Chapter 10: No Doubt

"H-hello…?" Jude felt his phone slowly slipping from his trembling hand; the fact that his palm was unusually sweaty doing no help as he attempted to keep from dropping the object.

He could almost hear the brunette smile on the other end of the line. "Jude. Hey." The way Trisha slowly drawled out his name made him shudder.

"Hey…Trisha. 'S-sup?" Of all the times for her to call…

She didn't hesitate to respond, "I was wondering if maybe you could come tomorrow. Like, I feel like I haven't talked to you in forever. It's just so crazy, and—"

The blonde had tuned out her words right from 'tomorrow'. How exactly was he going to explain this to his friends, since he had literally just fought with them merely minutes ago? It wasn't as if avoiding them would make anything better, either.

'…Wait'.

It was only then that Jude realized he hadn't even given her offer a second thought before inwardly agreeing to it; nearly ready to confirm it out loud. …Was he seriously putting this girl over the friends he's had for years? What had gotten into him-? God, if there was any time he had wished he had the help of the little mini-angel that sat on people's shoulders, happily whispering much-needed advice into the person's ear, it was now. Of course, this was one of the rare moments where Jude was forced to approach the problem head-on, as opposed to sitting back and letting it wash over.

For once, he was actually involved in the problem itself and seemed to be the only one who could make things better. …Too bad he had no idea how to do just that.

"…and I mean, the shoes were practically to die for, trust me…" Trisha continued to ramble, not seeming take note of the fact that the conversation had long since become one-sided. It was only natural for her to assume that whenever she was talking to someone, their silence must have meant that they were listening intently and taking in every little detail. Jude was no exception, apparently.

On the contrary however, as stated before, Jude had been too absorbed in his own frantic thoughts to pay much attention to the brunette's voice. Then again, judging by the fact that she had somehow gotten onto a completely irrelevant topic within the course of less than two minutes…he figured he hadn't really missed anything important, anyway.

His eyes flickered downward to the ground, taking a moment to focus on the untied laces of his shoes, which were still soaked from the earlier rainstorm. "Hey, Trisha?"

"…But he's so not my type anyway. I thought it was just like, so annoying…"

'Say what?' He tried again, this time a bit louder. "Yo, dudette, I—"

A pause, then Jude could hear what sounded out to be a forced laugh of some sort. "…you weren't even listening to me, were you…?" The way she said this made it seem as if it were more of a fact, rather than a question. "Ugh, you know Jude…it's really ignorant to just have me talking to myself for like, the past forty minutes." While both knew that this was an exaggeration, neither commented further on it.

Not expecting the sudden coldness in her tone, it took a second for him to find his own voice again. "I…uh…sorry bra, but I thought we were like…talkin' about meeting up…not…dudes and shoes…"

"'Dudes and Shoes'? Maybe if you had been listening, you would know that everything I just said had to do with meeting up! Ugh, are you really that dense?" Trisha barked, causing the shaggy-haired blonde to immediately flinch and hold his phone a safe distance away from his now-ringing ear.

"C-calm down, bra…I didn't know, alright?" He had nearly forgotten how easy it was to offend her. Apparently Jude just had the ability to do so with just a few innocent words. Cautiously, he forced himself to quickly change the subject, hoping that his next reply would soothe her increasing anger. "Anyway…I was gonna say that I think I could pro'lly meet up with you…but I think it'd be easier at the fountain…"

"…Why?"

"Well I mean I pretty much pass by it everyday after work anyway, so I'd be able to see you—"

"No no no. I mean, what do you mean 'probably'? It's going to be Saturday, so I highly doubt you'll have anything else that's as important as this, right?"

At this, Jude found himself frowning. Having been around her for so long now, he had learned to not let Trisha affect him…for the most part, at least. But there were some instances where it took all of his self control not to speak out against her for things that just…just bothered him. This happened to be one of those things.

'I think that risking running into my friends falls under the 'pretty dang important' category.' It was bad enough that he had taken a beating from the gang, the last thing he needed was for her to assume he was supposed to ignore his own drama and focus on her. "Uh…well, yeeah, but…like I said…work and stuff…maybe I'll have to stay overtime…" Jude couldn't bring himself to admit that the white lie was made out of fear of facing his own friends.

He didn't think he could take another round of disappointed accusations pointed at him.

"But like," he continued, slowly walking out from under the awning, "…I think we gotta talk…so I'm gonna try my best to make it there."

Actually, he was looking forward to tomorrow now…but Trisha didn't need to know that, lest he unwillingly add to her already overly-confident aura.

"Hmm, you promise?" She had switched back into 'bff-mode'; that is, the personality she used with one of her shopping buddies. All previous traces of suspiciousness had disappeared after it had processed what Jude was telling her.

He swallowed a lump in his throat, nodding silently and adding a quick, "mhm." Before she had a chance to respond, Jude immediately flipped his phone close, shoving it deep into his pocket as if doing so would lessen the chance of her calling him back.

Though the conversation had been lacking, in those few moments that he had gotten to himself, Jude was finally beginning to open his eyes. He never wanted to feel isolated from his friends again, and it was about time that Trisha knew this. Sure, it had taken him weeks to finally make this decision, but he was going to confront her, and then talk it all over with his friends afterward, and explain everything. Everything.

Besides, the plan seemed fool-proof as of right now, and there was a good chance that it still wasn't too late to laugh this story off with everyone, days from now.

…The only thing that could possibly ruin this moment of revelation was the little voice in his head that insisted on reminding him he had destroyed any chance to change things and make them the way they were long ago. And, no matter how hard he tried to block out the intangible nag, it only seemed to get louder and louder.

It only took a few more steps out into the cold night air before he began to doubt his own intentions as well.


Writer's block can be such a bother, I swear.