The day after Jude's Birthday-9 am
Jude paced the length of her bedroom, clad in a frayed jean skirt paired with an oversized off-the-shoulder blue T-shirt with a black and white tank top under it. She topped the outfit off with black flip-flops. She pulled her hair back and it revealed dangly white gold earring. She had come in at 1:30 the night before and felt a pang of guilt when she saw Sadie, Kat, Jamie, and her mother waiting for her in the living room, worried. She wasn't up for talking so she convinced them in as few sentences as possible that, no she wasn't mad at them, yes she was fine about Chris (lie), no she didn't want any tea, and finally finished the conversation by saying all she needed was a good night's sleep. She smiled at them as she walked up the stairs and closed herself off until morning.

"Good night's sleep, my foot." Jude muttered out loud absently kicking a shoe on the floor. She slept as restlessly the night of her birthday as the night before. Her thoughts revolved around the two same people again. Chris and Tommy. Whenever she thought about Chris and what had transpired the night before, she got upset. She was starting to fall for Chris, and the bracelet he gave her had given her that extra little push towards the edge.

'The bracelet,' She thought as she held her wrist up to look at it as the sun hit the white gold, reflecting light on her ceiling. The logical thing would be to take it off, but she couldn't. She didn't want to, and she couldn't care less what anyone thought. The bracelet was one of the most meaningful things ever given to her.

'Except that song.' A voice inside her head screamed. The song. Her first impulse when she heard Tommy singing it was to throw her arms around him and kiss him until she became numb. It definitely topped Chris's bracelet, if she was completely honest with herself. There really was no comparison. No one had ever done that for her, and if any ever did again, it would never have been as special as that. It was up there with her first real kiss with Shay.

'Oh, God Shay.' She laughed. They had mended fences months ago, and had were actually friends. Currently, he was touring the world with Eden still as his opening act. 'Whatever. To each it's own.' She thought without bitterness. She then realized that all that happened two years ago. Funny, it felt like it was 10. Maybe Tommy was right when he had said a while ago that there was a big difference between 16 and 18.

'Tommy.' She thought again about him. His song rang true. There was a lot unsaid between them, but Jude wasn't sure if she wanted to correct that. She didn't know if she could go down that street again. She remembered how she felt when Tommy left, and she didn't think she could hear that all again. Truthfully, she knew she couldn't. She wished feverishly that her and Tommy could go back to the way they were 8 months ago, before he left, before Chris, before it got so, so complicated. But she knew it would never happen. So she'd push away everything between her and Tommy. He was, after all, her producer again. When she thought of this she smiled. That was the one good thing that came out of all of this. Tommy was the best in the business, and her album lacked so much without him, even she could admit that. Hopefully they could scratch everything she and her previous producer did on her junior album and start new. If she and Tommy couldn't start fresh, she wanted her album to at least.

She thought about the message Georgia left on her cellphone last night. They needed to hold a meeting at G Major at 9:30, with Tommy coming back and all. Georgia, of course, didn't expect her to come, but she wanted to make sure Jude knew anyway.

She quickly rejected the idea of staying home and moping. She wasn't going go around all day feeling sorry for herself, she'd make the most of the day and try and act normal. Besides, she couldn't ignore the studio just because she had a few personal problems and she wanted to avoid seeing Tommy. She mentally thanked her Mom for deciding last year to take her out of school and set up tutors for her. At least she wouldn't have to deal with classrooms and stupid teenagers all day.

If she wanted to beat traffic, she realized as she grabbed a watch from her dresser and glanced at it before putting it on, she better get going. She grabbed a small black purse off her dresser, threw in her wallet, cell, keys, and a lip gloss, and made her way downstairs.

Sadie and Victoria sat in the dining room, Victoria asking about all the events of last night.

"So, wait," Victoria asked, confused. "Chris hates Tommy because he kissed Jude?"

"No, well yes, but he hated him before because when Jude kissed Chris once she said Tommy's name." Sadie tried to explain. When her Mom made a long 'ohh' sound, Sadie replied. "Try to keep up." When they heard foot steps coming down the stairs, they ceased all conversation.

Jude could tell the minute she entered the room that they were just talking about her. "Hey Mom, hey Sadie." She said casually, as she grabbed an apple form the table, rubbing it against her shirt to clean it.

Sadie and Victoria just sat there dumbfounded. Sadie noticed that she had her bag in her hand. "Where you going, Jude?"

Jude took a big bite out of her apple. "Studio." She said, but it came out more like "Smooffeeoo."

"Did you say the studio?" Mrs. Harrison asked, not sure.

"Yup." She said, throwing the half eaten apple into the nearby garbage can.

"But Jude I figured after everything happened, you'd just want to stay home and relax. I know Georgia would understand." Her mother said, the worry apparent in her voice.

"I'm sure she would, too. But the music world doesn't stop turning just because I got my heart broken." She said casually, hoping her family couldn't see how much pain she was in.

When they just nodded skeptically, Jude thought, as she left the house, that she was a better actress than she gave herself credit for.

Jude strolled into G Major at 9:35 A.M. She smiled at one of the interns, and waved at one of them. She opened the door to the conference room and everyone's eyes flew on her. She surveyed the room noticing, Georgia, EJ, Kwest, a few interns, a couple of the other singers, and two other producers. She quickly glanced at Tommy but then took a seat furthest from him, determined not to meet him in the eye.

When everyone just stared at her, she offered an apology. "Sorry, guys. Traffic was murder." When everyone continued to gape at her, she continued. "It's just five minutes."

Georgia and EJ shared a look. They were surprised she even showed up. Georgia went to her, and bent down, whispering, "Ah Jude Are you-"

"Don't" She said holding her hands up to cut off Georgia. "Don't ask me if I'm fine, okay? Cause I am. I just want to put it all behind me. Let's just get down to business, okay?" She whispered back. She didn't want to pour her heart out to everyone in the room, so she knew just playing it cool would be the best.

Tommy looked at Jude, even thought she was looking everywhere but at him.

"I thought I told you Jude you didn't have to come in today..." Georgia murmured anyway.

"I know what you told me, but really, I'm fine. I'm gonna stop being fine though, if everyone keeps asking." She gritted out.

Georgia shot Jude one last look, and then glanced at EJ. She just shrugged, so Georgia moved back to the front of the room. "OK, I called this meeting because as you know Tommy Quincy is back and will be our main producer here at G Major."

Tommy just nodded his head when a light applause filled the room.

"Quincy will be taking on Jude Harrison again." She began looking at her notes, "I think our best bet right now is just to forget everything we've done on her album and just start new." She looked between Tommy and Jude. When they both just nodded, she moved on to other things.

Jude tuned Georgia out and starting thinking about her album. She had about three songs written, four counting the one she finished last night, and she was at least thankful Tommy was back because he'd be able to get her on track with her record. She looked quickly at Tommy to see that he was staring at her still. She had decided last night at three in the morning that they needed to keep things strictly professional. Their only relationship would be producer to client. Now she just had to think of a way to convince Tommy about it and avoid hashing things out between them.

Tommy stared across the table at Jude, who was oblivious to everyone around her. He wondered silently what she was thinking about. Chris? Tommy inwardly cringed at the idea. Him? He sure hoped so. Her album? Probably, he figured. She always got that look when she was thinking of her music.

Georgia noticed the far off looks in Tommy and Jude's eyes so she cleared her throat slightly. "Ahem, I was just saying I think we shouldn't waste any time and get started right now on your album, Jude. You okay with that? How about you Tommy."

"Yeah."

"Okay." Tommy replied, never taking his eyes off of Jude.

"Well, okay. That's it then." Georgia said as she started to gather her papers and everyone got up to leave, including Tommy. Georgia went to Jude. "I know you're gonna hate me but, you sure you're okay."

Jude still sat looking straight ahead. When she heard Georgia's voice again her head flew up to meet Georgia's eyes. "Never been better."

Jude walked into the recording studio with what she already had for her album, hoping to give Tommy an idea on what she's been doing. She saw Tommy listening to one of the songs she recorded last week with headphones on.

"Hey," He said, slipping of his headphones when he saw her come in. "I was just listening to the song you did last Thursday."

"What do you think of it?"

"The lyrics are great, you're good too, but I don't know the melody isn't right for it. I can't put my finger on exactly why."

Jude nodded her head in agreement. "I tried to explain that to the last producer but he didn't get it."

They sat there for a few seconds without saying a word. Jude picked up a nearby folder and skimmed through it, sitting on one of the counters. Tommy, feeling restless, broke the silence first. "Jude, we need to talk."