by Power, P. S.
Friendzoned
P.S. Power
Orange Cat Publishing
Chapter one
There were good ways to spend a Friday night, Becky thought, as she wiped down the drive-through area once again. Working at Taco Bell wasn't one of them. Or at least it wasn't in her top five or so. It actually did beat sitting at home, alone again, wondering what Mitch was getting up to. That was always maddening and a thing that had plagued her existence for far too long. What was he doing?
At least here, at ten-forty seven, she knew the answer. He was busily ordering about ten dollars worth of food, and trying to get her to use her employee discount for it. She loved him, but it was almost like he just wanted her for that, not her innate coolness or good looks.
"Please? I promise to be good, and save you some." He sounded genuine, but also like he had his friends with him in the car, which meant that wasn't going to really happen. A group of starving guys saved food for no one. They hung out on occasion, the gang and her, but never this late at night, and when it happened at all there was almost always going to be a school project involved somewhere. That or her running around at their role playing games, bringing them snacks and drinks. She got to play too, of course, but she was the girl, and they were all a bit socially awkward...
Sighing she looked around, and saw the assistant manager, Dan, watching her, his little mustache making it seem like he wasn't just a few years older than she was. There was another, very hungry sounding please from the vehicle, and the man threw his hands out a little. It didn't seem all that happy however.
"Go ahead, but you can only use it once a day." It was the actual rule, at least at their store, ever since one of the old crew had been caught giving everyone at school ten percent off of all the food purchases on her shift. The discount was twenty percent, which meant the rest had been going directly into her own pocket. Unfortunately that was considered theft by the owner. Sally had been fired on the spot, and had actually been taken to small claims court to try and get the remainder back. The judge had thrown it out, because the place hadn't had a rule against doing that specifically. Not when it happened.
So now they did.
"Thanks." She wasn't upset about it, since she hadn't eaten any of the food there for a long time. It wasn't about the normal reasons. No one did anything bad to the food, and the meat, while not all beef, wasn't a big mystery. It was about half vegetable protein. Really, that actually sounded healthier to her than not. They could probably use it as a sales point, if all the marketing wasn't meant to target teen age boys and young men. They loved their hot beef though, didn't they?
No, it was that she'd been working really hard to lose weight, hoping that Mitch would notice her. So far he hadn't even looked at her extra closely. Yes, it was a stupid reason to do something like that, and worse, she knew it, but she really had a hard time not thinking about him. He was just...
Perfect.
Not the kind that others would see automatically, since he wasn't a movie star and didn't have perfect teeth, but he was smart and funny and actually seemed to care about her, at least as a friend. After a fashion. That last bit was the sticking point really.
They were just friends, and had been for years.
So she dieted, and went hungry for months on end, and tried to be interested in the things he was, as an excuse to be included in his life. Right now that meant making sure he got a discount on cruddy food that no one should have been eating. Just so that he'd learn to love her. Even she could see the flaws in the plan. For one thing, it hadn't worked at all for the last three years, so she doubted it was going to start right then.
"Okay, pull up." Her voice might have been a little cheerier, but it was just so clear to her that she no longer had a chance with the boy at all. He didn't act any differently with her, but he'd flat out told her, several times, that he liked Keeley Thompson. It wasn't done in a subtle way either. Mitch wasn't trying to make her jealous, and would have probably been shocked if anyone had suggested that idea to him at all. After all, she was just... Plain old her, and Keeley was incredible.
That wasn't just him either, a lot of the boys thought the new girl was something better than the rest of them. Worse, they were right. Becky hated to admit it, but the girl wasn't just prettier than her, she was so gorgeous that she could have been a movie star. More than that, she was smart, funny, and really nice.
Also kind of dating one of the school's cheerleaders, but even that wasn't a problem for most of the guys, since she was almost certainly bi-sexual. It was enough to make Becky cry. And had.
The car came up and Mitch popped his head out the window, making fake eyes at her, his brightly colored shirt a fantastically bad combination of blue and pink. He drove an older model car, but it wasn't beaten up, just not new. A yellow Japanese model, she thought. It was nice and fit him in a way. He just did what worked for him. Whatever that was in life. Got straight 'A's' because it suited him at the moment, wore whatever he had to hand and didn't care what others thought about him.
Unlike her, who was busily ringing him up with her discount, because she wanted him to like her. Being one of those needy girls that held on too long to a lost cause. That was no doubt a great idea for the old self-esteem, wasn't it?
"Thank you Becky..." He sounded a bit singsong about it, and it came across like he was just using her. That wasn't the case, she didn't think. It was just that his friends might make fun of him if the drive-through girl seemed to be too close to him.
Except that Cory leaned over from the passenger's seat and waved.
"Yeah, thanks Becky! We should get together soon. Do something." He was sweet, for a teenage boy, she decided, and had a long time before. It wasn't that he lacked in looks or anything, though he kept to a very plain style and sort of blended into the background at school. Mitch just popped. He brought so much life and energy to everything, all the time.
It didn't hurt that she was totally, and no doubt helplessly, in love with him either.
Cory didn't add more and she worked efficiently, waving as they left, with Mitch swerving a little, trying to shove a half wrapped taco down his throat as he operated the car. That worried her a bit, since she wanted him to be safe, but by the time he got to the road the car straightened out. After that it was all up to fate and his own ability to eat and drive at the same time. Or hopefully show enough common sense not to do that at all. She doubted that last one was going to be it, however.
Then she had to put her head down and just work for the next two and a half hours. Things would die down, at about two in the morning, and then she'd be needed to help clean the place. She only had one shift per week, which almost made it not worth it, except for the fact that Mitch came through almost every Friday. It was why she'd volunteered to take the drive-through.
Just to see the guy she liked, outside of school, as if that somehow made her incredibly desperate situation any better at all. There were a few more highlights, one of which came just at closing, when instead of walking home in the black night, hoping that no one killed or raped her, she found a car load of girls waiting for her.
Nice ones even. Led by Keeley Thompson.
There was a bit of venom in the thought, but she knew it wasn't fair at all. She hadn't done anything to get Mitch interested. They hadn't even talked really. Becky knew that from both of them, so it was probably true. Otherwise they'd be dating, not hiding things from her.
It was the cheerleading crew, or at least that was how she always thought of these five. Keeley wasn't one of them, actually, even if she was pretty enough for it. She was the new girl still, after a fashion, so that meant she hadn't been invited to try out and hadn't pushed her way in either.
Darla Gibson drove, since it was her van,
a Volkswagen that was a pretty eggshell color, and meticulously cared for. It wasn't just clean, but looked new, all the time, and ran like a dream. The girl waved and Keeley, who was in the passenger's seat hopped out to open the side door for her.
"You mentioned your car being out of order, so here we are! Hop in. We already went by your place and got some stuff for you, so that you can stay over. My mom is out on business and won't be back until Monday, so it's pretty much party central." The pretty, dark haired girl was dressed nicely, but just in a pair of jeans that hugged her hips and thighs, and a t-shirt. It wasn't, Becky knew, the clothing that did the trick, it was the person inside them.
She really, really wanted to be able to hate her. She just couldn't. It was completely unfair, she decided, managing a smile.
Worse the rest of them were all nice too. It was like a conspiracy or something, designed to ruin her high school experience. These girls were supposed to be bitchy and mean, possibly to a level that would be criminal for anyone else, and do things like make catty remarks about her in the shower room and put Nair in her shampoo bottle to make all her hair fall out. Then she'd be elected prom queen, or develop psychic powers and kill them in a horrible bloodbath. It was in all the movies.
They didn't do that though. Instead they talked to her in the hallways, and when she'd mentioned that the last play needed a bit of help, they all came and volunteered to do props. Even Keeley, who'd gotten a role in the thing. That made exactly one of the 'actors' that had bothered to help out at all with the drab part of things. They didn't even drink or do drugs. It should have meant they were boring, but Eve, who reached out her hand from one of the two large bench seats in the back, made a point of getting into a lot of trouble, mainly with boys.
There was always something happening with them too. They'd run off at odd hours, but always come back sober and with all their clothing, so it probably wasn't her being left out of the orgies. Not that she'd do that...
The hand was warm and the girl, who had a sporty hair cut that was just over her ears, pulled her into place, not commenting on the inevitable scent of fake Mexican food that followed her around like a ghost until she had a chance to shower for a while.
"Becky! How's my favorite fast food worker?" There was no sense of teasing in the words at all, but the girl stopped and moved her head side to side for a bit, the dark interior hiding her exact expression. "Yeah... Yeah, you're my fave. There was this guy, but he turned out to be a kind of a tool after I gave it up to him in his car behind the McDonald's. Then, he probably started out that way, and I just didn't notice at first." She shifted a bit so that Becky was directly beside her, with Hally and Barb in the back seat. "Not that I remember his name at all, so I guess that's probably a sign of something?"
She chuckled about it, but in the front Darla cleared her throat.
"Probably. Becky, would you get the door? I'm not wild about the looks of those guys walking up on us.
That got her attention fast, and she scrambled to get the door shut. They weren't some kids, if she could tell that by their build. There were three of them and they walked like they were all a bit drunk.
One of them saw her and yelled.
"Aw, don't go away, we just want to talk to you! I have a question."
Darla didn't seem to want to answer, since, rude or not, she left directly, the engine hardly making any noise at all. One of the other guys chased them and shouted something, but she couldn't really make it out. He was flipping them off though, and since the one that had been a bit more clear had seemed to be in his mid-twenties or so, it was a bit scary. This wasn't some school boy, but an adult man acting weird.
From the back, directly behind her, Barb spoke up.
"I bet they only wanted to ask where we wanted to be raped. It's really rude of us to drive off like this. Maybe we should go back and ask?" The girl was being a bit sarcastic, which was probably meant to lighten the mood. Keeley however, laughed. It was a happy sound, and even if she was riding in front, it seemed inclusive.
"No takers here! That was strange. After those murders last October, you'd think that no one would be that stupid. I mean, walking up on a group of girls like that at this hour. Well, it makes me glad that we came to get you Becky." She kept looking out the window, as if the men might be coming after them on foot.
"Me too. I hadn't even thought about that. Well, I guess everyone is planning to stay up all night? Because after that, I don't think I can sleep. I mean... Eep!" She meant it too. Things like that were always creepy. "I'll just curl up in the corner with a can of Mt. Dew and a shotgun."
Eve sighed, a long and mournful thing. It had that tone that people got when they were trying to communicate to an unjust world how very, horribly, put upon they were.
"Wonderful, now I'm going to be shot trying to go to the bathroom. I knew I shouldn't have had all that coffee earlier."
Becky had to look over to see her head shaking, and there was a low giggle from behind them. Barb didn't sound mean or anything, but she was a bit different now than she used to be. Nicer, for one thing. Something had happened to her and she was gone for a few months. The word at school was that she'd gotten pregnant and went off to have the baby, but that didn't seem to be the real answer.
When girls did that, they gained weight. It was hard to hide all the changes. Even when they didn't breastfeed, their chests got bigger and their hips wider. Barb always wore tight fitting clothes, and if she was heavier now it had to all be in her legs, because it didn't show anywhere else.
That probably meant it was drugs. After all, she was doing something to stay so slim, wasn't she? It might be bulimia too. It would explain some things. Keeley and Darla were the same, always snacking and pretending that the food vanishing wasn't any big thing. Eve never ate around her, or if she did, it was in tiny little amounts. Hally used diet pills to do the same thing, not having much food, but keeping herself from being hungry all the time. It was an idea. So far will power had gotten Becky through, but that might fade over time, when she had to fight the last ten pounds off, for instance.
That would only be ten pounds more too, so she decided to keep it in mind. She was down thirty already. It was a process. That was a thing she kept having to remind herself, about fifteen times daily as her stomach tried to force her to eat. The idea was also one that the girls with her seemed to want to sabotage almost instantly.
Damn their pretty little hides.
Keeley twisted in her seat, then winked at her. It was a thing she did, and seemed like a cute affectation. It was almost as if she were trying to make everyone think she was older and wiser than she really was.
"I'm going to make a cake, what kind are we having?"
Becky groaned, and didn't hide it. After all, they all knew she was struggling with her size, and had been the whole time that they'd been hanging around together, so since before Christmas. Before Thanksgiving even. It wasn't fair for them to do things like that to her and she was starting to think it was on purpose. A trick to keep her fat while they got all the good guys, and Mitch kept checking out Keeley's butt in the hallway, not hers. As far as she could tell he never looked at her that way at all. Sure, she was feeling a bit bitter about the whole thing, but Keeley acted surprised.
"You don't want cake? I thought everyone liked it." She sounded just a bit hurt, and in the dark her face seemed that way too. It was hard to tell really, and might be her imagination.
"How about, I don't know, some nice carrots? Celery? Something that won't turn me into a blimp in the next two days?" There. She normally wasn't that forceful about it, but Hally sighed from the back seat and then made a thoughtful sound.
"I... Kind of agree. That or we all need to take up marathon running as a hobby. It's really hard to be around all that food and not eat it."
That got an odd sound from the driver's seat, and while Darla didn't take her eyes off the road, being a very good driver, she did speak.
"That's not a horrible ide
a. We could start a running club. Not to be too blunt, but some of us on the squad have gotten a little soft lately. That, and some time in the weight room would help more than starvation. I guarantee you that the girls going to nationals this year are working-out. Even if we don't have that caliber a group, it really won't hurt to put in a little more effort. Some of you might just make it on the college level, if you have a good base built up now." The words were more thoughtful than anything else, but Becky noticed the gaps in the words. She was good that way, from time to time. It came from growing up around drunks. You learned not to trust what anyone told you, after a while.
"Wait, aren't you going to be a cheerleader in college?" She'd be going, since her grandmother was rich. As in so wealthy that when god wanted a loan, he'd call her up.
As far as Becky could tell the girl and her whole family were a bit distant from each other, but it was her grandmother that actually showed up in her life, not her father. Her dad was off running some business in Japan or something. It sounded exotic, but he'd left his daughter all alone, which was sad. That Darla wasn't a complete drugged out brat, with a large complement of diseases, was a mystery. If it were a television show she would be. As it was, the girl was actually incredibly sweet. To everyone, all the time. She even took time to talk to the unpopular kids, and include them in her plans.
"I'm going to be a business major. Yes, I might get on the college team, but I'm not planning to go Ivy League. The fact is there are a lot of really good small colleges in the country and most of them kind of take whoever wants to carry a pom-pom. It shouldn't be that hard for me. But I get that paid for, guaranteed. It might be harder for Hally or Eve. Or you Becky. Not to be snarky, but even if you want to go and be a drama major, being in that kind of shape won't hurt. The sporty look is coming in, and women that can manage to look right for action movies might have a better shot of making it big, in the next ten years or so."