The Minor Complications of Love

Chapter Seven: Friend Zones and Wars

Mia looked at herself in the mirror. She was wearing a white shirt with yellow stripes tucked in high waist jeans that were highlighting her curves. Bella told her through a text that it was high time she tried an outfit like it. She said it was a subtle way to show off her body. She said it was going to make every single guy's head turn, because this was what guys wanted — a gorgeous physique hidden with a bunch of clothes (it sounded pretty off and confusing — yeah, Mia didn't really understand it either). She said that it would make Mia feel gorgeous. But why did it make her feel utterly ridiculous?

Mia put her hair in a high ponytail, because other than the fact that her hair was getting a little bit more frizzy again, she was hoping to be able to dismiss the thought. She had no plans to welcome negative thoughts about herself today. She brushed her bangs before taking another look in the mirror for the last time.

Inhale. Exhale. Everything is going to be OK. She began convincing herself. Today was another day at school which only meant one thing: it was another day on the battlefield -- another day to fight her way out of the friend zone and Mia was determined to finally make some progress -- even at least by a little bit.

It had been precisely two weeks since Mia planned to confess to Drew that she liked him and had her heart ultimately crushed when he introduced Peggy Smith, a member of their high school's cheerleading team who Mia didn't really care for until that very moment, as his girlfriend.

She could still remember it vividly. It was the first day of senior year — a time when they should hangout and catch up with everything that had happened over the course of their summer vacations, stay around at someone's house and watch a ton of teen flicks together, and hold each other's hands as they skip right off to the sunset. Yeah, OK so maybe that last part was a little sketchy — OK, so maybe too sketchy. But the point was... Mia was angry. And it wasn't just because of what happened that day. It was because of what happened over the course of last week.

She had to spend the whole week seeing Drew and Peggy being lovey dovey with each other. She had to see Drew treating Peggy like how he would treat her. He would buy Peggy a chocolate milk box from the cafeteria like how he used to do for her. He would talk about his favorite movies and TV shows with Peggy like how he used to do for her. He would pat Peggy's frigging perfect mop of frigging blonde hair like how he used to do for her. And worse, he was spending time with Peggy for the whole day and completely not spending any of his time with her. It only took those few days for Mia to realize one thing: she had to get Drew.

Yes, everything that Bella had said was finally getting into her system, making Mia think that getting Drew would just be getting him back as her friend with a tinge of hope that it could be something more. She figured she wasn't necessarily stealing him from another girl, simply because he knew her first to begin with and just to spread some more light on the subject, she believed it was more of rescuing him from the clutches of heartbreaker Peggy Smith who, according to the rumors, had never really stayed committed in any relationship. 

And yes, the jealousy was unfortunately getting the best of poor ol' lovesick Mia Cabrera as her views over pursuing Drew quickly changed.

After another day at the breakfast table, Mia answered the door and saw Bella waiting. They walked to the bus stop to head to school like usual. And as they did, Bella noticed Mia's new fiery aura.

"Woah dude, why are you so bright today?" Bella asked, acting as if she was being blinded by the supposed light Mia was emitting around her.

"What do you mean?" Mia turned to her, not changing her serious appearance. Bella stood up straight again then clutched to her backpack straps.