CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER FOUR

Jody ran over to the swings and started swinging. Eva joined her, shortly followed by Galina. Erik, Charlie, and Sergei all sat down at a wooden picnic table to talk. Jody, Eva, and Galina all talked quietly about what they thought the guys were talking about.

"They are probably just talking about gut stuff, you know."

"No, I don't know." Jody said.

"Well, you know, like how good we are in you know you know."

Jody and Galina snapped their heads around to look at Eva.

"What?" Eva asked.

"And Erik would know that about you because… why?"

Eva rolled her eyes. "Not Erik about Me! Just Charlie about Jody and Sergei about Galina."

"Oh." Jody nodded. "Then what would Erik be talking about?"

Eva shrugged.

"I don't think Charlie and Sergei would talk about that with Erik, they'd think he'd feel left out."

"I don't think they'd be talking about that anyway! And I mean me and Charlie aren't even going out… anymore."

Eva smiled and they all laughed. Meanwhile…

"What do you think they are talking about?" Charlie asked looking over at the girls on the swings.

"Us." Sergei said.

"Really? What are they saying?"

"Oh, you know. How hot we are and how sweet and other stuff like that."

Charlie nodded and looked over at Jody. Her hair was flying behind her as she got higher. She looks beautiful, Charlie thought. Jody looked over at him and he quickly turned back to the guys. They both had questionable looks on their face.

"What?" Charlie asked.

"You still love her!" Sergei said.

"Are you insane! We broke up more than a year ago! How stupid would that be?"

Erik raised his eyebrows but Charlie ignored him. Sergei shook his head and thought about Dirk. Jody hadn't told Charlie about him yet, and he knew that that would cause some major problems over the next week. He didn't want Dirk to end up hurt, he was his best guy friend in California. But he didn't want Charlie to end up hurt either. Charlie was his best friend, over all, and he had known him longer too. Then there was Jody. He didn't want her to ever end up hurt, because he cared for her a lot. But he knew someone would end up hurt in this big mess.

Sergei stood up. "Let's go over to the girls."

Charlie and Erik got up and they walked over to the swing set. Sergei stared pushing Galina and Erik pushed Eva. Charlie stood next to the swing set, not daring to push Jody.

After a while Jody jumped off the swing in mid air and landed.

"JODY!" Galina screamed. "Do you wanna have a career in ballet?"

Jody smiled. "Ya."

"Then don't do that, you'll get hurt!" Galina teased.

Jody rolled her eyes and walked back over to Erik's car. Everyone followed and Erik started the car and drove off. He drove them around for a while before pulling up in front of "Jordan's", a salad bar. They all got out and got salads (what else?) and sat down.

Charlie and Jody were sitting next to each other. They both talked non-stop, but neither said one word to the other. At one point Charlie had his hand on the table and Jody saw the ring. She smiled, but said nothing.

After dinner they all went back to the apartment. Eva showed Jody where to put her bags, and explained it was Charlie's room. Jody nodded and turned around to pick up her bags so Eva wouldn't se her silently laugh.

Jody sat on Charlie's double bed. She was wearing her sleeping boxers and old orange and green spaghetti strap shirt. Charlie walked in, only wearing boxers, and shut the door. He looked so hot Jody's tongue almost rolled out of her mouth.

Charlie turned and faced her. "Finally."

"What?"

"I wanted to talk to you alone, but we didn't have the chance before."

Jody nodded and Charlie sat down next to her on the bad. He hugged her tightly. He let go and smiled.

"You have no idea how much I've missed you." Charlie said smiling.

Jody made herself smile. "I've missed you too." She said truthfully.

Charlie smiled back and kissed her nose. "I have missed you so much. I haven't gone out with anyone this year, you know."

"Really?" Jody was surprised.

"Yeah. I mean, why would I go out with anyone else?"

Jody shrugged. She inched up to the head of the bed.

Charlie looked hurt. "What? Is something wrong? It's ok if you went out with someone that's ok. I mean, plenty of people must have asked you out, you're wonderful."

Jody smiled and patted the spot next to her. Charlie practically flew to that spot. He kissed Jody softly and she kissed him back. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he hugged her waist. They sat there kissing for a few minutes when Eva burst in.

Charlie looked at Eva and let go of Jody. He sprang up and went over to Eva. He whispered something to Eva and her eyes lit up. Eva smiled and Jody and left. Charlie turned back to Jody. He smiled and sat back down.

They started kissing again and Charlie began to take of Jody's shirt. She pulled back.

"Charlie…" She began softly.

Charlie smiled and blushed. "Sorry. I just… miss you."

Jody smiled. "Can we get to bed? I'm really tired."

"Sure."

Charlie crawled under the cover and Jody curled up in a ball next to him. He put his arm around her and they slowly fell asleep.

The next morning Jody woke up and noticed Charlie was gone. She smiled and stretched. She got dressed and went out into the living room. Charlie was sitting on the couch eating cereal. Jody got herself a bowl and joined him.

The phone rang and Eva answered it. "Jody! Phone!
Jody grabbed the cordless phone and went into Charlie's room.

"Hello?"

"Hey Honey!"

"Dirk! What's wrong?"

"Huh?"

"I told you only to call me if there was a problem. So what's wrong?"

"Oh, I just wanted to say hi. I miss you. Why? Is this a problem?"

"No, of course not. That's so sweet. I miss you too."

"What are you doing today?"

"Not much. Hanging out with everyone, we don't have anything planned."

"Cool. Who's everyone?"

"Erik, Eva, Sergei, Galina, and Charlie."

"Charlie's there?"

"Yeah. Don't worry about it."

"Ok. Well, I love you. Bye."

"Bye." Jody hung up and fell onto the bed.

Charlie opened the door and stared at Jody. Jody looked into his eyes and ignored the massive hurt she could see.

"Hey!" Jody smiled.

Charlie looked at her.

"What?"

"YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND!!! I can't believe you Jody!" Charlie began to yell, forgetting the other people in the apartment.

"Charlie!"

"SAVE IT JODY!! You were all flirty with me and then last night! My God Jody, we… you… sex… you have a boyfriend!" Charlie stormed out into the living room.

"Number one, we didn't have sex! Number two, I don't love him! Charlie, I really don't. Charlie, I love you!"

Charlie looked at Jody. She loved him! He didn't care. Well, he did, but not now. "And that's suppose to make me feel better? 'Oh Charlie! I don't love my boyfriend! I love you, the guy who's heart I broke twice and turned down an engagement!' Why the hell are you staring at me like that?"

Jody began to cry. "I'm sorry, Charlie."

"No! JODY! PLEASE! How could you do this?" Charlie stomped into his room and locked the door.

Jody sat on the couch and cried some more. She didn't care that everyone was staring at her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Charlie went out of his way to avoid Jody for the next two days. He slept out on the couch and spent of his time is Erik's room, reading. Jody ignored everyone except Galina and would hardly eat. She missed Charlie like hell, but couldn't do a thing about it. Charlie missed her even more, but his anger get the better of him.

Charlie and Jody's actions were depressing everyone else. The fun week they all planned was ruined.

On Wednesday Jody was sitting out on the couch reading a book. Charlie came out of his room and looked at Jody. She looked up at him and sighed. She turned back to her book and suddenly began to cry.

Charlie watched her cry and felt like crying himself. She looked so helpless just sitting there, her hands covering her face. He couldn't stand to see Jody cry. He was just so mad. He told himself to let her suffer, it was her fault. But he loved her.

He sat down next to her and slowly raised his hand. He put it down on her back and rubbed. She turned and buried her face into his chest. After a while she stopped crying.

Jody looked up at Charlie and smiled. "I'm sorry Charlie. Me and Dirk, we aren't really serious. He loves me, but I don't love him. I love you."

Charlie looked into Jody's eyes and smiled. "I love you too."

Charlie kissed Jody softly and everyone clapped from where they stood, unnoticed until then.