I Have Been Chosen

Cody 1

Saturday 3rd January

"Hey, so, what should I wear tomorrow?" asked Cody. "How formal is this dinner going to be? I'll wear my very best plaid shirt," he chuckled. Then he stopped as he saw Colene's face.

"Tomorrow?" Colene smiled through gritted teeth, tilting her head. "What do you mean?"

Cody paused. "Oh, sorry, is it not tomorrow?"

Colene frowned. "What's not tomorrow?"

"I thought you said your parents would be visiting," Cody said slowly. "And we were going to dinner? Is that not tomorrow?"

Colene swallowed. "Yeah!" She smiled. "That's tomorrow."

There was a pause.

Cody stared at her. "So..." he shrugged. "Dinner? How formal is it going to be?"

"Oh, Cody, sweetie..." Colene gave a sympathetic smile, taking his hands in hers. "We only booked for the three of us, me and my parents. I'm sorry, I didn't know you wanted to come along too; otherwise, I would have booked it for four people."

Sucking his lips, Cody smiled and nodded, but inside, he questioned why he could not easily join. Tables usually had four seats, or another multiple of two, so surely he could come along too; there would be no trouble. What kind of weird restaurant had tables that only had three seats?

"Well, yeah, I guess I should have said," said Cody eventually, and Colene squeezed his hands before returning to fixing up her hair in the bedroom mirror.

Cody glanced back at the shirt he had freshly ironed for dinner tomorrow. He had never ironed his shirts since he wore a school uniform. He had to go to his friend's house as he did not own an iron of his own. His arms closed around himself, standing awkwardly in his own bedroom.

"I did say that I wanted to meet them," he finally said, his voice warbling. "I asked about what you wanted to do with Christmas and what order we should visit our folks' places."

"Yes, and I said that my family's house is quite small; we wouldn't have enough space with you and my siblings," said Colene, still looking into the mirror.

Cody swallowed. "And you said that my family lived too far away and you wouldn't be able to visit them since you don't have much time off from work."

"I'm sorry, Cody; I know it wasn't ideal-"

"I'm sure the restaurant won't mind us adding another person; a table can fit four people easily, won't they?"

Cody already knew the answer; it was more of a test of something he had known for a while now.

He saw in the mirror Colene's face freeze for a moment, and then she turned with that fake smile plastered on.

"Cody..." she cooed in that insipid high-pitched voice. "I already said-"

"You don't want me to meet your parents, do you?" Cody's voice broke. The energy in his legs left him, and he sat on the bed to help control the shaking.

"Where did all this seriousness come from?" Colene caressed Cody's cheek, then slowly slid down his neck to his broad shoulder. "Where's my happy Cody, hmm? Where's that charming smile? Where's my big puppy dog?"

Colene attempted to straddle his lap, but Cody resisted, looking away as she forced him to look at her, the purple acrylic nails digging into his skin. She giggled, pushing the corners of Cody's lips upwards into a smile. "There we are," she hushed. "Much better. There's my happy Cody-"

"Please get off of me," mumbled Cody, forcing his face away and out of her clutches.

"Cody-"

"Please, get off!"

Colene eventually got off his lap and stumbled back a step, a scowl on her face. "There's no need to be so aggressive! What's gotten to you, huh!" She adjusted her fallen bra strap and folded her arms, pacing around. "Why are you so mopy all of a sudden?"

Cody gripped his knees, staring at the floor until he finally collected himself and looked up at her. "Why do you not want me to meet your parents?" he said quietly. "We've been together for so long; I thought things would be serious by this point?"

Colene's mouth twitched. "We never said any of this was that serious."

"I said on our first date that I wanted something serious," Cody said flatly.

"And I thought you were just saying that to get into my knickers." Colene shrugged. "Like all men say."

"I was being truthful." Cody tightened his grip on his knees. "Do you not want to have a serious relationship with me?" Cody's voice croaked. "Because I thought we were... in one..."

"Cody, sweetie." Colene tried to caress his cheek again, but he jolted away from her touch. "I have enjoyed our time together, really I have. It's been fun."

Cody flinched at the word, a word that many people had described what being with him was like. Fun.

"But you're not exactly..." Colene winced, choosing her words wisely as if what she had already said hadn't hurt. "Presentable."

"Presentable?" Cody said slowly.

"You were going to wear a plaid shirt to dinner with my parents!" Colene hissed, motioning to the ironed shirt that Cody had laid out neatly nearby.

"I don't have any formal shirts; that's my smartest one. I don't go out to fancy restaurants like that-"

"Yeah, because you still work at a fast food place in your thirties!"

"I'm the assistant manager-"

"You think I'd be proud to show someone like that?"

"I love my job!" Cody stood up, and Colene backed away, trembling at the man's height. He was unsure if she was truly scared of him at this moment or just putting it on, pretending to be the victim in the situation. "Do you love your job?" Cody asked.

"Do you know how much I make?" retaliated Colene. "We can barely go out with how little you have! I want to have fun! That's what your jobs are for! To pay for fun! But you can't give that to me!"

Cody sucked in a breath, attempting to remain calm. "I'm breaking up with you."

Colene froze, her face scrunched up. 

"I want you out of my house."

Colene scoffed, picking up her makeup kit and jacket on the dresser. "You should have just been happy with what you had, Cody."

"It seems I barely had anything, to begin with," said Cody coldly as Colene slipped on her high heels and opened the front door.

"We were never together!" spat Colene.

"It definitely felt like that, yeah," said Cody, drowned out by the door slamming, Colene leaving.

"You're a lot of fun, Cody."

"You're always smiling."

"The life of the party."

"Mr Fun."

"Like a human puppy."

"A golden retriever."

"So full of energy."

"You're like a child."

"Your name is childish too."

He had heard all of this multiple times, the reasons why people were drawn to him, which were the exact reasons why no one could take him seriously.

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Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now by The Smiths

[When Cody hits the high notes in the chorus, his voice strains, not because he cannot sing that high, but because he thinks of all that time he spent with Colene. Almost a year of his life that he had been building with her, and now all that was gone in just one evening.]