Twins with A Bad Boy

Chapter 4: Running Into a Stranger

A/N: okay i just want to say this now so you guys don't bash me or anything. i am i'm no way trying or intending to rip off any other persons work, so please take in to consideration i made Cody from Australia because i love the accents and because it just sounds nice for the story. i am not trying to do the opposite of After with Harry Styles or anything. With that, I imagine Cody's voice to sound almost like Chris Hemsworth, A.K.A Thor of The Avengers, just imagine it really deep. I'm going to use common australian words in this story, and if some things are wrong, please feel free to correct me in the comments. Anywho,, here's the chapter <3

"Aspyn."

   The second my name leaves his mouth, my emotions start running wild. Every memory of almost three years ago come rushing back so quickly, I start to feel light headed and dare I say, a bit nauseous. He is here. But he's changed. The boy I remembered before he left is no longer there, but in his place a grown man. I quickly and not so discreetly, scan my eyes up and down his figure, noticing how despite how much time had passed, and how different he at looked eighteen compared to sixteen. Back then, Cody was shy. Funny, I know, considering Dakota and Ethan were his best friends and the differences in them were like black and white. Cody was into robotics and cars, Ethan and Dakota liked sports. That never seemed to bother him though, seeing as how he wasn't a very social person. Being neighbors just saved him the trouble of awkward introductions.

  All the years we had been friends, Cody was quiet and scrawny. He never seeped of over-confidence the way his best friends did, and he was never really the center of attention and that didn't bother him. He was of course good looking, something he definitely inherited. But he wasn't someone everyone turned their heads at when he entered the room, and that's the way he liked it. Today though, he was different. The once shy, scrawny boy I knew, is standing in front of me replaced by a confident man, adorning ripped muscles, messy black hair, dark stubble on his chin, what seems to be several inches in height gained since our last encounter. Every memory that I spent years shoving to the back of my mind start playing through my head like an in-home movie theater.

*three years ago*

It had been a regular day of torment from Dakota. We were fifteen, and as typical as it was for him to do, he took his anger out on me. He was mad because my mother had to take me to a new therapist today, instead of picking him up from football practice. Which I begged her not to, because I knew he would react this way.

"Why does everything have to be about you all the damn time?", he yells at me, right in the kitchen in front of our mother, Cody, and Ethan. Who all happened to be in there, as it was a Friday after school, and it was a usual routine for them to come over and use our basement as their 'hang out spot', their words not mine. On a normal day, my best friend Lydia would be by my side, but today she was preoccupied with family plans.

After the words left his mouth, I tried to ignore the wrenching in my stomach and the tears brimming at my eyes. Today was already too much with the harassment from McKayla at school, and now I am embarrassed in front of our childhood friends and our mom. I focused so much on holding back my tears, I didn't realize my feet were moving towards the back door, the one that led to the back patio. I ignore my mother yelling at Dakota about being disrespectful and something from Ethan that faintly sounded like, 'why did you have to make it awkward again?', and quietly slide the door shut behind me. My shoes start to squeak the moment they touch the fresh water on the grass from the sprinklers. I make my way towards the treehouse, my safe haven, and crawl up the planks that my dad spent a total of 3 hours hammering into the side of the tree.

   As I climb up the ladder and enter through the bottom, I faintly hear what sounds like a door sliding open and then closing. I ignore it, it's probably my mom coming to apologize on Dakota's behalf again. I sit down on the blue bean bag, which is sat next to a green one, staring out one of the two windows. I am staring at the one that faces away from our house, and I am so lost in thought, I don't hear someone coming up the ladder. Before I realize I'm not alone, I feel a warm hand grabbing my shoulder.