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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"So you really never told anyone that we kissed when we were younger? Not even Brynn?" Johnny asks with a small laugh as we walk down the hallway, passing a thousand lockers and people.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"No, remember we promised not too." I answer him as I see out of the corner of my eye a million girls giving me a death glare. I told you before, Johnny is really popular, which makes everyone envious of how close we are.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Yeah, but we were young I figured you would." He shrugs as we continue walking. I hear people whispering as we walk, but I've gotten used to it always being friends with Johnny. People have always made assumptions about our relationship, or just down right hate me for even knowing him.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Nope, why have you told anyone?" I ask as I grab my necklace. It's weird how much comfort such a small object gives me.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"No, remember, I don't kiss and tell." Johnny laughs with a wink. Suddenly an image of twelve year old him pops into my head. Him saying almost the same exact things as we sat on the top of the rusty old monkey bars.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"You're so weird." I giggle, and he just smiles. Another image of twelve year old me sitting across from him claiming he was such a weirdo pops into my head. Some things never change.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Oh, do you want to come over my house after school?" Johnny asks, and I look up at him skeptically. Usually we hangout at my house because of his dad.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Yeah, sure." I answer though, not thinking too much about it.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Okay, my dad's away this week for some business thing...see you later." Johnny says as he turns into his class. I wave bye to him as I smile, and keep walking.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I sit on Johnny's couch, scrolling trough my phone. I may not be here as much as he's at my house, but this place is still like my second home.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀As a child I practically grew up in this place. Johnny and I would hang out everyday usually at his house because my mom used to work a lot more when I was younger.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Suddenly Johnny's phone starts ringing. He looks at his phone and he rolls his eyes, and I swear I hear him sigh. I peer over to try and see who it is, all I can see is the letter 'N' at the beginning of the name, and I know it's Nadia.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"I'll be right back." Johnny says quickly as he stands up. He slides the answer button and presses the phone to his ear as he walks out of the room.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I look back down at my phone. I scroll through Instagram, when I land on a picture of Brandon. Instead of liking it I keep going, until I land on a picture of Annie and Hayden kissing.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I've seen them do that type of thing a million times but my stomach still does a little flip, and not the good kind. I like the picture though, because there my friends. I keep scrolling and then there's a picture of Johnny. For some reason a small smile appears on my face as I like the picture as well, falling into my own word on my phone.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Oh, hi Mackenzie." I hear someone say. I immediately look up and turn my phone off at the same time. It's Johnny's mom.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Hey Meredith." I smile as the words come out of my mouth. She smiles back at me, pushing a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear. Johnny, Lauren, and his two other sister look exactly like their mother. What's even weirder, is that all the Orlando sibling could probably pass as twins.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"I haven't seen you in awhile." She comments and it's completely true. It's like all of a sudden I want to scream, it's because of what your husband does to your son, but I don't.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Yeah, well we've been hanging out at my house a lot." I say pushing down the rage that had suddenly formed inside me. It's not like it's Meredith's fault that Dale abuses Johnny, just how can she be so blind and not see it?
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Oh okay...where is Johnny?" She suddenly asks, her eyes roaming over their spotless living room.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"He's on the phone with Nadia." I explain to her and she just nods slowly, seemingly in thought.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"I don't like that girl, I don't know why my son is with her honestly." Meredith exclaims taking me by surprise. I don't really know how to answer her.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Oh." I breath, and I almost want to smack myself in the face for how stupid that sounded. Was that really all I could think to say?
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"I always thought you and Johnny would end up together..." She says without hesitation, and my eyes widen so much I swear they might pop out of my head. It's not an unusual statement for me to hear, lots of people think Johnny and I are together, although he does indeed have a girlfriend. Just hearing it from his mom is weird. "Anyway, I got to go, it's nice seeing you sweetie."
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Nice seeing you too." I say still shocked. That was by far the weirdest conversation Meredith and I had ever shared.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Once she walks away I just look down at the floor. Johnny and I as a couple is such a weird thought, he's just my best friend you know?
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Hey, I'm back." Johnny says walking back into the room. I look up and smile.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"How's Nadia?" I ask with a smile knowing that she's probably annoying the hell out of him. That's gives me some type of weird satisfaction that I don't really understand.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"She's obsessing over homecoming." He says with a sigh. I almost forgot about homecoming, it's still about a month away, but I literally have no one to go with...great.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Speaking of homecoming, are you playing at the game?" I ask nonchalantly. It's kind of a stupid question, Johnny has played every year.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Yeah, I made the team again." He smiles and I nod. I'm happy for him, because if he didn't his dad would have been furious.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"I don't know who I'm going to go to homecoming with." I sigh trying to think. Hayden is no longer an option, and I just don't know who else I'd want to go with.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"Brandon?" Johnny asks raising his eyebrows at me with a laugh. I roll my eyes at him.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀"You're such an idiot." I laugh along with my best friend, but in reality Brandon might be my only option. All my friends have dates to the dance so it's not like I can just go with my friends. Looks like I might have to suffer through another date with that jerk.
YOU ARE READING
Friend Zoned
Fanfiction⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Mackenzie Ziegler and Johnny Orlando have been best friends since they were four years old. It's a pretty cliché story, they're next door neighbors. Considering thier close proximity, and the fact that they were the sa...
