CHAPTER THREE
"No. Yes. I don't know. I'm so confused! All I know is that for the past 4… well 5 years that I've never been happier. I know I love you."
"Ok then. So, does that mean that you want to get back together or not."
Jody thought about that for what seemed like an hour. She loved Charlie more than anything in the world. She did want to be with him, but every time she thought about t she felt sick. "Not."
"Oh." Charlie's heart sank. "Then what?"
"Well, can't we just be, you know, friends? Like you were saying earlier?"
Charlie sighed and frowned. "Sure." He said, trying to sound happy.
Jody half-smiled. She could hear Charlie yawn. "You wanna go to bed now? It's almost 4am. I have to be at the company at 8."
"Sure."
Jody hung up and fell asleep on the couch. She woke up the next morning around noon. She frantically found the phone- it was under one of the couch cushions- and called Cooper at his office. She apologized and he accepted it, unhappily. After they hung up she took a quick shower, got dressed, and had a sandwich.
Jody sat on her bed and put on her ballet shoes. She had learned that if she didn't want to be stiff in rehearsal, she had to practice even on days with no rehearsal. She went out into the main room of her apartment and pushed all the furniture back. She warmed up on the small bar she had put up on the wall behind the couch. She ran through what she could of the ballet she was currently in and then made up her own little dance.
Her dream was to someday become a choreographer. Or maybe even someday be the director of her own company. She figured that because she had only been dancing for 3 years (that's not including before and during ABA), that her dreams wouldn't come true anytime soon.
After she finished practicing she put on sandals and called Cooper again.
"Hello?" Cooper answered on his cell phone.
"Hey Coop. It's me again, I don't think I can make it Friday for dinner."
"Why not?"
"I'll probably be hanging out with Charlie."
"I thought you two broke up!?"
"Oh, we did. But we're still friends, you know."
"Oh, ok. Well, see you Monday then."
"Ok." Jody said. She hung up.
They usually didn't have rehearsal on Saturday, only every third week. Today had been the third week. They almost never had rehearsal on Sundays. Only for emergency rehearsal or if their opening was the next night or something like that.
Jody looked around her apartment. She didn't have anything to do except eat, watch tv, read really old magazines, or look through photo albums. She decided to watch a movie. She shuffled through her small stack of movies and saw a tape labeled, "JODY'S ABA WORKSHOP PERFORMANCE". She took it out of the box and shoved it into he VCR slit. She pressed play and sat right in front of the tv to watch it.
Her parents had taped it for her, so it wasn't perfect, but Jody watched anyway. It was mostly centered on her. She watched herself dance and smiled. She remembered how much she loved doing that ballet, and how much fun it had been making it. First thinking Cooper loved her, and getting all happy whenever he even looked at her. And then when Charlie found out that she was "sorta seeing" him, how they had showed off for her during that one day in rehearsal. But then how Cooper had blown her off and how Charlie had calmed her down out in the hallway. She had decided then that she would never date another guy besides Charlie.
She looked at herself dancing. She looked like she was having such a great time. Jody could remember exactly what was going on in her head. It had been mostly counting and going over her steps, but occasionally other thoughts came up. Like how weird Cooper looked doing that chicken move in the beginning. And how strange it was that she had to hide under someone else's tutu thing.
They bed scene came on and Jody couldn't help but crack up. It looked so weird. But then the next scene came on and Jody saw how perfectly her parents had filmed this scene. When Charlie was standing behind her, they got his expression perfectly. Jody paused the tape and looked at the odd expression on her ex-boyfriend's face. She noticed that her eyes looked a bit weird and she remembered why.
She had been so nervous about Charlie standing right behind her. That and she had just bumped butts with Courtney Ammilat, the one all the guys considered the cutest ballet dancer at ABA. The fight happened and the screen went black. A few seconds later the tv screen showed the weird background for the next scene. Jody listened to the music.
She had always loved that song. She listened to the words and it finally occurred to her how true they all were and how true the ballet was. She was choosing between two guys, the bad boy and the sweetie. And the song would be Charlie's thoughts. How much he loved her and how much he wanted to be with her. Only he couldn't because she was with another guy, one that treated her badly though.
She liked how well her parents had gotten their facial expressions so well. Charlie's were the most obvious, love. She saw that even way back then that he had loved her. How could she not have noticed? Jody mentally slapped herself and kept on watching. When the last part came- when she's the rope in the game of tug-o-war between Charlie and Cooper- she smiled. Charlie had landed and given Cooper this cold, but happy look that seemed to say, "Beat that! Yes sir! You have competition!". Jody shook her head and waited for the last dance scene.
When she had said. "No!" to Cooper and Charlie, they came after her. Charlie was like, "Huh? Why?" and Cooper was like, "Come one! Can you turn down my cute face?". Jody smiled. When she had jumped into Charlie's arms, she saw this huge smile appear on his face. She danced, and then it was over. The curtain went down and then came back up. They all took a bow and the curtain went back down. It came up again and she, Charlie and Cooper came out to take their separate bows.
The tape ended and Jody sighed happily. She rewound the tape and put it back into it's case. She looked around again and decided to look at her old photo albums.
She took out one with a flowery cover and sat down on the couch. She opened it. The first thing in it was an article she had found in the newspaper about Cooper Neilson. She knew right away that this was her Cooper Album. She had always had a crush on Cooper before she went to ABA, so she found all the stuff she could on him and out it into this photo album. Then when she went to ABA, she could get ever more stuff. She flipped through the rest and then closed it. She didn't really like Cooper anymore. Once she actually got to know him, she totally changed her mind. She knew that he wouldn't act so mean and all if it weren't for Kathleen, so Jody had this weird feeling whenever she was around her. She didn't like him as anything other than a friend.
She found her Charlie Albums (there were several) and put them all next to her on the couch. She picked up the top one and opened it.
The first picture was of her, Charlie, Eva, Erik, Emily, Maureen, Jim, and the limo driver guy. Jody remembered that day- Erik's birthday- and smiled.
~~~***~~~
Charlie walked up to Jody, holding 2 cups of coffee. She was practicing her turnout. Charlie placed the cups down and gently took Jody's arm. He pushed it down to her side.
"You never stop do you?"
"They still hate my body."
"You're way to hard on yourself. You looked great in rehearsal."
"That ballet is so not ABC."
"You don't like it?"
"Who cares what I like, that workshop is about what Jonathan likes."
"Is getting into the company really all that matters to you?"
"It's so different for you Charlie, they love you! I mean, they've practically printed your name in the programs already."
"You need to take some time away from all this."
"That is the last thing that I need."
"We could go out sometime." Charlie smiled into space.
Jody smiled at first, but then turned to look at him. "Like a date?"
"Yeah, like a date."
"That's really sweet Charlie, but I'm, I'm kinda seeing someone."
Charlie began to stand. "Sorry, I didn't realize."
"No, it's just that it's new and I don't wanna make a big thing of it, you know?"
"Sure, yeah, no big thing." Charlie took a sip of his coffee, pretending he wasn't hurt or sad or anything.
~~~***~~~
Jody slammed the photo album shut. She didn't want to look at any more pictures. She put all of her albums away and sat back down on the couch.
*****~~~~~*****~~~~~*****~~~~~*****~~~~~*****~~~~~
2 YEARS LATER
*****~~~~~*****~~~~~*****~~~~~*****~~~~~*****~~~~~
Jody sat on her bed. She had just gotten home from rehearsal at the San Francisco Ballet and she was exhausted. She was about to fall sleep when her phone rang.
Jody made a face and rolled over to pick up the phone. "Hello?"
"Hey, what's wrong?"
"Hi Dirk! Nothing's wrong, I'm just a little tired from rehearsal, you know."
"Yeah, I'm totally exhausted too."
Jody smiled. "What did you today?"
"Me and Galina auditioned to choreograph a ballet today. Can you believe she and Sergei are finally getting married! I mean, took them long enough!"
"Yeah, I know what you mean. They've been going out for more than a decade! Can you believe that? Look, I'm about to fall asleep, so I have to go, ok?"
"Ok honey, bye." Dirk said sweetly.
"Bye." Jody said and hung up. She put her head down on the pillow and fell asleep right away.
Jody woke up again about 2 hours later. She yawned and stretched loosely to wake up. She ate a banana and looked around her apartment. She had tried to set up the furniture the same way she had it in New York, but it hadn't worked really well.
Sometimes she missed New York so much she thought she'd die. But then she'd always be reminded of Dirk. Dirk Andrews had been her first friend here, besides Sergei and Galina. At first she and Dirk had just been friends, but then he asked her out about a year ago, two months after Jody had moved. Jody had told Dirk all about Charlie, but he didn't seem to mind. All he cared about was Jody. They had only been going out for a year, but Jody knew that Dirk loved her. Jody was beginning to think that she loved Dirk too. Or at least she was falling in love with him.
Jody's phone rang and it surprised her so much she almost choked on the banana. She coughed and picked up the phone. "Hey Dirk."
"Nope, guess again!"
"EVA!" Jody screamed and accidentally threw the rest of her banana across the room in her excitement.
"Yeah, hi!"
"Eva! I've missed you so much! We haven't talked in like 4 months!"
"Miss you too. Listen, you and Sergei and Galina have to come down here now."
"Why?"
"We are gonna throw Galina and Sergei party things. You know, like Bridal Showers and Bachelor Party things."
"When?"
"As soon as we can. When can you all get down here?"
"Well, I think we are all free all next week, but I'll call you back and tell you, ok?"
"Ok. Bye."
"Bye." Jody hung up and called Sergei and Galina at their apartment.
She called Eva an hour later with the plans. Then she packed a large roller suitcase for the week, she had to leave in 2 days.
~~~ 2 DAYS LATER (MONDAY) ~~~
Charlie woke up around 7am. His first though was, "I'm gonna be late!" But then he remembered how he, Erik, and Eva had all made Jonathan give them a week off. He could hear Erik and Eva out in the living room watching tv. The three of them shared a 3-bedroom apartment.
Charlie got out of bed and got dressed. She shuffled around stuff on his small desk until he found what he was looking for. Before Jody had left she had given him a present. Charlie had always liked to wear rings, so she got him a gold ring with a tiny word engraved, DANCE. He placed it on his right pinky and walked out into the living room.
Sergei, Galina, and Jody weren't coming until sometime after 2pm. Charlie didn't think he could wait that long. He was too excited. He and Jody had gotten back together for more than 7 months after their big break up. But then she had moved to California and Charlie hadn't talked to her since the day she moved.
Charlie waited around the apartment nervously. Eva and Erik kept on giving him weird looks.
"Hey Charlie, what's with that ring? You married or something?" Erik teased.
Charlie stuffed his hand into his pocket and glared at Erik. Erik shrugged and turned back to the tv. He whispered something into Eva's ear and she turned around to look at Charlie. She smiled at him and he raised his eyebrows as if to say, "What??" Eva smiled and turned back to the tv.
Finally, at 2:30, their phone rang. Erik answered it and smiled. After he hung up, he and Eva ran out of the apartment to go pick them all up at the airport.
Charlie stayed at their apartment. He moved Eva's stuff into Erik's room. That way Erik and Eva would share one room, Sergei and Galina would have Eva's room, and he and Jody would have his room. He hadn't really planned it that way, it just sorta happened.
A little after 3, Eva, Erik, Sergei, Galina, and Jody walked into the apartment. Charlie sat on his bed, the door shut. He could hear everyone talking out in the living room. He could hear Jody's voice and smiled. He opened the door a crack and stuck his head out. Jody was sitting on the couch. She had shoulder-length hair and was wearing a blur spaghetti-strap shirt. That's all Charlie could tell from behind though.
Jody glanced around. Eva and Erik were talking to here, but she ignored them. There wasn't even any sign that Charlie lived there. Maybe he had moved out, Jody thought.
"Hello?!? Earth to Jody!" Eva said.
Jody snapped her head around. "Sorry, I was just thinking."
Galina smiled. "I bet."
Jody blushed. Galina had become her best friend over the past year, and could practically read Jody's mind.
"So, Jody, how do you like San Francisco?" Erik asked.
"It's great."
"So, you are all principle dancers?"
"Yep." Sergei said.
Eva nodded and looked up. She saw Charlie standing in his doorway. She excused herself and went into Charlie's room. She shut the door.
"What are you doing in here? She's out there looking for you!"
"Really?"
"Yes!"
"When are you all going to dinner?"
Eva rolled her eyes. "Soon. I'll get you when we do."
Charlie nodded.
Eva left and sat back down next to Erik.
A few minutes later Eva knocked on Charlie's door. "Charlie! Dinner!" She called.
Jody's ears perked up. She saw Charlie come out of his room. He picked up his coat and led the group down to Erik's car. Erik drove, and Eva and Jody squished together in the front seat. Sergei, Galina, and Charlie sat I the back seat.
Erik parked in front of a park and they all piled out.
