A/N: !! I love the reviews. Seriously. More than I should. I'm just as big of a creeper as mr. stalkerazzo in my story. Except, well, not in let-me-stalk-you sort of way, more in a lets-be-bffls sort of way. I apologize in advance for said creeperness, (I've written and deleted all these personal responses to the reviews like 20 times because I'm like 'no, that's creepy. You can't tell these reviewers how much you love them, Samantha.') but ANYWAY … have a chapter!
Disclaimer: Don't own it, never will.
Taking a deep breath, Jude hung her head and walked into G-Major, preparing herself for a long day. She didn't even bother trying to make it to the couch. It was decidedly less appealing without the prospect of having a certain ex-boy bander come over and keep her company. Instead, she headed towards Darius's office, not looking forward at all to the conversation she was going to have with him. She was going to cost him money, and that never goes over well with him.
She knocked tentatively on the door, actually hoping that he wasn't in the building today and she wouldn't have to deal with him at all.
"Come in," his deep baritone voice rang out, causing Jude to almost turn around and leave. Instead, she sucked it up and opened the door slowly.
"Hey, D," she started off in a kind and hopeful tone.
"Hey, Superstar. How're you holding up? No paparazzi lurking out there, right?"
Jude gulped.
"Right."
"Anything in particular you need for me to do for you?" As much as Darius loved Jude, he wasn't above thinking that she had ulterior motives for coming and talking to him randomly.
"Actually…yes. And please, I don't want you to get mad at me, and I don't want you to think I don't value this entire company and the people in it, I just want you to…just wait until I'm done, okay?"
Darius's eyebrows raised, but he just nodded silently.
"Okay, so, I know my album release party is scheduled to coincide with my birthday party, which, actually, was scheduled to fall on my birthday, which is weird, because normally I totally dread something like that, but this year I was thinking that maybe it won't suck as bad as it usually does, but you know," Jude rambled.
"Jude," came Darius's warning.
"Right. Okay. So, I sort of need you to…postponetheparty." Jude said in a rush.
"I'm sorry, what?" Darius clearly hadn't understood her.
"The party," Jude sighed. "Is there anyway you can postpone it? Just a week or so."
"Jude, the idea of having this be a dual birthday party/album launch party was due largely in part to it being on your birthday."
"And I know that. And I'd understand if you wanted to cut the birthday part out. But I really, really, really need for you to postpone it."
"Want to tell me why I would be inclined to do this at all, Jude?"
"Sadie's rehearsal dinner is on November 4th, Darius."
"It's on your birthday?" Darius asked incredulously. "Tell her to move it, Jude!"
"It's not that simple!" Jude cried. "Listen, D, I know this is short notice. And I know you're not inclined to lose a lot of money. I'm not crazy about the idea either, but think about it – you can postpone the release of my album. That alone will generate more publicity, more speculation, and more interest in the album in general. More interest means more money, D!"
Darius pondered that for a moment before staring down Jude.
"And you're sure you can't just ask Sadie to move the rehearsal dinner?"
"It sort of has to be the day before the wedding, D. And besides, moving that to accommodate me would just be bringing more attention to me, which isn't what I want. This is Sadie's time."
"I see she's having the same consideration regarding you and G-Major moving the international launch of your third album, and oh, I don't know, your 19th birthday, Jude!"
Jude winced at the anger in Darius's voice, even though she was 90 sure that it wasn't directed at her. Darius had a long history of believing Sadie was selfish and not supportive of Jude, and while Jude knew that wasn't the case, she could also see how Darius could come to that conclusion, especially when all he saw was the interactions at G-Major.
"I know this probably isn't going to make a difference," Jude said quickly. "But, I'm not 100 sure that Sadie is…really aware of the fact that it's my birthday and album launch."
"Not…aware." Darius repeated.
"Not in the strictest sense of the phrase, no," Jude said meekly.
"You are telling me that your sister, your only sister, is currently unaware of the fact that it is both your birthday and the public release of your third studio album.
"Yes."
"And you're asking me to rearrange my entire life as well as the lives of everyone remotely involved in the making and producing of this album in order for her to have a dream wedding, which, by the way, I will be further screwing with these people's lives since they already have to rearrange their damn schedules for this fucking wedding!"
"Darius, I don't see another solution to this!"
"Grow a damn backbone, Jude!"
Jude took deep breaths, trying to maintain her composure. Jude didn't cry for pity, or to get her way. She just cried when she felt angry or upset or helpless. Most of all, though, Jude cried when she was being yelled at. She just hated feeling that guilty and that upset, and the tears were always unbidden. But as she stood in front of Darius, being called, essentially, a coward, tears trickled down her face.
"Jude," D's voice immediately softened.
"No, Darius," Jude managed to get out while sniffing back her tears. "I have a backbone, okay? I stand up for myself when I need to, and I stand up for others when I see fit. But right now, I am not about to make my one birthday – which, may I remind you, I will have again, next year – into some big ordeal when Sadie doesn't get another wedding. She gets this one, and she gets it done right.
"Yeah, she didn't remember my birthday, and yeah, it sucks but can you blame her? She has a million things going on for her right now, I'm surprised she even managed to invite me."
"Jude, I'm not going to pretend to understand this. I know that your family is obviously different in it's own rights, but I have a sister too, you know. And how Sadie's treating you isn't how I would ever treat my own family."
"It's complicated," Jude sighed.
"I know," Darius replied through his own sigh. "Which is why I am going to push back your album release party. But only one week. If Sadie gets mad that it interferes with her honeymoon or whatever, that's not my problem, you understand?"
"I understand."
"Good," Darius agreed. "Now what are you even doing in the studio today?"
Jude just shrugged. Good question.
"Maybe rehearse a little with SME for the launch? We still have to decide on some things for the party, so I'll probably talk to Portia and get some of that straightened out."
"Alright, then get your ass out of my office." D said with a smile.
Jude started to walk out before remembering to make sure.
"D, you won't…you know. Make a big deal of this, right?"
"If you're asking me if I will tell people we're moving the party because of your sister's inconsiderateness," D started, then paused. "Then no, I'm not going to do that. I will simply say that the album is being perfected and it's not ready yet. But don't forget how I feel about this, okay Jude?"
"Okay," Jude replied before seeing herself out.
- - - -
The rest of the day was a blur for Jude. No Tommy calls, not that she had really expected it, and too much SME for her to handle in a short time period. Combine that with her interesting morning intruder and Jude was just about at her limit.
She was getting fitted for her maid of honor dress by Portia at the end of the day, wanting nothing more than for her to be done and the entire situation to just be over with. Jude had to admit that Sadie was taking the Bridezilla aspect to frightening new levels. Luckily, Portia was in charge of the outfits, at least for the women, and Portia herself had threatened to slap Sadie when she saw her first choice of dresses for the wedding party.
Portia had called them "hideous" and a "mockery to the fashion world." Sadie had taken the idea of making everyone look worse than the bride to whole new extremes. What Portia had finally talked her into was a compromise for everyone, but Jude didn't mind. The Maid of Honor dress was far better than the bridesmaid dresses that Sadie's college friends had to wear.
The entire wedding theme was navy blue and white, which Jude had to admit was looking fabulous so far. Sadie's dress had blue gems sparkling in the tulle skirt as well as adorning her veil, and the wedding party's dresses were navy blue with white accents. The bridesmaids had to suffer from very large, conspicuous white flowers on the shoulders, where Jude's dress merely had a white sash around the waist. It was form fitting and flattering on Jude – slightly off the shoulder thick sleeves, which were almost t-shirt length, a very fitted waist and a slight flare to the pleated skirt that landed just above her knees. What surprised Jude the most about the dress was the way it was making a hell of a lot of cleavage out of nothing. And who was Jude to argue with that?
"Almost done," Portia commented as she pinned the fabric up at her waist, creating a nice rouched look.
"It looks great, Portia, honestly," Jude said tiredly, looking at herself in the mirror.
"It does, doesn't it?" Portia said with a cocky smile. "Your sister's lucky I could get all these fittings done in time, she knows that, right?"
"I'm sure she's well aware, Portia."
"I just mean, 7 months to three weeks? Not a lot of time if you ask me, not a lot of time at all. But, I understand the reasoning for the rush and all that."
"You do?" Jude asked slowly. She honestly wasn't sure what Sadie was telling people as for the reason the wedding was moved up.
"Yeah, of course. I'd want my mom to be at my wedding, too, and Sadie said this was the only time your mom could fly in from Europe. Something to do with overseas operations, right?"
Jude's mouth was hanging open, and she knew she had spiked Portia's curiosity at her hesitancy to answer. But seriously. Her mother?
"Right, yeah," Jude said hurriedly. "You know me, I don't really understand what's going on over there, so I just smile and nod."
Portia let out a laugh and agreed.
"You certainly aren't the brains of the Harrison family, that's for sure."
Jude was too shocked to become indignant at Portia's comment; her mind was too busy reeling from the previous statement. Her mom was coming to the wedding? Jude was honestly thrown off by that. And she wasn't even sure if it was true – after all, what if it was just an excuse Sadie was using? It made sick, twisted sense that her mother would give her oldest daughter a time frame on when she could and couldn't get married, but still…Jude had no idea if her mother had any intentions of coming at all.
She's not coming, Jude told herself. It's just an excuse to get people to go, and they'll show up and Sadie will make a big fuss about how her own mother wouldn't go to her wedding, and she'd get more pity and more attention and bigger wedding checks. She's not coming.
If she was coming, well, that was more problems than Jude had energy to deal with at that moment.
"All done!" Portia exclaimed, standing up. "Looks great! You can just step out of that and I should have all the finishing touches done by the weekend. You just have to promise me you won't get fat in the next two and a half weeks."
"I promise," Jude smiled. "I'll try not to get-" She almost said 'pregnant' but stopped herself. No need putting words in Portia's head that weren't already there.
"Get McDonalds every day for lunch," she covered quickly. "But I make no promises."
"Girl, you better promise. The way I sew, these stitches aren't coming out for nothing."
Jude laughed and stepped out of the dress and into her own clothes, handing the dress back to Portia carefully.
"I'll see you later, Portia," Jude said as she grabbed her tote from the floor.
"Bye, Jude," Portia said from over her shoulder as she hunched over a clothing rack. "See ya."
- - - -
Jude climbed into the Hummer, triple checking the backseat and the far back, and locking all the doors and child locking the windows. No need in anything unnecessary to happen, and an unwanted visitor is certainly unnecessary.
She made her way back to her house, not bothering to stop at any store to get ice cream or any other much needed junk food. She just didn't feel up to it. She pulled in the driveway and let out a sigh. Her house was dark and uninviting. She observed it for a moment more, about to turn off the truck and get out, when she noticed the bushes by the front steps moving slightly. She focused hard and could barely make out the glint of light reflecting of some sort of metal.
Like a camera, Jude realized.
Not wanting to have to deal with that, and being more scared than she cared to admit, she pulled out of her driveway and drove away. Still feeling slightly shaky and not the least bit reassured, she pulled into the parking lot of a twenty four hour grocery store, the harsh neon lights comforting her a little.
She turned off the truck and held the keys in her hand.
What do I do now, she wondered. I really don't want to call the police. Words can't even describe how much I don't want to call the police.
She turned the keys over and over in her hand, trying to think of something she could do, or somewhere she could go, that wouldn't attract attention. She was running her fingers over the key fob when she noticed the fob had small button on it, and engraved words next to it.
She brought it up closer to her face, reading it in the parking lot's garish lights, fully expecting to see "Made In Taiwan" written there, but instead, the engraving in the black plastic read "Grande Towers."
Grande Towers? Isn't that the classy apartment complex off Ewing Street? But who…Tommy lives there? There, of all places?
Jude had good reason to be confused about Tommy's living arrangements. It wasn't as if he had said anything that would make her rule that place out, but the fact was that it wasn't particularly close to the studio, and it was a lot more extravagant than she would have originally assumed. Before that moment, she would have assumed it to be too ritzy of a place for Tommy Quincy to live.
"He wouldn't mind," Jude said aloud, trying to convince herself. "He wouldn't even have to know."
I could just go and spend the night in his apartment. He wouldn't even have to know! It's just one night, after all. And I mean, he did leave me the fob. And there's that extra key on the chain! He knows what it leads to, probably the underground parking garage, and he knows that there was always the potential for me to figure out what it did. So I'll just go, spend the night there, and not worry about anything else.
She held the other key up to the light – the one she had assumed was a spare for the Hummer. Now she realized it was a key to his home.
Starting up the truck, she put it into drive and eased her way back onto the busy road. She took plenty of unnecessary twists and turns in her driving over to Ewing Street, but she knew Tommy valued his privacy, and she didn't want to be the one responsible for reporters hounding him at his own home. She felt like a total James Bond wannabe, but she reassured herself that it's what Tommy himself did, so how silly could it be?
Fifteen minutes later, she found herself sitting in front of a gated parking lot with several levels off of Ewing Street.
"Here goes nothing," Jude said as she pressed the button on the fob gently. At first, nothing happened, and Jude was panic-stricken at the thought of trying to come up with someplace else to go, but then, sure enough, the gate started creaking open, sliding to one side. Jude let out the biggest sigh of relief and she slowly made her way into the parking garage.
She was unsure where to go, to be honest. The parking spots were labeled very clearly, starting with two spots labeled '101' followed by '101 Visitor.' She made it up to the second level, keeping her eyes peeled for the Viper, when she saw her own Corvette parked alongside the far area of the second level.
It was the fourth in a row of 10 spots, only about 8 taken up by actual vehicles. All labeled 'P' and most holding shiny cars or motorcycles. She slid the Hummer into the empty number 9 slot and got out, examining all the cars and bikes.
She knew Tommy did good for himself. Hell, he probably didn't need to produce at all these days, he could easily survive off his Boyz Attack! Money, but the money from producing her latest album alone could've given him this lavish lifestyle as well.
She looked at the ground, biting her lip as she did so. 'P.' Tommy lived in the penthouse. The penthouse of the Grande Towers. This probably surprised Jude more than it should have, but as much as she knew that Tommy was well off, she still didn't really picture him living in the Grande Towers, much less the penthouse.
She carefully made her way to the entrance from the second level garage, met by only an elevator with gold doors. She nervously hit the up arrow, and waited fairly patiently for the elevator to arrive. A familiar ding! Let her know that she was one step closer to the scariest place she'd ever been.
The elevator was nice. It was exactly what one would expect from the Grande Towers. Soothing music, spacious area, everything looked polished and sparkled. Jude leaned forward to hit the button next to the 'P' when she stopped. No button. There was the letter 'P.' There was a star next to it, though…no button, like for all the other floors.
What the hell? Jude thought anxiously. Leave it to Tommy to have ridiculous security precautions and no button to press to get up to his floor. What, do I have to do a retinal scan before I can get up? Scan by thumb, something ridiculous like that? How the hell do I get up there?
Before Jude could contemplate her plan (or lack thereof), the elevator ding! Alerted her to the elevator stopping at another floor. Just what she didn't need – someone who actually lived there to get on, see her completely clueless as to how to get to her "own" floor, and alert security.
She panicked and hit the button for '28' – the second highest floor. If someone got on, she could just get off at that floor, and pretend that she knew where she was going. The elevator came to a slow halt at the 23rd floor. Jude waited with baited breath as the doors slid open, not prepared at all for who was on the other side of that door.
"Oh my God," Jude breathed, disbelieving her own eyes.