Annoying

Feline Koegel

They say every person you meet has a story to tell. So let me tell you one of these stories. I only met him thanks to my friend Emma, who was an exchange student like me. He was her host brother, eighteen years old, about as Irish as they come and the most annoying person I had met in a while. Everything about him seemed crooked. His nose, his teeth, his neck, the way he smirked. Even the way he walked, pulling one leg behind, was somehow crooked.

So, whenever my friend and I would meet up, he would tag along. I did not understand why. He was not interested in talking, shopping or exploring the city with us. All he ever wanted to do was to shop for video games and then sit in a fast-food restaurant for hours, talking to us nonstop about stuff that solely interested him. He never even bothered learning my name. He also vaped and smoked like a chimney.

I could not stand him and the dislike was mutual. We would spend a big part of our weekly hangouts just bickering. “Why are you friends with her, Emma?” he would often say while rolling his eyes at me. “She is such a bitch.”

“Why do you always have to bring him along, Emma?” I asked my friend once when we were alone. “It doesn’t even seem like he wants to be here.” 

She just shrugged and mumbled an apology, saying her host parents wanted it that way. 

But anyway, over time our arguments grew into something like a friendship, which of course did not stop us from annoying the hell out of each other. One day I threatened him with physical violence and he told me that that would easily cause him to die, because he was born with some sort of fracture in his neck. That was the reason he always hung out with me and Emma, it was too dangerous for him to be in the city on his own in case something happened. “That´s also why I always walk like I´m fucking drunk,” he explained. I just nodded at that. It made sense, and as awful as that was for him and as sorry as I felt, it did not change the way I saw him. Not a lot, at least.

Not like something that he told me a few weeks later when me, Emma and him were walking through the park together, talking about police stations for some reason.

“I´ve been to one before,” he told us. 

I asked,“Why? Did you get arrested?” 

“No,” he said, getting his cigarettes out. “I was there as a witness.” I had never before seen him this serious before. That stupid crooked smirk was gone. 

“I had to answer their questions about some guy from my old school. He was a bully. He used to bully me and my mates. In all ways possible. You don’t even want to know what he did to us. And what it felt like—” He shook his head, his voice breaking. “I`m not gonna tell you what it felt like. I went through hell!” He paused. “That guy would always tell us to jump from a bridge or hang ourselves and stuff. And well, one of us did it.” 

“What?” 

“My best friend´s been dead for nearly two years.”

I tried to think of something to say. “I`m so sorr—“

He looked at me. “Don’t. Please just don’t.” 

I grew quiet and was never able to see him the same since that day. I kind of wished he would just go back to being annoying.

–

Feline Koegel is a seventeen year old girl from Berlin, Germany. She loves writing, reading, animals, partying and music. Writing in german, as well as english, she takes inspiration from books, songs and her everyday life. Feline can be found on Wattpad as @snowleopard074nit