Chapter 8 - Departure (Posted 26 June 2011)
It was the night before the Martin twins' last day in Kinkow. Zack and Boomer were asleep in their rooms. Mikayla was still in her jail cell until Mason returned from his rounds around the island. And Brady and Cody were in Cody's room.
"I'm really going to miss you." Cody said as he laid next to Brady. His head was on Brady's chest and Brady's arms were around him.
"Me too."
"But I'm going to visit all the time."
"I know..."
Cody looked up at him. "You don't sound very happy about it."
"I am happy!" Brady insisted as he sat up to kiss Cody. "Of course I'm happy. I want you here as much as possible. In fact... I'd like you to stay."
"Stay?"
"Yeah." Brady said enthusiastically. "Think about it. I love you and..."
"Love me?"
"Well yeah... didn't you hear me say it yesterday?"
"I did but I thought it was an accident." Cody said with wide eyes.
"It was, but not because it's not true. I wanted to tell you, not just have you happen to hear it while I was telling someone else."
"Oh..." Cody blushed.
"So..." Brady raised his eyebrows.
"I love you too, of course." Cody smiled.
"I'm glad to hear that."
"But I can't stay."
Brady's face fell. "What?"
"Graduation is in two weeks..."
"Why don't you just go and then come back?" Brady asked hopefully.
"I... I will come back. But I can't stay, Brady. I have to go to college."
"Why?"
Cody blinked. "What do you mean 'why'? I told you I'm going to Yale. I want to get a degree so I can be successful..."
"But you don't have to!" Brady explained with excitement. "I'm a King, Cody. I can take good care of you, you wouldn't have to do anything."
"Come on, you know me better than that. I can't just do nothing and let you take care of me..."
Brady frowned. "I know... but Cody..."
"I'm going to spend the summers with you. And all the weekends and small vacations during the school year too! Trust me, I don't want us to be apart any more than you do."
"And what about after you get your degree?" Brady asked.
"Well... there's grad school..."
"So that's another two or three years." Brady said sadly. "And then what about after that? What about when you get a job? There'll be no more summer vacations. All we'll have left is weekends."
"You could come to America to visit me..."
"A few times a year, maybe, but I can't be gone a lot."
"I know... I understand..."
"I'm sorry. This isn't turning out how you planned, is it?"
"No. Not at all. But that's ok. We'll just have to deal with it. We'll see each other every weekend. And summers until I finish school. It's not perfect but it's the best we can do. I don't want to be with anyone else."
"Me either. You're right, any time I get with you is fine with me. But I'll never stop asking you to stay."
Cody smiled. "That's ok. I'll never stop wanting to stay."
"We'll talk on the phone every day." Brady suggested.
"And video chat on the computer when we can." Cody agreed.
"We'll make it work." Brady promised.
"Yeah. We will."
X
"Come on, lovebirds, the sooner Cody gets packed the sooner you two can get to having goodbye sex."
"Zack!" Cody slapped his arm.
Brady just laughed at Cody's bashfulness.
"Oh, come on, Cody, it's me!" Zack said boisterously. "Don't even try to tell me you weren't planning on it."
"It's none of your business how I was planning on saying goodbye to Brady."
"It is, actually," Zack said, pointing to the shirt Cody was wearing, "because that's my shirt and I don't want you guys to get anything gross on it."
"ZACK!" Cody shouted.
Brady laughed and stood behind Cody, starting to lift the shirt off him. "If Zack wants his shirt back so bad, let's just give it to him." He threw the shirt to Zack and wrapped his arms around Cody's waist, kissing his neck.
Cody blushed brightly. "Brady! My brother is in here and the door is wide open!"
Zack closed his eyes. "Ok, I'm outta here." Zack turned and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
Cody turned in Brady's arms and kissed him. "We really should pack my things. Then we won't have to worry about it later when we're... 'saying goodbye.'"
"Can't we just 'say goodbye' now and then 'say goodbye' again later?"
Cody laughed and hugged Brady closer. "I wish we didn't have to actually say goodbye."
"I know." Brady said. "And the offer is still open. If you would want to stay..."
"I do want to stay."
Brady sighed loudly. "I know."
"I'll email you the ship's coordinates for the weekend after graduation so your hot air balloon flyer or whatever will know where to land."
"Ok. But I don't know if I can go two weeks without you."
"You've gone eighteen years."
"That was before I met you though. Now that I know you... it's gonna be real lonely for me around here."
"I'm sorry."
"I didn't mean it like that, I didn't want to make you feel guilty about it. I was just saying it because all week every week I'm just going to be thinking about seeing you. But weekends all of a sudden have a new kind of importance for me."
"Brady..."
"See? I remembered."
"Remembered what?"
"That you're a fan of cheesy romance."
Cody giggled. "I never said cheesy."
"It was implied."
X
"We hope you enjoyed your stay in Kinkow." Mason announced to the SS Tipton passengers. "Aside from a few minor occurrences, I'm sure most of you had a good time. Please take care and come again."
As everyone boarded the ship, Cody stared at where Brady was standing along with everyone else seeing the visitors off. Brady was staring back at him. Cody desperately wanted to just run across the sand, leap into Brady's arms and kiss him senseless, but he couldn't. They'd decided they weren't ready to make their relationship public yet. The only others who knew about it were Boomer, Zack, Mason, and Mikayla. Of course Mikayla had threatened to tell everyone, but Brady told her that if she did tell she would be banished from the island.
"Cody," Zack said, putting an hand on his shoulder, "everyone else has boarded. We have to go."
"Moseby hasn't boarded." Cody said.
"He's waiting for us."
"I know." Cody sighed.
"I know you're gonna miss Brady but you'll see him again soon."
"Yeah..."
"Why don't you just go over there and tell him goodbye?"
"I can't. The departure ceremony..."
"Screw the ceremony."
"No. We decided we'd say goodbye beforehand and then I would just leave like everyone else."
"So?"
"So I can't just change the plans."
"Yes you can." Zack argued. "He's probably having the same debate with himself right now. Neither of you just want to leave it like this."
"I'm going to call him later..."
"Then let's go, Moseby is starting to look irritated."
"I don't want to go..."
"Wave to him."
"I don't know if I should..."
"It's just a wave, Cody, no one is going to assume you're a couple just from that."
"But..."
"No buts." Zack said sternly. "You're always planning things, but I think it's time for you to learn that thing don't always go according to plan, especially love. So just make a decision and go with it."
"I guess a wave would be ok..."
"It will, Cody."
Cody nodded and raised his hand, swishing it lightly through the air. Everyone waved back, but seeing Brady wave almost brought tears to his eyes. "Ok. I guess we should go now." Cody turned and walked away with Zack. They walked on the ship, followed by Mr. Moseby who signaled the captain. As the ship sailed away Cody didn't take his eyes off Brady's figure. It got smaller and smaller until it disappeared completely.
"He's not going to stop loving you just because you're gone." Zack told him after about a half hour.
"What?" Cody asked absently.
"I know you're thinking that now that you're gone he's going to stop loving you. I can see it on your face. You've been worried about it this whole time."
"How did you know?" Cody gave a sad chuckle.
"Because. I know you worry about things like that."
"It's so stupid, Zack. I know he loves me and I know he probably misses me like crazy already but... I can't help but think maybe he realized he doesn't love me after all. And I know that he's going to be faithful but I still keep worrying that he's going to get too lonely and seek comfort from someone else. I know none of that is going to happen, I trust him completely and I know he's not that kind of a person, but I still keep thinking about it."
"That's normal, Cody." Zack said. "People are always afraid that the best things in their lives are going to be taken from them. It's only natural that you would think those things even if you know they're impossible."
"What about you?" Cody asked curiously. "What do you worry about being taken from you?"
"Oh, lots of things. My charm. My good looks. My sexy voice."
"Seriously, Zack."
"That should be obvious after everything I said to you in the past few days."
Cody smiled understandingly. "Brady isn't taking me away. You guys will just have to share me. We talked about it and he understands. He's a twin too, after all."
"And there's a fifty percent chance he's the older one." Zack laughed, remembering all the times Brady insisted he remembers being born first.
"True."
"So you really think he's 'the one'?"
"Nope. I know he is, Zack."
"Wow. I'm happy for you, Codes. I just hope I can find someone like that someday."
"You will. And it'll hit you hard. You'll just see them and something inside you will click. You might not know what it is at first... but it's anything like what happened with me and Brady then it won't take long for you to figure it out."
"I don't know. Anyone can fall in love. But I've heard that not very many people find their soulmate."
"I think it's because they're either looking too hard or not looking hard enough. See if they're not looking hard enough, then they don't ever think about anything enough to realize they've found him or her. And if they're looking too hard, they're so focused on what they want their soulmate to be that they completely overlook someone who doesn't meet all of their qualifications."
"Does Brady meet all of yours?"
"Well I always thought my soulmate was going to be a girl, but then I realized I'm gay so that qualification changed, but it wouldn't have changed without him. And he's so far away, but I don't blame him for that and we're working around that. As for everything else, he's completely perfect. But there are things I love about him that I didn't even realize I wanted. Like he's taller than me. That doesn't really matter but I kind of like being the shorter one. And he gets awkward sometimes when I say something... you know... sexual. It's so cute. I just don't like to think about what would have happened if the ship would never have gone to Kinkow. Or if I hadn't won that contest to stay in the castle. I would never have met Brady. Then where would I be?"
"It doesn't matter where you'd be." Zack said. "What matters is you met him and he loves you more than I've seen anyone love someone."
"Zack... what would you say if I told you I'm thinking about staying with him after graduating?"
"Um... first I'd ask if you were really serious."
"I'm completely serious."
"Then I'd have to tell you that... I think you should just do whatever you're heart is telling you to do. I know you've had your heart set on Yale since you first heard the words 'ivy league' but I also know that you want to be with Brady. I'm sorry, but this is one thing I can't help you with except by saying I know you'll make the right choice and everything will work out for you."
