Chapter 38

"Let's get you home, you're shaking." Cody said and started to lead me back to the house. "Let's never speak of this again." I suggested. "Are you ashamed of me?!" He pretended to be offended. "No, I just think it's that corny." "You're into all that chick flick, sloppy, lovey shit." "You're a seventeen-year-old guy. You shouldn't be into that." "I'm not." He laughed and opened the door.

"Can we have some towels?" I called. Mom and Auntie Julie went rushing upstairs and then came back down. Auntie Julie wrapped me up in a towel like I was five while Mom did the same to Cody. "Go sit in front of the fire, I'll make you some hot chocolate." Auntie Julie said and went off.

"We should go out in the rain more often." Cody laughed and went into the living room. I followed him and sat down by the fire. "You look like a drowned rat." Will laughed. "Charming." I said sarcastically. "We were expecting you home straight away, what were you doing in the pouring rain for half an hour?" Uncle Mark asked.

I looked at Cody with a smirk. "Oh come on! You're seventeen, man!" Will half-shouted with a groan. "What were they doing?" Uncle Mark asked in confusion. "All that girly, smushy stuff, like kissing in the rain." "Come on, dude. Give yourself some respect." Uncle Mark moaned. I giggled at them.

Mom and Auntie Julie came in with our mugs of hot chocolate and handed them to us. "We'll clear off in a bit and you can make up your bed." Auntie Julie told Cody. "Okay. I'm gonna have another shower before bed though." "Yeah, me too." I agreed.

"Look at the pair of you." Mom laughed. "What?" Cody asked. "They've always been like this. If there was something that they shouldn't be doing they'd be first to do it. Even when they didn't get along, they'd do it just to make us mad." "It was a love/hate relationship, then?" Auntie Julie asked. I shook my head quickly. "I really really really hated him." I comfirmed. Cody stayed quiet though.

"Cody?" Will awaited his response. "Oh yeah, I hated her too." He nodded. I smiled at him which made him smile back. "Alright well, we're gonna leave you alone now." "Okay." I said. "No, you're going upstairs too." Mom told me. "I know. I'm having a shower." I smiled and went into the kitchen with mine and Cody's mugs.

After my shower I went downstairs. The living room was empty so I got into Cody's bed and waited for him. He soon appeared and got into bed too. "You said that Cara called, is everything okay?" He pulled me close to him. I laid on my back and he laid on his side, resting his weight on his elbow.

"Yeah. The doctor said that she's going to be early, any time from now!" "That's great!" "I know but I wanna be in Cali when it happens so that I can be there." "I swear you're not allowed in the room?" "Obviously I'm not going to watch her give birth but after, I wanna see the baby as soon as it's born." I smiled.

"You're gonna be a good auntie." "I am. And you're gonna be a good uncle." "Uncle? I'm sorry but we're not married." "But you're gonna be the baby's uncle." I frowned. Cody sighed and smiled at me. "Of course." He leaned down and kissed my nose. "Good boy." I giggled. "You're my good girl." He smirked and slowly slid his hand up my leg.

"No touchy." I pushed it away. "Touchy?" He laughed. "Mhm. There will be none of that as long as we're in here." "Let's go outside then." "Classy." I scoffed which made Cody laugh. "I'm just joking." "You're not that desperate then?" "Funny one." He rolled his eyes and laid flat next to me. "Shh. It's sleepy time now." I kissed his lips and then cuddled up to him.

I was woken up in the morning by someone getting into the bed. I opened my eyes to see George laid next to me. Cody was gone. "G'morning, mate." I smiled. "Mommy's making bacon." "Yummy." I proped up the pillow and sat up.

A few minutes later everyone came into the living room. Cody passed me a bacon sandwich. "Thanks." I smiled at him. He got into bed next to George and took a bite from his own. "Here's your one." Mom gave George his. Lilly sat on the end of the bed while everyone else found a seat and sat down too.

"Mine's in squares and yours isn't." George looked at Cody's plate. "That's because I'm bigger than you." "No! I'm bigger, look at my muscles." George knelt up and showed Cody his muscles. Cody laughed and flexed his. "Look at me, with my massive muscles." I mocked him. "He started it." Cody blammed. "Yeah, blame the four-year-old." I rolled my eyes. Cody laughed and carried on eating.

"So what's up for today?" "I don't know if you've noticed but it's still pouring rain." Mom pointed out. "So we're just gonna be inside for the whole day?" "Can we go to the water place?" Lilly asked. "The water place?" Auntie Julie questioned. "She was talking about it to Cody on the plane." Lil pointed to me.

"The aquarium?" I asked. "Mhm. You said it has fishies and sharks and sting rays and all of the other things." "I did." I replied and then looked up at Mom and Auntie Julie. "I searched it before we left. It looks really cool there and she loves all the sea animals. It'll be something fun to do while it's raining." I convinced. "I guess we could go and check it out." Mom shrugged.

"Go get ready kids! We're gonna go to the Aquarium!" Uncle Mark clapped his hands. George and Lilly ran out of the room. I laughed at them and then got out of bed to take all of our plates into the kitchen. I turned around to see that Cody had followed me. "I'm going to Rhianna's room. Anything you hear us say in there will have an explanation to it." I kissed his lips.

We all got ready and then went to the Aquarium. The first tank were sea horses. "Your dad called this morning." Cody said. "Oh yeah?" "Yeah. You were in the shower so I answered it." "What did he say?" "He's bought the house." "Which?" "The first one you visited." "I like that one!" I grinned. "He said that you guys move in next week. A week today." "Whoop whoop!"

"What's up, sweetie?" Mom wondered. "Daddy and I have a new house." I smiled. "You're not living with Mommy and me?" Lilly turned away from the glass. "I- Uh.." I looked at Cody. "Hey, look, there's Nemos over there!" Cody pointed. "Nemo!" Lilly shouted and ran off.

"He's a good boy." Mom watched Cody and Will chase after George and Lilly. "But I'm going to have to talk to her about it." "Yes. But not here and that's what he's preventing." "I know." I smiled. "He won't let his girls get hurt, I promise you." "I know that too." I smiled again and walked to a glass wall to look at the fishes.

"Is it hard?" Rhianna stood next to me. "The glass? Well it has to be." I smiled sarcastically. "Going through a divorce." "It's not mine." I laughed a little. "Lauren, I know you. We grew up together and we spent all of our lives hating each other. I know when you're upset and I know when you're hiding your feelings and truth be told, I do actually care about you." "You do?" I looked at her.

"Come on, girls!" Uncle Mark called us. "Give us a few minutes." I said to him. He gave us a strange look and then caught up with everyone. "I do care about you, I just like winding you up." "Okay." "So, how is it?" "It's getting easier. Sometimes I feel like my world is crashing down but other times I know that there's other people to smile for." "I know we've never had a close relationship or even got on," She laughed a little.

"But I just want you to know that I'm here for you. I mean, Trey's obviously busy now and Lilly doesn't understand this stuff. I know the family and if you ever want to talk to someone who might have the slightest of understanding, I'm right here." She smiled at me. "Well, thank you." I smiled back.

"We should catch up with everyone though." I started to walk in the right direction. Rhianna walked by my side. "I really admire you." "For what?" "Not only did you have enough courage to start a modelling career while you're so insecure about yourself but also you started a musical career while not liking to be in the spotlight. And now you're going through this hard time and keeping a smile on your face, honestly it's amazing." "Thank you." I couldn't help but smile.

"But I have to keep a smile on my face, it's my duty as a big sister." "I'm proud of you." She said. "Thanks. Did you get any further with wanting to model?" "I gave up, it kind of got boring. I want to do it but not while I'm young." "Well, I wish you luck for the future." I smiled. "Thanks." She laughed a little.

"This is nice." I sighed happily. "Yeah." "We should get along more often." I looked over at her. "We should." Rhianna agreed. "Oh and I'm sorry if I caused anything between Cody and you last night, I kinda knew he was outside." "It's fine, we had some fun in the rain." I said.

"Hey, where you been?" Cody put his arm around me as we caught up with everyone. "With Rhianna." I told him. Cody laughed at me. "No seriously." I said. "Seriously?" "That's what I said." I nodded. "She was being nice. She asked if I was okay and said that she's here for me." "That's strange." "I thought that but then she said that she does care about me but just likes to annoy me, she wanted to make sure I was doing okay."

"How do you feel about that?" "I dunno. She also said she was proud of me and admires me which meant quite a bit because she's the perfect one who makes no mistakes and who everyone loves an-" "You're wrong." "I'm really not." I shook my head. "You're perfect for me." "Oh please." I rolled my eyes. "I don't care how corny it sounds or how much you hate it." He said.

"I'm in love with you and I'll show you that in as many ways as I can until you learn to see yourself the way I do." "You mad?" I teased. "Lauren, I'm not joking around." "Okay, chill." I held up my hands. "You can be in love with me if you want." I allowed playfully. "Forget it." He let go of me.

"Cody, I'm just playing." "I'm trying to be serious." "I'm tired of serious. It's all I've had for the last two weeks." "Fine, I'm not in love with you. It's cool. Our relationship isn't going anywhere. Go have fun." He gestured for me to walk away. "Cody," "Just go." He sighed. "I do love yo-" "Go." He pointed towards everyone. I rolled my eyes and walked away.

"Jellyfish!" I pointed. "Lift me up! Lift me up!" George jumped up and down. I lifted him up and stood close to the glass. George pressed his hands against the glass as he stared at the jellyfish. "Can you pick me up?" Lilly asked. I looked at George and then back to her. "I'll take this one and you hold that one." Rhianna took George off me.

I lifted Lilly up and she pressed her hands against the glass the way George did. "Look at how they're swimming." She giggled. "They're cool." I said. "And guess what, Lil?" I asked her, she looked at me. "They're Daddy's favorite." "I miss Daddy." She pouted. "I do too." I kissed her forehead.

"Look, give the glass a kiss and Daddy will know you love him." I tapped it. "You go first." She said. I pressed my lips against the glass and then watched Lilly do it. "You got gloss on the glass." "Quick! Wipe it off!" I wiped it away with my thumb. Lilly pressed her finger on my lips and then on her lips. "Now I have it on. Just like you." She smiled.

"You're getting big now." I lifted her up because she was starting to slide down my hip. "But you can still carry me though." She rested her head on my shoulder and hugged me. "Are you sleepy?" "Mhm." She nodded. "Let's go find Cody because you're too heavy to fall asleep on me." I laughed and lifted her again.