Thirty

Finally.

Quinn's POV

After school Monday, the first thing I did was change into athletic shorts and an old Providence Prep t-shirt before pulling my hair up into a messy ponytail and collapsing onto my bed. Macy hopped up onto the bed beside and I rubbed her light grey fur as she fell asleep, dozing lightly and using my rabbit stuffed animal as a pillow.

I actually didn't feel as awful as I thought I'd feel, considering Julia and Andrew were now an item. In fact, I felt happier than I'd felt in a long time as I unzipped my backpack and began unloading my books onto my sheets. When Vanessa poked her head into my room, I wasn't even feeling sour enough to snap at her.

"Hey," I said as she leaned against the wall and crossed her arms.

She rolled her eyes. "I thought you hated me, Quinn."

"I sort of do," I said. "Excuse me for trying to be friendly."

At that, she peeled herself off of the wall and slipped back out of the room, calling behind her, "Your mom wanted me to tell you that dinner's going to be ready at six."

I didn't respond as the door swung shut behind her and I went back to my homework. There actually wasn't that much work to do--just some Chemistry, math, and French.

Just as I was pulling out my French textbook to start on my verb conjugations, my phone rang, and I couldn't help but smile as I looked at the caller ID and then answered.

"Hey, Marlett," I said, flipping to the right page in my book and starting to skim the list of verbs.

"Oh, Quinn, you answered." Cody's voice sounded sort of distant. "I need your help so bad, are you at your house? I have no idea how to do the French homework."

"Yeah, I'm home. Why?"

Immediately, he said, "I'm at your door."

I jumped up as if my bed had been set on fire and ran for my closet. "Give me five minutes!" I squealed. "I've got to change and fix my hair and--"

"Quinn Ramirez, go answer the door. I really don't care what you look like."

"Wow, Mr. Bossy," I said, switching my phone to my other ear as I stopped by my mirror just long enough to do a quick hair check. My ponytail was messy, but it was actually decent. I yanked down my too-short lime green athletic shorts and raced out into the hallway, slipping on the hardwood in my socks. "I'll be right down."

I hung up and ran down the stairs and to the front door, nearly wiping out two more times on the floor. Vanessa looked up long enough from her perch on her laptop in her living room before clearly giving me up as a lost cause and returning to whatever brain-cell-reducing entertainment she was resorting to.

Forcing a deep breath, I swung open the door and pasted on a bright smile that tried not to imply how fast I'd run to get downstairs so quickly and how out of breath I was.

"Hey," he said.

I was so busy staring at his eyes and his traditional smirk that I neglected to look down at his hands until he extended them out to me--I noticed he was holding a bouquet of daisies and carnations.

"Cody?" I asked, my voice going up a little at the end. Vanessa glanced up abruptly from her laptop and saw us standing there before letting her jaw drop a little. "This doesn't look like French homework."

He ran his hand through his hair, suddenly looking nervous. "I'm sorry for the lie," he said. "I wanted you to be surprised." He was quiet for a moment before he asked slowly, "Are you surprised?"

"Yeah," I said breathless. "Wow. I'm actually really surprised. So is this just a casual 'hey, I'm getting you flowers', or..."

"Oh. Right." He took a few steps closer to me until he had to duck his head to see my face properly. Then, almost hesitantly, he took my hand in his and enveloped it until it was completely covered. "Will you do me the enormous honor of being my date to Homecoming?"

I stared up at him for a few seconds, because somehow the way he'd said it didn't make it seem cheesy at all, but actually perfect. And his hand holding mine was so warm and secure, and the flowers (not to mention his cologne) smelled practically heavenly.

"Quinn?" he asked, his jaw tightening in anticipation. "Are you going to answer me?"

"Oh." I snapped out of it quickly the instant he dropped my hand and closed my eyes for a second to clear my thoughts. "Yes. I'm sorry. Yes, I'd really love to go with you. You just really surprised me and I didn't know what to say"

He smiled and handed me the flowers, and I took them and inhaled deeply. "They're perfect," I said, leaning forward and wrapping my arms around him. "Thank you."

I heard him take a sharp breath in, but then he encircled me with his arms and buried his face in my hair, and I just let myself slowly relax as stress I didn't even know I'd had was slowly lifted off my shoulders. I didn't know how long we stayed like that, but I knew that hugging Andrew Summers sure had never felt like that had. Hugging Cody was like a little reminder that I was safe and beautiful and that he cared about me. A lot. He'd always cared.

"So, Quinn," he said once I dropped my arms and went back to cradling my flowers, "you told me about a week ago that I didn't mean it when I said I liked you. You told me to come back to you if I really meant it. And I mean it. I really, really do."

"Cody," I breathed, rubbing the soft petals of the flowers. "That's really sweet, thank you. And thank you for always being there for me. You don't know how much that's meant to me."

He leaned down and kissed my forehead lightly, tentatively, as if he was afraid I would pull away. "Of course, Ramirez. You deserve to have someone always there for you. Now." His nose wrinkled a little as he added, "I really do need help on the French homework. Do you feel like helping?"

"Sure!" I locked the door behind him and dropped the key on the mudroom table, ignoring Vanessa as she stared at us with wide eyes. "All my textbooks are upstairs if you want to come on up."

He was just following me down the hallway and I had just stepped sideways to avoid a slippery spot I'd almost fallen on when I'd come to let him in the house when a regal voice said, "No boys in your bedroom, Quinn! You know the rules!"

I turned around, seething to see Vanessa standing with her hands on her hips shortly behind us. "Really, Vanessa?" I demanded. "We're just working on homework--"

"That's what they all say," she said simply. "Anyway, rules are rules."

"Vanessa--"

She shrugged innocently. "You do what you want, Quinn. Just know I feel like it's my duty to report it if you do happen to break the rules."

My eyes were so narrowed at her I thought they were slits, but I tugged at Cody's hand and led him into the living room instead. "Sorry my house is infested with annoying pests," I said as he sat down on the couch, a little stunned by Vanessa's barrage. "I'll be right back, I just have to get my stuff."

As I strode down the hallway, I heard Cody saying to Vanessa, "So. Haven't really talked to you since filming that movie over the summer. Nice to see you again."

"Pleasure," she said stiffly.

When I came back downstairs a few minutes later, Vanessa had disappeared and Cody had made himself comfortable on the couch, playing some mindless game on his phone. I sat down next to him and set my French textbook in his lap, and he groaned as he was forced to put away his phone.

"You came here for help," I reminded him as I found the page I'd been on before he'd called.

"Actually," he said, "I came here to ask you to Homecoming."

Rolling my eyes, I uncapped my pen and started scribbling the verb conjugations on a sheet of paper. "Did you bring your worksheet?"

"No..." He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye as if I shouldn't have expected him to. "I had other things on my mind, sorry."

He didn't look sorry at all.

We ended up giving up on French after about five minutes of drilling each other pointlessly on verbs and just sat next to each other on the couch, talking. Cody was holding my hand, rubbing my thumb absentmindedly with his, and I knew he was thinking about what had happened the last time we'd been on this couch.

"I really am sorry about what I did last week," he said finally, as he moved to tracing my palm with his fingers. "I was really a jerk."

I glanced at him and saw that he really did look like he felt awful. "It's fine, Cody," I said, scooting closer to him on the couch and resting my head on his shoulder. "No harm done, right? You enjoyed yourself, and I'm sure I enjoyed myself even though I don't remember it."

He draped his arm across my shoulders and when I looked up at him, I saw he was smirking. "Are we replicating what happened?" he asked. "Because I wouldn't complain if we did."

"Shut up," I said, blushing as our noses bumped together. I turned my head and rested it on his shoulder again, feeling his chest rise and fall as he chuckled softly.

Princess Vanessa returned five minutes later wearing her shortest pair of shorts, eyeing Cody carefully. "Hey," she said, sitting down on the couch on his other side. "So, are you two dating or what?"

Cody scooted away from Vanessa until I was pressed up against the opposite arm of the couch and he couldn't get any farther away from her. "I didn't know it was your business," he replied, brushing some of my hair away from my face. Since he couldn't see me, I took that time to shoot her a satisfied smile.

Vanessa slid closer to him, blinking her eyes innocently. "Oh, I'm sure it's not," she said, lowering her head so that she looked embarrassed. "Sorry. It's just, I don't know what a guy like you would be doing with a girl like her."

"I know, right?" said Cody. "A guy like me with a girl as great as her. Who'd have thought?"

Scoffing, Vanessa primly left the couch and stalked out of the room, exaggerating her walk so that she looked sort of like she was practicing to be on a runway. Cody whistled softly as she turned the corner and said, "You're stuck with her all the time? Jeez, I'm sorry."

I rolled my eyes. "I get used to it. She's sort of started ignoring me, except when you're here of course."

"Doesn't she have a boyfriend?"

"Cody Marlett, you're so naive," I said, nudging his arm. "Do you think that matters to her?"

He shrugged, rearranging the way my head was resting on his shoulder, and then picked up my hand again. "Speaking of boyfriends," he said, resuming tracing my life lines, "we have some unfinished business to resolve in that department."

"Meaning?" I asked, even though I knew exactly what he meant. And even though I'd been uncertain earlier in the day, I knew exactly what I wanted now.

He scooted a little away from me so that he was facing me on the couch, so that he could see me clearly. "You gonna be my girlfriend, Ramirez?"

"Why, Marlett?" I shot back. "You gonna be my boyfriend?"

"If you'll let me."

I smirked. "I'm going to have to think about that." I had just turned so that my back was to him, so that he couldn't see the smile that was breaking out over my face, when he started tickling me.

"Cody!" I squealed, trying to fend him away with unsuccessful slaps.

He kept tickling me, adjusting his position on the sofa so that he could better continue his bombardment. "I'll stop when you say yes," he teased.

To my credit, I held out for a solid thirty seconds before I gasped for surrender. The second he let go, I threw a pillow at him, which actually hit him square in the face.

"You did not," he said, completely straight-faced.

I replied in the exact same tone, "I just did."

I expected him to assault me with more pillows, but he just scooped me up in his arms so that I was snuggled back up against his chest. "You never said yes, Quinn."

"Fine," I said. "Yes. Happy now? Oh wait. I forgot your list of qualifications for me to make you happy is very long."

Laughing, he halfheartedly stuffed a pillow in my face. "It just got a lot shorter."

We battled with pillows for a few more minutes before my sides were sore from laughing so hard and we collapsed back on the couch. Everything that had happened the past few weeks: my complications with Andrew, the fights with Julia--everything seemed trivial right now. I knew things weren't completely resolved yet--in a perfect world, Andrew and I would go back to being friends--but at least this was a start. How had I literally never seen what was in front of me the past year and a half?

He had honestly been there for me when no one else had. Besides the embarrassing incident where I'd flipped my lunch tray freshman year, which he'd kindly reminded me of before, he'd always made sure I wasn't too stressed, or if I was angry that I always had someone to rant to. He'd picked me time and time again over his friends, and he'd always put my needs before my own. He hadn't even gotten (too) mad at me for liking Andrew, even though it was obvious that that whole endeavor would wind up a disaster.

Suddenly, I remembered Andrew's love letter to me, and I turned to Cody. "When did you start liking me, Cody?" I asked.

He glanced down at me, smiling a little. "It was freshman year, after lunch, and you were walking with Julia. The door to the cafeteria was swinging shut and you started running to reach it in time, and then I started running to beat you, and we started this full-on race, pushing people aside and laughing so hard we couldn't see straight."

"I remember that," I said quietly. It was the first time he'd become something other than Cody, The Guy in My Class. Then, he'd become Cody, My Friend.

"Yeah," he replied. "I'd thought you were cute before, but I guessed that was the first time I really noticed you. I couldn't get you out of my head after that."

"I'm sorry," I said suddenly. "I pushed you away for a while."

He flicked the tip of my nose with his index finger. "Hey, it's okay. I'm just glad you finally realized it."

"It's about time, right?" I asked.

Rolling his eyes lightheartedly, he said, "I know. Finally, right?"

A/N: Yayyy :) Only three more chapters to go!