Cody doesn't answer but simply continues lighting candle after candle along the mantle. As the room fills with light, I can see how much the room as changed from what I remembered. A single pull out couch lays open with disheveled sheets laying across it. Family pictures still hang on the wall but the entertainment center and bookshelves all sit empty. I reach down and pick up up an open photo album that was resting on the pullout bed. It's open to a page of two six year old kids; a boy with shaggy brown hair in an orange shirt and blue shorts tickling a curly red-headed girl in a blue flower-print dress. Looking through the album, there are pictures of the two kids, other neighborhood kids, Cody's mom, but not a single picture of Cody's dad.
"What happened to all the stuff in here?" I ask.
"Most of it mom and I packed with us. It seems he never really filled the place back up."
I set the book down on the floor and lay under the sheets, after drinking and dancing most the night it feels good to relax in the comfort of the bed.
"Going to sleep already?" Cody says teasingly.
"It's late, come on and lay down. We can catch up more in the morning." I answer sleepily.
He lays down over the covers behind me. I raise my head slightly to allow his arm to give pillow to my head as he wraps his other arm around me. We lay close together, our deep breathing becoming in sync as we drift to sleep.
I wake the next day laying alone in the living room which is still blanketed in darkness with all of the curtains heavily blanketing the windows. I head to the bathroom down the hallway to use the restroom and brush my teeth.
"Cody?" I call out. "Do you mind if I use your toothbrush?"
"That's fine," his response echoes from the kitchen. "I went and grabbed something to eat."
I take care of my morning bathroom needs and make my way to the kitchen. The appliances from the kitchen have all been stripped out, the place where the kitchen table used to stand rests empty. A waffle house bag rests on the counter next to Cody. He has a grilled cheese and two pieces of bacon on a plastic plate that he hands to me. Eating the grilled cheese sandwich, it feels room temperature.
"What time is it?" I ask after swallowing my first bite.
"It's only about ten-thirty in the morning."
"How long have you been up?"
"For a good while now. How did you sleep?"
"My neck is a little sore, but that's probably from sleeping with my neck at an angle since you got up before me."
"I'm sorry," Cody says smiling softly at me.
"So should I take a shower here and hang out for the day or do you want to send me off home?"
"You're welcome to stay, there's nothing that I can really do about going through my dad's accounts until Monday so I've got to wait out the weekend."
"Oh, so I can be nosey and explore into new places like your parents room."
"Might not be as exciting as you think it might be," he laughs.
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