friends //cody bellinger

twenty-five

  October was almost over which was something that made me genuinely elated. With baseball close to being over, it meant that Cody and I were counting down the days until we would be back under the same roof.

I was searching through one of those real estate listing websites while we sat on our plane. Cody's parents, his siblings, and I were on a flight to LA (pointless, I know) for Game 7 of the World Series.

I was more than excited to finally be able to see my boy play baseball in person and not over a flat screen.

We had already established a game plan if anyone asked who I was. We would tell those people that I am a family friend and Ashli wanted me to tag along.

I took my phone out and sent a picture of one of the apartments to Cody. It was two blocks from his parents, had it's own washer and dryer, and a huge ass bathtub.

Cody didn't know I was coming. He only thinks his parents and Cole were going to be able to make it. I can't wait to see how stoked he's going to be once he sees Ashli and me.

I shut my computer once I saw the red seatbelt signs start flashing.

"That was the shortest and most irrelevant flight I've ever taken," Ashli says to me.

I nod my head in agreement. "Yeah same, you and I should have just road tripped."

Her eyes went wide when I said that. "Oh my gosh, we should have! That would've been a lot of fun."

I was driving back to Arizona with Cody, so maybe I'll talk to him about having Ashli come with us. "We'll have to plan one with Cody and Cole over the offseason."

I watch as she nods. "We could go camping at the lake or something."

"Yeah," I agree, "as long as it's somewhere secluded and out of the private eye."

I was glad that I had become closer with Cody's family. Ashli and I had hung out almost every day since we were usually the only ones at the house. I seldom left home, but the few times I did I always ended up having a blast because it was somewhere Ashli had taken me too.

Cole, Ashli, and I took a separate Uber to the stadium than Jen and Clay.

"Are you excited to see your lover boy?" Cole asked from the seat next to me. Ashli was in the front because she wanted to control the radio.

"Shut up," I say playfully, adding a laugh at the end so he would know I wasn't serious. Cole and I hadn't yet gotten as close as Ash, and I had, but we still talked at least three times a week while he was traveling with his minor league team. Whether it was over text, snapchat, or facetime sessions between him and Ashli that I would interrupt, Cole and I were always joking around with each other.

"You can't tell me what to do," Cole says crossing his arms and raising his eyebrow at me. "Afterall, I am older than you."

I rolled my eyes. Ever since turning eighteen earlier in the month, Cole held it against me since I was still a measly seventeen.

"We really need to stop bringing that up because it still kind of weirds me out," Ashli says and we all nod in agreement.

"But if you think about it, the age gap isn't that significant," Cole states, turning his attention back and forth from Ashli and me while he spoke. "Emberly might be seventeen, but Cody's still twenty-two. The only reason five years seems that substantial is because you and my brother are still fairly young."

Ashli and I stare at Cole, earning a blank expression and a blink from him. "What?" He questions.

"Significant?" Ashli raises her eyebrows.