12
Cody
The old Scouts hut held a waft of smelly socks as Willow opened the door for Cody to enter. He scanned the crowd, glaring in the direction of Kip, who was chatting merrily away to Lavender. Ever since he’d seen him all over Willow on the bridge that morning, he hadn’t been able to concentrate.
Willow had rambled on about the garden centre and upcoming October, keeping the conversation light and Kip-free, but Cody could tell something was off.
He found a chair in the corner and sat, relieving himself of the crutches, noticing how Willow was staying close to him, rather than mingle, which was what she’d normally do.
Lance took centre stage and started to explain about the lack of theatre for his play. He droned on, holding court, but Cody had zoned out before he’d even started.
Ever since Cody saw Kip kiss Willow, he hadn’t felt too well. His appetite was gone, and he only managed to place two sticky notes up on the treehouse wall. Given the choice, he wouldn’t have bothered showing up tonight, but Willow wasn’t herself, so he didn’t want her going alone.
Ideas were being tossed around, and Cody couldn’t be bothered to brainstorm. The funny thing was, he’d actually started to enjoy acting in the show, so he was as disappointed as the others, but it wouldn’t be the end of his life if the show didn’t go on.
‘Poor Kip,’ said Lavender, stroking Kip’s arm. ‘This was going to do wonders for his career. Not many can pull off open-air theatre.’
‘Cheers, Lav,’ said one man.
‘I didn’t mean any offence to the rest of us,’ Lavender quickly added. ‘I’m just saying, Kip’s going to Hollywood next.’ She snuggled further into Kip’s arm, looking dreamily up into his smiling eyes.
Cody felt sick, even more so when Willow’s arm shot up.
Oh, please don’t help them .
‘I have an idea,’ she sang out, all sweetness and light.
‘Yes, join in, Willow,’ said Lance.
Cody could see her watching Kip and Lavender huddle.
‘How about if we stage the production on my land?’
Cody sat up. ‘What?’
She nodded his way. ‘It’s a good idea. We’ve got the space in one of our fields. All we’ll need is some sort of stage. Surely the council will let us borrow the chairs and perhaps their changing-room tent.’
Cody frowned. ‘Didn’t that thing collapse one year on the Sandly Choir?’
‘Oh, I’m sure we’ll be safe,’ said Lance, not looking too convincing. ‘Great idea, Willow. It’s worth an ask, seeing how they’ve still got half my budget.’
Willow beamed at Kip as he winked her way, causing Cody to silently seethe.
The group started to chatter excitedly, making plans, and talking props, and the atmosphere changed from dismal to euphoric, and Willow was the hero of the hour, which seemed to please her, especially when Kip put his arm around her and kissed her forehead.
Cody needed to go home. The treehouse was calling, telling him to focus on his own life. He still had emails to send out and a pitch to write. There was a gaming convention in London in October, so he needed to be ready to meet and greet all the publishers on his list.
Willow came over just as he was heading outside to call a cab. He didn’t want to end her night just because he wanted to leave.
‘Hey, Sully, where you off to?’
‘I’m tired. I’m going to head back. You stay. I’ll call a cab.’
‘Don’t be silly. I’ll drive you. Give me two secs.’
Her two secs turned into half an hour, so Cody called a cab and went home.
The full moon helped light up the walk to the treehouse, and Cody felt so much better finalising his game idea. He sent a request to Humphrey for a video chat, knowing full well he’d still be awake, as only the people on Silver Wish Farm seemed to like early nights.
‘Tell me you’ve completed the quest,’ said Humphrey, widening his bright-purple eyes into the screen.
‘Almost. How you set with the illustrations?’
‘Done.’ Humphrey dusted his palms. ‘So hurry up. No one likes the weakest link.’
Cody quietly laughed as he placed another sticky note up on the wall. ‘I’ve been thinking I could name it after my graphic novels. Add the game into the next story somehow perhaps.’
‘Ooh, me likes. Don’t you think it’s about time you published those?’
‘No one’s going to want to read them. It’s just me doodling along to a fantasy realm I made up.’
Humphrey raised his brow. ‘You know that’s how most of them get started. Come on, Wisher. You have so many sitting there. They’re ready. You’re ready. Self-publish away. I believe in you.’
‘You’d be my only reader.’
‘No, I won’t. I’ve already read them.’
Cody grinned. It wasn’t a bad idea to let his work loose online. Could he really take any bad reviews though?
As if reading his mind, Humphrey said, ‘Your game will get reviews when it’s out there, you know. So you might as well go all in and publish your stories. What’s the worst that can happen?’
‘Whenever people say that, the worst happens.’
‘Do it, Wisher. I wouldn’t encourage this if I thought they were crap. Trust me, I’ve read loads in that genre, the good, the bad, and the what were they thinking? Yours are good, and it’s time you saw that for yourself. Publish, my friend. You know what to do. Get them up and running right now. You don’t need to worry about paperbacks just yet. Just get a feel for your digital market.’
Cody nodded. He could do that, and it would help pump him up for the gaming convention. The last one he went to was alive and buzzing, and lots of publishing representatives told him to submit his game ideas when he was ready. Was he ready to showcase his stories to strangers?
‘Do it,’ whispered Humphrey, using a menacing tone and making good use of his new contact lenses.
Cody went to reply, but his friend ended the chat, leaving him alone with his thoughts.
It wasn’t that long ago that Cody had opened an account for his stories. He was feeling brave that day but failed to move to the next step.
Would anyone really want to read them?
They had when he was writing fanfiction. He’d gained quite a fan club back then, which excited Humphrey the most.
Everything was prepped and ready to publish. All Cody had to do was hit the button and wait. The problem was, only Humphrey knew about the twenty graphic novels.
He pulled up the main character he’d drawn years ago. There were a few tweaks he could make now he was a better artist, but something felt right about how she looked, and he didn’t want to mess with any of her flaws.
Lara Croft, eat your heart out .
He chewed his bottom lip and laughed to himself, then went back to the publishing page.
‘Come on, Sully. Your fantasy world is just as good as the ones you read. Someone will like them.’ He took a deep breath, crossed his fingers, then sent the first three in the series out into the world. It was a start, and if he still felt good about it next week, he’d publish some more.
Within seconds, Humphrey was back online. ‘Look at these. Took all of five minutes, but I can do better with more time.’
Cody zoomed in on the monitor to see the adverts his friend had made for his series. ‘Oh, wow, Humphrey. They’re brilliant.’
‘You used my real name. Now I know they must be good. Okay, if you’re happy with them, I’m going to send them out to all our socials and your old fan club. We’ll get the buzz started tonight.’
‘Erm, I haven’t even told you if I published yet.’
Humphrey grinned. ‘Oh, but you did.’
‘I did. Just the first three, for now.’
‘About time. Right, let’s concentrate. We have loads of competition. We need to set up a website. Get some serious interest for you. One step at a time. By the way I’m really proud of you, you know.’
‘Thanks,’ said Cody sheepishly.
‘Right, I’m off to do some advertising. First thing tomorrow, you’ll need to set yourself up with the taxman, because you, my friend, are about to make some gold.’
‘Gold? I wish.’ He went to say more, but Humphrey had signed off.
‘You talking to yourself, Sully?’ asked Willow, peeping around the door.
Cody quickly removed the drawing of his main character, Silver Willow, from his screen. The last thing he wanted was Willow seeing herself as an illustration. ‘You asked your parents about using the farm for the show yet?’
‘No. I’ll do that in the morning. I did tell you I’d drive you home.’
‘Ah, it’s okay. I didn’t want to spoil your fun.’
‘It wasn’t fun. It was an emergency meeting.’
‘Is it solved now?’
‘Sort of. Lance will speak to whoever at the council, and if we get the tent, all we have to do is raise some cash for the stage hire, as Lance says there’s not enough funds in the budget. Anyway, I came up with the idea of a raffle.’
‘Yeah, what’s the prize?’
Willow splayed her hands. ‘Four free tickets to our show.’
Cody had to laugh. ‘Wow, great prize.’
‘Hey.’ She nudged his arm. ‘Anyway, Lance will get some raffle books, and we’re all going to spread out around the island and sell the heck out of them. Then we’ll have our stage.’
‘The show must go on,’ Cody quipped, earning himself another nudge.
‘We had some good ideas tonight.’
‘You had the good ideas, you mean.’
‘Team effort. You should’ve have stuck around. Lavender got us all singing and dancing our way out the door. It was so funny.’
‘I’m happy for you, but I was tired.’
Willow huffed. ‘Not too tired for this.’
‘Nope. Never. Unlike Lance’s show, this is my dream.’
‘Yeah, sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. Do you want me to leave you alone to concentrate?’
Cody felt bad. All she did was come say hi, and he’d been snappy and standoffish. He sighed on the inside and turned to see concern in her gaze. ‘It’s okay. I’m done for the night. You okay?’
She shrugged and offered a weak smile. ‘Just tired. It’s late.’
‘It’s been a busy day. I like your autumn setup at the shop, by the way.’
‘Thanks.’
He couldn’t help himself, he reached over and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, watching the colours change as the moonlight crept through the cracked wood to hit her light-brown locks.
‘I’m so tired, Sully,’ she whispered, holding his gaze.
‘Let’s get you to bed,’ he said softly.
‘Not that kind of tired.’ She shrugged, and he hugged her.
‘You want to talk?’
Her head shook on his shoulder, and he heard the faintest of sniffs. ‘I’ll be all right tomorrow.’
‘How about we make you all right now?’
Her head rolled up and her face came inches from his. ‘What you got in mind?’
‘Film?’
‘Here?’
‘Yeah, why not?’
Willow snuggled to his side as he sat back, placing the laptop on his lap. ‘What you got?’
‘ Goonies .’
‘Ready when you are.’
Cody switched on the film, kissed the top of her head, and settled down for the night, completely forgetting about the fantasy series he’d just put on sale to the world.
Willow reached for his hand, entwining their fingers as though they were a couple, and Cody leaned further into her side.
I think I should say something about us. Things feel different now, I think. Maybe it’s just me. Should I say something? Do I really need to make things awkward?
Willow’s breathing was slow and steady, helping him to make the decision to keep his lips zipped. She was settled, and he was being an idiot, making something out of nothing. It was time to stop thinking about their relationship, forget about seeing her as anything other than his best mate, and control his chatty brain.
Don’t tell her about your feelings. Don’t let her see the changes. Get a grip. Stop talking to yourself .
He yawned and blinked hard, fighting his sleepiness, but his eyelids slowly closed at the same time Willow quietly snored, causing the slightest of smiles to hit his lips as he drifted off.
* * *
Cody opened his eyes, thinking only a few minutes had passed, but sunlight was leaking through the treehouse, and Willow was practically wrapped around him. Birds were singing nearby, and the muffled voices of Finn and Vivien could be heard below.
It didn’t take long for Cody to realise it was morning. He listened to the voices fade away, then closed his eyes again, not wanting to face the world.
Willow stirred, groaning quietly whilst rubbing her cheek against his top.
He opened his eyes and waited for her to do the same. Waking with her in his arms was fast becoming his favourite thing, and when she peered up at him, his heart did a full morning’s workout.
‘We fell asleep in the treehouse.’ She smiled, looking sleepy and one hundred percent cute. ‘Been a while.’
The corner of his mouth twitched as he glanced at her lips.
I want to kiss her. Look away. Abort, abort .
Cody wriggled to sit up, taking her with him, seeing how she latched on. ‘I can’t feel my back.’
Willow breathed out a soft laugh. ‘I have a dead arm.’
‘Hot shower time.’ As soon as he said it, he wished he hadn’t, because now he was visualising them together under the trickling water, and that would never do. ‘Right, let’s get out of here.’
Without warning, Willow tugged him back down, resting her head on his chest, and he was so afraid she would hear his heart thumping.
‘What you doing, Wills?’
‘Getting five more minutes.’
‘I don’t even know what the time is. You might be late opening up.’
She groaned, making him smile. ‘I don’t care. I like it here. It’s safe.’
He didn’t like that word. ‘Safe?’ Shifting her head so he could meet her eyes, he asked, ‘You don’t feel safe outside?’
‘Oh, I do. Sorry, that sounded weird, didn’t it?’
Just a bit .
‘You would tell me if you weren’t okay, wouldn’t you?’
She nodded, balling his top in her palm. ‘It’s just our comfort zone up here, isn’t it? That’s all I meant.’
Cody figured he’d leave it at that, for now. But if that safe word came up again, the next person who wouldn’t feel so safe would be Kip Kirkland and his perfect teeth.
Willow tugged his top. ‘Five more minutes, Sully. Please?’
How could he say no? He wanted longer than minutes. Things had changed, whether he liked it or not, and now he wanted forever with the woman in his arms.