Friendzone

Chapter Two - Don't Be Afraid to Call Me

MIKAYLA

I sleep through the night and wake late the next morning. I stumble into my bathroom, bleary eyed, cheeks and eyelashes crusty with salt. My mouth is parched, my throat is sore, and my head is pounding. I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. My long blonde hair is tangled and matted. My blue eyes are puffy and blood shot. Dark circles and bags underneath them. My day-old funeral clothes are rumpled and twisted. I looked as good as she feel. Like death. I strip off my clothes and jump into the shower. The hot water of a bath or shower always seems to heal me mentally and emotionally, but the hurt that I'm feeling can not be washed away by a shower this time. Though I do at least feel refreshed when I emerge. I don my fluffy pink bathrobe and wrap my hair in a towel, brush my teeth, and go back to my room.

My cell phone is lying on my bed where I dropped it yesterday. I plug it in, the battery having drained over night. When I power it on, text messages chime repeatedly. Worried messages from my friends checking in on me, especially from Raven and Kristen. It's kind of them to care, but I'm really not in the mood to talk to anyone. I don't have the energy to talk to anyone. But then a text from a name that I had not expected appears. Taylor Echols.

I suppose that he must feel some sort of obligation to me - having been Jordan's best friend - it's now his duty to take care of me. Isn't that some sort of thing between brothers or soldiers? Does it apply to jocks too?

Jordan had been the star football player at Rescate Canyon High School and Taylor's the star basketball player. They met each other in Competitive Athletics back in middle school, but I met Taylor many years before that.

Taylor and I grew up two blocks away from each other since we were five years old. We went to the same elementary school and were always in the same class. We were often assigned to sit next to each other, starting with Mrs. Storin's second grade class. We were assigned projects together. It was inevitable that we would become friends. We rode our bikes around the neighborhood. We shot hoops together and were even on the same peewee basketball team. Before long we became inseparable. I would cut off my own tongue before I would admit it to anyone, but Taylor had been my first crush and I always choice his Valentine's Day Card with extra care before stuffing it into his card box during class Valentine's Day parties.

But then it was time to leave behind elementary school and head to middle school. The summer before sixth grade, I spent the summer with my grandparents out of state. I didn't see Taylor until the first day of sixth grade. Over the summer I had gotten braces and entered the super awkward phase of puberty, and he had changed too, it seemed. I had expected that we would stick together as the school year started, that we would conquer the school side by side - after all it was a giant magnet school with a bunch of new kids from different elementary schools that neither of us knew. But that was not how it played out. When I saw Taylor in the hall on the first day, I walked up to him to say hi. A group of boys were standing around Taylor and they were all laughing, talking about whatever boys that aged talked about.

"Hi Taylor!" I had said. A big smile on my face as I spotted my friend. A big smile that unfortunately showed the shiny metal braces on my teeth.

"Do you know this, freak?" one of the boys asked Taylor.

"Umm..." Taylor looked at me and then looked around at his new friends.

"Get away from us, Brace Face!" another one of the boys shouted at me.

I was shocked and started to cry. Why are these boys being mean to me? Why is Taylor letting them? I had thought.

"Yeah. Get out of here," Taylor pushed me away.