Shackled

Chapter 5: Julie / Cody

Julie's phone rings and she drops the bottle directly on her foot, crying out "fuck" while accidentally giving her phone permission to answer the call by swiping her thumb. She throws her hand over her mouth and prays that whoever she answered did not hear. She brings the phone up to her ear and asks who's calling. 

"That isn't usually the response people are looking for when they call." Cody's easily recognizable voice says. "This is Julie right?" 

Shit!  Julie thinks, not exactly sure how to respond to him hearing her first words over the phone be a swear towards him possibly in his mind. "I dropped some tequila on my foot." She says dumbly. "I mean a bottle of tequila." Julie rolls her eyes at her own stupidity. "Yes this is Julie." She wasn't going to tell him how happy and surprised she felt that he actually did call her. "About time." She says simply instead. 

"I mean, I could always hang up." He says. Julie hopes he is joking but decides she should probably save herself in case he isn't.

"That would be a bad idea."  She smiles. "Then you wouldn't find out how my sister felt about her gift." 

"Alright then." Cody says. "I can stick around that long. She open it yet?" 

"Nah, she's going to later though." Then without thinking  she says, "You could just come watch her open it." Julie isn't entirely sure why she actually invited him as in her mind she barely even knows him. Sometime my mind has another mind of its own. She thinks. 

There is a very long pause and Julie starts to worry. "Jokes aside." He finally says. "Are you inviting me to her birthday party or something?" 

It was kind of weird hearing him not have a sarcastic edge to everything he said for the first time. Julie thinks to herself. "I guess I am, if you want to come. I mean Lexi, my sister, did technically invite you." She can't help but feel a little giddy hoping he will say yes as she was honestly probably going to have a long night drinking and doing stupid shit and she would rather not do that tonight if she could help it. She was also a bit excited about the prospects of hanging out with a cute guy, even if he is a bit of a dork. 

"I don't know. I haven't really been out for awhile." He starts. "I might ruin her party by doing something stupid." he sort of laughs. 

"Believe me Cody, you can't do any worse than the things I have done at her parties." Julie says while laughing, remembering all the dumb shit she did to her sister on her birthdays. Lexi was not kidding about her using the plants as a bathroom. Another time Julie accidentally kissed her sisters boyfriend thinking he was her own, which did not go over well with Lexi at all. Then there was the time she opened her sisters presents for her. Come to think of it, I was a pretty annoying older sister. Julie thinks. 

"If you say so, do I want to know what you meant by that?" Cody asks. "When is her party?  I'll need some time to get ready. I just got home from work a bit ago." 

"I'm not sure when it starts. I'm sure she doesn't mind you coming early or late though." Says Julie. She jumps up and down a bit on the balls of her feet as she is pretty happy he's saying yes. She has had bad experiences with new guys but there have been a few good ones and she was crossing her fingers that Cody is one of them. 

Julie tells Cody her address after giving him more information about the party. It takes a little bit of convincing but finally he gives in fully and when Julie hangs up the phone she can't help but smile wide. Cody is the first guy in awhile that has agreed to doing something she wants to do. Usually with other guys it's always about what they want to do or just finding any excuse to make out. It was too soon to assume Cody was either like that or not, she didn't want to get her hopes up. "I'll be cautious with him." She tells herself.