Learning All Things Owen Jackson

Prologue

My high pitched giggles with his amateur jokes intertwined in the salty air surrounding us. The wind unforgivingly brushed over our flushed cheeks and weaved itself through our strands of hair, almost knocking over the sandcastle we had both carefully built together. Desperate to not lose his valuable interest in me, I hastily tried to fix the strands of dark hair which had covered my eyes and even inelegantly trapped itself between my slightly purple tinted lips.

At fourteen years old, building sandcastles and rushing away from the foamy tide was what generally sufficed as a 'date'. Although we all knew little about romance, it was always fun to daringly hang out with the opposite gender and, especially for us girls, to giggle at the embarrassing small talk that our friends made when interacting with their crushes.

Vanessa, my best friend of five years then, even decided it would be a great idea for me to 'get to know' her cousin Christian. And I, with enthusiasm, approved of the idea at the time. Stupidly, I thought that I would gain more popularity points from it and climb higher up on the 'coolness' ladder (a ridiculous and childish hierarchy which helped to define how 'awesome' and 'cool' you were). The ladder was something I had learnt to gradually dislike as I got older, since it partly- no wholly- focused on more of the superficial side of things: your appearance.

Gazing into his eyes, I slowly leaned forward with a ghost of a smile upon my face. His blond hair flopped to the side of his forehead and with the restraint I had, I halted myself from flicking it back into place. Slowly, I closed my eye lids and tilted my head upwards with the full intention of earning my place on that ladder. Stealing a kiss- which was scandalous at the time- was something I completely believed in helping me gain some sort of social credit at school. According to Vanessa, connecting your lips with a boy helped you work your way up on that pathetic, theoretical ladder. Without a single doubt, she had said.

"Boo yah!" A loud voiced yelled, preventing the following huge event from happening in my life.

Reeling back from Christian and opening my eyes in haste, I felt sprinkles of sand whip my face. Flapping my hands around, a hiss shortly escaped from Christian lips and I gasped a moment after having realised what I had done. Crimson liquid dripped from his nose and his eyes began to brim with tears.

"Oh my goodness," I gasped out, slapping my hand to my mouth whilst the disturbance sniggered in amusement.

Turning to the infuriating interference, my face hardened and I scowled at the sandy haired boy who was hunched over on the sand with a hand clasping his chest. I watched in annoyance as his body moved vigorously from the hearty guffaws that shook his lanky frame.

Owen Jackson was an annoying prankster who just so happened to be best friends with Leon, my older brother by two years. For some unknown reason, he took every chance in making my life absolute hell. If there was a bucket of water near me when I was innocently sunbathing, it would end up being poured on top of me, freezing my bare body. If I even simply took one glance at a boy my age, he would embarrass me by exposing my attraction to said boy and bluntly warn him to, and I quote, "Run whilst you still can".

"Owen, you're going to pay for this!" I growled, standing up and storming towards him.

"They were your actions, not mine. Sorry lover boy got hurt by your freakishly large hands!" Owen chuckled, lifting his head and meeting my eyes.

"Why are you here anyway?" I exclaimed, pinching the bridge of my nose. "My brother must have mistakenly let you off your lead."

"Oh Cameron, you should know by now that your brother is the owner of you, not me," he spoke in a patronising tone, shaking his head as he crossed his thin arms.

"You're so annoying!" I cried out, twisting my body away from him and deciding to ignore his presence entirely.

My eyes fell on the red face of Christian and I immediately recoiled at the blood which dripped from his chin.

"I'm so sorry, Christian," I said apologetically, grazing my hand against his cheek as I bit my lip in thought. "We should continue this another day, yeah?"

Christian nodded, a hand cupped over his reddening nose, before standing up on his feet. "Yeah another time...maybe."

In a flash, Christian fled away from my crouched position and headed for the steps with not a single glance behind him.

"You know, that other time, is probably not going to ever happen, right? You totally scared him off with your dangerously large fingers and thumbs."

Letting out an angered sigh, I stood up and marched away from him.

As years went by, my hatred for Owen grew and grew just like his intentional attacks towards me did. My brother, of course, paid no attention to his best friend's unnecessary and uncalled for behaviour. It was as if he was completely indoctrinated due to how much he worshipped Owen.

Leon often followed Owen's stupidity by engaging in criminal activities, like shop lifting as well as doing graffiti on bus stops and corner shop walls. This naturally went unnoticed by our parents, considering they were more interested in their careers than actually bothering to check on their children. This was always something I never understood; why would you have children if you didn't have the time for them?

One time, I even caught Leon smoking under a bridge that wasn't that far from where we lived. Vanessa and I were aimlessly strolling over the bridge when she pointed out the visible exchange between Leon and Owen.

"Isn't that...Leon?" She said as she tapped me on the arm, directing her index finger towards an area that was slightly under the bridge.

My eyes widened as I watched my older brother inhale and exhale the toxic chemicals from the blunt. It felt like I was staring at a completely difference person, not someone who had taken care of me when my parents couldn't and taught me right from wrong.

Rage instantly burned inside of me. It was so hypocritical of him to partake in such illegal, and also harmful, actions when he explicitly told me to not give in to peer pressure and commit illegal acts such as the one he was doing then.

The rage inside of me burned even larger once I realised who was with him- Owen Jackson.

That was a turning point for me. After everything he had done to me, I could have forgiven him.

But becoming a harmful influence in which Leon felt obliged to commit an unhealthy and addictive habit to impress him, was what did it for me.

Owen Jackson would forever be known as the guy who changed my brother.

Something that I would never forgive him for.