Thursday came around, and as soon as the lunch bell had rang, Tommy was waiting outside the classroom door for Jude. The class left first, and as soon as Tommy noticed the room was empty, he entered. Jude's hair was down, she was in black dress pants, black flip flops, and a blue shirt to match.
"Ready, girl?" Tommy asked.
"Yep, Quincy," Jude answered locking the door behind them as they walked down the hall and towards his Viper.
"I can't believe you still have this thing," Jude said, running her hands over the hood, remembering all the memories they had together in the car.
"Of course I do, you know that the longest relationship I've ever had was with this car," Tommy said with a grin that only made Jude laugh.
"So where to?" Tommy asked.
"There's a small private bistro on the corner of 75th and Donald Ave." Jude said looking through some of the song analysises that she had yet to grade.
"You bring your work with you everywhere now, Harrison?" Tommy asked, seeing the papers.
"Eh, not usually, I wanted to get a few more graded," Jude said marking one and then placing it back into the folder.
"So, I want to try and have an honest conversation. No bullshit," Tommy stated.
"Alright, do you want brutally honest, honest, or exagerated honesty?" Jude asked sarcastically.
"I'll take Honest for 400," Tommy added.
Jude smiled at the humorous banter they found themselves in, it felt like old times, a time that was all too familiar for them, and then the silence had started.
"With all honesty, I wish we could have moments like that with out the awkward silence following," Jude said as Tommy pulled into the parking lot. Tommy took off his shades and looked Jude in the eyes, Jude saw the pure emotion in his eyes, and knew for a fact that his next sentence would be the truth.
"Me too, and there are so many things I wanted to tell you years ago, but I never had the chance. In all honesty, you took the chance away from me by making everyone swear to you not to give me information," Tommy said, his eyes were not only filled with honesty, but hurt and pain as well. It killed Jude to see his eyes like that, and she quickly looked away.
"Sometimes I wish, I wish I hadn't left the way I did. But my heart was killed, and I'm still trying to revive it," Jude said looking up at Tommy with tears in her eyes. "I wanted to hear your explanation. But I knew I wouldn't be able to handle it, that's why I left. I took your daughter away from you for all the wrong reasons and I'm so sorry,". Jude started to sob in the car, she covered her face with her hands. She didn't want this to happen, but she knew that if they were to return to each other's lives, it would have to.
"How about now? Do you want to hear my explanation now?" Tommy asked her, rubbing her back.
Jude nodded as she stifled her tears and sobs and allowed Tommy to tell her exactly what he told Jess. Jude's eyes filled with even more tears. She felt horrible. Her heart sank even lower, and her voice left her once she heard everything was just a misunderstand. The sixteen years of pain and heartbreak for not only herself but her daughter were useless. It was all a waste of time, and all caused because she wouldn't let Tommy explain to her the truth.
After what seemed like hours, Jude kept repeating her sorries. Tommy just nodded, tears in his eyes also. Jude couldn't bare to look at him, she just kept her head down and the tears just kept streaming down her face.
"Oh god...oh god," Jude managed to say before her breaths started to become a lot shorter than usual. Tommy noticed the quicky change in her breathing and started to panic. He immediately brought her closer to him and hugged her, hoping it'd calm her down. Jude was shaking from all the crying and the information she had just heard. She still couldn't believe that the last fifteen years didn't have to happen.
Jude started to control her breathing and inhaled deeply, and exhaled slowly, calming herself down. She kept repeating this as she pulled away from Tommy, who just kept his eyes on her, full of worry. Jude wiped her eyes and then looked back to Tommy, who searched her eyes for some sign of reassurance, which he was granted.
"So, about that lunch," Jude said with a small smile.
"You ok Jude? That was a lot of information to take in," Tommy said.
"Well, it's not everyday I hear that the last fifteen years I've spent away from home were based off a misunderstanding. But what can I say, all apologies," Jude said, quoting Kurt Cobain.
Tommy gave a weak smile, he knew she was hurting, that all that had transpired between the two in the last 20 minutes killed her. But he needed to tell her and she needed to hear his explanation in order to move on. Jude smiled weakly and pulled Tommy into a hug and whispered her sorries into his ear. He only nodded, he understood why Jude didn't allow him to explain in the first place, but it was going to take time for him to finally tell her he accepted her apologies.
"Alright, well, let's go get that lunch, ok?" Tommy said as Jude nodded and they finally exited the car and walked into the restaurant.
Jess was sitting with her friends at lunch in the cafeteria, she was just quietly munching while her friend Vera was making some sort of gossip towards the latest "Star" magazine article, which was of course about Tommy.
"Jeez, the guy is 42 and still isn't married, that's just sad," Vera said. Jess looked up at her with a glare on her face. She couldn't believe Vera hadn't heard already.
"That sad 42 year old guy, is my dad," Jess said sharply, if looks could kill Vera would be 6 feet under and her body disintegrating.
"What? You're kidding right," Vera said, shocked at the news.
"Am I laughing? And you don't know anything about him, so just shut up," Jess said grabbing her guitar case and walking towards the studio building.
When Jess walked in, she nearly froze in her tracks. Ever since she started school there, she had fallen head over heels for Matthew Dessen. He had light brown hair and honey caramel colored eyes. He was 6 foot, with a slight natural build, and of course, as is every student at the school, a musician.
"Hey Jess, what's up?" he asked her, he was eating a ham sandwich and had his ipod out and taking some notes on the song he was listening to.
"Um...uh...not much, you?" Jess asked taking a seat next to him.
"Same, just listening to the latest song your mom assigned for us to analyze," Matt responded, showing her his ipod. The song was "Chariot" by Gavin DeGraw.
"I didn't know my mom was your teacher," Jess said handing him back his ipod.
"Yeah, I'd have to say her class is the only one I don't fall asleep in," Matt said with a smile. Jess smiled at him and leaned back into the chair.
"So why are you here? You don't usually come into the studio," Matt said.
"How do you know I'm not usually in here?" Jess asked, curiosity getting the better of her.
"Because this is where I sit everyday at lunch, and whenever you come in here you run straight into a studio and start writing and either playing your guitar or the piano, you play the piano when you're writing something more easy going and personal, and your guitar when you just need to jam," Matt remarked.
"That's...are you my watcher or something?" Jess asked on a chuckle.
"No, it's just hard to not notice you," Matt added. Jess smiled at his comment and started blushing a little.
"So, yeah, that's...pretty observant of you," Jess said, still smiling.
"So what kind of mood were you in today? More easy going, personal, or just wanted to jam?" he asked.
"Eh, more of a slightly pissed kind of mood. I'm sure you've already heard that I JUST found out who my dad is like, a month ago," Jess said.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure everyone has heard by now," Matt said drinking some of his starbucks.
"Well, my friend Vera hadn't, and she openly dissed him right in front of me," Jess explained.
"You're kidding? The nerve some people have," Matt muttered.
"I KNOW! So I was kind of pissed about that and- wait, why am I talking to you about all of this? We barely know each other," Jess said.
"Um, not sure, I guess you just needed someone to talk to," Matt said.
"Yeah, well, I'm going to get going now," Jess said grabbing her stuff, but not in time for Matt to stand up first.
"Meet with me some where," he said before Jess had time to walk away.
"What?"
"Meet with me here, after school today. Kind of like a date,"
"A date at the school's studio?"
"I know it sounds lame, but I thought maybe afterwards we could go for some coffee or something,"
"Alright, you're on," Jess said with a smile just as the bell rang, she waved bye to him and walked off to her next class.