Pine Trees

We pull into the parking lot of the restaurant we are to meet Jude’s parents at. I was already nervous to meet them, but now that we are only moments away from an introduction, I find myself growing more nervous.

I have never been a very nervous person. Adults always like me: I’m respectful and kind. But then again, I grew up knowing all the adults in my since I was just a child. They knew my whole life and helped shaped me into the woman I am today. But not Jude’s parents, no. They don’t know me at all. What if they think I’m weird? I mean, Jude did when he first met me.

Jude takes my hand as we walk into the restaurant, which calms me only a bit. He leads me to a table in the back where his family is sitting. Jay’s face brightens when we approach and she stands to hug us both, as do Henry and Jude’s parents.

“Oh you must be Logan!” The short brown hair woman exclaims, clasping her hands in front of her chest. “I’m Kathy, and this is my husband Kevin.” She says introducing themselves.

“It’s so lovely to meet you.” I say with a warm smile and within moments Kathy is pulling me into a hug. They sure are an affectionate family. Kevin shakes my hand then gestures for me and Jude to take the seats across from them.

“Logan, I’ve heard so many great things about you. Ellie just adores you.” Kathy says, taking a sip of her wine. “And of course Jude has had some nice things to say about you as well.”

“Oh, thank you.” I say, feeling a bit awkward as they seem to know so much about me already while the only thing I know about them is their occupations.

A waitress comes around to take our drink orders, and I take this moment to look at the food menu. The restaurant is fancy Italian, I assume Jay and Henry picked it as part of their surprise move to Italy. I notice the prices as I read over the menu and have to forcibly stop my eyes from popping out of my head. $34.95 for a bowl of chicken pesto linguini?! Jude did say his parents were paying for the meal, but I would feel ridiculous ordering something so expensive. I settle on a bowl of shrimp fettuccini for about $25.

“So Henry has an announcement!” Jay says after the waitress takes our orders.

“Donato Novelli’s Architecture firm in Milan has offered me a position. And after talking it over with Jay, we’ve decided I’m going to accept. They’ve offered double the salary I’m making now. They’ll also cover all of our moving costs. And Jay has a phone interview with a top catering company on Monday.”

“Wow, that’s fantastic for you two!” Kevin says, raising a glass of wine to the happy news. A round of congratulations makes it way around the table, just before the food is served.

“What does your father do?” Kathy asks, just as I take a huge bite of my pasta. I quickly chew my food, guessing she doesn’t want to see it in my mouth.

“My dad owns a construction company.”

“Interesting! And your mother?”

“I don’t really know these days. She left us about a year ago.”

“Oh that’s too bad…” Kathy says, and it’s hard to get a read on her. “It’s so nice of your father to let you travel with Jude this summer.”

“It’s kind of unexpected of him, but I’m happy he said yes. It’s been a lot of fun already, and we’re not even a week into our trip.”

“That reminds me, we’re going to go to a bonfire tnight and hang out with some of my old friends.”

“Will you-know-who be there?”

“Nikki, mom. And yes, and we’ve already talked about her. Logan’s the one who insists we go, actually.”

Kathy scrunches her nose at the sound of Nikki’s name. “Well you know how I feel about that awful girl.”

“Yes, you made that very clear every day of the four years I was with her…” Jude says. Four years?! He never told me he was with her for that long… I avoid furthering my involvement in this conversation by zoning out and finishing my pasta.

After we finish eating and say goodbye to Jude’s family, we head outside to the van. “Are you okay? You kind of shut off half way through dinner?” Jude asks, opening the passenger door for me.

“I’m fine.” I reply and go to step into the van, but Jude grabs my arms and turns me around to face him, my back pressed up against the van.

“Don’t lie.” He says, brushing a piece of hair out of my face.

“I just – you were with her for four years. We’ve been together less than a month. It’s hard to not feel a little bit jealous?”

“What’s there to be jealous of? We might have been together for a long time, but it was shit. All we did was fight and party; that’s nothing to be jealous of Lo. I was never as happy with her as I am with you right now. I was only with her for so long because I didn’t know there was anything better.” Jude says, and I can’t find the words to reply so I just kiss him, my way of letting him know I’m okay. And kisses me back, his way of reassuring me that he wants to be with me and only me.



As we approach Nikki’s street we notice more and more cars parked on the sides of the road. I quickly realize what I thought would be a small bonfire is actually a huge party. Jude parks the van on the side of the road with the rest of the cars and we begin walking.

The house is about average in size: a two story house painted light blue with a white picket fence. There’s music coming from inside. A few people were standing in the front yard, and don’t acknowledge us when we approach.

Jude takes my hand leading us inside. It’s crowded inside as we try to steer through the crowd. Jude holds on tightly to my hand, making sure I’m not sucked into the moving bodies of strangers dancing. People everywhere are holding bottles, cans, and red cups of beer.

I’d never been to a party before and the only time I’ve tried beer was when I snuck a sip from my dad’s at one of the Sinclair’s barbecues. This was definitely going to be a night of many firsts for me… Jude leads us through the house to the kitchen and out the backdoor.

“Jude!” A girl’s voice shouts loudly over the music. Before we have a chance to look to see where the noise came from, a short girl with thick brown dreads runs towards us and jumps on Jude, hugging him and making let go of my hand. She’s holding a red cup which spills on the ground as Jude nudges her off of him.

“Uh, hi Nikki.” He says with an awkward smile.

“I’m so glad you came!” She says, hugging him again. I can’t help but feel a pang of jealousy as I watch this girl latch onto my boyfriend. Even if she is obviously drunk.

“Yeah, Nikki, this is my girlfriend, Logan.” Jude says, pulling me to his side.

“Hi!” I say, and stick my hand out towards her.

“Oh, hi!” She says trying to hide her distaste with a smile. “So how have you been, Jude? I’ve missed you.” She says, her eyes glancing to me on that last sentence, but I refuse to let her see my jealousy.

“Yeah, I’m doing alright. Me and Logan are just passing through, visiting some family before we head out on a cross country road trip.”

“Wow, that’s pretty cool I guess.” She says. “I’m gonna get another beer since I’ve seemed to have spilt all of mine.” Nikki says before disappearing into the kitchen.

“Sorry about that.” Jude says, turning to face me.

“It’s okay.” I say and stand on my toes to give him a kiss. He smiles, and it almost instantly removes the doubt in my head.

“Let’s go find some friends.”