Tennis Instructor (A.K.)

Chapter 13: 4th of July

For her small stature, Owen was far from a lightweight when it came to drinking. She rarely ever participated in getting drunk, but that Fourth of July, she decided she'd have a few drinks with Liza. It was harmless and the most immature fun Owen had experienced in a long time. Owen was never a fan of annoying drunks, so she made sure to not let the placebo effect attack her the way it did others. One drink wasn't going to have her falling all over the place, a habit girls she had gone to school with partook in.

    A guy Liza was friends with had thrown the barbecue they were going to. Owen agreed to go with, knowing that some social interaction would be good for her. The only person she had spent time with was Awsten, which only made Owen feel delusional. Being around him gave her hope he was attracted to her, which Owen doubted considering the girls she had seen him go for. They might not mean anything to him, but he still found them physically attractive. She simply wasn't his type, an idea that Owen really didn't want to accept.

     Being friends with Awsten was enough for Owen though. She liked talking to him, he seemed to understand her well and genuinely enjoy what she had to say. It was a process to accept it, but Owen could tell he liked being her friend and it wasn't done out of sympathy.

When he had taken her back to his house, they spent the remainder of their time sitting in his bed talking. It was about random things, like their favorite colors and how uneventful high school had been for both of them. She liked how relaxed things were with him, how she felt like she could say anything. He looked at her with so much intrigue every word felt like it mattered. For once, she didn't think she was talking too much. She didn't feel like she'd say the wrong thing and he'd grow invasive, or the opposite, he would think she was being too open. They both talked freely without worrying about the other.

Being at the party with Liza was very different from her experience with Awsten. Obviously, it was different, seeing as it was only 3pm and Liza and Owen were a few drinks deep already. Geoff had dropped them off, thankfully, and agreed to pick them up in time to make it to the firework gathering at the country club. Comparatively, at 3pm, Owen and Awsten were eating ice cream out of the container while Awsten detailed his one and only experience in a strip club.

Besides the apparent differences, speaking to Liza was not as easy as speaking to Awsten. It wasn't that Owen felt uncomfortable or embarrassed around her friend, but it was the fact that Liza never reacted in a way Owen found appropriate. She tended to be defensive, protective, patronizing or overly excited over the slightest news Owen had to share. If Owen did anything slightly out there, like get a crush or buy something dumb, Liza was there to freak out. It was the sort of behavior she would hate from Owen, though.

"Heard you've met Awsten," Liza said to Owen as they sat together.

"Yeah, he's my tennis instructor," Owen grinned. She missed the sarcasm in Liza's tone, not realizing she meant it like a bad thing. "How'd you find out?"

"Geoff mentioned it," she shrugged. "They're really close."

"Yeah, seemed like it when I saw them at the pool," she agreed. "God, have you been to his house?"

"Yeah, Owen, but why have you?" Her accusatory tone was enough for Owen to understand what was going on. For some reason, Liza disapproved of Owen and Awsten knowing one another.

"Because I got sick at practice," she told her friend. It wasn't a blatant lie, but there was no need to tell Liza about what had occurred. She wouldn't react the right way anyhow. She changed the topic quickly, not wanting to bicker back and forth about her and Awsten's bond. "Isn't his house sort of insane? I can't imagine what his parents do."