Here's one more for you!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 9

Jude woke up sometime in the night. She watched Tommy sleep trying to decide if she should ask him about pulling back. Tommy was her world, and had been for a long time. She remembered when she realized she had to be put him first and stop keeping him a secret from her friends.

It had been a long six weeks on the road. Jude missed Tommy like crazy. They'd barely spoken the whole time because both were so busy. When she'd call him, he was always in the middle of something. She just wanted to get home to his arms.

Her time away gave her a lot of time to put things in prospective. She realized as long as they did things by her parents rules, why keep a secret from everybody. She realized the secret could hurt people in the long run, like Jamie. He'd taken her to the airport when she was leaving for the tour. She knew Jamie had feeling for her. She and Tommy had talked about it. There at the airport Jamie was trying to ell her something, but Jude wouldn't let him. She told him to hold on to it, and they would talk when she got home. She had to figure out how to let him down nicely.

Now she was stepping off the bus, and there was Jamie. Her heart almost fell because she wasn't ready, but then she saw her boyfriend. Tommy was right there, too. She went towards Jamie first.

"Hi, best friend person."

Jamie hugged her. "I've missed you, Jude."

"You too." She pulled back and looked over at Tommy. She wasn't sure how to act, and could tell he felt the same.

He smiled and she couldn't help but give him a hug. "I missed you." She whispered.

"You too, girl." He said at the end of the hug.

"Jude's mom threatened to harm me if I didn't bring her straight home. She's making out favorite J shaped pancakes."

"Well, I think she can manage T pancakes, too. I have tons of new stuff to show you." Jude wasn't ready to be alone with Jamie, and all she really wanted to do was kiss Tommy.

"I'm gonna need to take a rain check, okay? But you and me we gotta talk. There some G Major drama." His tone really worried her.

"Post breakfast." Jamie interrupted. "Or Jude's mom's going to shave off my eye brows." She was starting to wish she'd let him down before the tour.

Tommy nodded. "I'll call you later."

She watched as he walked to his car. "Jamie, wait just a minute." She said and ran after Tommy. "Tommy!"

He turned to look at her.

"Are we okay? I didn't know mom was going to send him to pick me up."

"We're fine. I will call you later, I promise."

She just nodded and watched him get in his car and drive off. She couldn't believe she'd been away from him for six weeks and they were still apart. The drive to her house was quiet. She was lost in her daydreams of how she wished her reunion with Tommy had gone. She also hoped Jamie wouldn't bring up what he was trying to tell her when she was leaving.

"So, Jude." Jamie started as he put the car in park.

"She knew it was now or never. "Jamie, look, you're my best friend. And your friendship is very special to me."

"Jude, you're special to me, too. And I've been thinking…"

Before he could continue, she saw her mom and dad outside the house. Saved by the divorcing parents. "Mom. Dad." She said getting out and running to them.

"Come on, let's eat so you can get to G Major. You have a meeting."

"I just want to sleep."

"I know, sweetie. But rock stars never sleep." Her dad said.

This worked to Jude's advantage. She could stall a bit longer on the talk with Jamie.

At G Major, her life was turned up side down. Darius had taken over, and nothing was the same. He wanted to change her, and make her do a cover instead of her own music at a party. There was another Instant Star competition going on. She felt like everything was falling around her. This wasn't the time to loose her best friend, but all she really wanted was her boyfriend. She hadn't seen him yet, but then again after Jamie showed up, it was hard to go look for him.

When she was leaving, she finally spotted him around the side of the building eating licorice. "Doing it alone in the alley? It's the first sign of addiction, Quincy."

"I can stop anytime I want. Come on, first taste is always free." He offered.

"How can you be mainlining sugar right now when the sky is falling? You know, more to the point, how could you not even warn me?"

"Cause I wanted you to enjoy your first tour, and I didn't want to dump it all on you fresh off the bus."

"Okay but you could have explained the whole 'they want to replace me' contest."

"It's not replace, it's follow up. And I just thought you would have figured it out from watching TV or whatever."

"Tommy, I've been on a tour bus for weeks, okay? I've been watching the same copy of 'The Wall' over and over and over."

"I'm looking out for us okay? I know everything is weird, but it'll be okay."

"Right. Okay, well, I'm just going to go home and put on a dress your ex-wife has chosen and go sing a song that Darius has picked out that I'm going to be singing after the kids who are replacing me. So I say what?" She was so aggravated with everything. He wasn't helping considering he was acting like he was only her producer right now.

"Listen I hate to sound like someone's dad, but sometimes we all gotta do things we don't wanna do. Its called playing ball, Jude, it's required from time to time, understand?"

Jude resolved right there. She knew what she had to do. She had to do what everybody wanted her to do, and she had to tell Jamie. "I guess." She said with a sigh.

She couldn't read his expression as he walked away. She'd wanted to talk to him about what was going on, but he'd seemed to have forgotten their relationship all together. She didn't have time to worry about it.

When she and Sadie got to the party later, Tommy was still playing the professional producer role. It made her want to stay as far away as possible. When Jamie showed up, she felt strangely comforted. Even though she didn't feel the same about him, he was still her best friend. He listened to her complaining about having to conform to what everyone wanted. He told her to go out there and be herself. He was supporting her, and she couldn't break his heart.

On stage, she did what she was supposed to do. She and the band started 'Stupid Girl.' It felt wrong; so she stopped and had the guys start playing one of her new songs. Once it got going good, the plug was pulled.

Tommy rushed the stage, pulled her off, and went through the crowd.

"Whoa! What was that? What's his problem?" Jude was so confused. The crowd seemed to be getting into her song more than the cover.

"What is his problem? Jude, what is your problem? Huh? Exactly how stupid are you?" She could almost see smoke coming from his ears.

"What?"

"Jude, this take over was not good news. We could all get dropped tomorrow with out so much as a goodbye. I've been trying to save our jobs for weeks. Didn't you get that?"

"I just wanted everybody to hear my new stuff, Tommy, especially you." She defended.

"Didn't you hear the part where I asked you to play ball? What do you think that meant, huh? That you're supposed to go out there tonight and pitch a diva fit?" She couldn't believe he, of all people, was saying this to her.

"I just wanted to make it good." She was really lost.

"It's not enough, Jude. Your record sales are in the toilet. They can't get you air time. This showcase? You needed it. 'WE 'needed it!"

Jude's world was crashing. "Oh my god."

"I can't even look at you right now." Tommy said and stormed away.

"Tommy! Oh god." The realization of what she did was hitting her.

After going home, she knew she should get some sleep and then she could work everything out. Sleep was not something she could do. She spent the whole night calling Tommy, and leaving him messages. She felt like she was losing him. All she could do was pace the house. Sadie tried to reassure her everything was going to be okay.

Then things seemed to be getting even worse. Liam, the guy Darius hired to help him run G Major, showed up at her doorstep. He had contract release papers. She had to fix this. This wasn't just her career she was dealing with. Her actions also had an effect on Tommy. He could loose his job, too.

She went to Darius, she groveled, and she told him she'd do what ever he wanted her to do. That got her stuck performing in a group number with the instant star finalists. She finally saw Tommy. He was still mad, and she didn't help things by saying she listened to Jamie.

She was talking to one of the finalists when she saw Jamie leave his meeting with Liam. She noticed him roll his eyes at her and walk out the front door. She had to run after him. "Jamie, what happened?"

"Like you care. You couldn't give me the time of day and hour ago."

"Look I have to do this show or they are going to drop me."

"Well, I'm glad you got to keep your contract, Jude. I just got fired as SME's manager."

"Oh Jamie, I'm sorry."

"Save it, Jude. I needed you. If you had come to the meeting with me."

Something clicked in Jude's head. "Jamie, I'm not your girlfriend, you know that right?"

For a second she saw a hurt expression. "I thought when you didn't want to talk about it, was because we didn't have to. It was understood."

"Jamie, I'm with Tommy." She finally blurted out.

"What?" She could tell he didn't know what to think.

"I'm with Tommy." She repeated. "I have been for a while. You're my best friend, and your friendship means the world to me, but I'm in love with him."

"But." Was all he said.

"Look Jamie, I'll see what I can do about getting your job back."

"You know what, Jude, forget it. Go have a nice life with Little Tommy Q." He said and walked away.

She tried to stay focused. After the instant star finale, she would work on getting her friendship back. Because no matter how much Jamie's friendship meant, Tommy meant more now.

Some how she and Tommy, and she and Jamie made it through that whole ordeal. Now she wasn't sure if she and Jamie would ever be best friends again. But really Tommy was her best friend now.

~Please Review~