𝘽𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙈𝙚 || dream x oc

8 - flashback

-- 𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗻; 𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 --

-- 𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗼𝘃 --

The Gatorland birthday was a significant event in my life, as silly as it sounds. It was the first time my parents showed real apprehension about how close Clay and I were. At the time, I didn't really understand their concern. The older I got, the more sense it made, but I still harbored some resentment for it. The main reason Clay and I had become such great friends was that our moms essentially forced us to be -- at least for the first few years of our lives. By the time we'd hit six or seven, we really were inseparable on our own accord.

I was turning eleven that year. I was never one for birthdays, at least my own -- I found them to be embarrassing and pointless. My parents always forced me to have a larger party than I would have planned for myself, and I felt like I was old enough now to finally put my foot down. They were trying to plan some huge party for me again this year, and I wasn't having it. I had more attitude during that conversation than I should have, but I really just wanted to spend the day with Clay and I wasn't backing down until that goal had been achieved.

"I only want Clay to come, by the way," I piped up. We had just finished dinner and we were still sitting at the table. My parents were throwing out ideas for themes, things to do, and people to invite. 

"Honey, you need to invite some other people," my mom was not pleased with how little I cared to celebrate my birthday. I guess it made sense -- the poor lady had to push me out and raise me and here I was whining about having a damn party.

"Why? I don't like anyone else," I said, matter-of-factly. 

"He can't always be the only friend you have," my dad was less invested in this than my mother by a long shot, but I could hear some hint of concern in his voice. His fears seemed to be more about my overall social skills rather than specifically related to Clay. "You need to start branching out a little bit more, Mer."

"You like Lyla, from the barn, don't you? Let us invite her, you two have been hanging out more recently," my mom offered. "Or some kids from your class."

"Isn't it my birthday? All I want for my birthday is to hang out with Clay," I rolled my eyes a little. I wished I hadn't done that because I knew I could probably expect a lecture later, but this was getting annoying. "Lyla doesn't even like alligators, she'd be miserable and I would be miserable if other people from school were there."

Looking back on it, I wish I could tell ten-year-old me to invite Lyla to the party, but I wasn't lying when I said that she'd be miserable. We first met when we were seven or eight, but neither of us liked the other until we were ten. She thought I was mean, and I thought she was stuck-up so we mostly avoided each other. I always marked the start of our friendship as the first competition of the season when were ten. She had accidentally left her helmet behind, so I let her borrow mine and the rest was history. Lyla, however, always argued that the real start of our friendship was the day she met Clay for the first time nearly two years later.

"Then just invite Clay, honey," my dad said. "We just want you to have a good time, that's all that matters."

"No, Steven, she needs to invite some more friends," my mom was not yielding and I was starting to get nervous. "Why don't you go bowling or something instead of Gatorland so everyone can have fun? It sounds like Gatorland maybe just isn't that appealing, honey."

"Why?" I knew I had to dig my heels in even more if I had any chance of having this 'party' go down the way I wanted it to. "Clay and I want to go to Gatorland."

"You and Clay are too attached to each other, Mer," my mom sighed. "It's your birthday, do you even want to go to Gatorland or did he suggest it? Wouldn't you rather do anything else? We could even go to DisneyWorld, wouldn't that be fun?"