was drunk because she was convinced that he was cheating on her!" He tells me a story about Addison "She saw a girl hand him a drink and her fucked up brain made her go and steal his car and crash it!"

I stare at him as he tells me the story, trying to process everything that he's saying. He continues to ramble on about Addison, trying to convince me that she's insane. I try not to listen to him as Addison is my friend and I don't want to badmouth her because that gets you nowhere.

But before he can continue to talk about her, the waiter comes over with our food, grabbing his attention.

"Here you go, sir." The waiter says, placing down our food.

"Thank you, this is great." Tyler smiles at him.

Once the waiter leaves, Tyler looks over at me "Enjoy."

"Yeah, you too." I smile, weakly.

I don't know why but I kind of wish I'd never agreed to go on a date with Tyler. I honestly feel like we have zero chemistry and he's spent most of the night blabbering about Addison. He seems to have a weird obsession with her and I don't want to be around someone like that. Plus, I don't think he's even attracted to me.