'Boy you think you're clever don't ya,
Girl you think you're so smart?
Come with me to another side in a world so cold and so dark.'
Stay Wide Awake - Eminem.
Chapter Twelve - Reveal.
"What the fuck are you doing here, Brayden?"
Cody flinched at the venom spewing from the anonymous boy's mouth as he and Brayden continued to stare each other down with what was probably the most pure hatred that the younger twin had ever seen.
"I could ask you the same thing," Brayden began through gritted teeth, "What, so you're rolling with Damon and his pack of fuckwits now?"
"Hey, shut your trap, you little punk!" the third boy sniped from where he stood beside Damon.
Immediately sensing the hostile tension in the air climb up to an even further extremity, Cody suddenly whipped his head around, as did Ty, while the two of them sighed in relief at the image of Nate making his hasty approach towards them, closely followed by Bailey and Hog.
The younger twin frowned in confusion, as an obvious expression of concern had strangely managed to creep its way across Nate's face, too, but rather than questioning the wide-eyed appearance in his older friend's green orbs, Cody instead stretched out an arm towards his girlfriend and slinked it delicately around Bailey's waist as she settled into his grip.
"Was I talking to you?" Brayden snapped back at the boy who had told him to shut up.
Cursing under his breath, Nate took a slow step forward and placed a hand on Brayden's shoulder, "Bray, chill out, man."
"Oi!" the first boy, the one who Brayden was arguing with, spat at Nate, "No-one asked for you to open your big mouth, Lucas! Why don't you mind your own fucking business for once?"
"It's called looking out for him, Jase, you might want to try that for once," Nate countered bitterly.
"Wait, Nate, you know this douche?" Ty asked with a creased brow.
Cody licked his lips, finally letting his curiosity get the better of him, "Who is he?"
Before Nate even had the time to think about giving a response, Brayden spat on the ground in front of him and opened his mouth, "He's my older brother," he muttered cruelly.
Each person within earshot instantly allowed a staggered gasp to cross their lips at the reveal of who this person was that Brayden obviously had all the revulsion in the world for, but none more so than Cody.
While the younger twin could feel Bailey's anxious glare penetrating right through his core, the only thing he could possible succumb to think about was the immediate reminder of his own brother. He couldn't begin to imagine ever glowering at Zack with the same frenzied hatred that Brayden was directing with no signs of regret at his brother.
"Your brother?" Ty repeated with a newfound fury, "This is him? This is the guy who –"
"Not now, Ty," Nate warned sharply, peaking a new level in Cody and Bailey's interest.
With his hand still firmly planted on Brayden's shoulder, Nate and Brayden soon found themselves in a dead-set square off with Jase, Damon and the third boy. Ty was quick to join the line, while Hog stood back and subtly watched with narrowed eyes, ready to jump in if he was needed. Bailey, on the other hand, simply clutched tighter onto her boyfriend as Cody, too, was more than pleased to stay right back and do nothing but comfort his farm girl.
Damon smirked an evil leer and took a step or two out of line, "Nice for you to finally show your face, Lucas. Got anything you'd like to return to me?"
Nate shrugged, "A job's a job, Damon. Figured you'd know that."
Cody faintly gulped as he swore that he saw a vein in Damon's neck pulse in frustration.
"You tore apart my fucking car!" he screeched, "Now, instead of getting rid of all the parts, or selling them on the black market, or whatever the fuck you were planning on doing with them, how about you just give it all back to me so I can get on with punching your lights out? Or are we going to have to make things harder than that?"
Damon then shot a menacing stare at Jase, "As long as that's ok with you," he stated, rather than asked.
Jase simply heaved his shoulders in a shrug, and then turned to his brother, cracking his knuckles, "I'll take Brayden."
Brayden snorted, allowing himself to be pulsated with power under the tightening, protective grasp that Nate squeezed into his shoulder.
"I got another idea," he spoke simply, reaching his hand into his hoodie pocket.
Nate watched in wonderment as his younger friend did so, however, it wasn't long until the older boy realised what Brayden had planned.
"Aw, shit," he said reluctantly before taking a slow step backwards to stand beside Bailey, "Bailey, grab Cody's hand."
"…What?" Bailey asked in uncertainty, doing as she was told, "Buy why -?"
"Cya' later, fuckers!" Brayden suddenly screamed, lighting up the long object he had retrieved from his jumper and throwing it on the ground.
Before anyone had the opportunity to realise what was going on, a huge cloud of suffocating smoke suddenly filled the atmosphere around them, as Nate grabbed onto Bailey's hand, who, in turn hauled Cody behind her, and pulled them both away from the smoke flare that consumed itself in the lungs of the three boys, as Ty, Brayden and Hog all followed suit. All of them instinctively dropped each piece of automotive equipment that they held, and then set off running as fast as they possibly could away from Damon, Jase and any other hoodlum that may have certainly been in the same proximity, waiting for their chance to jump them.
"What now, bitches?" Brayden called back with a chuckle as he could faintly hear his brother and the other boys choking on the contaminated air around them. Reaching forward while they were still running, Nate slapped Brayden around the head, earning nothing but more laughs from he, Ty and Hog.
While trying to keep up pace with both her hands attached to Cody and Nate, Bailey looked behind her as best she could and glanced worriedly at her boyfriend, "Cody? Are you ok?"
Amongst all the smoke and noise and panted running going on around him, Cody failed to hear Bailey speak to him. The only thing that was racing through his mind as he continued to race along the footpath was his brother's face.
The mere thought of his older brother ever glaring at him the way that Brayden's had was enough to send a fearful shiver ricocheting up Cody's spine. The younger twin never, ever, not in a million years wanted to do anything to hurt Zack that badly, or make his brother hate him. Purely hate him. The whole concept was completely impossible to fathom. But after everything they had been through in their final few hours together before the S.S. Tipton met its ultimate demise, the slightest inclination that made Cody feel that maybe Zack had already shot him one of those hateful expressions, perhaps off-handedly or when the younger twin hadn't been watching, was enough to make him want to collapse to the ground and simply give up right then and there.
They had to have been ploughing along for half an hour, at least, when Cody, Bailey and the others all finally came to a slowed halt and stood around in a circle, hunched over to catch their breath.
"We better have been at least running in the direction of Newberry," Cody quipped cynically amongst all the heaved panting.
"Hey," Ty sniped, "I'm not as dumb as I look."
Cody smirked, "I never said you were."
Ty paused for a moment, staring at Cody with what could have easily been almost a gleam in her pastel green eyes and then turned her head back to face the ground beneath her feet.
One thing that Cody, and Bailey, especially, had been noticing was that the closer that they came to Newberry, the nicer the area was that they found themselves residing in. All of the tall buildings that stood around them in this particular instant had hardly any traces of damage or graffiti coating them at all, however, it still seemed that there weren't many friendly, smiling citizens hanging around to greet them.
"And you, you little shit," Nate jibbed with a joking smile at Brayden after regaining his breath, "I thought I told you 'no more smoke flares'? You're going to get us arrested someday."
"Hey, I got rid of Damon and them, didn't I?" Brayden retorted smugly.
Nate forced himself not to laugh as he nodded his head proudly at Brayden and reached over to ruffle his hair.
Cody smiled at the obvious protective nature that glistened between Nate and Brayden. It was certainly a comforting thing to see, but at the same time, it only arose more questions in the younger twin's mind concerning Brayden and the visibly fractured relationship he had with his older brother, Jase. Deciding to break his silence, Cody then licked his lips and opened his mouth to speak, until he noticed Hog grab Bailey's arm out of the corner of his eye.
"Bailey," the redhead began in concern, "are you ok?"
Instantly forgetting every other thought that clouded his mind, Cody's eyes narrowed in fearful suspicion as he glared with hard worry at Bailey, "Ok? Why, what happened, what is he talking about?" the younger twin asked in a fluster.
"Good job, Hog," Nate said in a scolding tone as he scratched the back of his neck.
"Cody," Bailey spoke quietly, "It's ok, I'm alright."
"Well, it doesn't sound like you are," Cody argued, cupping his girlfriend's face in an attempt to calm the shaky tone in her voice.
Sighing to himself, Nate turned to the other three, "Right, Testosterone, Fistie Cuffs and Rent-a-Mouth," he said, pointing to Brayden, Ty and Hog respectively, "Take a walk. We'll catch up with ya' later."
As Brayden and Hog instantly turned on their heels to walk away, Ty prolonged a slightly uneasy stare at Cody and gently touched his arm, "Are you sure you don't want me to – "
"No, Ty, he doesn't," Nate answered for the blonde teen, "We're fine, just go with the other two, would ya'?"
Ty crinkled her brow in clear disproval, "Fine," she spat before turning around to catch up with the two boys.
The second that they were out of sight, Cody spun back around to face Bailey with palpable anxiety smothered all over his face, "Will you please tell me what happened?"
The farm girl swallowed, stuttering over an answer to the demanding manner of Cody's request, until Nate simply cleared his throat and stepped forward.
"I'll put this in simple terms, ok?" he asked, crossing his arms as Cody nodded his head, "Alright, well, when you ran after Ty and helped her with the box she was carrying, Bailey tried to follow you. Once you two were gone she was still standing in the middle road and almost got hit by a car."
Cody immediately felt his heart descend with a painful thud into the pit of his stomach, "What?" he yelled, forcing himself to resist the urge to throw up in angst.
"Chill out, man," Nate said consolingly, "She's in one piece, isn't she?"
"Well, yeah, but…" Cody recommenced, frantically looking back to Bailey and locking his now paled blue eyes with her own, "I'm so sorry I let that happen to you," he mumbled, his expression still wide with shock and an overwhelmed sadness.
"Cody," Bailey soothed, "It's ok. I'm ok. And it wasn't your fault," she spoke assuredly. A grateful smile soon wiped across her mouth, "Besides, Nate was the one who pulled me out of the way."
His eyes still wide, Cody then stared at Nate with a look of total bewilderment, "You saved her?" he questioned softly.
Nate shrugged, "Don't worry about it. It could've just as easily been Ty if you didn't run out in the street to help her with the car parts."
"He's right, Cody," Bailey countered, "I think was amazing that you helped her without a thought like that."
"Well even so," Cody said, trying to drop the subject, "I shouldn't have left you. I'm sorry, Bailey. I promise I'll never let anything like that happen to you ever again."
"Oh, Cody," Bailey cooed happily, draping her arms around her boyfriend's neck as she sighed in relief at the sensation of his warm breath humming against her shoulder. Cody felt just as relieved to have Bailey safely in his grip. He couldn't imagine ever losing her. Being without Zack was bad enough. If Bailey wasn't with him, for whatever reason, he was certain that he himself wouldn't survive.
"Ok, that's enough of that," Nate declared, breaking into the couple's embrace as he hung an arm around each of their shoulders.
"Thanks, Nate," Cody said with genuine sincerity, as he brought his arm up and patted his older friend's chest, "I never would've forgiven myself if – "
"Didn't I just say enough of that, bro?" Nate repeated with mock warning.
As soon as the last word left the older boy's mouth, Bailey's appearance dropped in concern as she shifted her vision to glance worriedly at Cody. Any reminder of Zack could be a bad one, she thought, and in all honesty, as much as she and Cody knew each other inside and out, she didn't have the slightest clue how anyone else ever calling him 'bro' would affect him. However, as soon as she caught eye contact with him, much to her surprise, Cody simply let a subtle grin cross his lips as he nodded his head, telling her that it was ok. In a matter of moments, a similar look of elation had found its way amongst Bailey's features. It had been too long since a reference to his big brother had actually made Cody smile.
"Now c'mon," Nate resumed, "if my calculations are correct, we're only about another hour and a half's walk away from Newberry."
Feeling his rejuvenated heart swell in anticipation, Cody beamed as Nate released he and Bailey from his grip and the three began walking in the direction that Ty and the two boys had gone.
A slight frown suddenly creased in the younger twin's forehead as a perplexed thought then re-arrived in his mind, "So… what's the deal with Brayden and his brother?"
Without a second's thought, Nate snorted in disgust and shook his head, "That's a question you're going to have to ask Bray, bro."
"It was about a year ago," Brayden said, taking a long drag of his cigarette.
Once again, after a long day's trek, the group of kids had all found another abandoned little abode good enough for them to spend the night in. It had only taken Brayden a matter of minutes for him to pick a suitable place and then chuck a rock to shatter one of its windows, just to make sure that there wasn't actually anyone staying there. The original plan was for all six of them to crawl in through the broken window but Nate had instead demanded that Brayden go first and unlock the back door for Bailey. Ty had simply stood by, laughing that she hadn't been mentioned where the farm girl had.
Now, they all found themselves in what was certainly the smallest, and quite possibly the smelliest, out of the three places that they had stayed and were getting stuck into a couple of bags on barely edible fish and chips that Nate had bought with his money from 'X' from a dodgy take-away bar up the street.
As soon as they were all settled as well as they could be, Cody had again dared to bring up the topic of Brayden's brother, Jase.
"After my parents split," Brayden continued, nervously fiddling with his rat's tail, "Dad pissed off as quick as anything, so there was only Mum, Jase and me. But it didn't take long for her to lose all her fucking marbles."
Cody wrapped his arm tighter around Bailey as he felt her sigh in gloomy sympathy.
Brayden inhaled more of the poisoning tobacco, "Jase said he couldn't stand living with her anymore, so he was going to run away. I begged him to take me with him."
"How come?" Bailey asked quietly.
Brayden stopped for a moment, cynically chuckling to himself, "Because my big brother was my hero. I wanted to be wherever he was."
Cody instantly felt himself shake slightly as the exact same feeling briskly began coursing through his veins.
"Once we were gone, we were gone. We never saw Mum again," Brayden went on, his expression then changing, "But Jase changed."
The saddening tone in the teenager's voice sent a dull shiver up everyone's spine.
"He was angry at me all the time. Nothing I ever did was good enough anymore. So he'd beat me up." He paused again. "He always used to say; 'Just like Dad would hit Mum, Bray!' 'C'mon, be a man, Bray!' 'Hack it, Bray!'"
Cody's head shifted as he spotted a small, desolate tear roll down the side of Bailey's cheek.
"It was still a couple of months off my fifteenth birthday," Brayden said in almost a whisper, "A fucking fourteen year old kid."
Finally deciding that enough was enough, Nate stood up from the ground and placed a strong hand back on Brayden's shoulder, "I found him when he was knocking around with Hog," Nate explained, "The two of them were actually running from Jase at the time, right, Hog?"
Hog nodded his head somberly, "I don't think he liked that Bray didn't need him anymore."
"And I've been stuck with them ever since," Nate concluded with a joking smile, trying to lighten the mood.
"Thank God," Brayden added, putting out the bud to his smoke, "The only person about as controlling as Jase is Ty."
Ty rolled her eyes where she sat on the ground, "Fuck you," she said simply.
Cody sighed wistfully, taking comfort in the fact that Bailey's head was still nuzzled into his shoulder, but still, unable to escape the thought of Zack that continued to revolve through his mind. He tried to picture a similar scenario ever exploding between he and his twin, but no such visions ever allowed themselves to come to life amongst the rest of his thoughts. He knew that deep down, between he and Zack, anyway, that no amount of words of arguments exchanged could ever truly change how they both were.
"You have to imagine that he's still the same person inside, though, right?" the younger twin asked wisely.
Bailey lifted her head up at the notion of what Cody was saying and watched in concern as Brayden raised a confused eyebrow.
"You're kidding, aren't ya'? Dude, my brother changed. He's messed in the head, he's not the same person he was."
Cody frowned, "Well, did you ever try to talk it out with him?"
Brayden laughed, "Talk it out? The only talking Jase does is with his fists. He doesn't care about me, and especially not the way I'm feeling. Get real."
Biting her lip, Bailey tenderly took a hold of Cody's arm as she noticed not just the energetic annoyance she could sense taking over him, but also the strange looks that Nate, Ty and Hog were all directing at him.
"Calm down," she spoke in the most faint and delicate whisper humanly possible, but Cody only shrugged out of her grip.
"Come on, Brayden, he's your big brother, isn't it worth a shot?"
Again, Brayden only snorted a laugh, "Worth a shot? Please, the only shot I want is to push him off a cliff, cause believe me, Cody, I'd fucking take it."
Before another single word could be spoken, Bailey jumped in surprise, as did everyone else, as Cody leapt up from his seat and stood tall over Brayden.
"How could you say that?" he yelled.
Brayden frowned in deep offense as he, too, got up and squared off with the younger twin, "Cause he wrecked what was left of my life, that's how!"
As Hog watched on in total awe and confusion, Nate and Ty both shot Bailey a questioning glance, though all the farm girl could force herself to do was stare anxiously and the younger twin, preparing herself for what could possibly be another break down.
Cody's heart was thundering with pure rage in his chest. Although he could clearly see the distinct level of heartache that Brayden's story held over his, the younger twin was still horrified to hear how anyone, no matter who it was, could simply wish their older brother away while he was clawing with every tooth and bone he had to find his own safe and sound – and alive.
"Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that what all big brothers are like?" Cody challenged sharply. "Controlling and detached and… yeah, ok, maybe hurtful sometimes," he admitted, forcing the dangerous tears welling up his eyes not to fall, "But that's their job! And you know that no matter what the both of you do or say," the younger twin felt the frog his throat croak defiantly as his ideas throughout his rant remained on Zack, "…you still love each other."
Bailey instantly felt her heart break.
"Are you serious? Love?" Brayden spat, "You know what I'd love? I'd love for Jase to be dead!" he screamed, "In fact, I wish Jason was dead!"
Cody let out a single hyperventilating breath as he felt his last possible heart string shatter to a million pieces, "Fuck you!" he screamed, and dived straight at Brayden.
In a matter of moments, Bailey, Hog and the Lucas cousins were all yelling and shouting as Cody and Brayden found themselves in a fierce wrestle on the ground, punching, clawing and kicking at each other with full force.
"Cody!" Bailey shrieked.
"Alright, alright! That's enough!" Nate thundered, ripping the two teenagers apart. "You, sit the fuck down!" he commanded, pushing Brayden against the wall before he slid down to the floor. Next the older boy turned to face Cody, "What is your problem, bro?"
"Nate – " Bailey began to warn him for calling the younger twin 'bro' again, though he quickly interrupted her.
"It's not fair!" the Cody declared.
"Yeah, well neither's life," Ty spoke in lethal sarcasm.
"Keep your opinion to yourself, Ty!" Nate scolded, re-facing Cody, "What isn't fair?"
Cody didn't miss a beat. "The fact that he wishes his big brother was dead when I'm praying to God that mine's alive!"
Bailey rapidly let a choking sob escape the back of her throat while all others in the room diverted to a stunning silence. Brayden's face had softened, Hog still looked confused, Nate stared with hard concern at his younger friend and Ty, for once her life, allowed a genuine emotion of sadness to cross her appearance.
Nate swallowed, nervously noticing that the younger twin was shaking, "Cody – "
"Keep an eye on Bailey," Cody cut him off through gritted teeth. Then before anyone had the chance to stop him, the blonde teen turned swiftly on his heels and stormed out of the dingy loft.
It was indescribably painful for Cody to think of Zack meeting such an untimely demise, while Brayden couldn't seem to care less about his brother. It was exactly as he had stated it – unfair. And as he continued to roam aimlessly up the darkened city street with nothing to keep him company but the horrifying thoughts of his missing older twin brother, Cody then did something that he hadn't been able to do since that first night all those days ago without Zack.
He cried.
Wow, I almost hate myself for writing something that heart-wretching. Almost... (:
Hello everybody! I don't suppose there's much to say here other than I'd love to hear your opinion on the reveal of both Bray's, and more importantly, Cody's pasts. I hope you all enjoyed the journey that this chapter took, and of course, reviews are always welcome - and appreciated :)
Thnaks guys!
Reneyyyyyyy x.