''Ian Romero, the person I hate the most in the whole wide world. He turned the entire school against me, and then just left me alone in the hell he created.''
There's no one Cody Walker hates more than Ian Romero, who is the reason he has been bull...
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*Ian Romero's POV
It had taken a lot of persuasion and planning, but eventually I was heading to my old hometown in my mom's Rolls-Royce. I had left as soon as school was over, since I had already planned everything and made all the preparations yesterday after seeing the video.
I needed to persuade both my mom and Oat. The former because of the car — which was far too expensive and sumptuous — and the latter to get the location where Cody was at. The planning part was mostly about making a speech that would make Cody believe I really meant everything I said that night.
My plan failed to predict I would be this nervous. I was listening to my favorite playlist, but it was all static for me and I'm pretty sure I was exceeding the speed limit just to get to Cody as fast as I possibly could.
I needed to see him.
I needed to talk to him.
I needed him.
Cody's parents' house looked exactly like it used to: an old white house with a lakeview. It wasn't luxurious, but I had always loved it there. The place had warmth inside its walls. Although this time the atmosphere seemed a little colder, if not even tense.
"Ian, hi. What are you doing here?" Chloe opened the door for me. Soon Vivian, Cody's mom, appeared behind her and she couldn't quite hide the weariness from her expression.
"Please come in." Vivian said politely and I followed after her and Chloe into the kitchen. I said hi to Gary, Cody's dad, too. He didn't quite look like himself, but I knew it wouldn't be polite to ask questions about it.
"Is Cody home?" I asked awkwardly. Somehow I felt like I had chosen a terrible timing and I was clearly interrupting something important.
"He just left. I think he's in the backyard." Vivian told me. She looked like she wanted to add something, but decided not to after she had already opened her mouth.
And so I walked out of the back door and all the way to the shore. I could see Cody's back when he sat on the ground looking at the lakeview. My heart skipped a beat, which seemed to be its way to greet Cody these days. The fluttering that followed right after seemed to be another way my heart informed Cody was around.
"What are you doing here?" Cody looked incredulous when our eyes met.
"We need to talk." I sat on the chilly ground next to him, building courage to start my speech.
"Ian —" Cody started and I interrupted him before he could tell me to piss off or something like that.
"No, wait, just let me explain. I didn't know about that video, I swear. No one tells me anything these days. I know it was me who started all this and that it doesn't really justify what I did, but I never meant for things to get this bad. I didn't want you in our group to make another joke of you — it's the opposite, I really want to make sure you won't get hurt because of me anymore." I had to stop to breathe, because I had blurted out all the words in a nervous farrago.
