Oh, Dakota

19- Clarity

“Somebody’s crabby today,” Owen muttered as I walked down the stairs the next day with a deep scowl on my face.

I glared at him before grabbing a banana from the fruit bowl and walking out of the house through the back door to the car to wait for Owen out there so that I didn’t have to deal with him. I really wasn’t in the mood to talk to him or explain to him why I was so crabby, even though he might already know about the dinner last night with Todd and his parents and how horrible it went, since Todd might have told him.

A few minutes after I got in the car, Owen slid into the passenger seat, which I took as a signal to speed out of the driveway towards the school.

“So last night didn’t go well?” He wondered with raised eyebrows.

I glared at him again so that he’d hopefully realize that I didn’t want to talk right that moment and he’d leave it alone, but that didn’t happen.

“Yeah, his mom’s a bitch,” He chuckled. “What’d she do to you?”

“O, I really don’t want to talk about it right now,” I muttered, making it more obvious that I wasn’t in the mood to have a conversation, even with my brother.

“Right, well I already know, since Todd told me last night, but he said that you seemed pretty upset,” He continued being annoying and speaking even though I clearly just stated that I didn’t want him to do that.

“Seriously, I’m not in the mood,” I warned him again, turning on the main road so that I could get to the school. I was also speeding a little bit so that I could get there faster than normal, so that I could get away from Owen and we wouldn’t have to have this conversation any more.

“Clearly,” He sighed, thankfully letting that be the end of our conversation for the rest of the ride to school. When we got there, I took the keys out of the ignition and exited the car silently to make my way into the school. I got to my locker without any interruptions, which made me slightly relieved, because usually Todd was there waiting for me and for obvious reasons, I just didn’t want to talk to him that morning.

However, my gratefulness is short-lived because I was only at my locker for like, half of a second before his voice pierced through the crowded hallway banter.

“Good morning,” Todd chirped, appearing by my side as I shuffled through my locker.

“Morning,” I grumbled in return.

“I brought you Starbucks,” He sang his bribery.

I glanced over at him and he was holding two Starbucks cups and he was offering me one of them, which I assumed to be hot chocolate, because it’s the only thing that I like from Starbucks and Todd knew that. I took the cup and then took a tentative sip, relieved that it really was hot chocolate. “Thanks.”

He sighed heavily, leaning against the locker right beside mine. “Kota, come on,” He mumbled apologetically.

“I’m right here,” I stated sarcastically.

“You know what I mean,” He rolled his eyes at me. “Don’t be mad.”

I shrugged and shut my locker a little harder than what was probably necessary. “I’m not mad.”

“You are mad, I can tell when you’re mad, Dakota.”

“I have to get to class,” I told him, just to avoid this conversation, but he knew that’s what I was doing so he wouldn’t let me do it, which was incredibly frustrating.

“Just talk to me,” He insisted. “I don’t want you to be mad or anything.”

“I told you that I’m not mad,” I insisted with an annoyed sigh.