I peeked out the door, watching Emma and Kitty sitting on the deck of the cabin, playing Uno.

"Ya spying on that girl again?"

I jumped back in shock, hitting the wooden floor of the cabin.

"Cody! Don't ever do that again!" I yelled in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry!" Cody exclaimed in guilt as he grabbed my hands to let me back up. "You never answered my question," he said.

My face turned red. "Right- I wasn't spying on them,"

Cody cocked his head and I knew what was coming.

"Then what were you doing?" He put his hands on his hips.

I groaned. "I was-"

"Admit it! You like her. You can't hide it for much longer," he spat, putting a finger to my chest.

I walked over and sat on my bed.

"So I think she's cool.... and pretty. Just be quit about it."

He sat down next to me.

"Thought you went the other way for a bit," He laughed. "You've never talked to me about girls,"

I fake-laughed. "Okay.."

There was an awkward silence.

"I'm not," I said, not knowing what else to say.

Cody bent over and laughed. He sat back up.

"So.... when are you gonna tell her?"

I looked at him blankly. "Neverary 15th,"

"That's when you said your birthday was."

I flopped backward on the bed. "I don't know. I've never dealt with crap like this before."

"I could help you out," Cody suggested.

I sat back up and stared at him. "What do you know about girls? You chased after one for eight years and I don't see you guys together,"

"Well yeah, I gained lots of experience and besides, she is sort of out of my league,"

I rolled my eyes in mockery. "I'm gonna go find something to do," I said as I got up and walked out of the cabin.

"Wait!" Cody chased after me. "Let's both find something to do, I'm pretty bored too,"

We both got our shoes on and walked out and onto the deck.

"Maybe we could go to the pool, I already have my swim trunks on-" We both paused.

Emma and Kitty were still there, which I forgot about until now.

I looked over at Emma as we walked.

She looked over to me and I turned back to Cody in embarrassment.

"Hey, Noah!" I turned at the sound of Kitty's voice.

I looked over at them in embarrassment. "Yeah?"

"We were gonna go over to the cafeteria in a bit, wanna come with?"

"Kitty!" Emma exclaimed angrily.

"Oh uh, we were actually gonna-"

"He'd love to!" Cody said, elbowing me. "You're welcome," He muttered through gritted teeth, keeping a smile.

"Awesome!" Kitty said. "C'mon Emma, let's go get ready!"

We watched Emma and Kitty walk inside the girl's side of the cabin as Cody and I descended the stairs. We sat down and I leaned my elbows on my knees.

"Are you okay?" Cody asked.

I looked at him in slight confusion. "Yeah, why?"

"I dunno," He sat there, kicking at the dirt.

There was a long pause.

"You know, Zoey, Mike, and Cameron aren't trying to hurt me or anything,"

I turned to him in shock. "What, h-how-"

"They told me," he said, not keeping eye contact with me.

"Oh my gosh-" I groaned. I voice lowered into a whisper. "They're trying to take you away and leave me in the dust..." I muttered.

"I can have other friends, you know!" Cody stood up.

"Oh, but I can't? I followed, raising my voice and taking a step toward him.

"I never said that," He looked at me angrily.

"I mean I literally can't. Friends are set in stone by high school. You're all I have!"

I tried to reason with him. Surely he'll see how he's acting-

"Well, I've still made friends,"

"That's because you're nice to everyone!"

"Well, maybe if you weren't rude and pessimistic all the time-"

"I'm not!" I exclaimed. "Maybe I'm just realistic."

"That isn't an excuse to never care,"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I asked, taking yet another step closer.

The areas around his eyes looked redm as if he was about to cry.

"You only care about yourself. Your grades, your friends, your siblings, I would die for siblings, you know that? Your crush on Emma-" My face was flushed red in embarrassment. "The entire school doesn't need to know that! Maybe if you just stopped talking for 5 seconds-"

"Oh my gosh-" he groaned.

"I'm done with this, I'm leaving," We both said in unison.

That surprised me for a moment. I went to walk away but Cody gently pushed me backward.

"Don't bother, Emma and Kitty wanted you to hang out with them, after all," He began walking away. "I'm going to go find Mike,"

I sprinted to the door, shoving it open full force and slamming it closed before flopping down on my bed.

Screw him. Who needs that naive little idiot anyway.

I turned onto my side.

Get it together, Noah.

"Noah?" I heard a girl's voice outside the door.

"Kitty! Uh-" I leaped up and walked over to the door. I opened it slowly as an apology for my prior aggression.

Emma was right behind her.

"We heard the door slam, is everything okay?" Emma asked which made me blush.

"I-it's fine. The wind made it shut really fast,"

"But it's not windy-"

"Just forget it," I said, taking back my previous reasoning.

"Where's Cody?" Kitty asked. "Is he still com-"

"No," I slipped past them to make my way into the woods.

He has better people to be friends with.

"He has better things to do."