Friendzoned (7 page)

What else could she do?

The trip back was playful enough, with Gary and Quince clowning around for them in the near dark of Darla's Volkswagen van. It was funny enough, but Becky was preoccupied, worried about having made Mitch mad, and a bit upset at Keeley. It wasn't fair. Not to any of them.

It meant she sat there, just listening to the others, until they got to the school parking lot, and managed to dump the boys out. Mitch seemed like he wanted to talk to Keels, but he didn't, finally just turning away. Cory smiled and waved at her though, which was nice of him. He was always sweet that way, bothering to pay attention to everyone, and trying to be inclusive. They hadn't talked a lot on the hike really, but then the guy never did. He just brushed his decently short hair with his right hand, the brown lock that he was after falling instantly back to his forehead, and got into Mitch's car. Then they drove away, safely and quietly.

As opposed to Quince, who peeled out, with Gary and Gavin in with him, making the air fill with the stink of burned rubber and leaving a black streak on the pavement, covering one of the white lines.

Darla sighed.

"
Such
a tool." Then they all loaded back up, heading to Keeley's for another evening of fun. "If he keeps doing things like that, they'll close this place off, and it makes a good starting point for day trips. He just doesn't think ahead that far most of the time."

That got a lot of nods from the other girls. Becky didn't know about that personally, since hanging around with a popular guy wasn't exactly something that she had a lot of experience with in her life. She did notice though that none of these girls had gone out of their way to flirt with him or try and get his attention, had they?
He'd
flirted and played, and everyone seemed fine with it, but they didn't try to get him alone or anything like that.

It probably meant something. Maybe even something slightly sinister.

Keeley snorted and gestured to the van again. She climbed in the front, like she owned the place permanently, but no one complained, so Becky wasn't going to. After all, one day these pretty and popular girls would wake up and realize that her only role here was as their ugly friend and she wouldn't be included much at all. Being the squeaky wheel really wasn't going to slow that down, was it?

As she settled, the van not moving, Keeley spoke, her voice soft, but not sounding like she was trying to be funny at all. Just thoughtful.

"Yeah, poor Quince. He tries really hard, but he's just not that bright really. I
did
like that bit about ancient Sumer. He was probably up for hours last night memorizing it.
Not
that I'm knocking the effort. It was pretty good. Well, he'll get by, probably by doing well enough in sports to get a coaching position somewhere. He does pretty well in that area." She turned around as they got underway and looked into the back, her face carrying a bit of a grin. "So, what did everyone think? Was that a disaster or what? Other than the exercise. That worked at least. I'm going to be sore tomorrow."

Darla made a derisive sound, but didn't turn to look herself. Her voice was friendly and pretty happy, over all.

"It wasn't a
total
bust. It was good to see Gavin, and Cory seems like a really nice guy."

That got a laugh from next to Becky, where Eve sat.

"That's true. He's also
very
much in lust with a certain girl, who shall not be mentioned..."

Becky looked at her and let her head tilt to the side. She could see him being interested in Eve. After all, she was really good looking and had been friendly to him the whole time, making a point of touching him and smiling a lot. Plus, she'd been pretty open about liking sex, and it wasn't as if Cory wasn't a guy, so there was that.

The girl wrinkled her nose cutely and then shook her short black hair out of her eyes.

"It was
all
about Becky the whole time. Trust me, the boy has it bad. Otherwise he wouldn't have known the rest of you were even there. Not with me nearby. But
no
, he spent ten miles and a meal staring at our fair maiden over here. It was a bit rude to me, of course, but I'll live."

"
What
? We're just friends. We hang out sometimes, but it isn't-" She was going to go on, when Hally put a soft hand on her shoulder from behind, stopping her.

"You mean it isn't
exactly
like what you and Mitch have going on? Except that Cory is actually better looking than Mitch
and
has a better personality. Not that Mitch was bad, or anything, he seemed all right, but it was so clear that you were trying to get his attention that he should have been nicer about it than he was. Just like you need to be better with Cory."

There was a murmur of agreement from the others then, with Eve doing the follow up on it.

"At least sleep with him. I mean, not to be crass, but you won't be marrying any of them, so you might as well get to have a little fun. In twenty years, when you look back, they can either be those guys you knew, or the ones you actually
knew
. People sometimes regret what they did in life, but they very rarely regret
who
they did."

Becky didn't say anything, still trying to work out if she were being teased or not. After all, Cory... He was just her friend, right? More to the point, he was Mitch's buddy, who happened to be around a lot. She liked him, sure, but she hadn't really thought of him
that
way.

Maybe that was a mistake? Was there something there that she was missing? Worse, was Eve just right, and she was wasting so much time on Mitch that she couldn't see anything else that was going on around her? She already knew, and fully admitted, that she wasn't going to have some big, lifelong relationship with the boy. In six months they'd both be going their separate ways. No matter what else happened. He'd be off to a really good school, and she wouldn't.

So what was she really doing here?

She knew the answer, of course. It was obvious and had been for years. She loved him. He was a good person, and her emotions didn't want to let him get away without even trying. It hurt, even to think of him leaving like that. Even knowing it was going to happen, regardless of what she did. That was always the battle though, wasn't it? Knowing what had to happen was most often at war with what you wanted in life. At least it felt like it.

Eve yawned, and waved her left hand, hitting Becky gently in the arm with it several times.

"Not that I don't see what you like in Mitch now. I mean, he's still a giant geek with no fashion sense, but he
also
treats you like crap. It gives him a whole bad boy vibe. At least with you. Really he should have been doing that with Keeley, or me, if he actually wants to have sex. I always fall for that garbage, don't I?"

That got a considering sound from Darla, the back of her head showing only a cascade of soft, light colored curls in the light that came through the side window. It alternated as they drove, a bit of light, then deep shadows.

"Really? You
do
. Keels doesn't, so that wouldn't have worked on
her
at least. I kind of have to agree Becks. I mean, think about it... He had a perfectly good
you
there, looking ready to eat, next to a wasted and haggard looking Keeley, and he was still not getting the idea. Is it really worth the effort? I... Well, it isn't my plan. Keeley, what do you think?"

That was an odd person to go to for that kind of thought, since Mitch was clearly interested in her, beyond anyone else, but the girl rose to the challenge a lot better than Becky would have, she thought.

"We need to show him that I'm off the table, and that Becky is a really good catch. We already have a plan for that, but I'll make sure it's set up. In the mean time, Becky needs to keep busy. Asking her to just give up now, while there are other things to try, isn't right. Besides, not to seem rude, but Mitch isn't exactly my type. For one thing he was sort of rude to my friend. That's enough for me to not like him that much, right there." She sounded confident about the subject too. As if she really meant every single word of what she was saying.

It was a good trick. One that Becky needed to learn herself. Of course it could just be that Keeley actually felt that way, which would be nice, if it was the truth. She didn't have that many really close friends after all. Mainly just Maria, who'd been left out of their weekend plans.

Not because she wasn't welcome, it was just that her parents were really strict that way. There was no way that they were going to let their teen daughter hang out for a whole weekend with a bunch of cheerleaders, un-chaperoned. They weren't monsters about it, letting her stay over when Keeley's mother was around, and had even offered to have the girls over to their house a few times, if only for an evening. They all knew each other from church after all.

That was one of the strangest things about her little all girl crew of friends. They always managed to make it to Mass on Sunday. Becky wasn't Catholic, but so far the Priest had never called her on it when she attended with them. He was pretty cool that way, it seemed.

It took a bit longer for the whole group to get back to the house, and the very first thing that happened was that food was made. Keeley hit the kitchen like she was starving, but Becky got the idea now. It was all part of her act. Her cover. A way of making it seem like she actually ate regularly, so that no one would suspect what was really going on, or had been. She was a bit heavier than she had been for a while. About ten pounds? If the girl weighed a hundred though, it was only due to her many layers of clothing.

So maybe she was really trying to recover?

If so... Then Becky couldn't throw her friend under the social bus at school and out her as having an eating disorder, could she? For one thing,
Mitch
probably wouldn't care. The other was that
Keeley
just might, and it would hurt her, or at least could. Maybe even pushing her to eat less. It didn't make a lot of sense, but it could happen, Becky was nearly certain of it. It had been on an old television show once.

So instead she decided not to be a bitch, and sell out one of the only people that had always gone out of her way to be really nice to her. Consistently even. It felt like a weight lifted from her shoulders then, and she let out a soft sigh, considering the rest of what they'd been talking about in the car. Cory liked her?
Her
? She very nearly couldn't believe that. Maybe Eve was wrong, or had just been saying that to be nice? The girl was pretty enough that maybe she just assumed that him glancing at her meant something like that, when he really wanted something else? What that would be Becky didn't know, but it might be worth asking about, if she got a chance.

Maybe he wanted...

Really, she had no idea at all what he could have been looking at her for. Other than the things that the others had said. Was it real?

For just a second she thought about the rest of what Eve had mentioned. About sex. She'd always avoided that, sort of, if she were going to be honest. It didn't take a TV shrink to get the idea across to her either. She didn't want to be her mother, wasting her life and drinking herself into an early grave. So Becky had tried to be the exact opposite of her when she could, including not having anything to do with sex, drinking, or other drugs. It wasn't that she didn't like the idea of sex, but there was a tiny bit of fear there. Not that it would hurt, or even that she'd get pregnant, since she had a better than average idea of what to do to prevent that.

It was that if she started doing
it
, then her mother would be one step closer to being right about her. That they were just the same.

That was what she was still thinking about, sitting on the living room sofa, half an hour later when the table was set for the meal. She should have helped with it, but she'd gotten lost in thought and hadn't realized anything was going on at all. There was some show on the television, but she hadn't gotten that it was even there, as worried as she was, until after the box had been turned off. The sudden gray darkness of the flat screen made her jump, as Darla smiled at her.

"Dinner time. Are you okay? You seem a bit out of it." She held out a hand, to help Becky stand up from the soft white cushions. It wasn't needed, but it was nice of her to do anyway.

"Oh... I was just thinking that I don't want to turn into my mother."

"Ah. Well, having met her on several occasions, and not trying to sound like a bitch, I don't really think that's going to happen. You're a good person, and working to make your own way in life. Things are different for you than for her." She didn't really say how, but then, how would she know?

Becky nodded anyway.

"It's the sex stuff. You know, what Eve was saying earlier? I haven't really done anything like that. It's because of that. So I won't make the same mistakes that she did. Get pregnant at sixteen, and then never do anything with my life." It was the first time that she'd ever really told any of her friends all that, and she didn't know how Darla was going to react.

It was a pretty simple really. She tilted her head and sounded smart.