One of the Girls (Friendzone #1) Read online

  ROBIN DANIELS

  Table of Contents

  TITLE

  ALSO BY ROBIN DANIELS

  COPYRIGHT

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  ABOUT ROBIN DANIELS

  Published by Bluefields

  Copyright © 2019 by Robin Daniels

  Edition 1.0

  Edited by Jennifer Henkes (www.literallyjen.com)

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  ALSO BY ROBIN DANIELS

  YOUNG ADULT

  Perfectly Oblivious

  Perfectly You

  Perfectly Summer

  Perfectly Misunderstood

  Fate & Fortune

  Kismet & Karma

  NEW ADULT

  Millionaire B&B

  Chapter 1

  I’m in love with Amelia Ashlock—same as a hundred other guys at Roosevelt High School. Like all those poor schmucks, she barely knows I exist. I gave myself a pep talk in the mirror this morning, the same one I’ve spouted regularly since ninth grade, telling my reflection that today is the day. I will talk to her. But as I took my traditional seat at the far end of her lunch table, I knew the pep talk wasn’t enough.

  It’s not that I’m a loser. I play on the school’s championship football team. I have lots of friends, get excellent grades. I think most girls consider me pretty good looking: blond hair, blue eyes, straight teeth—better-than-average muscles. To top it off, I’m nice. That’s me, Nick Moody, all-around decent guy. Unfortunately, none of this is enough to land me anywhere on Mia Ashlock’s radar.

  “Hey, Nick, I think you’re drooling.” Sean snickered. He’d been my best friend since freshman tryouts, when we both got interminably benched because our football skills were lacking. We bonded over being second-string to the best quarterback and running back in the great state of Pennsylvania. Now, we were inseparable.

  “Shut up, man,” I replied, wiping at the corner of my mouth anyway.

  Sean followed my gaze to the opposite side of our long, narrow table. Being on the football team technically made Mia and me part of the same crowd. However, not being hero-worshiped by the entire community put us on different ends of the spectrum. Mia was the most beautiful girl in school, and like all high school clichés, she was the head cheerleader. Even worse, she was dating the star quarterback.

  “It’s senior year,” Sean said. “Last chance to do something.”

  “You think I don’t know that?” I frowned and tore my eyes away from the cheer squad. “There’s not much I can do about it. She’s still dating Anderson.”

  “So what? Go bust that trash up. He’s an idiot. He doesn’t deserve her.”

  I snorted. “While I agree, I don’t think picking a fight with Anderson will win me points with Mia. Or Coach.”

  “Boy.” Sean picked the onions off his hamburger before biting into it. “You don’t know jack about girls. They love it when dudes fight over them.”

  I gave him a flat look. “Says the guy who’s never had a steady girlfriend.”

  He held up his index finger and spoke through a mouthful of food. “Player by choice.”

  “Player my butt,” I muttered before starting in on my own lunch.

  “Speaking of players, you think we’ll see any field time this year?”

  “Humph.” I grunted. “The only way that’s happening is if Anderson and Whitman both get injured.”

  Sean looked thoughtful as he chugged his chocolate milk. “It could happen. Maybe they’ll crash into each other during a handoff. Double concussions. Out for the season.”

  I smiled at the thought. Guess I wasn’t that nice after all. “And maybe Mia will dump Anderson, then walk straight over here and ask me to Homecoming.” My sarcasm wasn’t lost on Sean. He rolled his eyes at me.

  We continued to eat silently. I was staring at the quad through the large wall of windows, when out of the blue, Sean shook his head in disgust. “I can’t believe the old man won’t even play his own grandson.”

  I crushed my soda can and shot it at the trash bin across the aisle. It hit the rim and fell in. “I’m not the best.”

  It was the truth, and I’d accepted it a long time ago. At any other school in the conference, I’d be good enough to start. It was pure bad luck that I got stuck at the same institution as Cole Anderson. I couldn’t even be mad. If I were the coach, I’d play Anderson, too. He was being scouted by Division I schools. Between him and Jackson Whitman, the Roosevelt Ravens had a good chance at being state champs this year.

  Still, sometimes the truth hurt. I was forced to ride the pine by my own grandfather. Rich Moody was a football legend around here. He’d been head coach at Roosevelt since my father was in high school, over twenty-five years ago. He’d won four state championships, seventeen conference championships, and helped countless players receive football scholarships. People moved into the Roosevelt district just to play for him.

  “But where’s the loyalty?” Sean continued. “Doesn’t he want you to be successful?”

  I sighed. “Not as much as he wants to win.”

  “That’s jacked up.”

  “That’s my life,” I replied with resignation.

  Grandpa played football in college. Out of five children, my father was his only son. Dad followed in Grandpa’s footsteps, right down to playing at the same university, Penn State. Dad might have been good enough to go pro, but he had a career-ending injury his junior year. That’s when he met my mom, the rock-star gymnast who was majoring in sports medicine. She was the student medic working that night. After icing his knee for twenty minutes, they knew it was meant to be.

  My parents had three kids—two daughters, then me. I have twelve cousins, all of whom are girls. As the only son of the only son in a family full of women, I had a legacy to uphold. From an early age, football was life.

  Truth be told, I didn’t care about the sport the way my father and grandfather did. It wasn’t my dream. I had no aspirations to play in college, much less the NFL. I used to enjoy it more, but one can only handle being a tackle dummy for so long. I kept playing because I didn’t want to desert Sean, who, despite his second-string status, still loved the game.

  And because my family would shun me if I quit.

  Sean always knew when I’d had enough football talk and changed the subject. “Okay, back to Mia. You want me to start a rumor that Anderson’s cheating on her?”

  “He probably is.” I grunted. “I saw him getting cozy with Sarah Litman at T.J.’s
party last week while Mia was on vacation in California.” Sean cocked an eyebrow at me. “Err…that’s where I heard someone say she was…”

  I wasn’t a stalker. I swear. I just took a vested interest in the life of the girl I liked. Which was more than I could say for her stupid boyfriend, who barely paid attention to her except when he was trying to cop a feel or cram his tongue down her throat.

  “More reason to start a rumor,” Sean argued, then reached for the brownie my mom had packed in my lunch. “Are you going to eat that?”

  I swatted at him. “Hands off.”

  “Why don’t you ever bring extra for me? You know how I feel about your mom’s brownies.”

  My lips curled into a snarl. “I know how you feel about my mom in general.”

  Sean smirked. “If your parents’ relationship ever goes belly-up, I’ll be first in line to console her.”

  “Gross.” I fake gagged. Sean’s smirk widened, so I reached across the graffitied wood veneer to punch him in the arm. He leaned back, barely dodging me. “Cut it out, man,” I warned.

  Sean held up his hands in surrender. “Chill. I know Tim and Diane are rock solid. It’s disgusting how happy they are. Can’t stop a guy from dreaming, though.”

  I lunged across the table again, this time landing a hard shove. Sean toppled over backward, hitting his butt on the blue-and-gray checkered tile. “I said, cut it out.” The snickers and jeers from people around us did nothing to assuage his laughter.

  Sean stood, rubbing his backside. “Coach should switch you to offensive tackle. Dillon sucks anyway.”

  Dillon was only two seats down. “I heard that,” he yelled, making a crude gesture. My scowl softened, and I bit back a smile before popping open a bag of potato chips. While Dillon and Sean engaged in cocky banter, my eyes drifted back to Mia.

  She was sitting on the table, feet on her stool, and laughing with one of her girlfriends. She had a bag of Cheetos in one hand and a Coke in the other. That was one thing I loved about her. She didn’t care to be rail thin like the rest of her squad mates, who were munching on salad and sipping bottled water. Mia was fit but curvy, the way a girl should be.

  Her blue eyes sparkled, and her long brown hair cascaded down her back, rippling with big, loopy curls. When she wore a ponytail, it swished from side to side in a hypnotic rhythm. I’d lost count of how many times I’d thought about running my fingers through it. She had creamy skin and a few freckles spattered across her nose. But Mia’s crowning jewel was the dimple in her right cheek. It only emerged when she smiled extra big.

  “Nick will back me.” The sound of my name drew me from my daze.

  “Huh?”

  “Dillon doesn’t believe I can do twenty one-handed push-ups.”

  “He can.” I nodded my head absently. I still couldn’t drag my eyes away from Mia. Cole had walked up to her, and when she leaned over to hug him, he pulled back. Then he started talking, and with each word, Mia’s face grew more distressed. I might have been able to hear what they were saying, except Sean had gotten on the floor to prove his arm strength and all the guys around us were cheering him on.

  Mia’s lip trembled. Her friends stared at Cole in disbelief, some with a look of pain, some with a look of anger. Either way, everyone appeared to be in shock. Cole slipped his hand in his pocket and gave her a one-sided shrug. Then he walked away, leaving Mia with an open mouth and tears trickling down her face. After a second, she fled from the cafeteria with her head hung. She draped her hair in front of her face to hide the red cheeks and bleary eyes.

  What just happened? It only took a minute to get my answer. A steady stream of whispers buzzed down the table. One giant game of telephone had the entire football team buzzing like girls at a slumber party. Max leaned over to me and said, “Anderson dumped Mia!”

  What a fool. I can’t believe he did it at all, much less in the cafeteria, in front of all these people. He must have known how quickly the rumor mill would start churning. I’d never had a beef with Cole Anderson. Until today. My blood boiled, and I fought the urge to beat the ever-loving tar out of him.

  Sean had finished his display of machismo and was back in his seat, watching me react. I must have looked like a ticking bomb, ready to blow at any second. “Take a breath, Nick,” he said. My hopeless crush on Mia wasn’t common knowledge. Even though nobody was paying attention to us, he leaned in and lowered his voice. “I know what you’re thinking right now, and it’s not worth it.”

  “It would be so worth it,” I replied, anger pulsing under my skin.

  “You’d get suspended. You’d probably get him suspended, too.”

  I grinned wickedly at the thought. Roosevelt’s golden boy, out for the home opener. “I can live with that.”

  Sean cocked his head to the side. “Can you live with being enemy number one? Everyone will hate you.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t care.”

  “Coach Moody will kill you.”

  That one gave me pause for thought. Grandpa would make my life a living nightmare if I got Cole suspended. The old man held a grudge like nobody’s business. It’d be a long time before he forgave me. I could handle the thought of an angry student body, but the thought of provoking my grandfather scared the crap out of me. I took the calming breath Sean suggested and squeezed my eyes shut. After a moment, my shoulders sagged in defeat.

  “I seriously want to kick Anderson in the junk right now.”

  Sean gave me a reassuring smile. “You and half the cheerleaders.”

  I glanced down the table. A few of Mia’s teammates had run after her, but it was clear that the rest of girls were outraged; there were lots of angry faces and expressive hand motions. I looked back at Sean. “None of them can give him what he deserves. And I’m not even defense, so I can’t take it out on him at practice.”

  “Anderson will get what’s coming to him. Karma always finds a way.”

  “Yeah, well, I want to be there when it happens.”

  Sean studied me as he stuck his hand in my bag of chips and stole a few. He popped them in his mouth before speaking. “You’re failing to see the bright side in all of this.”

  “What would that be?”

  He raised his eyebrows up and down. “Mia’s single.”

  “Seriously?” My voice cracked a little, and I flew into a raging whisper-yell. “I can’t ask her out now. She just had her heart broken.”

  “If you don’t, someone else will. And you’ll miss your chance.” He paused for effect. “Again.”

  I groaned, frustration eating at me because Sean was right. Mia always had a boyfriend. Her relationships rarely lasted more than a few months, but the time between was usually short. If I swooped in thirty minutes after she’d been dumped, I’d look like a heartless jerk. If I waited too long to say something, another guy would snatch her up. “What? I should just march up to her and say, Hey baby, I heard you’re single again.” I did my best Sean impression.

  He grinned. “Now you’re talking.”

  “Don’t be stupid,” I barked.

  I was starting to sound desperate. Eventually Sean wiped off his face-eating grin. “Okay, I’ll admit the timing is bad. You obviously can’t ask her out today.” He got quiet, then his eyes lit up. “You need an excuse to get close to her.”

  “How?” I countered. “Mia and I don’t share a single class. We don’t do any of the same extracurriculars. We don’t even have one good friend in common. I have zero reason to approach her.”

  “So, make a reason,” he said, as if it were that easy.

  It’s not like Mia and I were strangers. We had the same acquaintances, went to the same parties. She knew my name. That might be all she knew about me, but she always returned my smile whenever we made eye contact. I just didn’t feel like it was enough to go on.

  Sean stared at me, intently waiting for a response. In that moment, I realized something. I was scared of rejection. I knew deep down that’s why I’d never manned up before.
I shouldn’t need an excuse to ask Mia out. If I were as confident as Sean, I’d just walk up to her and do it. But I wasn’t Sean.

  “Even if I could get close to her, even if I could find the perfect time to ask her out, why would she say yes? She could have any guy she wanted.”

  Sean slammed his fist on the table. It made me jump. “Because you’re Nick freaking Moody, and you’re not like every other dillweed that wants to date her.” It wasn’t like Sean to get sentimental. And trust me, this was sentimental for him. A lopsided grin formed on his lips. “You’re the best dillweed I know.”

  Chapter 2

  I sat in the bleachers with the rest of last year’s cheer squad, trying to keep a brave face. I couldn’t believe Cole dumped me like that. I mean, I could, but I didn’t think he was heartless enough to do it in front of the whole school. I was humiliated, even though I knew I didn’t need to be. There wasn’t a girl in a ten-mile radius that would look at him right now. Everyone would side with me.

  “Seriously, what a jackhole.” Stacie was patting my knee. All the other girls nodded in agreement. “If Cole thinks anyone will date him now, he’s out of his freaking mind.”

  A chorus of mm-hms and amens spread through the circle. Cassidy chose that moment to say what everyone was really thinking. “Except Sarah Litman, who’s probably waiting under the bleachers to pounce on him after practice.” Cass was always good for telling it like it is.

  “Shut up, Cassidy,” Stacie snarled at her.

  Cassidy’s eyes got big, as if she hadn’t even realized what she said was tacky. “What?” she asked, all offended. Another reason I loved Cassidy.

  I gave the group a wan smile. “It’s fine, really. We have more important stuff to do than sit around and trash Cole.”

  “Says you,” Cassidy grunted, leaning against the bleachers above her.

  I was thankful to have such supportive friends, but I didn’t want the pity. It’d only been half a day, and already the sad eyes and consoling comments were getting old. By the end of the week I’d be insane, wanting to punch every person who tried to be kind, every boy who asked me out. I cringed at the thought, because I knew it was coming. And while I appreciated the gestures, I didn’t know if I could deal with them right now.