Ashes of the Future

Chapter 12

Fourteen long years Cody and Dan had known each other. To anyone else, fourteen years would've been a long time, but to them it truly didn't feel like it had been that long.

They had been family to each other since the tender age of four, Cody's family taking Dan's non English speaking family in, his mother speaking a bit of Spanish. They never said why they moved away from Spain, Dan didn't even know himself, but he wouldn't change any of it. Being British was part of him now, as was being Hispanic, but not knowing Cody, Charlie and Matt was what scared him most.

Cody had called him a 'little weirdo' the first time they met, Dan not having any idea what he meant. He said it due to Dan's hyperactive nature, one that never went away, but as time went on Cody learned to love all of Dan's odd mannerisms. He had the worst memory, he was easily excited and he loved to dance, badly. And while at times it was embarrassing, Dan never failed to make everyone around him smile, including Cody.

At 7, Matt came. He was the 'coolest' kid at the time, everyone wanted to be him. Even at such a young age. On his first day, he strolled into school with these designer sunglasses on. Cody's parents told the two of them that the boy was spoilt and not worth their time, he was privileged and came from one of the worst families in the neighbourhood. At least that's what they said.

First of all, they listened. They stayed clear of him, sitting on a different table to him at lunch, playing on a separate play ground. Their parents had programmed them to believe Matt was some kind of disease.

Until one day they couldn't escape him. It was a year after he had first joined, and they were placed in a group together, just the three of them. They waited for him to be rude, for him to scoff in their faces at how inferior they were to him. But the complete opposite happened.

He lifted his sunglasses off and took Dan's, his being clad in a Spiderman print, and placed them on his head. Matt smiled widely, and only complemented his sunglasses, saying he preferred them to his. The real forming of their friendship came from Dan though, as his stood and wet himself from nervousness. From that moment Matt knew these were who he wanted to be friends with, who he wanted to be around all the times.

Since he joined he had never had any proper friends, jumping from friendship group to friendship group. Dan and Cody welcomed him with open arms, their parents finally changing their views on him, but not his family.

And then the day came. The day that Cody's sister went missing, the day she was 'kidnapped'. Ten year old Cody immediately distanced himself from Matt and Dan, not talking at school, not walking home with them, nothing at all. Matt and Dan were left alone, and no matter how hard they tried Cody would not budge.

It broke Dan, a hole left in his heart where Cody and his family were. Not only had he lost a good friend of his in Freya, but he had also lost his best friend. One that he didn't get back until two years later.

Those two years would've been torture for Dan, if Matt wasn't around. Their friendship grew to a size no one ever expected, their care and love for each other more important that anyone else. They'd constantly sneak out together, Matt pretending he was walking his dog, but in reality his dog was Dan. Sometimes he behaved like a god, Matt used to joke, but Dan insisted he was a polar bear, a beast. Their innocent little minds fragile to the touch, their memory's with each other overriding the seven years they didn't know each other. Skiing trips, snowball fights, long park walks, movie trips, it all. Anyone from the outside would've believed Matt became Dan's rock, but in reality it was the other way round. They saved each other from becoming what Cody had, all at the age of twelve.

And then Charlie happened. This overly loud, overly confident boy, awfully similar to how Cody used to be before the kidnapping. But this boy flicked a switch inside Cody, one filled with happiness and joy. One that helped him, one that made him talk again, made him socialize. Charlie had lost his mother, he understood what Cody was going through, something Dan and Matt couldn't. Charlie promised them he'd help their friend, and while Dan was grateful Matt was skeptical. But that skeptical feeling was actually just fear, fear that he may lose Cody and Dan to this new boy.