Chapter 40

I woke to my phone ringing, I reached over and grabbed it. "What?" I answered annoyed. Cody laughed on the other end of the phone. "Do you think you're funny, Mr. Simpson?" I asked. "I do actually." "Well I don't." He laughed again, I sat up.

"How are you feeling today?" "I don't know, I just woke up." "You're not feeling any better?" "Well yeah but I'm still tired." "Come downstairs." "I'm not at your house, you dork." I giggled. "I'm at yours." "Oh right." I layed back down. "So come here." "No, my bed's warm." I refused.

"Fine, I'll come and get you out of bed." He hung up before I could answer. I heard him coming up the stairs and then the door swung open. "Excuse me Miss but it's gone past 12 so you need to get up." I held onto the blankets tightly as he walked towards me.

"Nooo!" I shouted as he started to pull the sheets off me, I didn't let go. "There's food downstairs for you." He layed on top of me. "I'm not hungry." "Come on, you used to eat all the time." He moaned. "I'm sorry for not being hungry." "Tommy wants to see you." Cody looked at me.

"Tell him to come up here." I smiled. "Laurennn..." He moaned, I giggled at him. "Trey's just got back from his friend's house." I grinned. "Really?!" I asked, Cody nodded. I pushed him off me and got out of bed. "Lauren?!" Cody called me back, I walked back into the room.

"What?" I put my hands on my hips. "Everyone's downstairs, you might wanna put something on your legs." I looked down, I only had a shirt and underwear on. "Oh yeah." I quickly put some sweats on and a jacket. "One more thing." He pulled me over to where he was sat on the bed.

"What's that?" I leaned my forehead on his. "I think you know." He connected our lips, I pulled away after a few seconds. "I wasn't finished." He moaned and tried to pull me back, I started to walk downstairs. "I was."

We walked into the living room, I sat down on Trey's lap. "Hey, big brother." I kissed his cheek, he gave me a weird look. "What do you want?" He asked. "What's your girlfriend's name?" I asked cutley. "She's not my girlfriend." "Why did you stay at her house then?"

"Alright, get up." He pushed me off his lap, I went and sat on Cody's lap. "I want to meet her." I told Trey. "She's not my girlfriend, I don't have to meet all the guys you hang out with." "Actually you do." I pointed out. "Alright, whatever." He got up and walked out.

"So I have something to talk to you about." Cody said as we walked along the beach. "What's that?" I looked at him. "It's nothing to smile about." He said, my smile dropped. I was expecting the worst now.

"Well what is it?" "Don't get upset or mad or whatever, okay?" "Cody.." "Okay, so, Matt has planned for me to go to South America for like promo and performances and stuff." "Right, for how long?" "Two weeks." He looked out to sea, I looked at the floor.

"There isn't enough space for you in the hotel rooms or on the bus, I didn't ask because Matt planned it when you'd left Australia. I didn't think you'd ever speak to me again." I didn't say anything. "It won't be for long, just two weeks, we can ca-" "Cody, don't worry about it. It'll be fine." I reassured him.

"Are you sure? You're not mad? Or upset?" "No, I'm fine. A little annoyed you only just told me now but it'll be okay. We'll do it just fine, just gotta trust each other." I smiled, Cody did too. "Mom and dad are going to Canada for two weeks tomorrow." I added.

"Are they?" "Yeah, me and Trey are gonna be loners for the next two weeks. When do you leave?" "Uh.. Three days." He hesitantly confessed, I stopped walking. Cody stopped too and stood infront of me. "Why wait until now to tell me?" I asked annoyed.

"I was scared of telling you, I thought you were going to be upset. I didn't want to do that to you, I hate seeing you sad. I thought that if I didn't tell you it wouldn't come round." He avoided eye contact with me. "I want to stay with you." He stepped closer to me.

"You can't, we can manage two weeks." I hugged him, Cody held me tightly. "Just don't do anything to get me too jealous." He moved back, I laughed slightly. "I have to see friends." "Just not Sam." He told me, I laughed and looked away. Someone caught my eye.

"What the fu-" "Hey guys!" Walking towards us was Jenna. The girl who ruined my relationship, with another girl. Carrie. No, this can't be happening. Something in me wanted to hold onto Cody as tight as I could and never let him go but another part of me wanted to run.

I guess Cody knew what one I was likely to chose as he grabbed my wrist so I couldn't go anywhere. "How do you two know each other?" He asked them as they finally approached. "This is my cousin, Cody. I would introduce you but I'm aware you've already met." Jenna smiled.

Neither Cody nor I knew what to say, I was amazed at how this worked out. I deffinatly didn't see this one coming. "I did tell you this would happen, beautiful." Carrie threaded my hair through her fingers, I slapped her hand away from my face.

"Don't touch me." I warned. "What are you going to do? We both know who's stronger out of us and I don't think you want a rematch." She smiled evily, Jenna laughed. "Did you plan all of this, Carrie?" Cody sounded really annoyed.

"I warned her, if she doesn't leave you alone then I'l-" "I don't care how jealous you are of her! It's not her fault I don't want you anymore and it's not her fault I never asked you out on a proper date. I love her and I'm not going to let her leave me alone so stop with this mess!" Cody raised his voice.

"I didn't force you to kiss Jenna." Carrie folded her arms. "I never said you did but what I am saying is you need to leave my relationship alone." He grabbed my hand and pulled me in the other direction. "Did you see that coming?" I asked.

"I had an idea." No emotion came through in his voice, was he mad at me or just mad? "Are you mad at me?" I asked quitely. "No." "Cod-" "Let's go home." He pulled me off the sand, I just did as I was told. He's too mad to fight with.

Once we got back to mine I went outside with everyone else and Cody went to find Trey. I sat down next to Alli. "What's up?" She asked. "Carrie." "What now?" Alli sat up and spun to face me, I did the same. "Carrie and Jenna are cousins. It was her plan all along." Alli gasped.

"So she was behind it all? She planned for you guys to meet Jenna and for them to get along and go out and then kiss?" "Yes, Alli. She obviously told Jenna the sorts of things Cody likes and things like that." I leaned my head back on the chair and closed my eyes. "How didn't I see this coming?" I asked dramatically.

"And he's going away for two weeks now." She said. "I know, are you going?" "Yeah." I sat back up. "I'm going to be so lonely." I moaned, Alli laughed. "You've got all those cute guys to hang out with though." "I want my cute guy." I folded my arms and frowned.

"I am cute." Cody walked outside and sat down too. "You weren't supposed to be listening to us." "Is there something you're hiding?" "No." "Well then I can listen all I want." He smiled, I smiled back sarcastically as he got up.

"Don't you have to go and pack?" I asked. "Done it. Sleep around mine tonight?" Cody picked me up and sat down on my chair before placing me on his lap. I leaned my head on his shoulder and my legs over his lap. "Awww!" Alli cooed, I giggled.

"How's Jake?" I asked, Alli's face lit up at his name. "He's good, mom's arranging for us to go to Australia for a week after summer ends." "That's not fair! I'm going to be in school." I folded my arms and pouted. "We'll get you out for a week." Cody kissed my forehead.

"Nope, she's doing school properly. We're not letting your relationship get in the middle of her education." My dad said as him and Brad walked outside with a beer each. "That's not fair, dad!" "Lauren, your education is important." "I don't have to go to school, I can be homeschooled." I reminded.

"You're going." Cody dismissed that thought straight away, I rolled my eyes. "So you'd rather me be educated than happy? That's alright, I understand." I got up and walked inside, I plopped myself onto the couch as Cody walked inside.

"Don't be like this, Lauren. It's important that you finish your education." "You get by just fine and you didn't even do high school!" "That's different, I have a career. You don't know what you want to be yet and you need to find out at school."

"I want to be a dancer, I don't need schooling to be a dancer!" I stood up. "You can't ju-" "Are you telling me I can't dream?" I put my hands on my hips, Cody sighed and looked to the floor. "You need to go to school, you can dance on the side."

"It's my dream to be on stage, why can't you see that? Why doesn't anyone understand that? I'm not a five-year-old girl telling you that I want to be a princess when I'm older. I'm a 16-year-old young woman telling you my dream, I really thought you of all people would understand that, Cody. But no, it's fine. I get it, you don't think I'm good enough to do it and that's why you want me to go to school. I'd so much rather you tell me than doing this because telling someone they can't dream is wrong on so many levels." I walked out of the living room.

"Lauren!" Cody grabbed my wrist and span me around to face him. "I was not telling you not to dream, I was telling you to use your intelligence. You're so smart and you have the potentiol to be even smarter, why are you shooting this opportunity down?"

"I want to dance." I looked down, Cody lifted my chin with his finger and looked me in the eye. "You can dance, you're so good at it but you have to finish your education. I'm not letting you throw this away." He spoke softly, I melted into his eyes.

"It's not fair, I want to be with you." I hid my face in his chest, Cody wrapped his arms around me tightly. "I'm not going to stand by while you throw it away, especially not if it's becuase of me." "But Cody, I wa-" "I can get you dancing jobs." He pointed out.

"I can get you your dream, I can help you live it but I'll only do that on one condition." "What?" "You finish your education." "I'll do that on one condition." I looked into his eyes, he searched mine for the rest of my request. "I come to Australia with you." "It's done." He concealed the deal with a kiss.

"Promise?" I broke away, Cody looked down at my hand and ran his finger over my ring. "I promise." I kissed his lips. "And just so you know, you're my dancer. I don't share." He kept our faces close, I smiled. "I don't want to be shared." He kissed me again.

"Cody?!" Angie called him from the kitchen, we both walked into the kitchen. "Yeah?" "Can you go and pick up the pizza?" Mom asked him. "Can't you just get it ordered here?" "No, they're not delivering tonight." "I'm gonna need to drive someone elses car."

"Drive mine." Trey walked into the kitchen. He passed Cody his keys, Cody didn't take them and looked at mom. "Can't he go?" He moaned. "No, you can go." Mom told him, Cody took the keys and walked out of the room. "I'm going too." I said before following him.

"This car is so different to mine." Cody moaned as he pulled onto the highway, I looked out the window. "What are you thinking about?" He observed me, I looked over to him. "Overthinking." "Overthinking what?" "Everything." I rested my head on the head rest and closed my eyes.

"You don't need to worry about anything, baby." He placed his hand on my leg, I opened my eyes as Cody stopped at a crossroad. I looked out the window as he started moving again, I saw a car moving towards us really fast. I knew this driver had no intention of stopping so I panicked.

"Cody!" I shouted. "Stop!" I screamed louder, he slammed his foot on the breaks.. Too late..