Spin

Chapter Three

That night was the first time Cody crept into my room in the middle of the night, but it was far from the last. Not making the baseball team seemed to unleash the dark evil that was within Cody's father, and as the months progressed, his father became more evil, his beatings more vicious. Each one broke Cody more than the last. But it wasn't Cody's physical welfare that concerned us the most; it was Cody's spirit. He was being torn apart from the inside out, like his soul was being chipped away. The fire in his eyes dimmed, and he never smiled, never laughed—Cody just stopped caring. To him, he was already dead, so he stopped worrying about it. The same way his mother retreated into herself for safety, death would've been Cody's sanctuary.

On the night that his father took a leather strap to him, beating him relentlessly as his skin blistered and split open, we sat on my bed in silence while I wrapped bandages around the gashes on Cody's arms and dabbed antiseptic on the welts on his back.

I had not run for Spin this time.

"Cody, I'm so sorry," I said softly, my voice thick with tears.

Cody twisted around to face me.

"Don't cry, Lexi," he said, his voice flat and robotic. He didn't even flinch anymore when I touched his raw flesh. My tears flowed nonetheless.

"Lexi," Cody whispered, brushing a tear off my cheek with his fingertips.

"You deserve so much better than this, Cody," I choked out.

"No. It doesn't matter anymore. It's not even important anymore."

To hear Cody speak that way, so resigned on this life, so hopeless, shattered my heart.

"That's not true. It does matter. It is important. How could you not know that by now?" I couldn't help it. It had been growing within me for months now, and no matter how hard I tried to fight it, I knew I couldn't. Cody set off emotions inside of me that I had never felt before and knew I would never feel again. When he looked at me, I felt like the best version of myself, and he never made me feel any less than that.

"Know what?" Cody asked sullenly.

I leaned over and kissed him gently on the lips. I pulled back just as suddenly, leaving Cody stunned.

"That I'm in love with you." The words came out slowly, carefully.

Cody cocked his head to the side, a ghost of a smile flashing across his face.

"What?"

"You heard me." My voice shook. I began to weep, and Cody pulled me into his arms, raining soft kisses on my face, tangling his hands in my hair. I heard a soft, choking sound, and I looked up at Cody. It took me a moment to realize that tears stained Cody's cheeks, and I held him as close as my body allowed, and we cried together. If I had lost Cody, I would've never recovered. And maybe, finally telling him how I felt, had been what he needed to fight again.

Once again, we had saved each other.