Damaged || Cody Simpson

27

"Hey, Bella." Ryan smiled once I sat down at the table with my tray, sliding it between me and Alli. "It's nice to see you."

"Hey, sorry. I've been so busy lately with work and stuff." I sighed, looking towards Alli who's looking down at her phone. "Are you okay?"

She lifted her head up and took a glance at me. "Yeah, I'm a bit distracted." She beamed, locking her phone and putting it in her pocket. "It was my turn to buy lunch this time." She suddenly frowned, looking towards the tray that's laid on the table.

"I thought I would buy it since we haven't seen each other in a while." I finally said when we both picked one up and bit into it. "You weren't getting a choice, this time." I smiled.

She rolled her eyes, but still managed a grin as she continued to chew it.

"It is!" Ryan suddenly yelled, throwing the paper back whilst Jake let out a laugh. "Mate, I'm telling you, that answer is wrong. Take my word for it."

"Well, that makes no sense." He scoffs, scratching his forehead softly with his pen before starting to scribble something out. "Look, if you take this, multiply out of the brackets, and simplify it. You'll find that 3x+5 actually is the right answer."

Alli shook her head and laughed as she pulled her phone out to reply to a message.

"No, look." Ryan sighed, taking the pen out of his hand when he started to draw arrows on the page. "You've multiplied out of the brackets, okay? But you're simplifying it wrong. That's a minus, not a plus because of that over there." He pointed at a certain part of the equation on the sheet.

"What are you stuck on?" I interrupted, suddenly curious.

Jake pushed the sheet over to me and groaned, shoving his head in his hands, looking really frustrated.

My eyes scanned the page, looking over the equation as I tried to mentally solve it, and as far as I could see, Ryan was right. "He's right, Jake. Your answer's wrong." Ryan slowly lifted his head up, his eyes meeting mine as he smiled.

He sighed again, pushing his fingers through his hair before sitting up. "Fuck this, fuck math." He said, annoyed. "Fuck everything, I'll drop out of school and live life on the edge. It's supposed to be more exciting that way."

That got a laugh out of everyone, even Josh who has been mostly quiet this whole time.

"you're guaranteed a terrible career if you live life on the edge." Somebody softly laughed behind me. Jake lifted his head up and rolled his eyes in an amused manner when they leaned over me and placed their hands over my own. "Bella Smith." Cody softly nodded as he placed his lips against my forehead.

"I don't get it." Jake sighed, pulling the sheet back towards him. "I think it's algebra, I just don't understand."

Cody chuckled before giving my hand a light squeeze and walking around the table to where Jake was sat. He shuffled in between him and Ryan and pulled the paper towards him. "Look, where's the pen?" He said, taking it out of Ryan's hand. "I'll show you."

He spent a while explaining the question, and the answer and it only took a couple of minutes before Jakes face lit up. "Oh, I get it now!" He said, taking the pen back out of his hand to re-write the answer. "Thank you."

Cody nodded when he stood up and looked towards me, resulting in both of us instantly smiling. "How do you explain things so simply?" Josh curiously asked, looking at Jakes sheet.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I help Bella sometimes," He said, still looking towards me. "I suppose I'm just used to it."

Ryan shook his head, his eyes meeting the table when I smiled again. "Bella." Cody said my name again. He nodded to the door that leads outside. "Can I speak to you for a moment?"