friends //cody bellinger

forty one

 Nine years. Nine years is how long Chase will spend in prison for his countless cases of sexual assault and battery against a minor, as well as child pornography and a $13,000 fine.

It's been three weeks since Victoria got sixteen months for child pornography and for being an accomplice, and now Chase will finally receive his punishment.

In some ways, I feel relieved, but I know that the weight won't be lifted entirely off of my chest until Cody's standing right next to me and holding me in his warm and tight embrace. I've gone a month without it at this point in the trial, and I miss it miserably.

Cody's lawyers have one last piece of evidence to present before the jury makes their decision on whether or not he will be sentenced. Neither Cole or I have any clue what it is, but Chris has some idea. He won't tell us though, instead saying that we should wait until it is shown.

It's frustrates me that he won't tell me. We agreed to keep each other in the loop and the fact that he's hiding something as small as knowing what the lawyers are going to show the court is infuriating.

Cody's called up to the stand, and I'm to put my annoyance towards Chris to the back of my mind because this needs to be my sole focus right now.

Instead of the dashing button up and slacks he'd sported when he had first taken the stand, Cody wore a slouchy black jumpsuit, just as Chase and Victoria had.

It took one look at him before tears started to well in my eyes. Cole knows exactly what I'm getting emotional about, and he snakes his arm around me, comforting me in a time where not much can make me feel better.

I've seen how beaten up and exhausted the trial has made him more than once at this point, but it's different now. This is the sixth week of this whole process, and it's taken its toll on all of us, but Cody especially.

Deep down, I know that he's still hopeful and always faithful, but he looks so defeated. He wants this to be over with, I can tell, and I wish that there was something I could do to help him through this, but there's not.

Even though my name is in the statements and I was one of those tried, there's still nothing I can do, and it sucks. I'd do anything to take his place, to grasp the fear out of his eyes and replace it once again with joy.

But all I can do is sit back and wait for what the jury decides.

"Your honor," one of Cody's lawyers stands, "the last piece of evidence we would like to show before the jury deliberates, is a video that was created by Mr. Bellinger and Miss Chatswell's best friend, Christopher Taylor."

The judge looks unfazed because all evidence has to be approved by him first, but this announcement is a shock to Cody and the rest of us, all but Chris who was looking at me with a sly smile.

The lawyer puts the disk in and takes a step back. I lean forward, desperate to see what this video was.

Music started before anything else did, the lyrics to They Don't Know About Us by One Direction started playing and right away videos and pictures of Cody and I filled the screen.

There were several. Pictures of us hugging, kissing, cuddling, play fighting, Cody helping me with my online classes, and even one of in his arms from the day we surprised him at game 7 of the World Series.

There were videos too. All of us doing the same thing as the pictures, but there was also the video of Cody proposing and one of us getting into a food fight right when we had moved into the new house.

My favorite though was a video Chris had sneaked in of Cody doing one of the Fortnite dances because it zooms into me pulling off the most significant eye rolls of the century. Cody, Chris, and Cole kill me with those dances and not in a funny way.

The last sixty or so seconds came about, and that's when my emotions started coming out even more. I was already tearing up due to how beautiful I thought the video was, but this section of the montage was different.

News headlines and pictures from when Cody had first been arrested popped up onto the screen. A video that was taken right before Cody being brought back to the prison showed me crying into his chest and him comforting me, kissing my forehead with his own tear-stained face. Pictures of us hugging in the courtroom were next.

The ending is what got me though.

Chris had taken audio from when the crew had barged into Cody and I's room.

"Baby, you've really got to listen to me right now when I tell you that there's no need to be scared. You are single-handedly the strongest girl I know, and I know that you know it too. I love you Emberly, more than you can ever imagine."

He'd said that to me once I was done shaving his beard.

I look up at him, wondering when the last time he shaved was. From the looks of it, it's been a while.

The last sentence spoken was another quote from Cody. This one was taken from the interview we'd done and holy moly, the volumes it spoke left everyone in the room finally having an understanding about what Cody and I are dealing with. The sentence is short, but its message is strong.

"The thing that's been hardest with this whole situation is knowing I can't be there with Emberly. When she's away from me, I feel like I can't breathe. She's the good in my life, and I'm the good in hers."