CHAPTER NINE
"Hi. Can I come in?"
"Uh, sure." Jody said uneasily as she opened the door all the way.
Charlie come in and sat down on the couch. Jody slowly sat down next to him. He was wearing khaki guy shorts and a white sweatshirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.
"What are you doing here?" Jody asked.
"I miss you."
"Yeah, well…"
"And I was thinking that you'd probably never take me back, so I'd eventually have to move on. Except I don't want to move on, because I love you. You were the best thing that ever happened to me. But I hurt you, and it's my fault, so I guess I have to move on. So, I was thinking of who I wanted to be with and only one name stuck out in my mind: Amy Saunders."
"That sounds familiar, who is she?"
"She was the one who dumped me for leaving her before ABA. We'd been going out for about 2 years. I had always wanted to go to ABA, but she though we didn't have to. She knew she could get into this company without going to some fancy ballet school, and she did. But I had always wanted to go, so I went and we had this big fight. So I left, and she dumped me. She's not a principle dancer or anything, but she's still in the company."
"Oh, I see. Charlie, why are you telling me all this? And why are you so drunk?"
"Because I love you. And because I had some beer. But I don't really feel drunk, I mean, I got here ok. I drove."
"Still, maybe you should stay here awhile. I don't want you to get hurt or anything on the way home."
"Ok." Charlie put his feet up on the coffee table. "Jody, no offense or anything, but you look horrible, what happened?"
"My fiancée slept with some stripper." Jody didn't look at Charlie.
"She wasn't a stripper…" Charlie said quietly.
Jody rolled her eyes.
"But seriously, you look like crap. You're all pale, but it's way more than obvious that you've been eating."
Jody looked down at her stomach.
Charlie sat up and looked at her. "I'm sorry Jody. I just thought you should know before Scott Henderson kicked you out of the company. He's almost worse than Jonathan."
Jody nodded.
Charlie closed his eyes and slowly fell asleep. Jody watched him. She hated his guts, but somehow she still loved him. No one knew her like he did. He just understood everything, and was always there for her… before. She loved him. But he had hurt her more than either of then was able to realize. She was dying on the inside. There was nothing anyone could do about it.
Jody leaned over and moved Charlie so she could take his coat off of him. She managed ok, and placed him gently back in his comfy position. She was about to hang it up in her small closet when she saw a piece of folded paper sticking out of the pocket. She pulled it out and on side was written in Charlie's handwriting:
Dear Jody,
I'm lying on my bed and it's almost 4am. I can't think of anything else, so I thought I'd write you a letter. I know I won't give it to you. Well, maybe I will… someday. Someday when we can be friends… when you don't hate me. You'll probably always hate me though, I can't blame you. If you had done what I did… I think I'd hate you. I'm not sure though. I love you too much. But then… I'd have to live through it to know.
I just thought I'd tell you exactly what happened that night. I was sitting next to Sergei and Erik. We were all bored. Brownie made up hire these dancing girls, so we were all watching them. Sergei and I were bored because of you know, you and Galina. Erik was bored of obvious reasons. So we were all sitting there bored out of our minds. So we started ordering way more drinks than we should have.
I was watching this one girl dance because she looked a lot like you, only she couldn't dance if her life depended on it. When they started coming out into the crowd, Erik jumped up and almost flew across the room to avoid them. But they spotted me and Sergei, and I guess we looked depressed. At this point I was drunk out of my mind and I actually thought she was you. Only you never gave me a lap dance, thank God. It was really weird. But then I can't remember exactly what happened. The next thing I remember… lets not go into the details. I woke up a few hours later and me and Sergei flew to find Erik. Then we rushed home. I felt so bad.
Then you asked me if I was going to propose. That freaked me out at first, but then I thought about, and it sounded really great. The next morning I stuffed some pills into me so I wouldn't have a big hangover. Then I knelt down and… the rest you know.
You might not believe that, but that's really what happened. I can't blame you for believing me, or being mad. But I've changed since I met you. Everyone keeps saying so. Even my parents say so. And I haven't seen them since before ABA. They can tell just from our phone conversations. I love you, Jody Sawyer, and nothing will ever change that. We may never get back together, and I may end up getting married someday. But I will always love you somewhere in my heart, and she'll just have to deal with that.
I'm probably boring you half to death now, so I'll go to sleep now… if I can. I just miss you so much and it's only been 2 days. I love you.
Love,
Charlie
Jody folded the letter back up and stuffed it in her jeans pocket. She couldn't believe Charlie had actually written that. She thought about it for a minute and knew she did believe what he said. But she still… was so confused.
Charlie suddenly woke up. He shivered. Jody threw the coat back over him.
"Sorry, I was just gonna hang it up."
Charlie put it on again and stuffed his hand in the pockets. He looked up at Jody.
"Did you do something with the paper that was in here?"
Jody slowly pulled it out of her pocket slowly and threw it like a Frisbee at him. "Sorry, it had my name on it, and I just had to read it…"
Charlie opened it up and scanned it. "Oh. I, uh…"
"Please, don't explain. It was a nice letter. And I… I… I believe it. What you said about that night. I don't know why, but I just do. I can't help it. I thought I didn't love you anymore, but I guess I do. I don't know why."
Charlie smiled. "I love you."
Jody sat down next to him and hugged him tightly. Charlie looked into her eyes.
"Jody, I love you so much. I don't even know what to do."
Jody smiled and kissed Charlie softly. "It will come to us."
Charlie squinted and smiled. "Yeah."
Charlie leaned in to kiss Jody. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he hugged her waist. They sat there for a while until Jody's phone rang. Jody started to pull back but Charlie stopped her.
"Let the machine get it." She said softly.
Jody smiled and kissed him.
"Hey, you've reached Jody Sawyer! I'm out, so leave a message and I'll call you back the minute I have a chance! Thanks, bye!"
"Hi Jody, its Dirk. I heard you and Charlie broke up again. I'm sorry to hear that. But it's like I said, he doesn't really care about you. He's just like the thousand of other guys who only like you because of your looks. I know you probably aren't ready yet, but when you are give me a call ok? I love you. Bye."
Jody forced Charlie to let her pull back. Charlie held her hand and gave it a squeeze as she sat down against the back of the couch.
"You know that's not true, right?" Charlie asked.
Jody nodded. She picked up the phone and shut her self in her room. She sat in the corner of her closet and dialed.
"Hello?"
"Hi Dirk, its me."
"Hi Jody."
"Hey, I got your message."
Dirk smiled. "Oh yeah?"
"Yeah, but me and Charlie just got back together."
"Really?" Dirk frowned.
"Yes. He's not one of those guys just after my body, thank you very much." Jody said.
"Then why are you two always having sex?"
"Oh my God Dirk! What do you do, spy on us?"
"No, but he's always kissing and touching you."
"So?"
"God Jody, of all people I thought you'd recognize the signs. He's only after your-"
"STOP IT RIGHT NOW DIRK! I love Charlie! And he loves me! I'm sorry you don't like that, but you'll just have to deal with it. I never loved you!"
"You're just saying that to make you feel better about Charlie and to cover up the truth, because you know it!" Dirk said, sounding surprisingly sure of himself.
"Goo-bye." Jody said and she hung up.
Charlie knocked lightly on the door. "Are you okay?"
Jody sprang up and opened the door. "Fine."
"You're crying!"
Jody suddenly felt the warm tears running down her face. "I am?"
"Yes." Charlie hugged her as she began to calm down.
~~~**~~~
Jody lay under the covers of her bed. Charlie rolled over and kissed her softly. Jody kissed him back but then pulled back.
"Charlie…"
"What? You're not thinking about what Dirk said are you? I can't believe you! How could you think I'd be that shallow!"
Jody blinked. "I… wasn't thinking… about that. I just… I'm really tired, we had to rehearse a lot today."
Charlie pretended he understood. "Ok. Good-night." He kissed Jody one last time and turned over on his side.
Jody knew he only slept that way when something was wrong. She sighed and fell asleep.
