Gabi dropped her cup and turned to Cody with a glare on her face as an all too familiar blonde head appeared.
"Cody," she said, her voice deathly quiet. "Why is Jake here?"
"And who's that with him?" Sydney asked as a painfully beautiful girl with chestnut locks got out of the car too.
"Jake's cousin, who happens to also be my ex-girlfriend," Cody said weakly. "Surprise!"
"Your what?" Sydney said blankly. Gabi was frozen as she watched Jake take his cousin's luggage.
"Her name's Rosalina," Cody offered in a small voice as Sydney turned to him with her mouth wide open.
"This is my surprise?"
"You like Jake," he avoided her eyes, and she put her hand on her hip. The setting sun was pouring in from the window, and washing Sydney in its glowing pink light. The soft glow made the sharp angles her face was set to even more distinct. Her boyfriend was too smart for this, and he knew this wasn't okay.
"Fine," Cody sighed, finally meeting her clear blue eyes with his aqua hazel ones. "I know, it's bad. But my mum and sister invited her, I didn't have anything to do with it!"
"How come I've never heard of her?" Sydney demanded.
"Well, we only dated for a little while."
Sydney relaxed.
"Oh, well how long?"
"Um, six months," Cody sort of mumbled under her breath.
"Cody!" Sydney gripped his arm, her fingernails clutching into his skin. "That's longer than we've dated!"
"We were like, twelve when it happened," Cody said, sinking a little bit due to the tight grip she had. "Ow, ow, she was my first girlfriend, I-ow, ow! Babe, nails!"
"This is not okay!" was Sydney's only reply.
Cody twisted himself out of Sydney's grip and instead took both of her hands in his. He held them tight, soothingly and spoke in a soft murmur of a voice. It was the velvety soft one he used only for her.
"Sydney, listen to me," he said in a low voice. "You are the only girl that means anything to me anymore. Everything else, every other kiss with any other girl, it's all disappeared okay? I love you and only you."
She softened a bit.
"You promise?"
"Of course I do, darling."
He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers for a second. She took a deep breath as he pulled away and nodded.
"Okay, I can do this…But, um, how long are they staying?"
"Just a week," he said with a wink. "Jake wanted to see what the big deal was about Halloween in America and his mum said he couldn't go alone, so he asked Rosalie to go."
"Oh," Sydney glanced out the window again to see Jake and Rosalie walking to the front door.
"Cody! Gabi! Sydney!" Angie's voice was heard from downstairs as the door opened.
"This is going to be great," Cody said with a smile. "Sydney, you and Rosie are going to be the best of friends and Gabi-"
"Rosie?" Sydney interrupted, and Cody looked at her with a sigh.
"Never mind," Sydney said quickly. "Let's go."
They walked to the door, but then realized something was missing.
"Gabi, you coming?" Cody asked, looking concerned. The brunette was still standing with her hands on the windowsill, her back to them. The sun was nearly set now, with only faint pink streaks shining through her brown locks.
"No," she turned around curtly. "I'm going home."
"You can't," Cody said calmly. "You don't have your keys and your parents are still in Aruba."
Sydney's and Gabi's parents were good friends and had gone away for the girls' vacation. The plan was that they'd stay with Cody and Angie, but obviously that wasn't going to work out.
"Then I'll stay at Syd's," Gabi turned to Sydney.
"My house is being renovated," the pretty blonde girl said regretfully. "Otherwise I'd be right alongside ya, baby."
"But," Gabi said in a small voice. "I can't-I mean, I won't be able to-I-I…Cody, it's Jake. How could you do this to me without even a warning?"
"I was thinking you two would get back together," Cody said in a small voice. "You wanted to, before he left early didn't you?"
"You can't tell him that," Gabi said, hastily. "I don't want him anymore, that's all over."
"On the bright side," Cody said with a smile. "He thinks you're in Aruba with your parents, so he's getting a surprise too…"
"Cody, Sydney, Gabi!" Angie's voice sounded again, and Cody grabbed one each of their hands and pulled them out of the room to the stairs.
"Coming!"
"Uh, who did you just call?" the familiar voice that made Gabi's heart instantly flip over inside of her, then recoil as she remembered pain sounded from near the bottom of the stairs.
"Cody and the girls, silly," Angie said her voice smiling.
"Yeah, what girls?"
"Sydney and Gabi," Angie said slowly, obviously wondering about Jake's intelligent level. "Honey, do you have jet-lag? Do you need-"
"No, no," Jake said quickly. "I'm fine, it's just-"
"Jake! Rosalina!" Cody flew down the remaining stairs to greet his friends.
"Hey, mate," Jake still sounded confused as he and Cody did a bro-hug. As Gabi and Sydney descended the stairs, hands interlocked like when they were nervous, Jake's confusion cleared instantly. He quickly looked away from the slight figure of the familiar girl he had given everything to.
"I missed you, Cody," the Rosalina girl pulled Cody into a hug, causing Sydney to squeeze Gabi's hand tightly and not loosen up. Gabi squeezed back in protest as her eyes cascaded to the floor, cheeks flaming as Jake avoided her eyes.
"I missed you more, Rose!"
She was the type of girl that made every other girl in the room take a fatal hit to her self-esteem and glance down self-consciously. She was small and slender, but also had the developed curves in her waist and chest of a woman. Her soft maple chestnut colored hair was waist-length and perfectly straight all the way down to where it toyed with her hips playfully. Her eyes were stunning, gorgeous crystal green, almost transparent. Her face was absolutely perfect, with no flaws or blemishes or freckles. Her lips were full and pink, her nose tiny and straight and her eyelashes long and brushing the tips of where her perfectly waxed, gentle arching eyebrows hit the baseline. She wore a light, sparkly eye shadow that glimmered like fresh dew on the morning grass and eyeliner that made her eyes crinkle as though in a smile. Her teeth were pearly and straight and perfect in every way.
Worse still was the perfect golden tan stretching from her bronze legs to her sun kissed forehead. She wore a pair of tiny jean shorts that hugged her hips perfectly and stopped far before her hair did, and a Hollister tank. She broke the rule that "nobody was perfect."
She was definitely beautiful, she was definitely Cody's type, and both Gabi and Sydney definitely hated her already. Maybe it was the confident grin on her lips or the way she stood buoyantly on the tops of her toes. Maybe it was the way she wore her tank top low so her chest bounced out and drew everybody's eyes. Maybe it was her charming accent, how she made every word sound like a song played on a set of perfectly tuned bells.
Cody and Rosalina separated, and then she turned to face Gabi and Sydney with a beautiful smile.
"Hello, I'm Rosalina. It's nice to meet you."
"Um, I'm Gabi," Gabi said because Sydney was quiet, staring at the girl disdainfully. She bumped against Sydney with the inside of her hip.
"And I'm Sydney," the she said, sounding annoyed.
Cody glanced from Sydney, to Jake, to Gabi, wondering who would make the first move.
"Jake, uh, you remember Sydney and Gabi," Angie looked around, wondering why the tension was so high.
"Oh, do you know them already?" Rosalina looked up at her cousin with wide eyes.
"Yes, we went on vacation last summer," Jake said with a forced smile. Gabi felt her stomach ice up at his accent, which seemed so much stronger. He was taller, too, his hair an even lighter shade of platinum gold. His chest had broadened even more, and he was so much hotter than he had been then, which seemed impossible.
Jake, of course was too mature to totally ignore this so he spoke up.
"Hello, Syd and Gabi."
"Hi Jake," Sydney said with a little smile. She had missed him.
Everybody turned expectantly to Gabi, awaiting her reply. She looked up to finally meet Jake's eyes, and he met hers too. In that millisecond, a million and one unsaid things passed between them.
"How have you been?" Jake asked her, acting like an adult. It drove Gabi crazy that everyone here was so mature all of a sudden. Like the fact that Sydney wasn't tearing Rosalina to shreds over the fact that the latter had found Cody's hand in her own and was holding tight. The fact that Cody was anxiously watching the faces all around him, too many secrets vaulted inside of him to say anything aloud. The fact that Rosalina herself was so beautiful and mature and poised. The fact that Jake was talking to her like he hadn't ripped her heart out and tore it to shreds only four months ago, like she wasn't the only girl to ever make him cry, like he didn't remember all of the moments and kisses and nights they'd shared, like she hadn't told him secrets and he hadn't listened and held her hand and promised to protect her from anything that could possibly even try to hurt her.
It was maddening, infuriating, and most of all heartbreaking.
So she did what only she would do in a situation of everybody acting like grown-ups. Instead of smiling at Jake and telling him politely, "I'm doing fine, thank you for asking. And how are you?" she looked at him, took a step forward and blew a raspberry right in his face.
Jake just watched her, looking slightly amused as she turned on her heel and walked away and up the stairs. Everybody was silent, Alli and Angie, Cody, Rosalina, Sydney…Then Sydney started to laugh and followed Gabi up the stairs calling after her as she tried hard not to giggle.
"Girls get dressed," Angie called, sounding exasperated, giving up on understanding teenagers. She had decided to tactfully ignore the situation, like most mature adults would. "We're going to dinner!"
Rosalina looked at Jake, who was still watching where Gabi had been with a bemused expression.
"Still such a charmer," he said under his breath. Rosalina giggled, and turned to Cody throwing her arms around his neck once more and squealing giddily. She held herself close to him, her thighs gently bumping against his and her chest grazing his as though accidentally. He grinned too and put his hands around her waist.
"I missed you!" she said again. "Cody, I'm so excited! Things are going to be like they used to, before you moved to America!"
"Yeah," Cody sounded happy. "It's going to be great!"
"And," she said, as she stood high on her toes. Her lips tumbled against his cheek, and he felt shivers run into his toes as the spot where she had kissed him seared blissfully. "I'm so happy to get our relationship back on track. I waited three years for you!"
Note: Uh-ohhh! Haha I will update again Thursday, sorry for the long wait! Review, 143!