Summer: Undefined

My fingers held themselves steadily on the eight keys. I'd been staring at this blank document for an hour and they still haven't left home row. Something was either seriously wrong with my brain, or it kept getting distracted by my brother's music pounding every thought out of my mind.

I spun round in my chair and once again banged on the wall.

"Turn it down, Jude!" I yelled over at him.

The music immediatly stopped and I heard his door open then slam shut.

A moment later my bedroom door burst open and my brother, Jude, came bounding in.

"You have a problem with my music?" He spread his arms out and furiously placed them on my desk.

"I do when I'm trying to write!"

"But it's The Used! You have to listen to it with the volume all the way up!"

"Then do it on your headphones! Or the basement! Mom and Dad sound proofed it just for you!"

His eyes narrowed as he began to realize that I was going to be victorious in this current argument.

"Whatever," He rolled his eyes and left my room.

Silence.

That's better. Now I can finally concentrate.

Still, another hour passed and my words remained lost. If it wasn't Jude's music maybe it was my brain.

I let myself think for another moment before finally giving up and turning off my computer.

"So it wasn't my music?" A smart remark came from behind the refrigerator door as I walked with hunched shoulders into the kitchen. "I knew it."

"How'd you know?" I asked.

Jude closed the door with an apple placed in his hand.

"Isn't it obvious?" He imitated my hunched figure and walked to the sink. With a laugh he added, "Anyone with a brain could see that."

I smiled and leaned on my fist.

"I don't know what's gotten into me lately," I murmured.

Jude looked over his shoulder and raised one eyebrow as if asking me to explain.

"I haven't been able to write anything for a while now."

He finished peeling his apple before saying anything.

"Maybe it's all this stress."

"Huh?" I asked even though I could see perfectly clear where he was going with this.

"You know," He took a bite. "With Vince and all."

I tried to ignore the apple bits rolling around in his mouth as he talked. So I merely pretended like I didn't understand was he had said.

"Vince," He swallowed. "I know you really liked him. And he really liked you."

"If he liked me so much why did I find him with that Natalie character?"

"Peer pressure."

I rolled my eyes.

"How do you know?"

"He's my best friend, De. I think I'd know these things."

I bit my lip. He had a point. A very good one at that.

"Have you talked to him about it recently?"

"Not since he left for vacation about a week ago."

My head dropped.

"He is coming back tomorrow, though. I can talk to him about it if you want..."

I jumped off the stool and ran over to the sink.

"That would be awesome, Jude! Thank you!" I managed to squeeze him into a giant hug. He tensed up. Jude isn't the biggest fan of hugs.

"Okay!" He wiggled from my grip. "Enough love! Jesus!"

"Sorry," I smirked.

With the hug at an end I skipped joyously back to my room.

I collapsed on my bed and sniffed in the scent of my pillows. They smelled like strawberries thanks to my shampoo. I wrapped my arms around them and rolled over to stare at my ceiling.

Sometimes when I'm bored I can find pictures in it. Today, though, there was nothing. Just tiny bumps and indented lines. They held no significance, they were just there.

The hands of the clock opposite my bed told me that it was around the time Mom and Dad were supposed to be getting back. Time for Dad and Jude to have another argument. Time for me to fall asleep and miss the whole thing...

My eyes fluttered open to Jude standing above me with a smile on his face. I rubbed my eyes awake and sat up in bed.

"What" I asked in a yawn.

"Two things," He held up the according two fingers. "One, dinner's here." I nodded and stood up, ready to go downstairs. But Jude held up a hand to stop me. "And two, I talked to Vince."

I perked up, but then cocked my head to one side.

"You said he wasn't coming home until tomorrow."

"I know, but he called from the airport."

I waited for him to tell me something, anything, about what Vince had said about me. But Jude just stood in silence with that same stupid smile on his face.

"And?" I coaxed him to go on. "What did he say?"

"That, my dear sister," He skipped around and opened the door for me. "I cannot tell you."

My mouth dropped to the floor. He couldn't possibly be serious? I'm his sister, I hold autority over any best friend he has.

"As much as it may surprise you, us males believe in friend-to-friend secrecy as well."

With that Jude left me stunned outside my room. I was about to call after him, but I didn't have anything to say.

Not wanting to get yelled at for dinner I ran downstairs and found my father and Jude being hostile towards each other, as always. Mom was trying to douse the flames but, as alwalys wasn't getting anywhere with it.

I tried my best to ignore their immature behaviors but found it a tad difficult. But if I focused my mind on other things I blocked it out quite well. But I found that focusing on Vince wasn't the best thing to do either. SO my mind just concentrated on the take-out food sitting in front of me.

My parents always ordered take-out for dinner. It was a rare day in this house when they took the time to actually cook dinner. But it was easy to understand why that barely happened.

Both of them had founded this computer manufacturing company and had to be at the office every hour on the hour and left Jude and me alone in our giant house.

We'd moved in abouta year ago from across the state. It wasn't a large state so it wasn't a drastic change. There was really only about an hour's difference between the two places.

It's a rich suburb of Newark, where we are now. It's really the only one of its kind around here. There are a few dangerous towns surrounding us, but we never really did anything there, we just hung around with snobby rich folks.

And I hate it.

"What do you think, Delilah?" Mom asked from across the table.

I scanned the faces of my family to determine whether the conversation had been about an argument between my father and brother, or something completely different.

Jude's brow was firmly pulled together and his fist was clutching a fork that moved the food on his plate in a circle.

My father, on the other hand, seemed completely at ease with what we were talking about. He sat upright and proudly in his chair and patiently awaited my answer.

"Oh, um, I'm on Jude's side," I answered in a nonchalant tone. It's the answer I usually gave, because almost all the time, Jude was right about most things and Dad just blew things way out of porportion.

"You think that he should be able to throw a party while we're away this weekend?" Dad's expressions changed and he leaned foward in his chair. "Don't you remember last time? Do you think Jude's learned his lesson?"

Last time. Ugh. Last time our parents went away for the weekend Jude thought it'd be fun to hold a giant party. And it was fun. Well, it was from what he told me. I just sat in my room reading while the party continued outside in our massive backyard. I have a room that overlooks the yard, so I was able to check in every now and again without anyone really knowing.

There were about twenty kids there, most of them from our old town up north, since this was a year ago we didn't really know anyone around here.

Unfortunately for them, Jude didn't have our parents' permission, and when they found empty beer bottles in the basement and a bra in the pool filter they knew something was amiss. And, unfortunately for me, I crack easily undere pressure. So when Dad asked me about it, you can imagine how easily I ratted my brother out.

It's a year later and we're coming up on another full weekend away trip for my parents. And Jude wants to throw another party. Only this time he decided it'd be smart to ask.

"Well..." I began. "He'll never be able to regain your trust again if you don't give him another chance..." I bull-shitted my way through that one. No, I didn't think Jude should be able to throw another party, but I'd already given my... opinion.

"A good point as it is, I still don't think you're ready just yet, Jude."

My brother slammed his fist down on the table and pushed the chair down so he could stand.

"At least I had the decency to ask! Right? If that doesn't show maturity then what does? What do you want me to do to prove to you that I'm not a baby anymore?" He shoulded at Dad mostly. "Me and De are gonna be fucking seniors this year! Seniors! There isn't much time left to prove myself to you! And I won't be able to do if you don't give me a chance!"

He turned to walk our but turned around before entering the hallway.

"You know what? Fuck this! I don't have to prove myself to you! I know who I am! I know I'm really a good person! And I don't need your approval! I really don't! So fuck this stupid ass situations, and fuck you as parents! You guys are shitty parents! Leaving Delilah and me for ourselves most of the time! Hell! She's more of a parents than you are!"

Footsteps followed his departure. They pounded up the stairs and were replaced with the slam of a door and then the sound of pounding music porceeded quickly afterwards.

I examined the faces of my parents.

Mom looked deeply sorry for any pain she might've caused her son and was cradling her head in her palms.

In contrast, Dad was fuming in anger. You could see the veins popping out of his forehead and his knuckles were turning white from being stretched out in a fist.

I let out a keep sigh, pushed myself away from the table and headed upstairs.

Stopping just before I entered Jude's room I heard, over the roar of a drum solo, Jude talking on the phone.

"I don't know, Gee. This whole arrangement really bites ass. But you can drive up here, right? Great! Does Mikey want to come? Ask him..." There was a pause. "Really? Sweet! Yeah... No, not tomorrow. Saturday. Right. See you guys then? Awesome! Bye!"

The phone clicked and the volume blasted up five levels.

I took a moment to ponder the conversation that Jude had just had with the person called "Gee", and also to give him time to relax before entering.

"Only enter if your Delilah," Jude said plainly after I knocked.

"Do you really think Mom or Dad would dare coming up here after that?" I asked with a bit of a laugh.

"I told you, you're more like parents than they are!"

He slouched down on his bed. I took a seat in his rolling chair and slide beside his bed.

I noticed he still had his cell phone in his hand and decided it was the perfect opportunity to inquire about the phone call.

"You gonna call someone?" I innocently asked.

"No, I changed my mind."

Jude placed the cell phone back on his nightstand and closed his eyes.

He lied. That means that phone call was more significant then I thought. There's something he doesn't want me to know. And he usually tells me everything.

What could he be up to?