Safety in the Friendzone Read online

  Safety in the Friendzone

  ALSO BY ELIZABETH STEVENS

  unvamped

  Netherfield Prep

  the Trouble with Hate is…

  Accidentally Perfect

  Keeping Up Appearances

  Love, Lust & Friendship

  Valiant Valerie

  Being Not Good

  The Stand-In

  Popped

  Safety in the Friendzone

  No More Maybes Books

  No More Maybes

  Gray’s Blade

  Royal Misadventures

  Now Presenting

  Lady in Training

  Three of a Kind

  Some Proposal

  Royally Unprepared

  The Damned Trilogy

  Damned if I do

  Damned if I don’t

  Damned if I know

  Safety in the Friendzone

  Elizabeth Stevens

  Sleeping Dragon Books

  Safety in the Friendzone

  by Elizabeth Stevens

  Print ISBN: 978-1925928747

  Digital ISBN: 978-1925928730

  Cover art by: Izzie Duffield

  Copyright 2019 Elizabeth Stevens

  Worldwide Electronic & Digital Rights

  Worldwide English Language Print Rights

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any form, including digital and electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the Publisher, except for brief quotes for use in reviews. This book is a work of fiction. Characters, names, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  To friends,

  Love ‘em, hate ‘em, we can’t live without ‘em

  Contents

  Chapter 1: Charley

  Chapter 2: Zane

  Chapter 3: Charley

  Chapter 4: Zane

  Chapter 5: Charley

  Chapter 6: Zane

  Chapter 7: Charley

  Chapter 8: Zane

  Chapter 9: Charley

  Chapter 10: Zane

  Chapter 11: Charley

  Chapter 12: Zane

  Chapter 13: Charley

  Chapter 14: Zane

  Chapter 15: Charley

  Chapter 16: Zane

  Chapter 17: Charley

  Chapter 18: Zane

  Chapter 19: Charley

  Chapter 20: Zane

  Chapter 21: Charley

  Chapter 22: Zane

  Chapter 23: Charley

  Chapter 24: Zane

  Safety in the Friendzone

  Thanks

  My Books

  About the Author

  Chapter 1: Charley

  “Look out, arsehole alert,” Jett muttered, elbowing me in the side.

  Penny and I turned to look in the direction he was glaring and there they were. St Michael’s College’s popular jerks, strutting down the corridor like they owned the place. Students ran out of the way so they didn’t get steamrolled as The Pops cruised the middle of the hallway like they were about to drop a late 90s boy band album, if my mum’s collection was anything to go by.

  In the very middle, right at the front, was Zane Lindon. Steel grey eyes, light brown hair, and a grin that apparently sparkled. He’d been at the top of our year level’s Pops since I’d started in Year Eight. And, now we were in Year Twelve, that put him at the very top of The Pops for the whole damned school.

  Under his arm, as she had been for the last few months, was Thea Green. Blonde hair and blue eyes, she was the typical sort of bimbo Zane always dated. I’d lost track of what number girlfriend she was. Calling Zane a player wasn’t strictly true but, in the three and a half years since he’d started dating, he’d barely been single.

  A step behind and to his right was Cody Bleeker. Who was, probably conveniently for him, not as his name would imply. Guy was a little slow, but at least average on the hotness scale. He considered himself Zane’s closest friend, for whatever that was worth.

  A step behind and to Zane’s left was Jory. Self-proclaimed jock, he was the guy who thought he was God’s gift to all female-kind. He was arrogant with a touch of creep, and a heavy dose of self-entitled. The very best kind.

  And to Jory’s left was Harvey. The least popular Pop, Harvey was the scapegoat to their shenanigans, their jokes and their constant designated driver. Of course, he took it all in his stride lest he be booted from the team. Bless.

  As they got closer, the surveying of Zane’s kingdom brought his glance to me. I gave him the usual sort of superficial nod. The kind that told him exactly what I thought of him while not making a big thing of it in front of his sycophants. I didn’t much care if they liked what I had to say or not, but it was best I limited my confrontations to what was absolutely necessary.

  “Charley,” Zane smirked as they walked past.

  “Zane.”

  Someone across the hall turned and accidentally ran into Zane, the books in the poor kid’s arms tumbling to the floor. Zane paused and every Pop stopped with him with their arrogant, smug glares trained on the poor unfortunate.

  “Tell me, Butterfingers.” Zane looked him over. “Did you leave your brain at home today? Or were you just born that way?”

  “N…no…” he stammered. I was pretty sure the poor thing was only in Year Seven.

  “N...no?” Jory laughed.

  “Tell me, Zane,” I called, crossing my arms as I took a step forward.

  Zane turned his charismatic grin on me. “What can I help you with, Charley?”

  Now, I know the whole standing up against the mean kids should make me want to rise above their petty insults, to be a better person than them, to not stoop to their lows. But I wasn’t a saint, I was just a teenage girl pissed off at the patriarchy.

  “Did an accident cause this desperation to overcompensate? Or were you just…” I held my hand up, bringing my thumb and finger to almost touching, “born that way?”

  Zane’s smirk grew more rueful as he huffed a laugh and nodded.

  “Clever, Baines,” Cody sneered and I nodded at him proudly.

  “Some of us aren’t just a pretty face,” I told him.

  Cody just kicked his chin in my direction as an acknowledgement as though lest I forget it, but didn’t say anything more. See? Little slow.

  “Some of us actually have a brain to leave at home,” Jett added.

  “Shut it, nerd,” Jory and Cody said at the same time. Then like the mature young men they were, they chuckled at the synchronisation and fist bumped.

  I rolled my eyes. “The calibre of people you surround yourself with astounds me, Zane.”

  “You could have been one of us, Charley.”

  And I could have. Zane wasn’t just St Michael’s biggest dipshit. He also happened to live over my back fence. We had years of history. Once upon a time, he’d been my best friend. When I joined in at St Michael’s in Year Eight, I thought I was going to be able to hang out with my best friend every day.

  But within these shining halls, where he played at king, he was someone I didn’t recognise. I’d hated his friends from the first day and the feeling had been all too mutual. So, in these hallways we played at hating each other. Well he played. I did hate who he was in these hallways.

  I nodded thoughtfully as I looked around the hallway. “I’d rather rip out my own eyeballs,” I said pleasantly. I nodded to them all. �
�As always, it’s been anything but a pleasure, Pops.” I gave them a salute and led Penny and Jett down the hallway.

  “Well, we showed them,” Penny said, doing a semi-decent job of sounding sure of herself.

  I sighed as we pushed through the milling students all going in different directions. “I rose to the bait. Again. Ugh, Zane makes me so mad!”

  “There’s a fine line between love and hate,” Jett reminded me for the thousandth time.

  He and Penny had long since given up entertaining the notion that my overly enthusiastic hatred for Zane was in fact hiding something more romantic. Now they just pitied the fact that there was a part of Zane I couldn’t seem to let go of no matter how often I watched him be mean to others.

  At least they didn’t judge me for it. Unlike me. Who judged myself for it on a regular basis.

  ****

  I was still judging myself when I was getting ready for bed. Until I turned around and freaked the hell out on seeing the face at my bedroom window. When the face frowned at me, tapped on the glass and mimed pulling the window up with no luck, I realised I recognised it well.

  I unlocked the window and opened it, neither of us caring I was in my bra and tracksuit pants. It wasn’t like there was a lot going on in either of them.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Seeing if you’re still up. Why was your window locked?”

  I frowned at Zane Lindon. Zane had indeed been the neighbour over the back fence for something like fifteen years. He had indeed been my best friend once and he was definitely mostly an egotistical jerk these days. But, when it was just us, we were still as close as those eight-year-olds having sleepovers in his treehouse every non-school night. Because even though the guy could be a grade-A turd, I still loved him.

  “Why aren’t you using the door?” I replied.

  “I figured your parents were asleep. Didn’t want to wake them.” He looked at me pointedly. “Are you going to let me in?”

  I stepped back to let him in as I quipped, “If only you were that thoughtful to the people you belittle every day.”

  “It’s just high school fun. You need to learn to loosen up.”

  I shook my head, not willing just then to get into the intricacies of the effects of high school bullying on people as he started clambering through my window. Because it was an argument that was lost on the popular kids who only saw it from one side. It was also an argument we’d had plenty and I didn’t have the energy to get into it with him just then. Sometimes I just wanted to pretend he was still just the little boy who’d brought me his favourite teddy when I was sick and not a completely different person around his friends.

  As Zane was halfway through my window, my stepdad strode into my bedroom door. Zane paused as we both turned to Brendan.

  Brendan looked up from his phone and nodded to the boy with one leg on either side of my window sill. “Oh, hey, Zane.”

  Zane nodded back and finished climbing into my room. “Hey, Brendon.”

  I looked between them in feigned surprise. “Bren, a boy is sneaking in my bedroom window and I’m half naked… Should not the parental figure send him packing?”

  Brendon looked confused for a moment. “That’s not a boy. That’s Zane.” He smiled. “Forget your key, mate?”

  Zane shrugged. “Didn’t want to wake you.”

  “It works on the backdoor, remember.”

  Zane grinned and tapped his nose. “Key next time. Got it.”

  Zane had a key to our house like I had a key to his house. But we almost never used them. I’m not sure why he didn’t, but there was always a part of me that was worried if I just walked in that he wouldn’t want me there and that would be far more awkward than the occasional ‘sorry, busy. Talk later?’ at the window.

  I crossed my arms in a huff. “Did you want something, Bren?”

  He looked at me and pointed once he’d remembered what it was. “Tomorrow. I’ve got a meeting first thing so need to leave early. Can you be ready at eight?”

  I groaned. “Leave for school at eight?”

  “I’ll take her,” Zane said, helping himself to my bed.

  I rolled my eyes at him. “I’d rather leave for school at eight.”

  “Why?” Zane asked in actual surprise.

  “Because you drive like a wannabe rally driver and I don’t want to be seen with you in public.” I stuck my tongue out at him and he smirked.

  “Ideally, I’d love to leave earlier…” Brendan said slowly.

  I sighed. “Earlier than eight?”

  “I bet a rally driver’s looking pretty enticing right now,” Zane said in a persuasive sing-song voice as he put his arms behind his head.

  “It’s that or Zane, kid.” Brendon looked at me apologetically and I grunted in annoyance.

  “Fine! Zane it is.”

  Zane grinned. “Sweet. I win by default. My favourite. You spoil me, Charley.”

  I pointed at Zane accusingly. “If you kill me with your awful driving, I’mma come back and haunt you. And every time you’re about to have sex or jerk off, I’m going to whisper ‘pickles’ in your ear,” I threatened and Zane burst into giggles that were spluttered with his attempt to control them. The same way they always did when he heard the word ‘pickles’.

  “And I’m out,” Brendan said with a wry smile. “Don’t be up too late, kids.”

  “Night, Bren!” Zane called as my stepdad waved and walked out.

  “What do you want?” I asked Zane.

  Zane shrugged, hands still behind his head. “Didn’t feel like sleeping.”

  “So, you thought you’d annoy me?”

  “Yeah. I figured if I couldn’t sleep, why should you get to?”

  I nodded. “Of course, you did,” I sighed, then said resignedly, “Get your shoes off my bed and you can stay.”

  “I love it when you tolerate my presence,” Zane groaned. It would have been sexual…had it not been Zane.

  And now I’d grossed myself out.

  I went to my drawers to rifle for a clean t-shirt.

  “I love it when you get your shoes off my bed,” I said pointedly.

  As I pulled a possibly semi-in-need-of-a-wash t-shirt on, I heard the couple of thunks that signalled his shoes dropping onto the floor.

  “Thanks.” I turned to see him on his phone. “And you couldn’t do that at home?”

  He shrugged. “The beauty of a mobile phone, Charley, is that it’s mobile. I can do this anywhere.”

  “Sarcasm is lost on you, isn’t it?”

  He spared me a mock-confused look. “Was…? Was that sarcasm?”

  “Funny. Were you expecting me to talk to you when you invaded my space?”

  “How about we just coexist in the same space?”

  As a rule, I enjoyed coexisting in the same space with Zane. But I enjoyed giving him shit more.

  “And while we’re coexisting…did you have expectations?”

  “Netflix and chill?” he asked hopefully.

  I frowned at him. “Hold the chill and you’ve got yourself a deal.”

  “Ugh. Yes. Talk dirty to me, baby,” he teased.

  I snorted as I picked up my laptop and dropped onto the bed next to him. “I hate to think how exhausting Thea must find you in bed.”

  He gave me a mock-cocky smirk and eyebrow raise. “Yeah, she does have trouble keeping up with my wicked stamina.” He finished it off with a super realistic, “Rawr.”

  I failed to keep in any laughter as I sat back against the pillows. “She’s discovered your incredible abilities then?”

  “Oh, definitely.”

  “Naw, your first. How sweet.”

  Zane gave a little wriggle of pride. “I am good. But…”

  “Mmm?”

  “No one sleeps like you.”

  “Oh, really?” I chuckled.

  “Really. The big, bass snores just show your total commitment to
the very highest sleeping standards.”

  I nudged him with my shoulder. “You’re just jealous. Over there with your little high-pitched whimpers.”

  He nodded. “I am. My greatest wish is to snore like a grizzly in winter hibernation.”

  I gave a single nod. “Damn straight, dude.”

  He snorted and we looked at each other. Both of us burst into laughter.

  This. This was who Zane used to be. This was my Zane. This was the guy I couldn’t let go of.

  I nudged him again, trying to shake off the tinge of melancholy I’d thrown over myself. “Pick something or I’ll kick you out.”

  “Okay. But remember, you brought this on yourself…”

  Chapter 2: Zane

  The first thing I noticed was that my neck hurt. The second thing I noticed was that it smelled like I was waking up in Charley’s room, not mine – than lingering smell of freshness and florals was a dead giveaway. The third thing I noticed was I was still dressed. The constricting feeling of my trackies and jumper had the added benefit of overheating me.

  I blinked open my eyes and gave a rough chuckle at Charley’s groaned, “Not again, dude!” and half-hearted shove.

  “What?” I shrugged as she tried to untangled herself from me. “Good morning to you, too.”

  “You have got to leave a toothbrush here, man. That morning breath would kill a cockroach.”

  “I take it that’d be a no on the good morning kiss then?” I teased, puckering up and leaning towards her.

  “Ew!” she grumbled, trying hard not to laugh. “Get off my bed, Zane.”

  She more enthusiastically started trying to shove me off the bed, but I did my best giant boulder impression.

  “Zane!” Charley tried to snap between giggles.

  “Charley!” I responded in kind.

  “Fine.” She gave up. “But don’t go thinking you get to–”

  “Morning, kids,” Charley’s mum said as she walked in.