Chapter 31

"So how did you sleep?" Cody asked as he watched me put on my seat belt. "Fine." I smiled at him. "Just fine?" "Perfect." I said sarcastically. "I was just asking." He started to pull out of the driveway. "Where did you sleep?" He asked. I glared at him and then went back to looking out the windscreen.

"I'm just asking because I-" "Because you want to make sure I didn't share a bed with another guy. I didn't share a bed with him. I shared a couch with him." I smiled. "You shared a couch with him?" "Yes." "You shared a couch with him?!" He said a little louder. I nodded. "You said you weren't going to do anything!" "I didn't do anything. I said I wasn't going to do anything I wouldn't do with Alli and last time I checked, Alli and I fall asleep on the couch or in bed together all the time."

"So you tricked me?" "I didn't trick you. Can we please just drop it?" "I'm just tired of being scared that you're going to hurt me to show me how I hurt you." "Well stop being scared then." "I can't. I literally could not sleep last night, not one bit, all I could think about was how he could of had his arms wrapped around you and his lips against yours all night." "Cody, chill." I squeezed his leg.

He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "You're sleeping with me tonight. Even if I have to nail you to the freaking mattress, you're sleeping with me." He said which made me laugh. "I need a cuddle." I said. "I need to give you a cuddle." He agreed.

"Where are you taking me?" "Where do you want me to take you?" "I need to speak to Matt. I could call him and we could arrange a meet up?" I said. "How come you need to see him?" Cody pulled over. "I want to speak about the New York trip and get all the information I need as it's only a few days away." "Okay." He accepted. I rung Matt and we said we'd meet at Starbucks.

"Can you get me a Latte?" I asked Cody as I sat at a table. Cody nodded and went to order our drinks. Matt came in after a few minutes and we all sat together. "So we leave Friday night, yes?" I comfirmed. "Yeah, Friday night and then we'll arrive early Saturday. You'll need to be in the building for the interview at seven the same morning." Matt explained.

Cody and I made a face at each other which made Matt laugh. "When is sleep scheduled?" Cody asked. "On the plane or after the interview. You need to be in the building for the photoshoot at five on Sunday morning and the shoot is almost ten hours long. And then you fly home after." "Uh-huh." I nodded. "How are you okay with this?" Cody looked at me.

"I can sleep anywhere." I shrugged. "I'll have to talk to Dad, he mi-" "Your dad's spoken to me. He can't come with us because he's got things to do." "What things?" "Things that are vital to starting out with his new career." "Oh." I looked at the table. "And I'm only going to be with you until Saturday as I have business to deal with in Boston and can't be with you guys in the city." "Okay, so we'll have to work everything out ourselves on Sunday?" I guessed.

"No. Scooter will take over, he'll meet you at the photoshoot and help you out with anything you guys need. He'll also be dealing with any of the extras that you'll need." "Wow. You planned this well." I laughed. "It's my job to take care of you." Matt smiled. I smiled back.

"What time do we need to be at the airport on Friday?" "I've arranged a taxi to pick you up from Cody's at eleven. Is that okay?" "That's good." Cody nodded. "Okay, that's everything." Matt said. "I need you to take me shopping." I looked at Cody. "You have a whole closet of clothes and you went shopping before we went to Australia. You don't need anything else." "I do." I pouted.

"Alright, I gotta go get the groceries now." Matt finished his coffee. "See! He does things for his wife." I stuck my tongue out at Cody. "Wife. We're not married." "I need clothes for my closet at Dad's." "I'm not being guilt tripped into this." Cody refused. "Bye guys." "Bye!" I waved to Matt as he left.

"I have an idea." I sat up. "Go on then." Cody got ready to listen. "We go home and sort through all my clothes and then we go shopping." "No." "I don't wear half of them!" "That's not my problem. I'm not sitting there and watching you try on twenty outfits. You've got the wrong Simpson." "Take me shopping and then Alli can help me go through my clothes."

"I'm not taking you shopping!" He raised his voice. "Take me home then. I'll go shopping with your sister." Cody rolled his eyes and got up. "Two hours. Nothing more." He gave in. I grinned and jumped up. "Let's go!" I grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the coffee shop.

"What about these ones?" I held up some white shorts that look like a skirt. "Alli has that." "I know." "So why buy them if you can wear Alli's?" "Oooh what about black ones?" I walked to the shelf. "Or you could just ignore me." He shrugged. "Alli doesn't have them in black." "You don't have to buy everything you see." He took the shorts off me. "But I do." I took them back.

"And anyway, I'm not buying them." I turned to look at him. "You are." I smiled and turned the corner. "I think we're done." Cody took the clothes from my hands. "No, you said two hours." "It's been an hour and a half and look at everything you've bought." He held up his arms which had bags on them.

"Ooooh!" I spotted some silver, sparkly heels and ran over there. I heard Cody huff. They were stilettos and were sparkly but the heel was just shiny. "They'll look good with the jeans I bought." I said. "You know what would look better?" Cody offered. "What?" "My money in my pocket." "I disagree." I put the heels on top of the pile in his arms and walked to the counter.

"What a lovely boyfriend." The woman behind the counter observed. I grinned at Cody who glared back at me. "Thank you." I smiled at her. "That'll be 156 dollars, sir." "Damn." I mumbled. "Imagine having to pay that for every shop you dragged me into." Cody said while passing the money over. "You earn more than I do." I pointed out.

"I'd like to keep it that way." He muttered. "Do you need held with all the bags?" The woman asked. "Don't worry, she can carry them all." Cody passed me five bags. "Thank you." I smiled at the woman and we left the store.

"Can we pick up Alli on the way home?" "You girls can walk home. I'm not coming to watch a three hour fashion show." He said while watching the road. "Can you just drop us at home? I don't know how we'd carry everything." "Shoulda thought of that before you bought it." He smiled sarcastically.

"Codyyyyy!" I moaned. "Does Alli even know she's going to your house?" "Yes. I rung her while you were in that surf store." "I'll take you home and then I'll bring you both back later too, is that okay?" "Yes." "As long as you buy me a chinese." He said which made me giggled. "I will." I nodded.

"Als!" I greeted as she got into the car. "Hey! How was your day?" "It was good, your big brother took me shopping." I grinned at Cody. He gave Alli a look through the mirror which made her laugh. "Thanks for filling in for me last night." I thanked. "She knew where you were?" Cody switched on. I nodded.

"How else do you think I knew to say she was in my room?" Alli laughed. Cody went quiet, I knew that either of us was going to get an earful tonight. Or maybe even both. "Just call me when you're ready." Cody stopped on the driveway. Alli thanked him and got out. "Thank you for today." I tried to kiss his cheek but he moved to the side. "I'm not in the mood, Lauren. I'll see you later." He forced a smile. I sighed and got out of the car.

"What's wrong with him?" Alli asked as we got all of my new clothes from the trunk. "He's not in the mood. It's the Marcus thing." I told her. She nodded and closed the trunk. We went into the house and said hello. "We're going to clear out my closet." I told Mom and went upstairs. "Where's your dad staying?" Alli sat on the bed. "He's living with Trey until he finds a house and then we're gonna move in together." I smiled.

"Are you happy with that decision?" "Well I chose to do it." I shrugged. "But are you happy with it?" She asked. "I dunno, sure." I smiled. "Lauren, I'm not Cody. You can tell me what you really think and I'm not going to try and change your mind." She held onto my hand.

"I just don't want to be without my little sister. Imagine having to live in a different house from Tom, you'd hate it." "I know." "And I won't be happy here because I don't have a close relationship with Mom. I mean, we get along well and stuff but, you know?" "I know exactly what you mean." "Cody won't let me bring up Lilly. He says it's not about her and it's about me but I'm scared for her." I tried my best not to cry.

"It's going to get easier." Alli stood up and hugged me. "And, you could get Trey to teach you to drive and then you can get your own car and get a license and you could see Lilly whenever you want." She said. "That's a good idea." I approved. "But for now Cody'll have to do." I said which made her laugh.

"So I wanna empty the whole closet and go through it all. I was thinking, the things I don't want we could take to charity?" I told her. "That's a good idea." Alli agreed. "Let's get started then!" I went into the closet. It took us a while to empty the whole room and sort it into piles. "Do you wanna start packing up your room while we're here?" "Yeah, that's a good thought." I said.

"I'll go get boxes." I ran downstairs and collected some before going back up. "I have clothes at your house too and some of this might be yours." I told her. "I gathered." She giggled. "Oh my gosh! Do you remember these?!" Alli picked up a red shirt that said 'thing 1' on it. "Yes! That was so long ago!" I took it off her.

"It was like two years ago when we went to Disneyland." "That was so fun." I smiled at the memory. "Remember, I poured my slushy on Cody's head and it was dripping down him." I giggled. "Yeah!" Alli laughed. "Why did you do it again?" "Because he called me baby for not wanting to go on a ride." I remembered. Alli laughed and took the shirt back.

"You're keeping this." She put it on the bed. "Do you still have yours?" "Yeah." She nodded. Her one said 'thing 2' on it. It took us around three hours to sort the closet which now seems empty and then we began to put the things that I don't use every day in boxes.

"So your jewellery box is going in but do I put your ring in it?" Alli held my promise ring. I took it off her. "No." Alli smirked at my protectiveness. "When are you going to put it back on?" "You sound like your brother." I rolled my eyes. "It's been two weeks nearly." "He slept with my best friend." I stated bluntly.

"What?!" "Sorry, one of my best friends." I rephrased. "He did what?!" She repeated her question. "He slept with Madison." "Why didn't you tell me?!" She dropped the box. "You didn't know?" "No! Why didn't you tell me?!" "Because it wasn't worth the drama." I picked up the box that she dropped. "When did he do that?" "When we broke up." "Well that's better than doing it while you're together but still, it's wrong!" She said.

"I know that. The worst thing was he didn't even tell me. Madison had to tell me." "Are you guys still friends?" "I guess so. We haven't spoken since, I think she's waiting for me to talk to her first but I just haven't go round to it." I shrugged. "How are you not mad at this?" "Because it's happened. Getting mad won't undo it." I slid my ring onto my wedding finger.

"Take that off." Alli demanded. "No, it's pretty." I looked at it. "Take it off!" She shouted. I quickly took it off. "Calm down, Alli. It's like months ago." "You don't get it, do you?" She took the ring and threw it across the room.

"As long as you keep forgiving him, he's going to keep doing these things. You forgave him with Jenna after a week or two, with Carrie it took a few months and with Madison? It took a few minutes! What the hell is wrong with you?! He's a complete jerk and you're letting him get away with it!" She scolded me.

"That's your brother that you're talking about." I defended. "I don't care if he's my flipping father, he's acting out of order and you're letting him. He's just walking all over you!" "Whatever." I went to pick up my ring. "If you put that back on-" "What will you do?" "I think I'll lose a lot of respect for you." She watched me play with it.

"Alli, I love your brother more than anything." "And don't get me wrong, he loves you too. But he pushes you around and then makes out like he's innocent. I won't let my best friend get treated like that." She refused. "I love, value and respect you way too much to let you put that back on your finger." She said.

After another hour we called Cody to come and pick us up. When he got here we both went outside. "You wanna ride in the front?" "No." She shook her head and got in the back. "Hey, girls." Cody smiled at us. "Hi, pig." Alli glared at him and then looked out the window. Cody mouthed 'what did I do' to me. I shook my head and looked out the window as well.

We collected the chinese which I promised Cody on the way home. Alli went straight to her room when we got in. "What did I do, Lauren?" "It's not my place to tell you." "Okay, I'll just g-" "Let her calm down first." I advised, Cody nodded and we went into the living room.