Friend Zoned

Chapter Seven

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Yeah, and then he kissed me..." I tell Brynn. It's been a few days since the date and now I'm back at school, at lunch to be exact.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Did you kiss him back?" She questions eagerly. No one else has arrived to the table yet because they are all buying school lunches, and are waiting in a long line.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"No, I was going to pull away even, but it was so fast I couldn't." I explain, and Brynn nods along. I eat one of my Doritos that I brought for lunch as we talk.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"See I told you Brandon was an ass." She scoffs taking a sip of her drink. Everyone told me about Brandon, I should have listened.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Yeah, I just thought maybe he wasn't, maybe you guys were wrong but..." I trail off pulling on my necklace nervously, I have felt so stupid all weekend. How could I have possibly thought that the biggest player in school could be a 'good' person?
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Its not your fault he's all hot and charming  but deep down he's such an asshole." Brynn jokes trying to make me feel a bit better and it works because I smile at her comment.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Who's hot and charming?...Me right?" Johnny suddenly asks jokingly coming up behind us. I look up at him as he sets his tray down on the table.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Brandon actually." Brynn answers for me with a scoff.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Oh right, how'd your date go, you didn't answer my calls all weekend?" Johnny says as he eats one of the French fries off of his tray. I bite the inside of my lip.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Awful." I answer simply, and I note the small chuckle that Johnny releases as I say that. I raise my eyebrows at him, is he really happy about that?
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Sorry, it's just...I told you so." He for real laughs this time causing me to hit him on the arm lightly, in a joking way.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Shut up, it was actually so bad. Brandon is a compete and total narcissist, and the worst part is after a long date of hearing about rich he was, he kissed me." I exclaim with disgust to both of my best friends. They both are still looking at me in a way that's says 'I told you so'.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Wait, was that your first kiss?" Brynn suddenly asks. I bite the inside of my lip and shake my head slowly.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"It was her second." Johnny blurts out before I can even say anything. I glare out at him out of the corner of my eye.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"It was my third actually." I say putting emphasis on the word 'third'. Johnny raises his eyebrows at me confused, I never told him about the other time.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Wait, you have kissed two other people and you didn't tell me?" Brynn practically screams and I cringe at how loud that just was.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Yeah." I say kind of softly. I feel a little bad for never telling Brynn, but I just never found the right time.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Well uh who?" She asks again yelling again. I hear Johnny chuckle and again Im this close to smacking him because he finds this funny.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Yeah Kenz who?" Johnny asks as well but he's still laughing. Sometimes these two can be so annoying, especially when they team up on me.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Shut up John!" I say through gritted teeth but I know my checks are bright red from those two embarrassing me.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Kenzie, tell me." Brynn whines, and I can see Johnny still smiling like an idiot out of the corner of my eye. He does realize he still doesn't know the other person I kissed right?
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"I'll talk to you later."
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Okay so now can you tell me?" Brynn asks as we sit on her couch in the middle of her living room. I decided to go over her house today after school instead of going home.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Yeah, its not a big deal I just didn't want Johnny to know about one of the people." I explain to her and she nods slowly.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Well...spill!" She says anxiously, and I laugh lightly at how hyper she always is.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"My first kiss was with Johnny." I say quickly considering I've never told anyone that in my life, not even my sister, who I tell everything.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"What? How the hell didn't I know about that?" Brynn screeches and I smile. I twist my necklace in between my fingers.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"We were twelve okay? It didn't mean anything anyway." I add the last part quickly. Brynn raises her eyebrows.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Sure...well who's the other person?"She asks just as anxious as before. I have to bite the inside of my lips to hold back my laughter.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Hayden." I answer quickly looking down. I kissed Hayden three months ago, so I guess now you know why I'm so weird about him.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Mackenzie Frances Ziegler why the fuck would you not tell me about that?" Brynn questions again throwing a pillow at me playfully. I laugh, but even talking about this makes me upset.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Because it wasn't very romantic." I answer feeling like I could cry replaying that day in my head. It was the worst.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Well what happened?"
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"He...kissed me, and said he liked me. I was so happy, and then a couple hours later I saw him at that end of the school year pool part...Well he told me him and Annie were together. I don't know what happened but I was devastated, I didn't want to talk about it." I tell Brynn and suddenly her happy, silly demeanor fades, and she looks at me sympathetically.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Oh my gosh." She breathes, and I just look down at my feet. That was literally the worst day of my life.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"It sucked." I say honestly, and it honestly feels so good to get that off of my chest. I never told anyone what happened that day because I was embarrassed, and I felt foolish for thinking Hayden would ever like me.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Do you want me to beat him up, cause I will." Brynn says dead serious, but I crack up laughing. She is 5'3, sixteen years old and probably weighs about 115 pounds if not less. Did she really just ask me if I wanted her to fight Hayden?
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"I love you Brynn for asking that but please no." I say in between laughter. Soon enough we are both cracking up, and all my sadness slips away.
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