Cody can't go inside Dale house but he can hear the speaking voices from Dale's room, he knows the spot to hear them clearly.
Ruth rings the doorbell, Dale's parents are not home yet so Dale opens the door, Dale is still not comfortable in his room, he is still feeling starting sometimes, so he chooses to spend most of his time in the hall.
They both came into the hall and sat on the sofa silently. Ruth knows Dale very well, if he wants to tell her something he will, if not he will not, so choose to keep calm and let him start conversation.
Cody can't hear anything, he is feeling uneasy, he can't hear sounds from the hall clearly but should have heard some sound, but there is total silence.
At last Dale start conversation,
He said "Ruth I can't explain to you, what's happening because I actually don't know. Promise me, you will not over react on this and will not do anything. Otherwise I'll not share anything with you next time "
Ruth just nodded her head in yes response.
Cody couldn't hear them clearly but he got the context from the whisper he can hear, he never have thought that Dale will share this his doing with anyone. But now he's telling his best friend and if it gets out, what people will think about him. But he just hugged him, it was tight and too much of an intimate hug but still just a hug, he didn't do anything extra, he wanted to but he didn't. He decided to stay calm and hear all what Dale's saying.
Dale start speaking again after small pause, "Cody the son of alpha acting crazy, he kind of assaulted me, I'm not hurt, but I'm emotionally disturb, I don't know what is his motto, but he is acting weird for past yesterday. I think best way to handle this situation is stay away from him and only way to do it is stay at home."
He takes a pause, to let Ruth digest his narrative.
Ruth replied after sometime, "what exactly does he want and what do you mean by assaulting you, what exactly he did ?" She speaks in one breath, she gets angry as she speaks.
Dale replied with a possibly calm voice, "he just once shared his lunch with me and once pushed me against the wall."
He didn't want to give too many details about the violent hug. He told the truth just not whole.
Ruth understands, he is not sharing the whole truth but she didn't want to pressurise him, he is talking with her for the first time about this bullying incident. She decided to give him time to open up. This is not the right time to dig into the truth.
Ruth speaks again, "you think staying home and hiding from him will solve this problem? How long can you hide from them? How long is "not feeling well" going to work with your parents?"
Dale replied, "Today is already gone, tomorrow is Friday and then weekend, I will start over from Monday and Cody is going to forget this, he will find a new play thing on Monday, I will go school too early as always and we will never meet again, full plan."
Dale knows inside that he shares nearly all class with Cody, so he can't disappear but as before he can get mixed in the crowd and no one will notice him as always. He is hoping to go things as always.
Cody likes Dale's plan, he is not telling anyone about the hug as he expected, he will be in school from Monday. He can't smell him but staring is still in the cart.
Ruth stayed for a while for chatting then left, Cody also left after they started chatting about some novel both are reading.
Dale acts the entire evening with his parents like nothing happened and again sleeps in the hall, he is not feeling starred in the room today but he didn't want to take a risk.
Cody goes back to the gang and spends his evening as always.