A/N: Thanks for all the reviews! You guys are awesome, and starting to make me feel like I should be updating twice a day.
Chapter 10:
Cody was surprised to come home and find his brother playing an intense game of Guitar Hero on the couch. It was only ten-thirty, Zack should have still been out on his date with Abigail.
"How was the musical?" Cody called to his brother over the blaring wail of Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast.
"Stupid," Zack bit reply, not turning from the screen, his face grim.
"Really? The theater-house showing received rave reviews," Cody said conversationally, removing his coat and heading towards his room to hang it up. He reentered the living room and took a seat on the couch behind his brother to watch the game.
Zack was unnervingly silent. He was also missing an uncharacteristically large amount of notes. Cody frowned and looked to study his brother only to be jolted into stun.
"What the hell happened?" he demanded, jumping to his feet and grabbing Zack's shoulder in an attempt to turn the other boy towards him.
"Dude, Cody, let go! You're gonna make me fail," Zack cried, tugging out of his brother's grasp. The song ended with "booing" from the crowd and Zack cursed, tossing the plastic guitar-shaped controller to the couch in disgust. He growled at Cody, "Look what you made me do."
For a moment, Cody was taken aback by the harshness in his brother's tone but recovered quickly, "You were failing before I walked in. Now answer my question. Why does your face look like grape jelly and why do you have bandages all over your arm?"
Zack opened his mouth, closed it. He reached for the 'guitar' again and mumbled, "I fell."
"That must have been quite a tumble," Cody muttered, folding his arms over his chest, unconvinced. Zack pressed the primary colored buttons on his 'guitar', taking the game back to main menu.
"You want to play?" he asked, his voice low and unreadable.
"I guess." Cody retrieved the other 'guitar' from beside the television and waited as Zack set up the game in two-player mode and selected a song.
For nearly half-an-hour the boys played, silence between them save for the click-clack of their 'guitars', broken only once when Cody distractedly informed his brother, "Mom went to work. Said she'd be back sometime next week if she doesn't check in Sunday." To which Zack grunted response.
A little past eleven, and having just finished a near-perfect rendition of Prayer for a Refugee, Cody trudged into the kitchen for cans of soda pop and snacks. He returned, handing a cola over to his brother and opening the bag of Doritos he'd brought back.
"I saw Max," Zack said, taking a sip of his soda. Cody nearly dropped the can in his hand.
"What? When? Where? Did you talk to her? What did she say? What happened?"
Zack grabbed a handful of nacho flavored triangles and shoved them in his mouth. He shrugged, the crunch of the chips loud in the tense room. Cody dropped onto the couch and studied his brother next to him.
The bruise on Zack's cheek wasn't as terrible as he'd initially thought, but the bandage round his forearm was disturbing, especially with the line of red running the length of his wrist towards his elbow seeping through the white lenin. Cody wondered if the injures had to do with Max.
"She was at the theater-house," Zack went on, staring at the television screen, the game patiently waiting on the song-selection menu.
"Was she?" Cody pressed, thinking of Max going to see Guys and Dolls, "She didn't strike me as being very interested in the arts."
Zack rubbed his neck and lifted himself from the couch. He wandered into the kitchen and took a gulp of his cola. Cody watched concerned, he didn't like the sick feeling eating at the pit of his stomach.
"I guess she wasn't really at the theater-house. She was across from it."
"Oh. Walking home or something."
Zack opened the refrigerator in the kitchen, peered inside as though searching for something and seeming to not find it, closed the door once again. He finished off his soda pop in one long chug, burped loudly to Cody's chagrin, and tossed the empty can in the sink to be cleaned and recycled later. He drummed the counter with his hands, leaned on it then looked at his brother with a smile that never reached his eyes.
"I don't think she has a home."
Cody sat back, let the words sink in.
Not having a home would make her...homeless. But that didn't make sense. The last time they'd seen Max she'd had a home. She'd lived in a house – a nice house – with her parents. He'd seen it. He'd been inside it, many times. They'd worked on projects for school there. Played video games there. He'd even had dinner there. How could she not have that six years later? It just did not make sense.
"What do you mean?" he questioned, his mouth felt dry, "Why would you think that?"
Zack had folded his arms on the counter, now leaning heavily on them, his head hanging between sagged shoulders. Cody didn't like the stillness in his usually hyperactive, goofy, cheerful brother.
"She never wears anything different," Zack began just above a whisper, "Always the same clothes. It's freezing out and she's wearing shorts and a t-shirt."
Cody frowned at the game onscreen. It kept playing the same background song on loop. Normally, he'd be annoyed by the repetitive noise, but at the moment, he found it a peaceful relief.
"I couldn't tell when she last showered." Zack went on, voice surprisingly steady, "And she's thin, Cody; really, scary thin. I couldn't tell when she last ate."
Cody was starting to feel like he couldn't breath. There wasn't any air in the room. The walls were creeping closer.
"And she's always trying to hussle people out of money."
Cody bit into his inner cheek. It crashed around his ears, the roaring waves of discontent. He hadn't thought about it, hadn't noticed, and he was supposed to be the more observant twin, but Zack was right. Zack had caught every little puzzle piece of Max's derelict lifestyle and fit them together to reveal the bigger picture.
Max was homeless.
"Oh man...the basketball game," Cody moaned, suddenly feeling like he could cry. He covered his face with a hand, "How many meals did that asshole Jason and his friends cost her? How many meals did we help them cost her?"
Zack flexed his hand into a fist; loosened, then tightened it again. He hadn't thought of that.
"We have to tell mom," Cody said decisively.
Zack's eyes widened and he snapped them onto his brother, "What? No! We can't."
"Zack, if you're right and Max is living on the streets, she could be in a lot of trouble. It's dangerous," Cody argued, "She could get hurt or even end up de..." he faltered, lowered his eyes, swallowed hard, "Dead."
"I offered her a sandwich and she bolted, Cody," Zack shot back, "If we told mom about this, Max might...she might disappear for good. We'd never see her again."
"Well we can't just do nothing," Cody cried, "If we tell mom then mom will know what to do."
"Mom will just want to call the cops," Zack pointed out.
"And why exactly would that be a bad thing?"
Zack pushed away from the counter and groaned in frustration. "You're supposed to be the smart one, figure it out!"
Cody crossed his arms and glared at the other boy.
"If Max finds out we called the cops on her we'll definitely never see her again," Zack hissed.
"Then what do you want to do?" Cody demanded. Zack sighed, shaking his head. He hit the counter top with a pulled punch that popped dramatically.
"I don't know."
The twins fell quiet, lost in their new revelation. Neither had ever confronted something so difficult. It was hard to imagine their childhood friend in such a terrible predicament. While troublemakers right down to the bone, the boys were ultimately kind-hearted, and they ached with want to help. They were just at loss as to how to do it.
It probably didn't matter, they both mourned hopelessly, it wasn't as though either of them knew exactly where Max was at that moment.
A/N: I liked this chapter. I like writing the boys together.
One of the reviewers expressed concern of Cody lacking in the story. I assure you, he has some good (solo) chapters coming up and there will be more of him interacting with Bailey. Sadly, they aren't really the main dish of the story...I considered writing a sequel that focused more on their relationship but I don't know. Unfortunately, I have to admit, Zack is my favorite of the twins...which means, I like to beat him up. :) Cody, to me, is a more stable character; whereas, Zack has a lot more room to grow in a story.
I don't know, that's just my opinion anyhow. Let me know what you think! I know it's not an exciting chapter, but the boys are starting to piece things together and explanations are soon to follow.