"Pizza, or thai?" asked Jamie, sinking back into the couch, and taking Jude's hand. Jude smiled awkwardly. It was nice Jamie loved her, but the hand thing...
Drove her mad.
That one time Jude and Jamie were a couple, appeared to have never ended for Jamie. Jude, however, had moved on. Way on. To cheesy boybanders, but whatever. Jude and Jamie were two seperate people in her mind, not Jude-and-Jamie. They were friends. Period. She slid her hand from underneath Jamie's and pretended to have a copper hair she needed to brush away. Then, she answered Jamie's question. She would have answered a million to keep his hand off hers...
"Um, chinese. We had thai and pizza last week."
"Oh, ok," said Jamie, and he picked up the phone, and walked into the kitchen. In came Dana, headphones on, bashing imaginary drums with her sticks.
"Boom, boom, boom - crash!" she muttered, her eyes closed. Jude reached up and plucked the headphones from her daughter's ebony head.
"Hey, babe," she said, twisting a curl round her finger.
Dana shrugged away. "Is that a voice I can hear? Is it just some pathetic mother who decided to keep her daughter's father a secret?" she said to herself, avoiding Jude's gaze.
"Dana-" started Jude, but Dana grabbed her headphones and walked away, nearly knocking Jamie over, who emerged from the kitchen with two cans of Grolsch beer. Good, that kept his hands occupied...
Jamie, noticing Jude's glum look, handed her a can, then put his free arm around her.
"Whats wrong?" he whispered in her ear.
"Dana's not speaking to me," she said aloud, but inside her head she was saying 'Get off! I do not like you in that great way- ok? Last time I let you kiss me I was sixteen! I am now twenty six!'
Again, she smiled awkwardly, and fake-sneezed, for an excuse to sit fowards.
"You know what?" she said. "I think I'd better speak to her, clear things up. I hate things being messy between us. And she's not even a teenager yet, so God help me then! Ha ha ha..." she laughed uneasily and slid off to Dana's room. She didnt want to hurt Jamie, but she just didn't feel the same way.
She paused outside Dana's door, suddenly cowardly. But then Jamie's yell of "Hurry up, thie pie'll be here soon!" pushed her to knock the door.
"If its anyone but my mother, come in!" shouted Dana. Jude took a deep breath and entered anyway. As soon as Dana saw her face, she dropped her head and went back to her drums.
"Danny," Jude spoke softly. "I'm sorry I never told you about Tommy. I knew you'd freak out, like you are now. The thing is, I loved Tommy. He's still in my heart somewhere, and he'll always be. He just hurt me, and the subject of your dad's still a little sore. But I do love him, Dan."
"Of course you do," replied Dana scathingly. "Thats why you replaced him so easily with Jamie the Dork."
"Between you and me," Jude dropped her voice to a whisper. "I haven't loved Dorky since I was sixteen. He just doesn't seem to remember that we broke up."
A giggle escpaed Dana's pretty lips. She smiled, and threw her arms around Jude.
"I'm sorry Mom," she said. "I'm sorry I ignored you, I'm sorry Dad hurt you. I love you."
Jude shut her eyes, and hugged tighter, just wishing she could shut out the terrible memory of Tommy's betrayal just as easily.