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Cody was reminded this morning never to trust Owen with any of his secrets.
It was too bad for Noah though, because his secret was just spilled.
“Wait. Gwen?” Cody asked. “He likes Gwen?”
Owen slapped a hand against his mouth. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you that.”
Cody dropped the controller onto the carpet and stared at Owen. “ Noah likes Gwen??? I would’ve never guessed that. I wouldn’t think they would get along, considering that Noah is so preppy and Gwen is so freaky.”
“I don’t know man, I’m not the guy who likes her. You have to promise not to tell anyone about this though. Especially not Noah. He’d crucify me.”
“Of course, I won’t. But I’m just surprised. Let’s just get back to the game.”
Gwen. Gwen. To Cody’s surprise, he wasn’t even upset. In fact, he saw this as an opportunity.
On Monday, walking to French, Cody asked Gwen about Noah.
“You mean that kid Courtney hates?”
“Yeah.”
“Um, I don’t really know him, why?”
“I was thinking about inviting him and Owen to hang out with us at the mall sometime. Maybe Saturday?”
“I mean, whatever. Why?”
“I’m trying to reconnect with Owen, and you know, Noah’s cool too. I’d like to meet him.”
Gwen’s lips made a fine line. “Yeah, whatever.”
That afternoon, Cody hunted down Owen after science club. Owen was finishing up soccer practice.
When Cody arrived at the field, he saw Noah waiting too.
Cody waved. “Hey, Noah.”
Noah looked up from his book. “...Hi.”
“I guess I’ve never properly introduced myself. I’m Cody.” He stuck out his right hand, his left in his pocket. He wanted to be casual.
Noah rolled his eyes, creased the corner of his book, and grabbed Cody’s hand lazily. “Noah.”
Cody shook his hand, and dropped it to his side. “You waiting for Owen to finish practice?”
Noah nodded.
“Same here.”
“Guys!” Owen yelled, running over in their direction. “What’s going on?”
“Owen!” Cody greeted. “I was just coming here to ask you if you wanted to come hang out with Leshawna, Trent, Geoff, and Gwen on Saturday.” He made sure that Noah noticed Gwen was coming. “Around 1:00 at the mall.” Cody turned to Noah. “And, you’re always welcome to come too,” Cody added, as if Noah coming wasn’t his entire intention.
Before Noah could even open his mouth, Owen spoke up. “We’ll be there!”
Noah sighed and his posture fell. “Okay, fine.”
“I’ll see you then, then.” Cody gave them finger guns before walking to the parking lot by himself.
Cody spent the rest of the week organizing everyone to make sure everyone would be there on Saturday. Usually, most of them would show up, but he needed Gwen to come. Otherwise, why in the world would Noah stick around? He had to beg Gwen to take off work on Saturday.
Cody’s heart beat hard as he walked to the mall. He had no clue why it was pounding so hard. It wasn’t like he was about to go on a date with the guy- it was a friendly hangout. And Noah still liked Gwen. He wasn’t too deep in his plan yet.
Eventually, he made it to the food court near the Indian place that Leshawna worked at. She had just got off work.
When he arrived, Gwen and Leshawna were already gossiping. Gwen liked to pretend she didn’t gossip, and that she was above the Lindsay-type of person, but with Leshawna, she always spilled some beans. Every time she saw her, they would be talking about Heather’s latest scheme or whatever was happening between Geoff and Bridgette.
“Oh hey, it’s stringbean!” Leshawna pointed at Cody.
Cody’s face reddened at the call, noticing how a few faces turned. He waved and quickened his pace to catch up.
“Hey,” Cody greeted.
“So I hear you’re bringing Owen and Noah on this hangout? And you have Gwen taking off work? What’s so special?” Leshawna asked.
“I just wanted to have a big hangout,” Cody justified. “I haven’t hung out with Owen in a while, and you know, Noah seems cool.”
“Cool?” Leshawna asked, glancing at Gwen. Gwen raised an eyebrow in return.
“Yeah, I mean, I don’t know.”
“Cody!”
Cody whipped his head around to see Owen excitedly smiling next to a blank-faced Noah.
“Owen!” Leshawna yelled. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you!”
Gwen waved with a smile on her face.
“Yeah, I haven’t had a class with you guys in a while…” Owen said. “You know, it was probably PE last year that we had with Heather that we last hung out.”
“Oh my god, and all she did was give us grief.” Gwen rolled her eyes.
“She’s so mean to everyone,” Owen added.
“Ugh, she’s in my debate class, and she is the worst person to work with,” Noah complained.
“What happened?” Cody asked.
“I got assigned a project with her- remind me to not even try working with her next time. I asked her to find two sources, while I did the other four. She did nothing. No research. At least she was pretty good at the talking part, but not good enough to do no work and not say anything.”
“That’s so Heather,” Leshawna said. “She was my partner for the Chemistry project last year. She didn’t do anything until presentation day. I complained to our teacher, but Ms. V doesn’t care about anything. When I told her Heather did nothing, she told me that all partners had to work out their issues with each other, because we were both going to get the same grade.”
“Are you serious?” Cody asked. “That’s crazy.”
“Yo, dudes!” Cody heard a call from behind them.
It was Geoff and Trent. Geoff seemed very excited to be there, while Trent looked particularly annoyed with Geoff’s volume.
Noah rolled his eyes.
It wasn’t really up to him that he was in the current situation. Spending his Saturday in the mall with a bunch of kids he didn’t know or care to know was awesome. At least Leshawna and Gwen were okay, but Trent? Geoff? Cody? Ugh.
After about thirty minutes of everyone talking to each other, catching up, and gossipping, Noah found himself sick of it. While he was very interested in hearing about whatever was going on between Heather and Duncan, and how hot this new kid was, he wanted to get away from everyone and take a break. How was he going to survive at least three more hours of this? Maybe after an hour or so he could get food and fake sick.
For now, he would just go on a walk.
“Be right back,” He mumbled to the group, “I’m gonna get a drink of water.”
“I’ll come too!” Cody said. “I’m thirsty.”
Ugh.
Owen waved them goodbye and continued talking to the group.
“So, where are we going?”
Noah quirked an eyebrow at the ridiculous question. “To the water fountain?”
“Oh. I thought you would just get a bottle.”
“And pay $1.40? No thank you.”
“Are there even any water fountains here? I don’t really mind buying a water and sharing it with you.”
Noah sneered. “No thanks.”
They walked in silence for a while. Noah was content with that. That’s what he came here to do, anyways.
Except it seemed a little out-of-character for Cody. While Noah didn’t exactly know the guy, they just shared a couple of classes this year and Cody had talked to him a total of maybe three times. But every time, he never heard the guy shut up.
“So, you wanna get a career in STEM?” Cody asked.
Noah let out a deep breath. “No.”
“Oh. I was just thinking, since you’re in my STEM class and all… so what are you thinking of majoring in?”
“English, maybe. I wanna get into legal writing.”
“Oh, interesting. I wanna get into Physics. Maybe be a nuclear engineer. I can’t stand English.”
“Then why did you take AP Lang?”
Cody shrugged. “AP credit. Oh hey, water fountain.”
Cody pointed to a fountain next to the sporting goods store. Noah would’ve missed it if it weren’t for Cody. But then again, if Cody wasn’t talking, he would be more vigilant.
He went to press the bar on the fountain…
…and it didn’t work.
Noah sighed loudly. “Are they seriously making me walk all the way out here just for there not to be water? Well, let’s go to the one in the food court.”
This was a blessing and a curse. A blessing, because he got to avoid the group for longer, but a curse because he had to walk more with Cody talking his ear off. Except, maybe Cody would get bored and go back to their friends.
“Then let’s go to the food court.”
Nevermind.
“So… you do Debate?” Cody asked. “How’s that?”
“Everyone in it is the worst. There’s Heather, who’s self-explanatory, and Courtney.”
“Courtney?”
“Yeah. Thankfully she and Heather barely show up, because of Drama and Cheer. I think. Izzy told me that, since she’s in those and Debate too. But how much of a reliable source is Izzy, really?”
“I actually heard that Courtney does a few clubs with you from Gwen.”
Noah nodded. “And she shit-talks me, no doubt. Look, I know you want to do good and look good for college and whatever, but she’s serious. And I know having a partner like Heather is hard, but I do my work in a timely manner. She still complains because she crams it all in in one night.”
“Yeah, Gwen’s her partner for History right now… it’s not very fun, apparently. So, how do you know Gwen, anyways?”
Noah turned to Cody. “Um, I don’t.”
“Oh.” Cody scratched the side of his head. “I thought you did. I heard from someone that you guys knew each other.”
Someone. Oh… “Owen told you that I like her, didn’t he?”
Cody jolted up. “What? No…”
“You’re a terrible liar. And don’t worry about it, I don’t plan on doing anything to steal your girl.” Noah smirked a little bit.
Cody flushed. “No, wait, you have it all wrong, I don’t like Gwen. You… uh, I mean I’d prefer it if you didn’t but you can I guess. But also I don’t know if she really likes you. If you want me to, I could set you guys up, maybe? But also-”
Noah held up his palm, facing Cody. “Seriously. Don’t worry about it. She’s all yours.”
Cody was thoroughly embarrassed. This isn’t what he planned. What he planned was going on a little walk with Noah, getting to know him a little bit. Not getting Noah under the assumption that he liked Gwen! This was terrible.
Even in his last moments, trying to scrap his dignity together, where he even offered to help Noah get together with her, he was shut down. And Noah wasn’t going to believe him if he said he didn’t like Gwen.
At least he didn’t care. Except, it wouldn’t matter if he could explain that he didn’t like Gwen!
Even though he kind of wanted Gwen out of the equation, just pretending to set them up to encourage his own bonding with Noah was a decent plan. But he couldn’t even do that!
“Seriously, I don’t like her…” Cody mumbled as his last attempt. “I did, but not anymore.”
Noah rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”
They walked quietly for a while more, Cody with his arms folded. He had nothing left to say. “So, you’re not mad at Owen or anything?”
“I anticipated this.”
“But what if Gwen finds out?”
“Eh.”
He really did not care.
Well, that was a good thing. He cared so little about his Gwen crush that he wouldn’t even care if she found out. That meant it would be easy to win him over.
Maybe.
“So, having a good time so far?”
“No, not really.”
“Oh.”
“Finally, the food court,” Noah sighed. He walked over to the water fountain and pressed the bar.
It worked!
Noah took a sip of water and Cody leaned against the wall.
“I guess I’ll take it you don’t wanna hang out another time, then?” Cody said, trying to hide his disappointment.
Noah wiped his mouth and stood back up. “No, we can hang out. But less people.”
Cody’s eyes lit up. “Really?”
“Yeah. You’re okay. But let’s just play video games or something.”
“Deal.”