.:Chapter Eleven:.

My Getaway


"You know, I seriously don't remember Sadie being in our class," Riley commented, twisting back and forth in her office chair. The Australian teen gazed across the computer lab at the redhead girl sitting at a table surrounded by her friends, some of the more popular girls in the grade. She laughed at something her friend said before looking around the computer lab. Not seeing who she was looking for, she turned back to her books. "And I've been here long enough to know who everyone is; it's not a big school."

Cody, who was sitting to her right, slouched in his own chair, looked away from his computer screen and gazed at Sadie himself. He let out a quiet breath before turning back towards his friend with a half smile on his face. "I think you're obsessing because you're jealous."

Snorting, Riley turned so that she was facing him completely. "Of what, exactly?"

Cody rolled his eyes then turned towards her, leaning forward as he rested his arms on his legs. "Of this girl being the first one, since Max, that has shown such obvious and maybe genuine, interest in Zack. And you can't handle it."

Now an irritated sigh escaped Riley's mouth. "I'm not jealous, boofhead" she said calmly. "For one, I'm not a jealous or envious person. And two," she gave Cody the peace sign. "I think too many people base their lives entirely too much on what other people have, yeah?"

"And in this case, you want Zack but don't have him." Cody laughed lightly. He looked hard at Riley, who looked back at him. "You know this is starting to kill me," he remarked. "Having to keep it a secret for the past,"—he quickly calculated—"three years."

She glared at him. "You made a blue. It hasn't been three years," she protested.

"We just turned eighteen, it's been three years. The worst part is that everyone else around you can see that you do like him, and know that you like him, no matter how much you try to deny it. And you still haven't given a good reason as to why you haven't said anything."

"I have about eight hundred good reasons not to tell him and as of late one of them just skyrocketed to number one."

Slouching down in her chair, Riley placed the ball of her right foot on the ground and started to rapidly bounce her knee up and down, causing Cody to shake his head. Despite the fact that she couldn't sit still in the first place—she claimed she always had to be moving, which proved how many sports and activities she was interested in—he recognized it and the hard look on her face to know she was doing her best to keep form showing how angry she was.

Though he didn't blame her.

If he was in her position he would be pissed if his abuser had suddenly come back into his life, wanting to try and make things right. He was sure that her anger was actually stemming from fear caused from a lot of PTSD from him. There was still many times where he would see her or her siblings jump at a loud noise or flinch whenever someone would move quickly into their direction. Now that he thought about it, Robert hadn't been gone that long and everything Cody knew about abuse knew they weren't really going to get over what happened anytime soon.

"All the more reason to tell him," he pressed. "It'd give you something to at least look forward to everyday." Riley made a gagging sound, miming sticking a finger down her throat and Cody laughed. She then paused, focusing her attention on the screen of her laptop before bringing a hand up to smooth her hair back out of her face

"I was thinking about asking him to go with me to the baseball game," she admitted quietly.

"As a date?" Cody asked.

Riley showed him her middle finger. "No! To take his mind off of his eating disorder and everything. The last thing he needs is to be constantly reminded." She shrugged. "That's what I did with Rhu, anyway."

"You dated your sister?" Cody laughed loudly as Riley reached over and punched him on the arm as hard as she could. He continued to laugh as he pulled up his sleeve, checking the spot and noticed that it had already started to turn a dark. "You know I bruise easily."

"That was your fault," Riley said. She then laughed and took hold of his arm, leaning over and giving the spot a quick kiss. "Better?"

Cody smiled and nodded. "Thanks nurse Jackson."

"It's Dr. Jackson, actually. Once I finish all of those classes and get my degree and everything. And as I was saying, it doesn't help when you're being constantly reminded or babied about things like this so it's always better to try and take their mind off things."

"That's a good idea, actually," Cody agreed.

He ran a hand through his hair, letting out a deep breath as he tilted his head back. There were so many things going on, so much more than he thought there would be compared to the school work he was going to do. Not only did he have a lot of homework because of the AP classes he had to do, as well as making sure he kept his grades up, to get his college applications started, and being the student body president. Co-president, he reminded himself, knowing Bailey would have done the same if she had the chance. But now on top of that he worried about his brother, constantly worried about him.

Which was strange in itself because out of the two of them, Cody was the one that didn't really mind being separated, being an individual. Sure, he had joked that Zack would end up in jail at some point and would need Cody to be bailed out, and yes, there were many times he wondered if Zack really was going to be okay after they graduated and inevitably went their separate ways. But this was different. Now Cody woke up a few hours every night to listen to make sure Zack was still breathing, now he quietly watched him as they ate, silently pushing him along, now he was always there to listen.

"I think he'll enjoy it," Cody said. His eyes shifted to the side as his brother walked through the door of the computer lab, looking down at his phone. Cody smirked and looked back at Riley, tilting his head towards his brother. "You can ask him now." Riley followed his gaze and the two watched as Sadie looked up, her face lighting up when he spotted Zack. She got up from her seat and practically skipped over to him, grabbing his attention by taking his phone and placing it behind her back, grinning at him, causing Zack to smile back at her. "Wow, she's really not afraid of being rejected. It's too bad though. If I were Zack I wouldn't mess with her."

"It's funny, that's what a lot of people say about me, yeah?" Riley closed her laptop and carefully slid it into her backpack. Cody watched as she got to her feet and pulled her backpack onto her shoulders. "I'll see you later Codes." She leaned over and gave him a quick hug before starting to walk out of the computer lab, an alarm starting to go off on her watch.

"Where are you going?" Cody called after her.

"I have some place I need to be."

"Or you're just scared."

"I'm not scared of anything." The words tasted bitter on Riley's lips as she left the computer lab. A deep sigh escaped her lips as she slowly brought her teeth together. Her breaths started to become ragged despite sauntering at a leisurely pace. By the time she made it to the nurse's office, her hands were clenched into fists so tightly that she drew blood from a few imprints. Shaking out her hand, she knocked on the doorframe before heading inside. "Nurse Kryn?"

Nurse Kryn, a nice woman in her forties, turned from her computer and looked up at Riley with a warm smile. "Ah, Miss. Jackson, I was wondering when you were going to show. I see that alarm was a good idea. Get yourself a cup of water."

Riley went over to the bubbler that sat in the corner of the room and pulled out a cone-shaped cup. She twisted it in her hand for a few seconds then placed it under the nozzle to fill it with water. She turned back to Nurse Kryn who reached into a cabinet to her right and took out a medicine bottle. She read the cover before looking at Riley in confusion. "It says to only take this before you go to bed."

"It doesn't help the insomnia and I take something else for that, so I take these in the morning," Riley explained. She held out her hand and Nurse Kryn shook a pill out of the bottle and handed it over to Riley who took it and juggled it in the palm of her hand. She looked at the tiny, chalky colored pill that reminded her so much of Smarties, though without the taste. Tilting her hand back she moved her hands up over her mouth and quickly followed the movement with the cup of water, swallowing it in one gulp.

Crumpling up the paper cup, she looked over at Nurse Kryn, who nodded and marked off her clipboard then smiled up at the teen. "You may go now."

"Thanks. See you tomorrow." Riley left the room and was halfway down the hall when she stopped beside a trashcan. Opening her hand she tossed the pill into the trash can and kept walking.


Cody left the computer lab shortly after Riley had, but having stopped at his locker to change out books; and struggling to get them all organized despite his best efforts and a immaculately clean locker, made him get to his AP English class a few seconds before the door was closed. He couldn't afford to be late; once the door was closed it was locked the whole class period.

He slid down into his seat and made sure he was hidden behind Tapeworm, suddenly cursing the fact that his friend had chopped off his trademark big hair to hide him even further. Nevertheless, he lowered himself as much as he could and slowly pulled his phone from his pocket. Putting it on silent, he glanced across the room at Rhuben, who was listening carefully to what the teacher had to say, and typed out a message.

Cody: Can we talk?

When the message sent, he glanced over at Rhuben as she kept her eyes on the teacher but slowly pulled her phone from her pocket. She then angled herself in her seat so that she could still look at the teacher, but shift her eyes down to her phone when needed. Cody periodically glanced at the screen then the message came back through.

Rhu: About?

Cody: Zack. Eating disorders…

He sent the text back to her and watched as she blinked, slightly jerking her head back. Crystal, who was sitting in front of her, and Riley, who was sitting to her side, both looked over at them and she quickly waved them off before using her thumb to compose a reply. Cody looked up and listened as the teacher told them to turn to the third chapter of Scarlett Letter where they would be taking turns reading out loud and analyzing what the chapter was trying to say.

Dutifully, Cody pulled out his book and turned to the correct page before hiding his phone inside it. The little message indicator sat at the top and he took a deep breath before opening it. It took him a few moments to read: …alright. What do you want to know? before it registered. Only because it had taken her so long to agree to talk about it. After she had revealed to him that she was anorexic they had stopped talking for a while because he had been so preoccupied with the news that she was recovering from the same disease Zack was now struggling with, because then had to spend a lot of time in the hospital, and because he was actually sort of surprised that there were other things that she had kept a secret from him.

Then again he wasn't sure how the conversation was to come to fruition, they weren't even the best friends when they had first met, and it took a while for her to warm up to him. But that was resulting from things that happened before he had even met her. Still, his friendly nature got the best of him and wouldn't allow her to turn away from him. Eventually he was successful and the two had grown close pretty quickly.

And then I had to go and mess things up, Cody thought as he started to type. Though it wasn't all my fault. He read over his message, quickly putting his phone under his book as the teacher started to come around as the students read. Tapeworm stretched his arms over his head and bent back far enough so that he could catch Cody's eye. When he did, the taller teen crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue, showing his displeasure for the class. Cody laughed and reached out, gently prodding his friend on the forehead.

Normally he would've given Tapeworm a disapproving glance and shook his head, warning his friend that he didn't want to be bothered. Normally, Cody would've made absolute sure that he paid as close attention to the words on the page and the words coming out of his teacher's mouth. But 'normal' wasn't something Cody was particularly sure the definition was anymore. Normal would be him and Zack running through the Tipton hotel as they irritated Moseby, as Cody obsessed over his grades, as Zack flirted with Maddie, as Carey tried to wrangle them both, as they visited with their father every couple of weeks. Normal wasn't Cody goofing off in class, Zack begging to go to school while on a part-time schedule. Normal wasn't Zack wanting to move out with their father and Carey not knowing what to do.

Cody: As much as I can. I don't want Zack to be alone in this.

Rhuben looked over the text and tilted her head to the side, rubbing the back of her neck. Her shoulders stiffened as she thought about it. There was a lot she could tell him, but he still wouldn't accurately understand because he wasn't going through it. But he was trying and that was better than nothing, especially if it would make things easier between the two of them. Even if she knew there was still going to be a lot she wouldn't say.

Rhu: Well, that could take a while; there's so much about it to go through. Though right now I think focusing on how to help Zack rather than making him feel like a burden is the best place to start. But you can't forget that it's still something he's gonna face for the rest of his life, and finding the balance between that can be difficult.

Rhu: Nothing's worse than people seeing you eating and then thinking that everything is okay and then trying to shove every piece of food down your throat, trying to be helpful. It's more of a mental game than anything else. But, hey, everyone always thought we were crazy so I guess it was bound to happen.

Cody: It's funny; Riles said something like that earlier today.

Rhu: It really must run in the family, 'cause something's bothering, Crys too. The only one that doesn't seem too bothered is Aaron. Considering, he's the lucky one.

Cody: That's a funny thing to say to someone who's blind. But then again you've always had a weird sense of humor. :) Do you have some time to talk later? Maybe after school?

Rhu: Cross country practice. You know, you really have to get into a sport or something. All of the academics that you're working on is just going to make you go crazy like the rest of us a lot sooner than you think.

Cody smiled to himself, trying not to laugh out loud. To say their little group of friends was crazy was an understatement. He didn't think he would have so many different kinds of friends like he had now. He could understand Tapeworm; they had so much in common. But with him, Max had come along where she seemed to really understand Zack. Then all of the rest had come in and it just seemed to make sense.

"Is something funny, Mr. Martin?"

Cody's eyes widened and he whipped his head up to see the AP English teacher, Mr. Dennings standing near his desk, arms folded and eyes boring down into the blond. Cody thought for a moment, trying to think of a good excuse before he spotted the Scarlett Letter sitting on his lap. He glanced at the page before managing to stammer out, "I just think that the way society worked back then and how society works now isn't that different…it's kind of funny."

"Interesting." Mr. Dennings's face softened as he realized that Cody was on to something. "Would you care to elaborate?"

"Well, the taboo about sex, really," Cody said bluntly. "Esther Prynne is shamed for having an affair when her husband, whom she thought was dead or whatever, had been gone a long time. So let's be honest here, a lot of people would fall to temptation over that. But it's really funny how people are willing to stone her to death while in our modern times, anyone that cheats or even just has sex in general is more than likely to be publicly shamed." He looked at Tapeworm, who turned in his seat and stared at his best friend. Cody gave him a sympathetic smile in reply. "Not only is it not anyone's business, but it shows that our society hasn't changed much since then."

"And that's the sort of things we need to think about, class," Mr. Dennings said, after giving Cody a brief clap on the shoulder. "Maybe Nathaniel Hawthorne, if he were still alive, should've published this book now. When this society really needs it. What do you think would happen?" He pointed over to another student and Cody let out a sigh of relief, giving Tapeworm the offered high-give.

Rhu: Nice save. Normally you would've cracked under the pressure.

Cody: That's something I'm trying very hard not to do now.

Not for himself but for Zack.


Zack sighed as he walked into the daycare. It was the only bright side for going to school part-time. That he would be able to spend more hours at work. The kids had really started to grow on him, more than he thought they would. At first he had only seen it as a job, but now it was something he looked forward to.

"Hey Maddie," he greeted his blonde friend as she sat in a rocking chair by the door, feeding one of the only babies they were to look after, a bottle. "How's it going?"

"Hey Zack," Maddie replied. She tried to sound cheerful but it didn't quite make it that far. Turning from the sing-in sheet, Zack crossed his arms as he gazed at his older friend. "Not bad. I mean, other than the fact that I didn't get a good grade on the first paper of the semester, my car got a flat tire, and London still not being back yet, I'm peachy." She shifted the baby to her other side to reveal a dark spot on her shit. "Oh yeah, and this baby threw up on me a few minutes ago and I haven't been able to get the smell of sour milk out of my nose."

He laughed lightly before sitting down in the chair next to her, resting his hands on the arm rests. Gazing out at the kids as they continued to play with their blocks, toy trains, and plastic cars they pushed each other around him, he suddenly felt relaxed. They didn't care about the things he was going through, they just liked having him around as a friend and someone to play with. That attention was all he needed some times.

"London's not coming back?" Zack's nose wrinkled. "It's a fashion school; I didn't think it was that different from regular college."

"It's not," Maddie agreed. "But you have to remember that this fashion school is for those that already have rich parents. So the clothes they make, they barely do any work to have it be done. She and some of her friends are going to the Bahamas."

"Dude. Wish I could go."

"I know, right?" Zack smiled as Maddie rolled her eyes. "Don't get me wrong, I love these little guys. And school is actually pretty fun for the most part. I just wish there was something that would break up the monotony, you know?"

"Yeah…" Zack thought about the piece of paper that was in his pocket that had Sadie's phone number on it.

He had only gone to school that day, on his day off, because the guidance counselor had wanted to see him to make sure things were going okay with his school work. First he had to stop into the computer lab to give Cody a message from their mom that she would be singing late, and as soon as he had stepped into the room, the redhead situated himself in front of him and took his phone from his hand.

"What's so interesting on here that you don't even stop to say 'hi' to me?" She asked playfully, biting her lower lip. He chuckled, reaching out to take his phone back, but she continued to hold it away. "It must be a big deal if you're trying that hard to get it back."

"More like my Mom wants me to keep in contact with her while I'm in school," Zack replied, resting his hand on the strap of his backpack. He flicked his hair form his face. "You know, considering how I'm not really supposed to be here."

Sadie's eyes lit up. "You came here to see me?"

"No, I came here to see my brother and then go to see the guidance counselor," Zack replied. His eyebrow cocked upwards as Sade made a tsk'ing sound with her mouth, pursing her lips as she did so. "Wow, I haven't heard that from anyone but my Mom since I was a kid."

"Well, you should know by now the things you should never say or do around a girl," Sadie commented. She reached out and pushed his phone into his chest, her hand lingering for a minute. "And on top of that list is making a girl feel unwanted."

"I don't think that's a problem," Zack replied flirtatiously. He couldn't help the grin that stretched across his face. At least with what he was going through, he was still getting attention from the ladies. "You're definitely not unwanted."

"That's good to hear." Sadie practically purred. She turned to her friends, who started to giggle, and held out her hand. The girl closest to her handed her a notebook and a piece of paper. Sadie quickly wrote on it before ripping out a section and handing it over to Zack. "That's my cell number. Give me a call when you want to have some fun. I'm still open for a date to Drew's homecoming party."

"I promise I won't lose it."

And now as it sat in his pocket, Zack didn't only think of a potential date, but of what the guidance counselor had said when he finally reached his office.

Your grades are being held up fine, but we're not sure we can risk having you around because it might distract the other students. Zack hadn't understood at first but then the guidance counselor continued with, we're aware of the risk of your relapsing and with how thin you already are, despite having been released at a healthy weight, might make others uncomfortable. And then there's the rumors, you don't want to have to deal with that anymore do you? Then he understood it perfectly. They were afraid of the reputation the school was getting. How long could it have taken for it to get out that he had collapsed and had a heart attack? What with people and their phones being permanently glued to their hands he was moderately surprised someone hadn't wanted to take a picture with him when he was being put into the ambulance.

Now Zack plastered a smile on his face, much like Maddie's before it wasn't completely real. "How about we break up the monotony, Sweet Thang? After shift that's empty our bank accounts and go on a romantic getaway!"

Maddie laughed. "Yeah, like I have any money in my bank account." She looked at Zack out of the corner of her eye. "Though that is tempting. Just don't let Julius know you offered it."

"He's all the way over in Australia; I don't think his hearing is that good."

"He's closer than you think." Her words caused Zack to pause before looking at her. Now she held the baby against her shoulder, gently patting its back. "He's on a flight back to Boston right now…because of Robert."

"Ah." Zack nodded and then snapped his fingers. "Well, there goes our chance to get away. We'll just have to wait for a better time. Maybe elope."

"I said I'd be at your wedding, I didn't say that I'd be your bride," she reminded him.

"Dreams die hard."

"Zack!" Sitting up straight, Zack held out his hands as Lindsay hurried over to him. He grabbed onto the toddler and lifted her up onto his lap so she could lean over and give him a hug. As soon as it was noticed that Zack was there, a hoard of little kids called his name, and ran over, surrounding his chair in seconds. "Here to play?"

"Yeah, Linds, I'm here to play," Zack said. He gently tapped her on the nose and she giggled, burying her face in her hands before turning to him, peeking out of between her fingers. "You all want to play, right?" He stood up and balanced Lindsay on his hip and high-stepped over the little kids that barely reached his knees. "Okay, why don't we play a game of duck, duck goose? Who would like that?" He got a resounding cheer and laughed, walking them to the other side of the room to play. "Okay, everyone sit down and get in a circle. I'll go first."

Zack, after struggling to get Lindsay to release her grasp on him, made sure all of the kids were in a circle before starting to lightly tap each of their heads as he went around them.


A/N: Things pick up from here; I've felt it's been a bit slow until now, personally. Thanks for the favorites and alerts, by the way.

Cheers

-Riles