A/N: Sorry it's been awhile guys, been a busy week. Alas, I have updated, and I'm seriously loving the new Instant Star soundtrack! Seriously, go buy it, it's awesome and it's currently on repeat, so run to the store:D

Hope you guys like this chapter, more to come this weekend!

Chapter 7

3 Days Later

"So, how'd you end up back here?" Kat asked, watching Jude scarf down the food on her plate before her. Jude was eating as if she hadn't eaten in a week and it was concerning her best friend.

"mmmrrrp mmph," Jude said, speaking through a mouthful of food. Kat and Jamie shared a look and glanced back at Jude, neither of them understanding the former rock star. Jude swallowed and repeated herself. "I hitchhiked." She said simply, as if it was completely normal for a 20 year old former rock star to hitchhike from New York to Toronto.

"You what!" Kat and Jamie exclaimed in unison. Jude sighed heavily and put her fork down on her plate. It was obvious she wasn't going to be able to eat until she told her friends the story of her return from New York. She summed up the argument she had with her father and gave them slightly more details on how she climbed out of her fathers 5th story apartment window and hailed a cab. She had the cabdriver drive her as far as his jurisdiction allowed and from there, she hitched a few rides through parts of the US and Canada to get back to Toronto.

"I got in late last night and I stayed at a cheap motel." Jude finished explaining and began digging into her food once again.

"Where are you staying?" Jamie asked before kat could ask her friend her own questions. Jude just shrugged in response.

"I'll find somewhere." She said, her voice nonchalant.

"You will not!" Jamie exclaimed, sounding much like a stressed out parent. Jude raised her eyebrows in amusement but said nothing. "We have more than enough room at our place, right Kat?" Kat nodded in agreement. Jude eyed her friends a moment.

"You guys are living together!" She asked, getting excited. Kat and Jamie nodded in unison. Jude squealed in delight. "Details! I knew you two got back together just after I left, but when did you move in together?"
"A few months ago." Jamie said, his voice dismissive. Jude shared a look with Kat that clearly read they'd talk more about the subject later.

"OK, enough about us." Kat said, straightening in her chair. "You have to tell us what Jude Harrison is going to do now that she's back in Toronto." Jude paused in mid bite. She had her fork raised and filled with food and it now hovered in the air, two inches from her open mouth. Jude snapped herself out of her funk and set the fork down. She glanced nervously at Kat and sighed.

"I don't know." She said, her voice conveying her honesty.

"I think this is my cue to leave some money for the tab and go off and do…guy stuff." Jamie said, taking out his wallet and leaving 30.00 on the table to cover lunch and a tip and got up, kissed Kat on the cheek and left the small diner they were at. Jude sighed. Kat moved and took Jamie's unoccupied seat so she was next to her best friend.

"I don't know what to do Kat. I mean, I haven't talked to Tommy in just over three years. We didn't exactly leave things on the best of notes." Jude said, hanging her head. Kat looked sympathetically at Jude.

"Well, you know the truth now. You should tell him that you know." Kat said, her words making sense, but something about the way she was talking…

"Wait, back up."

"What?"

"You knew!" Jude demanded, suddenly connecting the dots. Kat didn't have to say anything for Jude to know the truth. "You didn't tell me!"

"It wasn't for me to tell."
"Yes it was! You should have told me my dad is a complete bastard!" Jude yelled.

"No, it wasn't. It was Tommy's decision whether or not to tell you. Jude, don't you think I wanted to? You're my best friend, I don't like keeping secrets and I know how much you hate secrets, but you know what?" Kat paused a moment to see if Jude was even listening to logic. Jude stared at her friend, waiting for her to continue. "I think you need to hear things from Tommy. Not from me."

"How can I even talk to him Kat? He lied to me. He told me he didn't love me and I believed him. Kat, what kind of relationship is that!"

"Jude, you were supposed to believe it. He played on your doubts." Kat said, her eyes sympathetic. Kat wrapped her arms around Jude in a comforting hug. "I know you probably don't want to hear it, but I saw how he was after you left and it hurt him; probably as much as he hurt you." Jude sighed.

"That's what hurts so much. I know now that we were both hurting and the whole time, I was mad at him…when I should have been mad at my dad." Jude clenched her jaw and squeezed her hands into fists. "I'm so stupid, it was all there. Tommy's sudden change of heart, the way my dad acted towards me…it all fits and I was too blind to see it." Tears began to fall from Jude's eyes as emotion began to overwhelm her. "I need to know the answers to my questions. I need to talk to him, but…I don't know. Something tells me I'm almost better off in the dark."