“And it’s just the same mistakes that I’m watching you make”
“Hey Jude”
Sitting on the swing set in the back yard she watched the cigarette between her fingers burn out. She’d spotted him the second he’d set off the motion sensor light. Back to help Quincy pack of his things and move out on her. She supposed at 22 it was something they were supposed to be doing, yet she couldn’t find it in herself to not be just a little bit angry with the both of them for leaving her there.
Her words had stopped Jude’s motions of walking in the house. Instead, he’d turned around to face her, a brow raised as he landed on the cancer stick in her hand. His head shook as he walked closer to her and took a seat on the swing beside her.
“You know, for some reason you’re the only one who can get away with that without pissing me off”
A smile crossed her lips for a moment as she brought the object back to her mouth and took a pull from it before tilting her head back and exhaling into the deep night air. A laugh slipped from her then as she looked over at him as the motion sensor went off and they were left in the darkness with only the moon to see.
“What’s on your mind Beautiful?”
Beautiful. Jude had been calling her that forever. Even as she felt out of place and awkward in her own skin. She couldn’t understand why, but she accepted it. It was comforting to know that at least his words were there to pick her up when she wasn’t quite feeling like herself.
She bit on her lip a moment, gathering her thoughts as she took another drag from the cigarette. Whatever she said would probably go directly back to Quincy and she wasn’t sure she wanted to deal with that fallout just yet. She was supposed to be his innocent baby sister. The word innocent couldn’t have been further from her.
“Have you ever slept with someone and then regretted it a week or so later?”
A serious look tightened his jaw for a moment, as if he were willing himself not to play the big brother card and lecture her she figured. Then, a moment later he put his hand out for the white stick in her hand which she gave him a confused look about for a half second as he took it from her and took a drag off of it. She wasn’t going to question it; instead she watched the cigarette as he held it between his fingers, looking at it pensively.
“My first time was with some girl at a party whose name I don’t even remember”
He confessed and she was taken aback for a moment. Jude never struck her as that type. He was gentle and kind, not exactly the makings for hit it and run. Then again, that was probably why he’d taken the cigarette from her in the first place she figured. The tough things to talk about weren’t exactly the ones people could do without something to even slightly occupy their minds.
“You slept with Charlie”
His jaw was locked again as he exhaled another breathe of smoke to the side of him.
“Just another number in his book I guess”
A shrug fell from her shoulders, she’d expected more of him, she couldn’t explain why. And yet the moment they’d gotten back from Paris he’d gone directly to Heidi and it had pissed her off. Yet for some disgusting reason she found herself pissed at Heidi for existing instead of B for screwing her over. She wanted to hate him, she did, and she just couldn’t.
“Wave…”
She held her hand up to stop him as she reached for the cigarette simultaneously. He took another puff from it and handed it back to her. The warmth of his lips was still on it as she held it in her mouth for a second before looking back over at him again.
“You don’t have to say it Jude. I’m a kid… blah blah”
Beginning the lecture that she knew both he and her brother would probably line up to give her when the truth of the matter came out it was only as she looked at him that she silenced herself. His eyes didn’t hold the disappointment that she’d expected them to hold. Instead it was pure concern and maybe a hint of something that she couldn’t put her finger on.
“All I was going to say, is that you’re better than Charlie. And I know that that probably sounds like bullshit to you. But I’ve watched the way that he goes through girls and doesn’t even notice it himself. If he hurts you Wave, he’s going to be answering to me.”
Dropping the cigarette into the grass she crushed it under her shoe before reaching out and putting her hand on Jude’s back. He was golden, that was for sure. Luna had found herself one of the best ones.
“Also, do me a favor? Don’t smoke. Those things are disgusting. I feel like I just licked an ashtray, it’s nauseating.”
With a slight laugh she leaned her head against his shoulder, Jude had always been such a comfort to her, and she knew that he was her brother’s other half, that had been obvious for as long as she could remember.
“You do me a favor and don’t ever go anywhere Jude. I think that I might need you around more than Q does.”
Feeling him kiss her forehead she smiled as he stood up. He was always one she could count on for the talks Quincy would too give, only he didn’t fly off the handle the way that Q would have if she’d brought it all up to him. And that was exactly what she’d needed tonight.