41. CODY

CODY

C lementine.

Loving her.

Holding her.

Spending hours making her laugh until we couldn’t breathe.

Kissing her every night until she fell asleep in my arms.

I wanted every small win, every massive failure, and I wanted it with her.

The future I saw for myself was simply Clementine.

I looked at her, knowing that my cheeks were pink but not being able to stop myself from catching her gaze. Her. She was my future. She always had been.

But she’s leaving. You can’t do that to her…it’s unfair.

“Thanksgiving,” I teased lightly. It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t exactly the truth. Thinking about my future made me sick to my stomach. I lifted the hem of my shirt over my head and threw it at Clementine.

The one that had been tucked under her pillow had been missing from my floor for weeks. A selfish pride had filled me when I saw it there, where she slept every night. She shouldn’t be embarrassed about it. I had spent the last seven years chasing around the smell of lavender just to feel her in my veins. My shirt had to smell like her now; she was due for a new one.

Clementine rubbed it between her fingers, her eyes flickering up to meet mine. I winked as I tossed my arms up and yelled.

“Now, who’s driving us over to the library?”

She was still staring, her brown eyes glittering with excitement. She understood, and it made my heart skip a beat as Dean chucked his shirt at Ella. Arlo caught it in his hand before it hit her face. His dark eyes watched me carefully as he balled it up and set it on the table. I had known he would take the chance to push the conversation toward Julien; I just wished he hadn’t put her on the spot like that.

It wasn’t any of my business, or theirs, who she was dating. I did enjoy the conviction in her voice when she claimed he was an ex. Whether or not Arlo believed her was a different story and I could tell by the way he was studying my face that he didn’t.

Clementine watched the interaction carefully, picking up on the tense energy that flooded the space as I flicked the button on my jeans. “Well?” I asked, looking over at a fully dressed Dean. “You too.” My eyes dragged down his enormous frame.

“Stop making bets against Ella,” he snapped each word at me as he shucked from his jeans and stood uncomfortably in a pair of tight boxers.

“You can run to the library,” Ella cocked her head to the side. “Consider it payback for using the batting cages behind my back and before you argue.” She wiggled from Arlo’s grasp and leaned on the table. “I know you sneak him in there.” She narrowed her eyes at Dean.

“Get moving, boys.” Arlo cracked a smile.

I kicked off my sneakers and dropped my jeans to the floor, declaring, “I’m keeping my socks.”

“Whatever,” Ella barked as both Dean and I backed away from the table toward the stairs. She pulled out her phone, and I swore Dean yelped.

“Don’t you dare!” He pointed at her. “If my Dad sees this…” Dean’s voice trailed off.

"Your dad is definitely going to see this," Van laughed, his was hung around Zoey with a bright smile on his face.

“ Run !” Arlo clapped his hands together and both of us took off down the stairs.

Dean shoved his way past me through the door. It was a fifteen minute run to campus, and if we managed to get picked up between Hilly’s and the library, it would be a blessing. If we got caught in the library… again… who knew what would happen .

“You’re out of shape, Cody!” Dean called to me as he rounded the corner to the base of the hill where the bar sat. “If you get caught, you’re on your own!”

I wasn’t out of shape, he was just pushing a brutal pace. The wind nipped at my bare calves and my chest started to burn from the intake of cold air but I pushed myself forward to catch up with Dean.

“How are you even that fast?” I huffed, with barely enough breath to ask the question. “You’ve got to…weigh like… two hundred pounds.”

“Two fifty-seven,” Dean said with pride and picked up his pace. “Shit, here comes the parade.”

Four cars came up behind us, including Arlo’s fastback and my car, Clem behind the wheel with a goofy smile on her face as they drove past up the hill. She slowed down as she passed, rolling the window down and blowing a kiss.

“Nice ass,” she called out.

I winked at her but was instantly humbled.

“I was talking to Tucker.” She burst into laughter and sped off.

“She’s gonna kill my tires,” I groaned and kept running, the cold air shrinking every impressive body part by the second.

“She drives like you.” Dean lost it laughing.

“She’s crashed way more cars than I have!” I called out to him as he sprinted up the rest of the hill. Once the land evened out, it was easier to keep up with his excruciating pace. “This is why I don’t run with you.” I was completely out of breath. “You’re like… the Terminator! Do you even feel pain?” I cried out.

He stalled as we rounded the corner to the library to see the crowd that had formed, Ella had graciously stopped recording the dare and instead called the entire team down to the parking lot.

“Fuck,” he swore and turned to run backward so I could see the anger on his face. “Stop betting against Miele. She’s too good at party games.”

“Never.” I laughed loudly and kept running. “There’s no fun in playing it safe, Tucker!” I stopped short of the doors, Dean’s face scrunching up as a smile flooded my face.

“Don’t,” he warned. “If you do it, I have to do it, and I’m not doing it. ”

“Coward.” I licked my lips and flicked my fingers into the elastic of my boxers, shucking them from my body and tossing them behind me. A chorus of cheering and whistling came from behind me.

“God damnit,” Dean growled and kicked his own boxers off.

Someone yelled, ‘Now that’s twelve inches!’ as he undressed completely.

“I hate you!” He threw them at me.

“No, you don’t,” I said.

Bare assed, we both darted into the library. The crowd followed, if only to watch us get arrested by campus security. Dean and I had cuddled more than once behind campus bars and I had a feeling today would be no different. Dad would be pissed, causing such a scene with a reporter around, but Mary hadn’t come to Hilly’s, Clementine had.

“Hey!” The librarian yelled as we darted in the doors. “Not again!”

“ Again ,” Dean hollered back at her, beet red and a huge smile on his face. “I’m sorry, just like, cover your eyes.” He made the motion, laughing hard as he narrowly avoided smashing into a desk full of girls. “Ladies.” He bowed, his hands slapping down to his dick and doing nothing to conceal how naked he really was as he dashed to the left.

The security guards came out of nowhere, from either side of the library, forcing us down the center aisle. “Bet you I can last longer,” I yelled out as Dean spun around a guy just trying to find a book, side-swiping him. The book went flying, but before it could drop to the ground, I scooped it from the air and handed it back to him.

“I know you can’t last longer.” Dean looked back at me.

I missed that grin , I thought. Smile wide, the playfulness of who Dean Tucker truly was flooded in and puffed out his chest.

“Deal.” He stuck his head out around the aisle. “Hey! Darcy!” He yelled at someone I couldn’t see but dread washed over me.

“You’re a dirty, fucking, cheating liar! Anyone but Darcy!”I started to panic, looking around for exit strategies. The random dude beside me just shrugged his shoulders, doing everything he could to focus on my face and not my junk.

“I know you want him!” Dean yelled.

Darcy Matheson was the fastest campus security and my mortal enemy.

“You’re such an ass!” I chucked a book at Dean but he dodged it.

“Don’t throw books, Cael.” Dean threw his head back in laughter, eyes growing wide as he caught sight of someone. “He’s over here!”

Darcy hated my guts after the impromptu karaoke in the auditorium during a graduation. One that had ended with me in handcuffs and on the news. The incident that had almost gotten me suspended from Harbor.

“Cael Cody.” Darcy rounded the aisle as Dean slipped from his grasp. His eyes narrowed on me, trapped in the cramped aisle. “Don’t move.”

“Can we talk about this?” I darted to the next aisle and he followed, blocking my exit. “I had no idea those girls were your daughters, or I would have never kissed them during that Queen song! I mean, what are the chances that your twins were up there during that rendition of Under Pressure?” I backed up a step and Darcy’s fingers flickered to the taser on his belt.

I cocked my head to the side, the tingle of adrenaline coursing through me.

“Oooh, Darcy. Are you going to tase me?” I gasped in fake outrage, it might actually be a little fun to be tased.

“More than once,” he huffed.

“Will it tickle?” I purred and ran a nervous hand through my hair as I scoped for an exit.

“Sure, kid,” he snapped and ran toward me.

But I was faster. I spun on my heels before he could unbutton the taser and took off down the next aisle and up the stairs to the second floor of the library. A crowd had formed inside, cheering on Dean as he darted in and out of the aisles, hands over his junk as Cole, affectionately known as ‘mall cop’, and Lionel, who was so old he should be in a wheelchair, chased him. Ella and Clem watched on from where they leaned against the help desk with wide smiles on their faces as Dean wiggled free from between the two guards' grasps.

I needed to distract him if I was going to win. Darcy was playing fast and dirty with volts of electricity, and eventually, I was going to go down hard.

Whistling loudly, fingers between my lips, Dean almost tripped over a rogue book bag on the floor. Lionel closed in on him again but Dean managed to juke him and climbed over a chair and across a row of tables. The students were screaming and clapping as he darted back toward the entrance of the library. It wasn’t a matter of whether we’d be caught, we would; it was just about who would go down first.

“If you get caught before me, you take dinner duties for a month!” I holler down, gripping the railing and leaning over it. He lifted his hand in the air, flipping me the middle finger and launching himself from the tabletop, landing on the floor with a thud, twirling away from Cole and into a crowd of people.

“Mr. Cody, get your genitals off my glass!” The librarian screamed from the main floor and I stepped back in laughter, seeing the print I left.

“It’s art,” I said as Darcy appeared at the top of the stairs, out of breath. His red hair was sticking to the back of his neck, and sweat was building around his collar and armpits. “You agree with me, right?” I pointed to the smudge, but he wasn’t amused.

“Just stop running,” he huffed.

“Sorry, sugartits, I have a bet to win!”

“Cody!” He yelled as I jumped back from the railing. Weaving through the tables of studying students, I made for the emergency exit along the back wall.

“Excuse me.” I sneaked through a group of guys, not daring to look over my shoulder for Darcy as I focused on my only exit strategy. “Shit.” My shoulders slumped when I saw it, the door was padlocked.

“Now, Darcy, I’m pretty sure that’s illegal!” I turned with my hands covering myself, knowing he was there. “That’s a fire exit!”

“And your favorite escape route,” he added. There was a sick grin of accomplishment on his pudgy face as he popped the button on his campus-issued holster. “Don’t lecture me on rules when you've partaken in public nudity on campus more than once a year.” He stared at me as he said it, his fingers sliding over the handle of the taser.

“We’re even after this Darcy, alright?” I put my hands out to the side. “Wait!” I hollered and put my hand up to him as he aimed. “If I pee, don’t tell anyone?”

Amusement flickered across his face. “I’m framing the picture I’m about to take and putting it in the trophy case in the main office.”

“There’s no way the Dean approves–” My words were silenced by the sound of snapping electricity soaring through the air.

The muscle cramping was the worst as the prongs of the gun dug into my stomach and sent shock waves through me. I dropped to my knees, my body shaking as the electricity wreaked havoc on my nervous system and turned my vision hazy. It was the worst feeling I had ever experienced and quite possibly the most exhilarating.

Darcy knelt beside my head. “Truce?” He stared at me as I curled into a ball to ride out the aftershocks. Even if I wanted to make a snide remark, I couldn’t feel my tongue or my lips to use them. Darcy laughed at my suffering. “Good. Stay out of my library.”