Callie POV
Today was the first Saturday after my meeting with Stef and Lena. This is the first weekend he will spend over at my place.
It was just 9:30 in the morning, but I have already vacuumed and dusted the place twice. Yesterday, I went to mall to do grocery shopping. My fridge and cabinets haven't been this full since…well, ever.
I am fluffing the pillows on my couch when the doorbell rings. I stand up straight and stop moving for few seconds. My heart did a little jump and my hands got sweaty all of a sudden.
"Coming!" I call out when I run my hands over my jean
With a small bounce in my step I walk over to the doors. I peak through the eye to see if it really was them. Jude was standing in front, both woman behind him.
When I reach for the lock, my hands shake slightly. The door handle feels cool when I touch it, it was a soothing feeling. I turn the door nub and open the doors.
"Hi!" I say excited, with a big smile on my lips, when I see all three of them standing there. I hear them all greet me back. Jude took a step close to me and we share a quick hug.
I step aside "Please, come on in" I gesture inside the apartment.
Jude walks in first, then Lena and finally Stef, who was carrying a black bag. When I close the doors after them, I walk more inside the room my self. They all were standing awkwardly in the middle of the kitchen/living room.
I rub my hands together nervously. Jude and I share a smile before I speak up.
"So…um, I can show you around quickly. It's not as big of a place as your home but…"
"It looks wonderful" Lena replies kindly, I smile warily back to her
I gesture around the room we were in "As you can see…this is the kitchen slash the living room, slash my bedroom"
While Lena and Stef both just look around with their eyes, Jude hurries up to the couch and sits down on it, testing it. He bounces up and down on it and then he walks over to the bookshelf, looking at the books that I owned.
"Bathroom is over there" I point to the doors on my left. I head over to them, open the doors and switch the light on. Both Lena and Stef head over to check it out "It's not too big, bit it has everything you need"
"What about washing machine?" Lena asks when she looks over to me
"Um…there is a laundromat at the basement level. I use that" I explain quickly. For some reason, I was very nervous. Stef and Lena made me nervous.
"Oh, okay" Lena smiles back at me
Jude squeezes pass Stef, who was still looking at the bathroom. Stef ruffles his hair before she walks back to the middle of the living room. Stef looks over to the other doors and nods to them "Is that…Jude's room?"
"Yes, it is" I head over to it and open the doors
"I have my own room?" Jude asked and switched off the light in bathroom
"Yeah…you can check it out" I smile to him
"I have not had my own room in years. Not since mom died" He said hurrying to his room
"Now you do" I say proudly and walk in the room after they all have entered it. Stef places his bag on the bed, Lena goes over to the bed and sits down to check it out.
"I love the wallpaper" Lena said trying out the bed and looking at the wallpaper
"I put the wallpaper up myself. Got it at a sale. Liked the color" I said touching the light green wallpaper
Stef was leaned at the door frame. Her eyes are on Jude, she was watching how Jude was trying the chair at his desk. Jude was spinning around on it. Stef was smiling as she watched him. You could see in her eyes, how much she loves him.
"Oh!" I call out surprising all of them, when I remember the last thing I wanted to show him
I hurry up to the desk. Jude stops spinning around and watches me. I open the top drawer and take out the one and only photo frame. It was a picture of the two of us and mom. It was taken some 3 months before our mom died, we were sitting in moms lap, all smiling at the camera.
"Where did you get this!" Jude called out reaching for the photo frame
"I got it from moms room before I was taken away. I took just the photo, I got the frame last week. I know it is a little crumpled up. I was holding on to it for 8 years..."
"It doesn't matter" Jude said looking at the photo in his hands "Mom loved this photo. She carried a copy of this in her wallet as well" he looked up to me and reminisce "Dad took it with his new camera"
"Yeah…I remember. He didn't know how to use it. We were sitting on moms laps for hours" I was clearly exaggerating "till dad finally could take the picture"
Jude laughed out "Mom teased him about it for the next week"
"Yeah, something like that" I said when Jude turned back to the desk and placed the photo on the side of it, by the wall, facing the chair
"It's perfect" He said after he found the perfect angle how to place it
"Yeah" I said placing my hand on his shoulder, rubbing it softly as we both looked over at the photo
"Well, we should probably go" Lena stood up, she rubbed her hands together
Stef leaned off the door frame and glanced to her wife "Yeah, we…we should go"
"I will walk you out" I tell the two woman
When we are at the small hallway before the front doors, Jude gives them both hugs and kisses. He receives many kisses back and also a hair ruffling from Stef.
"Be good and behave. Remember, we are call away" Stef says kissing the top of his head the last time
"I know mom" Jude said back to Stef
"Have fun baby" Lena said placing a kiss to his cheek "We love you"
"I will mom. Love you too"
I wasn't prepared for him to call them that. Him calling them moms – hurt. For a moment I thought that Jude had replaced mom. I don't say anything to him, I just dip my head down and look down to my feet. I walk to the doors, unlock them and hold them open for the two woman. Stef walked out and waited for Lena just by the doors.
"We will see you on Monday" Lena said to me as she stopped next me
"Yeah…till Monday"
"His classes start on 8:30" Lena reminds me
"Yes, I remember" I nod back to that "Don't worry, he will get there on time"
"Good, good" Lena hesitates before she leaves. She glances back to Jude, who was standing just at the end of the small hallway.
"Bye bud" Lena and Stef both waved at him
"Bye" Jude waves back at them
I close the doors and lock them after they leave. I turn back to Jude and watch him. After few seconds he asks back "What?"
"Pizza?" I ask clapping my hands together and pushing the memory of him calling them mom, to the back of my head
"Are we going out or ordering in?" He asks looking excited about both of the ideas
"You chose" I say smiling to him
"Order in. I don't feel like going out" he says back and does a spin around "Where is the menu?" He asks when he turns back to me
"Top drawer, next to fridge" I point over to the kitchen area. I walk over to him and we both look over the menu as we try to decide which one to order.
We are both slumped down on the couch. Our legs were stretched out to the coffee table. The now empty pizza box was placed over my stretched out legs. Our glass of Coca-Cola, were on the ground, by the couch.
Jude reached for his glass and using the straw he sucks in the cold beverage. I take another bite of my last pizza slice. I take a bite out of it and while still chewing, I continue on with my story.
"Like I said, after Juvie I lived in the group home, where I met Rita. She knew this guy Martin. He was a foster kid as well. Rita met him back when she worked at another group home before Girls United. She introduced us and that's how I got myself a lawyer. I am his Pro Bono case"
"That's pretty cool. You don't often hear stories where a former foster kid becomes a successful lawyer" Jude wonders out loud
"Martin is a success story. He is one in a billion!" I say before I take another bite "So anyhow, Rita and Martin helped me get all the paperwork done and they helped me start this whole thing. Without them, I don't think I would have made it this far" I toss the rest of the pizza back in the pizza box
"Are you going to eat that?" Jude points to the half of the pizza that I tossed away
"No, you can take it" I say and watch him eat the slice of pica in few seconds
"I'm hungry a lot" Jude says with full mouth when I toss the empty box to the coffee table "Moms says I am like new Jesus. They also say I eat so much because I am growing a lot"
There it was the word again – mom. I don't know why it bothered me so much. Part of me felt like he was replacing mom or even forgetting her. Another part of me felt a bit jealous, because he has found himself a family, a family of which I am not part of.
"Do you love them?" I ask keeping the eye contact with them
"Stef and Lena?" He asks to clarify
"You have called them moms more than 10 times in the last hour" I say looking down to my hands
"I do" He answer without hesitating
"More than me?" I dread to hear the answer to that question
"Callie—" Jude softly says my name
"Do you love them more than you love me?" I repeat the question and look up to him. Yeah, I definitely felt jealous, even thou there was no real reason for me to feel this way.
"You can't compare love, Callie" he says back sounding way too smart for his age "I don't love you more than I love them. And I don't love them more than you. I love you all the same. Love is love!"
Silence fell over us after he said that. It took me a while till I answer him.
"I'm sorry" my head dips down, I look to my lap "I don't know what came over me" I felt bad for putting Jude in that position, for asking him that
"Don't worry about it" Jude replies casually, when he starts to shift in his place
He took his legs down the coffee table and turned in the couch. After he leaned his back at the hand rest of the couch, he stretched out his legs over to my lap. I place my hands over his lower legs.
"Tell me about them. Tell me about what happened to you after I got arrested" I turn my head to look at him
"What do you want to know?" He asks back as I run my hand softly over his lower legs
"Everything"