CHAPTER ONE
"So, how are you?" Mrs. Sawyer asked.
"Ok, great, I guess."
"Good, good. And Charlie, how's he?"
"Um, actually I'm not sure. We broke up about a month ago."
"Oh really? Why?"
Jody shifted. "I dunno." She hoped her Mom would move on, but she didn't.
"But you don't even talk anymore?"
"Not really. I mean, we're not in the same company or anything. And when I hang out with Eva, it's usually just her and sometimes Erik. They're still friends with him, but they just don't bring him to see me. Not often anyway."
"But you two were so happy! What happened?"
Jody shifted again. She didn't want to talk about Charlie. She didn't even want to think about Charlie. It just hurt too much. She shrugged. "We just grew apart." She lied.
"Well, were you having problem when you visited a few weeks ago?" Mrs. Sawyer asked.
"No, not at all. We were fine then."
Mrs. Sawyer noticed her daughter's weirdness about Charlie, so she moved on, sort of. "So, if you're not with Charlie, who are you with?"
Jody blinked. "No one."
"Well, honey, that's not healthy."
"What?"
"You're moping about Charlie! You need to get out."
Jody stared at her mother. "No. I'm not moping over anything. I just haven't found anyone I like yet."
"What about that Cooper Neilson."
"How about not!"
Mrs. Sawyer bit her tongue. "Well, since you're here for the weekend, why don't you go on a date with this boy I know, Roger? He's 22 just like you, and he's just the nicest boy."
Jody hated visiting her parents. Her dad was fine, but her mom was another story. She always asked a billion questions about Jody's love life. And if Jody didn't have one, she always set her up. Jody knew she wouldn't be able to refuse, so she didn't argue. "Sure, why not."
Mrs. Sawyer smiled. "Great!"
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LATE SATURDAY AFTERNOON (THE NEXT DAY)
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Jody looked at her self in the full-length mirror on the back of the bathroom door. She was wearing a knee-length red skirt that had blue flowers around the bottom. She had a blue tank top with a reddish flower in the middle. Her hair was down and she had on sandals. She grabbed her purse and went out to her car. She drove to McDonalds. She couldn't believe she was going on a blind date. Let alone going on a blind date to McDonalds. It just sounded so lame and cheap. She parked and walked inside. She looked around, not sure what to look for.
A tall guy with spiked up drown hair came up to her. He was wearing khaki guy shorts and a red tank. He wasn't as thin as Charlie wasn't, but by no means fat. He smiled warmly at Jody and she saw how incredibly cute he was.
"Hi. I'm Roger. Are you Jody?"
Jody smiled and nodded.
"Ok, cool. But I hate my name, so you can call me by my middle name."
"Which is?"
"Jake."
"Um, ok. Hi, Jake."
Jake smiled. "Hi Jody."
They got their food and sat down.
"So, how do you know my mom?" Jody asked.
"She, uh, well, work."
"Cool. So, you do what?"
"I'm in college. But I was student teaching at the middle school and your mom was the teacher I was working with. What do you do?"
"I, uh, I'm a ballet dancer. I never got to go to college." Jody said, uncertainly.
"Well that's ok. So, what company thing do you belong to? Or is that what they are called?"
"Yeah, that's it. I'm a principle in the Cooper Neilson Dance Company."
"Principle?"
"Yeah, it's like, one of the main dancers."
"Very cool. So, where is it?"
"New York."
Jake frowned. "Oh."
"But I do visit a lot."
He smiled. "Really? So, next time you come, you wanna hang out? Or, well, you probably have a boyfriend."
"No. No, I haven't had a boyfriend in over a month."
"Cool. So… who?"
"Who?"
"Yeah. Who was your ex?"
"Oh! Charlie. Charlie Sims. He's a ballet dancer at the American Ballet Company in New York."
"Very cool. So, then, do you only date ballet dancers or something."
"Well, no. I just never met a lot of guys who weren't, so I just dated only them up until now."
Jake smiled. "Until now?"
Jody laughed. "So, why do you hate Roger? I like that name."
Jake shrugged. "Well, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood kinda did most of that."
"Oh yeah. I see what you mean. I'd use my middle name too."
"What is your middle name?"
"Kristen."
"Oh, wow. That's so pretty. So, it's Jody Kristen Sawyer?"
"Yep, so what's your full name?"
"Roger Jacob Lawson."
Jody smiled. "I like it."
They finished eating and threw all of their trash out. Neither of them wanted to leave the other, so Jake invited Jody back to his dorm. He said his roommate wouldn't be there because he always stayed out past midnight on Saturdays. She agreed and they left. They talked there for about an hour.
"So," Jake asked, "what happened to Charlie?"
Jody pressed her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "I don't know."
Jake squinted. "Ok, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."
Jody smiled. "Thank you."
Jake smiled and leaned in to kiss her. She didn't pull back. They kissed for a while and then Jody glanced up at the clock. She pulled back from Jake and smiled. She announced sadly that she had to leave, because it was almost 9:30. She left and drove back to her parent's house. When she got there, her mother attacked her.
"Where were you? I thought you were coming home at 8! I was so worried."
"Mom! Geesh! I'm 22! I don't need you to get all freaked out. Jake invited me up to his dorm. So we were just talking there."
"Jake?"
"Yeah. He says he hates Roger, so he said I can call him by his middle name."
"Oh, I see. So, do you like him?"
Jody smiled and blushed slightly. "Yeah."
Mrs. Sawyer smiled.
Jody said that she was really tried, so she went up to her old room. She plopped down on her bed. She rolled over and pulled out a notebook from her small suitcase. She grabbed a pen. She opened the notebook to a clean page and began to write.
Today I had a blind date with Mom's old student teacher. His name is Roger Jacob Lawson, but he wants me to call him Jake. He has got to be the cutest guy in the world. And he's really really sweet too. And hot, way hot. And it's not like ballet-thin hot, but normal guy hot.
He reminds me of Charlie a little, but I sooo don't wanna think about that, besides, that's sooo not why I like him. He's just sooooo sweet and cute and hot and funny and sweet! I'm even sorta glad that he isn't a ballet dancer. I'm so sick of dating only them anyway.
Ugh! When I got here (at mom and dad's) yesterday, Mom kept on asking all these questions about me and Charlie. How annoying! But I guess I can't blame her. Everyone was really surprised because we had been dating for 4 years. Sometimes, even I can't believe its over. Or maybe I just don't want it to be over. Maybe I still love him. Sigh. Oh well, nothing anyone can do about it now. It's over. For good. That suddenly.
We were so in love. I would have died for him. He probably would have done the same for me as well. So, big whoop, we were in love. So, he did what any guy would have done. He proposed. I still can't believe it. I mean, I know he would have sooner or later, but it was still a surprise.
That was a month and a half ago. 45 days. Wow. I can still imagine the whole scene perfectly. Word for word. I know exactally how good he smelled and what his face looked like. I remember the tone of his voice and what he said. "I love you Jody. You know that. So, I want to be with you for the rest of my life." He takes out the ring box and gets down on one knee. "Jody, will you marry me?"
I remember I sat there for exactly 6 minutes. Then he got up and left my apartment. I began to cry. I said no. Don't ask why. ~Jody
Jody put the notebook into her suitcase and closed her eyes. She fell asleep after a few minutes. When she woke up the next morning, both her parents were at church. She checked her watch, it was 9:45am. She rushed to eat breakfast and pack up.
Jody hated visiting her parents. She had to leave really early Friday and then again really early Sunday. Then she'd have to drive the whole day. She thought it was a total waste of time. Except now that she had met Jake, she decided she wouldn't mind as much.
She left her parents a good-bye note and drove off. She stopped quickly for lunch and dinner and made it back home by 4am. She ran into apartment and fell asleep immediately. 3 hours she woke up and rushed off to Cooper's company.
Cooper yelled at her once for being lazy and spacing out. She apologized and kept on slapping her self to keep awake. It always took her a few days to recover from a trip to Indiana. When she got home she fell asleep on the couch for a few hours. When she woke up again she decided to call Jake.
"Hey! You've reached Jake Lawson and Tony Perkins! Press 1 for Tony and 2 for Jake! Then leave a message at the beep! Working it dude! Bye!"
Jody pressed 2 and heard a beep. "Hey Jake. It's me, Jody. I just-"
"Hello?" Someone picked up the phone.
"Jake?"
"Nope. This is his roommate, Tony."
"Oh, hi."
"Hi. Look, I don't think you should be calling Jake. He doesn't like any girls other than his girlfriend calling him."
"Girlfriend?"
"Yeah, Alice."
"Oh, right, Alice. Well, can you just give him a quick message fir me? Please?"
"Sure thing."
"Ok. Tell him that Jody Sawyer-"
"Oh, hey, wait a sec. He just walked in."
"Hello?" Jake said a moment later.
"Hi. It's Jody."
"Hey, what's new?"
"Do you like me?"
"How?"
"Like more than a friend like me?"
"Of course. Why?"
"Tony just told me about Alice."
"Alice?" Jake asked innocently.
"Yeah. Your girlfriend, Alice."
"Oh, hey look-"
"No. Jake, come on. I just broke up with my boyfriend of 4 years. I meet you and you were so nice to me and you seemed to really like me."
"I do."
"Yeah, well, I really like you too. But now I find out that you have a girlfriend! I mean, really come on! What kind of player are you?" Jody hung up.
She picked up her phone again and dialed Eva's number.
"Hello?" Eva answered on speakerphone.
"Hey Eva, it' Jody. Hey, how come you're on speaker phone, got company?"
"Yeah, Erik and Charlie. Say hi to Jody guys!" Eva yelled the last part out into the background.
"Hey!" Erik said. Charlie mumbled something, but no one could understand it. Jody could hear a slap and she figured it was Erik hitting Charlie for whatever it was he mumbled.
Jody smiled. "Hey, Eva? D you think I can come over tomorrow? He have to talk."
"Sure. Come over after your rehearsal tomorrow. I'm home all day. Hold on a sec."
Jody heard mumbling in the background for a minute. Then she heard two beeps, meaning she wasn't on speakerphone anymore. She could tell who ever was holding the phone was walking into another room and shutting the door.
"Hey." Charlie said.
Jody half-smiled. She hadn't talked to Charlie in over a month and she had missed his warm voice. But his voice wasn't as warm anymore. He sounded hurt and confused. Jody knew he wasn't sounding like that on purpose, but it still hurt to hear it.
"Oh, hey! Uh… my mom says hi." Jody said, not sure what else to say.
"Really?"
"Yeah. I visited her over the weekend and she kept asking about you."
"Cool, I guess. Hey, look. I know you're hanging out with Eva tomorrow, but do you think on Friday was can-"
"Charlie-" Jody began softly.
"Jody! I know what you're gonna say and all, and I guess I understand. I don't, not really, but I have to say that. If I ever want to get you back, even as a friend, I have to say that. We were friends before we went out. We were best friends while we went out. So why can't we be friends after we go out? I mean, beside Eva, I'm your best friend. And you are my best friend, I don't even have an Eva. So can't we just hang out as friends?"
Jody smiled. "Sure, why not? It will be fun."
"Yeah. It will be fun. You can come see the new ballet I'm in on Friday night. And then after that we can go out to dinner or something. Ok?"
"Ok. But I have to go, okay? Tell Eva and Erik I say bye."
"Ok. Bye."
"Bye." Jody said, and she hung up.
Jody fell back onto the couch and wondered if a "friends" date with Charlie was good idea. There was a knock at the door. Jody opened it and saw Cooper standing there.
Cooper put his hands on her waist. "Hey. I'm sorry I was so hard on you today. I didn't realize you had just driven for 16 hours and had only gotten 3 hours of sleep. I'm sorry. I'm sorry about Charlie too. I heard you two broke-up."
Jody nodded and Cooper saw how sad her eyes were. He hugged her and she didn't pull back. He rubbed her back and let go of her.
"You wanna come in?" She asked.
