Friendzoned (3 page)

"I... That might be good. I haven't really done that before though, so..."

Darla smiled.

"No prob. Is anyone else in, or just the cool girls?"

From the response, that last one seemed to be the case and the head cheerleader held her nose in the air a bit and looked snooty.

"
Fine
, but when prom comes around and you can't fit in your dresses, don't come whining to me. I tried to help you out now, when it would have worked, but no, you all just want to eat bon-bons and watch television."

That was something that got her attention. As a Senior, Becky had exactly one chance to go to the Prom left. She'd never been asked before, so hadn't gotten to the year before. She'd wanted to go with Mitch and had even dreamed of it, but the guy had just stayed home that night. It was looking to be about the same this year too, which left her feeling a lot less pleased suddenly. There was some time though, so maybe if she kept to her diet and worked out, Mitch would ask her? That...

Didn't seem like it was going to be the case.

"I just wish I could get Mitch to notice me. To see that I'm not just some buddy of his. It really isn't that much to ask, is it? I'm not that bad, am I?"

Hally grabbed a carrot stick and munched it plain, then turned to look at her, chewing carefully, her green eyes big and soulful under her coppery hair.

"You've been Friendzoned. It isn't that you aren't good enough, or smart enough, or pretty, it's just that he doesn't think of you any other way. That's your own fault." She took another bite and shrugged, looking at the others then going on, with everyone looking at Becky expectantly. "He probably liked you at first. As in wanted to date you. Then you just treated him like a pal and he finally gave up. You said that he's known you for years, right? So when he looks at you, he sees his buddy, Becky, who happens to be a girl. If you want to get with him, you need to make him see you as a woman first, then as yourself. It's hard, since he's already made his mind up about you." She looked away then, at the TV. Which had ended up on the golf channel for some reason.

"So there's not a lot I can do?"

Eve snorted and moved, sliding in next to her and tossing an arm over her shoulders, so that Keeley was pushed out of the way.

"Hally didn't say
that
, just that it would be hard. We can help with it though, if you want? Right Keels?"

The other girl smiled.

"That
would
keep him from trying to ask me out. Not that he has yet. He's a bit shy, but you'd think he'd get that I wouldn't go out with one of my best friend's crushes. Of course that would require you to actually let him
know
about that Becky." Then, a little oddly she made a face and walked toward the front door.

Just before she got to it, there was a soft knock. Three taps, one after the other.

They hadn't ordered pizza though, and it was nearly four in the morning.

A thrill of fear ran through Becky as the girl turned the doorknob, slowly. It was like something out of a scary movie.

Except that the door didn't creek as it opened. The place was new, after all.

Becky stood up, but no one else did. It was almost as if they didn't get that no one sane and normal came to visit at that time of day. Not that she had any clue what to do really. Maybe work her way to the phone so she could call the police? That or at least scream at an operator while she died.
That
would be comforting. For both of them probably.

Keeley let the door swing a little wider.

"Hey, Rebekah. Is everything all right? Come in."

It was a woman, and she was alone, but for some strange reason that didn't leave Becky feeling any better about the situation. It was hard to put her finger on... Maybe it was the fact that the woman looked like a crazy movie monster?

She had bone white skin, medium length copper hair, blood red eyes with no whites and so many fangs in her mouth that it was hard to count how many rows of them there were. It seemed to be three. It was hard to tell, through the terror, of course. Her breath caught a little, fear trickling down her spine.

It was the freakiest thing that Becky had ever seen in her entire life.

Until the woman smiled, her mouth mainly closed, and waved to the room. It was a friendly gesture, like any of them might have used in the same surroundings. She also had a rich voice and sounded pretty happy.

"Hi. Sorry to drop by like this, but I had an order come in, and wanted to make sure that we had everything ready for it?" She looked around the room, then locked her eyes on Becky. They were about the same size, in height, so not all that tall, five-seven or so. After a half second, looking a little shocked, the woman held her hand out.

"Hi. I'm Rebekah, lead singer of The All Vampire Band. Just to clarify,
yes
, it's all permanent, and
yes
, a lot of it hurt." She waved at her own face to demonstrate what she meant. "And yes, the whole band is
really
screwed if we don't make it big. Please buy our music, when it comes out. You don't even have to like it."

Becky knew that her face
had
to look tentative. This woman was a weirdo. But, known to everyone else and not carrying a knife, so she could work with the idea. She was a performer. Becky's kind of person, really.

"Becky. Rebecca, but I don't go by that."

The other woman looked about their age, with a couple extra years tacked on most likely, since seventeen year olds couldn't get work done like that, but it had to have taken years for it to be finished. It looked like it was all over her body at least. That had to make her at least in her twenties, didn't it?

"Oh? Wait... The one that likes that boy? Um... Mike?" She made a face that said she knew that was probably wrong.

"Mitch?"

"That's the one! We talk about you when you aren't here. Mainly good things." The woman let her face screw up a bit, and then nodded slowly. "Yes... almost all of it has been. There
was
some complaining about you screaming during horror movies."

That got everyone to laugh, but she let her hands come out and go palms up.

"It's true, but what do you want? It's scary. Especially the one about the puppets. They were
so
creepy." She faked a shudder and hugged herself to demonstrate what she meant. "No strings. No
strings
!"

The movie really had freaked her out, but she wasn't the only one in the room that had yelped in the right places. Eve liked to act tough, but she'd jumped. Keeley hadn't, just winking and watching as if it really didn't bother her, but Hally had clung to her like she was a life preserver.

Rebekah looked at her and seemed to be thinking. What that was became clear a bit later, when she turned back to Keeley.

"I like her. Anyway, I'm not trying to be annoying, dropping by like this..." The words were pretty polite sounding, considering everything, and Keeley let her go into the other room and get some things. When she came out she had several wicker baskets that had flowers in them, sort of pushing out the top, like she was trying to hide something in the bottom.

Even Becky wasn't falling for that. A Vampire, even a fake one, that needed flowers? At four in the morning? Then again, maybe she didn't go out in the daylight? It would be in keeping with the act. They didn't pass money for the drugs that would have been in with the flowers, if she were writing the scene, but the other girl left right away, just walking into the night. Becky didn't hear a car at least.

That could have meant anything, including that she'd just parked down the street. Becky normally did, when she visited. Just so she wouldn't get a ticket.

As soon as the door shut she grinned a bit and turned on her hostess.

"So, strange vampire's coming around at this time of day for special deliveries? What was really in with those daisies? Drugs?" She was out of options after that, and Keeley looked over at Darla and rolled her eyes.

"Obviously, what else would you expect? Bottles of blood?" That got more chuckles from around the room, but then the thin and too pretty competition for Mitch's affection wrinkled her nose cutely. "Would you believe it was actually flowers, with handmade soaps in the bottom of each basket? Eve packed them up earlier. There are some other things, I don't know what. Spa packs. Whatever
those
are. Rebekah sells them in her spare time. Since she's a starving artist, it makes sense."

It did. Becky shook her head and tried not to seem like a freak for the rest of the night. About an hour later everyone started falling asleep, and the floor futons were pulled out.

It was a bit strange, but she was put right next to Hally, who seemed to be out the second her head hit the pillow. It was a lot more comfortable than it sounded like, the cushions they were on being more than thick enough, and they all got pillows that had obviously been cleaned after the last party. They smelled fresh and a bit like lemons. Given Keeley's mom, that was probably a good bit more intensive than the washing that Becky would have given them. That wasn't hard, because it would have been a single trip through the washing machine for the pillow cases, if that. Sherri Thomson would have insisted on several washings and done the pillows too, even if it was a pain in the rear to get them to dry properly.

Drifting off was actually pretty easy, even with all the people around. At home there would be crashing sounds, and probably a fight, being Friday. Saturday morning now. Here it was just soft snoring and slightly heavy breathing. Nothing bothered her at all, until nearly eleven in the morning when she rolled over to find Hally cuddled up to her. That was weird enough that she wanted to freak out a bit, but it was just like a little kid doing it. There was nothing going on that was too bizarre or sexy at least. Just the girl holding her like a pillow. It would have been troubling, if she were doing anything more.

Instead she could just laugh at it. Reaching out she shook the girl a bit.

"Good morning!" She didn't mention the part that they were both in her bed and it was apparently not something Hally minded, since she just looked at her sleepily, and cuddled closer.

"Wake me for dinner?" She sounded like a little kid too, which was very cute. With a little pushing, and a slight bit of removing the blanket she was using, from both of them, she got them both up.

Eve sat too, looking around warily. It was just the three of them in the room, but there were some sounds coming from the kitchen. They were rapid, and soft noises that seemed just a little off for the place. It was more like the sound in the back of a restaurant than anything else. Popping her head in she saw that it was just Darla and Keeley, making them breakfast. Or lunch. It seemed like the overachievers were doing both. It was late enough in the day for it, but was an awful lot of work for just them.

"Hey." She expected them to jump and start making excuses for all the food, but Keeley just smiled at her, and then shrugged.

"Good morning! We should have things ready in a bit. Are the others getting up? I want to go over what the plan is with Mitch."

That got Becky to blink. There had been some talk of doing something, but an actual planning session seemed to be a little over the top. In the end she was just going to have to let it all go, she guessed. What else could she really do? What she wanted didn't fit in with reality, and what was always managed to trump her wishes, for some reason. It meant she fought to be practical, when she could. Like planning to teach instead of being a real actress. It was sensible and might allow her to have a career that would pay the rent regularly. So the secret dreams of the silver screen were set aside.

She really should have done the same with Mitch already, she knew.

"Um, yeah. I think so at least. I'll check?" She at least wanted to change, having slept in her clothes. They'd mentioned getting things from her house for her, but that was so embarrassing that she hadn't asked how it went. Her mother...

Well, at least none of them were boys. She would have probably tried to get them to have sex with her. She was kind of the town slut, and being married hadn't slowed her down much at all. Really, her step-dad should just have divorced her and moved on. Even a life of drinking himself to death alone would have had to be better.

It was an issue for Becky, she knew. One of those things that would probably haunt her for the rest of her life, influencing her reactions to everything and messing her up.

For her entire life her mother, who'd had her way too young, had been a hard partying, fast living woman. Where her money came from was a mystery most of the time and Becky kind of suspected it was petty theft from the men she slept with. It wasn't exactly prostitution, because she wasn't worth enough for the small number of men she slept with to actually pay all the bills. It was normally a tight thing, but they managed, even with half the cash going to booze each week.

She didn't
know
that for certain, and had never bothered to ask. Her mother didn't work, and made no bones about that, treating every night as an excuse to live it up. It left her older than her years, and not a very nice person. Shallow, and not very introspective about it.

Worse, she always told Becky that she was
just
like her. Going on about how they were practically the same person. More like sisters than mother and daughter. It was enough that Becky dreaded the idea, and it had stopped her from doing a lot of potentially fun things in life. She'd been on a few dates, but hadn't done more than kiss a little, and once, with Brian Clemens, let him feel her up, over her clothes. It had been nice enough, and he'd certainly liked it, but the idea of turning into her mother made her panic, so she hadn't gone out with him again.

It was an oddly broken way of thinking, and had to stop if she wanted an adult relationship with anyone, ever. She knew that, and even got that her having a boyfriend, or even a few, still wouldn't make her into an alcoholic that lived some kind of hidden and shady existence.

The living room was empty when she came back and the futon things and pillows had vanished, with the other girls coming back from the area of the garage a minute later, chatting.

Eve waved tiredly at her.

"I think we should spend the day on good and
wholesome
activities, like hiking and enjoying nature. What do
you
think Becky?" From the exaggeration of the tone, she got that the short haired cheerleader didn't really mean it.

"By that you mean we should pick up some boys and have an orgy? I'm actually good with the hiking idea, if you want. I haven't been out of town at all in a long time."

The other girl pretended to be shocked at the words, her eyes going wide.

"I am
so
hurt, Becky. I can't believe that you'd even think that. Do you really think that I'd suggest an orgy. Before
noon
? What kind of a girl do you think I am? Though, the next time I do have one, you're totally invited. Anyway, we were actually talking about shopping, but then
Hally
had to point out that Darla had a point and we're both getting fat and lazy. Hiking is like running for slow people, right? Because I'm not carrying a tent with me."

They slowly moved into the kitchen, where there was a table that had four chairs and all sat down. Darla, not even pretending that she hadn't heard them nodded.

"Not a bad plan. There is that nature trail out by the groves. We can invite some other people, and make a day of it." Then she turned and put a mound of pancakes on the table, while Keeley did the same with a covered platter. At least that, when the metal lid was removed, had an array of sliced fruit. It looked good. So did the other things being put on the table, but she valiantly didn't look at it, trying to appreciate only the sight and scent of the stuff that wouldn't make her blow up like a balloon.

"Say... I don't want to be mean, but are you two bulimic?" Becky knew it probably wouldn't go over well, asking that, but whatever they were doing
worked
. Not that she really wanted to destroy her health, but dieting was getting really hard.

Keeley looked away, and moved to the sink to wash her hands, before turning and staring at everyone for a while. She didn't seem angry, just a bit like she didn't want to have the conversation.