"So you didn't want to go to Disneyland, then?" Sky asked when they stepped in through the doorway of Cody's home.

He glanced at Sky, shrugging off his leather jacket and kicking off his Cowboy boots.

"Damn, these shoes are killing me—" he muttered, and then with a dry laugh: "It wasn't that I didn't want to go. Halloween at Disneyland with David and Leigh? It would have been awesome."

His words made Sky frown. "What - your parents didn't ask you to go? They just left you?"

"Like I said. Their family, not mine." The bitterness in Cody's voice was evident, he didn't even try to hide it and suddenly Sky felt really bad for him. She couldn't even imagine what it would feel like to live with people who treated you like that. She had always known Dad loved her more than anything - and yes, she took that love for granted, but didn't all children? Parents were supposed to love their kids and take care of them, no matter what. And Cody clearly didn't have that—

To think of it, Sky had no idea what his birth parents had been like - but they had to be even worse than this family since he was a foster child.

That thought felt heavy and sticky, like tar. She wanted to ask him about that, about his family, his birth parents, his early years - but realized they just didn't know each other well enough for that kind of a conversation. Besides - maybe Cody didn't want her to know those things about him - it wasn't like Sky wanted him to know about her past either.

"Wow," She said, for lack of better words. "Your folks suck."

Cody let out a dry laugh, and started walking toward the kitchen, signaling her to follow him. Sky stuffed her hands into the pockets of her Ravenclaw robe and felt the phone in the other, the coin purse with pills in the other. After her argument with Sam, she had felt so shaken she had considered taking another pill, but there hadn't been an opportunity - she suspected Cody would protest since he had already given her something - and now, well, they were here, and Sky was hoping that soon there would be something else that would take her mind off things she didn't want to think about.

"Well, Yeah." Cody said. They had reached the stylish, steel and marble kitchen, and he went straight to the fridge, yanked open the stainless chrome door. "My so-called parents truly suck. David and Leigh though, they are awesome."

"I bet they would have loved to have you in Disneyland with them." Sky replied, taking a seat at the table.

"Damn right, they would have loved that." Cody noted, observing the contents of the fridge. "They fucking adore me - God knows why. You want cheese?"

Sky couldn't help laughing. She leaned her elbows on the table, her chin on her hands. "Cheese? You're trying to seduce me with cheese?"

"And Champagne." He flashed her a wicked grin and picked up an expensive-looking bottle. "We might as well make the most of the fact that my folks are away."

His smile took her breath away. It was wild and wicked, like he really enjoyed this little mischief they were about to commit.

"Won't your parents freak out?"

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a Damn." Cody laughed and opened the bottle, making a fountain of champagne squirt all over the table because he had forgotten to take glasses for it in advance.

"Shit—!" he kept laughing, trying to salvage the mess, quickly finding a couple of thin champagne flutes and filling them with the golden, bubbling wine.

"Were you just quoting Gone With the Wind to me?" Sky asked, accepting the glass he brought her and taking a sip. She wasn't a huge fan of Champagne, but whatever, if Cody wanted to open this ridiculously expensive bottle for them, she wasn't going to object.

"So what? It's still a better love story than Twilight." Cody replied as he wiped the spilled Champagne off the marble counter.

Sky faked an offended face. "Hey, don't mock Twilight! It has its moments."

"Fair enough - haven't read it, cannot judge it," Cody agreed. "So, tell me. If not Rhett and Scarlett, then what would be your favorite fictional romance? Not Bella and Edward, though, I hope?"

"I was always team Jacob," Sky sighed. "Stupid Bella. But no, not that—- give me a moment! There are so many that I love."

Cody had set his Champagne flute on the counter, took a platter from a cupboard, and started placing blocks of cheese, some grapes, and strawberries on it. Sky was only half thinking about his question about fictional romances - partly because romances had lately been the last thing she wanted to think about, partly because it was just so fascinating to look at Cody. He had rolled up the sleeves of his long-sleeved, black T-shirt, revealing his toned forearms, and the play of muscle and tendon in his arms and his long-fingered hands was beautiful to look at.

"Amuse me." He said, quickly glancing at Sky over his shoulder as he searched the cupboards for some crackers. Sky realized she'd been staring. A blush crept to her cheeks, as she remembered how those hands felt on her skin, those fingers inside of her.

She cleared her throat, turned her eyes away.

"Fine. If I had to choose, it would be Kitty and Levin."

"Kitty and Levin?" He laughed again, sounding happy, carefree. It was clear that this was a topic he enjoyed talking about, and Sky realized that she absolutely loved it. Yes - she wanted to have sex, and yes - she was kinda wondering why they weren't doing it already, but—

But she loved talking about books, and suddenly it hit her how much she had missed it. Since Kat—

Well, since Kat had died, she had barely read a book, partly because there hadn't been anyone she could talk to about them.

"Yes, Kitty and Levin. They are adorable as fuck." Sky grinned. "That proposal scene is amazing."

"Okay, yes, I see your point, but what about Anna and Vronsky? Because you seem more like Anna than Kitty to me."

"Is that supposed to be a compliment? Anna was selfish, and mean, and suicidal—" Sky stopped talking mid-sentence, as that description suddenly hit a bit too close to home. Suddenly she felt cold, hollow - she reached for her glass to take a long gulp of champagne, which sure wasn't meant to be drunk that way.

Cody hadn't noticed her sudden change of moods, as he was still organizing the cheese on the platter, his back turned to Sky.

"No, Anna was brave and passionate and she died for love!" He went on. "I mean, I appreciate your opinion, but why would you like Kitty more than Anna? Kitty was pretty dumb—"

"Because she got the boy she loved," Sky said silently, staring at her champagne. "And she made it through the book alive."

The tone of her voice made Cody turn around. His smile had disappeared.

"Shit—" he said, still holding a block of Brie in his fingers. "Fuck. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—"

"It's fine," Sky replied, even if it wasn't. She drank some more of her wine, but it was as bitter as her thoughts. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I am Anna. Maybe there is no happy ending for me."

Cody placed the cheese on the platter, glanced down at his feet, the black socks against the hard, white marble.

"That is not what I meant." He said as he looked up and their eyes met. "I'm an idiot. It's just a stupid book, and you can be anyone you want to. Be Kitty, live happily ever after."

Sky didn't reply. She thought about Anna, throwing herself underneath an oncoming train, the finality of it, that violent end of her unhappy life. How accurate that Cody would think of me as Anna, how depressing. He knows nothing about me, and yet he senses this truth, that there is no hope, no happy ending, the only thing waiting for me is death.

She shook her head, shook off that thought, the piercing pain it caused. It hardly mattered what Cody thought of her, did it? And she wasn't dead yet, she was clinging onto this life with claws and teeth, with drugs and alcohol, with the pleasure of Cody's body pressing against her in that dark room where the beat of the music became the beat of her heart. There were still things she could hang onto, before the end, before she would truly become Anna and let her light flicker out of this world.

"Sky, I'm sorry—" Cody said silently. "I was just talking about a book, it didn't mean anything."

"But books always mean something, don't they?" Sky asked, and emptied her glass. "That's why we love them."

"True," slowly Cody walked closer, refilled her glass. Dom Pérignon, the bottle said. His hand was firm when he poured the liquid into the flute, the rings in his long, slender fingers glimmered.

"So, is Anna Karenina your favorite book? You seem to know your Tolstoi well." Sky asked, to move on, to push away the lingering sadness.

"One of my favorites, for sure. What can I say? I love Russian classics," Cody said, perhaps sensing that Sky wanted to move on from the topic of Anna and her death. "But there are others. You wanna go upstairs and see my books?"

That made a small smile emerge on Sky's lips. "What - now you're trying to seduce me with your books?"

He flashed her a grin, picked up the bottle of Champagne and the platter of cheese, fruit, and crackers.

"Hey, whatever works," he spoke. "Can you bring the glasses?"

They went to Cody's room, where he placed the platter and the bottle on his desk, then turned to look at Sky, a kind smile in his hazel eyes.

"Have some," he said. "The cheese is great."

Sky picked up a slice of brie, took a bite. It melted on her tongue, like sin in the form of cheese, all creamy and soft and rich. She couldn't help a sigh of pleasure, which made Cody smirk.

"Oh my God, this is so good!" She moaned and took another bite.

"I know, right?" He laughed and selected a slice of parmesan for himself. "I could live on cheese, I swear."

"Seducing girls with cheese and books," Sky smirked. "It's like you read a guide."

"If I did, would I admit it?" Cody shrugged and walked to his bookshelf. "So, you asked which one is my favorite—"

As he bent to pick some volumes from the shelf, Sky glanced around the room. The decor was simple, almost minimalistic. There was a white, fluffy carpet on the dark, hardwood floor. Thin, white curtains covered the large windows that reached from the ceiling to the floor. There were no posters on the walls, no sports equipment or dirty clothes lying on the floor or in the corners, nothing that would have told this was a room of a teenage boy, except the deodorant and the aftershave bottles on his nightstand next to a pile of books. His king-size bed was simple, with white linen sheets like the ones you see in every hotel, but Sky remembered the scent of that bed - his aftershave and the fabric softener, and it made something flutter inside of her chest.

Feeling a bit anxious, Sky turned her eyes back to Cody, who was running his beautiful fingers on the backs of the books, in search of something. She had thought they would have been in that bed by now, Cody's face between her legs, drowning her in waves of pleasure and oblivion—

But instead, they were here, eating cheese and talking about books, as if this was... a date?

And she was enjoying it?

She didn't know what to think about that, and then Cody turned to face her, a couple of books in his hands, a wide, genuine smile on his face.

"A little Life," he said. "I know, not a Russian Classic, but it's absolutely amazing, heartbreaking, and beautiful. And then this - The Name of The Rose—"

"That one I know," Sky said, and with a jolt came the memory of a summer in Rome, the black velvety nights at Fontana di Trevi, Valentino with his soft lips, Anais' dark, dove eyes and Kat, Kat, Kat, laughing as she threw the coin into the fountain the night after she had kissed Anais on the bed of their hotel room and Sky had been banished into the bathroom to read The Name of The Rose, unable to concentrate on it at all.

"You liked it?" Cody's eyes turned excited. "It isn't the easiest read."

"Gets a lot better after the first 150 pages or so," Sky replied, taking another slice of cheese and a couple of strawberries. "I loved the murder mystery in it."

She sat on the edge of his bed, to eat her strawberries, and it was as if he had only now realized where they were, that she was here, sitting on his bed, that there were things he had promised to her, if not with words, then with his lips, his hands, his kisses, and his breathless moans. He looked at her, and his throat bobbed, and Sky held his stare, but—

But he let out a nervous laugh, and looked away, drank some more Champagne, and Sky noticed how his cheeks blushed, the rosy color first appearing on the top of his high cheekbones and then spreading from there all the way to his ears that were a bit too big and protruding for his delicate face. He laid the books on his desk, but picked up the platter of cheese and brought it with him as he walked to the bed and took a crossed-leg seat on it, not too close to Sky.

"So, tell me about your favorite books?" He said with a soft voice, offering her a strawberry, and suddenly there was something almost vulnerable in his features. This was not the tough fighter or the arrogant drug dealer, this was not the passionate lover who had fucked Sky against the wall. This was the cute, shy boy she had met in the library, the one who had given her the card with the picture of a grumpy hedgehog, the nervous boy with blushing cheeks and a kind smile.

Sky looked down, her cheeks heating as she sensed his nervousness, his hesitation. She wasn't sure what was going on, but if he needed a moment before diving between the sheets with her, so be it.

"Well I don't know," she said and took a sip of her wine. "I used to read a lot, but then... some stuff happened, and... And I guess I'm only just getting back to it."

"How is the Darwin biography coming along?"

"Not as swiftly as I'd like—" Sky laughed. "I keep getting distracted."

And just like that, they were talking about Darwin, and about A Brief History of Time, of the books they had read or books they wanted to read, the best books they had ever read, and the worst ones too—

And it was so much fun, that Sky forgot she had wanted something else, so much fun that they emptied the platter of cheese and the bottle of Champagne and went back to the kitchen to get more of both, then wandered through the apartment with their glasses and the ridiculously expensive bottle of Bollinger, as Sky asked for a house tour and he agreed to give her one. Cody showed her the wine cellar, the spa (they had a steam room and a jacuzzi in the basement), the home gym, the library room (with lots and lots of books), Leigh's room (which held all Cody's old Harry Potter and Percy Jackson books), David's room (walls plastered with posters of different soccer players of whom Sky recognized none), and Cody was relaxed, he was happy, he laughed and he joked, and Sky giggled and she talked, and she forgot he had been nervous and that she had been sad. He had stars in his eyes and when he looked at her, his face was soft and beautiful, when she spoke, he listened to her as if every word that left her lips was a treasure he wanted to keep forever.

And then, both of them so drunk on the Champagne that they were laughing as they stumbled, they found themselves back in Cody's room. The moonlight entered through the thin curtains, the bed was big and wide and suddenly Cody was standing so close to her, and he wasn't smiling anymore. His eyes were huge in the darkness, huge and serious, his lips soft and parted, and his cheeks were burning. He was beautiful, he was a statue, a painting, a work of art, and Sky was lucky that she got to be here, that she got to see him in this pale moonlight, in these past midnight hours when nothing was real.

"All that cheese and Champagne and the books—" She spoke, her eyes searching his face. "And you're not going to seduce me after all?"

"Maybe I'm too drunk—"

"You're too drunk to have sex? I doubt it."

She giggled as she looked at him. His chest was rising with fast, shallow breaths, and finally - finally - she saw the wanting in his serious eyes and knew it didn't matter that they were drunk. The way he looked at her made her weak in the knees.

"Too drunk to say anything even remotely seductive," he breathed, his voice suddenly a bit throaty. "Sky, I—"

"Then don't. Just— just tell me - do you think I'm beautiful?"

He swallowed, his throat bobbed and his shoulder rose with a fast breath. "I think you're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen."

She knew it was a lie, of course. There were girls a thousand times prettier than she was, girls with long legs and blond hair and big boobs, girls like Maya—

But she didn't want to think about Maya, or about Hawk. And she didn't care that Cody lied to her, it didn't matter. He looked at her like he wanted her, and that was enough, that was a sweet, sweet lie she wanted to buy, a lie that would make her forget everything else, even for this one, beautiful night.

"And do you—" She asked, stepping closer to him so that his scent surrounded her, the wonderful masculine scent of his aftershave, leather, and boy. "—do you want to take off my clothes?"

"I've never wanted anything more than that."

She brushed off her Ravenclaw robe and let it fall onto the floor so that it pooled around her feet. Cody looked at her, wide-eyed, as if he was looking at the moon - and then a strangled breath left his lips, his hands were on her shoulders, in her hair, he pulled her close and he kissed her, kissed her, kissed her, like there was nothing in the whole world he'd rather do.

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