'I will never know myself until I do this on my own
And I will never feel anything else, until my wounds are healed
I will never be anything till I break away from me
I will break away, I'll find myself today.'
Somewhere I Belong - Linkin Park.
Chapter Fourteen - Selfish.
Ty sat in the corner of the small room and watched with a glisten in her pale eyes as Nate attempted to teach Cody how to properly wield his strong, right fist in an upper-cut, like he had said he would. Bailey was sitting nearby, too, and wasn't exactly looking all that impressed with what was going on, but for some reason, was still finding any excuse or opportunity to have a laugh with her boyfriend. A flame of jealousy flickered in the pit of Ty's stomach.
Nate was trying to show Cody how to fake and block with his left arm and then swing up from underneath with his right, although, the younger twin wasn't particularly catching on as quick as Nate had hoped. While her older cousin may have been getting slightly annoyed, Ty simply smiled. Every imperfection of Cody's was still perfect to her.
"Hello? Hog calling Ty…?"
Snapping out of her trance, Ty blinked at looked straight into the eyes of Hog, whose face was only inches away from hers.
"What?" she snapped.
Flinching in surprise, Hog held his hands up in self-defense, "I just want to know what's going on."
"Yeah," Brayden chimed in, "How long does it take to figure out where we're going?"
"Well excuse me if I've been trying to decipher the fastest and most sufficient way to get across town," the dark-haired girl sniped back.
Falling back to a shallow silence, Ty chewed thoughtfully on her bottom lip. She had been awake for hours deliberating what to do and where to lead the rest of the group once the time came. After examining every inch of the virtual map that she could read in her mind, she had soon made her decision. And she was certain that it was one that would eventually make Cody very happy.
"Alright," she announced, standing up with her arms crossed against her chest, "Let's go."
Flicking his head up at the booming sound of the girl's voice, Cody looked over to Ty, panting heavily from his work out with Nate.
"You've figured out where we're going?" he asked, "Do you think we'll get much further?"
"Not if you stand around here and let Nate beat you up all day," Ty replied jokingly.
Cody scoffed, "Hey, come on! I was just starting to get good at it, right, Nate?"
In a moment of hesitation, Nate looked at Bailey and tried to contain his laughter as she shook her head with a giggling smile.
"Let's just hope you don't get into a real punch up anytime soon," the older boy conceited with a grin.
As the rest of the group burst into an array of laughter, Bailey stood up and wrapped a sympathetic arm around Cody's torso, "Aw, don't worry, sweetie. I know you'd bring your all if ever need be."
"Well, yeah," Cody agreed, kissing her softly on the crown of her head, "Especially if I was defending you."
Instantly feeling the urge to wretch in disgust at Bailey's cute, embarrassed, tittering laugh, Ty barged past the couple and stood out on the front porch of the small loft. As the others began to follow behind her, the gothic girl's eyes suddenly came into contact with the cartoon of Cody's Southern Belle that mockingly glared back at her from the ground. In one swift movement of subtlety, Ty angrily scraped her foot along the drawing that Nate had composed the previous night, scratching away at the ink marks as they ran out of line across the cold, wooden floor.
"So, where are we gonna' go, cuz?" Nate asked.
Snapping her neck up in surprise, Ty gritted her teeth in a final wavering second as Nate instantly derailed her train of thought, before gesturing up the street in the direction that she had chased after Cody the night before.
"We need to cross through the park where Cody and I were last night."
"Sounds good," Cody responded, grabbing Bailey's hand as the two of them plus Hog and Brayden briskly began to walk ahead. As they did so, Nate frowned and kept a leery eye on his cousin while she carelessly plodded down the front steps.
"Over that way?" the older Lucas asked, "Are you sure, Ty?"
Opening her mouth to answer straight away, Ty's thoughts were suddenly cut off with a loud laugh that exploded from the front of the pack as Bailey playfully pushed Cody's side and then rested her head affectionately on his shoulder as he draped an arm around her.
Biting her tongue, Ty ignored the simmering boil of her blood, "Yeah, I'm positive."
London walked slowly up the L.A. Tipton corridor, a combination of boredom and, still, complete and utter worry filling her mind to the brink.
It had been three nights since Cody and Bailey had disappeared, plus a further one since the S.S. Tipton had capsized and all those who loved him had lost Zack. Woody and Addison, along with most of the other students at Seven Seas High, had left with their families and gone home, and as much as London had been encouraged to do the same and return to her Boston home, she quite plainly refused to. She wasn't going to leave Carey and Kurt, and especially Mr. Moesby, in a time where all of them clearly needed as much support as they could get. Her support, in fact, had been so much so that she, herself, had hardly had any time to stop and think over her own grievances for Zack.
Never in a million years did London ever think that one of the annoying, twelve year old trouble makers who had crashed her hotel home four years ago would grow into one of the only young men she had ever met who truly understood her. It was no secret that both London and Zack weren't as cut out for school as what Cody and Bailey were, but even beneath every failing grade the two had ever earned between them, the older twin and the heiress has their own level of smart that only they could understand.
Facing the true facts, neither of them were stupid. Not really. It was just that – as they had told each other many times before – there wasn't really much point in excelling to actual achievement when you had an outshining brother you were constantly being compared to, or a busy, money-grabbing, workaholic father who was never around to notice you anyway.
But even though Zack's lack of motivation to achieve scholastically may have influenced London's own attitude on more than one occasion, she'd give every single last penny she owned to have him back.
Pushing these unhappy thoughts out of her mind, London's expression suddenly twisted into one of confusion as she saw Kurt coming towards her up the hallway, heatedly shaking his head and muttering to himself under his breath.
"Kurt?" London asked timidly, breaking the man's concentration, "Is Carey still in the lounge? I was just going to talk to her."
Kurt snorted, "Be my guest. She's spent the last three nights up there and all I've been trying to do is get her out, but she is absolutely impossible to talk to."
Awkwardly scratching the back of her neck, London stuttered over a reply to the fiery tone in Kurt's voice.
"I'll give it a try," the heiress spoke silently, "Maybe I can get through to her."
"Well, good luck," Kurt responded, continuing on his way up the corridor, "She's not the only one in pain, you know."
Sighing sadly to herself, London watched as Kurt disappeared around the corner. She couldn't imagine what it was possible like for both he and Carey to be experiencing something as tragic as losing both of their sons. The mere thought of it shook her body to the core.
Forcing the notion from her mind, London then resumed her journey to the hotel lounge and gently knocked on the door, opening it to see Carey sitting alone in the dark, in what the heiress could only imagine was the exact same position she had been in for the last three days.
Carey looked up at the sound of the door creaking open and forced the slightest of smiles at London as she made her way over to the lounge and took a sit next to the distraught mother.
For a slim moment, the two simply sat in a conceivable silence as they pondered over what there possibly was to say to one another. It was Carey who eventually broke the discomfited quiet.
"Do you think there was anything I could have done, London?"
The heiress' eyes narrowed in shock, "What? What do you mean?"
"Well, I know the boys didn't want me taking that job as a singer of the ship, but maybe if I had – "
"You'd be lying in a hospital bed right now?" London interjected.
Carey immediately fell back to silence. It simply amazed her how much of an intellectual grip London had on reality in times of heartbreak.
"You can't bargain with human lives, Carey. It's selfish," the young girl continued, "You can bargain with clothes and shoes and really cute purses and anything that sparkles and – "
"London?" Carey cut in, breaking the girl's ramble.
"Oh, right," London spoke, "But, what I'm saying is, what's done is done. You seriously can't sit here and wish that you could change things when all that's going to do is make you feel worse, not better."
As these wise words circled about Carey's mind, she slowly began to nod her head. London sighed again.
"Look, everyone downstairs is really starting to worry about you. Moesby feels like he hasn't spoken to you in, like, forever," London urged, "How about you come with me and we'll go to restaurant for lunch? On me."
Carey chuckled, wiping her eyes, "Thanks London, but I don't think that's going to make me feel much better, either."
"Well, it's better than sitting up here in the dark like everything's your fault," the heiress spoke plainly, "The police are coming back later this afternoon. They might have some news."
"And if not?"
London scrunched her brow in deep thought, "Nothing a little bit of retail therapy can't fix until next time. C'mon, Carey, I haven't bought anything in sooo long, just come. Please?"
Carey laughed to herself again. As wise as London could force herself to be at times, it was still the same materialistic head that sat upon her shoulders.
"Ok," Carey finally conceited, "But only because I can picture Zack saying the same sort of thing to me," she concluded with a sadder tone of loss in her voice.
London smirked a supportive smile, putting an arm around Carey's shoulders, "You know what you need? A nice, big, fat Crème Brule. And then maybe a new sparkly scarf to take away from those panda bear rings you've got around the ugly, red splotches under your eyes…"
"So hungry…"
Nate rolled his eyes as he heard yet another complaining groan erupt from the back of the group where Hog was barely managing to keep up.
About two hours of traveling, chatting and plain mucking around had gone down between the group of kids since they had left their overnight loft, and as much as it amazed Cody to admit to himself, after revealing everything about he and Zack to his new friends, he actually felt a hell of a lot better. Not one hundred percent happier, obviously, but the confidence he had entrusted in Nate and Ty to get him across town to find Zack was more than enough to at least begin putting him back into a stable state of mind.
"Is there ever a time that you're not hungry, Hog?" Nate asked with an exasperated sigh.
"We've been walking for ages," the red-head replied in agitation, "Who knows how many miles we've covered. I need to eat something, man!"
"Ok, ok, chill out," Nate complied, turning around to face the rest of the pack, "Looks like I'm going on a hunt for some food."
"Sounds good to me," Bailey agreed, trying to ignore the loud rumbling in her stomach, "But let me come with you. I'm sick of eating all this greasy junk you've been supplying us."
"Uh, thanks Bailey, but – "
"Dude," Cody cut in, shaking his head, "Don't even bother arguing with her. Just let her go with you and buy some corn, or something, to keep her happy."
Her jaw gaping, Bailey laughed and playfully slapped her boyfriend's arm. Ty watched on, angrily gritting her teeth as she could purely feel the green colour of her eyes explode in glistening envy.
"Well, are you going to hurry up and go, or what?" she snapped, earning a suspicious glance from her cousin.
"Yeah, ok, we're going," Nate said calmly, "We past a market a little way back, we can go up there and scope out the food. Are you going to come, Cody?"
Just as Cody opened his mouth to reply, Ty quickly cut in, the cogs of her mind still turning feverishly, "Um, actually Cody, there's a couple of things I need to go over with you."
Bailey frowned as Cody simply raised a curious eyebrow, "Like what?"
"Just a couple of different, ya know, routes I've come up with to get us to Newberry. Stuff like that," she spoke in a convincing tone, causing the younger twin to smile.
"Ok, sure thing," he consented before turning to face his farm-girl, "If you're ok going off without me?"
Bailey rolled her eyes at Cody's protective nature, "Sweetie, I'll be with Nate, I'll be fine."
"Would you say that if it were me?" Brayden interrupted with a sly grin, inviting a smack on the back of the head from Nate.
"I know I wouldn't," the older boy teased, "C'mon then, Bailey."
"Yeah, Cody," Ty echoed, yanking the blonde boy by the arm before he had the opportunity to give his girlfriend a chaste kiss on the cheek, "We'll just wait here for you two to get back, ok?"
Nate noticed Bailey's frown increase from the corner of his eye as he then placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, "Ok, Ty. We won't be long," he emphasised, staring his cousin directly in the eye. Before another word amongst the group could be exchanged, Nate and Bailey then turned on their heels and began walking up the road, leaving Cody, Ty and the other two boys behind them.
As they continued along, a nagging thought of concern began drilling harshly in the back of Bailey's mind. It had surprised her the previous night when Cody had returned to the loft with Ty in close pursuit. She hadn't even noticed that the dark haired girl had left the group to go and find him. But even since then, Ty seemed to have become a lot more interested in everything Cody did. His thoughts, his feelings, everything. There was a part of Bailey that told her that she was just being silly – Ty had offered to lead the two of them to Zack, it was only human nature that she take an interest in each event that took place until then. But on the other hand, there were a few numerous times where Bailey had noticed Ty shooting her an off-handed, menacing glare. That was the notion that told her maybe something, no matter how much Cody refused to realise it, wasn't exactly right with the Lucas girl.
"So, what's the deal with Ty?" Bailey blatantly spoke as she and Nate walked along the footpath.
The dark haired boy frowned, "What do you mean?"
Bailey shrugged, "I don't know. She just doesn't seem to like me very much. Or talk to anyone besides you or Cody."
"Don't take anything she does too much to heart," Nate explained casually, "She's had it tough, but she hardy ever means anything she does or says. She's not a bad person."
Bailey simply nodded her head without speaking another word. It was almost as if she could imagine Cody standing before her saying the exact same thing – seeing the best in those who seem to have obvious faults. It was certainly a quality she admired in anyone who happened to own it.
"Hey, how about a race?" Nate then spoke, snapping Bailey from her trance.
"Huh?" she asked in confusion, wiping her hair out of her eyes as the oncoming rain began to dampen it.
"That big hill over there," Nate said gesturing to the invitingly green slope, "If you can get all the way up it and back down by the time I make it to the market across the street, I'll let you do all the shopping from now on."
The farm-girl's blue eyes glistened in the falling rain as she gazed confidently at the hill before her. Although she was utterly certain that at some point or another she would slip and fall flat on her face, that was a risk she was more than willing to take to gain a little control over the group, as well as embarrass Nate by beating him into the ground.
"You're on," she agreed, "Starting now!"
Bailey laughed as she heard Nate's joking yells about her unfair head-start ricochet up the hill as she put the pedal down and sprinted as fast as she possibly could. The rain whipping in her face blew a delicate breeze across her features as she breathed in the fresh air and the smells around her. Bailey had always loved the smell of rain, especially now as it took away from the instant pain she felt gliding up her legs as she prolonged on swiftly carrying herself up the steep hill. It was a particularly enjoyable scent seeing as it was mixed so delightfully well with the desirable sea salt that filled the atmosphere. Wait a minute, Bailey thought to herself.
"Sea salt?" she spoke out loud as she made her eventual approach to the summit of the hill.
As she reached the top and squinted her eyes through the pouring rain that was only just beginning to fall at a faster pace, Bailey's jaw dropped in shock. From her higher altitude, she could faintly see the existence of sand and ocean on the horizon.
"The beach?" she spoke again, "But Newberry is inland. Why are we walking towards…"
The southern girl then slowly trailed off as her vision cast downward towards where she could see a large street sign that had written on it a few different locations, along with their distance and position from where she was standing. Right in the centre she clearly saw the words 'Newberry, 50mi east'.
Bailey's orbs then began darting all about the ground beneath her feet as her brow scrunched in confusion at the million different thoughts flying through her mind.
"We've been walking into the sun all afternoon," she said quietly, "so we've been walking west. And Newberry is in the east."
With this confirmation firmly in her mind, it was only another few seconds until Bailey's vision widened in amazement as she turned around and bolted back down the hill in the direction of where she had left Cody with the others. All her way down, the only thing that was left gyrating through her mind in total and complete rage was one name. Ty.
Cody, Ty, Brayden and Hog were all crammed in a small bus shelter, trying their best to keep covered from what was now heavily pouring rain.
For perhaps the first time in their adventure so far, Cody actually felt like a regular teenager again. The four of them were simply sitting together, talking and laughing and joking. It felt normal, and normal was definitely good. Normal, to Cody, was one step closer to getting his brother back.
"So, we aren't much further, are we, Ty?"
Ty blinked, gazing up at the younger twin, "Huh? Oh, yeah, not much further to go hopefully." She felt her sour heart swell in happiness at the smile that graced Cody's lips, and as the rain continued to fall, she subtly shuffled a little closer to him, shivering, "Man, it's cold."
"Oh, come on," Cody said light-heartedly, "It's not that bad."
"Yeah, Ty," Hog suddenly interrupted as he lifted up a sweaty arm, "But if you're a little cold – "
"I don't need a hug!" Ty instantly cut him off, disappointed that the wrong person had taken her hint. She sighed, faintly looking over to Cody and spoke silently to herself, "Not from Hog, anyway…"
"Ty!"
The four teens suddenly looked up in surprise at the booming voice they heard echoing up the street, as Ty frowned in uncertainty at the sound of her name.
"Who was that?" Brayden asked.
Cody instantly leapt up from the seat, "It sounded like Bailey."
As if on cue, Cody was immediately subjected to the saturated and clearly fuming image of Bailey as she made her gradual approach towards them from up the street.
"Bailey," Cody said, grabbing her arm, "Sweetie, what's – "
"We're going the wrong way!" she interjected loudly, "Ty's taking us in the wrong direction!"
"What?" Brayden and Hog both shouted in simultaneous shock.
Ty cursed under her breath as quietly as possible as Cody simply froze, rain droplets sliding down his confused and hurt face.
"What?" he eventually echoed, "But… how?"
"Forget 'how'," Brayden sniped, "How's about why, Ty? Why would you do that after everything you know he's been through?"
"I didn't!" Ty declared in innocence.
"Well then how do you explain the sign I saw saying that Newberry is in the exact opposite direction in which we're going," Bailey challenged.
"Is that true, Ty?" Cody asked in an eerily calm tone.
"No," Ty repeated. With some fast thinking, she soon licked her lips and opened her mouth to speak again, a sly smiling gliding across her lips, "Bailey, you are so jealous!"
Each of the farm-girl's features widened in disgust at what Ty was daring to accuse her of, "Jealous? Why on Earth would I be jealous, especially of you?"
Ty laughed, flicking her rain soaked hair out of her face, "I could see it in your eyes last night. When I came back to the loft with Cody after comforting him because you had been too lazy to do it yourself."
"Cody told me he wanted to be by himself!" Bailey countered, "I was doing what he asked me to do, what he asked all of us to do! You're the one who's jealous, you've never had anything in your life as amazing as Cody, and you never will!"
"Bailey! Ty!"
Both girls suddenly stopped from quite possibly lunging at each other and sinking their teeth in as Cody's loud voice bellowed between them. For a short moment, all that could be heard amongst the bucketing rain was the heavy, frustrated breathing of everyone around him as Cody could feel his skin tingling from the chilling rain that soaked his shirt.
He sighed, and then tentatively turned to Ty, "Is it true? You've been leading me away from Zack?"
"No," Ty answered at once, "No, Cody of course not. Remember what I told you last night," she went on, smiling softly at him, "I'm going to find Zack for you."
Bailey could feel her heart pounding in her chest like a thousand gun shots firing in her soul while Brayden and Hog both watched with penetrating eyes as Cody slowly turned around and looked at Bailey, hesitation flowing from his eyes.
"Bailey," he began. The farm-girl looked deep into her boyfriend's eyes, waiting in fearful anticipation of what he was going to say next.
In the following instant, Cody's face hardened, "Why would you make up something like that?"
A choking sob immediately exploded at the back of Bailey's throat, "What?" she whispered, an array of tears welling up in her sad blue eyes.
"All Ty is trying to do is help me find my brother… and you're trying to ruin that for me?"
The threat of Bailey's looming tears was finally met as they soon mixed with the rain that already graced her face to create a watery sorrow that epitomized the emotion that had its tight grip on her heart.
"Cody, please," she pleaded, "I'm telling the truth…"
"You never wanted me to leave right from the beginning!" the younger twin suddenly thundered, "You don't believe me, you never believed me, and this is your way of trying to get me to go home!"
Bailey cried in another sob as the anger in Cody's eyes grew to a further extent while he towered over her, "Nothing is going to make me give up on Zack, Bailey, not even you!"
While the expression of fury in her boyfriend's eyes sliced through her core like a sharp edged sword, Bailey felt her heart unstitch at the seams as a final whimpering cry quivered from her lips.
"You're so selfish. I thought I could trust you."
In the next moment, Ty watched with the subtlest of smiles on her lips as Bailey turned around and began running at full speed through the wind and rain.
The farm-girl didn't know where she was going, and frankly, she didn't care. She wasn't sure what anything was anymore. In a mere two minutes and a few hurtful words, all of Bailey's faith in the world that she lived in was shattered to a million pieces. She thought that she could trust Cody, and she was wrong. She trusted him with her heart, and now it all seemed absolutely worthless. As far as she was concerned, nothing made sense to her anymore.
Nate smiled politely at the shop assistant as he handed over the bag of groceries, "Thanks," he spoke in a similar fashion.
"No problem, kid," the man replied, "Going any place special with that much food?"
Nate shrugged, feeling the need to stay sketchy on his group's plans, "Not really. We're going to Newberry. Been walking down this way all day."
"Newberry?" the man asked. He frowned as Nate nodded his head, "Well, do you know that you're going the wrong way?"
Nate's eyes narrowed in confusion, "The wrong way? Are you sure?"
"Definitely. You've almost reached the coast going out this way, kid. Newberry's much more inland than this."
"But then how the hell…" Nate began before he trailed off with a laugh of disbelief and realisation, "Should've fucking known... Tyler."
Without another word, Nate then turned around and hurried out of the shop, racing up the road as quick as he could. He wasn't paying attention to the heavy rain downpouring on him or the fact that Bailey wasn't with him, in fact, it hadn't even crossed his mind. The only thing that he was thinking of was how stupid he had been believing Ty.
In a matter of short minutes, Nate had made it back to where he had left Cody and Ty with the other two boys. He even failed to notice that they were standing out in the rain with an overall emotion of shock and sadness.
"I cannot believe you!" he instantly roared at his cousin.
Each of the four heads before him snapped up, stunned by the furious growl that had escaped the older boy's lips. Cody distressingly felt his heart drop to the pit of his stomach.
"What?" the younger twin asked Nate.
Ignoring him, Nate continued yelling at Ty, "I knew you couldn't be trusted!"
"Nate, what?"
"I should've known you were lying to me, to all of us! You're so selfish!"
"Nate!" Cody screamed, gaining the attention of everyone around him as they fell to a shallow silence, "What are you talking about?"
In a final act of blind rage, Nate scoffed and took a slim hold of Ty's arm, yanking her towards him, "She's been taking you in the wrong direction!"
Cracking his head around and whip-lashing speed, Cody glared at Ty with pure disgust, as the similar emotion churned in his abdomen and threatened to wretch from his mouth. It was like in that one, insignificant moment, his whole world had crashed down all around him. Again.
"You… what?"
Hello my fabulous readers :)
This would generally be the point in time where I would give some lousy excuse as to why it's taken me so long to update. But this time, I have no excuse. Just a sorry. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter... and don't hate Cody too much. You're more than welcome to hate Ty, though, I don't even like her that much. As I tried to make this chapter show, she's pretty damn evil. Reviews or general comments would be awesome, please and thank you :)
Oh, and I figure as a proper thanks I should give something to all of you...; In what will probably be three chapters' time, you will all find out Zack's fate :O !
Till next time guys!
Reneyyyyyyyyy x.