Just A Piece

[2]

I try not to think about Owen, but he's all i can think about. It physically pains me to do otherwise. My parents and his parents worked together and there is only three houses that separate our own. So naturally when Michelle and my mom found out that they were both pregnant it was decided that we were going to be best friends. We hardly got a say in it, but I would've chosen him anyway. One of the earliest memories that I have of us is when my mom was driving us home after a day well spent at the beach soon after I got out of the hospital after having the flu. I think that, that is the underlying cause for why I hate hospitals.

I didn't have an overly bad experience. I wasn't probed by aliens. I had the flu. Normally they'd just send you home with a few drug prescriptions and everything would be peachy, but I had asthma then as I do now and I was only five. So they admitted me into this very hospital for just a few days. No big deal. I was pumped full of drugs and watched Barbie movies for most of my time there. Life was good. It wasn't awful I guess. But then again nothing seems all that bad when you're looking back on it.

"Clara you have to talk to me. You just have to." Owen says as he dances around in his booster seat next to me. 

He's why I got sick. He had the flu too, but he didn't have to go to the hospital. I did. I've decided that i'm never talking to him ever again. Although we have spent the entire day together I haven't yet. I wish he wasn't spending the night.

"Owen, honey stop moving in your seat. You'll fall out." My mom says in her warm voice.

"Miss. Stryder I just want Clara to talk to me."  Owen says in his most proper voice. 

He thinks he can talk his way out of everything. Mommy's on my side though. She knows Owen is the one that got me sick. Which is why I don't know why she is allowing him to even be near me. He should leave. 

She always treats him better than me. He gets to go out further in the ocean and he never has to wear as much sunblock as me. Plus he doesn't even wait thirty minutes after he's done eating to go into the water. He just jumps right on in. Even Cassidy gets to do that. It's not fair at all and now, now I have to deal with him all night. 

"Clara don't be mean." My mom scolds me, giving me a stink eye through the rear view mirror.

 See what i'm talking about? I'm not even mean to him. He made me have to go to the hospital. I couldn't go swimming or to the beach for days. 

"Clara. Clara. Clarrraaaaa." Owen sings a song of my name over and over again until I can no longer take his annoying, whale sounding voice, so I reach over to his side of the car and I wind my arm back while it's in a fist and I punch him right in the stomach.

 As soon as I do it he leans over in his booster seat, the seat belt piercing his stomach and he starts to cry. My mom quickly pulls over to the side of the road and whips her head around at a speed that could cause whiplash.

Great. Now he got me in even more trouble.

"Clara Blue Stryder you do not hit your friends. Say sorry now." She says and Owen looks over at me, frowning, but with no tears on his eyes. 

He isn't even crying. The deception. The betrayal. I really am never talking to him again. 

"But mommy Owen isn't even crying." I say and throw my hands in the air. He's such a turd. 

"You talked to me." Owen cheers and my mom sighs. He just keeps on digging his grave deeper and deeper. I jerk my head to look at him at the same speed or maybe even faster than my mom did earlier. He is so done.