Cody and Gwen
By Bill Gelinas
Chapter 1: The Party
"Oh great, if I'd known you'd be here, I never would have come, and I'm sure everybody else would never have come either." Everybody heard me say to Heather. She always found a way to annoy me, either by making me feel like I was a nobody or by telling others that I was a nobody. Good thing nobody here would listen to her, seeing as they all hated her, including Alejandro.
"Go, Cody, you tell her, boy." LeShawna shouted. LeShawna was a nice person who didn't deserve to be bothered by Heather.
"Thanks, LeShawna." I said. I was thinking about one person at the moment, wondering if she was gonna show up.
"Hey, dude, like, are you even awake?" Geoff asked. He was a pretty cool guy to be around, even if Bridgette was always with him. She was much like him, in other words, always in a good mood and hard to make mad.
"Yeah, I'm awake." I answered, opening my eyes. It took me a second to see that Bridgette wasn't with him. That was confusing, because they never left each other, even for a second.
"Hey, like, at least your awake man." Geoff said. Well at least your the only one bothering me, I thought to myself.
"I'm gonna go and get away from everybody, Geoff, know any places around here?" I asked. I just wanted to think. Which I've done a lot of lately.
"Yeah sure man, there's a ho-"he started.
"Trent get away from me, I don't want anything to do with you." A familiar voice shouted. That was Gwen, but why did she sound so mad.
"Gwen, please listen to me-" We all heard Trent begin. Ah, that's why, Trent must have done something wrong and was trying to explain himself.
"You have nothing to say that I want to hear." Gwen shouted back at him. What could he have possibly have done to have her this mad at him, great, all my hard work on getting them together was for nothing. Maybe I'll go talk to her when she's calmed down a bit, yeah that's what I'll do.
"Cody, is that you?" Someone asked, it snapped me back into reality. It was Gwen, she was standing less than four feet away from me, looking right at me.
"What?" I asked. I wasn't sure who asked me that question.
"It is you, Cody." Gwen said. Why was she talking to me, I thought she hated me for what I did on that island.
"Yeah Gwen, it's me. The only me you know." I said. Once again I was confused, I decided not to show it just yet anyway.
"Wow, you've changed so much." she said. I did, but I never really took the time to notice, but now that she mentioned it, my voice was a little deeper, I was taller than Gwen was now, my hair was longer, and I was more mature than I used to be. More laid back to be truthful. Gwen wasn't the first to notice this either. As soon as I walked through the doors to this hotel, Duncan asked me what was wrong with me, he asked if I had done something different with myself. Courtney almost passed out when I walked past her, although I wasn't sure if that was Owen's giving me a hug or if I just looked that good now.
"Thanks." I said. That's all I could come up with, because she looked like a mess and there was no way in hell that I was gonna get thrown around the hotel by Gwen.
"Geoff, that secluded spot, if you'll still tell me." I asked. I really just wanted to get away from everybody.
"Oh yeah man, there's a hot tub on the other side of the hotel." he said.
"Thanks Geoff." I said. And I left to get changed. I found the hot tub. As I sat in the hot water, my thoughts began to run through my head. First they ran towards Gwen, then they ran towards everybody else. Soon after that they became fragmented and broken as I began to relax in the water.
"Hey, do you mind if I join you?" someone asked me. I knew who it was. The only person who'd bug you when you wanted to be left alone: Izzy.
"Actually, Izzy, I was just about to hop out. The tub's all yours." I said. I went back to my room, got changed and sat on the bed. And that's where I stayed for a good half hour until I heard an announcement on the loud speaker. So I got up and headed to the specified location to find everybody already there.
"Dude, where have you been?" Duncan asked me. He really hadn't changed much. The only thing that had changed on him was that his hair was longer. The mo-hawk was gone, his hair was straight and hanging down to the sides of his head. Still green and black though.
"My room." I muttered only loud enough to be heard by him. He knew something was going through my head just from the way he looked at me.
"Dude, if you care about her that much then go and talk to her." he muttered back only loud enough so that I could hear him.
"If I could have your attention please?" Came the voice of Chris. Ah man, I knew there something up about this trip, seeing as everyone from the show was here. Chris walked up to us with Chef at his side.
Before Chris could even say one word Duncan cut in.
"Now what do you and Chef want from us." he said. He looked rather annoyed that Chris and Chef were here.
"Hey, can it, Chef and I were told that we have to host this two week party for you guys." Chris replied. He sounded like he didn't like the idea of having to do this for us. As Chris continued talking I stopped listening and started thinking.
"Oh, and so that you all know, Chef will be making all of the food. That's just so you know who to thank, and don't worry, Chef is a master cook. We just loved the looks on your faces when you saw the camp food." Chris finished and started to leave, stopped turned and said "One more thing, try not to kill each other, because it's my job to make sure it doesn't happen, not Chef's. He's just got to cook for you, that's all, enjoy your stay, please." turned and left. That doesn't happen that often, Chris being nice to us. Something must be up... oh well, ain't for me to figure out.
"Hey Cody." somebody said and snapped me back into reality. It was Gwen. What could she want.
"Hey Gwen, what's up?" I asked. I didn't want to look like an idiot, but that was too late, because I realized what I was wearing, my silly double striped shirt with the rolled up sleeves, the blue jeans with the ankles rolled slightly and the hole in the knee.
"Nothing, you look just like you did back at that ridiculous camp, just taller than me now." She answered. Well, at least she was honest.
"Hey I'm gonna go back to my room no-" I began.
"Why? Don't you want to spend time with anybody here?" She said as if she were teasing me. She held something up and offered it to me. I took it and realized what it was. I couldn't hide the blush that came over my face. Gwen came right up to me and whispered in my ear "let's go somewhere so we can talk."
I just let her pull me around until we got to the long hallway leading to my room and possibly her room. I stopped abruptly.
"LeShawna finally gave this to you?" I asked. Hoping she would have a decent answer.
"Yeah, and I read it (=3), I just need you to read it out loud, please?" She said. Wow, she did have a decent answer.
"Are you sure?" I asked uneasily. I was no longer confused, just dreading on having to read it for her because I knew that I'd turn beet red.
"Please...?" She pleaded. She had never pleaded with anyone before. Was she just looking for someone to attach herself to or was she really falling for me.
"...OK." I said after a while. I didn't like the idea of reading this out loud to her, but she wanted me to and I was still madly in love with her, so I gave in and started reading. It went something like this.
"I'm not very good at writing poems or anything about romance"
"But I can tell you I'll try my best at this"
"I may not be good at rhyming or anything for that matter"
"Your eyes remind me of a ocean right after a storm"
"Your hair is like the night sky when the stars are all gone"
"I don't know what your lips taste like and I'll never know"
"I want you to know that I messed up big, but I'll never let you go"
"Oh look, I rhymed, so I lied maybe I can do something right"
"But that was just one thing right out of many things wrong"
"And it's all true, I'll keep on loving you"
"Awe look I rhymed again" Geez, I forgot how long this thing really is.
"Just remember Gwen, I still love you"
"And I don't know how to write that overrated stuff you see in a famous poem"
"But I still tried my best" when I was finished I took the paper and hid my face in it because I was wrong, it wasn't beet red, it was bright crimson.
"Cody." Gwen said as she took the piece of paper from me. She put the little piece of paper in her pocket and did something that almost gave me a heart attack: she kissed me. I found that I couldn't move, and was somehow kissing back. It was an odd sensation, but I liked it. Having Gwen kiss me felt really nice, no, nice was an understatement, it felt amazing. Even though the kiss itself lasted about eight or ten seconds, it felt like it had lasted an eternity. When we finally broke lips, I felt the sensation leave and I wanted to feel that again. Was I thinking about it to much, because Gwen looked at me as though there was something wrong with me.
"Are you alright?" She asked. She didn't have a clue.
"Apart from having a small heart attack right now, I'm fine." I replied. She really didn't have a clue about how close I am to having one.
"That's not good Cody." She said with a worried look on her face that told me that she thinks she brought this on me. In a way she did, but she did it in a good way.
"It's not as bad as it seems, but I didn't even know what you were gonna do and I wasn't expecting that." I said. She has no idea how much I loved it though. It gave me a mix of feelings that became apparent on my face, because she started giggling at me. I wanted nothing more than to make her feel as happy as I could make her. Tomorrow I'll go and talk to Trent to see what he did to her. Yeah. Tomorrow.
"Hey Gwen, what's so funny?" I asked. I already knew of course, but I wanted her to say it.
"Your so cute when you are trying to figure things out for yourself." She said still giggling. Was I now, well then, we'll see how you like this. I moved closer to her and she backed into the wall and I followed her right up to the wall. I placed my hand on the wall about six inches above her head, I was testing my own confidence and she could tell because she turned slightly red. I moved my head closer to hers and locked lips with her this time and she kissed back. That amazing sensation came back. We held the kiss for about fifteen seconds this time, then we broke. I looked at her, she was redder than a damn tomato, and from the way she was looking at me, so was I.
"I can't believe I just did that!" I said in amazement. She looked at me and turned even redder upon doing so.
"Well, if it's any consolation, you kiss better than any guy I've ever been with." She said. I could tell that she meant it.
"Thanks, that was my first and second kiss by the way." I said. I yawned. "Hey Gwen I'm going to bed, cuz I'm tired, alright?"
"Can I possibly come with you and help you with falling asleep, because I've heard from some of the others that you have trouble going to sleep at night?" she asked. OK, now that was weird, how did she find that out? Well maybe I'll figure it out tomorrow. I'm tired.
"If you want to come, that's fine, but I'll probably be able to fall asleep by midnight, which is about a half hour from now." I said to her, which made her look really happy. We got to my room which surprisingly was right next to hers. We went in and I went into the bathroom to get ready for bed, by the time I was ready for bed, she was already on the bed passed out cold. I grabbed a pillow and a spare blanket and set myself up on the floor, and fell asleep.
I got woken up to someone having a giggle fit.
"I didn't know that you still sucked your thumb." Gwen said through fits of giggles. Oh great, that's just what I need. Well it turns out that when I suck my thumb at night, I thought what happened before hand may have been a dream, but seeing Gwen sitting here in front of me proved that what happened last night was no dream.
"What?" I tried asking through my thumb. I took my thumb out of my mouth and repeated myself.
"Well, you just seem to be getting cuter to me every second I stay around you, ya know." She said with a blush. Wow, did she really mean it, it seems it, but I needed to ask her. As she stood up to leave, I did the same and put myself between her and the door.
"Gwen, why do I get the feeling that your only doing this out of sympathy for me?" I asked. I knew that she didn't want to answer, but I was between her and the door. I wasn't about to let her leave without answering this question.
"I'm not and we're going on a date tonight so meet me at the theater at five-thirty, k." Gwen said. She definitely didn't want to answer my question.
"Hang on Gwen, you're hiding something from me, I know it, your not very good at lying, just like me." I said. I knew something was wrong just from the look she gave me. It didn't help when she leaned into me and completely broke down. So she was looking for a shoulder to cry on and someone to attach herself to.
"I... saw... Trent... with... with... with..." She said between sobs. I knew where this was going and I didn't want her to finish what she was saying, because it would hurt her to much.
"Gwen, stop, please?" I said. She ignored me though.
"We went to the mall-" She began. OK, now I know this isn't going to end well.
"Gwen, please. Stop." I said. I really didn't want to live her nightmare with her, but I did anyway.
"Just to hang out. We went to the food court, because I was getting hungry. I left to get us some food. I was gone maybe ten minutes. When I returned with our food, he was gone. I started looking for him. When I couldn't find him, I began to give up when I heard voices coming from a storage closet behind the bench I was sitting at." She said. Now I really didn't want to hear the end of this. I held her tighter to me and started rocking back and forth, moving her with me. I wanted her to stop, but I couldn't find any words that would make her stop. She continued.
"I went up to the door and heard Trent say something about what they were doing was wrong. I opened the door to find him with Heather, his hair was messy, his hands were down her pants and..." She stopped. She didn't need to finish, I understood why she was so upset. I didn't want her to feel so well, lousy. Nobody should have to feel that way.
"Gwen, I... don't know what to say." I said without thinking. She looked up at me with hope in her wet eyes. Even though I didn't want to look back, I couldn't help it. Her eyes were so beautiful, I found myself put into a trance by them. She stared back as though she were in a trance as well. We didn't realize that our heads were moving closer to each other. Our lips locked and we kissed for what felt like centuries. It was soft, gentle, and somewhat weird because she deepened it first, I followed her into it and found that it was impossible to pull back. When we finally broke lips for the third time, she asked me a question that I didn't quite comprehend.
"What was that?" I asked.
"Would you ever hurt me the way Trent did?" She asked again. I thought about that question, I didn't want to hurt her, but I also didn't want my first relationship to end up like this.
"No Gwen, I wouldn't ever hurt you, I love you to much." I said at last. I needed to find Trent and ask him why he did it. She nuzzled herself up to me and was able to relax herself.
"I should have given you a chance sooner." She said when she was calm enough. I felt my heart skip a beat. I stopped breathing momentarily and she slapped me because I was turning blue.
"What was that for?" I asked. That actually hurt, because she slapped me along side my head.
"You stopped breathing and were turning blue so I did that only to make you breathe." She answered calmly. Wow, she actually cared about... me. Little did we know at the time, someone was watching us from outside my window: Sierra. That girl just didn't know how to leave me alone. I heard someone knock on my door. I let go of Gwen to answer the door. It was Justin.
"Did you know that Sierra was just watching you?" He asked. Huh, that was no surprise.
"No, do you want to come in Justin?" I asked moving off to side for him.
"No, but thanks anyway man." He said. Well at least he was considerate about telling me that.
"Well, OK." I said.
"I have to get going." he said and with that he left. Wow, Justin was much nicer now. Oh great, the one person I've been dreading on seeing since coming here was walking towards me with a very angry look on her face: Sierra. What did she want, I basically had to get a restraining order against her because she wouldn't leave me the hell alone.
"What do you want?" I asked. I didn't like Sierra at all.
"Can I come in, I'd like to talk." she said. Great, just what I need now, Gwen and Sierra fighting over me.
"Sure, I guess." I said and moved to the side for her to come in. In the mean time Gwen had gone back to my bed and had sat down. As soon as Sierra saw her I knew it was a bad idea to have invited her in here. She looked at where Gwen was sitting and immediately came to a conclusion: that Gwen and I slept together. She still thought that she and I were married. She slowly turned to look at me.
"You cheater, we're married and I come in here to find this-" She began. I cut her off.
"Find what, that was just part of the show, you and I were never officially married and I still love Gwen, not you." I shouted at her. She shrank into the corner. She had hit a touchy subject. If it was about Gwen and your talking to me, don't make it seem like she's nothing, because she's not.
"Get out now." I told her. She was reluctant at first, but saw the look I gave her and ran from the hotel room.
"Wow Cody, that was pretty bold." Gwen said after I closed the door. We both heard our stomach's rumble.
"I'm hungry, do you want to get something to eat." I asked her as she laughed.
"Sure, I'm gonna go get showered and changed, then I'll meet you at the food bar." She said. Hearing her say that made me feel good. Looks like our date was starting sooner than we thought.
"OK." I said. She got up walked over to me and kissed me on the cheek and left to get ready. I took a quick shower, got dressed in my favored clothes: a blue collared short sleeve shirt and gray cargo shorts, and went down to the food bar to wait. About ten minutes passed when she showed up in her usual clothes, but looking just as beautiful as ever.
"Hey, I wonder what's for breakfast." She said.
"No idea." came the voice of Alejandro. Much to our surprise, he was in a good mood. I thought that being kneed in the groin by Heather would have made him resent all of us, but apparently I was wrong. It only made him realize how nice the rest of us really were.
"Hey Alejandro, what's up, you look tired?" I asked. He looked like he was the walking dead.
"Nothing Cody, I was just up through most of the night having to listen to Sierra making something and there was to much noise coming from her room. It kept me awake." He said. What was he talking about, Sierra was making something. No doubt something to try and make me fall head over heels for her.
"Well man, that stinks." I said.
"Yeah, I know. I'm starving. I can't wait to eat something." He said.
"Yeah, same here." Gwen and I both said at the same time. My thoughts began to drift and soon found myself looking Gwen up and down without realizing it. She turned to see what I was doing and I stopped abruptly, because I didn't want to ruin my chance before our date even started.
"Cody, save it for the movie, OK." She said blushing. The three of us sat at the food bar talking for a good hour about the last show.
"If Heather hadn't kicked me, I would've won." I heard Alejandro say. Well at least he wasn't annoying like Heather.
"Yeah, if it hadn't been for my mess up, you probably would've been eliminated." I said to him. What was I saying, I lost and that was that. He was a good competitor, he deserved that money more than Heather ever did and ever will. Well that's what I think anyway, not sure what everyone else thinks. Speaking of Heather, where was she? I hadn't seen her since her arrival and it was starting to bug me, was she up to no good or had I hit a tough spot on her and made it weak?
"Well, I didn't, thank god, and good sportsmanship." He said holding his hand out to me. I took it and we shook hands, mainly to signal that we weren't gonna be enemies anymore. It also signaled that he enjoyed the challenge I gave him.
"No problem." I said letting go of his hand.
"I see you got your prize at last." I heard Duncan shout to me. I turned around in my chair to see him and Courtney walking towards the three of us.
"Well, in a way I did." I replied calmly. I didn't know that the food had come out already. I heard from either side of me, two people enjoying their breakfast. I turned back around and saw a giant plate of food in front of me. I began eating because of how hungry I was. Chris was right, Chef is a really good cook. That was better than the food back at home, and to think there was two more weeks of eating like this. I'll most likely go through another growth spurt and have to get new clothes again. After we finished eating, Gwen and I took a walk down to the beach. We found a bench and sat down. We were there for what seemed like two hours just staring out at the ocean. Gwen had cuddled up to me during that time and passed out. When it was almost noon, I picked her up very carefully and carried her back to the hotel. When I got back, I found that Heather was spreading rumors about me again only this time, she was making sure that a certain person heard them. I walked past her and Sierra with Gwen in my arms. They both gave me dirty looks.
"What are you two looking at?" I asked. I already knew who they were look at, but I just wanted to annoy them.
"What's it to you, you little insect." Heather said to me.
"Oh, nothing, it's just that I saw the looks you two gave me, so I figured I'd ask. That's all." I said calmly. There was no way I was gonna get angry for them, especially since Gwen was in my arms.
"Go away Cody." Sierra said. That's odd she's never said that to me before, what were they doing, actually, what were they up to.
"OK." I said to her. That's one problem less to worry about. I'll take Gwen to her room and go find Trent. As I was walking down the hallway to Gwen's room, I heard sad music playing. Trent must be expressing himself through his music again. I got to Gwen's room, opened the door walked in and put her down on her bed. I went back to the door, took one last look back at Gwen and left to go speak with Trent. When I found his room, I knocked on his door. The music stopped.
"Gwen, is that you?" Trent said.
"No, it's me, Cody. Can I come in?" I said and asked. I heard no noise.
"Sure, it's unlocked." He said after a while.
"Thanks." I said as I came through the door.
"So... what do you need Cody?" He asked. Did he already know why I was here?
"I wanted to ask you something, if that's alright?" I said taking a seat in one of the chairs.
"Sure, go ahead and ask away." He said glumly. I think he already knew.
"Well... I wanted to know how you and Gwen broke up." I said. He looked up at me at the sound of her name. I saw a single tear form in his left eye.
"In truth, I don't even know what had happened. But I'll tell you everything that I do know happened." He said.
"Thanks Trent, I really appreciate it." I said.
"Gwen and I went to the mall to hangout and have fun. We went to the food court when she got hungry. I told her I'd wait at the bench by the tree. She was gone for about three minutes when Heather saw me and came over to me. She made it seem like she was different, but she was just as manipulative as she is now. She asked me to follow her. I did, but that's when everything got dark. By the time I realized that what we were doing was wrong it was to late because Gwen opened the door. She didn't even give me a chance to explain what had happened." He finished his story and went back to playing his guitar.
"Trent, let's go talk to Gwen right now." I said.
"Dude, she wants nothing to do with me. At least she's happy with you." He said sadly. Wait how did he know that Gwen was with me right now.
"You never know until you try." I said. I really wanted him to try too. Even if they never date each other again, they should at the least be friends.
"You know, your right about that." He said slightly happier.
"I just don't suggest doing it right now." I said.
"Why?" He asked.
"She's asleep in her room right now. I dropped her off there before coming to meet you here." I answered.
"Well, I hope she'll talk to me later." He said. So did I.
"Yeah, dude I got to get going. I told Duncan yesterday that I hang with him for a bit today, and then I have somewhere to be at five-thirty." I said and with that I left him to do his thinking and music playing. Apparently what he had done destroyed him as much as it had destroyed Gwen. I felt kind of sorry for him. As I walked back down the hallway to my room, I noticed that's Gwen door was hanging wide open. I stopped, wondering if something was wrong. I heard a loud noise come from in her room. I ran straight from where I was standing right into her room to find Sierra and Heather standing over top of her. Gwen was laying on the floor holding the side of her head. By the time I realized what had happened, Sierra was getting ready to hit her again.
"What are you doing Sierra?" I asked, still slightly confused. Now I know what she had been making: something that she could use to hurt Gwen with. I was getting angry, and they could tell, because Heather began to back away from Sierra. Sierra turned and saw me standing there, realized what she had done and tried to hide her weapon.
"It was Heather's idea." She said dumbly. She couldn't lie to me that easily.
"Nice try, come on Sierra, I know how you feel about me, but you can't just hurt the one girl I love." I shouted getting angrier. My temper was about to be tested by Sierra and Heather. The only reason why I was coming back down this way was to get ready for Gwen's and my date. Thankfully Courtney and Duncan heard me shouting and came running to see what was wrong. By the time they got here it was too late, I was madder than hell. Duncan saw that I was ready to kill and ran in between me and Sierra while Courtney ran over to help Gwen out of the room.
"Courtney take her next door to Cody's room, let me handle him." Duncan said. Me, be handled. Not gonna happen. Before Duncan could even stop me I turned around and walked out of the room before my temper really got the better of me. He followed me.
"Dude, what happened?" He asked.
"Sierra... was most likely trying to kill Gwen, because she and I are together at last." I said still shaking. I was trying to calm myself down and having Duncan here seemed to help, but I wanted nothing more than to make sure Gwen was alright, or for that matter, even alive.
"Care to tell me what happened with detail?" He asked. So I went into detail starting from the beginning. When I finished he looked like he wanted to kill them both.
"... We're gonna have to get payback on them, you know that, right?" He said after a while. What was he thinking.
"Yeah, I know." I said to him. I was also thinking, which he saw.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM. Duncan and I both looked towards where the girls were and saw rubble and debris flying to the ground.
"F***!" We shouted and started running towards the spot where the girls were. I didn't want to think about what we'd find when we got there. We found that my room had completely been blown to smithereens. We both ran into the flames that were sprouting up to save the girls. He found Gwen while I found Courtney. We carried them out and got them away from the fire. They were both unconscious and neither of them stirred while we carried them.
"I will make them pay." Duncan said while a few tears rolled down his cheeks. I knew I was crying, but Duncan. I never thought I'd see the day he'd cry.
"Duncan..." I began, but he cut me off.
"I love her man, but this... this... is just messed up." He sobbed. He leaned into me and cried even harder. I didn't know what to do, I had a toughened teenager crying his eyes out in my shoulder. He basically turned into a bleeding heart at that moment. When he finally calmed down enough...
"This is war." He said. I've never seen this look in his face before, he looked more serious than he ever had on a bad day.
"Hold on, Duncan-" I started. He just looked more angry and I shut my mouth.
"What's there to 'hold on' about, they just tried to kill our girlfriends." He shouted at me. I flinched, he was right. Sierra and Heather had just tried to kill Gwen and Courtney. He was right, this meant war. I could understand them wanting to kill Gwen, but why Courtney. But my thoughts stopped abruptly when we heard people running towards us. It was everybody except Heather and Sierra, where were those two now that what they had done failed them.
"Are you guy's alright?" DJ asked first. Not entirely, but Duncan and I kept our back turned to them. I spoke first.
"No." I said.
"Why, you guys are still alive." Owen said. Duncan answered before me.
"Look, our girlfriends were almost killed by... by..." He tried saying. He couldn't say Heather and Sierra's names without breaking down, so I finished it for him.
"Heather and Sierra." I calmly said to the others. Duncan wasn't faking his sobs either which made me think, why did he want Courtney gone during the last show. Duncan leaned into me once more. One of the two bodies in front of us moved slightly, it was Courtney. Duncan looked up to see her open her eyes. When he saw that she was alive, he jumped on her to make sure that he wasn't dreaming, which was understandable, because I wanted to do the same thing only Gwen didn't move. At all. I put the side of my head on her chest and heard nothing. She wasn't breathing. It took me a minute to realize what I needed to do. I started to give her air, Duncan saw what I was doing and helped me by trying to get her heart going again. I wasn't going to lose her I had to keep thinking to myself. After every five breaths of air I gave her, Duncan would give her chest ten pushes. I kept checking for her heartbeat, but didn't find one. On our tenth try, I added an extra breath, Duncan finished pushing her chest. She gasped for air. Duncan and I did it, we saved Gwen's life. Everybody started cheering and picked me, Duncan, and the girls up and carried us to the pool. They didn't want any of us out of their sight for the time being. Chris came around shortly to take the four of us to the infirmary. When we got there, we were separated, Chris led the girls to the female infirmary and Chef led us to the male infirmary.
"You know, you two are lucky to be alive, Chris and I heard what had happened from the others." Chef said. Yeah we were lucky alright, but Gwen and Courtney were even luckier that Duncan and I are as brave as we are or they would have died. I didn't want to think to much but the overwhelming silence that came after that was to much. I needed to hear Gwen's voice, needed to make sure she was still OK. I'm sure Duncan felt the same way about Courtney.
"Hey Chef, do you know that Sierra and Heather are responsible for this?" I asked without thinking. He looked confused.
"Yeah I know, I just didn't say anything to Chris, because I didn't want him to go overboard." Chef replied. Wow, Chef was definitely better than Chris was any day. We got to the guys infirmary and sat waiting for the nurse to check our injuries, not that either of us were really hurt. We each had maybe a couple of scratches on our arms that needed to be taken care of. We got out of the infirmary before the girls, but we decided to wait for them. It was about a half an hour before they came out, during that time Duncan and I talked and became well... kinda like best friends. When we saw the girls walking towards us with smiles on their faces, we couldn't help but run up to them and hug them. Duncan actually kissed Courtney, I hugged Gwen. We walked back to the pool area and talked along the way, Courtney wouldn't let go of Duncan so he gave her a piggy back ride back, Gwen had wrapped one of her arms around my waist and put her free hand on my chest, she basically used me for support. Apparently the nurse helping her told her what Duncan and I had done for her. That or Courtney did, not sure.
"Hey Cody, what are we gonna do about them?" Duncan asked. I knew who he was talking about.
"Not really sure, but we could do to them what they tried doing to these two." I said.
"When you say them, who are you talking about?"Gwen asked. I didn't want to answer her, but my feelings told me to.
"Sierra and Heather." I said. It sounded blunt, like Duncan and I were going to kill them.
"Are you guys talking about putting bombs in their rooms and detonating them when they go to bed?" Courtney asked.
"Something like that, babe." Duncan said.
"But that would be completely pointless." She replied. She did have a good point.
"So why don't we teach them a lesson by burning all their clothes?" I suggested.
"Good idea man." Duncan said as he laughed. Well at least I wasn't completely stupid. We got back to the pool area and saw everybody standing at the food bar. We all headed that way to find a huge cake with Duncan's and my name on it.
"It's chocolate, and it was my idea. Bridgette made it of course." Geoff said proudly as we walked up. Wow it was amazingly well made.
"How long did it take you guys to make it?" I asked. They all looked surprised to see us.
"We weren't expecting you back here for at least another hour and a half." Bridgette said. Duncan and I looked at each other and smiled.
"Hey Cody, wanna go see a movie? He asked me. I knew what he was doing, he wanted to give everybody time to do whatever it was they were going to do.
"Sure, but let's bring the girls with us." I said.
"Oh no you're not, amigos." Alejandro said.
"Yeah, we need them here." DJ said.
"OK." We said. We left the girls with the others and began to walk to the theater. Holy crap, I just remembered that Gwen and I had a date tonight, but hanging out with Duncan was probably the smarter thing to do for now.
"Hey let's go burn their clothes now that we have the chance." He said. I smirked.
"OK." I said. We made a detour towards the bedrooms and found Sierra's room. We took all of her clothes and got them into a large pile, found some oil and poured it on her clothes. Duncan pulled a matchbook out of his pocket. He handed it to me.
"You do this one, Heather clothes are mine to do." He said. I walked up her clothes and pulled a match from the book.
"This is for Gwen, you b****." I said. I struck the match and threw into her clothes. We stood there watching her clothes burn making sure the fire didn't spread out of the circle we had formed. When her clothes finished burning. We went to find Heather's room which wasn't really hard, seeing as she had taken the room at the end of the hall. We did the same with her clothes. Only this time it was Duncan's turn to say something and burn Heather's clothes. He did exactly as I had done, he walked up to her clothes and pulled a match from the book.
"This is for Courtney, Heather." He said. Once again we stood watching her clothes burn making sure the fire didn't spread our of the circle we formed for her clothes.
"Well, it's been at least an hour dude, wanna get back and see how they've done?" I said. He smirked this time.
"Hell yeah Cody, let's go." He said. We started on our way back, we met Courtney and Gwen along the way.
"Hey." They both said. Why were they both away from the group? Oh well, what mattered is that they were both with us again. Duncan and I both gave them piggy back rides back to the food bar. Only this time, Trent was there, and he was in an unusually good.
"Hey Cody, you were right man." He said. I nodded in his direction. We put the girls down and let them cover our eyes and walk us to the other side of the food bar, they uncovered our eyes at the same time.
"SURPRISE!" Everybody shouted. It kind of overwhelmed us. They had decided to throw us a party. That was nice of them. The girls led us up to the cake that we had seen before. It looked really nice. Duncan and I heard our stomach's rumble. Everybody, including us, laughed. Geoff and Bridgette cut the cake into a number of decent sized pieces and gave them out. Duncan's piece and my piece were considerably large, so we shared them with Gwen and Courtney.
"Gwen, we'll find a place to be alone later on, OK." I whispered into her ear. Alejandro was handing out sodas of all sorts from behind the counter. Chef and Chris later came around and asked us if it was alright for them to stay. We kicked Chris out, but let Chef stay and have a good time with us. Harold was being the DJ for the night, while DJ and Leshawna got down on the dance floor. Geoff and Bridgette were out there to. Gwen got up and pulled me onto the dance floor and we danced for about fifteen minutes. Trent went up and played a new song for us during that time, we blushed madly. Duncan and Courtney were sitting down and enjoying themselves. We went over to them. I asked Courtney if she wanted to dance, while Gwen asked Duncan if he wanted to dance. We constantly cut in to each others dance, but we all had fun. Chef got some food and sat down to eat. Owen and Izzy accidentally knocked his plate of food down onto the floor, he had to get and get another plate. The party lasted like this for a few hours. When the party ended, everyone went to bed while Gwen and I went to get changed into our swim wear, we met at the hot tub.
"You know Cody, I really had a good time with you tonight. It just makes me feel better knowing that I'm safe in your arms." She said with a blush. I blushed to, not because she did, but because of what she said.
"I already told you that I would never hurt you, I love you too much." I said. Once again I found myself looking into her stormy eyes, they were so beautiful. She was looking back into mine. We found that we were moving our heads closer together without realizing it. Soon our lips locked and we held ourselves like this for quite a while. When we broke lips, she pulled herself up to me and relaxed herself against me, putting her head on my chest.
"Hey can we possibly join you two?" I heard Duncan ask.
"I'm fine with it, it's Gwen's choice. Ask her." I said with a smile.
"It's fine with me." She said also smiling. Duncan and Courtney eased themselves into the hot water and Courtney did the same thing Gwen did. The four of us relaxed for half an hour. Duncan kissed Courtney during that time.
"Well, I need to get some sleep." I said. I didn't have a room here anymore and I didn't know where I was going to sleep.
"You can sleep in my room if you want to?" Gwen said. That was nice of her to offer, but it just wouldn't feel right.
"I don't think that would be right, Gwen. I'll find somewhere else to sleep, OK." I said to her.
"Dude, you can have my room, I'm sleeping in Courtney's room tonight." Duncan said. I smiled.
"Thanks, Duncan." I said still smiling.
"Aw, Duncan why don't we sleep in our own rooms?" Courtney said seeing the look on Gwen's face. Duncan looked up, but didn't argue.
"OK, babe." He said. He gave me a look that said I better sleep in Gwen's room.
"Well Gwen, looks like I get to sleep in your room after all." I said. She looked up at me with eager eyes. They asked me if I would sleep along side her in bed. My eyes replied with a yes, but my body replied with a no. As we got up Duncan said something, but I didn't hear him, my mind was preoccupied with what was about to happen: I was gonna sleep with Gwen. I didn't want to, but I knew she wouldn't give me much of a choice. We were walking down the hall to her room, which surprisingly wasn't even touched when my room was destroyed. I stopped and turned to lean on the railing.
"What's wrong Cody?" She asked.
"Nothing, I'm just trying to figure out what's gonna happen from this point on." I replied. She put her hand on my shoulder. I took it with my own, she put her other hand on the railing and leaned into me. It felt good to have her lean into me, just as it always did.
"Cody, I will never let you handle any of your problems on your own now. I know how I feel about you, but I just can't bring myself to say those three words yet." She said. I didn't know what she meant and I really didn't care much for what it meant. All I wanted to do was get some sleep. We went inside and got ready for bed . I grabbed a spare pillow and blanket, set myself up on the floor and laid down.
"What do you think your doing?" She asked me.
"I'm getting ready to pass out." I said sleepily.
"Not down there, up here." She said. I knew this was coming, so I got up and sat on the bed with her. She laid back and I did the same. I wrapped my arms around her and before we knew it, we were sleeping.
We woke up to someone knocking on the door. She got up to answer it. It was Duncan.
"You guys sleep well?" He asked yawning.
"Yeah." She said. I looked past Gwen and saw Courtney walking by with a goofy smile on her face, her hair was also really messy. Well, I know what they were doing last night. Gwen and Duncan were whispering about something, but I never took notice at the time, I was to busy getting dressed. At least my favorite clothes didn't get wrecked when my room got blown to pieces. As I got ready to leave, Gwen stepped in between me and the door and wouldn't move for any reason.
"Gwen, what are you doing?" I asked. I was confused, what did she want? She saw the look on my face and walked up to me, wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me into a kiss. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her in to deepen the kiss. We stood like this for a few minutes stopping only to breath. Duncan and Courtney were standing at the door smiling at us when I looked up.
"H-How long have you guys been there?" I asked turning crimson.
"The whole time." Duncan said smirking. At least he was honest about it.
"Duncan." Courtney said.
"What, he asked, so I answered." Duncan said shrugging.
"Hey Gwen, why don't you get dressed, I'm going to the food bar to eat something, OK. Meet me there." I said.
"OK." She said. As I left, Courtney and Duncan stood at her door as if they were guarding her. Duncan smiled at me and Courtney waved to me as I left. I walked as slowly as I could from the end of the hall to the food bar. As I walked, I thought about Gwen and what it would do for her to be my girlfriend, constantly in danger of Sierra. I couldn't put Gwen through that. Could I? I wanted Gwen for so long that now I can't even remember. Now that she was mine, I couldn't bear the thought of losing her the way Trent did. And Duncan, we had basically become best friends. Did he truly want Courtney or did he just want Gwen? I wasn't sure, but I couldn't doubt my odds now, not when I finally had the girl of my dreams. I finally reached the food bar and went inside. I sat down in one of the chairs and waited for Gwen to get here. She arrived about ten minutes after I got there. She down next to me.
"Hey Duncan and Courtney are going to join us shortly, they went to get dressed." She said. I was hoping for some time for us, but it was fine.
"OK." I said glumly. She knew something was wrong.
"What's wrong Cody?" She asked.
"I was kind of hoping that you and I could spend some time alone without anybody around." I answered. She looked like she wanted the same thing.
"Yeah same here, why don't we go and see a movie after we eat, would that make you feel better?" She asked. I smiled.
"I would love that." I said. I saw a her eyes brighten up, which is odd, because she never had that look before. She looked truly happy. Duncan and Courtney arrived not to long after that and sat down. We got our breakfast and ate. We each had about three plates of food, mainly because of how hungry we all were. When we finished, we went in different directions. Duncan and Courtney went went to the beach, while Gwen and I went to the movie theater. We sat and cuddled while watching the movie, it was a horror movie, one of Gwen's favorites. It was about the predators facing off against the aliens. Every time someone died, Gwen would jump slightly, I could tell she was trying to be brave. It didn't phase me though, I'd seen a few horrors since the last show we were in. I sat there calmly watching the movie, when the alien queen finally appeared to be victorious, Gwen jumped into my lap and buried her face into my chest.
"Please, let me know if the predator and the girl beat the queen, I can't watch anymore." She asked shaking slightly.
"Sure." I said trying not to laugh. Seeing Gwen afraid of a horror was funny, I thought she loved horror movies. To me, this was more of an action movie, so I enjoyed it. When the movie was over, Gwen lifted her head off of my chest and looked at me. I looked back once again to find myself in a trance by her eyes. She moved up and kissed my cheek. As she pulled back down, I followed and kissed her lips, I deepened it by pulling her in closer to me, she followed in by putting her hands on my chest. We sat there for five minutes just kissing each other. Little did we know that Sierra and Heather were hiding out in the theater. They sat there watching Gwen and I kiss. When we got up to leave, they ducked down in between the seat and hid themselves.
"Hey, did you hear that?" Gwen asked. I didn't want to worry her because I had heard them. I knew they were in here somewhere. I'll tell Duncan and we'll come back here later to confront them.
"No." I said. She could tell that I was hiding something, but she ignored it.
"OK, let's get out of here." She said nuzzling up to me. I put my arm around her waist and walked her out of the theater. We walked all the way back to her room. She was tired and was gonna go to bed. She said that she'd leave the door unlocked for me. I kissed her and left to find Duncan. I found him at the food bar eating a snack. I sat down at his table. He looked up and saw my face.
"What's up man, you look like you've seen a ghost?" He asked.
"I know where Heather and Sierra are." I said calmly. Thank god we were the only ones in the food bar. He stopped eating and looked at me like he had just seen a ghost.
"Where... are... they?" He asked slowly. I knew what he wanted to do just from the look he gave me.
"Duncan, you need to promise me one thing before I tell you." I said.
"Anything." He said anxiously.
"You can't kill them, leave it for Chris and Chef to handle." I said.
"Fine. Now where are they?" He was getting more and more anxious as he said it.
"They are hiding out in the movie theater." I said. He stood up immediately and left, I sighed and followed him.
"Duncan... Duncan will you wait up?" I shouted as he ran towards the theater. He slowed to a walk and then stopped. He turned on me.
"What, I'm gonna make sure this never happens again. I'm going to wreck that theater using them as the weapons." He said angrily at me. I understood how he felt, but violence just wasn't the answer.
"You made a promise. Let's go to Chris and Chef and have them take care of it." I said now getting angry. He looked at me as though I had stabbed him in the back with a knife.
"Cody, they tried to kill Gwen and Courtney." He said stabbing right back and he was right, they had tried, but they failed. I exploded on him.
"Duncan, I'm not gonna lose my best friend because he committed murder and had to go to prison." I shouted at him. He recoiled. He had never seen me like this. It freaked him out.
"Fine, you win. Let's go find Chef and Chris." He said trying to calm me down. It didn't work. I just got angrier.
"Fine, but your coming with me." I said after a while, I was trying to calm myself down by thinking of Gwen. We ran to where we last met Chris and Chef: the food bar. We called out their names and they came around.
"What?" Chris asked looking annoyed that he had just been summoned. Chef just looked at us, understanding what had just happened.
"Uh, Chris, we need to follow them, I think." He said. He was right. We led them straight to the theater and went inside. They found Heather and Sierra and handcuffed them. Duncan looked at them with a satisfied look on his face. I saw Sierra and nearly exploded. It took both Duncan and Chef to hold me back, I was that angry.
"Cody, killing them won't solve anything, remember." Duncan said to me trying to calm me down. This time, nothing they tried could calm me down, not even thinking about Gwen was able to calm me down. I shook their hold and left the theater. Duncan followed me out.
"Dude, what was that about?" He asked me. I turned my head so that u could see him with one eye.
"I... don't know..." I began. I couldn't even tell him what that was about, because I didn't even know. Duncan stood there scratching his head. He looked up at me, understanding something I didn't.
"What?" I asked.
"You truly love Gwen, don't you?" He asked.
"Yes, why would you even ask that?" I asked back. He walked up to me and put his hand on my shoulder.
"Because it's the same with Courtney and I. When I saw Heather, all I wanted to do was kill her." He admitted. So he wasn't after Gwen, he truly did love Courtney. I thought he was going to say something like 'surprise, I fooled you', but he didn't, which made me believe him. I smiled and fully turned to face him.
"Thanks for being a good friend, Duncan." I said.
"No problem, but between you and me, I have a rep to keep so don't be surprised if I treat you like crap a few times through the next couple of weeks." He said with a smirk.
"OK." I said. We walked back to our rooms, well, I went to Gwen's room, and he went to his. I walked in and saw Gwen sleeping peacefully in her bed. I got myself ready for bed and grabbed that spare pillow and blanket again, this time determined to sleep on the floor. I woke up to someone stroking my hair off to the side of my head: it was Gwen.
"Morning, sleepy head." She said cheerfully. I knew why she was in a good mood. There was going to be another party tonight and Trent was writing a song for the two of us, but he never said that he was going to play it himself during the party. We got dressed and went to get something to eat. We met Duncan and Courtney at the food bar already eating. Duncan looked up and saw us walk in and thumbs upped me. I smiled and nodded back at him. The rest of this vacation was going to be awesome. Gwen and I spent most of the day down at the beach. We went back to her room to get ready for our second party. We got finished and started on our way to the party, which was once again held at the food bar. This time Geoff was DJ for the night. Gwen and I danced with everybody on the floor. Alejandro was handing drinks out again. Bridgette was handing food out. When Trent stepped up onto the stage, we all got off the dance floor.
"This is a number that I've decided to dedicate to Cody and Gwen. If they would step onto the dance floor so I can begin." he said. Gwen and I blushed, but nonetheless we stepped onto the dance floor. A white screen came down behind Trent. He started singing. The screen was playing clips from the first and third seasons, it was Gwen and myself.
" She's cold and she's cruel, but she knows what she's doin', she pushed me in the pool at our last school reunion, she laughs at my dreams, but I dream about her laughter, strange as it seems, she's the one I'm after" Gwen blushed but smiled, so did I and we started dancing. "Cause she's bittersweet, she knocks me off my feet and I can't help myself, I don't want anyone else, she's a mystery, she's too much for me, but I keep comin' back for more, she's just the girl I'm lookin' for, she can't keep a secret for more than an hour, she runs on 100 proof attitude power and the more she ignores me, the more I adore her, what can I do? I'd do anything for herrrrr, cause she's bittersweet, she knocks me off my feet and I can't help myself, I don't want anyone else, she's a mystery, she's too much for me, but I keep comin' back for more, she's just the girl I'm lookin' for and when she sees it's me on her caller id, she won't pick up the phone, she'd rather be alone, but I can't give up just yet, cause every word she's ever said is still ringin' in my head, still ringin' in my head, she's cold and cruel, but she knows what she's doin', knows just what to say so my whole day is ruined, cause she's bittersweet, she knocks me off my feet and I can't help myself, I don't want anyone else, she's a mystery, she's too much for me, but I keep comin' back for more, cause she's bittersweet, she knocks me off my feet and I can't help myself, I don't want anyone else, she's a mystery, she's too much for me, but I keep comin' back for more, oh, I keep comin' back for more, she's just the girl I'm lookin' for, just the girl I'm lookin' for, I'm lookin' for, I'm lookin' for, I'm lookin' for, just the girl I'm lookin forrrrrrrr." Trent finished his song. Everybody clapped and cheered. Gwen hid her face in my chest blushing bright enough to light the entire room up. Trent came down off the stage and walked up to us.
"Well, what did you guys think?" He asked. He saw a small bit of Gwen's face and goofed up a smile. Well, that's Trent for you.
"I thought it was really nice, dude." I said.
"Thanks." He said
"I liked it." Gwen said through my chest. Trent and I both looked at her. She looked up at me. I looked into her eyes. Trent scratched the back of his head.
"I think I'm going to leave you two alone, but I do know a great spot if you guys want to get away from here for a bit." He said. He was basically talking to himself, because Gwen and I weren't listening to him.
"OK, I'm going to leave now." He said and he left us to be alone. We walked to the closest table and sat down. I felt like everybody was watching us so I did the only thing I could think to do. I pulled Gwen in for a kiss, she wrapped her arms around my neck as we stood up. I put my hands on her back and deepened the kiss. Someone wolf whistled at us, but we didn't care. We stood there for only a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity. We broke apart and everybody was staring at us. I felt my face redden.
"I love you, Cody." Gwen said to me. I froze, did I just hear Gwen say that or was I dreaming.
"Well, it's about time." Alejandro said.
"Hell yeah, man." Duncan said.
"Aw." Courtney cooed at us. Leshawna and Bridgette smiled at us Geoff and DJ gave me a thumbs up. Owen and Izzy cheered for an encore. Trent looked at me, smiled and nodded. Gwen and I gave an encore, but it didn't last as long as our first time. It was still amazing to feel her lips against mine. I'm glad Heather and Sierra weren't here to see this.
"Yeah Cody, you rule man." Chef said, he had just arrived. Chris was next to him clapping and smiling,
"Way to go Cody." He shouted. I smiled, maybe Chris wasn't that bad.
"Good one, eh man." Ezekiel shouted. He needed to shut up because he insulted all of the girls back in the first season, which had made me angry with him. I was still slightly confused though.
"Could you possibly repeat that, Gwen?" I asked. She smiled.
"I love you." She said. I smiled a smile that stretched across my entire face, I had a million dollars and I had something worth more than money to me. I had Gwen's heart.
"I love you too." I said with meaning and I kissed her again. She blushed slightly when our lips touched. There was a new feeling in this kiss. I didn't quite understand that feeling but it hit very powerfully. There was that wolf whistle again, it was Justin. He was smiling. I waved to him and he waved back. Alejandro was sitting back and drinking a can of soda, he raised his can to us.
"Congratulations, amigo." He said. He seemed content.
"Thanks." I said. Everyone was still watching us as Gwen led us out of the food bar and towards the hot tub area. We just stripped into our undergarments and eased ourselves into the water. We cuddled up to each other and relaxed in the hot water. She had her head on my chest again, but it felt nice to know that she was mine at last. I was never going to let her go. I loved her too much. I kissed her hair. She looked up at me and kissed my chin.