"Whoa, wait, I recognize this song," Tommy interrupted the second verse of 24 Hours. "I told you eight years ago, I tell you again, you need to pick up the tempo." He entered the booth and picked up Jude's acoustic. He doubled the tempo and told her to sing. It was already sounding better, Jude knew, and was about ready to let it go when Tommy stopped the song again and said. "These lyrics… 'We're on the road, we made it here…' Who's 'we'?"
"Does it matter?" Jude mumbled. "They're about a friend."
"We don't care about your friend Jude. Your song's too impersonal. The public wants to hear about you when they buy your music."
"Great to know what you think of a strong friendship, Tommy! Although, as I remember it, you used to say friendship was the musician's greatest muse!" Jude yelled.
"And if you'll remember correctly, the end of that phrase was 'Second only to one's self!'" Tommy yelled back.
"Fine! You want personal, I'll give you personal!" She grabbed her Telly. "Georgia, turn this up loud, dammit! I want it to shake my bones!" She began with a faster tempo, and then sang, angrily. "I'm sick of wishing you were near! You've gone your way you've made it clear!" She stopped playing and glared, fuming at Tommy, who winced at the bite of her words.
"Um, that was good, Jude. Very personal." Georgia tried to interject and hopefully cool the argument while EJ was riveted to the spectacle in front of her.
"Do you remember this song, Tommy?" Jude whispered. She began playing the chords to Skin. "Falling apart and all that I question, is this a dream or is this my lesson…"
"Oh, he's under my skin," Tommy sang softly. "Jude I know that-"
"Save it, Thomas!" Tommy winced once again.
"Guys!" Georgia yelled, finally deciding it was time to intervene. "Cool it. It's obvious you guys have some past issues; you need to leave them there. We need to work."
Tommy ignored her and continued to stare pleadingly at Jude. "I know I left at a bad time," Tommy said quietly. "I know you're mad at me for leaving you then, and then for not coming back. Jude, do you remember your present to me for my fifteenth birthday?" She looked up at him, nodding her head. "It was sort of about that whole… thing." Jude's eyes widened.
"You mean your-"
"Yeah," he cut her off glancing at Georgia. "Girl, we'll talk tonight. I'll explain everything, I promise." She bit her lip, and nodded. Tommy turned back to Georgia. "We're going to work on the lyrics for a bit, and then head out. We'll see you tomorrow." Georgia nodded, then turned, pulling a whining EJ along with her.
"Can't we watch for a little bit?" she pleaded. "Just a little bit?"
"No. You've got a guest artist visit to organize. We just got the rider in the mail today, and you are going to make sure we've got it all."
--
"Dad, we're home," Jude said, shutting the door behind Tommy and her.
"We?" Stuart Harrison asked, coming around the corner. He stopped when he saw Tommy. "Jude, what is your sister's wall poster doing in our entryway?"
"Oh, right, he's my producer. And we once knew him as Thomas DuTois." Stuart grinned.
"Tommy! I never did get to show you the chords to Here Comes the Sun." The two men shook hands, both grinning.
"Yeah, well, as soon as I knew I wasn't going to be getting anymore guitar lessons for you, I bought the official book of Beatles scores," Tommy admitted sheepishly. "But I never could get down the chord changes for Hey Jude, so I'd love some help with that," Tommy said, winking at Jude. She laughed and Stuart grinned wider.
"Hey Dad, we're going to catch up. Call us down when dinner's ready," Jude said dragging Tommy up the stairs. "Oh, and you might want to warn Sadie!" Jude threw over her shoulder.
--
"So, I noticed your Mom wasn't there, and your Dad was," Tommy said once they were up in Jude's room.
"Nu uh, Tommy, you first. What happened? Why'd you leave?" Jude asked, her voice a mere whisper by the last sentence.
He cleared his throat. "So, if you'll remember correctly, the morning I turned fifteen, you walked in my front door, I assumed to surprise me, and saw my mom, umm…" Here he trailed off awkwardly.
"Beating you over a head with a pan," she finished for him.
"Yeah," he said. "That. Um, anyways, and then you… punched her and told me happy birthday."
"Yep," Jude said. She was not at all sorry for what she had done. Tommy was never without a bruise or two, and Jude hadn't known until that morning that his mother was the cause.
"And then she never beat me again," he said, smiling. "And for that, I will be forever thankful. Anyways, a couple of months later, she was yelling at me. You know, the usual, 'you're worthless, you're disgusting' stuff. Just her normal criticism. And then… she dropped the bomb." He took a deep breath and Jude looked at him. "She told me my father left because I was worthless." Jude's jaw dropped. Tommy's mother had always tried to drag him down, but Tommy had always held on to the hope that his father was somewhere in the world, missing him.
"Oh, Tommy," she breathed. She walked over to him and knelt in front of him, placing her hands on his knee. "You know that's not true."
"Yeah," he said, voice strained. "Anyways, so, I guess I felt like I had to… do something, you know? And I'm sorry I left, but it was all impulsive, and I wasn't running away from you, and I was going to come back for you… but Darius, my manager, never had our stupid 'band' tour in the French provinces. He thought the fan base wouldn't be big enough and-"
"Tommy, you're rambling," Jude smiled, voice sing-song-y. "I get it. That's done." She pressed her forehead to his and whispered, "You're mom's gone, your crappy pop music days are over and we're friends again. My dad will teach you Here Comes the Sun, even though you already know it, and he'll show you how to do the F-chord wrong and you'll pretend he's right and I'll be the only one with the guts to correct him… just like old times."
"Okay," he breathed and Jude got up and sat on the bed beside him. He turned his gaze to hers and said, "Okay, so what happened with you?"
"Well," Jude began, but was interrupted.
"Oh my god, is that Little Tommy Q?!" screeched the girly voice of Sadie Harrison.
--
Haha, I looooove leaving you guys hanging. Yes, I'm evil at heart. But, you can guess away at what will happen, and who knows, maybe it will… spooky.
Anyways, I literally spent like half an hour researching the proper spelling for rider, cuz I wasn't sure if it was spelled weird or something. I know, I'm a nerd. Buuuuuuuuuuut… I'm a nerd who writes good stories. Remember that.
Really you guys, I was surprised by the response to the prologue, especially in such a short period of time. Thanks, and I hope this chapter didn't disappoint.