Beautiful Storms

chapter twenty-three | jude

"Maybe it's not supposed to be easy for you. Maybe you're one of the rare few who can handle tough times and still choose to be a loving person. Maybe it's going how it's going because you're built for it. Don't stress a thing. It's going to work out because you're not going to stop putting the work in."

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beautiful storms | chapter twenty-three

"Don't look at me like that." Jude sits in the passenger seat in Cara's car and she rolls her eyes. He buckles his seatbelt and he pulls out the grocery list in his hand. Cara leans to peek at the list and then she grabs it to get a closer look.

"I'll handle the bottom two because I know you wouldn't understand."

"You underestimate me." He snatches the paper from her hand jokingly and he sits it back down on his lap.

"Thanks." Cara hands Sadie the box of pads and tampons. Jude awkwardly stands next to Cara, staring up at the ceiling.

"You're making this awkward, Jude," Sadie says annoyed and she sits both boxes on her dresser and motions for them to get out of her room and she sits back down on her bed. Jude huffs and he crosses his arms over his chest.

"She needs time," Cara whispers before she starts pushing him out of the room. Cara shuts the door and Jude stares at her blankly.

"Can we talk for a second?" Cara asks and Jude nods as she pulls him into his room and she shuts the door. Jude sits down on his bed.

"So, my dad is back." She says bluntly and sits down next to Jude who doesn't say anything but he does sigh though and he doesn't know what to say.

"Is Jessica with him?" He says minutes later and Cara nods, her head falling in her hands. Jude rubs her back and she stares up at him with teary eyes. He reaches to wipe them away and then he hugs her.

"Please don't cry." His voice becomes low and he lets her tears wet his shirt. Her body trembles and he moves her more on to his bed and she lays her head on his chest.

"I just don't want him to hurt her." She's still crying as the words leave her lips and he runs his hand through her hair.

"What do you want to do?"

"There's nothing I can do. He has full custody of her and I don't have the money nor the resource to get custody of her and I'm not even eighteen yet." She tells him and he nods.

Jude didn't know much about girls but he did know they liked sweets.

Cara was sleeping in his room and he decided to go back to the store in his grandmother's car with her permission and he drives to the store and he grabs all of the sweets he remembers her talking about and he also grabs his grandmother and Sadie something. He returns with a full bag and he sits the keys back on the kitchen counter and he rushes to his room and he gets there in time because Cara starts to wake up.

She rolls over to her side and pushes her curl to the side of her head but she doesn't open her eyes yet. Jude sits down with the bag in his hands. "I have chocolate." Jude takes a candy bar out of the bag and he sits it in front of her. She slowly opens her eyes and Jude sits the chocolate on her cheek and she glares at him before grabbing the chocolate.

"Thanks." She mumbles.

He kisses her cheek and she smiles up at him. "Why'd you buy me chocolate?"

"Because you were sad."

She opens her mouth before shaking her head and Jude furrows his eyebrows.

"Can you not?"

Sadie says as she hits Jude's shoulder and he barely moves. He sits down at the kitchen table with his grandmother. Today, he made sure he ate all three meals and he was extremely proud of himself.

He had a bowl of Vanilla ice cream in front of him and he ate half of it but he grabs the chocolate syrupy in front of him and then pours an ungodly amount of it on the remainder of the ice cream in his bowl.

"Jude, that's too much."

Sadie says as she sits back down with a bowl of cookies 'n cream ice cream and she glances at his bowl and rolls her eyes.

"Don't knock it until you try it."

"I don't want to try it."

"Why because that's entirely way too much chocolate."

"Can you tell him that's way too much and he'll get a toothache?"

Sadie turns to their grandmother who looks up from her paperwork not paying them much attention and she nods before looking back down at her paperwork.

"See way too much. You've wasted it."

Jude rolls his eyes and he takes a spoonful of it and he stuffs it in his mouth before swallowing it.

"As amusing as that is can you grow up." She says sarcastically and Jude rolls his eyes again.

Sadie sighs before eating some of her ice cream as she reads one of the new books she just got.

"When do you have to return it?"

"In three weeks." She tells him.