Strangelove
Chapter 7
(Author's Note: Sorry for the delay- I experienced technical difficulties... Hope you all enjoy this chapter as much as the others)
Chapter 7
The pills sedated Jude, enabling her to walk noiselessly down the carpeted stairway.
"Like anyone ever hears me, anyway..." she thought bitterly.
The loud, strident sounds of a popular morning talk show now emanated from the TV in the kitchen and would indeed prevent anyone from hearing her approach. Typically, Sadie sat there, fixating alternately on the screen and the bowl of cornflakes on the table. She did not even acknowledge Jude's presence, until her sister stood right in front of her.
Her blood-red, lipsticked mouth curved into a mean, very satisfied smile.
"Hi" she said brightly to Jude, holding out the cereal carton as if nothing were amiss.
"Want some?"
Ice crystalized in Jude's veins as she reached out, angrily swatting the box from her sister's expensively manicured fingers, the content's spilling onto the floor.
"Clumsy, aren't you Jude!" Sadie snickered. "Now clean all that up!"
"You bitch!" Jude exploded in frozen rage. "How could you?"
"How could I what?" Sadie asked, smirking again.
"You... found out. And told Darius... You ruined... everything!"
"So? I'm supposed to feel sorry about that? Sorry for you?" her sister replied, her face guileless, and her demeanor angelic.
"I don't... understand. " Jude stammered weakly.
"Of course you don't. You aren't smart enough. Just a stupid girl" Sadie sang, mockingly.
"But why did you do this? Why would you tell him!"
"Why not" Sadie replied, deliberately remaining evasive to further aggravate her sister.
"Care to elaborate!" Jude snapped, employing one of Tommy's pet phrases. Thinking of her now likely-banished lover strengthened her resolve to drag- or knock- the truth out of insipid Sadie.
"Tell me!" she demanded, forcefully twisting her sister's right arm.
Paradoxically, this action mollified, rather than enraged Sadie. Darius had already taught her a few things, namely that remaining in control of your emotions rendered you in control of any situation. Clearly, Jude had already lost.
"Yeah, I can do this... I really am a great actress..." she thought cockily.
Secure in her victory, she finally deigned to respond to Jude's query.
"You really need to ask me that? You screwed around with my ex! My ex! The guy who broke my heart."
"But you broke up with him, remember?" her sister pointed out, reasonably.
"Mere technicality!" Sadie snorted. "Did he ever tell you exactly why I dumped him?"
"No"
"We never discussed that... We never needed to... I knew exactly why... And he knew that I knew..."
"Did you even once think about my feelings?" Sadie asked.
"Oh, please! You do enough of that for everyone! That's all you ever care about! Tommy was just "the poster on your wall" and you were the total fanatical fangirl! Yeah, you worshiped him! But you never bothered to know him at all... To see who he really was..."
"And you do? Right!" Sadie replied, miffed at her sister's superiority.
"Yeah, I do. You just weren't interested. You're never interested in anybody but yourself!" Jude answered nastily.
Sadie's mellow facade finally snapped, and she slapped Jude hard across the face.
"Ouch!" she cried out, automatically raising her fists to retaliate.
"Put those hands down. Unless you want more of the same. You know I can do it! And I will. I have before, remember..." Sadie threatened.
"Yeah" Jude surrendered, remembering their childhood.
On a late August day, almost twelve years ago, two little girls, sisters, walked together to school. The older, more obviously pretty sibling had long blond ringlets and huge sky-blue eyes. Today, she had chosen to wear a short, pink denim skirt with a matching jacket and a pink top. Protectively, she held the hand of her younger sister, a skinny girl with long stringy, straight red hair.
"Now, don't be afraid." seven year old Sadie advised five year old Jude as they entered the schoolyard.
"If he bothers you again, I'm right here... I'll be watching..." she promised her.
The bully did not take long to approach Jude, as he had every day since she started school, just a week ago.
Sadie spotted this immediately and ran right over.
"Dirk the jerk... I might have known! Picking on little girls now?"
"Well, well, if it isn't Malibu Barbie... complete with puke-pink dress!"
"You leave my sister alone!"
"Yeah, right! Who's gonna make me! You!" he laughed.
"Yeah!" she said, easily knocking him to the ground.
After beating him up, Sadie smoothed her hair back down and smiled proudly at Jude.
"Always knew those karate lessons would pay off."
"Yeah, you did win all those ribbons." Jude said admiringly. "Thanks!"
"Anytime"
"We fast forward to just a few years later... What happened?" Jude wondered.
Sadie knew the answer to the question she glimpsed in her sister's transparent blue eyes. She felt a rare moment of understanding for the sister she had slowly, even reluctantly, grown to despise.
"Daddy! Daddy!" twelve year old Sadie Harrison screamed, as she burst into the house, dressed in her red ice skating dress, skates slung over her shoulder.
No one responded. The sound of a guitar led her to the living room, where her father sat, engrossed in the music.
"Daddy!"
"Shh!" Stuart Harrison admonished softly. "Not now, sweetie. Not during Jude's guitar lesson..."
"But I just wanted to show you..."
"Later..." Stuart said disinterestedly, immediately turning back to his younger daughter.
"Incredible! You've only had a few lessons! Wow! Amazing!" he raved endlessly.
Her body turned away from her sister, Jude hugged her guitar to herself and smiled.
Sadie stalked out of the room, as tears began falling down her face.
"I won't let anyone see me cry... Not that they'd care!"
Up in her room, she carefully added the ice skating trophy to the many already crowding the shelves in her room.
"But they don't matter! They never will..." she realized for the first time.
"Never me... no matter what I do, I will never truly be first..." Sadie reminded herself constantly, especially since that fateful day.
"Our very first Instant Star is- Jude Harrison!"
Quickly, Sadie re-established control; her face revealing none of her inner turmoil.
"My turn now... I'm going to be an actress... I know just how to make that happen..."
"Just stay out of my way!" she warned Jude.