"Oh that was such a weak death," Zack said into his microphone. "I lagged coming around the corner and the dude lit me up like a Christmas tree." He dropped the controller in his lap as he watched himself get shot from the enemy's point of view. "And he teabagged me? What a jerk!"
After his mother had left for the night and his brother and friend declared they weren't ready to go stuff their faces with pizza yet, Zack had settled himself into his spot on the couch and launched Call of Duty. Nothing wasted time as effectively as an online testosterone-fueled pissing contest as far as he was concerned.
"Shut up, Darren. This lag is ridiculous," he said into his mic after another terrible death. He listened to his friend talk and laugh for a few seconds before laughing himself. "Gross. I really doubt Cody is downloading porn right now." He shook his head in an attempt to stop his brain from debating what Cody would download.
"Don't worry, Zack, we're not," Cody fired back from across the room. He and Chase were at the table with their laptops open and were busily clicking. "Besides, we'd just go on your laptop if we wanted porn."
Zack turned his head around, pulled the speakers from his ears, and flipped the mic up and away from his mouth. "How do you know about that?"
Cody smirked at Chase and then at his brother. "Well, to be honest, until just now I only assumed it was on there."
"Busted!" Chase added and the two cracked up.
"You're almost as good at that as Mom is." Zack rolled his eyes and put the headset back in its proper place. "Yeah, Darren, I'm still here," he said as he got back into the game.
Zack played for another half hour before finally throwing in the towel. "Stupid little noob quickscopers," he muttered as he signed off. He slid the controller on the table and scooted around on the couch so he was leaning back against an armrest with his hands across his belly.
"I hate the Nether. These skeletons are the absolute worst," he heard his brother grumble after having tuned them out for the last while. "Absolutely the worst." Chase commiserated with his friend and Zack yawned.
"Are you guys hungry yet?" He looked between the two and let his eyes rest on Chase.
"Kind of," the boy answered.
"Well, that settles it. Cody, your friend is hungry and you wouldn't want to be a bad host and let him starve, would you?" Zack asked his brother.
"I hardly think he'll starve if he doesn't get pizza in the next five minutes, Zack. You on the other hand..." he let the unfinished statement hang in the air.
"I might start withering away if you don't hurry up over there, Cody." Cody looked up from his screen and tried to puzzle out if Zack had just made an incredibly lame but well timed Minecraft joke or had simply chosen surprisingly apt words.
"Okay, okay, give me a few minutes to find and kill a couple more of these things and we'll go get dinner," he said after deciding it was just a coincidence.
Zack harrumphed but let it go. He pulled his phone out and played around while gazing over at Cody and Chase every few seconds. Zack checked Twitter and then the boys were excitedly talking about lava. He checked ESPN and then they were in the middle of talking about fighting whatever a ghast was. Zack groaned and nearly threw a pillow at his brother. Normally he would have thrown it and not thought twice about it, but Cody was sitting close enough to Chase that Zack couldn't rule out collateral damage.
You guys have three other sides of the table to sit at and you're scrunched together like you're on the bus, he said to himself as he released his grip on the pillow's seam. "Cody," he fake-gasped, "I see a bright light and my vision is fading out. I...I...think this might be the end for me." Zack dramatically flopped an arm across his forehead. "Tell Mom that I love her..."
"You are the worst actor in the history of the world, Zack," Cody said and shook his head.
"Cody...pizza..." Zack rolled himself off the couch and landed with a thud.
"Fine, Zack, fine," Cody laughed. He was trying to keep a straight face but couldn't after he saw his brother laying on the floor and peeking around the side of the couch with one eye half-open. "Let's go get this doofus some dinner. We can come back and try to find my body later." Zack popped up from the ground seemingly none the worse for wear after his near-death experience.
The trio left the warmth of the hotel lobby and walked into the cold. Even as bundled up as they were and the walk being short, all three boys were more than a bit chilled by the time they got to Johnny's. Zack looked back over his shoulder at the stop light and silently swore to cut it down if it ever made them wait that long at the crosswalk again.
One step in the door and they were assaulted by the glow of a million neon signs and the delicious aroma of pizzas baking. Despite insisting he wasn't really all that ready to eat a few minutes ago, Cody's stomach growled loud enough for the others to hear it over the the jukebox and chatter.
"Not hungry, huh?" Zack said and elbowed him in the side.
A minute later they were sitting in a booth and pulling off their coats. "It smells so good here," Chase said as his eyes darted everywhere and tried to take in all the sights at once.
"If you think it smells good, just wait until you try it. I'd eat here every day if I could but Mom won't let us," Zack said.
"That's because she wants you to be able to fit through doors," Cody told him. He picked up one of the menus from the center of the table and slid it to Chase and was about to list off some of the toppings he loved the most when he caught sight of a familiar face coming their way. "Hey, Erin!"
Zack's head whipped around and he saw his favorite server coming their way. He instantly quit slouching, sucked his belly in, and sat up straight against the back of the booth. At the last second, Zack tried to flatten his hair into somewhat less of a mess but settled for sticking his cap back on after deciding it was a hopeless endeavor. Cody saw, smirked, but remained quiet.
"Hey boys," Erin replied as she came to stand in front of their table, "looks like you swapped out your mom for a friend, huh?"
"Yeah, Mom has to work tonight but this is my friend Chase," Cody said and Chase waved.
"Nice to meet you, Chase." Erin took their soda order and retreated to the drink station beside the bar. Zack looked longingly through the crowd as she filled their glasses at the fountain. Cody nudged his friend and gestured to his brother before showing Chase the menu.
"I'm guessing you might need a few minutes to look everything over since you've got a rookie here with you, right?" Erin asked, looking between the boys after she dropped off their sodas.
"Yeah, it all sounds so good that I can't decide. Sorry," Chase answered honestly.
"Not a problem. I'll give you a guys a bit to figure it out."
"Thank you," Zack said and gave her a cheesy smile.
"You're welcome, Zack." She smiled back at him and Zack could feel the warmth of all the blood rushing to his face. Erin tucked her tray under one arm and went to check on another table.
"Just in case you didn't notice, my brother has a giant crush on our server," Cody said with glee. It wasn't often that he got to poke Zack and he loved every second of it.
"I do not!" Zack immediately declared.
"Mmhmm," Cody said mid-sip. "You haven't taken your eyes off of her since you saw her."
Zack knew he'd been caught and didn't try to fight it. "Well, can you really blame me? Erin is...I mean...she's just...wow." He looked between Cody and Chase and saw hints of grins on their face. "Whatever, you guys." Zack shook his head. "She's pretty hot."
Zack had settled down over the next twenty minutes, only slightly blushing when Erin brought a round of refills. He'd leaned against the back of the booth and split his attention between the rest of the restaurant and the other two boys at his table. He wasn't paying all that much attention to what Cody and Chase were saying since most of it seemed to be geeky things, but he'd throw a glance their way every so often when Erin was out of sight and a song he didn't know was playing on the jukebox.
She'd just come by to drop off a stack of napkins and disappeared so Zack turned to see what was going on a few feet away. As he expected, Chase was chattering away about something and Cody was listening. Zack was a split second away from asking what they were talking about when he noticed his brother's face.
Cody had listened to him yammer at great length many times and Zack could tell how much Cody cared by the expressions on his face. Normally they were blank looks, or looks that read are you seriously not done talking yet?, but this was something else entirely. Zack had rarely seen this particular look. Cody looked interested. Almost deeply interested. He tuned out the noise from the restaurant and tried to listen in.
"I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do that report on yet," Zack heard and cocked an eyebrow. That was pretty boring. Maybe I missed the good part, he thought to himself. He scooted a bit closer and listened a bit longer but it didn't really get any better. Just more stuff about school. Cody apparently cared, though. Zack was trying to figure out why they were talking about school on the weekend when Erin and another server arrived with their pies.
"Here we go, guys," she said as she placed one pizza down and turned to grab the second from her help, sliding it in beside the first pizza. "Let me know if you need anything." A chorus of we wills answered her and she backed out of the way.
"They both smell so good that I don't know which one to eat first," Chase confessed as he looked the pizzas over.
"Just do what I always do," Zack told him, "grab a slice of both." He quickly grabbed the metal spatula and loaded his plate. He dug in and gave a saucy thumbs up in approval when Chase filled his plate while Cody only took one piece at a time. I knew I liked this kid for a reason, he thought as he worked his way through a thick slice of the triple pepperoni.
The boys put in almost an hour's worth of work to turn the two giant pizzas into a few lonely slices. Three sets of eyes looked at the leftovers but couldn't do any further damage. "I am so full right now," Chase groaned. He wiped his mouth and dropped the napkin on his plate. He took a drink and then slumped against the back padding and burped.
"Sounds like you just made a little more room," Zack said while he nibbled on a bit of crust.
"Ugh, no. I can barely move now. One more bite and I might explode."
"I'm with you, Chase," Cody echoed.
"Same. And I'm ready for a nap. See if you can't get us a box while I go get rid of some Dr. Pepper," Zack said as he scooted out of the booth and stretched.
"Your wish is my command, Your Highness," Cody quipped and Zack threw a wadded up napkin at him.
Hoping to run into Erin on his way, Zack took his time waddling back toward the restrooms but it wasn't meant to be. She was busy talking to a table but did see him and smiled. Good enough! After what seemed like five minutes standing in front of the urinal, he washed up and headed back to the table.
Sometime during his absence, Cody had collapsed back beside his friend and Zack wondered if he needed to talk to his brother about personal space. He wasn't quite sitting on Chase but he was close enough so that their shoulders were rubbing as Zack stood in front of the booth. He looked very comfortable. "You two aren't asleep yet, are you?"
"No," Cody replied as he shifted to a slightly more respectable distance, "Chase was showing me a video and then I got too lazy to move.
"It's a puppy eating a lemon. Want to see it?" Chase offered Zack his phone.
"Maybe later," Zack laughed. "Right now I'm-"
"Here you go, Zack." He found himself whirling around and accepting a styrofoam box from Erin. "You guys have fun tonight and I'll see you later. Stay warm!" She playfully pinched Zack's cheek.
"Okay, thanks," Zack said dreamily as she walked away.
"Speaking of puppies," Chase snickered.
Cody joined his friend with a mocking falsetto. "Oh, Erin, you're so beautiful, so hot..."
"She is! I'd belly crawl naked through five miles of broken glass just to-"
"Yeah, I don't think we need to hear any more of that," Cody interrupted as he started loading the pizza into the box. He and Chase shared a laugh as he shut the lid. Zack rolled his eyes as they geared up for the trek back to the hotel. Still giggling between themselves, Cody and Chase stepped outside into the weather with Zack close behind.
"I'm surprised you didn't try to leave Erin your number again," Cody joked once they'd returned to the suite.
"Well, as much as I hate to admit it, I kind of figure that if she hasn't called by now, she probably isn't going to," Zack conceded. He pulled his coat off and tossed it to Cody and Cody begrudgingly hung it up next to his own.
"I can't imagine why she wouldn't. It's not like she's almost twice our age or anything."
"Her loss," Zack replied as he sank onto the couch with one arm hanging off the side and the other across his full stomach. He heard the other boys going back to their game as he fumbled for the remote. A quick nap was definitely in his future but he didn't want to drift off to sleep listening to them talk about those little green dynamite monsters. Zack turned the television on and felt his eyes begin to get heavy almost as soon as he settled on a channel.
He didn't sleep long, maybe half an hour at the most, but it was just enough. Zack awoke refreshed and quite thirsty. He wandered into the kitchen and pulled the orange juice out and readied himself for a scolding from his brother. Zack could already hear it in his head, "don't you dare drink right from the carton!" but it didn't come. He took a sip and looked over at the table to see what had distracted Cody enough to not notice.
Nothing. They were still playing their game but Zack watched Cody's eyes repeatedly drift over to his friend and stay there for a few seconds before flashing back to his own screen. Does Chase have a big zit I didn't see or something? He must, right? Why else would Cody spend so much time looking at him? Zack wondered as he took another sip. He watched Cody steal glances for another minute and was about to walk over and check for himself when he realized he'd seen that kind of look before. That's the same way Mom looks at George Clooney. What's up with that? Zack wondered until realization struck him mid-gulp.
His eyes widened in surprise and he forgot how to swallow. Almost an entire mouthful of juice went down either the wrong pipe or the front of his shirt and arms. His coughing fit startled the other two and Cody looked up. "Are you choking?" Cody asked, getting partially out of his chair. Zack shook his head negatively and waved Cody off as he hacked away.
"Jeez, Zack are you okay?" Chase asked him once the coughs began to dwindle.
"Yeah," Zack answered when he could finally draw a breath. "I'm good. Couldn't remember how to drink for a second there." He opened the refrigerator and shoved the carton back on the shelf.
"That's why you don't drink from the container and use a glass," Cody told him. There it was.
Zack lifted the hem of his t-shirt away from his waist and looked down at the mess. "Gross," he mumbled and starting pulling it over his head.
"You need to rinse it off before you drop it in the hamper so it doesn't get super nasty before Mom does laundry again."
"I need to rinse me off," Zack said as he traced a line through the already-tacky remains of the juice on his chest. "Yuck," he muttered when he noticed parts of the waistband of his underwear had turned orange as well.
"It's in your hair now, too," Chase pointed out.
"Absolutely fantastic." He laid the soggy shirt on a shoulder and walked past Cody and Chase. "I'm just going to hop in the shower."
"See you in two hours," Cody laughed.
"Ha ha," Zack replied and closed the bathroom door. He looked at the sink and then the tub before tossing the shirt in the tub, figuring that it was the lazier of the two ways to rinse it. Once the water was on and warm, Zack stripped off and stepped under the spray.
George Clooney! his mind repeated as the smell of oranges was rinsed away. As he thought about it, Zack realized this was far from the first time he'd seen that look from his brother. There was that boy at the DMV that Cody couldn't stop looking at until Mom finally got her number called and her license renewed. There was a boy at the bowling alley when they'd went to Glow Bowl one time and Cody had seemed fascinated by him. There was the boy behind the counter at Burger King. Cody had blushed and stuttered while trying to give him his order.
Another dozen or so examples from the last year poured through Zack's mind as he swirled his shirt around the drain with his toes. They all featured Cody giving fleeting and stealthy glances when he didn't think anyone else was looking. He hadn't ever connected the dots before but they made a rather compelling picture now that he did.
That picture was a little blurry but Zack could still make out what it likely was. Adding how he'd seen his brother look at Chase that night into the mix was like wiping a hand across a fogged up window. He could see it clearly now. "Oh," he said quietly into the spray.