a/n: TommyQLovr- I originally wanted the video to be about Tommy leading Jude on and then breaking her heart. That's what it sounded like when I first found Lead Me On. But then I started to change the lyrics and I went crazy and then I just thought up scenes as I was typing :P Not very organized, but hey, it works for the way I wanted the plot to go.
I wrote this chapter on a caffeine high while listening to techno electronica for two days straight, so hopefully its not crap. I'm sorry it was a slow update. This was my first case ofwriters block I guess.
The rays of sun woke Jude the next morning to hear a loud beeping. She turned over and shut off her alarm lazily. The clock face flashed red; it was almost ten and Jude was going to be late, no doubt about it.
She took her time getting ready and didn't head out the door until eleven. The roads were packed with traffic and it would be a long drive to the shooting location. Jude flipped open her phone to reveal three missed calls.
"Georgia…" Jude muttered as she started the engine to her poor excuse for a car. "EJ… and Tommy." She shrugged and tossed the phone onto the passenger's seat. Since she turned sixteen Jude had learned how to maintain some composure on the road. She had also managed to learn how to dance and drive at the same time. With her favorite radio station blasting, this is exactly what Jude was doing. She didn't want to think about the video at the moment and dancing was all she could do to let loose.
Jude arrived at a little downtown location about an hour later. It was a large gray building with no aesthetically pleasing features. There was a parking garage next to it in which Jude left her car. She entered the boring building calmly and looked around. People were going crazy running, walking, pacing, calling, painting, moving, and talking. There was never so much hustle and bustle in her previous videos.
"Jude!" She turned around and saw a very flustered looking Georgia pounce at her. "Where have you been? You were supposed to be rehearsing over an hour ago!"
Jude gave a slight smile. "Sorry, traffic."
Georgia shook her head and began pushing Jude through the crowd. "Go! Go in there and get instructions." She forced Jude into a room in the back of the building. It was small, cramped, and full of people. The only person she recognized in the room was Tommy.
Tommy smiled and Jude edged over to him. "What is this?" She asked.
He shrugged. "They're instructing everybody on their rolls in the video. Apparently a few people canceled and the video was so last minute that nobody knows what they're doing."
"Ms. Harrison, so nice of you to join us." A short, bulky man with bristly facial hair and a sour expression approached her. "I am Ron Beckingfeild, I run the choreography of the videos shot in this studio."
"We're dancing?" Jude asked incredulously.
Ron chuckled. "No, my dear, but you are not just throwing a video together however you want to. You will have to know where to go, where to stand, what to do, when to sing, and when to step out of the picture."
Tommy rolled his eyes and Jude frowned. She already didn't like this guy and she had just met him.
For another hour Ron instructed the room of people on exactly what they were supposed to look like, feel like, walk like, talk like, and act like. Jude was told her character was a seductress that always got what she wanted, even if she had plead. Tommy was just a guy that was in love with a girl who was already married. John, the guy who played Jude's husband, was too in love with Jude to not let her hurt him.
Jude had yet to eat and at noon they had to begin filming, no lunch breaks for anyone.
"It'll be alright, girl." Jude and Tommy stood on the edge of the first set. It was a sidewalk with a few poles and parking meters in front of a green screen. Jude nodded and he left to take his place in the crowd.
"Everybody take your places!" Somebody called. Jude settled against the first light pole. People all around scrambled and began walking back and forth as if it were a busy street in the city.
"Annnnd action!" The music began and Jude searched the crowd with her eyes. She spotted Tommy who gave her a reassuring look before playing his role as a lost guy in the crowd.
Jude began to mouth the words to her song. "Turn around to see you
In a crowded place
I watch for the emotions
On a guarded face
Saying lead me on."
"And cut! Room 23 people!" Jude bustled into wardrobe, got changed into something that looked like lingerie, and headed towards the new set. She and John were the only two people in this scene because they were going to edit Tommy's image into it later.
Jude settled into the bed with John already in it.
"Wow, in bed with Jude Harrison. Next to Tommy Q., I must be the luckiest guy in the world." He remarked.
Jude laughed quietly but quickly stiffened as the cameras began to turn on.
"And action!"
The music played and Jude sat straight up, clutching her head.
"A matter out of time
In the reaches of space."
She got out of the bed and walked through a fake wall with a doorframe in it and into the bathroom set.
"Caught up in the patterns
In the lie of a life."
Jude turned on the sink that actually ran water, splashed her face, and looked up. She jumped back and turned around.
"Walk across the bridge
To the shadows of the night."
She stood there for a while and then turned back around to clutch the side of the sink.
"Saying lead me on
Lead me on
Lead me on
On and on."
"Cut! The back room for the next shot!" Jude scuffled off to wardrobe again. Now she and Tommy were going to have tokiss. Not just in the shadows of a secluded place where no one would find out, but in front of cameras and people everywhere. Jude didn't know if she could hold back on her passion; sometimes Tommy's aura consumed her so quickly that she could not fight back.
They had dressed Jude in dark jeans and a suitjacket with a lacy tank top underneath. She couldn't stop fidgeting with it; it was so damn itchy. The back room was not like any room Jude had ever been in. It was almost as big as a stadium and the walls were all painted bright green. The cameras were set up throughout a fake motel that could have fooled anyone.
Suddenly Jude felt a warm hand grasp her shoulder. She jumped slightly and tensed up when she saw it was Tommy.
"Relax, it won't be as bad as you think." He cooed.
"I don't get why we have to do this." She muttered.
"Because," Tommy shifted in his overly preppy clothes, "It's this or our jobs."
"Right."
"Places, everybody!" The director called.
Jude and Tommy took their stance on the faux sidewalk.
"Action!"
Together they walked into the building as the music played.
"Voices in the night
Chase my hopes away."
Tommy talked to the hotel worker for a brief moment before she handed him a hotel key. He placed a hand on the small of Jude's back and led her to a room.
"Looking in the mirror
It's easy to say
C'mon, lead me on."
"You ready?" He breathed.
Jude forced a slight smile. They entered the hotel room cautiously.
"The regrets of a lifetime
In the dreams of a day."
Both sat on the floral-print bed. Jude folded her arms nervously. What am I doing? I can't do this. I've gotta get out of here.
She attempted to stand up but Tommy wrapped an arm around her waist.
"Jude, we both have to suck it up. It'll be over before you know it."
"I can't do this, Tommy."
He slowly unraveled her arms and took her jacket off.
"C'mon, Jude. The sooner you get this over with the sooner we can get on with the rest of the video."
She looked down at her hands. Carefully Jude slid off the wedding ring and set it on the table beside the bed.
"When the coast is gettin' clearer
I hear you say
Lead me on."
Tommy smiled, but she could tell it was full of sadness. He wasn't sad that they were doing this; he was disappointed because she didn't want to be doing this.
Jude let Tommy lean her back onto the bed. She sucked in her breath as his warm body pressed her deeply into the spring mattress. Their lips grazed and Jude felt compelled to entangle her hands in his hair.
"And cut! Be back here in ten, people!"
The music stopped and Tommy pulled himself off of the bed. He offered his hand to Jude but she ignored it.
"Jude, don't be like this." She took off and he walked after her.
"I'm just uncomfortable, Tommy." Jude glanced back at him before walking into makeup.
Ten minutes later Jude was positioned for the fight scene. The motel had been miraculously transformed into a home, complete with yard and garden gnomes.
"Ready and action!"
Jude walked through the front door and greeted John with a peck on the cheek.
"Saying lead me on."
"How are we supposed to do this?" He asked with a smile.
"Lead me on."
"I don't know."
"Lead me on."
His brows furrowed and touched the side of Jude's mouth. "They actually had to take you into makeup for that?"
"On and on."
She tried hard to fight a smile but lost the battle.
"Cut! Cut! Cut!" The cameras went off and the music stopped playing. "You are not laughing at your husbands accusations, Jude! You are denying years of lying and deceit. Try and play the role, ok?"
It took almost six takes to get the mood right. Jude was nervous and couldn't concentrate, but eventually she made it all the way until where Tommy pulled up a trashy little convertible and picked her up. The forgiveness episode was almost as hard. Jude just didn't know what it was like to beg to be given a second chance. Well, not in such an extreme anyways. Besides the fact that the shots with John weren't easy,she didn't want to move on to the final part of the video.
For the last scene wardrobe had Jude in nothing but a tan wrap around her chest and some underwear; she was supposed to appear naked.
The set was now two rooms divided by a solid wall. One was the living room in which Jude had shot the fighting and forgiving pieces; the other was supposed to be a hotel room. She slid under the covers of the bed in the hotel room, trying to hide her clearly exposed body.
Tommy approached the bed only minutes later in nothing but boxers. "Nervous?" He asked.
Jude frowned. "Uncomfortable."
He took off the covers and lay down beside her. "It's going to be fine, Jude. This is the last of it."
She shrugged and ignored him until finally the director began to role cameras and the music started to play again.
"Action!"
Jude rolled over on top of Tommy and he pulled the covers over them so their clothes weren't revealed. She tensed at feeling of his skin against hers and closed her eyes.
"I see you in a dream."
"Jude." She was force to look at him. His face looked so downtrodden that Jude couldn't help but feel sorry for him. Wait, he's not the one with a boyfriend. Or, er, girlfriend.
"And a memory."
She feltTommy's sigh on her neck and his hand pull her tight against his body. Jude tried not fall into the inevitable kiss, but their lips crashed like lightning.
"A captive of the lie."
Jude wrapped her hands around his neck and forgot about the cameras all around. "I can't hold back, Tommy." She whispered into his mouth.
"You say to me."
"So don't." He whispered back. Tommy's hands were all over her back, in her hair, around her waist. He wished it were real, but it wasn't. It was all for a video.
"Lead me on."
The music began to fade and came to stop.
"That's a wrap!"
Jude immediately stopped and was flashed back to reality. She pushed Tommy off of her and stalked back to wardrobe so she could go home.
"That was amazing, Jude." Somebody called to her before she could get out of the building.
"Thanks," Jude turned around and saw Georgia with a genuine smile on her face, "G."
"I expect you in the studio tomorrow."
Jude laughed. "Ten sharp." With that she bolted out of there, eager to get away. It was a long day, and she had an even longer day ahead of her the next morning.