Wanna Be Yours

chapter eight: jude

August 16th, half past midnight...

Telling the girls every single event of the night with a calm demeanor was harder than Jude had thought. Nevertheless, she did it. One, because Taryn had asked her to relax, and Jude had promised she would. Two, because she did not need her entire band to think Cardan had any power over her. Which he did not. Jude also didn't find it necessary for any of them to think that their leader was unstable and focused too much on things that didn't matter. Because Cardan shouldn't matter.

He didn't!

And if by some chance he did, (again,he did not,) and his existence threatened every single ounce of peace that could possibly exist in Jude's body, then that was to stay between herself and the wicked gods up above that put this man right in Jude's path over, and over, and over, again. Nobody else needed to know, and they wouldn't, because, as she has stated, Cardan wasn't supposed to matter.

So, she told the story nonchalantly, avoiding any signs of being too angry about anything. Hiding perfectly that she was feeling more vengeful than ever. Feeling like she might lose her cool at any moment. She recounted it all, having to train him, his pouty lips, the raises of his eyebrows, his horrendous smirks, his curly black hair tied in a messy bun, his flawless smokey eyes, the way that even in his uniform the man was regal.

Cardan Greenbriar, and his arrogance. The way he even tried to apologize. Why? So he could save herself from Jude's comeback? He'd catch Jude dead before that happened.

Jude went on, telling them almost every detail, leaving out things that might have been compliments like, for example, Cardan wasn't terrible at the job. He learned fast, and he was actually obedient, following every rule Jude threw at him. He was nice to their other co-workers, and he was excellent at customer service. He greeted everyone who walked in with wide smiles, took orders like he was talking to friends, and made jokes that caused entire tables to erupt with laughter. Mauricio liked him. Everyone liked him. In the right light, he seemed... approachable. Sometimes, he even seemed almost like a regular boy—No. She pushed that out of her head again. He was still Cardan.

Cardan was the rich and intolerable boy he'd always been. Cardan who had thought he'd get away with walking from her show. There was no redemption for him, and she was going to get him back.

Oh yes, she'd get him back good.

Once Jude was done, she took a breath. For the first time, she noticed her sister right behind her massaging her shoulders. Bomb was sitting next to Jude at the dinner table, smiling. And Vivi was in the kitchen next to the microwave making popcorn. She also wore a smirk on her face. Jude wasn't sure what the sly smiles were about, but she kept her cool, doing her best to be unbothered, nonchalant, calculative, and ready for whatever move was to come next.

"So, you have to sing with him," Bomb said, pensive, still grinning.

"Yes," Jude sighed, she swallowed a frustrated scream, replacing it with a calm and collected, "Yes I do."

"Do you have a song in mind?" Taryn asked carefully, her fingers doing miracles to Jude's back knots.

"Not yet," Jude said somberly.

"And he let you pick?" Vivi hummed as she opened the microwave, took the popcorn back out, opened it, and dumped it onto a bowl, "Doesn't strike me as the type to let you choose. I mean—if he hates you as much as you claim..."

"He actually did," Jude nodded, "said he knew I'd end up picking anyway."

"Well, he is lazy," Taryn added, "and he has to focus on his band as well."