It took Cody nearly two weeks to finally muster up the courage to ask Chase about sleeping over. He'd almost asked him countless times but the fear of Chase declining the invitation held him back. He awoke on a dreadfully cold Thursday morning knowing that he was almost out of time unless he wanted to wait another entire week. Cody thought about it during his shower, during breakfast, and while brushing his teeth. "I can do this," he told the mirror as he wiped away a stray bit of toothpaste from his lower lip. His reflection offered no reassurances.

He almost couldn't. Cody chickened out the first time as he and Chase were in the hall before school started and was on the verge of doing it again on the way to English class. He'd already opened his mouth to ask three times during their short walk but the words died each time. Come on, you coward, you can do this, he said and steeled himself, hoping for the best. Just do it! "Hey, uh, Chase?" he asked bravely. His stomach was in free fall.

"Yeah?"

"Would you ever want to maybe spend the night at my place? I mean, if you don't want to that would be okay but I thought it could be fun."

"I-" Chase managed before Cody continued on. He was finally able to get the words out and now they wouldn't stop.

"There are some new modpacks for Minecraft we could try out. I tried one of them before and it sounded really cool but it was all buggy and kept crashing but it just got updated so it should actually work the way it's supposed to now or we could watch movies and we could get some pizza for dinner or if you don't like pizza we could figure something else out like maybe Chinese," Cody rambled. He kept going like a busted pipe for a few more seconds about what they could do before Chase put a hand on his shoulder and shushed him. Cody's words instantly dried up.

"I think that would be fun," Chase told him once he could get a word in.

"Oh." Cody was more than slightly surprised. "Really?"

"Sure," he laughed. "When do you want to do it?"

Cody was now on the spot. He'd been so worried that Chase wouldn't want to that he'd barely given a thought to what he'd say if Chase happened to say yes. "Um...maybe this weekend? Friday or Saturday night?"

"I'll text my mom when we get to class and see what she says."

"Well. Okay then," Cody said as he tried to not show on the outside how excited he was on the inside. They turned into their classroom and took their seats and Cody watched Chase pull his phone out to fire off a quick message to his mother. A few minutes into the class, Cody heard a very faint buzzing and saw his friend reach down and push against the flat lump in his pocket.

The next forty five minutes were among the longest in Cody's life. Mr. Goldman was an ancient grey-haired wrinkle of a man that considered cell phones to be the downfall of civilization and loved to confiscate them on sight. As much as Cody wanted Chase to pull his phone out and see what his mother said, he wanted Chase to keep his phone a little more. He did his best to pay attention as the man spoke and slowly diagrammed a sentence on the board but concentration was almost impossible. The answer to one of the most important questions ever asked was sitting close by under a thin layer of denim and he couldn't find out what it was until the bell rang.

Mr. Goldman finally wrapped up his lesson and the boys packed their bags quickly and were out into the hallway mere seconds after the class was over. "What'd she say?" Cody asked as Chase fished his phone out.

"Hang on, I can't read while I'm walking." Chase moved out of the flood of kids to the wall to lean against it. "She says that Friday night is no good but Saturday is fine and to let her know all the details when I get home." Chase blacked the screen and looked up at his friend.

"That'll be...cool," Cody said smoothly even though he wanted to pump his fist in celebration. "What time would you want to come over?"

"I don't know. I've never been to a sleepover before. Maybe around four?"

"I've never had a sleepover before but that sounds good to me."

"Four it is then," Chase told him and that was that. Cody felt nine feet tall as they walked to their next class. See? That wasn't so hard, was it? He asked himself. All that worrying about nothing.

"You don't have to go anywhere, you know," Cody said after he told his brother about the upcoming sleepover on their walk home and Zack told him that he'd find somewhere to go for the night. "You can stay there and hang out with us."

"Cody, no offense, but I really don't think that sitting around while you two play Nerdcraft all night would really be that awesome for me."

"I'm sure that isn't all we'll do, Zack. It might not even be something we do at all. And besides, I still think you'd like the game if you just gave it a try once instead of making fun of it."

"How many times have we had this talk, Cody?" Cody wasn't looking at his brother but could hear the eye roll in his voice.

"Oh, probably about four or five thousand by now."

"Has my answer ever changed?"

"No."

"There you go."

Defeated, all Cody could do was shake his head and mumble I still think you'd like it under his breath. "Anyway, you don't have to leave. Chase is your friend, too. At least I think he is."

"No, he is. I like him but he's definitely more your friend than mine."

"How do you figure that?"

"You guys are together all the time at school, Cody, and you send each other geeky texts and chat on Skype when you're not. If I didn't know better, I'd almost think that the two of you are twins instead of the two of us."

"It's not that bad. Is it?" Cody's guard instantly shot up.

"Kinda. One of my friends asked me if you'd traded me in for a newer model yesterday. I told him that I think you did."

"Oh."

"Yeah." Zack said, a little stronger that he intended. He stuffed his hands back into his coat and looked at the ground as they walked.

Oh, Cody thought to himself. "You're not mad at me, are you?"

"Why would I be mad at you?"

"Because I've been hanging out with Chase more than you since he moved here?" Cody asked. He wasn't quite sure if Zack was serious about not being mad and couched his answer as a question.

"I've been hanging out with you for almost thirteen years, Cody. I don't mind a little break, trust me," Zack laughed. "Honestly, though? I was. A little, at least, but Mom fixed that."

"You told Mom you were mad at me?"

"Of course not!" Zack exclaimed, more than a bit indignant that Cody would ever think he'd willfully violate the Brother Code. "It was one of the days you and Chase stayed after school last week to do whatever it was you did and it was just the two of us at home. I asked her if she'd get some of those awesome peanut butter cookies from the grocery's bakery the next time she went and the next thing I knew she was pulling it out of me like it was on a string. I don't know how she does it or even knew I was kind of upset. Some kind of mom magic. She should really work for the FBI instead of singing. Every case would be solved in like three minutes."

"So...what did she say?" Cody asked after Zack finished.

"That you were really excited about having a best friend. She made it a lot longer than that and it sounded way smarter but that's what she meant."

Cody digested that as they walked. She's right. As usual, he decided. He'd never intended to hurt Zack's feelings but he'd become wrapped up in himself and didn't notice. Wrapped up in Chase, too, he added and felt a mix of emotions barrel roll through his stomach.

"You do remember that Saturdays are Zombie Movie Nights, right?" Zack asked a few dozen steps later, bringing Cody out of his thoughts

"I...well, I didn't at the time, no."

"Does Chase like zombie flicks?"

"I'm not sure," Cody admitted.

"So you don't know everything about him," Zack joked, playfully bumping into his brother.

"I'm pretty sure there's still lots of things I don't know about him, Zack." Like what he'd say if I told him I-

"I guess we'll find out Saturday," Zack announced, again interrupting Cody's internal monologue.

"Does that mean you're going to stay around after all?"

"I was probably going to in the first place but you could raise that to definitely if you can tell me there'll be pizza for dinner. Chase does like pizza, right?" He gave Cody an especially hopeful look.

"Yes," Cody laughed, "yes he does."

Zack was laying on his belly on his bed. His knees were bent and he was idly kicking his socked feet back and forth while his face was stuffed in a comic book. A weird tingle danced up his spine as the little hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He glanced away from Lycra and explosions to see Cody standing in the doorway slowly looking around the room. "Can I help you?"

"I'm just double checking that the room isn't too dirty."

Zack glanced to each side of his bed and didn't see any large piles of junk and ignored the smaller piles of junk along the wall and a stack of poorly folded clothes that miraculously hadn't fallen off his dresser. "I think we're good here."

"I'm not sure good is the word I'd use to describe your half but we'll go with that," Cody said.

"Will you calm down already? It's only Chase coming over, remember?"

"I think I'd be less jittery if it was anyone other than him."

"Seriously?"

"I know, I know, but I want everything to go perfect. I don't want to screw this up."

"I think you're safe, buddy. I'm pretty sure Chase won't run away if he happens to come in here and sees some underwear sticking out from under your bed."

"Your bed." Cody pointed at the shadows beneath the frame.

"Whatever," Zack laughed. "Pretty sure I picked those up." Zack turned on his side and dropped an arm to the floor and started feeling around beneath the bed. "Or maybe not." Zack's hand came out from under the bed full of balled up cotton. "Here, throw these in the-"

"Not a chance," Cody said and took a step back away from the door.

Zack rolled his eyes and tossed them left handed at the clothes hamper in the corner and was genuinely surprised when they went in. "Does it pass inspection now?"

Cody took one last look around their room. "Yeah, I guess so."

"How long until he gets here?"

Cody stepped into the room just far enough to see the clock on his nightstand. "About ten minutes."

"That sounds like just enough time for you to chill out. You're going to give yourself an enema if you keep worrying like this."

"I really hope you mean aneurysm, Zack."

"I probably do. Anyway, I've got the newest issue of Captain Napalm if you want to read it. That'll take your mind off of things for a little bit." Zack nodded his head to the stack of comics on his dresser. "It's the one on top."

"Thanks, but I think I'm okay. I'm just going to make sure I haven't forgotten anything."

Zack started to tell his brother that he'd already checked everything in the suite at least a dozen times over in the last three hours but Cody had already turned and left their room. He shook his head and returned to his world of super heroes.

"Cody, honey, I love you to death but if you don't calm down I'm going to put you out on the balcony until he gets here," Carey said as she watched her son rearrange things on the counter for the third time in two minutes. She'd been leaning against the sink leisurely sipping on a cup of coffee when Cody began his latest straightening binge.

"I'm a little nervous."

"I can tell." Carey set the cup out of Cody's reach and put her hands on his shoulders. "Just cool it. Everything is going to be fine. Chase is coming here to hang out with you, not critique you on whether the pepper shaker is on the left or right side of the salt shaker." She could tell it was taking everything in her son's power to not look over his shoulder and see which shaker was where. "Did you guys figure out what dinner is going to be?" she asked to get him thinking of something else.

"We were thinking that we'd go to that little pizza place around the corner if that was okay with you, Mom."

"Sure," she said after a second's consideration. "Just don't go over too late because it can get a little rowdy in there on the weekends."

"You don't have to worry about that. Zack's going with us and he'll be hungry long before anything crazy could start happening."

"It might not even be dark yet when we go," Zack said as he walked out of the bedroom patting his belly. "Lunch was two hours ago and their pizza is awesome."

"Well," Carey told the boys as she pulled her wallet from her purse, "just remember that I wouldn't say no to a piece or two if they somehow happen to make it back here." She plucked a few bills from it and gave them to Cody.

Zack was in the middle of telling her that probably wasn't going to happen when the doorbell chimed. He watched his brother's eyes widen and his body freeze. One second passed. Two. Three. "Hey, just in case you didn't hear that, your friend is at the door," he said as he snapped his fingers in front of Cody's face. "Okay, I'll get it, you just stand right here and hold that tile down." He patted Cody on the head as he went to the door.

"Hey, Zack," Chase said as Zack swung it open.

"Welcome to Castle Martin, Chase," Zack told him as he moved backwards and out of the way. "Cody's in the bathroom right now."

"No I'm not," Cody, his paralysis broken, answered as his friend came in. He popped around the corner and tried to hurry casually to his brother's side. "Hi, Chase!"

"Hey, Cody!" Zack was secretly hoping for a very nerdy high five but was disappointed when they just bumped knuckles.

"Come on in. You can put your bag right there for now and there's a coat rack by the door," Cody told him. His massive case of nerves seemed to be dying a quick death now that Chase was finally here and he tried to figure out why he'd been so worried. Chase gently slid his backpack's strap from his shoulder and set it on the floor before unzipping his thick jacket and hanging it up.

Carey listened to the boys' chatter for a few moments before she joined them in the living room. "Hi, Chase," she said, "After everything Cody's told me about you, I feel like I already know you but it's nice to actually meet you."

"Mom..." Cody stood up a little straighter and gave her the look. He could all but see the hundreds of motherly questions lining up one by one in her eyes.

"It's nice to meet you, too, Mrs. Martin. Thanks for letting me stay over."

Cody knew he had to act quickly before their afternoon bogged down in an hour of his mother pulling completely useless facts out of his friend. "Yeah, thanks Mom. C'mon, Chase, let's go put your stuff in my room."

"Our room," Zack chided as Cody picked up his friend's pack.

"I don't claim your half." Cody led Chase away quickly.