This chapter is pretty short, I know (and I apologize), but hold on tight and trust me…this is just the beginning. Thanks to those who review; you keep this story going!
Jude walked slowly down the street, letting the sounds of the traffic carry her away. If there was one word to describe her feelings towards her life right then it was detached; things became that much easier to bear once she stepped outside of her mind and drifted somewhere else.
Something in her had died that night that she and Tommy finally kissed…even her highly-publicized breakup from her boyfriend Shay hadn't hurt her as deeply as Tom's denial of his feelings and the kiss that they had shared. The kiss that he'd started, Jude thought bitterly before slipping back into her numb façade. After she'd left G-Major that night she'd refrained from speaking to anyone more than was absolutely necessary, afraid that the tremor in her voice and the hollowness of her words would give something away.
It never happened. It never happened. It never happened. Her own words reverberated in her mind daily, and it soon became her own twisted method of dealing with what had happened. As long as her mind was on autopilot, she could survive just about anything. Every minute she spent inside the walls of G-Major was endurable as long as she kept that mantra going in her head, and as long as she didn't look at Tommy's eyes. She followed any and all instructions without argument, not wanting to speak more than a few words to him in case the anger and hurt pent-up inside of her escaped her lips. She looked at his shoes or her hands when she had to walk by him, for fear that the tears would start to sting her eyes and fall again.
Jude jolted out of her thoughts when her worn converse sneakers hit the stair on her front porch, almost pitching her forward and onto the hard concrete. A part of her mind whispered that she should have just let herself fall so she that she could feel the pain of impact, something other than the icy numbness that she'd immersed herself in for the past two days. She shifted the guitar case to her other hand with a sigh, digging through her pockets for her keys and wishing that she was anywhere but her own home.
Things hadn't been running too smoothly in the Harrison household lately, and dealing with it on top of the strain of her own feelings and the drama at G-Major was a little too much for her to handle at the moment. Her parents were constantly fighting over every little thing, and whenever Sadie was around (which wasn't very often at all, recently) she snapped at everyone but their mother. Maybe I'll luck out this time, and nobody will be home, she thought, turning the key in the lock and stepping in through the front door. A gasp from the living room caught Jude's attention, and when she turned her head to look for the source she froze and dropped her guitar in shock.
Her father and some unfamiliar female were wrapped in an embrace on the couch, Stuart's shirt half undone and the woman's hair wild and mussed. The gasp seemed to have come from the woman, who was staring at Jude with wide, fearful eyes. Stuart looked from the woman to Jude, and before he could open his lips to let loose a flurry of apologies and excuses she turned and ran out the door.
