I'm back and I hope everyone had a nice holiday!
This next post, and the one that will follow it, are two more of my favorites. I always seem to love the ones with juicy drama or Tommy/Jude cuteness. These are drama filled, so I'm hoping you love them too. I'm taking a mini-vacation to celebrate New Year's so I'll be gone from Thurs thru Sunday. But, I promise to update with the next post on Wed before I leave and then again when I get back. I'm thinking you'll want the next update quickly after you read this chapter--it's a bit of a cliffhanger :-)
Just wanted to send another quick note of thanks to everybody for all of your reviews. I feel honored in a way to be getting such nice feedback--you all are truly the best! Hope you enjoy this chapter too!
The snow continued to fall outside as Jude stared at the ceiling, only this ceiling had less cracks. A smile was plastered on her face as she remembered every detail of the night before. The feel of his hand on her cheek, how he held her while he slept. In a daze, she forced herself up and headed towards the kitchen while everyone else slept.
Her mom was making coffee as she grabbed a Pop Tart from the box on the counter and sat down, still in thought. Kat, Kristen, Ryan, and Drew appeared in the doorway moments later.
"Morning," Kristen said, sitting next to Jude. "Where's Sadie? She's not in her sleeping bag."
"She slept upstairs. We were hanging out up there so she just stayed for the night," Jude responded, hoping to avoid more questions in front of Ryan.
"Hey," Drew said, approaching Jude. "I feel like I didn't see you yesterday."
"Yeah, I know. I guess we both got pulled into separate games," Jude lied.
"Do you want to hang out today?" he asked.
"Um…maybe, yeah," Jude replied dubiously. Just then, she caught a glimpse of Kwest, Jamie, and Tommy approaching the counter. She immediately felt nervous at the sight of him. He grew tense as he spotted her, watching Drew flirt with her and remembering their night before.
Jude feigned paying attention to Drew's story about his Monopoly game yesterday, feeling Tommy's eyes on her. She laughed with Drew, subtly turning her head to meet his eyes across the room. She smiled at him and he gave her a small smile back. She quickly looked back at Drew, hoping he hadn't noticed.
Tommy subtly moved towards the box of Pop Tarts behind Jude. Drew stopped his story as he approached, recalling the Truth or Dare game the day before.
"So…Jude, want to play cards? I'm the master Gin Rummy player," Drew said, watching Tommy take a Pop Tart out of the box. Jude kept her eyes on Drew but felt flustered.
"What? Oh umm, sure…I don't know how to play Gin Rummy though."
"I can teach you," Drew offered as Tommy brushed up against Jude's shoulder putting the box back on the counter.
She turned to look at him, "Hi."
"Hi," he responded. He then looked at Drew and said, "Hey."
"Hey," Drew said, turning to resume his conversation with Jude. "So, I'll teach you."
"Is it like Go Fish?" Jude questioned.
Tommy sniggered, still listening, as Drew responded, "Nope. Go Fish doesn't require much thought. This game does."
"Then Jude won't like it," Tommy mumbled.
"What?" she said to him, acting offended.
"You won't like it. You'd rather play a game that doesn't make your head hurt," he scoffed.
"Excuse me, I enjoy thinking. I played Scrabble yesterday--that involves thought."
"And how did you do?" Tommy replied, knowing the answer.
Jude sunk into her seat, not wanting to admit her total word score was 22 when everyone else was over 100. She turned back to Drew and avoided Tommy's question. "You were saying—Gin Rummy?"
Tommy laughed as Drew decided to get her away from his competition. "Let's go play. I'll show you how, you'll do great."
Jude shrugged and hesitantly stood up to follow him, meeting Tommy's eyes. She started to walk and looked back at him with a coy smile, sensing an opportunity to make him jealous. He shook his head and smiled back, watching her leave.
Drew spent all morning teaching Jude how to play Gin Rummy, which she didn't care for. Sadie had gotten up late and was reading a book on the sofa, while Tommy, Jamie and Kat were playing Chutes and Ladders. Jude's mom and Steven were playing Scrabble at the dining room table.
Drew was focused on Jude, but Jude couldn't help but occasionally sneak glances at Tommy who kept stealing glances back at her. She felt butterflies whenever their eyes met. The longer she sat there, the more restless she became with Drew.
Kwest, who had apparently found a radio the night before, brought it into the dining room for the weather report. Everyone stopped their games to listen. A voice said that the snow was slowing but was expected to reach a total of about 2 feet. A few people walked into the dining room to listen further, which Jude took as her cue to leave.
She stood up, saying, "I need a break. I'm going to see if there are any other games in the basement." Drew nodded and joined the group around the radio.
Jude slipped out of the room and headed into the basement holding a flashlight. She walked towards the back corner and leaned against the wall, taking a deep breath to unwind. She was with Drew but all she could think about was Tommy. She didn't know what was going on between them, but whatever it was, took hold of her.
Slumping against the wall, she heard creaking on the stairs. She shone her flashlight towards the sound to see none other than the guy on her mind. He pointed his flashlight back at her and smiled.
"You didn't think I was going to let you come down here by yourself, did you?"
She turned the flashlight off and shook her head. "Guess it's kind of hard to escape, considering we can't go very far."
"You're escaping?" Tommy said, walking over and leaning against the wall next to her.
She looked at him and sighed. "Not escaping exactly. Just needing to breathe."
He turned towards her. "Why can't you breathe?"
She opened her mouth to speak but stopped herself. She couldn't breathe because of him, because of how he was making her feel, but she didn't want to admit that.
So she softly said, "I think you know why."
They looked at each other in the dark and she noticed that he was gently holding her hand. She bit her bottom lip at his touch, feeling him strengthen his grip and edge in closer to her. The tension intensified as he looked into her eyes, not being able to resist her gaze. He surrendered and grabbed her, pressing his lips onto hers. She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. He kissed her deeply as she leaned up against the wall, feeling his hands run up and down her sides.
Her eyes were shut but she vaguely heard the sound of footsteps above them in the living room.
"Closet," she managed to get out in between kisses.
Still clinging to each other, they stumbled towards the closet. She felt the closet door behind her and reached for the knob, their kiss not wavering. She turned it, releasing the door. They parted lips for a moment, breathing heavily, and she stepped into the closet, grabbing his shirt and pulling him in with her. He walked towards her and reunited his lips with hers as she kicked the door closed. Stepping further into the closet, she ran her fingers through his hair, while he tugged at her sweatshirt.
Jude leaned up against what she thought was the wall, but realized it wasn't a wall and it was moving. She jumped, causing them to break apart. Suddenly, a bright light shone on both of them and Jude shrieked as she saw who she had bumped into.