Final Chapter!

Cardigan Weather – Chapter 5

"Did you just call my friend a whore?" Patsy asked, poking Eden in the shoulder. The band could go on missing a guitarist, they had four of them. Eden tried to brush it off and laugh, but Patsy wasn't letting her off easily.

"I'm pretty sure I just asked you a question," Patsy said.

"And I'm pretty sure I didn't answer," Eden said smugly.

"You really don't want me to ask you again," Patsy said. She hated repeating herself.

"Oh no, the crazy lesbo is gonna hurt me." Eden was mocking her, and she didn't like it.

Patsy was seconds away from punching Eden square in the nose before she felt someone hold her arm back.

"Don't," Jude said.

"Why not?" Patsy asked.

"This piece of trash isn't worth it," Jude said. Eden glared at Jude, silently telling her to take back her statement, but Jude wasn't backing down. She meant every word she said.

"You're gonna take that, Eeds?" Kat asked.

"I better not say anything to her, I might make her cry again," Eden said. Jude's stony look was unfaltering.

"You know what? You went through all of that trouble, and guess what? I'm still winner of Instant Star, and you're still a reject. I could care less about what you and your goons think of me," Jude said, before walking away.

"This last song, well, it's sort of a surprise for someone. I don't know if she's back yet, but I'm gonna start it anyway. It's called One Slowdance, and it's by Rufio," Speed said.

You're standing there alone

And so am I

But I want you here by my side

Your smile at me is everything

That staring game, the song of love

I look you in the eye while trying to read your thoughts

I ask you to go with me to a far off place

You and me dancing the night away

You can feel my heart beating so hard

We looked eye to eye and I swept you away

On a moonlit walk on the beach

Watching the sunrise for the first time

I'm in a trance

From our one slowdance

Jude smiled. She thought they weren't going to be able to due that song, and it kind of upset her, but here he was, singing it, and it was for her. She made her way back to the stage with Patsy and started singing along with him.

We don't have to talk

We don't have to laugh at all

I just want you here

You and me

Jude hugged all of the members of the band, grateful that she was able to do this with them. She thanked Patsy for standing up for her, and she kissed Speed on the cheek.

"What was that for?" he asked. The DJ started spinning the music again.

"For being you," she said. Here's Everything I've Always Meant To Say by JamisonParker began to play and he took her hand in his.

"Jude?" he whispered, moving in closer to her. She closed her eyes in anticipation for what was coming next.

"Let's boogie," he said. She opened her eyes and saw his were twinkling with amusement. At that point, she couldn't help but laugh.

"Are we gonna get our chance to talk?" she mumbled a few songs later.

"Let's talk now," he said.

"But I like where we are," she said. She giggled, and half expected him to say 'when we drive in your car.' He was that much of a goofball.

"Then let's talk right here. I'm sorry for everything," he apologized.

"Vin, it's not your fault. None of it's your fault," she said.

"Then what do you wanna talk about?" he asked.

"Starting over. I just wanna forget everything that happened, or hasn't happened," Jude said whispering the last part. He knew what she meant by 'hasn't happened'.

"I wrote to you all the time, but I never knew your address," he said.

"I mailed you tons of letters at first, but you never replied, so I stopped. They must've gotten lost in the mail," she said.

"So you just wanna forget everything? And go back to how it was when we were in grade three?" Speed asked. He didn't quite know what he meant by it, he was hoping that she would give him a clearer answer.

"No, I don't wanna forget everything. In grade three we couldn't do this," Jude said, pulling his head closer to hers.

She was finally experiencing a proper first kiss, and it couldn't have been better than that.

"Cheesy kiss at a high school dance, check," Speed chuckled.

"I wanna see this list of ours. I always wondered why you were able to keep it and I just had to vaguely remember it," Jude said.

"In due time, milady," he said, kissing her again.

"She even gets your first kiss!" Eden exclaimed. Jude and Speed pulled apart and now it was Speed's turn to blush.

So it was true, Vincent Spiederman went almost 17 years without kissing a girl.

"Like hell I wanted to waste it on you. Besides, that wasn't the first," Speed said coolly.

"You better not win Autumn Queen, Harrison, or it'll be on, I'm serious, I don't care what's worth what, we are going to fight," Eden said.

"I'd like to see you try that," Patsy said, stepping in front of her friend.

"The moment everyone's been waiting for, the announcement of this year's King and Queen. Give it up for your king, Vincent Spiederman," Mr. G, the dean said. He gave Jude one last kiss on the lips before walking up onstage. Eden was glaring at Jude; if Speed won, that meant that more than likely, Jude was going to win.

"And this year's Autumn Queen is, is this right? It is? Okay, due to a substantial number of write ins, this year's queen is Wally Robbins," Mr. G announced.

Ever since the candidates had been announced, the guys had started their plan, to convince more than half of the student body to write in Wally and make him queen.

Looks as though they were pretty persuasive.

"I don't know how, but this is all your fault somehow," Eden said

"Eden?" Jude asked.

"What?" she replied.

"What time is it?" Jude asked. Jude knew what she was doing. She knew that Eden wasn't very smart, and she was holding a cup in the same hand as the one with her watch on. As she turned over her wrist to check the time, her punch spilled all over the front of her white tube dress.

"Looks like it's time for you to go change," Patsy said, laughing. Kyle and Jamie joined in, and pretty soon there was a sizeable amount of people pointing and laughing at Eden's stupidity. She ran off to the bathroom to clean up.

When Speed and Wally finished their awkward dance, Wally placed his crown atop her head.

"You deserve this more than those three," he said, kissing her on her forehead.

"Hey, hey, hey. No lips on the girlfriend, alright?" Speed said. Kyle and Wally looked from Jude to Speed, and back to Jude again.

"If you say so, boyfriend," Jude said, smiling. Not Myself by John Mayer started playing, and the two began to sway with the music.

"So, girlfriend of mine, what are your plans for the rest of the evening?" Speed asked.

"Well, I don't know Vinnie. I originally planned to go home, and curl up on the couch with a good movie, but that was before I became the girlfriend of a king," Jude said.

"I was thinking something along the lines of coming over, getting reacquainted with the folks, and curling up on the couch with me for a good movie," he said.

"Sound's perfect. I'll just have to go home and change first," she said.

"Alright. Well for now, let's just enjoy the rest of the dance. God knows what kind of hell Eden will have in store for us on Monday," he said.

"Good idea," Jude said. For the first time since she moved there, Jude felt like she belonged. She was surrounded by her friends, and in the arms of her boyfriend.

When it was time to leave, Eden was outside, still harboring her vendetta against Jude.

"Geez girl, give it a rest," Jude said.

"No, I will not give it a rest, you've taken everything from me, everything that I worked hard for my whole life, you've taken in a matter of weeks," Eden said.

"Build a bridge, and get over yourself," Jude said, walking towards her car. She noticed all four tires were flat.

"Did you, flatten my tires?" Jude asked.

"Yeah? What are you gonna do about it?" Eden asked, backing up, into the street.

"Eden, get out of the-," Jude started.

And just like that, Eden Walsh's life had ended.

This wasn't Mean Girls; she didn't survive the impact. She was dead.

It would be cliché to say that everything was perfect and everyone lived in harmony at school from then on.

Well, to Jude, everything felt like it was better.

"It sucks that she had to die that way though," Jude said.

"Karma is pretty complicated. She probably had too much bad karma stored up, that it just felt like killing her off was the only way to truly get her back," Jamie said.

"It was a little extreme the way she died," Kyle said.

"But there's nothing we can do about it, except hope that she is doing better now than she was then. Cause that girl had a fucked up mind," Patsy said.

"Yeah she did, anywhos, where's Speed? He's the one who told us to meet him at this tree," Jude said.

"I'm not sure. He's probably lost or something," Wally said, laughing. Jude noticed there was a parking spot a lot closer than where she was parked.

"Someone stand there, I'm gonna come move my car," Jude said. When she got there, she saw Speed taping a message to her window.

"Vin, what are you doing?" she asked.

"Crap, I didn't think you'd be coming back. I was leaving you a note," he said. For the past week, Jude always found herself coming back to an insanely funny or incredibly sweet note on her car window.

"Get in," she said. She pulled the car around to the other parking space, and gave her boyfriend an Eskimo kiss.

"Thanks, for the notes," she said.

"Awh, Juderman," Wally said, coining a new term for the pair.

"I like that. Juderman," Speed repeated.

"Yes, it's cute, now why did you have us wait here?" Patsy said. They had been sitting around this tree for almost an hour now, and she was beginning to lose her patience.

"I'd been making sure I was able to do this. I, Vincent Spiederman, have scored six pit tickets to the hottest show in the country," he said.

"No way."

"Sweet!"

"Tight!"

"How'd you get them?" Jude asked.

"Someone owed me, big, and they gave me these tickets to make up for it," Speed said, proud that he was able to do something like this for his friends.

"Isn't it only like two hours until doors open?" Kyle asked. They all looked around at each other before taking off into a car.

"You really are the greatest," Jude said.

"I know," Speed replied, capturing her lips with his own.

"Alright we know you're great, now move!" Wally shouted. Jude laughed and started the car.

Yep, the life of Jude Harrison was going pretty darn smoothly, and nothing could change that.

I feel like the ending was a little bit dragged on. It feels like it's missing something though. Oh well. It's over. You like? I did.

So, reviews, I might get inspired to write another short story, you never know.

I'm off to go finish rewriting Something That Produces Results :