Page 3 of Thaw My Heart
As if she’s read my mind, Maya murmurs gently, “Thank you, D. I love you.”
I hum in response, a wordless way of saying “I love you too.”
“I really think this will be good,” Maya assures me as she pulls back and looks at me. “For all of us. You’ve been locked up in here for so long, and I know Cody has been so lonely. The three of us will get along great. It’ll be just like old times.”
“Oh, good,” I retort sarcastically. “Your stoner older brother will drive us around and blare his embarrassing hippie music.” I think maybe that’s the “old times” she’s referring to. But who knows? There are many more than just that; at one point, we really were good friends. Maya’s been my best friend since we were kids. Cody was the annoying older brother I never asked for.
Maya waves me off. “He left his hippie phase months ago. He doesn’t even smoke anymore. I promise, Darcy, he’s really matured since he’s been gone.”
I seriously doubt it. Cody Banks is a lot of things, but ‘mature’ isn’t one of them. He’s a burnout at best and downright careless at worst. And I’m not just saying that. I actually really used to like Cody once upon a time. Since he’s so close in age with Maya—a year and six months—we got to a point in our upbringing, sometime in middle school, when we became friends. For a long time, we were a trio. The three of us were inseparable.
But then high school came around.
Cody got handsome and popular, got into things he definitely shouldn’t have, and had no interest in hanging out with his dorky little sister and her even dorkier friend. He didn’t even say “hi” in the hallways. It was like an entire lifetime together never happened. He became a ghost to me.
I don’t think I’ll ever forgive him for abandoning us, even if Maya has. I remember how embarrassed I felt telling the other girls I had a friend who was a sophomore, only for him to ignore my existence completely.
A memory floods my mind without warning.
I smoothed down my skirt for the hundredth time, taking a deep breath as I approached Cody's locker. My heart raced, palms sweaty, but I was determined. It had only been a few days since our kiss during Spin the Bottle, and I couldn't get it out of my mind. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw his face, felt his lips on mine.
"Hey, Cody," I said, trying to sound casual as he shut his locker door.
He glanced at me, his ocean-blue eyes unreadable. "Oh. Hey, Darcy."
An awkward silence fell between us. This was new - we used to be able to talk about anything. I swallowed, hard.
"So, um," I started, fidgeting with the strap of my backpack. "I was wondering if maybe you wanted to hang out this weekend? Just us?"
Cody's eyes widened slightly, and for a moment, I thought I saw a flicker of something - fear? Excitement? But then his face hardened, and he looked away.
"Sorry, can't," he said flatly. "I've got plans."
"Oh," I said, trying to hide my disappointment. "Maybe another time?"
He shrugged, still not meeting my eyes. "Yeah, maybe."
I watched as he walked away, joining a group of older kids at the end of the hallway. They laughed at something he said, and I felt a pang in my chest. When had Cody started hanging out with them?
Days turned into weeks, and Cody's excuses piled up. Every time I tried to talk to him, he'd brush me off or pretend he didn't hear me.
It wasn't until I overheard him talking to one of his new friends that I understood.
"Nah, man," Cody was saying, leaning against the wall outside the gym. "Darcy? She's just my kid sister's dorky friend. I don't hang out with her anymore."
The words hit me like a punch to the gut. Dorky? Is that all I was to him?
Anger bubbled up inside me, replacing the hurt. Fine. If that's how he wanted it, two could play at that game. I stormed past him, making sure to bump his shoulder hard.
"Watch it, loser," I spat, not even looking back to see his reaction.
From that day on, Cody Banks was my enemy. No longer my friend, no longer the boy I'd had a crush on.
Even now, years later, the memory of that rejection still stings. Our rivalry is childish and immature, I know. Over timeI'd tried to extend an olive branch, but every time he rejected it. Maybe that's why I still feel so guarded around Cody, even after all these years.
Maya interrupts my thoughts of the past. "He asks about you, y'know..." she adds quietly, with a strange expression on her face. She looks at me. "He was sorry to hear about the wedding getting called off."
I can picture his eyes, the most perfect shade of teal, and the little crease he gets between them when he worries. For a moment, I want to imagine that he could ever look at me with that kind of emotion again, but I know better. He doesn't know me enough to care, and I don't know him enough to wonder why anymore.
