Chapter 4: The Battle

Chapter 4: The Battle

Cooper sat on the couch for 2 hours before Jody emerged from Charlie's room. She didn't notice Cooper as she walked into the bathroom to take a shower. Charlie walked out of his room, smiling, until he saw Cooper. His smile faded and he slunk back into his room. It was too late. Cooper had already seen him come out.

"Come back out here, Charlie. I have a question." Cooper growled at Charlie.

"Yeah?" Charlie said, sounding amazingly cool.

Cooper stood up and walked over to Charlie. "What's your problem?" he asked.

"Excuse me?" Charlie said

"You slept with my girlfriend, you ass-hole!!!" Cooper said, and punched Charlie in the nose.

Charlie's nose began to bleed and he ran into the bathroom. He didn't realize that Jody was in there, because the door wasn't locked. He looked at himself in the mirror and sighed. He noticed that the shower was going. "Jody?" Charlie asked.

"Charlie? What are you doing?" Jody shouted to heard over the water.

"Oh, uh, nothing." he said. He didn't want to go back out there with Cooper, so he locked the door, shut the toilet lid, and sat down on it. He waited about 10 minutes for Jody, watching her shadow on the shower curtain.

"Charlie," Jody asked a while later, just after she turned off the water, "are you still out there?"

"Yes." Charlie said, whipping his bloody nose with a piece of toilet paper.

"Can you hand me the red towel hanging on the door?" she asked him.

"Sure." Charlie said. He got up, took the towel, and hung it over the bar that was holding up the closed curtain.

"Thanks." She said. She pulled back the curtain a minute later and climbed over the wall of the tub (they didn't have a shower stall, but a shower head water spay thing had been installed over the tub). She looked at Charlie's bloody face and chest (he was still just wearing boxers) and gasped. "Charlie, what happened?"

"Cooper." Charlie said, suddenly annoyed again.

"What? Why? What happened?" Jody asked, concerned.

"He knows Jody. I don't know how, I guess he walked in after we had fallen asleep. He just came up to me and said, 'You slept with my girlfriend, you ass-hole!', and then he punched me." Charlie said, shrugging it off as if it were no big deal. Jody could tell that he felt differently on the inside than he showed on the outside.

"Let me go out and talk to him. You get cleaned up, ok?" Jody said. Charlie nodded in agreement and kissed her before she left.

He peeked out through the door and saw Cooper take the towel off of Jody and kiss her. Charlie waited for Jody to do something, but when she didn't, his heart sank and a frown appeared on his face. He was just about to shut the door and mope around the bathroom in self-pity when Jody frantically pulled back from Cooper. She sought her breath and starred at Cooper for a minute before slapping him. She ran into Charlie's room crying. Cooper tried to open the door, but it was locked and Jody had hidden the key.

Charlie hurried and cleaned his face off. Then he opened the bath room door and saw Cooper siting on the edge of the couch, his head in his hands, and his fingers in his perfect dirty blond hair. He had red finger marks on his check and he looked like he might cry. Charlie felt sorry for him for about a half a second before changing his mind and stepping boldly out into the main room. Cooper didn't seem to notice him, so Charlie walked all the way over to his door.

He pretended that he didn't know Jody was in there, and tried to open the door with the doorknob. When the door didn't budge, he knocked lightly on the door. "Jody?" he whispered.

The door opened and Charlie stepped in, shut, and locked the door behind him. Jody was lying back on the bed crying into Charlie's pillow, now wearing one of Charlie's big tee shirts and some of his soccer shorts. Charlie sat down on the bed and rubbed her back until she settled down. Then she sat up and hugged him. They kissed for a while, and then Jody carefully crept out Charlie's room, into her own to change. Cooper hadn't moved and didn't notice Jody either.

When Jody returned all of Charlie's clothing, she went out and sat down next to Cooper on the couch. "Don't touch me." Cooper warned her.

Jody didn't touch him. "Are you okay?" she asked, even though the answer was pretty obvious.

"What? No. I'm not. You slept with Charlie." Cooper said.

"Cooper, I need to tell you something." Jody said. Cooper thought he knew what she was going to say, and Jody saw his face drop. "We need to break up. I'm sorry. But I love Charlie. I realized that I have always loved Charlie. I'm sorry. But I also realized that I never loved you."

Cooper breathed in deeply and slowly exhaled. Jody could tell he was trying not to cry and she put her arm around him. "You okay?" she asked again. Cooper shrugged off her grip and stood up. He grabbed his coat, opened the door, and left.

Jody sighed and lay down on the couch. She fell asleep and didn't wake up until the next morning. When she woke up, she played with her new bracelet. Charlie had given yesterday, right after she had proclaimed her love to him. It was the nicest thing she had ever received from anyone, and she knew it had to have been pretty expensive.

She got changed, stretched, and ate a banana. She peeked in on Charlie and mentally kissed him. Then she checked to see if Cooper was in the room that they had shared for so long. He wasn't. Jody knew that Cooper would never get up this early, so she figured that he had never come home last night. This worried her, but she had to go to work, so she grabbed her coat and left, hoping to see Cooper at work.

When she reached Cooper's ballet company, she walked to his office. The light was on, so she walked in. Cooper was sitting at his small desk, taping his fingers. She noticed that the trashcan was full of ripped paper. Cooper nodded at her and Jody smiled. "Listen Cooper, I'm really sorry about last night. I really don't want to hurt you, because even I don't love you as a boyfriend, I still love you as a friend. I hope we can still be friends. Can we?" Jody asked hopefully.

Cooper shrugged, got up out of the chair and left the room. Jody sighed and sulked into her warm up room.

When she got home neither Charlie nor Cooper were home, but both had left her notes on he counter.

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Jody,

I'm out looking for a new apartment. I figure you and Charlie should live in this one, because it's less of a fuss that way. I'll be back later. I'm still not sure about the friend thing. Sorry. Bye!

~Coop

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Jody My Love,

How are you this beautiful day? I woke up this morning and you were gone, and so was Cooper. I'm at Cooper's company, but I probably won't see you. I was told that the audition room is on the other side of the building. I miss you.

Love, Charlie

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Jody smiled at Cooper's consideration and blushed at Charlie's open gushing.

She made herself a peanut butter and Jelly sandwich and ate it. Then she went into her room and got undressed. She was looking through her closet in only her underwear when Cooper came into the apartment. Jody didn't hear him and continued to look through her closet. She chose to wear a dress that was cut off just below the shoulders on her date with Charlie that night. She took the dress out of the closet and lied it neatly on the bed. She unhooked her bra and dropped it on the floor. Jus then, Cooper walked into the room.