Escaping The Friend Zone

Chapter 1

Frederick Sperling - where do I begin? I was six when I moved onto the same street as him, three houses down. He and his mom came over with a plate of brownies to welcome my family to the neighborhood. Little did we all know that young Fred was quite the prankster and had decided to swap the sugar for salt prior to his mother baking them. While his mom was annoyed and my parents amused, I found the fiasco entirely hilarious. From that moment on a prank war of epic proportions had begun and an even greater friendship was formed.

"This joke is so old!" Louis, Fred's step-brother, moans spluttering coffee.

"Ten years old to be exact." I laugh prodding Fred in the ribs.

"I don't care how old it is, Fred, stop swapping the sugar and salt!" Louis gets up off the couch and storms away to his room.

"Never gets old." Remarks Fred exhaling with a devilish grin. "Xbox?" He nods his head in an upward motion.

"Always." I follow him upstairs to his bedroom where he switches on the games console and we start playing black ops.

"We're going to Olivia Webber's back to school party on Friday night by the way." He announces.

"Can't go."

"Why not?"

"Because I didn't get invited, that's why not."

"Well I was invited and you're gonna come with me, we're a package deal." Every time Fred stops me from being left behind on the social side of things it puts a smile on my face. "What're you grinning like a monkey for?" He asks looking suspicious.

"Wait for it," I say smuggly pulling the trigger and shooting Fred's player, "head shot!" I cheer as I watch his virtual brains explode.

"Zara!" He says playfully hitting me on the arm.

"Maybe one day you'll beat me Fred, today just isn't that day."

"I'm coming for you, Chambers, just you watch." He mutters with a glaring expression on his face as his character re-spawns. A second later his phone vibrates and he looks down, then back at the tv screen.

"Which unfortunate girl has fallen victim to-"

"My good looks, wit and charisma?"

"I was going to say overbearing vanity and asshole persona, but okay let's go with what you said."

"The one and only Olivia Webber, I guess she's trying to put in some ground work before this Friday." He laughs an evil fuckboy laugh.

"You're so full of yourself." I roll my eyes.

"Ah, but for good reason!" In Fred's defense, if the hottest girl in our year was hitting up my cell phone and inviting me to her parties, I'd be smug too. "Besides, I don't think I'm gonna go down that route, those popular girls are so obnocious."

"Ahh yeah, you'd much rather a loser."

"That's why I'm friends with you isn't it, Z?" I throw a grenade at Fred's player and watch his screen get covered in blood.

"Seems like you're the loser at the moment, you were saying?"

"Wow, that's so spiteful, you know you're really immature. How dare you kill me in a game where the objective is to kill the opponent. I can't believe you'd go there." His words drip with salty sarcasm as he casually gets up and sits on his bed, chucking his remote controller on the floor like usual when I win at the video games we play. He's a kid in that sense, can't stand to lose. I'm not entirely certain why, but I like it. For anyone else it would be an irritating and childish behavior, but when it comes to Fred? I find it endearing and lovable.

"What can I say, young Frederick? I can't help that I'm a heartless killer." I flick a long strand of hair away from my face with sass.

"More like heartless bitch." He mutters in response.

"Oi!" I grab the floor cushion that Fred had been sitting on moments ago and throw it straight in the direction of his head, missing entirely.

"Unfortunately, Z, you aren't as coordinated in real life as you are in virtual reality." Laughing, he replaces the cushion next to me on the floor.

"Okay, I'll admit that you have me on that one." Fred could not be more right. I genuinely think that I'm the clumsiest, most haphazard individual that I know. When we were kids we decided to climb a tree, I know what you're thinking, that I fell out the tree and hurt myself? Not quite. I got so excited running over to the tree that I tripped on a pine cone and broke my elbow. Everyone would ask how I did it and I always used just say I did it tree climbing. To which Fred would far too eagerly correct me and tell them the truth, laughing about how much of a klutz I am. I look down at the faint pink banana shaped scar on my arm. It was immensely painful for 10 year old me but for some reason I find it a happy reminder of our friendship and the silly things we seem to do.

"Frederick!" I hear his mom yell from the bathroom before promptly marching down the hallway towards us. "I know you think you're some kind of comedian, but you really aren't funny."

"What's he done this time?" I ask Heidi, quickly glancing over to see Fred smirking to himself.

"I think what he's done speaks for itself." With a stern look, she smiles, revealing pearly whi-blues? Heidi's teeth are entirely blue! At this moment Fred begins cracking up, laughter filling the air and taunting his mother who is less than impressed.

"Sorry, that was meant for Louis, I swear!" Fred explains wiping a tear from his eye.

"Well it's not funny!" She puts her hand on her forehead in disbelief, finally allowing a sapphire smile to escape. "I have to go to work in thirty minutes! Can you imagine what the patients are going to think when I rock up with blue teeth?" Heidi chuckles. Fred's mum is a nurse at the hospital a couple miles away, I can't help but laugh along with Fred as I imagine the imminent stunned look of bewilderment and confusion that will be showcased across her patients' faces. "What am I going to do with you, huh?" She holds her hands together in mid air and mimes strangling someone before rolling her eyes and closing the door behind her.

"How did you even-"

"Food coloring in toothpaste." Fred grins, far too proud of himself for my liking.

"You're so immature, when will you grow up?" I ask.

"Z, you should know by now that that's not on my agenda." He smiles with his not blue teeth making his shallow dimples appear on his face. I love his dimples. I used to want dimples like Fred's so badly that I would fall asleep pressing the tips of my fingers into my cheeks in hope of waking up one morning and it being the case that I'd somehow made them appear. It's safe to say that I wasn't the smartest child. "I honestly think that I'd rather be dead than boring, forget growing up." He declares as he normally does whenever someone touches upon how he should act more like an adult.

"Having a strop because Zara's whooping you again?" Louis laughs entering the room, plunking himself down on the floor cushion beside me and picking up Fred's abandoned controller.

"Might be." Fred grunts in a sulky voice.

"Let's see what you've got, Ecklund." Challenging Louis I resume the video game.

You see, I'm an only child. My parents tried for ages for a kid then I miraculously came along. Lightning never strikes twice and I was their lot. Meaning they could never give me any brothers or sisters, a shame really. Fortunately, living so close to Fred and Louis is near enough the next best thing. They're like brothers to me, annoying and argumentative but on the whole you love them no matter what.

Although, the last few years, a part of me has begun to view Fred as less of a brotherly figure. Don't get me wrong, I still love him. Perhaps not in the platonic sense I had once thought...