Bitter

four - cal

I was seven years old when Lydia Bosher moved to the neighborhood next to mine. When she went to my elementary school was when it became a problem.

   Teachers loved her, my class loved her, my friends loved her. Even my parents loved her. So I hated her. It was simple. Everything started when I told her on the playground that her princess backpack looked like trash. That was when I also developed my hatred for anything Cinderella-related.

   She didn't like what I said. Instead of crying like I'd hoped she'd do, she ran at me and tackled me, knocking the air out of my lungs. She repeatedly hit my face, never really punching me but just kind of smacking me really hard. After that, everyone started asking her questions, drifting to her, hanging out with her. Seeing that happen led me to nearly drowning Lydia at her birthday party. I wasn't going to kill her like she claimed I was, I was only trying to scare her.

   Since that didn't work, I made up this rumor one time that she peed her pants. I thought that was funny. Some people believed me and I gained a couple of my friends back that way. I saw what I had to do. So I did it. I lied and did whatever I could to make it feel like Lydia Bosher never moved here. And it worked.

   I made sure not one of my classmates liked her anymore. There were a few kids who would talk with her, but at the end of the day, she went home on the school bus alone. I made sure she didn't try to butt into any conversations. We all ignored her. I even went out of my way to bike to her lemonade stand and kick it over. It was just stupid kid stuff.

   Except, stupid kid stuff only happens when you're, well, a kid. It's not supposed to be happening when you're a senior in high school. If I teased Lydia one day, she wouldn't rest until she got me back. It was a cycle and none of us would break it.

   Lydia sliced my bike tires with a knife, lied to the teacher that I'd been cheating off of her (how Ms. Robins believed this, I didn't know, since she sat all the way across the room from me), and she burned a large hole through one of my favorite jackets. Since she was so "innocent" to everyone, she never got in trouble. Somehow, I ended up with the punishments.

   Freshman year, I threw a basketball at Lydia during gym class. I did this because she had kicked a soccer ball right at me the previous day which ended with me on the ground in a fetal position. Everything was done for a reason. She'd walk by the field at school during soccer practice, run away with my stuff while I was in the middle of a game and throw it into the creek nearby. Naturally, I started dating one of her only friends because of that. It didn't last long and she was more upset with her friend than with me. But that didn't mean she didn't scratch some of the paint off my car. I really struck a nerve with her that week.

   On Halloween one time, my friends and I dressed up in costumes and hid in the bushes at Lydia's house. I made sure to put on a mask, to really make her jump. Jason from Friday the 13th. That's who I decided to be and I was impressed by how real it looked. I guess it would've made more sense if my friend Jason Miller wore my mask, but we didn't really think about that and he thought the Freddy Krueger one looked cooler anyway.

   Lydia's reaction to us springing onto her porch was pretty great. She even fell backward which just made it even better. We all ran away before she could do anything and after that night, I knew I'd have to prepare for her retaliation. A couple of months later, she put a bunch of yellow snowballs in my locker, so I did the same back to her. The hallway didn't smell too good after that.

   I was driving sometime in spring and I saw my opportunity to get her back. Accelerating, I drove closer to the sidewalk, and when I realized it was her walking by herself, I pushed a wall of water on her from a puddle I was speeding through. I glanced at her in my mirror and saw her standing still, hoodie up, arms crossed. That was the best reaction I'd gotten. I had clearly made her mad.

   Then school was out for the summer and I did nothing at all. It was kind of depressing really. There were people going on vacations to Greece or Japan or Hawaii, and I sat at home. I barely even went outside. Let's just say, it was a long two months.

Lydia was probably one of those people going on one of those vacations. She was perfect, remember? A perfect person had a perfect life and didn't have to deliver a eulogy during summer break.