Jody, Cooper, and Charlie
Friday, April 6th, 2001
Chapter 1: The News
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Jody had just broken up with Cooper, what she thought was the biggest mistake of her life at the time, and decided to try out a romance out with Charlie. Charlie was sweet, and he obviously cared for her a lot, and he was hot too.
She was a principle dancer in Cooper's new company for a whole year without much happening. She went out with Charlie the whole time until she decided she couldn't stand being away from Cooper any longer. She broke up with Charlie. He took it really hard, because it was obvious that he loved her. He didn't speak to her for a week, but they eventually became friends again. Things would never be the same between them. He moved away to go to another ballet company and only talked to Jody about once a year.
Jody wasted no time in getting back with Cooper. Cooper might be annoying and jerkish at some times, but when he was with Jody, he was anybody's perfect guy. Jody felt like the specialist girl in the world when she was with him. He had the best smile in the world too.
She and Cooper went out for 3 years before Jody ever saw Charlie again. She was laying in her bed next to Cooper in their apartment early in the morning on Saturday. She reluctantly pulled out of his arms and got dressed. Cooper got up about 10 minutes later, but had to go to work all day. Jody had the day off.
She stretched and warmed up anyway, and then ate a small breakfast. She was reading a book on the couch when the phone rang. She let the answering machine get it.
"Hey. This is Cooper and Jody's. Please leave a message at the beep!...... BEEP"
"Oh, hi, Jody...... Cooper. It's Charlie. I'm not sure why I called. I, uh, just wanted to catch up I guess. Well, you can call me back if you wanna chat. You know my number. Bye.........uh, yeah. Bye Jody."
Jody dropped her book and replayed the message 3 times. She missed his voice so much. She wanted to call him back, but she knew Cooper would find out and go into one of his jealous rages and rip up paper. He always ripped up paper when he was mad, Jody actually thought that it was sorta funny, but she never let it show.
She played the message one more time and ran to find her address book. She found Charlie's number and stared at it for several minutes before picking up the cordless phone. She stared at the phone before pressing the "on" button. She shut the phone book and dialed the familiar number she had kept in her head all these years.
"Hello?" Charlie's sweet voice answered.
"Charlie! It's Jody!" she said, trying not to shout.
"Hey." Charlie said. Jody could tell in his voice he was 10 times more excited than he sounded, he was just trying to hide it. She could almost hear him smiling. "So, you got my message?"
"Yes. I'm soooo glad you called. I've missed you. So, did you figure out why you called?"
"Well," Charlie said, "I guess it was sort of because I'm coming back."
"Coming back where? Here? You're coming here?"
"Yes." Charlie said, almost making it sound like a question.
"That's GREAT Charlie. We have to get together while you are here. When are you coming? How long are you staying?" Jody asked, not even realizing what problems this might cause with Cooper, who she had fallen in love with more than a year ago. None of that mattered now. She was going to get to see Charlie again. Sweet, loving, fun Charlie. She couldn't be happier.
"I'll be there next week. I'm not just visiting though, Jody. I'm moving back. To stay." Charlie said, still a bit reluctant to say any of this. He knew Jody loved Cooper. He knew Cooper loved Jody. But he also knew that he love Jody, and wasn't sure if he could stand seeing her with Cooper, in love. That's why he was sure this move would be suicide to his heart. But he had to do it. For his career. For his heart. If he couldn't see Jody in love with him, at least he'd be able to see Jody. He missed her so much.
"Charlie! That's wonderful! That's great! How come you sound so sad about it though? Aren't you happy you're coming home?"
"Yes, I couldn't be more happy. Except, what about Cooper? Won't he start, you know, buying 7 packages of computer paper and ripping it all again? Won't he get jealous if you even look at me?"
"Don't flatter yourself, Charlie." Jody said sarcastically, "But really, Charlie. I'll just explain to Cooper that we really are just friends. Who knows? Maybe he'll only kill one tree this time instead of one million." Jody said, and then she laughed. "Well, ok. I gotta go. My mom is supposed to call right about know. She wants to help me pack. But I already packed up everything, so hopefully she won't have to come. Bye Jody. Tell Coop I say 'Hi'. On second thought, don't. Bye." Charlie said. He was really just looking for an excuse to get off the phone. His heart had dropped to his toes when she said that they were only friends. Besides, he didn't know how much more longer he could go on talking to Jody before he told her everything about how he felt. So he hung up.
"Bye Charlie." Jody said, but he had already hung up. When she realized he wasn't on the phone anymore, she added, "Love you."
Jody fell back on the couch and hit herself on the head with the book. She lay there for another hour thinking about the mess she was about to get in before getting up.
When she did, she went into her room and dug through the old chest her grandfather had giving her. When she found the old photo album, she plopped down on the double bed she and Cooper had shared for 2 years and opened it. The first picture was of her, Eva, and Maureen, her old roommates. She flipped through the book until she found the one of her and Charlie.
They were sitting on a bench with lots of trees behind them. Jody had been wearing a short, navy blue skirt and a light blue tube top. Charlie was wearing khaki shorts that came down to his knees, and an orange tee. Jody was sitting on Charlie's lap, smiling at the camera. Charlie was looking a Jody with his cute face and deep eyes. Jody took out the picture and stared at it, remembering that day.
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She, Charlie, and the rest of the gang (Eva, Maureen, Erik and Sergei) had gone to the park on a Sunday afternoon for a walk. Eva kept taking pictures of everything, trees, animals, and the gang. She and Charlie sat down on the bench while everyone else sat on the swings. They started kissing and pretty soon Eva was taking pictures. They only posed for one, the one that Eva had given Jody, and the rest were of them kissing.
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Jody smiled and put the picture back in the book, and put the book back in the chest. She locked up the chest and dialed Cooper's cell phone number. She hung up after the 2nd ring, not sure why she had called him.
She lay back down on the bed and fell asleep. She dreamed that she was married to Charlie. Then Cooper came and broke them up. Then Jody married Cooper and Charlie killed himself. She woke up in fright and called Charlie again. "Charlie here." he said.
"Charlie, Charlie. It's Jody. I just had the worst dream. Charlie, Oh, it was horrible." she said, trying not to cry. "What was is Jody?" Charlie asked sweetly.
"Well I dreamed I was married to you. But that's not the bad part. So, I was married to you and then Cooper came and we got a divorce. I married Cooper and here comes the worst part. Charlie, you killed yourself because I married Cooper. It was so horrible, Charlie!" Jody said, and started to cry.
"Jody? Please don't cry. I'm still here. Jody? Oh, Jody, I wish I were with you right now. To hold you, and to make sure you were ok. Jody I miss you so much. Are you ok?" Charlie said, realizing dangerously late how much he had just revealed.
His sweetness only made Jody cry more, and she realized how much Charlie still loved her. She couldn't handle it all at once, so she hung up on Charlie.
She sat on the couch, and fell over onto the couch so she was lying down. She cried herself to sleep and didn't wake up again until Cooper came home. He walked around the house quietly, so as not to wake her. She woke up anyway. Cooper made them his homemade pizza for dinner and they ate it with out mention of Jody's emotional adventure of the day.