falling [total drama island]

chapter five

"We got our first gig!" Trent says excitedly. He holds his phone to the sky like he's praising the heavens. Today I joined the group for lunch, even though I was clearly not going to eat anything. I had no lectures today. Being social isn't my strong suit, but it would be better than sitting at home and studying unhealthily.

"Woohoo!" Harold says. He does that sometimes. It's either that or, "Gosh!" Harold grins a toothy smile. "I'm so happy. I haven't been this excited since Leshawna accepted my proposal to be my girlfriend." Leshawna sighs and rolls her eyes, but has a faint smile on her face. 

"I haven't heard you guys play, so I trust you sound good," Courtney says, "and not like what happened last time."

"We, uh," Trent begins, "we don't talk about last time..."

"What happened last time?" Cody says curiously. Before I can reply, Heather answers for me. "It was this whole thing where a string on the guitar broke backstage five minutes before Trent was supposed to go on, I don't know how, I think it was Justin-"

"Hey," Justin says accusingly.

"-but then we came up with a last minute solution: sticky tape! Well, Gwen came up with it and it didn't work." She put heavy emphasis on the 'didn't work' part. Gwen, who was taking a bite of her sandwich, stared at Heather with daggers in her eyes. 

"And then we called if Harold had a spare guitar in his trunk because who doesn't have spare guitars, and he came running with it and tripped over the wire, so the microphone wasn't connected to the speakers and the other guitar we had was broken too. We ended up making Trent sing, but without the microphones it was like screaming. He sung My Love Is Mine All Mine, but he made up half the lyrics."

"That sounds wild," Cody says absentmindedly. He's staring and dozing off at something. He doesn't have a very long attention span, I guess. 

"Hello? Cody? Are you even listening?" Heather snaps her fingers in front of his face. When Cody doesn't come back to Earth she gives up and sits back down. She takes a fry from the middle of the table. 

I listen to everyone's conversations. Duncan is smitten as Courtney keeps rambling on about her stupid professor, Heather is ignoring Alejandro's flirting, Bridgette and Geoff have each other in a hug and are feeding each other. It's fairly normal, but then I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn to my right to look at Cody.

"Noah, I have a question," Cody says quietly.

"Shoot."

"Why do you never eat?" 

Well.

I must have gone quiet for a few seconds because then Cody starts apologizing profusely. "I mean, I didn't mean to be insensitive, I was just curious, because every time we go out somewhere you never eat. You drink water sometimes but I've never seen you eat before, and I was getting worried because what if you were starving yourself? Are you starving yourself? Don't starve yourself."

Hearing the word starve makes me wanna puke, but not here, in front of all these people. Cody is just curious, he doesn't mean any harm. "I'm not starving myself," is all I say. What else should I have said, huh? Oh no, I have had an eating disorder since eighth grade and if I eat I'll throw up over everyone, and it's not my fault, I just can't control my own body half the time.

"Okay," Cody says. He still grins which reveals his gap tooth. "That's good. I just wanna make sure you're okay."

Saying it like that makes it sound worse. Ever since going to Dawn she's prepared a meal plan for me to eat comfort foods or foods that hold a special meaning so I enjoy eating it and stayed healthy while eating it too.

It's still hard, though, so I just refrain from eating in public. And if I do it's not even eating, it's a snack, like three chips and two sips of a milkshake.

"I have the flyers," Trent says happily. Once again, he holds up the phone to show a dark blue flyer with a microphone on it for the bar they were performing at. There was text in a yellowy green.

"Yeah, and?" Duncan says. He was practically squinting trying to read it. "Why are you showing this to us?"

"Look," Justin says and jabs a finger to the screen, where in tiny yellow text it said their band name. "We're slowly moving our way up into the music industry," he continues with a proud smile.

"Or maybe you're delusional as hell," Gwen says playfully with a smirk. Justin pokes out his tongue. 

"On the bright side," Courtney says, "you can hire Noah as an assistant!"

"What the hell?" I say. I turn to everyone and say, "I didn't consent to this."

"First of all, you were always picked to be the 'Teacher's Helper' in fourth grade, second of all you have experience being an assistant because of that crappy first job you got. I mean, it was all stuff like getting coffee, but still-"

"That's so funny," Cody says and chuckles. "I'll hire you to be my personal assistant and I'll make you go into a colorful candy shop to get me sugar every day."

Why is this guy so damn adorable? I swear, he can talk to people so easily and produce funny jokes, he's also tried flirting with me multiple times with his 'rizz'. His gap tooth too, he's told me he's self conscious of it but it honestly adds to the character of what makes him Cody.

"What even is your band name?" I ask. 

Immediately, Justin, Trent, Harold and Cody all jump up into an empty space in the restaurant and position themselves, with Justin kneeling at the center and Trent and Cody on either side of him. Harold is standing up. They all do jazz hands and then say mysteriously, "The Drama Brothers!" 

"You are going to get bullied for this," Heather says dully.

"The Drama what?" Duncan asks. Justin flicks him in the back of the head and says, "The Drama Brothers," awfully loudly. 

"That's a nice name," Bridgette says and reaches for a chip. When she sits back, she asks, "So what are you planning to play for the gig, and when is it again?"

"Friday night, so in two days, and we're probably just gonna be singing covers of songs we like," Trent says observantly. "They're not gonna be super heavy rock style, probably really smooth and calm for a bar."

"Like Laufey or TV Girl!" Cody says happily.

I stop what I was doing and stare at him. He's not looking at me, but instead smiling at the conversation around us. 

I love Laufey and TV Girl so much. 

"Please come watch us," Harold begs. 

"Of course we will, sugarplum, right everyone?" Leshawna says menacingly to the group. We all nod in unison and confirm. I haven't been to a bar in a while, honestly, but since she asked so nicely then I'll go check it out.

"It's one thirty, I should probably get to my next lecture," Courtney says and stands up to grab her jacket which is wrapped around her chair. "See you guys tomorrow!" she says and departs to go to the train station.

Shortly after everyone else starts leaving. I'm about to go home when Cody nudges my shoulder and says, "Where are you going now?"

"Home," I say. "I have no lectures today." 

"Can I come over to yours?" he asks solemnly. "Please? I mean, only if you let me. Heather has a class and I don't want to be left alone with my step-dad. It's really awkward."

"Sure," I say, and his face lights up. "I take the underground to the nearest station and then walk, but you have a car, don't you?"

Cody held up his keys with as much energy as a raging sun. "Get ready to be a passenger princess, Sterecra."

a/n

idk how to feel about this, bc i think its good but its so boring

next chapter will be more better i guess