Love At First Bite

chapter two

    Spring Break was Cody's fourth favorite school holiday after Christmas break, summer break, and Labor Day. So naturally, he had to spend it all at the movie theater where Gwen, the hottest girl on earth, worked. Cody had had a crush on Gwen since before he could remember. They'd met in preschool, and he was instantly drawn to her brooding attitude and casual hatred toward humanity. Her tits were nice too.

As Cody neared the theater doors, he walked up to the box office and tapped on the glass to get the attention of the boy standing inside. Noah turned, an annoyed look on his face at the possibility of another infuriating customer, but smiled when he registered that the face looking back into his own was Cody's.

"Hey kid," Noah said through the weird vent in the window, "how's it going?" He tugged on the bottom of the vest on his uniform to straighten it out.

"Great!" Cody grinned, "my moms are out of town again so I have all of spring break to spend here and-"

"Annoy the shit out of Gwen?" Noah interrupted, leaning onto the counter. Cody felt his cheeks heating as he vigorously shook his head. "You're a bad liar."

"You're mean." Cody muttered, crossing his arms.
Noah chuckled, "And you're easy to mess with." Cody ignored the smirk on Noah's face and walked inside, channeling his best 'cool guy' demeanor.

Gwen stood at the concessions counter, talking to a short red-headed girl ordering popcorn. Cody walked up, stopping as the fake ginger walked away. Cody smacked a hand onto the countertop and Gwen, startled, looked up to make eye contact. She immediately grimaced.

"Good afternoon, Gwendolyn!" Cody exclaimed, maybe a little too loudly. Gwen, ignoring him, reached around his small frame to help the next customer; some freshman they went to school with named Cameron or something.
After he walked away, Cody neared the counter again, "How's it goin?"

"Cody I seriously can't talk right now." The teal-haired girl said stiffly, turning her back to him again and quickly gesturing at the large group of people who were coming through the front doors. Cody shrugged, this happened pretty much every time he came, and ultimately decided not to bother her. He dejectedly walked to the 'employees only' door to the inside of the ticket booth and opened it, startling the skinny indian boy hiding within.

"Holy shit!" Noah shrieked, running into the cash register behind him. Cody doubled over laughing and Noah registered it was him, a scowl settling over his face.
"You're such an idiot!" Cody yelled, scream-laughing even harder.
"I hate you." Noah said calmly, crossing his arms and turning back to help a woman and her small children who had just approached the window.

Holding in another fit of giggles, Cody dropped on all fours, crouching on the box office floor to avoid being seen by anyone outside, and crawled between the sophomore's legs, reaching for the stash of candy that he kept in here at all times. Noah, noticing him laying on his stomach on the floor beneath him, inhaled sharply, but Cody couldn't see his face as he opened a box of Twizzlers. He flipped over to his back, sticking a single red rope of licorice in his mouth, and folded his arms over his head. Noah continued to avoid eye contact with him, the younger boy's features schooled into an impressive poker face as he conversed with more patrons at the window. After handing them their tickets and watching them walk away, Noah looked down at Cody on the floor.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Cody smirked, speaking around the Twizzler in his mouth, "Eating Twizzlers." The cranky indian boy reached down, snatching the candy out of Cody's teeth. "My licorice!" Cody exclaimed, bolting into a sitting position, "that wasn't nice."

It was Noah's turn to laugh as Cody slowly stood. Cody wasn't exactly short, but seeing as he was a year older than and two inches shorter than Noah certainly alluded to the fact that he was 'vertically challenged'. He crossed his arms and fake pouted, causing Noah's grin to grow wider. Cody wasn't very good at staying angry with Noah since the younger boy was still his best friend. Cody looked away and a smile crept onto his lips,

"You still sleeping over tonight?"

Courtney sat on her bed, turning the mostly-crumpled piece of paper in her hands, over and over. She sighed, flopping dramatically backward onto her comforter. Duncan was bad news. She didn't know why she'd kept his number, only that she hadn't stopped thinking about it all of the rest of her shift and long after she'd returned home. She had tossed her uniform on the bathroom floor and taken a shower, but had stomped back in after getting dressed to fish the scrap from her apron pocket. Heather had not stopped talking about it, and even called her once they were off to pander her for information.

Deciding not to be pathetic anymore, Courtney balled up the paper once more and tossed it aggressively into the wastebasket under her desk. But not before she swiftly entered the number into her cellphone under the contact name: 'Punk-An'. She stared at the screen for a moment, sitting cross legged on her bedroom floor, ridiculous ideas swirling around in her normally-organized thoughts.

'He's nice now, he didn't make any sexual comments today', and 'he can't be that bad' were among some of the more infuriating things she was mulling over.

She slammed her phone onto the carpet with a loud groan.

After a few moments, she calmly picked it up again, thoroughly reminding herself that this was a terrible idea. Nevertheless, she typed.

-"Hey."