Day Eight
It had been just under a week since Bailey hugged me. I had hoped so much that things would have changed between us, but after my afterglow of the hug we were just friends. I was fine with that, despite how I felt about her. I wanted to be her boyfriend more than anything in the world, but I knew that if I tried to rush her I'd end up ruining even our friendship, and that was the last thing in the world that I wanted to happen, so I decided to let things develop naturally. I figured as long as she didn't learn of how I felt about her nothing would go wrong, and if I carried on being nice and sensitive eventually she'd develop feelings for me.
"Hey! Snap out of it!" Zack yelled into my ear, snapping me out my thoughts. I had been leaning on the railing, looking out at the calm ocean, stretching out as far as the eye could see.
"What is it Zack?" I asked irritably.
"Nothing dude," Zack said "but you've been staring at the sea for an hour now without moving. I was just checking you were still alive."
"Thank you so much," I said sarcastically "you're such a kind brother."
"You were thinking about Bailey weren't you?" Zack asked.
"No," I lied. I'd gotten better at lying to people, but Zack was one of the people could always see right through me. He just raised a suspicious eyebrow and I crumbled.
"Okay yes I was," I said, ashamed of myself for being so obsessed with her "I can't get her out of my head Zack!"
"Of course you can't," Zack said "she's a great girl and you're a hopeless wuss. It's only natural."
"Thanks," I said with a voice full of sarcasm, shooting Zack a death glare as he just sat there on one of the deck chairs grinning from ear to ear.
"You should be thanking me," Zack said.
"And why should I be doing that?"
"Because I know how you can get your mind off of Bailey," Zack said.
"How?" I asked desperately. I didn't want to totally get over Bailey, but I was getting a bit annoyed with myself for constantly thinking of her.
"Tomorrow night you are coming on a double date with me," said Zack "it's perfect!"
"Perfect except for one thing," I said "you seem to have forgotten the last time two times you and I went on a double date."
"I haven't forgotten," Zack said "but this time we won't be playing mini golf and you won't be such a sad sack."
"I'm still not sure," I said "what's the girl like?"
"Oh, she's amazing," Zack said "smart, funny, friendly, and very, very cute."
"I meant my girl."
"Oh," said Zack "she's alright I guess."
"What the heck? I'll go," I said "anything to distract myself from Bailey." Almost as if she was on cue to cause me maximum frustration with myself for obsessing over her, Bailey arrived with London in tow.
"Hey guys," she said, sitting herself down between me and Zack "what are we talking about?"
"Me and Cody are going on a double date tomorrow night," Zack explained.
"Ooh sounds fun. Who with?"
"Sarah and her friend Michelle," Zack said "you know them?"
"Oh, oh!" said London "Michelle has really nice shoes!"
"Thanks London," I said slowly "you know how important footwear is when finding a date."
"It is to people who have fashion sense," London said, looking me up and down with a look of…almost disgust.
"Well I'm getting Sarah," Zack said "Cody you can take Michelle."
"Oh you're so generous," I said dryly.
"I know," he replied, clearly oblivious to my dry sarcasm.
"Aw, well you guys have fun," said Bailey "it reminds me of when I fixed Dixie up with Hamish."
"Were they people you knew in Kettlecorn?" I asked.
"No," she said "they were two of the pigs from the farm. You should have seen Hamish in his little bow tie. Just precious."
"Okay," Zack said, clearly confused by that bit of information "moving on. Cody, can I talk to you for a sec?"
"Um, sure," I said and he led me away from Bailey and London.
"Dude, if you don't want people to find out about your crush on Bailey, you shouldn't stare at her so much," he said.
"Oh, I was staring?" I said. I guess I had been. I couldn't help it. She was just so beautiful I can't stop myself from staring at her. I know it makes me look like some sort of crazy stalker, but I've never seen anyone more breathtakingly attractive than Bailey. Not even in Zack's magazine collection.
"Yeah, you were," said Zack "you had your mouth open and everything."
"Oh, well that's embarrassing," I said, totally ashamed of myself for being so obvious about my attraction to Bailey.
"Just a bit, yeah," Zack said "but at least Michelle will help you take your mind off of her."
"Yeah, I suppose," I said. I wanted to go on the double date, but for some reason I felt guilty. As if I was cheating on Bailey. Now I can understand a lot of things, but what I really didn't understand is how, by going on date with a girl, I could possibly be cheating on a girl I have a crush on and who has no feelings for me. Sometimes I think I need a very strong slap to the face.
"Dude, you okay?" asked Zack and I snapped back to reality.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I said "I'm just gonna go back to my room for a while."
"Okay dude," Zack said "see you in a while, okay?" I nodded and while Zack went back over to talk to Bailey and London I headed slowly back to my room. Luckily Woody wasn't there; I needed to be by myself to clear my head. I threw myself down on my bed, gazing up at the ceiling. I closed my eyes and tried to relax myself. But it wouldn't work. My mind was going a mile a minute, and my whole body was just tense. I couldn't relax.
With an annoyed grunt I got up and headed into the bathroom. I turned the shower on, making sure the water was warm, then stripped off and climbed in. Immediately I noticed a difference. The warm, fresh water seemed to remove all of my stress as it flooded over me. The stress being gone was like a weight off of my mind, and I could finally think clearly, all thoughts of Bailey shuffled to the back of my mind, letting me focus on other things. Finally! Freedom of mind without constantly bringing myself back to thinking about Bailey.
I have no idea how long I was in the shower, but eventually I got out, dried off and got dressed again. I went back to my bed, finally able to relax my body and just flake out. After a few minutes of staring absently at the ceiling, I reached into the drawer of my bedside table and pulled out my iPod, turning it on and flicking aimlessly through songs, eventually settling on the song "Put it Behind You" by Keane. I set it to play, slumped my head back onto the pillow and just zoned it. It was nice to finally get some much-needed physical and mental rest. I'd been running myself through a loop to do as well as possible in lessons during the first week. And that, combined with constantly thinking about Bailey had totally run me down. If I hadn't have taken that time to just relax and chill out I would have burnt out in no time.
I really couldn't tell you how long I was lying there listening to music, but at some point, an undetermined amount of time later, there was a knock at my door.
"Come in," I said, not wanting to get up from the bed. I pulled the earphones out of my ears as the door cracked open and Bailey stepped in.
"Hey Cody," she said with that amazing smile of hers.
"Hey Bailey," I said, propping myself up on my elbows "what's up?"
"Nothing much," she said, moving over to sit next to me on the bed. She looked down at me with a warm smile, but there was a light in her eyes, one that I couldn't quite put a name to.
"Then what brings you here?" I asked.
"This," she said and without another word she leaned down, bringing her face closer and closer to mine. I could feel her breath on my face, could smell her perfume, could see deep into her eyes. As she leaned down I lifted myself up off the bed, bringing our faces tantalisingly close together.
My eyes shot open to stare at the ceiling. I looked around frantically, looking for Bailey. Nobody there but me.
"Cody? Are you in there?" came her voice from outside. Oh of course…it was a dream!
"Oh I just hate myself," I muttered, hauling myself up off the bed and crossing to answer the door, revealing Bailey with that gorgeous smile of hers. I felt a flutter in my chest just upon seeing her. My stress tension was back.
"Bailey, what's up?" I asked.
"I just came by to tell you," she said and for a second I was hoping with all my heart and soul that the next words were going to be 'I love you' "you're going to be late to class. So hurry up."
"Oh, right," I said, feeling like a total fool for thinking Bailey would suddenly appear at my door to confess her non-existent love for me "yeah, I'll be right out." I went back into the room and grabbed my book bag. I picked up my Geography textbook and quickly slammed myself on the head with it. I needed to seriously knock some sense into myself. I stuffed the book into my bag, slung it over my shoulder then headed out the door.
- - - - - Later - - - - -
"Now," said Miss Tutweiller from the front of the class "can anyone tell me what the deepest point on Earth is? London?"
"Nope," London said, more focused on painting her nails than the lesson.
"Okay," Tutweiller conceded "anyone else? Bailey?"
"The deepest point on Earth is the Laurentian Abyss," Bailey said.
"Oh sorry Bailey," said Tutweiller "but that's wrong. Anyone know the correct answer?" I raised my hand.
"Cody?" she said, pointing to me.
"The deepest point on the planet is the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, at a depth of 10,924 metres deep," I said.
"Correct," Tutweiller said "well done Cody." She smiled at me then turned back to the board to explain the details of the Mariana Trench, but with Woody, London and Zack (who was, by this point, asleep) in the class she may as well have been trying to talk Shakespeare to a shop window dummy.
- - - - - Later - - - - -
"Bailey," I said, trying to catch up with her as she left the classroom "Bailey, wait up!" She stopped dead and turned to me as I caught up with her.
"What?" she asked, sounding really angry with me. What had I done wrong?
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"No, just…" Bailey hesitated "don't talk to me Cody!" With that she turned and stormed off down the hall, leaving me there totally confused about what had just happened to annoy her so much. I slumped against the wall, both in frustration and confusion.
"Cheer up buddy," Zack said as he walked past "there'll be more school tomorrow." I did consider chasing after him and hitting him, but thought better of it. Besides it wasn't really Zack I was mad at. It was myself. I'd barely managed to get Bailey out of my head before I'm dreaming about her, and now she's acting crazy as if I'd done something to really annoy her, but I couldn't think of anything I'd done to her that could have gotten that response.
"God I so do not get women!" I yelled at the empty hallway.