"So," London started, lounging out on her silk bedcovers, resting her elbow on her goose-feather-stuff pillow and her head in her hand. "You and Cody."
"Cody?" Bailey replied. She looked up from her Marine Biology textbook. "Yeah, right. To him I'm like any other hen in the coop."
London snorted. "But you're like a hen that is, a hen that is … made of diamonds." She nodded her head to confirm this, a wide and stupid smile on her face.
Of course, Bailey thought, everything with London somehow manages to get back to diamonds. "Well, okay, if he asked me out, I wouldn't say no, you know?"
"So would you say yes?"
"What, yes, that's what I meant by I wouldn't … ah." Two negatives in a sentence confused London easily, Bailey had garnered this within her first week on the SS Tipton. She dipped her head back into her book.
"So do you fancy him?" London was persistent.
"Look, can we maybe not talk about this?" Bailey asked politely. Romance and Cody was a touchy subject.
"Em, no! I'm getting my hair shampooed with liquid gold soon!" London clapped. "In a shampoo!"
Bailey pulled out her notepad and started the questions on reefs. London, although dumb as she was, noticed this as a technique to get out the conversation.
"So do you think Cody's cute? Would you ask him out? Do you want to be his ?" London elongated almost every letter of the word as best she could, but it more or less sounded like girfred. Spelling was never her strong point.
Bailey looked up. "Yes, London. I would say yes to Cody Martin if he asked me out. But I can't."
She packed up her notepad and book and left room, leaving London confused (not the first time).
*
Bailey set up camp on the Sky Deck. She opened her book and continued question two on the Reefs chapter, but couldn't concentrate. Her conversation with London just wouldn't leave her mind.
"You okay, Bailey? You're looking a bit agitated."
Bailey inhaled at too fast a speed and choked. A strong hand clapped her on the back and a strong voice chuckled.
"I didn't mean to startle you, Bailes," Cody said, taking the seat across from her. "Are you ok?"
Bailey gave a half-hearted cough. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just trying to do some homework." Maybe he would take that as a hint to leave.
"Oh, yes, the Reef questions. Did you notice the name error in question nine?" Cody proceeded to explain that he would be writing a letter of complaint to the publisher soon.
Bailey smiled. Closed mouth, corners curling. Small, some might say. But it was supposed to be small. She was smiling at one of the many things that made Cody, Cody. One of the things that she never realised she liked about him so much.
He was just talking and she was just staring. But to her, it felt like time had stopped to let her drink in all of his features, the curl of his fringe and the blue of his eye. The adorable collection of freckles on his cheeks. The way words that London didn't even knew existed flew from his mouth eruditely. With ease. Bailey didn't even know what he was saying anymore - all she could hear was his low, deep voice.
"Bailey! BAILEY! BAAAAAAAIIILEEEY!"
Bailey's eyes blinked with surprise, her cheeks burst with a lovely shade of embarrassment and a hue of shock. Had she really just spent what could have been five minutes staring at Cody? Why did those five minutes feel like the greatest of her life?
"Seems like you've got a fan," Cody mused with amusement, glancing up at the oncoming (and screaming) passenger. "I'll see you later, Bailey."
"Bye," Bailey breathed out. She wasn't even sure he heard it, it was so small and … breathy.
Cody left the scene and Reina entered, flustered and chattering so fast it was like a rat out of an aqueduct.
"Bailey, Bailey!" Reina started, and Bailey, so used to the slow and deep murmurs of Cody, had to squint her eyes to concentrate. "Were you just talking to Cody? How is he, he looks nice today, do you think he might ask me out on a date soon?"
"Well," Bailey said, purposefully, "I haven't had a chance to ask him for you yet Reina." She noticed Reina's face droop a little." But," and although Bailey didn't want to say it, the hopeful look in Reina's eye pulled it right out from her, "I'll ask him next time I see him."
--
Next chapter up soon, like tomorrow, unless the homework load becomes unbearable
