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Chapter 22: Jude
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Family Ties Chapter 23: Jude
When I got back to the house, Bart's car was gone, and I assumed Portia had left with him. It was late, although I didn't know what time since I hadn't grabbed my cell phone when I'd stormed out after dinner. The house was dark, and a heavy silence hung in the air. Every step I took equated to walking in water, and the tension I'd left in the house still gripped every surface and available space. The stairs might as well have been Everest, as hard as they were to climb. A chill ran down my spine that prickled my skin, taking a substantial burden with it and making every step laborious. I didn't find the atmosphere to be any different on the second floor than the first, except there was even less light to illuminate the hall without windows. It wasn't difficult to navigate the familiar path, just uncomfortable. I hadn't felt like a stranger in this house since the first day I'd arrived-now it was as though I was an intruder.After entering the second room on the left, I closed the
Family Ties Chapter 24: Jude
Waking the next morning, I'd hoped to find Portia hogging the bed and the blankets, but I found her space empty. I dreaded what I had to do and figured a shower would serve me well before facing the mess I'd created last night, although I wasn't the only one responsible for the turdshow at the manure corral. The shower ran cold while I played different scenarios in my head for how to word things with Ernie and Hensley, and I ended up deciding spontaneity would play in my favor. I never did well with anything rehearsed. By the time I made it downstairs, it was nearly eleven, and the house was relatively quiet. Portia and Hensley were nowhere to be found, and I started to wonder if this was going to be a habit of Portia's every time she came home. Ernie sat at the table with a cup of coffee and the newspaper in hand. "Hey, son." He set the paper down when I took a seat across from him."Is Hensley around?""She and Portia went shopping." Good to know she hadn't escaped under
Family Ties Chapter 25: Portia
Bart and I had exchanged several text messages, but he hadn't encourage me to come back to school early in any of them. In some weird, girly way, it hurt, and in another, it didn't bother me. I was grateful to have a couple days with my parents and Jude, even if he wasn't a barrel of laughs to be around. I hadn't gotten all the details, although I heard enough from the top of the stairs to understand that Jude had finally let go of the emotional wall he'd erected around his heart. I shouldn't have eavesdropped when I heard Ernie retelling Jude's apology to Hensley. It was wrong. I was also a nosy girl who loved the boy my parents were talking about-every teenager in America would have done the same. So, I stood still and listened to their conversation downstairs. Oddly, Ernie wasn't concerned about Jude's breakdown or the fact that he'd stayed holed up in his room all day. In fact, he thought it was the healthiest thing he'd seen from Jude since Carrie died. At that point, I didn't
Family Ties Chapter 26: Portia
I climbed into the passenger seat of Bart's Beamer as my family looked on from the front porch. Ernie and Hensley waved, but Jude stood silently with his arms crossed. His eyes never drifted from mine. I hated to leave him, knowing how much pain he was in. I worried that he'd shut back down instead of processing what had bubbled to the surface and boiled over. As I buckled my seatbelt, I gave the three of them a forced smile and mouthed "goodbye" before I faced Bart. "You know, I could have gotten a ride to school. You didn't have to drive all the way back out here. Not that I mind, I just don't want to take advantage of you." I tried to take his hand to affectionately show my appreciation, but just when I reached out, he moved it to shift gears.He focused on the road and the traffic in front of us. "That's what friends do, right?" There wasn't a hint of tension in his voice, but the use of the word "friend" sent me into high alert."Uhh, yeah. Friends." I tried to laugh it off
Family Ties Chapter 27: Portia
"Bart's going home for Christmas. It will just be me this weekend. Sorry to disappoint you.""I assure you, I'm not disappointed that your boytoy isn't joining us for the holiday." Jude huffed on the other end of the phone. "I assumed that's what couples did-spent time off together. It suits me just fine to have you home by yourself. Do you want me to pick you up from school?"I hadn't been home since Thanksgiving, and I'd only stayed Thursday and Friday before racing back to campus. "Yeah. I hate that you'll have to drive all that way just to turn around and drive home, but everyone is leaving, and no one is going that direction.""I don't mind. I'll just crank up the radio and sing at the top of my lungs for an hour. That way I won't feel cheated when you get in the car and put on your angry-girl crap.""I don't listen to crap."Jude laughed on the other end of the phone. "But you admit they're angry girls?""Maybe.""I gotta go. Hensley's hollering for me to come to di
Family Ties Chapter 28: Jude
"Where are you off to?" Portia acted like my going out on a Friday night was peculiar. A year ago, it would have been; this year, not so much. "To Jamison Hart's house for a party." I stared in the bathroom mirror while Portia watched me from the doorway inside my bedroom."You should go with him, sweetheart. You don't want to sit here all night with your dad and me." I hadn't realized Hensley had joined us. I poked my head past Portia to see what my foster mother was doing, only to find her putting away laundry and smoothing out the wrinkles on my bed."It's okay. I don't want to intrude.""Nonsense. I'm sure Jude would love to have you go with him. Isn't that right, Jude?" Hensley hadn't bothered to pick up her head to look our direction. She just talked as she worked her way around my room.I shrugged when I faced Portia. "Yeah, why not? You can go if you want.""Wow, with that welcome invitation, how could I resist?" She folded her arms over her chest. Playfully,
Family Ties Chapter 29: Jude
I followed behind Ethan as he trailed Carson. There were a handful of people here I didn't recognize, which was always the case at Jamison's. Even though there was only one high school in the county, he had friends that lived a town over. I'd never bothered to learn any of their names since they'd never shown the slightest bit of interest in us. I was pretty good about keeping to myself. Even though Carson and Ethan had found their footing in the social world, I still preferred to keep my head down.I'd never figured out how Jamison got away with having these gatherings. I'd asked him several times if his parents smoked, and he'd always told me no. They were social drinkers, but that was the extent of their deviance. Yet when I asked how they didn't know people spent the weekend smoking pot in their living room, he'd just shrug and flip his hair out of his face. Jamison was perpetually high. I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen him when his eyes weren't glassy and bloodshot-may
Family Ties Chapter 30: Jude
I smacked him hard against the chest, and he flinched at the blow. "What happened to her not knowing, dumbass? How the hell am I going to get this past her? She's going to blow a gasket."About that time, Melanie Pratt dropped down onto the couch between Jamison and me. I'd known her most of my life. She was nice enough, kind of a drifter. Melanie had friends in every social circle, which meant she didn't belong to one and was accepted in them all. It was no secret she had an affinity for Jamison, although over the last few weeks I'd started to believe her interest was more in his stash of recreational substances than the man himself. Tonight seemed to be no different. But one look at her, and I knew there was no chance of my hiding from Portia. If I looked half as blitzed as Melanie did, I might as well have a sign with a flashing arrow pointing at me. Just as I was about to comment, Melanie dropped one hand on my wrist and one on Jamison's. Each one of her nails lightly stroked
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