A/N: So, it's been a couple days, and I'm majorly sorry. Life just got in the way, I guess. Anyway, here's Chapter 4, it's kind of a filler.

Chapter 4

Bags were packed, equipment loaded, and bunks claimed. It was seven in the morning, and Jude Harrison had not had any coffee yet.

The last compartment was shut and the lock was secured. Everyone just kind of stood around now, preparing themselves for whatever came next. What came next was the good-byes.

For Jude's second tour, she was leaving from G-Major on a bus with the boys instead of flying from an airport. She wasn't sure if she could survive another three months with Speed, Wally, Kyle, and empty calories, but it looks like she didn't have a choice.

There weren't that many people there to see them off, probably because of the ungodly time they were scheduled to leave. Some family members, friends, and staff from G-Major were there. Hugs and farewells were passed around, and before Jude knew it, they were off.

The guys sat in the front, already planning this tour's round of pranks. Jude retreated to her bunk in the back of her bus. She managed to get the one with the best view out of a window, although not without the expected grumbling and complaining from Speed. She laid herself down on the small space, and let her mind wander.

The question was whether it'd ever come back. Or better yet, come back alive.

Jude thought she had known loneliness in the past. How she wished to go back to that time when she was so green, so clueless, so innocent. The first thing you lost in the music industry was your innocence, if you even had it at the beginning, that is.

And no, she didn't mean her virginity. That was for a whole other day. She was seventeen; there would be plenty of time for that later when she found the right guy.

Jude thought of all the people in her life, their history together, where she stood with them, what might happen with them in the future. None of her thoughts were very appealing or encouraging.

Her mom, Victoria, was still MIA with Don on their honeymoon. Jude had never seen it coming. First, that her mom would even date her divorce lawyer in the first place, and then marry him? Jude wasn't broken up by the fact that her mom and Don had gotten married; no, what tore her up inside was that they had done it without her. Without her and Sadie. Without her daughters. Who does that?

Sadie was, well, Sadie. Self-absorbed. Not that Jude minded, though. Sadie just concentrated on Sadie, with the occasional empathic action for someone else. Currently, she was working as the receptionist at G-Majors while taking night classes at a local college. Add into that mix a budding romance with Kwest, and Sadie just didn't have time for anything, or anyone, else. Why did she always end up dating Jude's producers, though? It was just another mystery that would never be solved.

Jude's dad worked. It seemed that was all he did. And she understood why, really, she did. First, he obviously had to pay the bills somehow. Without Victoria's added income, too, it was getting harder for Stuart to keep their house. It was still kind of inconceivable to Jude that her mom had sold it in the first place, though. Even though Jude had forgiven her father for cheating on her mother, things weren't the same between them anymore. They never would be. His cheating was forgiven, yes, but it would always be there, an invisible barrier that they tried to ignore.

Thankfully, Jamie and Jude had repaired the rift in their friendship. But, like with her dad, there was still a scar. She wished they could go back to the way things were before she won the Instant Star competition. Life was so simple back then. But things changed. Jamie had Patsy now, and in some weird, twisted way, they worked. Jude was happy for them, but she couldn't helped but be a tiny bit jealous that she wasn't the number one woman in his life anymore.

Things between her and Kat were the same as they had been for a while now. Jude hated to admit it, but she thought that her and Kat would never be able to reconcile. At least, not in this decade, or maybe after. She missed Kat, though. It'd been a while since she'd had a close female friend.

Mason was sort of Jude's replacement friend. He was part Jamie, part Kat, and part Mason. Without him, Jude had no clue what she would've done the last couple months. They still weren't as tight as Shay's latest corn-rows, but hopefully they'd get there one day. For now, he was still on tour but would be done in about two weeks. Of course, now she was leaving for her tour. Timing was just not in her favor.

SME was still her band, but not for long. People finally began recognizing them separate from Jude Harrison, and they were getting close to signing their own recording contract away from her. She wasn't offended or upset; they deserved the same chance she had gotten. Still, she would miss their antics on tours. The guys in SME could never fail to put a smile on her face. But, they weren't prime candidates when you needed to have a heart to heart.

So who did that leave? Ah, yes, the runaway. Tommy. Well, what was there for her to say about him? He left in the worst way possible. And while she could probably forgive him for leaving if he had a valid reason, there was one factor that was unforgivable.

He had left her alone.