Chapter Twelve---Getting In Trouble

A/N - Hey, guys. I know I don't have 105 reviews, but I had to update. It was killing me. Almost as much as people who don't review. (sob) But I do have over 3700 hits. So, I guess I'll be fine.

I really liked writing this chapter. :3 This is the second last chapter, so I hope you really like it…I think I gave you some fun stuff to work with! As always, please review!

-Jude Q

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Jude wiped away her tears and backed away from Tom just enough to look into his eyes.

"Jude, I am so sorry. I never meant to hurt you," Tom mumbled.

She forced a smile. "I know." Jude buried her face in the soft fabric of his shirt and he tightened his grip around her.

"Jude," he murmured, "I don't mean to be insensitive, but I think you've got a party waiting inside for you." She nodded and pulled back from him.

Wiping her eyes dry, Jude ruffled her hair and shook out her limbs, trying to look close to normal. When she was done, she looked up at Tom with a smile on her face. She stood on her tiptoes and hugged him tightly. "I promise we won't get caught," she whispered in his ear.

Jude grabbed Tom's hand and led him into her house. "Guys, look! Tommy's here," she squealed, her giddy attitude having returned with a full vengeance.

"Yay!" Spied cheered, mocking Jude, and everyone laughed.

"Time to eat!" Victoria called out, leading everybody out to the backyard, where a picnic table was set up and loads of food were piled up.

Everyone found a seat---Jamie on the end, Kat next to him and Kyle and Wally next to her. Jude was across from Jamie with Tom on her side. Spied was on Tom's other side and Victoria was on the end.

You know, Jude thought, this isn't so bad. Maybe my seventeenth birthday will turn out alright.

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Sadie flopped onto the bed in her new dorm. Her father and Yvette had just settled her in and helped her get unpacked. It hadn't taken them very long, since her mother had shipped her off with a day's warning.

She sighed, wishing she was back home. I'm so sad. I'm at college and I am already bored. Sadie rolled over, realizing she had to stop feeling sorry for herself.

Sure, university didn't officially begin for another couple weeks, but that didn't mean she couldn't start her partying now. Problem was, she wasn't sure exactly what there was to do here. As far as she could tell, the campus was settled in some little non-existent town in the middle of nowhere. There was nothing to do!

She picked up her cell phone, fiddling with it. She knew who she wanted to call, but she didn't know if she had the strength to do it.

It's now or never.

Sadie dialed the number quickly from memory, anxious to hear his voice.

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A loud ringing sound interrupted the continuous laughing in the Harrison's backyard. Tom pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket and checked the number, before disconnecting the call, turning his phone off and putting it back in his pocket.

"Sorry, guys," he apologized, the chatter returning to the table.

Victoria leaned over Spied. "Anyone important?"

"No," Tom shook his head. "Nothing I can't take care of later." Jude smiled at him, curiously. When he smiled back at her, she set her hand on his leg under the table.

Tom smirked at her and put his hand on top of hers. She raised her eyebrows in return and motioned toward the tree house. He grinned wider and Jude stood up.

"Jamie, Kat," Jude widened her eyes at her friends, "let's show Tom the 'Double J Club!' " Kat raised her eyebrows suggestively and Jamie looked between the two girls, a bit confused.

"Dessert in a few!" Victoria called out to the four of them as they raced across the yard to a line of shrubs separating the two friends' properties. A massive oak tree stood in front of them, a ladder built into the base.

"We're here!" Jude exclaimed, hopping up the ladder and disappearing into an opening in the front wall.

"After you, m'lady," Jamie ushered Kat in front of him, following close behind. Tom took a look around. The tree house had obviously been around for awhile, but it looked structurally sound. He hoped.

Tom made his way up the ladder slowly, making sure things were not going to fall out underneath them. If two children had made this many years back, who knew how sturdy it was. He stepped into the first room, surprised that there was more than one.

Jude and Jamie walked around, furiously remembering every childhood thing they did up here.

Tom took this time to look around. There were two 'J's' carved into the wood on the front wall. Someone had scrawled 'friends forever' next to them. He smiled and kept looking. Everything that had been up here had been removed except for---

"Jamie, what is that!" Kat said, obviously disgusted and gesturing toward the floor. Jude and Jamie looked to where she was pointing and burst out laughing at the same time.

"God, Jamie. I thought you burned that." Jude was doubled over in laughter and choking out the words.

"He should've," Tom commenting, noticing the monstrosity on the floor for the first time.

"How can I part with Scratchy!" he complained, defending the god awful, raggedy orange carpet they were standing on.

"Because it's named 'Scratchy'? Just a thought." Tom smiled, thinking of all the fun times Jude must have had up here as a child.

Jude and Jamie went back to reminiscing, leaving the other two to themselves. Kat leaned into Tom, whispering, "You must be pretty special to Jude. They never even let me up here." Without another word, she hopped over to where her two friends were and threw an arm around each of them.

Tom strode over to them, smiling at the innocence in all of them. "This is a pretty big tree house," he commented. They all turned and looked at him.

"Well, it started off as one big room, but Jamie---" Jude was cut off.

"Excuse me! I thought we agreed that it was both of us!" Jamie complained.

"Only because you wouldn't let me up here anymore!" She flung her arms around, getting into their argument a little too much.

Jamie ducked her limbs. "Hey, it's not my fault you chose the window!"

"Whoa, whoa. Someone want to tell me what's going on?" Tom stopped the two of them, totally confused.

"Go ahead," Jude pouted.

"Fine." Jamie took a deep breath. "When we were ten, me and Jude had Mr. Harrison build this for us. We wouldn't let anyone else up here. It was our secret place. But then, Missy James---the cutest girl in the neighborhood---wanted to see it."

"And Dork-Face here let her!" Jude cut him off.

"Hey, let me tell the story!" She went back to sulking. "Thank you. Well, yeah, I let her. But she said if I did, she'd give me a kiss. So, then Jude found out and flipped. She made Mr. Harrison build a wall splitting the tree house in half."

Jude took over again, "I took the far room, because it had the only window. And Jamie took this half…with the ladder."

"Then, I wouldn't let her up here," he added with a smile.

"Did you ever get the kiss?" Tom asked.

"No." Everyone laughed. Jamie would never change. When a comfortable silence settled, he asked, "Jude, do you want to show Tom your room?"

"Sure." She turned to her old producer. "Want to see my room?" He nodded. Jude hopped over to the opening in the wall and ushered him through.

Tom glanced around. This half was much brighter, probably due to the picture window taking up most of the far wall. The only other thing in the room was a wooden bench built into the left wall with a quilt thrown messily on it.

He gestured toward the bench. "What's with the blanket?"

"I slept here last night," Jude said offhandedly, not meeting his eyes.

"Why do you even have an apartment?" he asked, voice slightly harsh. She recoiled and looked up at him, visibly hurt.

"I didn't have a ride to my apartment last night," she muttered.

Tom opened his mouth in reply, then shut it guiltily. "Sorry."

"Not your fault." An uncomfortable silence settled between them and Jude walked over to the window, her attention shifting somewhere else. Tom sighed and walked over to her, setting a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey." She turned around slowly, looking up into her eyes and realizing just how close the two of them were standing. "I want you to know you can count on me from now on." Tom grazed his thumb against her cheek.

"Don't," she whispered, eyes softening.

"No, I promise. I will never hurt you again. I'm here for you and you can always count on me."

"Tommy," Jude said breathlessly. Standing on her tiptoes, Jude wrapped her hands around the back of Tom's head and kissed him deeply on the lips. He pushed her against the wall, kissing her back hungrily.

He wasn't about to screw this up...again. He was going to finally show her how much he loved her---the right way.

Everything else left Jude's mind just then. She forgot that it was her seventeenth birthday. She forgot that her best friends were feet away. She forgot that her mom and her band was in her backyard. And most of all, she forgot about how much Tom had hurt her.

Moving her over to the bench and laying her down, he kissed her lips eagerly. Tom shifted his kisses to her neck, sucking gently. Jude moaned quietly and Tom smiled, nibbling on her skin a bit. She pressed her body close to his impatiently.

Tom slipped his hand under Jude's shirt, tugging it up and over her head. She gasped softly as he moved his kisses to her bare stomach. "Tommy," she moaned, pushing the quilt off the bench and letting Tom's full weight press on top of hers.

Reaching down to Tom's waistband, she tugged his pants open, kicking them off with her feet. God, this is crazy.

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Kat and Jamie were standing on opposite sides of the room, an uncomfortable silence filling the room. Ever since they had admitted their love for each other, everything had been kind of awkward. They both wanted to be with each other, but they weren't sure where to take it.

"Jamie," Kat said, facing him.

"Yeah?" He still wouldn't look at her. She sighed deeply, walking over to him.

"Guys?" Victoria's voice drifted up the ladder, and the two of them jumped apart in fright.

"Yes, Mrs. Harrison?" Kat asked politely. Jude's mother's blonde head poked through the hole in the floor.

"Jude and Tommy up here?" Victoria looked around for her daughter. Jamie motioned toward her room. "Thanks."

Kat and Jamie made their way down the ladder wordlessly while Victoria went to the door and opened it tentatively. "Jude?" Her jaw dropped.

Her daughter and Tom were tangled up in each other on the bench. Jude's shirt was tossed to the floor. Tom's mouth was going places no mother should ever have to see it go. And Tom's pants were thrown across the room.

She gasped audibly and the two broke apart, faces spinning around to see a furious Victoria Harrison standing in the open doorway of the room.

"Mom!" Jude screamed, pulling away from Tom and reaching for her shirt on the floor. Tom jolted up and hurried over to his pants, struggling to tug them on quick enough.

The three of them were stuck in this position, none of them knowing quite what to do.

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A/N - Well, that's it:-) There is only one chapter left. As always, review please! I love hearing from you guys! 105 reviews to get the last update!

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Love,
-Jude Quincy

WILDFIRE NOTE! OMG………NEXT WEEK IS THE SEASON FINALE…BUT AT LEAST THAT MEANS IT'LL BE BACK, RIGHT? WELL, I DON'T WANT TO RUIN IT FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T SEEN IT. SO JUST IM ME OR E-MAIL ME IF YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!

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