Looking At Us

58. cody

At three twenty-seven that afternoon, I got a call from Drexl, a friend of mine back home in Minnesota, and I answered it: ‘‘Hey. Please tell me you got a better shrink than the one before.’’

     ‘’Um, slightly. She’s a lot prettier.’’

     ‘‘Dude, this isn’t about pretty! It’s about health, man. How are you feeling?’’

     ‘‘Anxious. No, sorry. Apprehensive. That’s the word. She wants me to expand my vocabulary.’’ 

     ‘‘Resplendent,’’  I said, just to enhance his word power even more. ‘‘That means brilliant. Do you have a girlfriend yet, or are you going to ask your shrink to give you a blow job because it releases stress?’’

     ‘’As a matter of fact, Ali asked me to the dance yesterday.’’

     ‘‘Ali, like, Ali the only freaking OCD kid besides you? Ali, like, two-years-older-than-you Ali? Alison? Alice . . .’’ 

     I could hear his bitterness on the other line. ‘‘She’s sixteen months older than me. And she’s actually really nice.’’

     ‘‘Drexl. Bro. That’s cute and all, but two OCD kids going to a school dance? That’s, like, Justin Bieber dating Miley Cyrus. The results can be messy.’’

     ‘‘God, shut up, Cody. You know, I called you to tell you that your sister won’t stop bugging Alex, and that he’s really pissed. Instead I get criticism. You were the one who said I should get help in the first place. This. Isn’t. Helping.’’ 

     I said, ‘‘Deal with it. This is life,’’ and I hung up. 

     Sometimes, I was an asshole. Sometimes, I didn’t do anything about it. 

     At three thirty-one that afternoon, Mr. Williams pulled up in a silver SUV and sprayed dirt on my jeans, which didn’t bother me because I think Hadley had pissed on them once, and that drew me to the question of why the hell I put them on in the first place. The door opened and slammed, and I saw Megan, Shain, Erick, and finally Cori, and she threw her arms around my neck and I hugged her tight, tight, tight. 

     ‘‘The world ended while you were gone,’’ I said. ‘‘Dinosaurs came back. World War III happened. I died.’’

     ‘‘Then came back to life,’’ she added, ‘‘because I won’t allow you to die.’’

     ‘‘Right. So now I am a zombie.’’

     She kissed me. ‘’I love you, my zombie.’’

     ‘‘Zombie loves you toooooo.’’ I slurred my words a bit and made a face, but she kissed me again, and my muscles relaxed. 

     Behind us, Shain approached with Erick at her side. I’d never really gotten a good look at Erick. He was on my soccer team, and I’d kinda helped him up after Darrin had beaten the crap out of him, but that was pretty much it. He had dark hair and eyes the color of dewy grass, and he was almost as tall as me, only a lot more scrawnier. 

     But he’d gone on a trip with Cori and Megan, and he was holding Shain’s hand. Were they dating? I figured Shain was cool, so I decided to give Erick a chance. 

     ‘‘Hey, man,’’ I said. ‘‘Erick, right? I’m Cody.’’

     ‘’I know,’’ he replied. His voice still hadn’t dropped yet. ‘‘You’re on my soccer team.’’

     I said, ‘‘Have you ever skydived, Erick?’’

     ‘’No. Have you?’’

     I had. Last year, with my eccentric uncle. I’d felt the wind slam into my body and try to pull me apart, but I screamed with euphoria, and I conquered the wind. ‘‘Yes, I have. You, me—man-date sometime. Skydiving. Macho stuff that girls don’t do.’’ 

     Shain said, ‘‘Hey!’’ because she was a tomboy. 

     Erick nodded. ‘‘It’s a date. A man-date. Whatever you want to call it.’’

     As we parted ways, I saw a couple of strange things, and a couple of not-so-strange things. I saw Erick attacking Shain with a hug, and then I saw them kiss (strange-ish); I saw Cori’s father give me a brief warning as I hugged her (not so strange. In fact, pretty typical); and I saw Megan pull out her phone, swear, and then march off in the direction of Darrin Domnall’s house, but I was pretty sure she didn’t want to see Darrin. 

     Cori sang, quietly, ‘‘You are my zombie, my little zombie . . .’’ 

     I took her to her bedroom, kissed her, and said, ‘‘Yes. I am your zombie. And now I’m going to go find some brains to eat.’’

     ‘’I love you, zombie.’’

     ‘’I love you, too, angel.’’ 

     As I left, I thought: An angel loving a zombie. What is this world coming to?