Friendzoned (12 page)

"It's true. We should go out. I know you like Mitch, but, I mean he's my friend, but, you know, not really right for you."

Keeley nodded, but her words just seemed cryptic, at least to Becky.

"But the heart wants what the heart wants, and you have to let him have a chance to screw up before you swoop in and take the girl. Not that you
shouldn't
if he doesn't step up, but like you said, he's your friend."

It made the next forty minutes pretty tense. Not for Gary, who was a real pro when it came to working on cars, apparently. He had to remove a few things to get at the belt, but had it on and tightened, with only a tiny bit of help from Cory, inside the half hour that he'd promised. Then he spent time checking and replacing all of the fluids, mainly using things that Keeley had in her car, packed carefully in a little plastic bin that was in her trunk. When he noticed the state of her oil, he gave her a look that seemed almost unfriendly.

"This, is
not
good. Not at all Becky. We need something to use as a catch pan and probably a new oil filter."

It was true and a good idea, but it would take money, which was a thing that she didn't really have much of at all. Keeley seemed to pick up on that first and offered to take her to the parts store, before it closed. She didn't say it any particular way, but it was clear that she meant to leave the boys behind for it.

That seemed really rude, since they were helping her out. She froze for a bit, trying to come up with some way out of the whole thing, one that wouldn't involve being embarrassed, but she knew it wouldn't work. Not really. Finally she just went along with Keeley, getting into her little rattle trap.

It was a bit of a surprise, to look at, the car being beaten up and having primer spots showing. It ran pretty well, not making a lot of noise when it started, which meant she actually cared for it.
Hence
the box of stuff in the back like that. It was hard to remember that Keeley's dad had just taken off one day, near Halloween. It wasn't even a proper divorce, or running off with another woman. He'd literally just packed up and moved to a different country, as far as Becky had heard.

Leaving Sherri and Keeley to fend for themselves. The floral business was a new thing too, and while it was keeping them in food and paying the rent, it was probably sort of amazing that Sherri had managed a car for her daughter at all. She worked constantly, to keep it all together, but it was impressive. The woman was always nice and sweet to everyone too. Even when it was clear that she was exhausted from working all the time.

They headed directly to the shop, a very orange building that was still an hour away from closing. Becky pulled the ten dollars she had out of her purse, trying not to seem all that poor, but Keeley shook her head and produced her card, holding it up a bit.

"From my bio-dad. For some reason he seems to think that me having a car means that it will cost about eight times what it does. I could live off of what he's giving me, but don't have too. I need to pick up more brake fluid too. That and some other things. We'll just double up on it."

It was really nice of her, but also kind of hard to take. Becky knew she was poor, but she didn't really need it to be rubbed in. Except that wasn't what was happening, was it? Her friend was just trying to be nice. To help her. It meant that her even thinking about it in a less than positive light pretty much meant she was a bitch, didn't it?

"Thanks. Taco Bell doesn't pay that well. Not working one night a week."

"Yeah. Has Mrs. Gibson been in touch yet? I know that Darla talked to her, but it can take days for her schedule to clear for things like this. Don't take it personally. She only comes into town about twice a year and spends the rest of it running around the world, looking at her different businesses. It's a bit hard on Darla, since more or less, she's all the family that she has. Other than us, I mean." She made herself busy, filling a little red plastic shopping basket with things, as the men at the front all kind of stared at them.

"Do they think we're going to shoplift?" She whispered the words, her slightly curly dark hair brushing the side of Keeley's face as she leaned in, trying to act like she wasn't worried.

Keeley just looked over and smiled at them. They were all adult men, the youngest looking just on the young side of thirty. It was enough to get them to look away, pretending to work. Or, who knew, maybe they actually had stuff to do?

"Nope. They were just checking us out. It probably gets a bit boring this time of night. We need more oil, that filter, and a catch pan. Here, let me..." It didn't take her long, and the man at the counter was happy enough to get them the filter in its little orange and black box. The whole thing came to about fifty dollars, but Keeley didn't blink about it, just putting it on her card.

The guy helping them, the youngest looking one stared at Keeley a lot, but then nodded at her too.

"Changing your oil?"

Becky nodded, hoping that he didn't mean something naughty by it and was just commenting on what they were getting.

"Yeah, a friend of mine is doing the work, but he saw the state of my engine oil and kind of flipped out. I mean ranting and hand waving, he was just all over the place. For a few seconds I thought he was going to cry, but then he just sent us off instead. Hopefully this will be enough to make him happy again." So, yes, she was telling a story that had little to do with the truth, but the man just smiled and handed over all the bags.

"Sounds like he knows what he's doing then. Have a good night."

She smiled and looked over her shoulder a bit. It was as close to a "sexy" look as she had really. Hopefully it was charming.

"Thanks. You too!"

When they were back in the car, Keeley didn't say anything, until they were most of the way back.

"Cory really likes you. I shouldn't have mentioned that stuff about Mitch, but they're really good friends and he needs to make sure that Mitch honestly isn't into you before he tries anything. I know that it may not seem important to you at the moment, but you need to make sure you don't let Cory down too. If someone bothers to like you, then you should give them a chance, even if you aren't certain you feel the same way." She didn't look away from the road, but spoke in an even and calm sounding voice. "After all, isn't that basically what you want Mitch to do? Give you a chance to change his mind?"

Wincing, Becky made a face.

"Yes, but it sounds so... hopeless, the way you put it. Like it's already a finished thing. I... it's pretty obvious that Mitch is a lost cause for me, isn't it?"

"Lost? Not yet. I mean, you
can
get his attention, if you really want to. You're smart enough,
and
cute. Already his friend too. But I wouldn't waste the rest of the year on him. I know, love can be a pain that way, but it's better for you to have a broken heart and a date on Saturday with someone else, than to be working the late shift at a fast food place, just so you can see him for a few minutes a week, and being alone the rest of the time."

Was it better? She knew that Keeley was right, but it was just so hard to put it all into practice. Everyone was right, and she needed to move on. Yet here she was, desperately trying to figure out some trick that would let her have that brief moment in the sun with Mitch.

"The real question then, is why help me at all? I know you have better things to do. Almost anything would be. But here you are, planning things out, making double dates with me and all that..."

"What are friends for? Besides, I want you to know that you did everything you could to try and win him over. That way, whatever happens, you won't have regrets about it. My mom was talking to me about that, not living your life in a way that leaves you constantly regretting what you've done. Also not letting yourself get trapped, so you don't ever do anything. It's a thing, I guess. She seemed pretty serious about it at least."

Becky just nodded. It made sense, and in a way, it was sort of what she was going for, wasn't it? Not with Mitch, though that was sort of true, thanks to all the others helping her. By not drinking and trying to improve herself though. That was the idea, wasn't it? To live her life in a way that would mean she didn't regret where it ended up too much?

It was a lot to think about, but the boys were still there when they got in a few minutes later, the hood of the station wagon still up, with Gary working inside of it. They had to park in one of the visitor's places and walk over, but Gary seemed almost ready to cheer when he saw the loot they'd gotten.

"Perfect. This won't take long, about fifteen minutes, then we can get out of your hair."

It took longer than that. That was because it was too dark to see what they were doing under the car, and it was cramped, so it was a lot harder to do than if they could have jacked the thing up. Gary didn't want to do that though, since it was just in a parking lot and not someplace really secure.

"I don't want someone accidently pushing the car over and crushing me. I hate that."

Keeley cleared her throat.

"Me too." She looked at Becky and shook her head, a slow and somber thing indeed. "Then you have to pick it up and hold it, normally while being called names. It's a real pain."

Cory laughed, but didn't say very much about the topic. Apparently that wasn't something that happened in his world very often? Becky had to agree on that one herself, but smiled. It was an attempt to be funny at least and that should be rewarded.

Gary grunted then made a small and slightly frantic sounding noise, shuffling around to get the catch tray under the whatever it was that let the oil out.

"There, now we just wait for a while, and let it drain. So, anyone see any good movies lately?"

Becky paused, trying to remember the name of the last thing that she'd seen all the way through, it was the one that they'd all watched when Rebekah had come over.

"Uh, Silverman's Love Notes?" Not that it was
good
, but she really doubted that Gary would know that.

"I missed that one. Probably because I'm not willing to commit to be that gay yet. I know, I shouldn't use the word that way. It didn't look good though."

"Well, it wasn't, but I didn't think that you'd know what it was, so I tried to fake it."

That started a conversation about when they'd all watched it, and that led to Rebekah, who Cory didn't know at all, even though the rest of them had met.

Gary, it seemed, actually had an opinion there.

"Ohhh, yeah. If I was going to get with a girl,
she'd
be the one for me. Looks aside, have you ever heard her sing? She's going places. Don't tell her I said that though. The part about getting with her. I was kidding." Then he climbed back under the car and made noises for a bit, got handed the oil filter and then stood up, after pushing the catch pan, which was a flat round thing about fourteen inches across and five or six deep, out from under the car. It had a bright blue lid on it.

Then they had to dump more, fresh, oil from the new bottles into the car. She knew how to do that part, but Gary was very careful about it, making sure it was exactly full, and checking that three times to get it right.

Then he closed the hood and gestured at her.

"Turn it on? If we need to jump her, we should do it now, instead of tomorrow." It was a little hesitant at first, coughing a bit, but then roared to life.

Gary gestured for her to leave it on, then listened for a bit, tilting his head toward the hood.

"Okay, that should do it."

It sounded way better to her at least. All the rattling had gone away, for instance. Gary however didn't seem impressed yet.

"I want to look at it in the light sometime soon. It's way harder this way. It will run, but you probably want to hold off on any long road trips for now. It will get you around town at least."

That was all she'd ever used it for, so it wasn't news to her.

"So that means the trip to the Grand Canyon is off for this summer? I'm heartbroken."

Gary actually rolled his eyes and then shook his head.

"Nooo... We'll have it ready by then. I notice that you haven't invited
me
on this trip though? I suppose it's just for the girls?"

Becky blinked, but Keeley shook her head.

"Nope. You can totally come. You too Cory. Of course we're just making it up right now, but it sounds sort of fun. We should set something up. I mean, it's a trip, but not
that
far from here. I bet we could get Darla to go too." Then she steepled her fingers, like an evil overlord and laughed, ever so slightly. "Yes... yes... my pretties, I shall take you all on a trip to the giant hole in the ground... Mwa-ha-ha!" Then she winked. "Erm, I mean, gee golly, that sounds like a good time for everyone, doesn't it, pals?"

That got Cory to look at her funny and then work his right fist like every farmer from a nineteen-fifties movie. "It sure does! It sounds
nifty
even."

That decided, they left, with Gary being the last one to say goodbye to her. It was different, and if he hadn't been playing for the other team, she probably would have thought it about the right time for him to make a move on her, or at least set up a meeting for it. She really
was
pretty grateful, if she was going to be honest about it all.

He just smiled and gave her a little hug.

"Okay, we need to get together and see about replacing all the other belts, and checking the seals, the spark plugs, the vacuum system and all that. You know, the regular things? Remember, if anyone asks, you totally slept with me for this." He leaned in and then sighed. "I'm kidding, tell them you paid cash."