Cody woke in the late afternoon, drool on his chin, a kink in his neck, and an angry bladder. The summer heat had crept in and replaced the cool air. It was stuffy and his lips felt cracked. He set his laptop down and stumbled into the bathroom. He relieved himself and returned to the kitchen for more red wine.
The air conditioning wouldn’t turn on, so Cody stalked out to the pool with the wine bottle in hand. He rolled his pajama legs up to his thighs and sat down, swishing his legs in the cool water.
He needed to stop his parents from coming home. He only had a day left. Once he finished his wine, he returned to the house and called his mom.
“Hi honey, what’s up?” she asked. “How’s the house?”
“There’s bedbugs, we need to stay in a hotel for awhile,” he blurted out.
“They can’t surv
