Chapter 6

"Wha..?" "He called me, Cody. I'm so scared." "Are you sure it was him?" I nodded and fell into Cody's arms. "I won't let him near you, baby, I promise." "I'm not your baby." I shook my head. "I plan to protect you like you are." He confirmed.

I looked at Cody's watch. Half past five. "Are you sleepy?" Cody asked. "I'm not. No. Are you?" "I'm okay." "I have an idea." I got up and left the room. I came back with a tonne of board games. I threw them all on the bed. Cody looked through them all. "Twister?" He suggested.

"You're going down, Simpson!" I grinned and started to set it up. "Lemme take off my jeans." He threw them on the bed along with his shirt. I took off my sweats and shirt leaving my underwear on.

"We don't have a ref?" I pointed out. We stood at each end of the mat. "I'll call a body part, you call the color. We'll alternate." He said. I nodded. "Right foot." "Green." We carried on with the game until we were tangled up. "You're gonna fall first!" I giggled. "I'm not!" "Left hand." "Yellow." Cody moved first and fell bringing me down with him.

"I told you." I laughed. Cody looked at me and laughed too. "Best out of three?" He offered. "You just want me tangled up around you." I said and got up. "And if that's true?" "Don't be naughty." I tapped his nose and pulled him up too.

We played two more rounds. I won the first two, Cody won the last one. "What game do you wanna play now?" "I'll set one up. You go get us something to eat and drink." Cody told me. I followed his command. When I came back Cody had set up Jenga.

"Bring it." I sat down in front of the small tower. "We've basically eaten all of Trey and Cara's food." I laughed and placed the bowl of cheetos between us. "Oh well." He shrugged. "You go first." I hugged my knees. Cody gently took a block. I followed.

"Noooo. It's so close!" I moaned. It was my turn again. "Go!" Cody laughed. "Oh my gosh!" I took a deep breath and took my go. "OHHH YES!" I cheered. It didn't fall over. "Oh God." Cody studied the crooked tower. "I'll blow it." "Not the only thing you can blow." He smirked at me.

"Be quiet." I nudged him. "Don't ruin my go then." He sat up straight and went in. "Boo!" I tried to make him jump but he didn't budge. "Oh come on." I groaned. "Did your distraction not work?" "No." I giggled and prepared myself.

"That's not fair!" I shouted as the tower fell over. Cody laughed at my reaction. "You pushed it." I narrowed my eyes. "I didn't touch it." He continued to laugh. "Look at the sun." I noticed the sun rising. "Let's go watch it." He suggested and grabbed my hand. We went outside and sat on the swing bench. Perfect view.

"It's so gorgeous." I whispered in amazement. "Do you think it knows it's beautiful?" He asked me. "Being that beautiful, you gotta know it." He watched me. I realized what he was saying. My cheeks started to heat up. "Aw look at little Lon." He laughed. "Blushing and shit." "Shh." I hushed him and stared at the sun.

"We did it, Codes." "We did what?" "We stayed up all night." "And now it's bed time." He said and got up. I took one last look at the sun which was now safely in the sky. "Let's go." We ran inside and to my bedroom.

The two of us pushed the empty bowl, games boxes and clothes on the floor as we scrambled under the blankets. Cody pulled the covers over us and secured his arms around me. "Thank you for tonight. For being my escape." "It was my pleasure." He kissed my head and rested his on the pillow.

My head rested on his shoulder. My hand was placed on his bare chest. Cody's arm wrapped around my waist and then other hand rested on my thigh with his lips against my forehead. What could be better?

I was woken by the sound of someone clearing their throat. "What time do you call this?" My father asked. I groaned. I sat up and noticed Cody was no longer here. "That's a good question. What time do you call this?" "It's half past two. You have a high school to be at." "I was tired."

"That's not good enough." "You knew where I was. School must have told you earlier I wasn't there." "What's going on, Lauren?" His tone changed. He stepped over the mess on the floor and sat on the bed. "What do you mean?" "What I say.. What's going on? What's different?"

"Everything's different." I looked into his eyes. "I feel like I have no one anymore. I have my sister and that's it. Lilly doesn't understand half the things that I have to say so I can't say them. I can't do it. Trey left. Mom and you work all the time and when you're not working you're fighting. My world fell apart, but by bit." My eyes wondered the floor. Avoiding Dad's eyes.

"I had no idea how you felt, Lauren." "That's the thing. You're here never to listen. Your fighting hasn't just effected me. Lilly asked me if you and Mom still loved each other the other day. She asked if you were going to leave her. She looked me dead in the eye and asked if our family was going to fall apart. She's seven, Dad. She shouldn't be worrying about that, she should be worrying about what celebrity to love or what sparkly outfit to wear to the next school disco. It's not healthy. She needs someone. She's aching and she's so little." A tear rolled down my cheek. "It's not fair." I shook my head.

"I'm losing myself. I've messed up. I've been to so many parties recently and done so many stupid things. It's like I'll do anything to forget about what's going on in my head. There's nothing left for me to do." "I thought you were getting better?" "I've relapsed. He's the only person who makes me truly happy. Cody.." I looked at my notebook which was on the floor.

"Does Cody know any of this?" "Would that really help though? There's nothing he can do when I can't trust him. It's not even that. I can't trust myself to let him in. It's me. It's not him." "So he doesn't know." "He knows some stuff. He doesn't know about the parties or the stupid stuff. He doesn't really know how Lilly feels either." I said.

"Maybe you need to spend time with him? Alone. You seemed happy on Thursday morning after you had babysat with him." "He was here all night." I announced. "All night?" "We didn't go to sleep until like quarter to seven this morning." I smiled as all the memories of last night flashed through my mind.

"So that explains all the mess?" "Yes. I think we cleared up the kitchen though." "Why are you in your underwear? Did he sleep in this bed with you? Did you guys have s-" "We were playing. Be thankful that I feel comfortable around him. We didn't do anything illegal. We just messed around and had fun." "But he slept in here?" "Right here." I patted the bed.

"Get dressed and tidy up. I'll take you home." "Okay." I smiled. Dad left the room, he closed the door behind him. I got up and did what I needed to do. I made sure my notebook was safely in it's hiding place before leaving the room.

"You had pancakes last night?" Dad asked from the kitchen. I giggled and walked in there. "How did you know?" "He pointed to a mark on the ceiling." "That was Cody." I blamed with a smirk. "You kids are too much." Dad laughed and shook his head. "We want our own house." "That's not happening." "Why not?" "There would be shot glasses, alcohol and pancake stains everywhere." "Cody had the idea for the shots too." I said.

"I'm sure he did." "He did! He asked where you kept your beers and he got me a bacardi and coke and then he said we should do shots. Then we got tired and went to bed." "Oh I see, "got tired"." He threw up air quotes.

"We did!" "Been a while for the two of you, aye?" "Dad!" I scolded. "I've used that code way too many times. I was your age once. I "got tired" after drinking a lot of alcohol too." He laughed and got into the car. "Oh boy." I sighed and got in too.

"But don't worry. Your secret's safe with me. As long as you keep yourselves protected and safe, I don't care what goes on behind closed doors." "Okay." I looked out the window hoping the conversation would end there. "You do use protection, yes?" "Steven Miller, would you please be quiet?!" I looked at him.

"It's a natural thing, Lauren." "It's not something to speak to your dad about." "I'll talk to Cody then." "You do that." "I will." "Please don't." I giggled. Dad laughed too. "I do love you, little Miller." He looked at me and then back to the road. "I love you too, Daddy."

"You're always gonna be my baby. No matter how many guys you have." "Forever. Daddy's little princess. Forget Mom, I'm Daddy's girl." "That's my girl." "Lilly can get out too. I was here first." I folded my arms. "She's Trey's little girl anyway." "And Trey's a Momma's boy." "I got my girl." He smiled at me. I smiled back.

"Looks like your fuck buddy's here." Dad said as he pulled up on the drive. "Dad!" I shouted. He laughed and got out the car. "Never say that again." I laughed. "And don't tell anyone?" "I'm speaking to Cody." "Nooo!" "He's messing with my little girl. Of course I'm gonna talk to him." "He's not messing with me." "We've had the talk before. It'll be fine." He said and went into the house.

"Oh look, he's not here." I smirked at Dad. "Hi Ang." I smiled at Angie. "Hey, you found her Steven." She said to Dad as she hugged me. "He knew where I was the whole time." I said. "You did?" Mom looked at Dad. Oh no. "No. I was joking." I smiled sweetly and went towards the stairs.

I ran myself a bubble bath and soaked in it for around an hour. Once I was out I changed into a white tank and grey sweats with fuzzy socks and one of Cody's hoodies. He left loads in my closet so they're mine now. Hehe.

Once I was dressed I went downstairs. I went in the kitchen. My dad and Cody both looked at me. I walked out again and went into the living room. "We've ordered chinese." Brad informed as I sat next to him. "Okay, cool." I rested my head on his shoulder. "Are you tired?" "So tired."

"Lauren, play with us?" Lilly asked me. I sat on the floor and she handed me a remote for the wii. Once again we were playing Mario. Alli joined me. Tom, Lilly, Alli and I sat in a line in front of the TV.

After dinner I went to my bedroom. It was around eight when Lilly came in too. "Are you sleeping?" She asked as she climbed onto the bed. "No. I'm awake." I opened my eyes and looked at her. "Good because I wanted to ask you something." She made herself comfortable.

"What's that?" "Why do you like Cody now?" "What?" "You was hugging in the kitchen. You never used to talk before and now you were hugging." She said with confusion in her voice. "Everyone needs a hug every now and then, Lil." "You don't love him anymore though?" "Don't stress over it. What happens, happens. Leave Cody to me." "I love him." "I know you do."

There was a knock on the door and the Cody came in. "Speak on the devil." I watched him sit on the end of the bed. "I'll leave you to talk." She kissed my cheek. "Are you sleeping in your bed?" "Daddy said he's gonna read me a story." She smiled. I smiled too. At least Dad's trying for her.

"She's special." Cody looked at the door after watching Lilly leave. "I know." "I see you're wearing my hoodie?" "You left so many so I adopted them." "It looks good on you." He crawled up the bed and laid next to me.

"Cody, I think you should go downstairs." I felt a wall start to build it's way up. Cody sighed. Seems like he can tell. "I'm not ready." "Then don't be ready." "Where were you? Where did you go?" "You wanted me to stay?" I gave him a blank look.

"I woke up around twelve and remembered I had things to deal with." "What things?" "That's my business." "Wha-" "It's frustrating isn't it? When people block you out." I rolled my eyes at him. "Your Dad and I had a nice conversation." Cody smirked.

"What did he say?" "He reminded me that you were his baby and didn't want me touching you if I plan on hurting you again." "What did you say?" "That's also my business." "Cody.." I moaned. "That's my name." "You're annoying." I pushed him. I heard Angie call Cody's name. "Right, I gotta go. Sweet dreams." He kissed my cheek and got off the bed.

"Cody?" "Hmm?" He stopped after opening the door. "Kiss me?" I stared into his eyes. He came back over and kissed my forehead. I tried to reach his lips but he stood up straight. "Good night." He smiled softly and then left.