“Just one kiss!”
I slapped both of my hands one on top of the other, over my mouth and scrunched my nose up at Cody, before turning around and making sure my back was facing him. Is this what always happens after a show when the adrenaline is still in him?
But that’s not the point!
Would you kiss Cody? You would, right? Me either.
But would you do it if there were whipped cream all over his face?! Like literally, traced along his eyebrows, down his nose, covering his cheeks and obviously all over his mouth?! Yeah, if you would do it, oh gosh, just know it I never would, even if kissing him were to be the only way to save my life!
“Come on, baby. Don’t make me rub it on your hair,” he mumbled through the whipped cream all around his lips making me shriek. My heart just, began exercising. I quickly spun around, only to find him lowering his face down on mine like he said he would, making my eyes grow wide.
“Go away!” I yelped as I turned back around, spotting Alli texting on her phone at the side of the stage, in the corner of my eyes. Bingo, I thought, running over to her. “Alli, Alli! Girl, you have to help me.”
She tore her gaze away from her phone and looked up at me with a confused expression, “Yeah?”
“I need you to be my shield. Your brother’s threatening m―”
“There’s only one way to fix that,” her blue, sparkly eyes glistened with mischief as she shot me a little smirk; locking her phone and shoving it into her pocket. Then she drew in a deep breath, and my curiosity couldn’t have grown more. “TOM!” She yelled at the top of her lungs, making me stare.
………what just―what just happened?
What in the heck? What’s she doing? What does Tom have to do with this? I shook every thought and question away and hid behind Alli, making sure I could eye Cody, who was leaning against one of the door frames with his arms crossed tightly across his chest, looking back at me emotionless, from where I was standing at.
Not to mention how obvious his muscles were showing them selves off.
But anyway, that’s not the point. I think he couldn’t hear us.
“What, Alli?” Tom asked the moment he entered the room. He had an eyebrow raised, like he was forced to leave something he was doing (watching Spongebob, really) to come out here. Alli simply shrugged her shoulders, probably with a smirk on her face, but I don’t know because I couldn’t see her from here. She stretched an arm out and pointed at Cody.
Oh, crap. Now I know where this was going.
“WHIPPED CREAM,” Tom screamed with his eyes wide open, seeming like he was going to smile as he turned to Cody, facing him fully. Oh, my gosh. My hand reached up naturally, to clasp over my mouth. I know this. I know this.
Tom’s totally going to lick the whipped cream off Cody’s face!
“Let me lick it off, Cody!” Tom excitedly exclaimed, taking off towards Cody who was getting ready to make a run to save his life. Well, yeah. Alli’s always here to save the day with the help of Tom, all right. I struggled to hide a laugh from leaving my throat, just by watching Cody running all over the little empty space in the room.
“Tom, let go of me!” Cody (actually) squealed, making me and Alli burst out laughing at once. I’ve never heard Cody squeal in all my life! In the period of time in my life that I had gotten to know him, that is. My stomach was beginning to hurt from how much I was laughing already. “Tom, I have sweat on my face, do you really want to lick that off, too?!”
“I don’t care! At least there’s whipped cream!”
“Do you know what the result of this would be?” Alli asked me as she turned around, running her index finger across the bottom of her eyes, stopping at the tip. I let out another laugh. Though, I didn’t know what the result would be, so I shook my head. Oh, well.
She sniffled once before hooking her arm through mine, “Tom would end up licking Cody’s face.”
I let out a small gasp of shocked-slash-surprise-slash-disgust. I would’ve guessed that Cody had managed to get away from his strong little brother instead, if I hadn’t laughed my energy away. I shook my head and pulled the both of us out of the dressing room.
“How many times have you witnessed this?”
She stopped in her tracks, making me stop as well, as she fixed her gaze on the wall in front of us. One of her eyes began twitching as her upper lip began curving upwards, looking like she was thinking of a very bad memory. Needless to say, she’s seen this more than once. “Almost every time he does his first show after a while,” her eyes darted into mine, “you do not want to know how it feels like, watching your little brother lick your older brother’s face.”
“Alli!” Cody’s distinct voice appeared behind us, before growing louder. I jumped slightly at how sudden his voice boomed behind us. “Merinda!” And then the next thing I know, he dashed past us into the nearest toilet, with Tom running in tow of him. “You girls are gonna pay for this!”
“Sure, we call dibs on the bigger room in the next hotel we live in!” Alli yelled back in triumph. Wow, I could imagine her torturing her brother all these years. She seemed so professional, doing this. I laughed at their silliness.
She’s so insistent on making her brother’s life miserable, it’s actually pretty funny. I mean, I sympathize Cody but Alli made this seem so fun and, well, easy and hilarious. Maybe it’s payback to Cody’s constant name-calling aimed at her that twitched a nerve in her, I don’t know.
“Anyway,” Alli said, pushing her naturally silky, blonde hair behind her shoulders, “speaking of which, we should probably go. The car is already waiting for us behind the arena.”
“You two,” Matt wiggled his eyebrows at us with a (hysterical) stern expression, pointing at us with his index finger alternately, “no funny business.”
“Matt, we promise won’t do anything,” I assured him for the last time, letting out a small laugh. He’s the manager, so I don’t really blame him for being paranoid. Besides, I was supposed to room with Alli, while Cody, Tom and Matt were supposed to room with one another.
But since Cody begged Matt to switch the sleeping arrangements, now Tom and Alli are rooming together and Matt’s sharing a room with the bus driver. I didn’t really have a say in it but at the same time, I didn’t really care, to be honest. All I needed was a comfortable bed to sleep and then I’m satisfied already.
“But then,” Cody began after a few seconds, “Matt, I’m a guy. I’m turning sixteen soon and I have hormones. And we’re both guys, and I’m sure you know I have my needs sometimes so I won’t be able to control myse―” I whacked him in the stomach and shot him a disapproving look before feeling my cheeks heat up in embarrassment.
Oh, wow. Nice going, Simpson, very, very, extremely nice going. Cough, not. I cleared my throat awkwardly while Cody chuckled and looked up to a even more paranoid Matt. “Don’t worry, Matt. He’s kidding.”
“Yeah,” Matt nodded, looking more skeptical than ever. “Better. Or else I wouldn’t know how to inform your parents and stuff. You two are still young.”
“No, don’t give us the sex talk,” Cody groaned, slipping his arms around my waist as I slapped my hands over my face, trying to block out my heated cheeks. Really? Is Matt really going there now? Oh, goodness. “We’ll see you tomorrow, Matt, bye.”
And then Cody shut the door.
“I’m gonna shower,” I said, as I spun around to walk back into the room.
Well, no such luck. Why? The next thing that happened was pretty much a blur to me―I was pinned to the wall, with Cody’s arms at either sides of my head. I crossed my arms over my chest and allowed my eyes to snap up into Cody’s slightly green eyes.
“Your eyes changes colors a lot,” I pointed out in a random blurt, feeling a blush creeping onto my cheeks as he chuckled. Well, I didn’t have to point it out, I’m sure he’d long already known. Wow, thanks Merinda, also known as Captain Obvious.
Lowering his forehead onto mine, he slowly slid his hands down the wall until they reached my hip level. “You haven’t kissed me.” Oh, my heart, oh. At least his whipped cream-less now. I pulled my head back and rested against the wall before smiling, trying to ignore how fast my heart was beating at how intense this was slowly becoming.
I hope I didn’t break Matt’s rule.
Then again, you only live once. And for my case, I only live once for a short while, while the rest live longer. I don't really have a problem with that, to be honest. Just saying.
“After I’ve showered,” I stated, and almost managed to get myself out but he was too quick for me; he already had one of his muscular arms secured tightly around my waist, stopping me in my tracks.
Suddenly, there was a penetrating pain in my kidneys, letting me know that my illness was reacting all over again, making me cringe. Seriously? At a time like this? I hope Cody didn’t catch my expression though. I didn’t think I was going to let him know about this any time soon.
But my fear came true; the moment I felt Cody’s arm stiffen around me, I knew what was coming next. “Baby, what’s wrong? Am I hurting you?” He instantly loosened his grasp and cupped his other hand on my hip. The pain was only worsening. But, for Cody, I’m going to mask it over.
Drawing in a quick deep breath, I flashed him a small smile. “Nothing’s wrong, you didn’t hurt me, Cody.” And I reached my hands up to cup his face in my hands before leaning in, kissing him square on the lips. It wasn’t like the kind of heated kiss though. It was like a peck―a lingering peck.
Though, before the pain could twitch again, reminding me once more that it was in my body, I pulled away slowly, and in the gentlest way possible, pushed Cody’s hands off of me and dashed ran for the bathroom.
What sucks is the fact that I already am not going to live long. If this pain is going to appear and hurt me every single time I’m actually feeling good about the moment or myself or about something, then I’m going to leave earth with no complete blissful moments.
The pace my heart was beating at was slowly ceasing and going back to its normal pace, making me sigh.
I pushed the door to a close before swiftly locking it as I rested my figure against the cooling object, bearing with the pain that was eating me alive.
I don’t know when Cody’s going to realize I’m not as healthy as he is, but I’m more than certain that he’s already growing suspicious about my health. Heck, I think he has always doubted my health ever since the incident at the beach. I mean, ever since then we’ve been hanging out so often and sometimes the pain comes after me and he’s there and he would always notice and there’s no hiding anything anymore.
I just kind of hope he wouldn’t leave me. I know he’s not that kind of person based on how much I already know him, but― I just― I can’t… I just can’t help allowing that thought to wander around my head you know?
The time will come for me to tell him.
Maybe God will send me a sign one day during tour. He’d signal me to let Cody know and by then, I would’ve already prepared myself to make my leave.
That must be it.
Soon.