My Link - A Story

The Friend-Zone

Mari listened intently until I was done with telling her what was going on. She had pulled into a spot at the mall. "Goodness! That is a lot to happen in a short amount of time. After all of this, what do you think about Ian?" "I really don't know, I wanna be just friends, but he did that and not I'm super into dating. I don't date because I don't wanna get hurt." "That is totally understandable. I am going to make a suggestion of what I think you should do, but you can always say no..." I turned my head in her direction, looking at her curiously. "You need to put Ian in the friend-zone, letting him know what he is missing out on. If he slowly crawls his way out of that bottomless pit, then he is really trying. Hopefully by that time you will have figured out your feels and if you wanna try and be with Ian, then so be it." I thought about it. I had always heard that the friend-zone was forever, so if Ian escaped it that would mean he was worth it right? "I'm in, but what do you mean by 'what he is missing out on'?" "Like show him that you are a classy lady and you aren't just 'one of the guys' or a hopeless fan-girl that would fall at his feet. Now let's go get to shopping!" The next few hours were spent with Mari picking out girlier clothes and forcing me to be open to new things. After spending that time getting a load of new clothes and shoes, we decided to grab lunch in the food court. I had a brilliant idea. "Hey Mari, I need to take a selfie of me in my onesie to send to Matt!" She laughed and positioned behind me and we made goofy faces. I checked to make sure the picture didn't blur. I sent it to Matt and wait for a text back. We sat there, just enjoying a peaceful day together talking about anything and everything. My phone started to ring and I looked at it and frowned. IAN is calling... I sent it to voicemail. Mari looked at me weirdly before I finally spoke up. "It was Ian." "You should've answered it!" "Nah, I just friend-zone him. Plus I'm with you, I don't wanna talk to him when we are having a girls' day." Mari laughed at me, I had finally caught on to the plan. "You sure are something Lauren. I think it I so hilar- Hold on." Her phone started ringing and she picked it up not looking to see it who it was. "Yes I am with Lauren. No you can't talk to her. I'm kinda in the middle of a girls' day, and you are being a dick interrupting it. I don't think she's mad at you. I gotta go. Bye." Mari looked at me giving me a goofy face. I laugh so hard. We got up with our bags and headed to the car to go to a different strip mall. Mari pulled up in front of a beauty store and we got out and went in. Mari piled the basket full of make-up, and hair products. "Do you have a straightener or curler?" I shook my head no. I was not any type of girl, I felt like a fail at being a girl. "Okay, you ready to head back to yours?" "Yeah. I'm ready to get all this in. I feel like we might have went over-board..." "No! You are just starting to act like a dude, this is nothing compared to what I got after my first paycheck of my first ever job." I laughed, I was so glad Mari was one of my friends I felt comfortable with. My phone chimed with a text tone. 'Hey the guys are here at the house having a gaming night, do you and Mari wanna join? -Josh' I shook my head, I didn't wanna hang out with the boys. "Josh wants to know if we wanna join the guys for gaming night." Mari scoffed. "Fuck NO! Our girls' day is not over! We are going to get you put in some cute clothes and we are going out!" "Going out?" "Yeah, telling the guys we are 'going out' when in reality we are going to the arcade. It's Saturday night and it's half off coins for gaming!" I laughed she was such a dork, but I had to admit it was pretty damn cool. When we made it to the house there were three cars out front, one of which I recognized; Ian's. We grabbed out our bags and made it in the house, yelling a hello to the guys while making it to my room. Mari dug through my bags pulling out an outfit for me to wear, and unpacking the curling iron. I quick changed into the skin tight skinnies she had picked out for me. She was laughing at me trying to get them to fit right on my waist. I put on a black cami with my stripped sweater jacket. I brushed out my hair and let Mari curl the ends. She then proceeded to put make-up on my face, which took twice as long as it should have because I flinched quite a bit not being used to putting this stuff on my face. I finished up the outfit with my brown boots and my tri-force necklace. I looked at myself in the mirror, damn I looked good. I got out my phone and took a selfie with Mari. I checked it and chuckled. "Damn we look on fleek."