Three Months

Chapter Ten

It’s been a month since I met Jude Andrews, and he’s so incredibly sweet to me now that it’s like the past, rude version of him never existed.

            “You’re so annoying, Paisley,” Jude says to me flatly.

            Okay, my previous statement is a complete and utter lie. Jude is still a jerk to me, and I’m still the same old me. I suppose the only difference is that a month has gone by and now I’m only left with two months before my expiration date hits. Also, Jude is starting to call me by my name now, which is pretty nice. He used to call me Daniels a lot, but now he calls me Paisley.

            “Why?” I ask, pretending to be wounded by his words. “What did I do this time?”

            “You know I don’t like this station,” Jude complains, “and yet you still turn it on—“

            “You let me—!”

            “—and then you start singing to every song that plays!” Jude exclaims. “I hate Justin Bieber and listening to you singing his song in your lovely voice just makes it all better. Not.”

            I glare at Jude and say, “Whatever.” It’s sad that after all this time that we’ve spent together, I still haven’t learned that I’m never going to win our arguments over music. Jude is very outspoken about his music. After all, the first time he allowed me to listen to the mainstream radio station was last week, and that was shocking enough.

            “You know you love my singing,” I say in a matter-of-factly tone. “You just don’t want to admit how much you like it.”

            “Yep,” Jude says sarcastically. “That’s definitely the issue.”

            I shrug, looking out the window. “You’re simply in denial.”

            “Denial it is.” This is how our arguments over music and my singing always win. I act like I won while Jude acts like I own too, although we both know that he won.

            From spending so much time in Jude’s shiny black truck, I’ve come to love the feeling of looking out a window when driving. The scenery on the outside explains time. When you pass a tree, it zips by, and you never pass it again just like time. Time passes by so fast, and it simply flies in front of your face before you even have a chance to analyzing any of it. You may think that you’ve had enough time to think about everything that’s happened, but in retrospect, you’re wrong.

            Jude and I are headed down to the thrift shop where we’re going to purchase a cheap guitar. (Jude claims that he’ll pay for it, but I know deep down that he’s going to find some way to have me pay for it in the end. That’s just the kind of person he is.) Earlier, we looked over my bucket list, and the one that caught Jude’s eye was learn how to play the guitar.

            If it were up to me, I wouldn’t have ever told Jude about the bucket list since it corresponded with my condition, and I didn’t want him to know about that, but he grabbed the paper from me one day without my permission. I’ve made it a habit to go to the café and brainstorm ideas for my bucket list. There was one time a few weeks ago that I was there, and I wasn’t paying attention to the fact that Jude was there also and he came in and stole the paper from me.

            Fortunately, I never wrote ‘Bucket List’ at the top of the sheet, and so he believes that it’s my Things I Want to Do Before I’m Eighteen list. I kind of feel bad for not telling him, but there’s not much else that I can do.