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"Maddie?"
The older girl looked up and smiled warmly when she saw who it was. "Hello, Cody. What's up?"
Cody shifted from one foot to another. "Can I talk to you? About...you know." He looked down quickly, and Maddie could just make out tears forming under his eyelashes.
"Sure. Listen, come back in, like, fifteen minutes. I'll be on my lunch break then." Maddie wanted to get this done. She was touched by the fact that Cody wanted to open up to her. Not Darrel, not Carey. Only Zack, so far, knew everything about the events of that night, and he wasn't telling.
He needed to tell. Cody needed help. More then what Zack could give him.
Fifteen minutes later, Maddie met Cody in the lobby. Just looking at the boy made her want to cry.
Cody had lost a lot of weight over the last couple of weeks. His once-bright eyes were dulled by the haunted look of a hunted animal. His posture had changed, too. He no longer sat perfectly upright, as he once had. Instead, he was more closed, more sheltered, more protective of his body.
He has every right to be that way. Maddie thought with bitterness. Her hands twisted in her lap as if she could feel those men's necks. She wanted them to die. She wanted those men to feel the pain that she knew Cody was feeling. She wanted to hurt them the way they had hurt Cody. Cody, who had once, from the information she had gathered from Zack about the old Cody, had had so much ambition. So much spunk. All taken away in one night.
In one night, a twelve-year-old boy had lost everything. His dreams, his future, even his innocence.
"So-" Maddie's voice cracked on the first word, she swallowed hard and tried to smile. Tried to look cheery and bright. "So what did you want to talk to me about?"
Cody's mouth opened and closed a couple of times. He doesn't know if he can trust me. Maddie thought with pity. I don't know how he can trust anyone after what he's been through.
"It's about my nightmares." Cody said finally, looking at the floor. "They are so real. I don't know if anybody understands this. I don't think even Zack understands. But Maddie, they are so scary. I'm reliving every moment. Every word." Cody shuddered and let the tears that had been threatening to fall since the beginning have their wish. "Maddie, I don't know what to do. Zack doesn't know what to do. I need help."
Maddie swallowed hard. Maybe she hadn't been ready for this. Here was a boy three years younger then her looking at her for answers that she didn't have. But there was no backing out now.
"Cody, did you tell your mom about his? Did you tell Darrel? They can help you better then I can." Why do I want to cry, nothing's happened to me! Maddie scolded herself.
Cody shook his head. "I've only told Zack. But you don't get it, Maddie. They won't understand. They don't know what it's like!"
"Neither do I, Cody!" Maddie tried to say this quietly, but by the stares she got from some customers, she knew that she hadn't succeeded. Maddie lowered her voice. "I'm just a kid."
Cody nodded. "That's why I need to tell you, Maddie." He paused for a second, then started to tell Maddie everything. From the beginning.
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