From the corner of the bus' lounge I was stuck in, I stared at the blonde girl who was telling Chris jokes and making him laugh, and I sliently wondered why she wasn't like that to me. What did she thouroughly detest about me, what did she have blind hatred for? And if she disliked me so much, why didn't she quit?
Katarina Alicia Stafford. That was the name of the girl they had picked to pose as my girlfriend. She was nineteen, a sophmore at UNC Chapel Hill, and was majoring in communication and preformance arts. That was all I'd been told about her, the rest was up for me to find out.
But that was easier said than done. This girl had been nothing but hostile to me since I had first met her. The first words she'd said to me were, "Don't expect me to fall all over you like a screaming and crying twelve year old, 'cause I won't. Don't expect me to be remotely interested in you, 'cause I'm not. And finally, don't expect me to become infatuated with you, because I have no respect for you or for men like you, therefore, I will not." Then she had walked away.
We'd been on the road for two weeks now, yet she barely had spoken to me. She was hitting it off well with the other guys, especially Chris, but with me.... it was as if I were the Invisible Man. It was driving me insane. If I had to be stuck with her pretending to like me, why couldn't she make the situation a little better for me and her by being a little nice?
An hour passed before Chris left, deciding he wanted to take a nap. I was then left alone with Kate in the lounge. Thanks a lot, Chris. Just what I need---to be left alone with the shrew.
Kate was writing something furiously in a velvet notebook she brought with her everywhere. I had no idea what it was for, but a sneaking suspicion that it was a journal, and that it was filled with less-than-flattering descriptions of who she percived me as. Not wanting to ask what she was writing-I was pretty sure that would lead to making her snap at me-I got up and retrived the remote control from where it sat on the couch-next to her.
"Excuse me," she said in a cold voice, "what do you think you're doing?"
"Changing the channel," I responded nonchalontly.
"I was watching that."
"No, you were writing."
"Listen, the last time I checked I was here first, and I was a woman. I think that you could treat me with the smallest bit of respect.... wait, I forgot! You're incapable of doing that!" she replied.
"Sorry! Here!" I tossed the remote at her. "No need to get your panties in a twist just 'cause I wanted to watch some TV." I regretted even thinking that last phrase, and saying it aloud even more.
"Why worry about my panites?" she shot back, her tone so cold that I could feel my fingers growing knumb. "Why don't you worry about yours?"
That was it. I stormed out of the lounge and headed to my bunk. "Bitch," I muttered before running into Joey.
"Hey man, what's wrong?" he asked.
I looked at him, almost stunned at how oblivious he was to this situation. "What's wrong?" I fumed. "It's more along the lines of who's wrong?"
"Is it Kate?" Joey asked bluntly.
I nodded. "What is up with her? She's always snapping at me for no good reason! She hates me!"
"I don't think so."
"Joey, please. The girl can't stand me. If she had it her way I would drop off the face of the planet."
"Well.... when you think about it, some of the best relationships start out when someone hates another person with a passion. Sort of like what happened in The Taming Of The Shrew."
That remark was too Joey. He could compare just about anything to Shakespeare. Especially when it involved someone's love life.
"Just give it some time, man," Joey assured me. "I bet that by the time this tour is over, she'll want to at least be friends, if not more. Love will find a way. Just remember that."
Love will find a way. With this one, no, I thought wearily. This was going to be a long summer.