She pretends not to notice how sick he looks if He will pretend not to hear her coughing in the middle of the night.
She promises every day not ever leave his side, if He will never leave her.
They have a silent vow that the Other One, as he's named himself, can see straight through. Don't touch the Other One's camera. Don't chide him about Maureen.
The Other One pretends that he can't hear when She and He are together in the night. He will pretend the same in the day.
He tries not to notice when the Other One comes home drunk, or with some random girl. Or when The Broken comes back from MIT, and the Other One stays up all night drinking Stoli.
This is their code. This is their system, which they honor.
One day, She will have to take him to the hospital. One day, He will have to watch her fade. The Other One's camera will break; it will need to be replaced. The Other One will be an alcoholic. The Broken will commit suicide, or fade from disease. The code of honor will some day be redundant, or pointless, or without existence.
But for now, they can live in ignorance.
They can forget.
Tomorrow, the code of honor might fall.
Twenty-four hours is all it takes.
A heart attack takes you in 7 minutes.
Cocaine reaches the brain in 7 seconds.
How long will it take the code to fall?
This is why they have the back-up code.
No Day But Today.