"Oh, so first you want me to go your prom with you, and now you don't want to see me?"
Her eyes went big as she looked up at him. "Who told you that?" she hissed.
"Does it matter? I'm sorry I ruined your prom okay, but there's not much I can do to change it."
"It shouldn't surprise me that you were drunk," she scoffed.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"You don't think any of us realize that you go home and get plastered every night do you?"
"I don't do that."
"Bull Tommy! Don't lie to me, you've already went way past your monthly quota."
"I love you," he blurted out.
"She wasn't affected by his words, drunk or not, she knew he didn't love her and he never would.
A quick roll of her eyes told Tommy that she didn't believe him.
"You don't love me, so just save your breath Tommy."
"How do you know I don't? You don't know what I feel."
Her angry demeaner was replaced with a look of sadness and hurt. Her glossy eyes told Tommy she was close to tears. "I know because I'm not sixteen anymore!"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"It has everything to do with anything! At my eighteenth birthday, I waited and waited for you, but you never came. I've waited for that birthday since I met you, and you didn't even have the decency to come!" Her tone got softer for a moment, as tears threatened to fall down her cheeks. "That's how I know you don't love me."
He knew how it must have looked to her, and how she must have felt, but that wasn't how it was at all. He couldn't explain it, he couldn't explain why he kept hurting her over and over again. Was it out of love? He threw that thought away, why would you repeatedly hurt someone you loved? Why hadn't he gone to her birthday? He knew the answer to that without even thinking. He was scared.
"Speechless Quincy," she said, wiping her eyes of the few tears that slipped away. "Never thought I'd see the day." She stared at him for a few seconds and ran into Darius's office. She laid down on the plush red couch and began to cry.
He sighed defeatedly as she ran away from him. He sat down on the floor and put his head in his hands. He could have slapped himself at that moment. He couldn't even say anything to her. He heard her muffled sobs and his heart broke into a million pieces. He'd never felt like this before. At that one moment, he knew he had lost Jude Harrison, the one true love of his life, forever.
"Jersey," Kwest whispered as he set his hand on her shoulder. "Wake up." They had slept in Kwest's car that night in order to let Jude and Tommy out before anyone else got there.
Jersey stirred slowly and her eyelids fluttered open. "Hi," she said quietly.
"Hi," he smiled.
She slowly sat up and rotated her stiff neck around.
"We should probably go see what's going on. Hopefully they didn't kill each other."
"I don't think they did. Let's go."
Kwest slipped the key in and slowly turned it, but before he opened the door, he turned to Jersey. "If this didn't work, and they're pissed off, I'm not taking any of the blame."
"Just open the door."
Kwest open the door and knew instantly their plan didn't work when she saw Jude's red, puffy eyes. "Shit," he muttered to himself as she glared at him.
"You two are dead," she said before she stormed out of the building.
Tommy came shortly after she left. "Whose idea was it to lock us in here?" he demanded. "Wouldn't be Jersey now would it?"
"I was trying to help Tommy. You and I know you both needed a push."
"Well that was the wrong one!" he said as he left G Major.
Kwest paused for a moment and turned to Jersey. "Nice going Einstein."
"What? I thought it would work!"
"That," he said, pointing at the door. "Didn't work."
"I know, I know. We'll just have to keep trying."
"You can, but I'm out."
Jude didn't go to work that day, but the next morning she slowly dragged herself to G Major.
"Jude, could you come into the conference room? We need to talk to you."
Jude stared at Georgia for a minute before following her into the conference room. Her stomach flip-flopped and she sat down in the chair across from Kwest. She looked around the table, Mason, Georgia, Darius, Kwest, Patsy, and Jamie were sitting at the table. She knew one was missing. One special person. But, she shook that thought from her head the second it entered.
"I'm sure you're all wondering why you're here," Darius began. "We're in need of a new producer, our own Tommy Quincy decided to leave yesterday."
Everyone saw the shock and hurt on Jude's face, Kwest and Georgia were the first ones to notice.
"Now Jude, you already have a producer, but Mason, Patsy, and the other artist need one, so we'll get to work on finding one as soon as we can."
Jude tried to hold back the tears but she couldn't. She stood up abruptly and ran out of the room, got into her car and drove home, tears clouding her vision. Once she got to her house she bolted through the door. Sadie was sitting at the counter, eating cereal when she ran past.
"Jude, what's wrong?" she said as she ran up the stairs after her.
"He...he's gone."
She sighed and looked away.
"You knew didn't you? You knew!"
"Yeah, I did, but he said I couldn't tell you, and that I was supposed to make sure you read this," she said, handing her the card from the flowers.
She sniffed as she opened the small envelope. A small silver ring with a tiny diamond on a silver chain fell out. "No," she whispered to herself.