Tacenda ~Owen Joyner~

Chapter 14

"Mom, I'm not telling dad to not buy a motorcycle. He's a grown man, and my father, I can't tell him what to do." I roll my eyes but luckily she can't see me over a phone call, "Plus there's nothing wrong with having one. He'd have fun and they're safe if you drive responsibly."

"Fourteen percent!" Owen calls from across the room and I flip him off.

"Well he bought his own helmet for yours." My mom says, bringing my attention back to our conversation.

"Why couldn't he just wear mine?" I ask

"His head is too big. You have a small head, that's what made you an easy birth." She laughs.

"Ew, Mom. Stop it." I cringe, "I have to get back to work. It's my last week so it's really busy."

"Yay! That means you'll be home soon." I can practically hear her jump up and down with joy.

"Mom." I say simply.

"Right, sorry. Make the most of your last week. Have fun! I love you!" She says, remembering how I told her I was sad about my limited time here.

"I love you too. Bye." I hang up the phone and slip it into my back pocket.

Owen crosses his arms, "You didn't tell her that fourteen percent of vehicle accidents are caused by motorcycles."

"Because it's a stupid statistic." I pat his cheek and smile.

He grabs my hand and holds it down by his side, "I'll walk you to the front."

"I know how to get there." I tease.

"Don't turn all independent woman on me, I had to open your bottle of orange juice yesterday." He reminds me.

"Yeah but remember when I saved you from suffocating on the bench press?" I smirk.

"Hey! You said you weren't going to mention that again." He frowns.

I drop his hand and instead link arms with him to start walking to the front of the building, "Yeah but then you were mean to me."

"Fair enough." He nods.

Owen and I are still just friends and ignoring basically every flirty interaction between us although we do nothing to stop the flirty interactions. Every once in a while Charlie will stare at us after doing something and then we have to turn our attention to him so he gets distracted and forgets about seeing us fact cute whatsoever. The fact that we're just friends is entirely my fault. Sometimes Owen will say something jokingly but also serious about dating me or having a crush on me or something like that and I'll just laugh and change the subject. I act oblivious because I have less than a week left. That's not a time to be developing real feelings. It would only end with me leaving both of us being hurt. I mean, I don't want to be hurt because that sucks but mainly I'm concerned about hurting Owen. He is seriously the sweetest guy and I might be interested in starting something real with him if we could actually be together, but that's just not possible. So in the meantime I am really trying my best to prevent any hurt from reaching him.

He's actually a bit of a tough guy so I don't think he'd ever say if he's sad or anything unless questioned. I think that's the main thing people get wrong about him. Because he's nice people assume he's super soft, which he is but he's also not. He'll keep emotions and problems to himself unless he breaks or they're forced out of him. When it comes to other people though he's totally a softy. He's a protector, of both himself and everyone around him. It makes me feel bad for shutting him down when he tries to hint at feelings between us because I know he's actually trying but it's just not the time. In the moment I panic so I just shut it down. I later think of how I could have handled it better but of course that never helps the past or the future. I also feel bad about leading him on if that's what I'm doing, but we have to remember that he's the one who kissed me and started any sort of flirtatious behaviour and I'm the one who shuts down anything that's not just playful or could potentially be perceived as just friendly. Though sometimes I'm not too good at it because I give in to the flirtatious behaviours. It's not my fault though, he's just so... Owen.