Quicker Apologies (Total Drama, Noco)

2

Cody    Monday

(TW: mention of ED, throwing up, smoking, and depression)

I smiled at Noah and waved goodbye to him before shutting the car door. I digged in my pockets for my house keys when the door opened for me to see my mum's face.

"Who was that?" She asked in a soft voice. My mum was always nicer to me than my dad. She was more accepting about everything and handled it all better.

"My new friend Noah, he's really nice," she just smiled and pushed my hair back. I really needed a haircut, my hair has been outgrown for months.

I walked over to the living room and sat on the couch. Normally, both my parents are at work, but my mum started taking Mondays and Thursdays off so I wasn't always alone.

I texted Izzy, asking if she knew Noah's number. I know he probably finds me annoying, knowing I haven't stopped talking to him all day. That's one of the two reasons I was sitting outside school upset and smoking. I wasn't as much of an addict as people like Duncan, but I did smoke almost every day. I normally only do it when i'm upset but don't want to cry.

I also have an eating disorder. Some days I make myself throw up after I eat. I think it's because I feel like I have no control over anything, so if I can control my eating, it's something. I never told anyone though, and no one ever noticed it.

Izzy messaged me back saying yes and telling me it. Izzy and I weren't incredibly close, but we were friends.

I texted the number she sent me and said, "hi noah ;)". I liked to act flirty towards people, so if I did end up actually liking them it wasn't as easy to tell if I was actually flirting, atleast I hoped. He messaged back, confused.

"Hi?" "oh this is cody btw" He probably thought it was some serial killer out to get him, or stalker.

"And how the hell did you get my number" "Izzy gave it to me :)"

I heard the front door open and see my dad walk in. I walk over to him about to greet him when he pushes past me to his office. My dad and I were never close, though I wanted us to be. My mum gave a sorry look and walked into the kitchen to make dinner. She really liked cooking, sometimes she gets me to cook with her. I liked baking a lot when I was younger, I stopped doing it as much when I was in seventh grade and started hating food.

I told my mum I was going to walk to the park. The park is where I went when I needed to be alone, or just needed a break. My dad said i'm not allowed to have a lock on my door, so my room wasn't really a safe place anymore. I grabbed the pack of cigarettes and lighter out of my bag and quickly shoved them into my jean pockets, I didn't want to leave them there in case my dad went through my bag.

Once I was decently far from my house, I got out a cigarette and my lighter. It helped calm me down, it definitely wasn't the healthiest way to cope, but it could be a start. Once I got to the park, I saw a two kids being pushed on the swings by a girl who looked like she was in her early twenties. In the grass was a teenage boy, probably in middle school, sitting down with a notebook and earbuds. One of the ear pieces was in his ear, the other in another boys. The other boy was a lot taller, they looked like...Noah?

I decided to ignore it, a lot of people probably wore sweater vests, had long black hair, had beautiful eyes- Noah probably looked like a lot of people.

I walked over to the bench, a few feet away from Noah and the other boy. I couldn't recognize the younger looking boy, maybe it was a younger brother?

I watched the girl push the two smaller kids, possibly toddlers, in the swings. She stood in front of them and pretended to get kicked and hurt whenever they swung towards her. I don't want kids, but if I did have any, I want to be a better dad than my own is.

My thoughts got interupted by someone grabbing my shoulder. I looked up to see Noah and all my fear that it was someone kidnapping me that was in my chest was swept away like dust on the floor.

"H-hi," I was still slightly scared from the hand that appeared. I put out the cigarette on the benches table.

"Why are you here? Especially by yourself, that's just sad." He watched the girl push one kid now, the other kid on the playground.

"Didn't notice, who's that kid over there you were with?" I looked back at the kid who now had both earbuds in, and was drawing something in the notebook.

"His names Elliott, he's my nephew. He's only two years younger than me so were pretty close. He's my oldest brother's kid." I always wanted a little sibling, or nephew or niece, but I was an only child so I wouldn't get that unless I got married to someone who wasn't also an only child.

"I always wanted a brother, or sister. My parents are either never home or never talk to me, I think having siblings would be nice." His smirk turned into a frown slowly.

"Come on, you're going to hangout with me and Elliott." He playfully hit my arm and lifted his legs to get out from the bench. I followed him as he sat down next to the smaller boy.

He looked up as we both sat down and smiled at me.

"Are you Noah's boyfriend or something?" Before I could say anything, he rolled his eyes and made a comment.

"No, you and Courtney have said that now. I literally just met him," The kid just rolled his eyes and smiled, he already reminded me of Noah, although I just met both of them today.

"Sor-ry, i'm going to go bring aunt Max her drawing real quick," He got up and kicked Noah's knee before walking over to the girl pushing the kid in a swing.

"Is she your sister?" He nodded and leaned back to lay on his elbows. He pulled at the back of my sweater and smirked at me. I attempted to roll my eyes and layed down on my back, laying my hands on my chest.

"Really though, why did you come down here? You don't seem like the type to just take a walk to the park on a random day," he said, turning his head to face me. I focused my eyes on the boy looking slightly down on me.

"My dad's kinda been a dick, like he doesn't care about me. I come down here to calm down, that's why I started smoking too." I didn't want to dump it all on him, it just spilt out.

"Well, maybe don't smoke. But, if you want to ever come to my place I live in that house there. I hate it though, I can't ever open my window without hearing kids screaming, and there's a damn tree right in front of my window so there's no nice view or anything either." His house was huge on the outside. I made a mental note that his room was the one in front of the tree, in case I wanted to climb through his window or something.

I was about to say something when my mum texted me telling me dinner was ready. I told Noah goodbye and gave him a hug. It was a nice hug, even though he stood stiff the whole time. I let go and started walking home.