A/N: And Chapter 13 is up!
Chapter 13
Cody's POV
Later that night . . .
I held my breath, stepping over a pile of magazines, then nearly tripping over a basketball. Finally, I reached the window and pulled back the curtains slightly so I could at least see some in the moonlight. Zack still did not stir in his bed to my left. Letting out my breath in a slight sigh, I then made my way over to the desk beside Zack and tried to open the drawer. My suspicions proved true, and he had locked it before going to sleep.
That would not be a problem for me. I reached into the pencil container until my fingers closed around a smooth black key. Unlocking the drawer, I sat down to study what I found. I pulled out a red and black notebook and Zack's matching guitar pick. There were scattered photos of Zack and Rikku and of Max and Rikku as well, but I had seen them before. I flipped through the notebook, reading a few journal entries.
September 20, 2006.
Rikku and I went to the park to play with her little brothers today. Noah and Patrick played football and Sydney played on the jungle gym so Rikku and I just watched them and talked. We talked about our lives and families, and just about everything inbetween. I asked her if she liked any guys lately, just joking, and she wouldn't say. Well, you know how I feel about her, but I guess I'll never know how she feels about me.
I can't help but have this strange feeling that Ryan has something to do with it. I never disliked him, but whenever he was nice to me, I couldn't help saying something rude to him. I guess I suspected that he likes her all along.
Cody's already woken up twice and told me to turn the lamp off. I guess I'd better go for the night. He complains about not getting enough sleep because of me, so I don't know when I'll write again. And . . . well, I guess that's it.
- Zack -
A few pages after, I found the next entry. As I had guessed, about Max.
September 23, 2006
Max came over this morning, to return a library book on surfing to me. We ended up hanging out all day. We played video games and then hung out at the park. I remembered what happened at basketball game, and deliberately didn't bring it up. She caught me lost in thought about Rikku -again- and I figured it couldn't hurt to ask her the same question I asked Rikk.
She looked at me and blushed, then muttered that there was this one guy I apparently 'wouldn't know,' but everyone does know that Max can't tell a lie. That's a sure-fire answer that she like me! I asked her his name and she got mad and said it was like I was interrogating her, so I dropped the subject. I did hear from Rumiku talking to Cody that this 'guy I don't know' is someone in our group of friends. I wonder who that could be . . . (Sarcastically)
I rolled my eyes at those last few sentences. I felt terrible for Zack, but part of me -the insenitive but logical part- said that it was Zack's fault for being so full of himself sometimes. Of course the other part of me said that all the signs had been most likely leading to Zack, but Tapeworm had been Max's crush all along.
I flipped through the notebook, finding nothing of particular interest, until I got to a few blank pages. Zack appeared to have been trying to trick anyone else reading the journal into thinking he had stopped writing there, but I continued on for about six pages and found a song written in freshly drying black ink. He had been in the journal that night, most likely less than an hour ago.
You've taken everything I ever had,
Twisted everything I ever knew,
But do my broken heart and tearstained eyes,
Even mean anything to you?
I thought I was ready for one last stand,
O-o-o-oh, one last fight.
How could I have known,
That you would break all the rules tonight?
Now I'm lying here without,
The strength to wonder why.
How could I have figured out,
That you would break all the rules tonight?
But there's no time to wonder how,
My eyes begin to close.
Without the strength to wonder now.
Forgetting everything I'll know . . .
Oh, I thought I was ready for one last stand,
O-o-o-oh, one last fight.
How could I have known,
That you would break all the rules tonight?
Yeah, now I'm lying here without,
The strength to wonder why.
How could I have figured out,
That you would break all the rules tonight?
Did you ever know . . .
That you'd break all the rules tonight?
I closed the journal quietly and stepped carefully back over to my bed, after relocking the drawer. I'd forgotten to replace the key, but that wouldn't matter. I hadn't noticed Zack silently watching me read his journal, and as I closed my eyes feeling genuinely awed, he managed to quietly give me a half-hearted, broken smile, and roll over to try and catch a few hours of remaining sleep before we had to face another day of school -my first day being back.
A/N: Zack's song was written by . . . well, me, any comments are more than welcome!