---Cherry Red---Chapter Eight---
Spied and John were talking in Studio C. "So you and Jude are…close?" Spied asked.
John nodded, "Yeah, I mean me and her brother were best friends, and her and her brother were close, so we were constantly hanging out when we were younger and we just grew from there I guess."
Spied nodded, "Wait, Jude doesn't have a brother…"
John sighed, "He died, about when Jude turned fifteen, I was twenty one."
Spied looked down, "I never knew. Wait, you were 21, how old are you now?"
"25."
"Oh…I can't believe I never knew about Jude's brother. I knew her since kindergarten. Hell I dated her and I still never knew…"
"You dated her?"
"Yeah, when she was seventeen we dated for awhile. Why?"
"No reason, anyone else she's dated?"
Spied thought for awhile, "Well her first boyfriend was Shay…"
"Shay? As in the big S-to-the-H-to-the-A-to-the-Y?"
Spied nodded, "You know him?"
"Please that guy is a total poser. Acting all gangsta like he's from the hood but he grew up…god don't even get me started." Spied and John laughed, both agreeing on the fact that they didn't like Shay.
"Anyway, she went out with Shay, Jamie, me…"
"Jamie? That dorky kid form next door?"
"I'm not so dorky anymore." Spied and John both turned to see Jamie standing in the doorway. "Hey John, nice to see you out of prison."
Spied turned to John in astonishment, "You were in prison?"
John turn sheepish, "Yeah, just got out."
Jamie pushed himself off of the doorway he was standing in, "Well, I got work to do and I am guessing you have Jude to do so I'm gonna go."
Jamie left and Spied turned to John, "You and Jude…"
John looked down, and Spied stood up hastily, knocking over his chair, and leaving.
Jude exited the closet she was in, took a deep breath, and smoothed out her shirt. She walked toward Studio C to find John when she saw Jamie in the doorway. "I got work to do and I am guessing you have Jude to do so I'm gonna go…" Jude's jaw dropped and she was going to walk into the studio but Spied suddenly stormed out of it. Jude sighed and walked in to find John sitting there with his head in his hands.
"What was that about?" Jude asked throwing her hands up. Her day was going great and now this. John looked up at her, "Look, I was just talking to that Spiederman kid when Jamie came in, saying that I needed to do you and then Spied got mad and left. I didn't do anything."
Jude just sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. She let herself fall back onto the wall; she looked up and blew some hair out of her face. "Nothing can ever be easy can it?"
"Not with us Cherry," John said with a smile.
Jude sighed, "Well, Darius said to come in tomorrow for the signing of the contract."
John stood up and walked toward her, "You didn't tell him did you?"
Jude sighed, "Yeah, yeah I did. This whole situation already put you in jail; I wasn't going to let it ruin your career too. I've already done enough damage."
John rubbed his hands along her arms in a soothing way, "You never do any damage. It's like my song says, she sings a siren song, I am the damage done…" John started to sing to her. Jude smiled and pulled him into a hug.
Jude grabbed John's hand and led him out of the studio. Tommy watched from the lobby and sighed, maybe he would never fully be hers.
Jude pulled John to the car and shoved him toward the passenger seat playfully. She got into the drivers side of John's car, it was a nice black Mercedes SLR McLaren.
IMGhttp://i137. photobucket. com/ albums/ q227/ OMGItsJoanna2007?action view¤t SLR.jpg ((just take out the spaces))
Jude hit a button one the remote and the doors on the side rose up, opening for them to get in. Jude smiled as she slid into the car. "I missed this car; I can't believe you still have it." Jude said as she ran her hands along the steering wheel. John laughed, "Remember when I taught you how to drive?"
"You taught me? I think it was more of a fatal attempt. I felt so bad for Brooke's poor cake."
John laughed, "Yeah, it was your birthday and Paul, me and Brooke put that surprise party together. You were turning fourteen and me and Paul swore you were mature enough to drive. I was supposed to bring you to the house for the party and Brooke was walking across the street with the cake…"
"Yeah, and I almost hit her so she ran and dropped the cake, we ran right over it and then I backed up and ran over it again on accident. Her face was so funny."
John and Jude laughed together. "You know Tommy tried to teach me how to drive on his Viper when I turned sixteen. Let's just say I didn't get any better." Jude laughed but John just looked at her. "You and Tommy are pretty close huh?"
Jude looked down, thinking about the right way to answer the question. "Yeah…he's my best friend. I can come to him for anything…"
John turned his head and took a deep breath, "That's not what I mean and you know it."
Jude sighed, "I don't really know. We were always close when I was in Instant Star and then when I turned eighteen we sort of got together. And now tomorrow night I have a date with him." When she said this Jude looked away from him, not wanting to meet John's eyes. She heard him sigh but was happy when he didn't press the subject.
Jude started the car and pulled away.
They ended up at the rehearsal space; Jude knew that this was where they were going to be hanging out for awhile. Jude was sitting at the drum set banging away at the poor defenseless drums and symbols; taking out all her frustration that was built up because of Tommy and John.
Jude hit the symbol one last time and took a deep breath. She looked up and saw John staring at her, when their gazes locked he started laughing. "A little pent up anger their Red?"
Jude laughed and was going to answer when they heard a knock at the door. Jude got up to answer it, confused as to who it was. When she opened it Matt, Brooke, Lucas, Nathan, Caleb and Tyler all walked in holding big boxes, behind them walked Kris, Sabrina, Kylee, Amber, and Sasha. "What are you guys doing?" Jude asked with a laugh. Someone else burst in through the door, it was Reid. He kissed her cheek, "We're gonna hype this place up a little bit Cherry Baby."
Jude laughed and shut the door behind him. She turned to the main room and saw all the girls hanging out as they watched the guys unloading rocker chairs, a big screen tee vee, some gaming systems, some speakers for the surround sound, and then a new sound system for the whole apartment. Jude smiled; this was going to be awesome. "Hey watch the instruments!" Jude yelled as Nathan accidentally backed into one as Sasha pushed herself against him.
John walked over and wrapped an arm around Jude's shoulders, "Pretty cool huh?" Jude looked around and watched as the guys unrolled a modern rug in front of the couch, "It looks awesome, but this is supposed to be our practice space. How are we gonna do that with all this stuff here?"
John shrugged, "There's still plenty of room for the instruments…" Jude looked to the back of the space and saw all the amps and instruments pushed back there.
"I guess…" Jude said uneasily. "Where did you get all this stuff anyway? It looks expensive."
John shrugged and sweetly kissed her cheek, "Don't worry about it babe."
Jude definitely felt uneasy now, she watched as John walked over to help the rest of the guys install all the equipment. Matt walked over to her and gently nudged her with his elbow, "Why the long face?" he asked.
"Where did you guys get all this stuff from?" Jude asked motioning to the room. Matt shrugged, "I had some money saved, as did the rest of us, and the guys insisted we had cool stuff to do since we had you and John back which meant more parities. So we moved all the money to a private account and the girls went shopping. They can be very persuasive." Matt said with a wink. Jude laughed, "So none of this stuff is illegal right? We're done with that?" Matt nodded, "Don't worry about it. The game systems are ones that Lucas and Nathan already had, Kris had the rug, we only bought the tee vee and the speakers. We rebuilt the sound systems ourselves."
Jude nodded and still looked around, "It's just that, this used to be where we came to practice our music, and now it's the hang out spot for out gang. It's just a weird change I guess."
Matt nodded, "A lot of things will be changing again I guess, but if you are ever uncomfortable just tell me. I guess the gang's just happy to have John back, and that means you're back. We all missed you Cherry."
Jude smiled. "Alright, love you Matty." Matt smiled and pulled her into a hug. John put on a c.d. and Jude smiled when she realized it was her song that she recorded that day. People started getting up and dancing. Jude heard the door open and close, Spied, Wally, and Kyle all entered.
"Man, this is sick!!" Kyle and Wally said together, they walked over to where Kylee and Amber were standing by the piano and started talking to them. Kylee saw them walking over to her and Amber and lightly tapped Amber's arm. "Excuse me, do you guy's have the time?" Kyle smiled, "Sure, do you have the energy?" Kylee rolled her eyes and Amber laughed, "That was cute."
"I'm Wally form Spiederman's Mind Explosion. I'm the bassist." Wally said proudly, interrupting the embarrassment of his friend. Amber smiled at him, Kylee just laughed, "And how are you little boy?" Wally's face fell, "I'm nineteen and I am not a little boy." Kylee stood up straighter. "Sorry…" she said sarcastically. Amber smiled at him, "Excuse my sister, she just broke up with that guy over there." She said pointing to Tyler who was playing a game on X-Box with Nathan.
Kylee rolled her eyes, "I am perfectly over him Amber…" Kyle smiled, "Then allow me to get you a drink, I'm Kyle by the way, the drummer." Amber laughed, "What a coincidence, She's Ky-lee." Kylee blushed a little and took Kyle's hand, allowing him to lead her over to the bar. Amber turned to Wally and smiled, "I'm 21, and I'm Amber. Me and Jude go way back."
Wally smiled. "Cool, would you like a drink too?" Amber shook her head yes and walked over to the bar behind Kylee and Kyle.
Spied walked over to Jude, "So, you just take over our space now?" Jude looked at him, "It's not our space. I'm the one paying the rent every month, so it's my space. You guys are welcome here any time. Besides, you should be happy, they brought all this really nice and really expensive stuff and they are leaving it here. It's not just a party thing."
Spied looked down, he was still a little peeved that Jude was hanging out with this John guy. Deciding to try and rid this awkward silence, Jude decided to be blunt. "I heard you talking to John and Jamie today. Jamie has been jealous of John ever since I can remember. He never liked me hanging out with my brother. We didn't become best friends until after he died. You shouldn't listen to him, and I would like to think that you wouldn't judge me." With that, Jude walked away, leaving Spied to feel like crap in her wake. He walked over to the game system and waited a turn to play Grand Theft Auto. He knew his relationship with Jude would all blow over soon.