My Boyfriend, Me, and His Brother

Chapter 13

After about an hour of watching T.V. with Devon, the front door opened and slammed shut.  My stomach dropped and I felt Devon tense under my feet. We both knew who it was and although I knew Cody and I needed to talk, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to it.

After a few seconds, Cody entered the room. I watched him walk through the doorway, looking disheveled and frustrated, and for a second, I just wanted to walk over and comfort him. Then I remembered how he was embarrassed of me and decided he didn’t deserve my comfort. He stood there silently, just staring at me before finally speaking up.

“Ode, can we talk about what happened please?” Cody begged. He sounded defeated, like he knew I was still mad and he thought I would say no. I tried to not feel sympathy for him, but he just seemed so sad and I felt my anger disintegrate a little. Definitely not completely dissolved, but enough for me to give him a small smile.

“Yeah. Let’s go-“ I began to suggest that we go to his room but Devon interrupted before I got the sentence out.

“I’ll leave. You two can talk here.” Devon stated, somewhat roughly removing my feet from his lap and quickly walking out of the room without a backwards glance. I sighed, knowing he was upset but deciding that I already had enough to deal with at this moment with Cody. I’d handle things with Devon later.

Cody walked over and took the seat Devon had just occupied. He was stiff, obviously not sure whether or not he was forgiven. He wasn’t.

“Ode, I’m sorry.” He sighed, looking at me, looking genuinely apologetic.  I didn’t respond. I sat there quietly, waiting for further explanation and reason to forgive him. “I- it’s not that I’m embarrassed of you Ode. I love you more than anything and I couldn’t be more proud to have you as my girlfriend. It’s just that, I guess, sometimes your immaturity makes me uncomfortable.” Cody finished, looking down at his hands in his lap. I raised my eyebrows at him, anger flaring up again. He had just made things worse.

“So, you left for an hour so that you could think about what happened and figure out how to make this situation better and you came up with ‘my immaturity makes you uncomfortable’? Seriously?” I hissed, knowing that I was sounding like a bitch. I didn’t care. He was basically just telling me in a nicer way that the way I acted embarrassed him. Cody’s head snapped up to look at me when he heard the anger in my voice. He looked frustrated, like the fact that I didn’t understand his point was annoying him.

“Ode! Can you seriously blame me? The way you treated Shelby was extremely rude and I was the one who had to smooth things over. You just treat people like crap sometimes, myself included.” Cody snapped back, getting angrier. I leaned back, surprised by his words. I mean, I knew I treated him like crap sometimes, but I hadn’t expected him to come out and say it.

“I treated Shelby like that because she deserved it. Remember when you two kissed? Or everything that went down between her and Devon? She’s a crappy person, so I treat her like crap. And you treat me like crap sometimes too Code. It’s not just me here. “ I argued back. I realized that this conversation wasn’t going to end well but I just couldn’t bring myself to end it. These were things that had clearly been bothering Cody for a while and I was curious as to how he actually felt.

Cody looked at me incredulously and ran his hands through his hair. “Odette, she’s not a crappy person. That’s bullshit. She’s actually really sweet. Devon and I are both at fault when it comes to the things that happened between us. I was the one who kissed her. And Devon broke up with her but now they’re getting back together so that one’s an invalid argument. I know you don’t like her. I just don’t understand why and that pisses me off because it makes me feel like you have a secret. And I may not always be perfect, but I sure as hell treat you better than you treat me.” Cody ranted, nearly yelling by the end. When he mentioned me having a secret reason for not liking Shelby, my heart nearly stopped. Cody was a lot more perceptive than I thought.