Long Distance Phone Calls ((Jude))

[Eevie Bloch G6]

“Eevie Alicia Dylan Bloch, get down here this instant!” Eevie groaned and buried her head in her pillow, pressing the phone to her ear harder to block out her aunt’s screams, “I’m so ready for the term to start, Jude, I get away from Bethany and I get to be with you.” She listened to Jude tell her that the summer hols was almost over and then cringed when Bethany screamed for her again. “I have to go…” she told Jude morosely, “I’ll call you back later, but I’ll text you after Bethany’s felt like she’s played the good guardian.” Jude chuckled on the other line and they exchanged I love you, I love you toos and Eevie hung up. She stood, tossing the phone on herbed as she left the room. The summer holidays were the worst. She had to live at home with her aunt, yes, but the number one thing about the summer hols that upset her was the fact that Jude was across the world in the United States. It was hard just talking to him over the phone and text, but she had been doing it ever since her third year really, so she should be a little bit used to it. Right? Wrong! It still killed her enough. “EEVIE!” She scowled and stomped purposefully on the stairs so her aunt would be aware that she was coming. A load of good that did. “EEVIE IF YOU AREN’T DOWN HERE IN FI-!”

“I’m here. Jeezle!” Bethany jumped and whirled around to see Eevie entering the kitchen with a scowl plastered across her face. Bethany nodded, “Dishes,” she said as she pointed to the pile in the sink. Eevie groaned, “I did those last night!” Bethany snorted, tossing her hair over her shoulder, “Obviously you didn’t. Otherwise there wouldn’t be a pile that huge in our kitchen sink, Eve.” Eevie scowled and started to run the water in the sink, “Don’t call me ‘Eve.’ I wasn’t ever cast out of the Garden of Eden, Beth.” Bethany sighed, called her childish, and left the kitchen humming, leaving Eevie to wash the dishes in peace. She could have sworn that she had done the dishes the night before. As she washed, Eevie decided that her aunt had magically made more dishes appear in the sink just so Eevie would have to wash them twice in a row! Eevie wouldn’t hold it against her aunt to do that, but then again Bethany was cruel like that so why would Eevie hold it against her? Eevie grumbled about her aunt as she finished up the dishes and dried them, stacking them in their appropriate places in the cupboards. She honestly could’ve sworn she had done the dishes the night before and how dare her aunt pull her away from Jude?!

Finally, Eevie finished doing the dishes and putting them away, and prepared to bounce up the stairs back to her room; “Eevie…” Bethany called to her before she could even make it up three steps. Eevie groaned again and rolled her eyes before turning on her heel and bouncing back down the stairs into the living room, “You rang?” she asked with her voice dripping of sarcasm. Bethany eyed her niece and then nodded; “I just wanted to let you know we’re going shopping tomorrow…” Eevie looked confused a moment, “Don’t you have to work tomorrow?” Now it was Bethany’s turn to look confused. Bethany was an assistant fact checker for the Daily Prophet. It wasn’t a high position at the newspaper, but it paid enough for the two of them to live comfortably – besides there was the check that Bethany received monthly for taking care of Eevie. “No…tomorrow’s Saturday.” Eevie bit her nails and shook her head vehemently, “No, no no. Tomorrow’s Friday, Bethany.” With a chuckle, Bethany snapped her magazine and shook her head too, “No, Eevie, tomorrow’s Saturday.” She stood there a moment in deep thought and then shrugged, “Oh well, I’ll be upstairs talking to Jude if you need me.” She then turned and raced up the stairs, barely hearing the; “Not too late!” that issued from her aunt’s mouth.

‘Not too late’ was always difficult considering the time difference was about 8 hours. So when it was midnight for him, it was eight in the morning for her. Luckily, Eevie was able to talk way early into the morning as long as she could sleep the next day away. Tonight she wouldn’t have that luxury though. “An early night phone call,” she sighed as she opened her door and stepped inside, closing it behind her with her foot before launching onto her bed and picking up her cell phone. She looked at the picture of Jude a moment, smiling softly, and then dialled in his number and pressed the phone to her ear. The ring annoyed her for far too long before Jude picked up, “I was forced to do the dishes twice this week…” she told him with a pout in her voice as she settled herself comfortably in her bed, “so tell me about the hour you had without me blabbing in your ear.”

[Jude Esben H7]

The few moments after Jude hung up the phone with Eevie were always kind of hectic, at least, in Jude’s head they were. See, Jude didn’t talk much, but he sure thought a lot. Well anyways, the point is that as soon as Eevie’s voice disappeared and the call ended Jude found himself torn in about five different directions. He had the house to himself until well…actually he didn’t know how long he was going to be home alone for, but he was at least sure that he had till six or so at night. Jude’s dad worked till then and…often times found something to do to keep himself busy after he was off work. More often then not Mr. Esben would meander around the local music scenes. Going to shows, bars, and clubs; he was just a kid at heart, growing up hadn’t ever really…held him down. Nothing changed during the summer when Jude was there, except that occasionally Jude would be invited to go out to hear what new sounds were coming out of the local scene and once or twice he had even been asked to give an opinion. Of course, Jude’s opinion consisted of shrugs and nods. Oh well, the point is that Jude was home alone for most of the day and he had quite a few ideas of how to spend it. It took him a few minutes, but eventually he hoisted himself up from his bed and looked around his room. Probably the only good thing about staying at his dad’s was the material aspect, but even that didn’t really matter much to Jude. His dad made a pretty decent amount of money doing what he did, and often times was given the strangest gifts by novice ‘rockstars’ on power/ego trips. Money really could make some people strange, and as Jude looked around his room he figured you could say it occasionally took away all their sense of style…or…well sense in general.

It was a large room, huge actually. The whole house was big, but that was another matter. Jude’s room was monstrous and because of this it was the room used to house all of the more awkward and unfitting gifts Jude’s father had received. The amount of animal print furniture in the room was just…oh goodness. From the zebra couch, leopard loveseat, tiger stripped bean bag chair, and the polar bear rug on the floor, you could successfully say Jude had a zoo in his room. That wasn’t the strangest thing however, no, no, the strangest thing was the giant, heart-shaped bed that Jude slept on. Try finding sheets for a thing like that. It was very awkward. But other then that there were the random guitars around the room. Jude had at least five. Then there was the keyboard that sat a little ways off. The drum set next to it, (even though Jude really wasn’t very good at drums) and the one bass Jude owned (which he also rarely played) seemed to be collecting dust. There were various plates of food around the room, because Jude rarely left his room to eat. He was always sort of busy with something, and often it was talking to Eevie. Jude was definitely not the type to be neat and orderly. Not at all, he tended to leave things lying around all over the place. His room was the ultimate proof of that. There were clothes scattered around. Summer homework lying on the floor. Soda cans and bottles on shelves. Half read books tossed on furniture. Basically, it was a mess. No one was there to clean it up however, so what was the problem? Jude could live in it, so what was the problem. There was no problem. Exactly. Jude liked it alright. When Jude finally decided on a list of things he’d like to do – in chronological order of course – he stood up and left his room quickly, his phone in hand.

Jude sat in a large ballroom, behind his piano, and tapped a key. The sound bounced off the walls and ceiling and filled the room quite nicely. Jude however, was not pleased, and after a few moments of taking the time to remember what to do, he pulled his wand from his pocket and increased the volume of the piano. When he tapped the key again, the room echoed with the sound. Now, Jude was pleased. He smiled brightly and began to play. The farther into the song he got, the more into it he became. Jude moved along with the music, humming, a bright smile still planted on his face and his eyes closed. The moment he opened his mouth to join in the song he was playing, a strange tune joined in with the piano and Jude stopped playing and his smile brightened even more. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, clicking ‘talk’ and holding it to his ear. “Twice darling? Well how did that happen?” He stood up and walked out of the room, heading into the living room. “Well first off I love you blabbing in my ear. Second, I did a lot of things. I read in the bathtub for a while and I learned the word ‘Zingiberaceous’. Of or pertaining to a family of monocotyledonous tropical plants, the ginger family, having aromatic rootstocks and including cardamom.” Jude nodded proudly, even though Eevie couldn’t see him. He sank down on the couch and put his feet up on the coffee table. Jude saying he read in the bathtub might have been confusing for most but Eevie would know what he meant. Jude had a habit of sitting in the bathtub, fully clothed and dry of course, with a book to read. Normally, this book was the dictionary. Jude had finished reading the dictionary at least five times by now, seeing as he could skim over a passage and have it almost memorized in a few minutes. He just did things like that.

[Eevie Bloch G6]

“We-ell,” Eevie sighed into the phone as she sat up in her bed, leaning against the headboard, “I wash the dishes every Tuesday and Thursday night, right? And then Bethany gets them every Monday and Wednesday, and then Friday and the weekends all depend on which one of us is home. Since today’s Thur-…Oh….” Eevie frowned at herself and thought a moment. If she did the dishes every Wednesday and Thursday night, it meant that today had to be Thursday. Right? “According to Bethany it’s Friday… she says we’re going shopping tomorrow which means she doesn’t work ‘cos she doesn’t work on the weekends. But… how would it be that I lost a day?” She groaned and picked up a pillow, launching it at the mirror over her dresser, “I hate when she’s right!” Eevie sighed and closed her eyes, “I didn’t do them last night because last night I thought it was Wednesday… ugh.” After thinking a moment about it all, Eevie sighed again; “It doesn’t matter anyway, ‘cos I do the dishes twice a week anyway. But, whatever.” Eevie reached over for her stuffed bunny rabbit and placed it on her knees as she listened to Jude talk about what he had done without talking to her for an hour. She loved hearing about what Jude did when they weren’t talking because most of the time, if not all the time, it was something so Jude-ish that…it made her realize how much she loved him. Which was quite a lot.

Sure enough, what had Jude done during the time they weren’t talking? He had read the dictionary. Eevie smiled at the image of him sitting in his bathtub with his dictionary opened. It was an amusing image, but it was a Jude one. “Zing-a-what-eous?” Eevie questioned with a raise of her right eyebrow. Jude always found words that she had never heard of, and Eevie knew a fair amount of words. She loved words. She loved the way she could weave them into something that someone could enjoy reading. She loved the feeling she received after writing something whether it be an article, an essay, or a story. She loved everything about the English language. She loved everything about language in general. Eevie cradled her phone with her right shoulder and made her stuffed bunny rabbit dance on her knees. After Jude had recited the definition, Eevie looked thoughtful; “When would you ever use that word in a sentence? ‘Oh, hello, I’m looking for a zingiberaceous plant; do you happen to have any?’ Honestly. And there are like four words in that sentence that I just…would have to look up to understand the definition! Oi, what was Webster thinking?” Eevie smiled and stopped playing with the stuffed bunny rabbit a moment, just eying it.

Suddenly, she said; “I’ve decided to make a new law in Jude and Eevie land, honey. I know we said the first law is ‘no laws’ but… I’ve decided – I don’t want bunny rabbits stuffed or otherwise in our wonderful world. The stuffed bunny rabbit that I have is kind of scary and I don’t like it, the only reason why I keep it is because I’ve had it forever, you know.” Eevie looked at the rabbit once more and then launched it at her bedroom door, “So, I hereby decree Law #2 of Jude and Eevie land; ‘Absolutely no bunny rabbits, stuffed or otherwise, allowed.’” She nodded, smiling, and then reached for her lighter by her bed. The lighter was pink, and the only reason Eevie had it was because she loved candles. At that thought, she looked around her room and smirked. Candles were everywhere, brightly coloured candles, and candles with scent. Her favourite one had been burnt down to a puddle of wax, but still worked wonderfully. And when it didn’t any longer, she’d just go out and buy another. As a matter of fact, she’d do that tomorrow. Eevie flicked her lighter on and off, watching the flame dance for a bit before standing and flicking off her lights. She moved and then started to light every single one of her candles; all 80 of them.

[Jude Esben H7]

Jude sat on the couch, his head leaned back, a smile on his face as Eevie talked about having to do the dishes. He was following all the way up until she said that Bethany said it was Friday. Was it Friday? Jude opened his eyes and looked confused. He had a habit of making facial expressions even when he was on the phone though he knew full well Eevie couldn’t see him. Jude didn’t talk much, and so his main form of communication was body language. Facial expressions primarily. Jude spoke in shrugs, nods, shakes of his head, and other similar simple movements. When he just wasn’t in the mood to move, Jude had a habit of frowning, smiling, blinking, and basically using his face to display a huge range of emotion. However, the problem occurred when people weren’t able to read his body language. The only person whom had ever truly understood Jude’s movements was Eevie. And he had developed a thought that even though they were miles apart she could still…just…know…what he was doing. She just knew him. She knew every nod, shrug, cock of the head. Everything. She got him. She understood him and that was probably one of the biggest things that had caused him to fall in love with her. She was the first and only person to ever understand him and make an effort to understand him. She was also the only person he was comfortable speaking to in more then mumbles. Jude mumbled a lot when he talked to people other hten Eevie, he had even mumbled when he met her. But, Eevie was Eevie and even then she could understand every mumbled word. She was just perfect. “It’s Friday? I thought it was Sunday…” Jude didn’t have the luxury of basing the date off his father’s work schedule; Mr. Esben worked eight days a week. Yes, eight.

Jude told her what he’d done, and then told her the word he’d learned and smiled proudly. Eevie was the one who was good with writing and words, but Jude was the one who memorized and learned things in seconds. He was always proud when he could present a new word to Eevie, even a word like zingiberaceous. Sure, one would rarely use it in a sentence, but it was still a fun word to know. And Jude was proud he had learned it. He listened as Eevie asked why he would ever use it and as she mocked the idea he got a rather interesting idea. He stood from his couch, listening to her still and made his way upstairs and to his room, grabbing the dictionary off his bed where he’d left it and opening it back to the second to last page, looking at the spot where he’d originally read the definition. Sure enough, there was a picture of the plant in reference and Jude looked at it for a moment before nodding and going to his closet. By this point Eevie had changed the subject to a new law for Eevie and Jude land and Jude was listening intently as he pulled on his pants – he had gotten used to walking around in boxers all day while his dad was out. Anyways, Jude was getting dressed as Eevie talked about the new law. Jude nodded, content when she decreed the law. “I second that decree, I think I’ve had enough of animals to be honest…” he looked around his room at all the animal print. “Oh well besides Poe. What’s a kingdom without a raven?” Of course that probably didn’t make much sense in the long run, a kingdom could run without a raven, but Poe was just a necessity. Jude was rather fond of his pet, almost as fond of it as he was of Eevie, but nothing could top how much he cared about Eevie.

Jude grabbed his jacket from a hanger by his door as he left his room and made his way down the stairs and towards the front door. He could hear the click of Eevie’s lighter and smiled at the though of her walking around lighting candles, he knew she loved candles. “You know honey, I’m gonna go to the flower store.” He nodded and opened the front door, heading outside and down his front steps. He made his way down the tree canopied street, feeling a rain drop every once in a while.

[Eevie Bloch G6]

“Yes,” Eevie told him with a certain air of confidence as she kicked her leg up and flicked it back and forth a bit before letting it fall onto the mattress with a bounce, “it’s Friday. Somehow we’re losing days, honey, and I don’t know how much I like that.” She smiled softly on her end of the phone – not quite sure whether or not she liked the fact that she was losing days. Obviously, losing days meant that time was going much faster than she initially thought it was and that in turn meant that she would get to see Jude sooner than she initially thought. Eevie twirled a strand of her hair (which was a light brown this week) around her pinky finger as she ranted about doing the dishes and then came to the realization that she hadn’t actually done the dishes twice – and that it wouldn’t have mattered because she did the dishes twice, anyway. It always amused Eevie how much she could talk to her boyfriend. Eevie wasn’t a very talkative person. She didn’t like conversation that much which was odd when one considered how much she loved words. She just hated having to put up with mind numbing chit chat. Things with Jude were never mind numbing chit chat – though, they had actual conversations. In fact, Eevie chuckled to herself, they really didn’t even have conversations. Jude was a listener, he liked to listen and observe and as long as Eevie had something to say – he’d listen and relay his response through motions and expressions. Over the phone, this was a bit harder to do, but Eevie knew Jude Esben like the back of her hand…she knew what he looked like when he said something a certain way and it was like they weren’t across the ocean from each other at all.

For example, she could hear the smile he was undoubtedly wearing after she made it clear she had never heard of the word before; “Yes, love, you’ve found another word. Hmm…” Eevie pondered that a moment before turning and lying on her stomach, reaching underneath her bed and pulling out her “Jude box.” It was a black shoe box that had everything that reminded her of Jude. She didn’t like having them around her room – because Eevie tended to have a messy room and things got lost easily; so she kept everything in a box. Eevie pulled her box onto her bed and opened the lid, smiling at the first thing in sight. Pictures upon pictures upon pictures of the two of them. Just being silly, goofing off. Muggle pictures, because Eevie had a muggle digital camera, but pictures nonetheless. Eevie lifted the pictures out and placed them on the bed beside her. “Mmm, yeah, besides Poe, sweets. We both love Poe and it’s not like he’s a vicious maneating bunny rabbit anyway, eh?” Eevie might’ve sounded distracted, but she hadn’t meant to if she did. She had taken up a piece of parchment from the box now and was skimming it – realizing it was the song Jude had written her when he told her how he felt. Eevie read over it, humming the song quietly without realizing it, and then folded the parchment up again and set it on top of the pile of pictures. She stuck her tongue out and pulled out a small black book and red pen. She opened the book and went to the Zs before jotting down the word that Jude told her about. He was finding more and more words that she had never heard of before – and Eevie was using it to her advantage by committing them to memory and using them in her writing.

After she had replaced everything in its place in the box and shoved the box underneath her bed again, Eevie had jumped up and started to light her candles. Eevie loved candles. They were so therapeutic and they made her so relaxed – not that Eevie wasn’t always relaxed – but they just made the atmosphere so much better, clearer. She continued to hum her song as she lit her 80 candles (she had 75 more to go at the moment), making sure her lighter never burnt her thumb and if it did she let out a low hiss before sucking on her thumb a moment and then relighting the lighter and starting again. She let out a laugh when Jude told her he was going to the flower store; “Think they sell them, sweets? Maybe it’s an exotic plant – one that doesn’t grow in the U.S. or one that can’t survive in the U.S.” Eevie shrugged as she held her phone with her left hand and lit another candle with her right (70 more to go). She smiled as she said; “You’ll bring it back to me, right, baby?”

[Jude Esben H7]

“”I learned a new word, I learned a new word!” Jude did a little dance as he walked up the stairs of his house and towards the door to his room. Words were Eevie’s thing and any time he could tell her a new word he always felt good about himself. It wasn’t an arrogant type of good, just a good type of good. He listened to Eevie’s ‘hmm’ and then suspected she was shifting around, hearing the sound of her bed moving. By the time Jude was dressed he and Eevie were discussing Eevie and Jude land and the new law they decreed. And then Poe. The two of them sure did love that bird. Jude frowned, he missed Poe. His father wouldn’t let him bring the bird with, when Jude went to the states. And so he left it with the only person he trusted to keep Poe healthy. “How is Poe anyways?” But back to Eevie and Jude land. They were always coming up with ideas for Eevie and Jude land, because Eevie and Jude land was one of their favorite things to talk about. What better to talk about then a fictional place that was totally up to their imaginations? And when you put Eevie and Jude’s imaginations together you sure got one crazy land. A land where the grass wasn’t always greener on the other side, in fact, sometimes it had a purple tint. And where the skies weren’t always blue; on the east side they were a nice shade of violet. All in all it was a rather nice place to just think about. Jude actually occasionally dreamt about Eevie and Jude land or dreamt in Eevie and Jude land. He had day dreams about it in the middle of class and sometimes half way through dinner. The food in Eevie and Jude land was good. Always good. There were bananas for Eevie and pomegranates for Jude. “I think I’m gonna get some pomegranates while I’m out too…” Yeah, it was random, but Eevie wouldn’t expect anything more than random from Jude.

Jude smiled and listened as Eevie hummed a song he recognized immediately. It was the song he had written for her, he sang it for her often, every anniversary since the first time. She loved it, he loved it, and it was just…well it was tradition. It wasn’t just her song or his song, it was their song and Jude loved that. Jude had worked on that song for nearly a month before he’d decided to share it with her. And it had taken him a week to work though how he was going to ask her to be his girlfriend. It’s always funny how much preparation a guy puts into asking a girl out because in the end it always turns out way simpler then they originally thought it would be. ‘Will you be my girlfriend?’ A week’s worth of thought had been cut down to those simple, and yet so meaningful words. Words that had shaped the rest of his future, for, Jude’s future now revolved around Eevie. He was still unsure of what he wanted to do with the rest of his life career wise of course, but he knew he wanted to spend his life with Eevie. She had become his life to be honest. All of his thoughts revolved around her in one way or another and everything he did tended to revolve around her. She was just…the center of his world. His everything. Jude smiled as he listened to Eevie light her candles, occasionally frowning as he heard her hiss, obviously burnt. “Be careful with that lighter dear.” Jude worried about Eevie on a constant basis. Any tiny noise she made that might have denoted pain was an automatic set off for the worry switches in his brain. She meant too much to him for him to let her get hurt. Even by a silly lighter. He grinned as she asked if he was going to bring the plant for him, shivering slightly at the pet name usage she had chosen. Jude may have been a quiet, calm guy…but…he was still a seventeen year old guy who was hopelessly in love with Eevie. And there were just certain things she did that made him all…well…they reminded him of the fact that he had the same hormones that any other seventeen year old guy had. He chuckled and closed his eyes for a moment as he walked. “Of course I’ll bring it back to you honey. Who else would deserve it eh?” He felt no need to mention what her words had done to him, she was sure to know.

Jude smiled and looked around. It was a small town. The same town he had lived in as a kid so everyone knew him. Of course they knew his name, and they knew he didn’t talk much. But they didn’t know anything about his life in London. They knew he lived with his mother, they knew he was a child involved in the divorce that everyone in the town disapproved of. Most of the town felt pity for Jude. They all assumed that the divorce is what drove him into silence, which totally made no sense because he’d always been a silent child. But no matter. Jude made his way to the flower shop that he often visited – Jude liked flowers – and looked around for the woman he knew owned it. She was a small, old woman who had been working in that same store since Jude was a little kid. Since before he had moved. The old woman hobbled toward him, a smile on her face as she recognized Jude. Jude smiled and looked around the shop, listening to Eevie, his phone held to his ear still. “What are you looking for today Jude-ey?” Jude ignored the nickname half the town called him. The same thing they had called him since he was five. The same thing they called him every time they saw him. It was rather frustrating. Jude mumbled the name of the plant. He just couldn’t bring himself to talk loudly to anyone but Eevie. The old woman smiled knowing. “Now Jude-ey, you know I need you to speak up. My ears aren’t top notch anymore.” Jude sighed and mumbled a few more times, each time getting an encouraging look and a ‘speak up boy’. Finally he sighed out the word “zingiberaceous” and of course, as was expected…the woman looked at him like he was mad. “Is that a type of plant Jude-ey?” He sighed and nodded, looking over the woman’s shoulder. They had to have that thing here, they just had to.

[Eevie Bloch G6]

“You and your pomegranates, sweetie.” Jude loved pomegranates and Eevie didn’t see how. She loathed the things. They weren’t good at all. The one good thing about them would be the fact that they were round. Eevie liked round things. It would be the main reason why she liked her room. Her room was round. Yes. Round. Circular. Which made it difficult to put anything rectangular in there like a bed or a dresser and thus resulted in her bed being round also and her dresser being an arc. Everything fit into her room just perfectly and she loved it because of that. She didn’t know why her room was round, but she had a feeling that it was meant to be a library at one time because the wall was lined with bookshelves built in. There weren’t any windows, and the door was an arc shaped door as well. It was perhaps the oddest room in the house, but she loved it. Bethany’s room was a square and it made Eevie feel like she was in a cage whenever she went in it. She much preferred her room. Her bookshelves were filled with books because reading and writing were definitely Eevie’s things. She loved to read and get new ideas for stories and then she’d write the stories. Her writing style changed often, too, with whatever author she was obsessed with during that week. It was something that annoyed her, but Jude said it was pretty nifty. Oh, well, as long as Jude liked it. Anyway, her candles were on her bookshelves. She had whole shelves devoted to candles and there were usually around five candles per shelf. They went in a stair step type pattern. The first set of candles were four shelves from the floor and then the next set were five shelves and then the next were six, so on and so forth. Eevie loved her candles.

“Poe’s fine, by the way, sugar,” Eevie answered his initial question as she lit more candles with her lighter, “From what I hear he keeps Bethany up. Makes me wonder how he does that, because Poe is relatively a quiet raven, you know? I wonder if he says ‘nevermore.’” Eevie giggled quietly at her pun and hummed the poem as she moved around her room to light the candles in her bookshelves. By now she had burnt her thumb a fair few times and hissed every time she had. She knew the look that Jude would be giving her. It’d be a mix of concern and upset. He didn’t like when Eevie was hurt, but he liked it even less when Eevie was getting hurt because of something she was doing and then kept doing what she was doing. But Eevie couldn’t just stop lighting her candles. She had to light them all. She knew Jude would understand but he’d still give her that look. She burnt her thumb again and hissed before sucking on it a moment and moving to the next shelf, smiling lovingly when she heard Jude tell her to be careful with the lighter; “Always the worrier you are, baby.” Eevie had slipped in that pet name because she knew the effect it’d have on Jude. Eevie was a tease, she couldn’t help it. She teased. Not to the point where Jude might get frustrated with her, not that he would get frustrated with her anyway, but enough to make him whine and tell her to stop. They weren’t a very sexual couple, but they were still teenagers and Eevie could be quite the tease when warranted. It was always amusing on her part and sometimes Jude got quite the kick out of it, too. But like earlier said, they weren’t a very sexual couple.

Eevie smiled brightly when Jude told her that he would bring the plant back to her. It wasn’t the fact that he would bring her back the plant, but more so the fact that…well…Eevie wasn’t quite sure what it was. She just loved it. As she continued lighting candles, she heard the change of background noise and knew that Jude had stepped outside. It was so odd to think of the fact that he was 5 or so hours behind her. That it was still sunny outside while it was dark as a black hole outside her house. Eevie had always found that mind boggling and it made her going to sleep difficult (because she found she didn’t sleep well unless she knew that Jude had fallen asleep along the same time she had) unless she went to sleep really late or he went to sleep incredibly early. They worked it out, though, they had been doing it for years. Jude had entered the flower shop now, Eevie was sure, because the old woman was talking to him. Eevie giggled loudly at the use of his childhood nickname. She would often tease him with that just when she felt like being cruel. She wouldn’t do that now, though. Jude mumbled a reply to the old woman and Eevie smiled lovingly, “C’mon, sugar, she can’t hear you like I can.” Eevie knew that Jude was quiet around everyone but her, she was the same way – but she was capable of speaking clearly if she had to. Jude just mumbled. And that was fine with Eevie, but it made it difficult for others to understand him. Finally, after a few moments, Jude had mumbled out the word zingiberaceous and the old woman questioned the existence of the plant. Eevie laughed into Jude’s ear, “You think the shop is in alphabetical order?”

[Jude Esben H7]

“You know, I tried to get Poe to say that for the longest time? But he just refuses. I don’t think he likes the negative aspect of it.” Jude thought about it. Normally, Poe made jokes. Or talked about how nice of a day it was, no matter whether it was a cloudy, dark, stormy day, or even if it wasn’t day at all. “Bethany’s probably being kept up by Poe trying to engage her in a conversation about how lovely a day it is. All she had to tell him is ‘Yes, it’s a nice day, Poe. Now sleep.’ And he’ll probably mumble to himself a bit and then doze. He does that.” Jude nodded, mostly to himself, though had Eevie been there he would have been nodding for her benefit too. Jude did a lot of things for Eevie’s benefit that weren’t exactly necessary. Eevie knew Jude like the back of her hand. Jude knew for a fact that he could walk up to Eevie, say something totally random, and somehow, she would figure out what he was thinking about, or what had sparked that in his mind. He could walk up, hold up a spoon and say ‘bah!’ and she would know that he was either A) showing his general dislike of spoons (Jude didn’t like spoons so much. They never stayed on his nose) or B) implying that the world was a sad, sorry place and that spoons would someday take it over (See, they were all curvy and no one ever took them seriously. Jude was convinced that they would one day tire of being the utensil we shove on our noses and they would rebel. And of course the forks and knives wouldn’t see it coming, so the only one to battle the evil spoon army would be Jude and his chop stick army. Chops sticks saw the danger spoons presented.) or C) He wanted a pomegranate. See, you didn’t get that but Eevie totally would.

Jude shook his head as she called him baby again, bouncing as he walked down the street. She knew she was teasing. She knew exactly what she was doing to him but it still didn’t change the fact that she didn’t really care. Well she did care, but not in the way where she didn’t tease. She cared in the way that if Jude asked her to stop she most definitely would, but Jude never really asked her to stop. Jude wasn’t really the most sexual of seventeen year olds. He did have hormones of course, but he had the uncommon ability to (well, uncommon in the male species) to turn himself off. Not in the way that you’re turned on and then turned off, but in the way that he can easily settle himself so that sex isn’t the only thing on his mind. Jude was...childish in a way. And he respected Eevie more than anything, so he honestly saw no reason to go about worrying about sex and such because, well, those things happen all in good time. Jude knew things with Eevie all would happen in good time, I mean, so far they had eh? She had been his first girlfriend and so far they had progressed just like any other couple would. Well, any sensible modest couple that is. Jude and Eevie both had high personal standards, and high thoughts on abstinence. Jude saw it in the sense that, Eevie was worth any wait. She meant the world to him and he could live a lifetime without sex as long as she loved him. Though, he did hope to have a family with her someday, so...well, you know what I mean. Jude loved Eevie. And no matter what he had faith in their love. Things would all happen in good time. When they were supposed to happen. “I worry about you because I love you more than anything sweetheart. You know that. Oh, and there’s no such thing as worrying too much, just in case you were about to say that.”

Jude finally entered the flower shop, and dealt with the rather annoying old woman, and when she had no idea what he was talking about, Jude took matters into his own hands. He smiled at the lady and shrugged and then stepped around her. Now that he wasn’t standing in front of the woman anymore, he had no problems talking to Eevie, though his voice was a bit quieter now since he wasn’t alone anymore. “Of course it wouldn’t be in alphabetical order silly, it’ll be by species. Which means that the zingiberaceous should be...” Jude let his hand gently graze over the leaves of several plants as the walked along a row of green plants. He hummed to himself and his pace went from quick, to painfully slow as he made it near the end of the row. His hand tapped each leaf of each plant (all of which looked almost exactly alike) until he finally tapped the one he was looking for. He lifted it up, looked it over, and smiled contentedly. “here. You can tell by the thinkness of the stem and the shade of green on the underside of the leaf.” He nodded to himself and then made his way slowly to the front of the shop where he would pay for the thing. Buuuut stopped along the way when he saw a bunch of bright yellow sunflowers. Sunflowers were Jude’s favorite flower. They were just so bright and cheerful and yet...silent. Jude grabbed a few and made his way to the front, setting them on the counter and reaching into his pocket, pulling out a wallet. “So you found what you were looking for eh Jude-ey.” Jude nodded slightly as he pulled out the money, quickly paid, and exited the store with two flower pots in hand, balancing his phone between his shoulder and head. “Goodness that’s always so stressful. But guess what? I have it. And sunflowers!”

[Eevie Bloch G6]

Eevie laughed when Jude told her that he had actually tried to get Poe to say ‘nevermore.’ Jude would definitely do that. But he wouldn’t do it just to get kicks out of it, he’d do it to get Eevie to laugh. That was one of the great things about Jude. He’d do anything to make her happy. If she wasn’t happy, he could tell. It was like… Eevie radar. Even down the corridor he could see that she was in a specific mood. It was like he could read her, like a book. It never bothered Eevie that Jude could read her like a book, though, because it meant he really knew her. He really really knew her. No one really really knew her. No one really really got Eevie, but Jude did. She could toss her hair a certain way, twirl it around her finger a certain way, close her eyes and breathe a certain way, and Jude would know that something just wasn’t right. Normally, Eevie didn’t try to hide her feelings – but there were times when she didn’t even notice something was wrong. Jude called her out on it, though. He could always tell. She didn’t know how he could; but he could. Kinda like she could tell between his dislike for spoons and his desire for a grapefruit. They were kind of in sync like that. Eevie knew it was something that most other couples didn’t have in such an early relationship so she didn’t take it for granted; then again – Eevie didn’t take anything for granted when it came to her relationship with Jude.

Especially his understanding and agreement on sex. Most couples had huge issues when it came to sex, but not them. Things happened when they would happen. When they were supposed to happen. Eevie was strongly against sex before marriage, but it wasn’t like she would completely hate herself if she and Jude… no no… she wouldn’t hate herself at all; in fact she wouldn’t be upset with herself at all. Things happened for a reason and while she didn’t agree with sex before marriage; her and Jude were different, weren’t they? Yes, of course they were. Eevie shrugged on her end of the phone line when Jude said there was no such thing as worrying too much; “Perhaps not, but there is such a thing as over worrying, you know. It makes people stress. Bethany’s got an ulcer because of it.” She nodded matter of factly as she lit the last 5 set of candles on her bookshelves. The light flickered around the room and Eevie sighed happily before clicking her tongue and tossing her lighter onto the nearest shelf. She twirled and fell onto her bed, her hair sprawling out around her as she listened to Jude talk to the woman about the plant. After she had said her piece, she had remained silent and listened intently to Jude talk about how they would be catalogued by species. “Oh, silly me, you’re right, they would.” Eevie listened to him walk through the plants, closing her eyes and imagining him walking down an aisle and looking over the plants intently. A small smile crossed her face when Jude located the plant and spoke about how he could tell it was the right one. She loved when he spoke about plants, even though it meant she got completely lost.

She waited silently as Jude seemingly paid and then listened for the change in background noise. Finally, Jude spoke in his…well technically it wouldn’t be normal would it? Jude’s normal tone of voice was quiet and mumbled… so would it be a special tone that he used only for Eevie? She liked that idea. Laughing again when Jude spoke about sunflowers, she shook her head; “I don’t know what you see in those flowers, Jude. They’re… I don’t know. Perhaps it’s from the sunflower print my mum had in the hallway that led to my room. Maybe…” Eevie mused silently about this. Anything that made her think of her old life made her want to cry, but she wasn’t going to cry over some stupid sunflower wallpaper. “Or maybe it’s ‘cos they’re too big,” she said after a moment, “yeah I think that’s it. I like marigolds, you know. They’re small but just as bright. And they don’t sing like you seem to think every other flower does.”

[Jude Esben H7]

“I never over worry about you honey.” Jude said it, and then nodded matter of factly because that was the end of that argument. There was no reason for her to argue with him about it because she should have known there was no way she would win this battle. Jude knew he could never over worry, or worry too much about Eevie because she did mean that much to him. She meant everything to him. Without her Jude really honestly was nothing. He had been nothing till the day he’d met her and without her he would once again be nothing. Jude didn’t get along with anyone else like he got along with Eevie. She was the only one who got him and more than likely she would be the only one to ever get him. She understood him like no one else could and like no one else ever would. Jude family didn’t even get him like Eevie had. He wasn’t ever quite sure why he had opened up to Eevie, why she was the one to get inside him and figure him out, but she was. He figured it had to do with the fact that he loved her, and had loved her from the moment he saw her. Sometimes, things in your life just happen so perfectly that no other course of action would have worked quite the same. The way things had worked out with Jude and Eevie were perfect down to the minutest detail. Everything had fallen perfectly into place and that was what made them click so tightly. Jude liked to compare them to a puzzle. They both had all the right pieces to be a perfect puzzle, but it took time to lay all the pieces down so that the puzzle fit together just right. Jude knew that he and Eevie had the puzzle nearly complete, and yet he also knew that somehow, the puzzle would continue to grow through their entire lives.

Jude also knew though, that a major part of their puzzle would be the part where they made their future together official. This subject always seemed to come up in his mind when anything sexual started up between the two of them. Jude knew, understood, and agreed with Eevie’s philosophy on abstinence. And yet at the same time Jude thought that eventually, it would be step he’d very much like to take with Eevie. Not for the obvious, physical reasons, but for the more...spiritual reasons. Not like God spiritual, but like soulful spiritual. Jude knew without a doubt that Eevie was the girl he wanted to be committed to for the rest of his life, and he knew that if he was given a choice to take that step with anyone, it would be Eevie hands down. He and Eevie already clicked to a degree that most couples didn’t get until after they’d gone that far, but that only made Jude wonder how much more they were capable of clicking. There was nothing he wanted more then to be completely and entirely in tune with Eevie. For all these reasons, and a million more, one thing was constantly on Jude’s mind; marrying Eevie. It was an obvious choice. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, he wanted to start a family with her. So surely he would ask her to marry him correct? Correct...but not so easy as it sounds. Jude had a pretty good understanding of Eevie’s feelings on marriage, and yet, he knew that things between them would be different. At least he hoped. No, he knew. Right? Right. He loved her and wanted to be with her, and he didn’t have a single doubt that she wanted that too.

Jude thought about this as he stood at the counter and paid for his plants, and then he pushed it to the back of his mind as he went back to conversation with Eevie. “I looove these flowers Eevie, they’re bright, and happy, and silent.” He nodded matter of factly again and listened to her talk about why she didn’t like them, and immediately his bright smile dimmed a bit. He hadn’t thought about that. Normally Jude tried to avoid subjects that caused Eevie to reminisce because he hated feeling like he had brought up bad memories. It was definitely not a favorite of his. He was happy therefore, when she moved on to a more lighthearted idea on why she didn’t like the flowers. Jude smiled as she mentioned her favorite flower and made a mental note to buy some of those before he went back to the United Kingdom. “I don’t think they all sing silly, I think they all look like they’re yelling. All open and BLAH!” Jude shook his head at the thought of some of the flowers he’d seen before. He walked up the front steps of his house to the door, fumbled with the key, his flowers, and the phone, and finally got the door open, shutting it behind him. Jude set the keys on the doorside table and headed up the stairs to the upstairs guest bathroom. It was a large bathroom, large enough to be a greenhouse...which is exactly what it was. Jude set down the zingiberaceous plant in it’s own little place, and set the sunflowers down in the flower section of his little green house. Then he grabbed his watering can, filled it up, and went through watering his plants. “I love this room you know? Thirty-two species...at least five in each section...it makes me happy. So much green!” Jude smiled as the watered the plants and then sighed heavily when he heard the front door open and slam. “JUUUUDE! COME HELP ME GET THIS COUCH OUT OF MY CAR!” Jude sighed again and set down his watering can, closing his eyes. “My dad’s home princess...”

[Eevie Bloch G6]

Perhaps he didn’t over worry about her, but Eevie didn’t want him to worry so much to the point where the smallest noise she made could be something bad. Or maybe she liked that he was concerned with her little squeaks, hrums, and squeals. Eevie smiled to herself as she looked to the nightstand on her right (a circular one of course, actually, technically – this one was cylindrical) at the picture on the top. It was the only one she had of them that was out in her open room. Like stated earlier, Eevie was afraid she’d lose all her precious pictures and that’s why she puts them in a box underneath her bed. This one picture got its own special little space on the nightstand, though, basically because she liked being able to see Jude before she fell asleep without having to get out her box and then put it away again moments later. This one was permanently attached to the cylindrical nightstand anyway, because she had Bethany perform a spell on it – of course; Bethany had thrown a huge tantrum, but Eevie had gotten her way eventually. At times, Eevie thought that she was more the adult than Bethany was. Which was an amusing thought if you think about it because…Eevie’s quite childish. Eevie reached over and furrowed her eyebrows in determination as her fingers wrapped around the picture frame. She pulled, closing her eyes tight and cradling her phone between her shoulder and ear so she could use both hands, and a groan escaped her as her fingers slipped off the glass and she nearly flew backward from the force onto her bed. “Oomph.” She glared at the evil picture frame and rolled onto her stomach as Jude began talking again.

“I think I’d like them to sing. It’d be pretty, I’m sure. I mean, how can something pretty sing so terribly?” Eevie thought about this a moment, “Nevermind, I’m pretty and I can’t carry a tune.” She hummed as she twirled her brown hair around her finger absentmindedly. She wasn’t conceited but she wasn’t one to turn down compliments or put herself down. Eevie knew she was pretty, beautiful even, but anything passed that she would argue with Jude over. He’d call her gorgeous and she’d call him silly. It was okay, though, because she really did love the compliments he gave her and even believed them a little. Truthfully, though, Eevie couldn’t carry a tune at all. That was Jude’s department and that was okay with Eevie. She could listen to him play around with his guitar or his little tiny toy keyboard for days on end. She rolled onto her back as she listened to the sounds of Jude moving around, opening his front door and dropping his keys on the table. They had talked so often like this that Eevie had listened to everything so intently… the slightest noise she could hear. That or… Eevie had really good ears. She liked to think it was a mixture of both. So, anyway, she was listening to Jude fill up his water thingy now and smiling softly as he moved around and was undoubtedly pouring water onto his gajillion and fifty four plants.

With a giggle, Eevie rolled onto her back and kicked her legs up, “Green, you silly boy, green stands for envy and nausea. I am not su-…” she was cut off when she heard Jude’s father bellowing to him. Sighing at the same time Jude did, she closed her eyes. This was the hardest part of their phone calls. The moment they both knew that they had to say goodnight. “I know…” she told Jude in a quiet tone of voice when he told her that his dad was home. She sighed again and opened her eyes, letting them fall on the picture of her and Jude on her nightstand, “You go help him with that couch and make sure they don’t put it in your room…” a small, sad, smile crossed her face and she opened her mouth to say more when her bedroom door flew open to reveal Bethany holding Poe’s cage in her arms, “EEVIE ALICIA DYLA-…” “Do you have to full name me every time you’re agitated, Bethany Rose?” Eevie eyed her aunt calmly as she set the caged bird on the floor by the door, “It’s this bloody bird!” (“Beautiful day, isn’t it?” squawked Poe; “Yes, lovely day, indeed, Poe,” replied Eevie with a grin; “Don’t tell me you’re talking to this bird…” stuttered Bethany) The door closed after a moment and Poe squawked some more before dozing like Jude had said he would. Eevie’s demeanour changed immediately back to the morose one she had been feeling before; “Alright, you go help your dad. I’m going to go to bed. It’s been a long night, what with dishes that I shouldn’t have had to do and all.” She chuckled half-heartedly and sighed slightly, “I love you, Jude.” And she did. She really did. After they had said their goodnights and shared many MUAH!s, Eevie clicked her phone off after he did and set it on her nightstand by the picture. She looked at the picture a moment and then stood to get ready for bed. "Forevermore!" Poe squawked in his sleep.