A/N: This song on here is by Hinder, Shoulda. This is the song that inspired me to write this short story. But yeah, I kind of fixed the song so it fits this chapter. Hope ya like!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

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Before you hung up the phone all I could hear

Was the dial tone ring in my ear

If I could go back in time

To hear those three words

I shoulda woulda coulda said I'd forgiven you

You cant be saved if you cant be found

They hung up and left you for dead on the ground

I didn't even say good bye…

Cody clutched the cell phone to his ear, desperate to hear anything else but the cursed dial tone. His heart was pounding beyond normalcy and he choked on air.

"Zack?" he whispered to the muggy air inside the suite. His shaking fingers dropped his cell phone and it fell, snapping shut once it landed on the plush carpet. He didn't even bend to retrieve it. Just stood there in a daze, not fully understanding why he suddenly felt so empty inside. Like a gapping hole had just been carved out of his heart, extracting something that was irreplaceable to him.

Tears pricked at his eyes as the weight of realization dawned on him. He didn't need anyone to tell him that his brother was dead. He just knew. He just knew. From the painful feeling of desertion to the emptiness that left him feeling hollow and incomplete. He knew.

Now that your gone I'm wasting away

Life has been siphoned right out of my veins

If I could go back in time

I'd trade my life for yours

Shoulda woulda coulda said I'd die for you

"I forgive you Zack. I forgive you…" Cody cried as he crumpled to the floor looking like glass that had shattered into a million pieces. Regret churned in his stomach when he thought of the past two months he had wasted with Zack, ignoring his pleas for forgiveness and only speaking to him once and that had only been last week, to say "I hate you now leave me ALONE!"

"I don't hate you. I don't hate you, Zack. I don't," he sobbed as memories flooded his already overwhelmed mind.

Flashback

Cody looked up sharply from the book he was reading as the door to the Martin suite was slowly opened.

It was past midnight and Carey was still performing in the ballroom. Cody was waiting up but it wasn't for her. He knew she would be late. No, he was waiting for Zack to get home. He had left hours ago, promising to be home before ten and it was now 1:18 in the morning.

Cody would never admit it but he was worried. Zack had never been out so late before and so much could have happened. He could have gotten ran over or kidnapped or something. The city was a dangerous place to be at night and Zack wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.

"Where have you been?" Cody demanded, snapping his book shut (after marking his page) as his twin staggered through the doorway.

Zack snorted and clutched the door frame for support.

"I was at a party, mom," he said mockingly, rolling his eyes.

Cody frowned as he stood up, eyeing his brother suspiciously. Zack reeked of alcohol and his clothes hung crookedly off his short frame.

"Zack, have you been drinking?"

"Psh, nah man," Zack pretend to scoff as he attempted to close the space between himself and the couch. He swayed alarmingly after two steps and his knees buckled. Cody instinctively lurched forward and awkwardly caught Zack by the shoulders before he hit the floor.

"Cody, I didn't know you could be so flexible," Zack laughed, breathing in his face.

Cody dropped Zack in disgust at the strong smell of booze on his brother's breath. Zack flopped heavily to the floor and snorted with laughter as he looked dazedly up at the shocked look on Cody's face.

"You lie! Your drunk!" Cody's jaw dropped.

Zack averted his eyes from his brothers and rolled onto his stomach and attempted to push himself off the floor. After a few moments of quaking elbows and knees he managed to rise and stand to his full height. The laughter was gone from his face as he got in Cody's face. Cody's use of the word 'drunk' to describe Zack's condition seemed to have irked him a bit.

"I am not drunk," he snarled defensively.

It was Cody's turn to smirk.

"Oh, I'm sure," he remarked sarcastically.

A glint of anger sparked in Zack's eyes as he tried to look down his nose at Cody who was just as tall as he. Cody grinned in triumph as he saw how it ruffled Zack's feathers. Without warning Zack lashed out furiously and punched Cody square in the jaw. Cody staggered in shock clutching the side of his face in pain. He tenderly touched the rising the knot that was beginning to form.

With wide disbelieving eyes he backed away from Zack who had sunk to the floor, stunned at what he had just done. Zack was staring at his tightly clenched fist and at the reddened knuckles in utter shock. He looked up at Cody, tears glistening in his eyes. Their identical eyes locked for a moment before Zack broke away, too ashamed.

Cody could feel tears welling up behind his eyes as he took several more steps back, widening the physical and mental chasm between them. His heart was pounding in his ears as he reached the bathroom door. Zack had never hit him before. Never. As twins they had never resorted to violence towards each other no matter pissed off they got with one another. It was almost an unspoken rule between the two. And now Zack had broken it. Zack had thrown the first punch. Zack had struck Cody.

He reached for the door handle behind his back while keeping his eyes fixed on Zack kneeling on the floor. Zack looked up at the sound of the door opening and Cody was startled to see rivers of tears streaming down his cheeks.

"…Cody…," he choked reaching out a hand, silently begging for forgiveness. Cody wordlessly shook his head and turned his back on him, quietly closing the door behind himself, shutting out his brother's pleas and shutting out his brother for two long months, not knowing it would be the last time he would ever speak to his brother.

End of Flashback

Epilogue

Snow fell thickly from the heavy gray clouds, coating the young man's blond hair as he knelt in the middle of a cemetery at the foot of a marble headstone. He stretched out a gloved hand and brushed snow off the gravestone's face. Silent tears splashed onto the grave markers sleek surface, falling from the young man's blue green eyes as he gently sat a red, vivacious rose onto the snow at the foot of his brother's headstone. He clenched his eyes shut, letting his last tear fall onto the rose.

Slowly, reluctantly he rose to his feet, brushing snow off the knees of his black pants as he bid his brother a last good bye. Behind him a car honked for his attention. He turned and waved in acknowledgment, smiling a little as he saw his fiancé blow a kiss at him as she patiently waited for him in the warmth of the passenger side seat. She knew how it important it was for him to say his good byes to his deceased twin as he took the next step in this wonderful adventure we call life, by moving to England with her where they would be wed and could live out their life together in the lush country side.

"Good bye, Zack. Love you too," the young man whispered as he bent, touching the headstone one last time. Then with a heavy heart he left the cemetery, weaving between grave markers and side stepping snow drifts as he carefully made his way to his future, leaving his past behind, temporarily.

THE END.

Well, how was it? Was that a fitting ending? Please review and give me your thoughts!