Forever Friend Zoned

by C. Morgan

  “I know, I know. Extra butter.”

  I knew I should skip the extra butter, but damn it made the popcorn so good and she wanted it. “Want candy?”

  “Always.”

  “Go.” I shooed her away when I saw a group of girls rush toward the theater.

  “Hurry!”

  I got in line to get our goodies and felt like I was on cloud nine. I carried my bounty into the theater and saw she secured the perfect seats. I sat down just before the lights went down. We settled in and I used the cramped theater as a good excuse to put my arm around her.

  A horn blared and jerked me out of my daydream. I looked up and saw the light was green. I hit the gas, giving a mental goodbye to the multiplex. That theater had been the place of my dreams and my biggest disappointments. After that vampire movie, I thought for sure I’d get a kiss. It didn’t happen. The extent of my success in wooing Alora was an arm around her shoulders.

  We went to several other movies the summer before Twilight, but looking back, I realized I was nothing more than a seat-filler. I was the guy that held her popcorn, and for the popular shows, I stood in line while she did whatever she did at home or with her friends. I was the dumbass who stood outside in the middle of a thunderstorm. I’d been in the concession line when she strolled in.

  I was such a damn fool. She’d used me, keeping me in her little friend bubble with no interest in ever moving me out of it. Too bad I didn’t know that. I held out hope that one day she would see me, really see me. Today, I realized she never saw me then and she wasn’t going to see me now.

  “Move on. Forget about her. She is not your future. She is the past. A long time ago.”

  I turned down another street and groaned. “Seriously?” I muttered when I saw the old café we used to hang out at before and after a movie. It was now a coffee shop.

  The winds of change blew through my old hometown. It was a little sad to see all the places I used to hang out change so much.

  I needed to embrace the change. It would probably be worse if everything was the same. It would be a constant reminder. I needed to forget the past. I was seeing my life through a new lens. A clear lens. No rose-colored anything. Not anymore.

  I didn’t know what Alora was up to these days, but I was guessing she was married. She wasn’t wearing a ring. I checked but she might have taken off an expensive rock before going for her little workout. Like a really little workout. Clearly, she was not an expert. I was guessing she was more of the low-impact aerobics type.

  I pulled into the restaurant and shut off the truck. I had yet to see anyone else I knew from junior high. I wasn’t going to lie. I did want to see someone. I wanted them to see I wasn’t the same pudgy kid with bad skin. I had taken control of my health and my body. I was the jock now.

  Chapter 6

  Alora

  I went downstairs. If I didn’t, my mother would be at my bedroom door. She insisted we have dinner together as a family. I made my way to the dining room and took my seat. My dad walked in a few seconds later.

  “Good evening, Alora,” he said in his usual friendly tone.

  I sometimes got the feeling he was in work mode. He was a very successful businessman. Some people said he had the Midas touch. Whatever he touched turned to gold. It had made him a very wealthy man. His real estate adventures almost always succeeded. It was because he was confident and charming, and people were drawn to him. I envied him. I wished I would have inherited even a fraction of his charm.

  “Hey, Dad. How was your day.”

  “Very good. How was the gym?”

  “Great. I met the new trainer. He’s very personable and I imagine he will be very popular.”

  My father nodded. “Good to know. I will let Fran know you approve.”

  “Ah, you are both here,” my mother said as she breezed into the kitchen with our housekeeper.

  I barely paid attention as my plate was put in front of me. I loved food, but I didn’t love food when my parents were at the table. I always felt like I was preparing to sacrifice little puppies with the way they looked at me. I felt like I was doing something horrible. Every bite I took made them cringe.

  I took a bite and frowned. I looked down at my plate and pushed around the chicken that tasted a lot like cardboard. I was hoping to find some flavor on the plate. Instead, I found steamed veggies. I fucking hated steamed veggies, especially cauliflower. My mom knew I hated cauliflower.

  “Mom, cauliflower?” I asked with disgust.

  “It’s good for you.”

  I glanced over at her plate and noticed she had chicken, but hers looked a lot different than mine. My eyes went to my father’s plate. His looked like Mom’s but nothing like mine. “What am I eating?” I asked.

  She smiled at me. “It’s a skinless, roasted chicken breast.”

  “What are you eating?”

  “Chicken,” she said nonchalantly.

  “But not cardboard chicken like I am eating?”

  “Your meal is special.”

  I rolled my eyes. I could only imagine what she’d done now. “Special, as in you ordered it from Kinko’s?”

  Her nervous laugh told me something was up. “It’s part of a meal plan I signed you up for. All of your meals are prepared. It’s portion control and designed to fill you up without overloading your calories. The meals are freshly made then frozen. They are nutritious and delicious.”

  She said it all with a huge, fake smile. She sounded like she was on an informercial.

  “But you aren’t eating it?” I asked.

  “Sweetie, your father and I watch what we eat, and we have always been avid exercisers.”

  “So, because I’m fat, I get to eat fresh cardboard?”

  “I did not say that. How was the gym?”

  I dropped my fork. I was fried. I was sick of listening to her talk about my weight. I was sick of being told I needed to lose weight. I could not listen to her bitch at me another second. “It sucked, Mom. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

  She looked surprised. “No. Not at all. I’m genuinely interested.”

  “Just stop. I do not appreciate you being so damn aggressive about my weight loss. This is my problem, not yours. I don’t want you pushing me. This is my resolution to fulfil or fail. Just back off!”

  “Alora! I’m only trying to be supportive.”

  “Your support isn’t helping. It’s you trying to control me. It’s you trying to fix your broken kid. I’m an embarrassment to you. What must your friends say about the perfect Barbara Springfield having an ugly child?”

  “Stop it! I have never heard that.”

  “Whatever. I know I’m an embarrassment to you. You want to fix me. You want to make sure I fit into your perfect little world. You and your perfectly thin friends probably sit around eating your bland salads and discuss how horrible it must be for you to get stuck with the fat kid.”

  “That is not true.”

  I was on a roll. I couldn’t seem to stop. I’d been keeping so much bottled in for so long, it was bubbling over. “You are pushing me to go to the gym, practically dragging my ass there yourself. Now you are controlling what I eat? You told that trainer to approach me, didn’t you? How much money did you offer him to train me? To train the fat girl?”

  “Alora, that’s enough,” my father said in a deep voice.

  I shook my head. “No, Dad. Why do you think she cares about what it says on my scale? I’m healthy. She doesn’t have to feed me garbage. A dog would not eat this shit.”

  My mother slapped the table.

  “That’s enough,” my father said. “You will not talk to your mother that way. She’s only trying to help.”

  “Help? Is this really helping?” I pushed away the plate. “If you don’t want to eat dinner with me, that’s fine, but don’t try and help me.”

  I got up and walked out of the dining room. I headed down the hall and grabbed my keys off the hall table and didn’t stop walking until I was in the
garage. I hit the button to open the garage and took off. I didn’t know where I was going but I had to get away from her. She was going to make me crazy.

  I found myself sitting outside a bar. I went inside, not caring that I was really underdressed for a night out. I needed a drink. Lord knew if I tried to have a drink at home, my mother would recite the calories of every ounce. I couldn’t just have a glass of wine. There would be a side of lecture.

  “Strawberry margarita,” I said as I sat down at a small table for two.

  “Anything else?”

  “Nope, just one to start with. One of the big ones. Like the really big ones.”

  She grinned and winked. “Coming right up.”

  My phone beeped. I assumed it was my mom. I didn’t want to hear what she had to say. When it started ringing again, I considered stomping the damn thing. I grabbed it to silence it when I saw Sue’s goofy face on my phone. She had made me set that as her contact picture. She’d taken the picture in the bathroom of a bar we’d been in. I was in the stall and she had my phone and took a series of stupid selfies. Now every time she called, I found myself remembering that night.

  “Hello?” I answered.

  “Hey, where are you? I went by the house and your mom said you stormed off.”

  “I’m at the bar.”

  “You’re at the bar? What bar?”

  I told her before taking a long drink of my margarita. It gave me a little brain freeze. “I am going to enjoy my margarita. I’ll talk to you later.”

  I put the phone back in my purse and focused on my margarita. I pushed through the brain freeze and got the first one down before ordering a second. I barely got my second one ordered when Sue showed up. She flopped down in the empty chair across from me.

  “What the hell happened?”

  I sighed, took a drink, and then told her the sordid story. Although it was rather undramatic once I heard myself say it. “It felt worse in the moment.”

  “I’m sure it did.

  “She won’t get off my back. I’m so sick of listening to her bitch at me about my weight. Everyone is always screaming about my body, my choice. Why can’t my weight be my choice? I’m happy.”

  She raised an eyebrow as I wrapped my lips around the straw and sucked so hard my cheeks sank in. “Are you?”

  “No.”

  “What do you want for yourself?”

  “I would love to be back at my fighting weight. I would love to be a dainty little size six, but that is a pipe dream. I’m not built that way.”

  “But would you feel better if you lost weight?”

  “Yes.”

  “Didn’t you and I make a resolution to lose weight?”

  “Yes, Sue, we did. Get to the point.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Damn, woman. You are cranky.”

  “Cranky, bitter, pissed. You name it, I’m it.”

  “You know what I think you should do?”

  “Nope,” I said and sucked on my straw.

  “I think you need to kick ass. The best revenge is success.”

  “That’s a lot easier said than done.”

  “You can do it. If you want it, you’ll do it. Do what you said you were going to do.”

  “Sue, you have yet to make it to the gym. I’ve bumbled around there like a potato and you haven’t bothered to show up.”

  She popped out her bottom lip. “Ouch.”

  “I’m sorry,” I murmured. “I didn’t mean to lash out at you.”

  “I’m sorry. I failed you. I wanted to do this resolution. I don’t have a really good excuse. I’m lazy and I hate exercise.”

  “Me too, but I have gone several times.”

  “I’ll do better. I’ll go. I’ll use that free membership you got your parents to give me. But I think it would help to schedule it later.”

  “You don’t want to do it.”

  “No, I don’t want to, but I want to be in better shape. I promise I will do better. I will be your accountability-buddy.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You said that before.”

  “I promise. I’m going to try, but you have to know that there are times when shit happens. I don’t always have a choice.”

  “I know but it just seems like it always happens when you’re supposed to be with me.”

  “To be fair, we’ve only been trying to do this very recently. It isn’t like I’ve stood you up a hundred times.”

  I let out a long sigh. “I know. It just feels like that. Everything feels so much stronger. I feel raw, like the top layer of my skin has been shaved off. Everything hurts. Everything makes me feel sad or angry.”

  “You got dropped on your ass. It’s supposed to hurt. This pain is temporary. You are going to get through this. You are going to learn from it and take back control of your life. Todd fucked you up, but you don’t have to stay that way.”

  I felt my lower lip tremble. “I don’t want to feel like this anymore.”

  She grabbed my hand. “I know, sweetie. I know. I’m here for you. I promise I will do better. I’m going to commit to going to the gym. We’ll wear our Fitbits and challenge each other.”

  I nodded, swallowing down the lump in my throat with the help of a big gulp of margarita. “Thank you. I’m sorry I was pissed.”

  “It’s cool. So, tell me what is this food your mom got you?”

  I groaned. “Rubber with a side of cardboard and a dash of lemon.”

  “I guess I won’t sign up for that meal plan.”

  “Don’t. I think we could do a better job just watching what we eat. I can’t eat that garbage. That did not inspire me to want to lose weight.”

  “All right, then we do it our way.”

  “But before I do all of that, I’m going to need another margarita. I’m sure they are totally fattening, and I don’t want to feel guilty.”

  She laughed. “By all means, go ahead.”

  “Are you going to have one?”

  “I think I’m your designated driver.”

  I felt a little buzz. “What about my car?”

  “I’ll come and pick you up before school in the morning.”

  I groaned. “That’s so early.”

  “What else do you have to do?”

  “Lay in bed and sulk.”

  “Not anymore. Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life.”

  I sucked in my cheeks again as I drank my margarita. I’d been having the first day of the rest of my life for weeks.

  It was like Groundhog Day. I was getting nowhere.

  Chapter 7

  Jeff

  I sipped on the water I ordered with my dinner and listened to Fran talk about the gym. Her enthusiasm was contagious. She was the right person to be in her position. She was a go-getter and really knew what she wanted to achieve.

  “Do you drink?” she asked.

  “Drink?”

  She nodded at my glass of water. “Do you drink?”

  “I do on occasion.”

  “Is it because I’m your boss?”

  “No, it’s because I’ve got to work tomorrow. I like to practice what I preach. I don’t want to be sweating alcohol.”

  She smiled and drank her diet soda. “Good boy.”

  I didn’t particularly like being called a good boy, but I wasn’t going to say anything about it. “I try.”

  “The new girl, what was her name?”

  “Bunny,” I said, knowing that was probably a little cliché.

  “Bunny.” She nodded. “She’s going to come in tomorrow?”

  “I gave her my card and your name. She certainly seemed like she would. When I told her we might have a job for her, she was thrilled.”

  “She’ll be back. We’ve had wannabe trainers and fitness experts calling us every day. They all want jobs.”

  “But you haven’t hired them?”

  “I’m only taking the best of the best. No wannabes. I’m building a reputation. I can’t have it be ruined by someone who doesn’t have a clue
.”

  “Then why are you interested in Bunny?”

  She smiled and pointed at me. “Because you vouched for her.”

  I suddenly second-guessed my decision. “You’ll check her references?”

  “Damn straight I will.”

  I laughed. “Good. I’m not quite ready to put my reputation on the line.”

  “Good man. I’m excited to have you on board. I know we are going to do great things together.”

  “Are you basically the general manager?”

  “I am. I don’t know what my official title is, but I know the buck stops with me. It’s me and then the owner. If the owner gets involved, things are bad.”

  I nodded. “And the owner is okay with you hiring?”

  “I’m going to make the man richer than he already is. I’m going to make this gym the place to be. It’s going to be a chain and then we are going to franchise. I’ve got so many plans it’s hard to get it all out.”

  “You really are excited about this. You make it hard not to feel the same excitement.”

  “I hope you’ll be on board for the long haul.”

  “I would love to be. Although my goal is on a much smaller scale. I would love to be a part of making this gym the best it can be.”

  “What do you think we need to do to make it the best?”

  I got the feeling she was testing me. I knew she had plenty of her own ideas. “I think classes are a great idea.”

  “What kind?”

  “The biggest problem I see with the gyms I’ve worked in and been in are the lack of diversity. People go to a gym to get in shape. At least that’s what we want to happen. Unfortunately, it ends up being people that are already in great shape.”

  She was nodding as she took a bite of her salad. “Okay, tell me more about that.”

  “I think we need to have classes tailored to people of different physical levels.”

  “Like seniors?”

  “Yes. And people who are obese and need to lose the weight. For people who’ve put on a few pounds and are not comfortable hanging out with the beautiful people staring at them. Kids too. I think you could market it as an all-inclusive gym.”