A/N: Helloz, readers! You don't know how happy I am! I was checking up on my mail today and I suddenly became all giddy from all the adds and reviews I've gotten. I was so compelled by this apprecation of my work, I decided to update! Yay! Thanks to, Bookish for reviewing as always, a7xluver for the Author Add, Asthetic for the review, and the adds from Ollie. I have a distinct feeling I'm forgetting someone, but I just can't remember who. Oh well, if I have forgotten to thank you, I'll take care of it in my next A/N. Also, if anyone actually cares, I've reached the 650 hits mark. Yeah, yeah, not a lot, I know, but I'm still very proud! Keep showing the love and I'll keep writing. Thanks for everything, guys! Oh, and quick remark before this chapter starts, not really that long or one of my bests, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. (Did that rhyme? Gaspeth!)


My Belle
Chapter Seven
Let Me Take You Down
"Destiny is not a matter of chance; but a matter of choice."-William Jennings Bryant

Jude and Lucy probably would've been in the bedroom at this point, but the depth of the night's events were still weighing heavy in their minds. So rather than "spreading the love", they were seated at the kitchen table sipping on their coffee and tea, wearing strange expressions on their faces.

Not long after Max and Michelle had left Strawberry Jamz, the topic of the two quickly arose.

"She's hiding something," Jude announced most certainly.

"Why would you say that?" Prudence asked thoroughly confused.

"Isn't it obvious?" he replied. "She goes through all the trouble of telling us that story then cuts it short at the most vital part. She doesn't want us knowing something."

"Maybe she doesn't want us knowing something about Max," Prudence suggested, suddenly jumping onto Jude's wagon.

"That's ridiculous," Lucy rolled her eyes, apparently not up for a ride. "If something major happened to Max, I would've known."

Jojo leaned on his guitar. "You knew nothin' about her and they seemed really close."

"How would you know? You were in there playing," Lucy pointed out. "Whose side are you on?"

"No side," Jojo replied serenely and that stopped Lucy from retorting back.

"So what'd you think happened to them?" Sadie asked Jude, crossing her arms and propping herself against the doorway.

Jude swallowed knowing full well what had happened, 'course he wasn't about to tell them. Max could confess the truth when it was the right time. It wasn't Jude's place. So to answer Sadie's question, he shrugged.

"They were probably intimate," Jojo said insightfully.

"She doesn't seem Max's type," Lucy said wistfully, pondering over the thought.

Sadie snorted. "Max has a type? He fucks everything that moves." She stopped short. "Well, before he got drafted."

It suddenly became very quiet and they tried to move away from that solemn subject.

"Maybe that's the point, she wasn't his type," Prudence piped up recalling her relationship with Max.

"If anything, I can only see her being a friend which is already hard to imagine to begin with," Lucy said. "Max didn't have many friends that were girls."

"But didn't you see them today?" Prudence said making a very dramatic gesture with her arms. "They were practically smitten with each other."

"Oh, Pru, Pru, Pru," Jude chuckled, shaking his head.

Jude's small outburst didn't derail her. She continued. "And did you see the way her eyes went when she was telling her story; whenever she mentioned him? They're in love!"

"Or were in love," Jojo mumbled.

"When'd you say they meet up again?" Sadie asked.

"Two days ago, I s'pose," Jude answered.

"And they're already acting like that. Something definitely happened," Sadie said.

Lucy sighed. "I wouldn't mind if Michelle and Max got together. I think a little positive energy is what he needs after…everything."

Everyone agreed.

Jude stirred his coffee rhythmically as Lucy sipped her tea across from him. "He's taking a while," he said abruptly.

"Now who's acting motherly?" Lucy chirped, smirking.

Jude rolled his eyes. "You don't think—?"

Lucy shook her head furiously, her long blonde hair swirling around her shoulders. "No. Did they do anything the last time he dropped her off? She doesn't seem like she's easy."

Jude nodded. "That's true. But you never know; young love in the air, the nights are getting hotter, and Max has been clean for a long time (in more ways than one)."

"Or, he could be just taking his time getting back," Lucy replied, staring at her nails. "You know that's also possible. What is it with guys and sex?"

Jude shrugged. "We just can't seem to get it out of our heads."

""Least you're honest," Lucy crooned pressing her lips into his.

It wasn't two seconds when Max burst into the room ruining the moment.

Lucy was about to greet him but she noticed the angst written across his face. She jumped to her feet with worry. "Max? What happened?"

But Max didn't answer. He couldn't seem to be capable. His hands shook and all of a sudden he grabbed a pillow from a nearby chair and chucked it across the room with a great and powerful yell. (A/N: I was channeling the Strawberry Fields vibe during this, so imagine it's Max instead of Jude; and instead of strawberries, he's throwing pillows, much less destructive and messy.) Lucy inched backwards in surprise and Jude jumped to her side equally flabbergasted. Max continued to throw pillows and cushions around in his fit. Lucy and Jude were too petrified to stop him. Finally after he seemed to have petered out, he crumpled to the floor in a big sweaty heap, his chest heaving to grasp breaths of air and his hair drenched. This was when the two chose to run up and address him fully.

"Max?" Lucy whispered hesitantly, rubbing his arm and dropping down beside him. "Are you okay?"

Max just shook his head as if he was disappointed in something.

"You had us a little worried back there, mate," Jude said in an effort to lighten the mood.

Max's face fell to his hands and when he spoke his words were muffled. "Oh, Jude."

"Yes, Max?" Jude leaned down hopefully.

But "Oh, Jude" was all Max could say. Over and over he said it in an eerie sort of chant. Lucy's eyes began to swim with tears as she looked her poor brother up and down, feeling completely helpless. Jude had expected that Max was crying as well, but when he eventually lifted his face from his hands he saw that his face was dry (apart from the sweat), although he looked extremely tired and wasted.

"Max?" Jude said.

Max shook his head. "I'm sorry, Jude."

"For what?"

"For your dad leaving you when you were little, for you having to live without him all those years, for you hating him—"

"What do you mean?" Jude asked.

Lucy took her brother by the arm. "C'mon, we can't talk like this." She tried to hoist Max up, but he showed no effort in trying to leave the ground. Lucy shot a look at Jude and he helped her. They propped him up onto the sofa and they both took seats on either side of him. "Go ahead, Max. Tell us what you need to say."

"You know, Jude, when I met you and I found out about your situation, I asked myself what kind of dick dad would walk out on a girl pregnant," Max began. "You knocked someone up and then have the audacity to just leave? Why would you do that? Just leave someone you love and forget about them only to find that you have a kid years later." Max stopped and stared down at his hands.

"What does that have to do with you?" Lucy asked.

"I've become the one person that I've hated," Max mumbled. His head fell back into the sofa's soft cushions and he stared at the ceiling as if it was the reason he was so mad. "Michelle has a kid."

Lucy and Jude exchanged a look.

"But it isn't yours, is it?" Lucy asked hopefully, although she already knew the answer. "I mean, you guys were just friends."

"C'mon, Luc, did you not see her? How could I be just friends with that?" Max replied in his usual manner and Lucy and Jude loosened up a bit. Atleast he wasn't screaming and throwing things around. Despite the bomb he had just dropped, it was good that he had returned—slightly—to the old Max they had once known.

Max sighed loudly. "I was so stupid."

"Well atleast you know now," Jude said. "The boy's still young, I'm guessing, you still have an opportunity to make things right. I didn't meet my dad till much later. Probably why I was so bitter."

"I just don't want him to hate me," Max murmured. "And I don't want her to hate me either, the way I ran out of there."

Lucy laid her head upon Max's shoulder. "Don't worry, you'll make things right. I know you will. Just rest for tonight, you can always talk to her tomorrow."

Max nodded, pressing his cheek into Lucy's sweet smelling hair. "Yeah, I think I'll do that."