Friend Zoned

Prolouge

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Mommy, when is Johnny coming over?" I asked excitedly as I danced around the kitchen, in my purple princess dress. I was only six years old back then, and to say I was a girly girl was the understatement of the year.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Soon sweetie, but you know more people that just Johnny are coming to your birthday party right?" My mom asked with a chuckle. It was just a small family birthday party, but all that mattered to me was that he was there.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Yes, but he's my best friend mommy, he has to be here first." I whined, and giggled at the same time, as I approached my mother.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"He'll be here soon sweetheart." My mom laughed lightly, but I was way to excited to think of anything other than my best friend.

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀There was a knock at the door, making me turn my head from my doll to the source of the noise. I sat my favorite Barbie, that had shiny blonde hair and a floral dress, onto the ground.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀As I got up I fixed my princess crown that sat on top of my messy hair. Truthfully though, my hair was always a mess back then. I used to be so hyper, I was always doing something, and somehow my hair always got punished for it.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Mommy can I get the door?" I yelled through the house obnoxiously. It was actually no wonder my older sister used to be so annoyed with me when I was young, I was extremely annoying most of the time.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Yes, its Meredith and Johnny I saw them walk over." My mom told me in a way lower voice than I used. After she said that my smile grew bigger, and I ran towards the door.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I grabbed the door knob which was level with my head back then, and pulled it open.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Johnny." I said happily, as he turned around to face me. I didn't even bother to greet Meredith at first, who's his mom. All I really cared about was that he arrived.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Hey Kenz." He said in his squeaky little kid voice. Without even thinking about it I pulled him in for a hug, which was very out of character for someone my age. Usually girls thought boys were gross, and the other way around. I did feel that way towards most boys, but I loved Johnny, in a friend way of course.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Hi Meredith." I finally said after I let go of him. Mer had blonde hair like all of her kids, but she had blue eyes. Johnny and all of his siblings had green eyes.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Hey sweetheart." She smiled as I moved to the side so they could walk in. My mom walked over an engaged in a boring conversation with her.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Let's go." I said to Johnny grabbing his hand. I pulled him over to where my couch was as I began to pick up my doll. I knew he wouldn't play dolls with me, which was understandable, but it didn't stop me from trying.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Wait can I give you your present?" He asked before I did anything else. I knew I wasn't supposed to open presents yet but I didn't care.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Okay." I agreed, watching my mom out of the corner of my eye to make sure she didn't see. Johnny reached his hand into his pocket, and grabbed the present into his hand. It was small enough to be enclosed by his fist.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀He brought his arm up to where I could see, and stretched his fingers out so that the sliver necklace he was holding was visible. It had a small heart charm with an 'M' on it,
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀My jaw dropped, as he placed the necklace in my own hand. I un-did the clasp on the necklace and put it around my neck backwards so I could re-concept the two ends of the chain. I spun it back around so it was facing the right way, and fixed the charm.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"It's so pretty, thank you." I said as I pulled Johnny into another quick hug.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"You're welcome." He answered as he hugged me back.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀From that day on I never took that necklace off. In a way it represented our friendship, and it meant the world to me.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I sat on the top of the rusty old monkey bars that belonged to the park down the street from my house. I loved that park when I was younger because it was like my first real taste of freedom.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀When I turned twelve my mom would let Johnny and I walk down there by ourselves, and I thought it was amazing.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀So there I sat, on the top of the blue monkey bars with my best friend right beside me. We'd often sit there silently just thinking, or we'd goof around, just normal best friend stuff.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Of course things were different between us than it would be if he was my girl best friend. That was a given, but it didn't change our bond one bit.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"John, have you ever thought about your first kiss?" I asked breaking the silence, as I pushed a piece of my perfectly straightened hair behind my ear.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"What?" He chuckled, as I glared at him out of the corner of my eye.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Have you ever thought about your first kiss?" I repeated myself a bit annoyed. Sometimes I used to forget he was twelve year old boy, who really didn't care about the same things I did. We were always inseparable but it didn't mean we didn't have our differences.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Kenz boys don't think about that kind of stuff." Johnny scoffed but I just rolled my eyes.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"First of all stop being so sexist, and you mean to tell me, you've never once just pictured it, or thought about it." I said looking into his green eyes. He ran a hand through his light brown hair as he shrugged his shoulders.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"I don't know maybe like once, but I assume you have." He said giving me that look, that says a mixture between 'I don't really care but I know you're going to tell me anyway'.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Of course I have, like what if it sucks." I answered seriously, but Johnny laughed, causing me to look at him with annoyed.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"How would it suck?" He asked and I looked at him like he was absolutely insane.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Well, what if the I end up hating the person. So then I have to remember for the rest of my life I had my fist kiss with a boy I hate. That would suck." I explained, in an 'I told you so' way. Which happened to be a tone I used with him a lot.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Well...if you're that worried about it why don't you just have you're fist kiss with me." Johnny shrugged as if it was no big deal, but my eyes widened. Of course it would be no big deal truthfully, because it wouldn't mean anything, but my twelve year old mind didn't think the same way.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Now you sound literally insane, why would I do that?" I asked as my checks turned a light pink color. It wasn't like I liked Johnny or anything, I was just embarrassed at the thought of it I guess.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Because you'll never hate me, I'm your best friend." He said as if it was obvious, and I looked at him skeptically.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"I could maybe, one day."
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Just do it. First you're so worried it'll be awful because you'll hate the person, then I give you a great idea and----"
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I cut him off by quickly pressing my lips to his. It was probably the fastest kiss in history, because I pulled back in zero point two seconds.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Johnny and I looked at each other with wide eyes as my checks turned red with embarrassment.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"You're a bad kisser." He whispered, and suddenly we both broke out laughing. That was the great thing about our friendship, it felt like we were always laughing.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Don't tell anyone about this." I chocked out in between fits of laughter. I was beyond glad that things weren't awkward.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Don't worry I don't kiss and tell." He said with a wink, that caused me to chuckle again. Sometimes Johnny acted like an idiot, but I loved him for it.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Oh my gosh you're weird." I sighed, as we both finished laughing. It was probably the most bizarre night of my life, but that's what made our friendship great. It was crazy, fun, and epic, and I'd never change a second if it.