~*Complicated*~

This can’t be happening.

This has to be a very bad dream.

There’s no way this could be happening to me.

But it was, sadly.

The proof was on the computer screen. Zack was the one who showed me the e-mail that she had sent. I had to read it three times to actually believe what had been written.

She was coming here.

To the S.S. Tipton.

To visit because she was going to take a cruise to France and this was the cheapest one she could pay for. That and her father knew that anything with the word Tipton on it was bound to be safe so he was letting her go alone. After a year away from her, Crystal Manning was walking back into my life, and I felt guilty. We hadn’t necessarily broken up when I told her that I was leaving to take classes on the S.S. Tipton. Then I went and fell for Bailey.

Am I cheating?

Could you call this cheating?

“Cody, snap out of it.” Zack rapidly snapped his fingers in my face to bring me out of my thoughts. I looked up at him as he grinned in a teasing way. “Wow, you’re old girlfriend meeting your new flame? Your life is so much more interesting than mine.”

“Shut up Zack,” I snapped. “This isn’t funny.” I let out a breath and rested my face in my hands and slowly shook my head. This couldn’t be happening to me. There was no way I could get out of this one. “What can I do?”

“Tell Crystal the truth? You met someone else. It’s been a year. Get over her,” Zack replied, moving to my bulletin board where he took some pictures of his brother down and replaced them with his own.

“I can’t,” I muttered, shaking my head.

“Why not? She deserves to know that you’ve moved on.”

“Because I haven’t.” I turned around in my swivel chair to see him sitting on my bed, reading a magazine. He looked at me over the top of it with raised eyebrows. “I haven’t gotten over her; I’ve never been able to. I’ve missed her so much, I just...I just tried to cover it up so I wouldn’t hurt as much.”

“Wait, let me see if I can understand this,” Zack said as he closed the magazine with a loud snap. “You really liked Crystal, and I mean really liked her.” I nodded. “You two dated for a while.” I nodded again. “Then when we decided to take classes on this ship you never really broke up with her.” Again, I nodded. “And then you ended up falling for Bailey.” I sighed. “Now, Crystal’s coming to visit and you like them both and you don’t know how you’re going to explain this whole thing.”

“Exactly,” I said with another nod.

“Sucks to be you.”

“You’re a great help.” I rolled my eyes and spun around in my chair, trying to think of a solution to my problem. There was nothing else I could do; I’d have to tell her the truth.

“When does she get here?” Zack asked suddenly. I turned to look at him to see the little gears in his head turning. Either he had an idea that would help him or make the situation much, much worse.

“Umm…two days,” I responded, looking at the letter again.

“I have an idea, but it’s either going to help you or put you in an even tighter situation, if you want to chance it,” Zack said slowly.

“I don’t,” I replied as I stood up from the chair, stumbling slightly from the dizziness that suddenly washed over me. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to take any chances. I’m just going to do this my way.”

I rushed out of the bedroom before Zack could try and tell me what his plan was anyway. I rushed all the way up to the deck and almost threw myself over the railing but I stopped and took in a deep breath of the sea air. It always calmed him down and forced himself to clear his mind to think, which was what he really needed to do.

“Cody? Are you ok?”

Cody didn’t have to turn around to know who it was that addressed him. He had an instant reaction to her speaking to him: his heart started beating hard against his ribcage, his palms instantly flooded with sweat and everything was erased from his mind.

“Hi Bailey!” He forced a smile as he turned around and took in her beauty. She made him breathless, as usual. “How are you doing today? Isn’t it such a bright, beautiful day? Now clouds in the sky. It’s just perfect. This is funny, because nothing can be 100 percent perfect yet it seems like the weather can be when you need it to be.” He knew that he was rambling about nothing, but he always did that when he was nervous. He just couldn’t get his mouth to stop running a mile a minute, no matter how hard he tried.

“Yeah, I guess the weather is beautiful,” Bailey said with a little laugh. “I came over to ask if you’re ok. You seemed kind of sick when you burst out here like that.”

‘She’s so sweet.’ Cody sighed as he stared at her dreamily. He quickly checked his demeanor and smiled a little. “Uh, no I’m fine. I just have a lot on my mind.” He thought a few things over quickly before sighing. “It’s just...I have a very special friend that’s coming on board in two days.”

“Oh really?” Bailey lifted her eyebrows.

“Yeah. And there’s something I have to tell her and–”

“Ohhh, so she’s a special girl friend,” Bailey said with a big smile.

‘Oh no. If Bailey thinks that she’s my girlfriend, I might not have a chance with her!’ “Well, she is special and she is a girl, but she’s not my girlfriend. We broke up before I came here.” ‘Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why’d you have to go and lie?’ “Like I said, I have to tell her something important but I don’t know how to break it to her exactly.”

“Cody, did you forget where we are?” She asked with a little laugh. “We’re on the S.S. Tipton. We have two dining rooms on this boat, one that’s joined with a ballroom. Take her there, that way she can have a nice dinner and feel special before you have to tell her whatever it is that you have to tell her. By doing that, she’d feel that you actually cared about her. Simple.”

“Wow, that actually might work. How’d you come up with that?”

“Well, I am a girl, Cody,” she said with a small giggle.

I loved her laugh. “Thank you so much!” Before I knew it I had pulled her closer to me in a hug. I quickly pushed her away and ran a hand through my hair and I looked at the ground so she wouldn’t see me blush. “Um, I’m going to go make reservations now. So, uh, see ya.” I ran away from her. I ran all the way down to the dining room/ballroom. Right as I got to the double doors I stopped and panted heavily, my hands on my knees. ‘This better be worth it.’ I stepped through the doors and looked around the large space before going up to the man that was standing behind the host stand. “Excuse me sir, I need to make a reservation for two, 7:00, Friday night.”

The man peered at me over his thin frame glasses with a raised eyebrow. He clasped his hands together and leaned against the stand. “Are you sure you have enough money to eat here? This is a fine-dining place on the S.S. Tipton.”

“Yes I’m sure,” I responded, fighting back the urge to roll my eyes. “I want a reservation, please.”

“Let me seeee.” I waited with draining patience as the man flipped through a book, scanning the pages. I tapped my fingers on the stand as I clenched my teeth. ‘Come on! I have some stuff I need to do. Come on. Come on, there has to be something. Please.’ “You’re in luck; we have room for you and your little friend.”

“Thank you so much!” I sighed with relief and rushed back to find Zack to tell him about what had happened. Zack thought that I was taking the cowardly way out, but he would think that. He wouldn’t be Zack if he didn’t think that. I just told myself that I was being thoughtful and that this was the right thing to do.

We both deserved this.

The next day went by in a blur. It was such a good thing that I liked to study ahead of time so I easily passed the surprise test that Ms. Tutweiller gave us. I even managed to stay out of Mr. Moseby’s way and I got a raise from my job. Things were really starting to look up for me, especially because Bailey said that she wanted to check out the movie festival that was going on the day we docked in Paris.

I woke up on the day Crystal was to arrive. She was going to get on the boat when we stopped by Boston. I’d show her around the ship and by the time the tour was over we’d have dinner, I’d break the news to her, and then we’d go our separate ways in Paris. I made sure that nothing went wrong in my plan and so far I couldn’t find any problems.

“What’s going on in here?” I asked as soon as I opened the door to the room I shared with Woody. It was actually clean. I mean clean clean, my expectations of clean. Despite that, it was filled with cameras and computers and that only meant one thing.

“We’re setting up for today’s Yay Me show,” Woody explained as he made sure the camera was set up.

“Oh, ok,” I sighed. As long as it wasn’t tonight. “When is the show? London never told me.”

“Oh, it’s at 8,” he responded.

“Tomorrow? Great.” A smile started to form on my lips.

“No, tonight. I told you that.”

Cue the sound of a car screeching to a halt.

“Tonight? No! It can’t be tonight!” I gasped, staring hard at him. “It can’t. I have a date tonight!”

“With Bailey,” Woody said with a nod. “I know.”

“No, I’m not going on a date with Bailey,” I said as I shook my head.

“Really? She told me that you guys were going to that French Film Festival thing.”

Cue and even bigger car screeching sound. I rushed over to my planner to check my schedule. I dragged my finger across the day before it rested on tomorrow’s date. I had scheduled in my meeting with Crystal and I guess I hadn’t noticed it when I put in an episode of Yay Me and my meeting with Bailey.

As if life weren’t complicated much and now I had to be in three places at once!

“Oh no! No! No! No! No!” I groaned as I hit my forehead with the schedule.

“Don’t do that, Coholy, that would hurt,” Woody said as he stared at me. I glared at him over the top of the schedule.

“I can do this. I can do this,” I muttered to myself as I jumped up and stared pacing. “I’ll just…meet Crystal, get Zack to give her the tour, convince London to film Yay Me! Early, eat dinner, deliver the news as quickly as possible, and meet Bailey to see the film festival.” I convinced myself that it was the best plan. “Ok, get out,” he said as he shoved Woody out of the room. “I need to change, get out!” I slammed the door shut and quickly moved to the closet.

I screamed when an avalanche of Woody’s clothes fell on top of me. “Ahh! Get it off! Get it off!” I threw the clothes off of me and rushed over to my desk where hand sanitizer was. I furiously rubbed it into my hands and arms. I went back over to the closet and tried to find something suitable. I finally decided on a light gray button down shirt and dark wash jeans, semi-casual. I was so nervous that I had a hard time getting my legs through the pants right and fell over multiple times. I finally got them on and was threading a belt through the loops when I noticed the red light was on on the camera. “Woody,” I growled through clenched teeth before quickly turning it off. “Great. Now that I’ve been humiliated through the internet…”

I left my room and knocked on the door of Zack’s room. He pulled it open and looked me up and down. “You’re wearing that?” he asked.

“I have no time to criticize your for criticizing me. I have a huge problem. I all ready said that I’d meet Crystal and give her a tour of the ship and have dinner with her. Then Woody tells me that I have to make a Yay Me! show tonight and then he reminds me that I have to meet with Bailey tonight. I have ’tthinkicandoitandineeyourhelp!” I took a deep breath and stared at him as he chuckled.

“Wow,” he laughed. “I’d hate to be in your shoes.”

“Zack, please, I’m begging you. I’ll do your homework!”

“You all ready do my homework,” he pointed out. “But I’ll help.”

“Really?’ I paused. “What’s the catch?”

“I just want to help you, bro,” Zack responded a she patted me on the shoulder.

“Great. I need you to give Crystal a tour after I talk to her for a bit, ok?”

“Ok, but what am I going to say to her. I mean, we’re friends and all, but I’ve always managed to say the wrong thing around her to make her offended.”

“Just…think of something, or stay quiet and let her talk. Whatever.” I sighed and ran a hand though my hair, calming down a little bit. I looked at my watch and almost had a heart attack. “Oh man, I gotta go or she’s going to think I stood her up. If she thinks that she’ll be mad at me and–”

“Cody,” Zack interrupted me.

“What?”

“You’re going to be late if you don’t shut up.”

“Right. Go upstairs to the deck in…twenty minutes, ok?”

I didn’t wait for his answer as I rushed out of the room and up the stairs again. I was trying to imagine what I could say to her the entire time that I tripped over the stairs and landed hard on my elbow. I gripped it when a strange feeling went through my funny bone. I glanced up when an older woman walked down the stairs. I noticed a bright yellow flower was on her lapel. “Flower,” I muttered to myself. I continued up the stairs and stopped at the shop deck. I found the flower shop and quickly bought a blue rose, making sure that there were no thorns. “Ok, Cody, you’ll be fine. You can do this,” I muttered to myself as I finally made it to the top deck. “You…can’t do this.”

“Hello Cody,” Crystal said in an icy tone once her eyes locked on me. She was standing with Bailey and they both had their arms crossed over their chests. I looked back and forth between the two and couldn’t help but think that Crystal looked very pretty in her ocean-blue dress, black leggings, and black shoes.

“Crystal, hi,” I forced a smile despite the hostility that was pressing down on my chest and causing me to slowly panic. “Umm…what’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong is that you lied to us,” Bailey replied. “You said that you broke up with her.”

“Why would you say that?” Crystal was talking softly, which for her meant that she was very angry, and that made me scared.

“Well…um…you see,” I stuttered. “Um…well…Bailey…”

“Bailey isn’t going to the Film Festival with a liar,” she told me as she glared. It felt like she had stabbed a knife in me. “Would you like to come with me?”

“I would Bailey,” Crystal replied with a nod. “Have fun having dinner by yourself too.”

The two girls hooked arms and brushed by me. Bailey managed to hit me hard on the shoulder with hers as she passed.

“Wow…losing two girls in one night,” Zack commented, making me jump. “Must be a record.”

“Shut up Zack,” I sighed as I moved over to the railing. I looked at the rose for a bit before dropping it. We watched as it gently hit the surface of the water before sinking when a small wave overtook it. “There’s no way this could get any worse.”

“Oh yes there is.”

“How?”

“Your butt is plastered all over the internet because of that Yay Me! thing you posted.”

I groaned.

So what did you think of the CrystalxCodyxBailey love triangle. I wanted one of them to lose then I decided to make Cody lose as everything got even more complicated for him. I had a lot of fun writing this theme. I hope you guys liked reading it.

Next theme: Making History