Vitriolic Best Friends

He was a little asshole when we met. Actually, he still is now. Every now and then I can't believe it, but we're best friends. We have been ever since we were maybe six. But we first met when we were both five years old.

My family had just moved over from Northern Ireland and one of our neighbors came over to greet us with her young son. My dad and twin sister went out to get groceries, so that left me and mum.

"Hello, welcome to the neighborhood! My name is Elena Stalwart, and this is my son Sven," Mrs. Stalwart said, ruffling the hair on Sven's head.

Sven just scowled at me, as if I'd done something wrong to him, though I hadn't even said anything. I just looked back to the house, dying to get away and out of the firm grip mum had on my shoulders. I didn't really ever play with anyone other than my sister, so I suppose she was dying to have me make a friend.

"It's nice to meet you, Elena! I'm Eileen Hammond, and this is my boy Shea. His sister is off with his father, getting groceries," Mum said, gripping tighter on my shoulders, preventing me from escaping.

"What a cutie! How old is he?" Mrs. Stalwart asked.

"He's five years old. What about Sven? How old is he?" Mum asked.

"Oh, Svenny is too! Svenny, why don't you go play with Shea?" Mrs. Stalwart asked Sven, looking down to him.

“I don't wanna,” He replied promptly.

“Sven...”

“Alright, fine...” He huffed, and went over to his house with me following behind.

When we arrived, he just quietly glared at me for a good five minutes before he finally spoke up. “Do you know how to play basketball?” He asked.

“No...” I replied. There wasn't exactly a good place to play in my old neighbourhood.

“What about tag?” He asked.

“I think so...” I replied.

With my answer, he roughly shoved my shoulder. “You're it!” He shouted, then ran across the yard.

“H-hey!” I shouted and took after him.

After a while of chasing him, I tackled him to the ground, knocking his glasses off his face. Clearly I hadn't played tag before. “Hey, what did you do that for?!” He shouted indignantly, feeling around the ground for his glasses.

“You shoved me!” I shouted back to him.

“I didn't shove you, I tagged you!” Sven yelled, still feeling around for his glasses.

I crossed my arms and gave a huff. “Well, it hurt!” I yelled back to him, stomping and accidentally crunching Sven's glasses underfoot.

The color drained from his face when he realized what I did, and I looked just as terrified. “Y-you broke my glasses...!” He shouted.

“I din't mean'ta!” I shouted, waving my hands defensively.

Sven took a blind leap and tackled me to the ground and we fought. “Mummy!” I shouted.

Mum and Mrs. Stalwart appeared not minutes later and tried to pull us apart. “Boys, stop it!” Mrs. Stalwart shouted.

Mum pulled me off of Sven and took me back home to nurse the black eye he gave me in return for his broken glasses.