Be Honest

"Loser" Brandon Myers called out as I walked through the playground.

I was nowhere near him, I didn't say anything to him, I was simply walking. So, I stopped. It happened to be right in the middle of the spot where he and his friends were playing. What a coincidence. Not.

"Idiot." I retorted and a smug smile warmed my cheeks.

Both he and I knew that the word I chose held meaning, but the one he chose didn't. It bounced off me like rubber.

"What did you call me?" His nostrils flared as his cheeks slowly turned a dark shade of pink.

Oh, he was angry alright. I would be too if someone called me an idiot after failing the math test again after 5 attempts.

"You started this." It seemed my feet had glued themselves to the concrete out of fear, I couldn't run even if I wanted to.

"Repeat what you called me. I dare you." He put his knuckles together as if to crack them, but nothing happened.

"Why? Is there something wrong with your ears?" I couldn't help it. The words seemed to leave my mouth uncontrollably.

"Don't say I didn't warn you" He said as his arm swung back and ...

So that's the story of how I ended up with a broken nose on the last day of middle school. I want to say, things are different since then, but they really aren't.

I have no idea when the fued started, or why, all I know is that it will never end. Unless one of us conceeds, but admitting defeat was just impossible.

It didn't help that our older brothers, Kai and Pet, were best friends. This meant we had to see each other outside of school more often than we had liked. Then our parents became very close, especially after my dad died and his parents got divorced. We still see Mr Myers at birthdays and christmas, but now he brings his new wife and family which makes things very awkard. Especially since he remarried two years ago and already has a one year old baby.

This brings me back to why I chose to reminisce about my past.

We finally graduated highschool and got accepted into college. So our parents decied on a joint family holiday to celebrate. We flew all the way to the coast of Italy and rented a beautiful farm house conversion for three weeks.

But when I got there I found out that Brandon messed with my suitcase and all of my bras had dissapeared. Lucky for me, I could get away with it, probably by being the flattest AA 18 year old there is. He however had it coming because I stole all of his shirts and replaced them with graphic t-shirts printed with on with his grandmothers face as a caricature and with "This is my grandson. He will never love another woman more than he loves me" written in red on the back.

"ELIANA?!" He yelled from his room down the hall.

That's my cue!

I sped off down the wooden stairs, almost missing the last one as I tripped. I didn't escape easy though, I hit my elbow on the door on the way out. I had no idea where I was, or where I was going I just picked a direction and ran.

Behind me Brandon ran to catch up. It was a lot easier for him, being the star athlete and all, but I had a head start so surely that would get me some bonus points.

Just as I thought, I was wrong.

My feet hit the sand seconds before my face did. I pushed my hands beneath me to lift my head from the ground as I coughed the sand out my lungs. My eyes watered as they burned from the sudden irrritation. It was so itchy, I began rubbing at them with the back of my arm forgetting that I had sand on that too.

"Stop!" Brandon yelled and pulled my hands away. "You're making it worse."

I relaxed my tensed muscles and allowed him to pull me to sit up. I waited a couple seconds until I felt a cold, wet cloth dab the bottom of my lashes. When I felt the sand clear I opened my eyes and tested my vision.

"How is that?" He asked continuing to wipe sand from the rest of my face.

"Better, thanks." I suddenly noticed how close we were.

I hadn't seen his eyes close up before, I noticed a green speck in what I otherwise just assumed what was blue.

"You owe me." He moved away, as if he touched something horrible.

An unsettling feeling grew within me as we walked back up the hill to our residence. Was I really that awful to be around?

Back inside our mothers gave us a lecture each about safety, running off and not doing it again. Another lecture we nodded and promised to listen to. It was a ritual at this point.

After I went back up to my room quitely, losing the energy to protest against them. I was tired enough from running through the heat of the sun.

Luckily, my room had its very own ensuite. Unfortunately it was across the hall from Brandons room. As I did not want to see his face longer than I needed to during meal times, I decided that the door stays shut.

I took a shower and changed into clean clothes. A pair of pj shorts and a black tank top. Taking my book I returned downstairs and situated myself upon the chaise set out on the back deck as I lost myself to the world of words.