Chapter 4: Old friend

A/N: Thanks, everyone, for the wonderful reviews. Arc, I personally don't see this particular read of Takeru as stupid so much as unwise. Cody is fun to expand on, though. I experimented with writing through a different process than normal, and I'm not sure how good the product is. Review? Either way, this is a monster of a chapter.

Same Point of View:

I decided that I would play Super Smash Bros. Brawl at least until Johnathan got back, and probably until the headache had faded. In the hour between when I started play and when Johnathan finally got back, I learned during the first few games that I was able to beat the first couple difficulty levels on the computer, and by the time that the hour was up, I was actually able to beat the level 4 CPU.

I also realized that I was incredibly thirsty, which was no surprise. Johnathan had previously told me to help my self to the contents of his fridge, and so I took a bottle of water. I went through it pretty fast, and, determined to cost my host as little as possible, refilled it out of the tap rather than getting a new bottle.

When Johnathan finally returned, he threw a bag at me.

"Clothes. Because I know what it's like to be without a change of clothes, and I'm gonna get paid to work with one of my friends car's over the break." Johnathan said, "And because I know roughly what you wear, because I talked to Cody."

"I can pay you back if you want." I said, "And how the hell does he know that?"

"I don't know, but I assume you told him at some point." Johnathan said, "And no, don't pay me back. To be honest, I just didn't want to have more money than normal in my pocket, because I knew I'd go through it and anything else I had on me."

I knew Johnathan knew how to save, it was very obvious, so he was lying to me about being afraid that the money would burn a hole in his pocket, but I believed him entirely when he said he knew what it was like being without a change of clothes, and I suspected that Johnathan was trying to help me because he saw me as in need of help, as I presumed he'd once been. Whatever the reason, I was grateful.

"Thanks." I said, "You're the best."

"Hey, and I also have to tell you that I'm not going to be able to give you a roof to sleep under tonight... But, not to worry. I talked to Cody to make sure there was someone else you could stay with." He said.

"So, who am I staying with now?" I asked, almost worried I'd end up with one of Johnathan's more impulsive friends, and not trusting myself with any of them. I mean, I had already proved myself to be incredibly impulsive, and lacking greatly in self control.

"Well, Cody is offering you the couch at his house, since his parents are out and he's allowed to have a friend over for a sleepover."

"Cool. Hey, though, what's up with me having to go?" I asked, curious.

"Well... There's this girl I met at the party last night, and she's going to be over."

"Wow. You? With a girl? No way!" I teased.

"Funny." He replied blandly, "But not terribly."

"I know. I know."

"Anyway, I'm going to take you over to Cody's." Johnathan said.

"Alright." I was a little confused at the fact that he was having me leave so soon, but I really didn't care, just so long as I had a roof over my head.

So I packed up my stuff, and we got back in Johnathan's car one last time, and he turned up the music as loud as we could. When we arrived at Cody's house, I thanked Johnathan one last time for everything he'd done for me, and knocked on the door to the house.

He opened up the door, and grinned. He'd grown a lot over the last few years, and was now nearly as tall I was... And I'd grown significantly, too.

But, he'd done more things with his life than I had. It'd been a long time since I'd done anything decisive with my life before yesterday... in fact, not counting yesterday, and the events leading up to, It'd been since the last time I'd gone to the digital world since I'd last done anything dramatic at all.

Cody, however, never seemed to stop doing dramatic things; he'd come up with a crazy scheme to make friends when he was hardly accepted at all for being a 'goody-two-shoes', and, because of his reputation alone, it'd worked. The idea had been essentially a favor exchange, with no collection. It only worked because Cody put a great deal of time making people feel indebted to him, and rather than accepting their attempts to pay him back directly, he'd have them help one of his friends. Most people didn't see helping others as really costly to themselves, because most requests were things like 'hey, I need a roof to stay under', and that really benefited both sides, because the person giving the roof gained a friend.

Because of this, people were willing to help others far more than they'd been helped, meaning a sort of a constructive cycle formed, with Cody at the center. He rarely got anything back from, but some people refused not to pay him back, and sometimes he'd ask for a favor, sometimes something as significant as asking for an internship.

And, once he had that, he could gained more and more opportunities. It was pretty amazing, and sometimes I was kind of jealous. I mean, everyone wanted to be like Cody. He had anything anyone could possibly want; almost any girl would have dated him, and some would have gone further if he'd asked, although I didn't think Cody would do that, he would probably think it was 'reputation suicide', or something of the like... Of course, he'd say it in some voice that made it seem like a joke.

More to the point, he could get a summer job pretty much anywhere, he just had to ask. He had the connections, he had the recommendations, he had the reputation. He got to do the coolest things.

All because he'd once been an outcast. And I'd he'd seen the potential in it; to help others, and to help himself... People didn't even know of his most important achievement; having saved two worlds, and they still worshiped the ground he walked on.

And here I was, a nobody. I had stood alongside him when he'd saved worlds, but when it'd come to the mundane, hell, when it had come to dealing with the real world, I couldn't do anything in comparison.

Partly because I just coasted along. I was mostly content to be no one. Mostly. When I was around Cody, though, it was hard to be content. Mostly because I jealous. Mostly, because EVERYONE was jealous.

I actually felt kinda guilty that I felt so jealous, he'd definitely earned this, and he'd helped me, and now I was jealous of him?

It was kind of stupid, but that wasn't really the point. I really envied him his drive, and his courage, after all, it takes great courage to take such a risk. And really, up until recently, I'd envied him his interesting life.

Now, I wished I could have my rather boring existence back... And I realized that it'd been years since I'd had a boring life. Immediately after the last time in the digital world was the last time. Not to far after that, me and my mother had started arguing over something small, but I'd lost all sorts of privileges for my 'power strugle'. And then, every time I ever argued with her, I'd just lost more. She'd wanted me to go into politics when I grew up, which had been the root of our argument. I didn't, I wanted to write. But she wasn't going to let me use my privileges unless I agreed with her, and she was carefully 'vetting' my friend with me.

It had really ticked me off, but I had put up with it. I needed a roof over my head, and there wasn't really much I could do about it. So I'd just sat through it all, hoping to get something back, while refusing to promise her anything.

She was going to send me to a school with 'decent people' next year, which is why I was rebelling now.

Cody came to the door, finally, and apologized, "Sorry, I was in the bathroom."

"No problem. It's not raining, at the very least." I said, with a laugh.

"True, true." Cody said, laughing back, "Anyway, come on in. Take off your shoes."

I did, glad to finally be out of the cold.

"By the way, just curious, how did you know what clothes I wear?" I asked, not sure I really wanted to know the answer.

"You told me, because you wanted a shirt a couple months ago, and your mother wouldn't let you have it, so you had me buy it. I told Johnathan to buy you a size larger than that, because I decided it would be better for the clothes to be too large than too small." Cody, said, with a sly smile "I DO keep track of these things. It's useful for when someone needs to buy someone else a present or something."

"Interesting." I said, not quite sure what to think.

"Anyway, are you doing alright?" Cody asked, "I heard you got a little more drunk than you intended to last night."

"Truth be told, I'm feeling much better, but I'm very hungry... I didn't eat at all last night, and, apparently, I threw up, as well." I admitted.

"Yeah. This is why you should think before you act." Cody said, much more seriously than I expected. I had expected him to laugh at my plight, but I was kind of glad that he cared, because I wasn't exactly having the best day ever.

"Can you explain what the hell happened that got me so drunk, anyway?" I asked, having not gotten the whole story from Johnathan.

"To put it simply, Vodka is several times more alcoholic than wine."

"Ah... I didn't know that."

"Then perhaps 'Do your research before you do something that could be stupid' would be a better admonition." Cody said, more amused now.

"Will do." I said, "This has not been pleasant, so I think I've learned my lesson."

"I should hope so. Anyway, go make yourself a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich or something." Cody said, and I couldn't help but laugh. I was actually a better cook than Cody, and that was saying a lot... about Cody's skills, not about mine. After all, I could make basic dishes involving eggs, while Cody was pretty much only able to prepare peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches and pop-tarts.

I continued, going to the kitchen to prepare myself a sandwich, just as Cody had suggested. As I did so, I lost myself in thought, continuing from a thought that I'd had when I was talking to Cody; had today not been the best day ever? Even with the headache and the shame, I was free. Even if I was free and I wasn't enjoying myself, it was infinitely better than being couped up, even if I thought I was enjoying myself... Even if freedom was valueless because the girl I'd simply wanted to love and the school I'd simply wanted to attend were neither available; Kari was on vacation, and the school was out of session for the week.

So, in some ways, this was best day in a very long time. Because I could be me. At my mother's house, I hadn't been able to be me, I'd had to pretend to be someone else. And that had worn me down more than I'd ever thought I could be worn down; even the terror of losing the world hadn't been as destructive as this, because it'd never had the chance to wear in.

When I finished the sandwich, I couldn't help but laugh a little. Contrary to what everyone had always told me, making a sandwich was not easy... Well, it actually was. But making a good sandwich was an art like making anything else. You had to get just the right amount of peanut butter, typically more than you could easily get, and then you had to get the right amount of jelly, which wasn't as hard.

This was not a good sandwich in that respect. It wasn't a bad sandwich, either, but that was mostly because unless you forgot the peanut-butter and the jelly, you couldn't MAKE a bad sandwich, and even two pieces of bread weren't awful.

So I went and sat down to eat, and Cody sat down across from me.

"You suck at PBJ's." He said, laughing.

"I will remind you that I, at least, can make more than PBJ's." I replied, laughing back.

"Yeah, and if I wanted someone to cook for me, I could get anyone to cook for me." Cody pointed out.

"Touche." I said, but what I wanted to say was, 'don't rub it in.'

"After this, you want to play Super Smash Bro's?" Cody asked, "Because I hear you were playing with Johnathan."

"No, I think I've been humiliated enough." I admitted, with my mouth full of sandwich."

"Very well." Cody said, "What do you want to do?"

"Well, we've got some catching up to do, it's been forever since I last saw you in person." I pointed out.

"True." Cody said, "So, beyond the obvious, what is up with you?"

"Not much," I said, "being couped up and grounded constantly, half of the time both in name and reality and the rest of the time simply in reality does that to you, you know."

"Touche." Cody conceded.

"You?"

"Well, beyond the obvious?" He asked, referring to his new way of existence, or at least, relatively new.

"Sure, but first, how do you do it?" I asked, noticing that the phone hadn't rung at all since I'd been here.

"You were the first person I told, have you forgotten?" Cody asked.

"No, I mean, live a normal life on top of this. I've noticed the phone hasn't rung, but yet, you always pick up when I call."

"It's pretty simple, really. For close friends, calls are rerouted to me. Normally, I have someone who feels he owes me something and asks to help me handle calls, and they work through the list. If they notice someone who is either a close friend, or is doing something as significant as, say, running away, then they reroute the call. Also, if it's someone who is involved with someone doing something significant, I take the call directly. Most people, though, are just asking 'hey, what kind of present would this person want?', and I normally have a list of such things, so it doesn't really take much work." Cody explained.

"Nepotism much?" I teased.

"No, it's because close friends normally call me for other reasons." He replied, and laughed.

"Oh. That was obvious." I admitted, feeling like an idiot.

"You were just thinking about it in in terms of the operation, not in terms of how of how I live. From that way of seeing things, it looks vaguely like nepotism, although, really, it's my show, and it's not as if anyone would expect anything else." He pointed out, and I realized that he was actually right.

"Hmmm... I didn't think about how I was thinking about it." I said, and then laughed at the way the sentence sounded.

"Ugh... Seriously, you have no idea how many people can't just ask for what they want." Cody said.

"Where did that come from?" I asked.

"People always need to equivocate when they are asking for something they feel is embarrassing, so their sentences are more confusing even than what you just said." He clarified, and then frowned, "Seriously, why do people feel the need to do that?"

"Cody, I'm sure you weren't sheltered, but some of us were. It's subconscious, almost." I tried to explain.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Simple. Some of us were taught to equivocate. It's more polite, in some peoples eyes, to use a euphemism that people can't even understand than to just come straight out and say something."

"I guess. It's just annoying."

"Besides, define embarrassing." I tried to force him to realize that whatever was 'embarrassing', he wasn't willing to talk about it either.

"Client confidentiality." Cody said, in his best 'professional' imitation.

And then we both laughed, and could hardly stop.