AN: See Jude Run is my first fiction story on this site. I would really appreciate hearing from you because reviews are like writing fuel, but I promise I won't how chapters hostage until I get X amount of reviews. This chapter contains swearing, because honestly, Delilah is fifteen. She is bound to swear.

Chapter One: Initiating the Search

I needed to find Jude.

Jude hadn’t shown up for group therapy. No one seeing Jude yesterday was bad enough. He was supposed to meet everyone behind the grocery store but he didn’t show. And now this. He always came to group therapy. School was over and the only definite place I could find him was group, but low and behold he didn’t come. Jude came to group therapy no matter what was going on. We even had group at the hospital once because everyone knew that if we didn’t Jude would drag his IV pole with him to the community center. So to save the nurses and his step-mom from having a panic attack, everyone decided it was best to relocate. As far as the hospital staff knew, Jude had fourteen interracial siblings.

Anyway like I said, here was no way Jude was purposely ditch group. Maybe Jude just didn’t want to see anyone yesterday so no one saw him. But Jude didn’t come to group and that could only mean that something happened. Something bad.

So I needed to find him.

The soles of my shoes gave the pavement a new heartbeat as I tore out of the community center. The group leader shouted after me but I was gone. Unless she knew where Jude was, anything Doris had to say was irrelevant. Her worldly advice wasn’t going to help me find him. I didn’t even know where I was running. So I just ran nowhere listing reasons Jude wouldn’t come to group. His mom could have called, maybe that was it. Or his jackass dad screwed up. Or Jude was really hung-over…except that had never stopped him from coming before. Maybe he was in the hospital again. Or someone else was. What if someone died? What if Jude die—

A sharp turn cut my thought trail off. Today in group, we had talked about negative thinking cycles and I had ended one for the first time. The turn had me going to Nathan’s house. Now I had direction. Maybe Jude was just at Nathan’s house. It wasn’t like he only ever hung out with me. He was with Nathan. That was plausible. Store windows became blurred streams of color as I ran. The panic that had been building up during group calmed. It was as if all the pent up frustration and anxiety I had felt was escaping every time my feet hit the ground. I imagined that I was leaving murky footprints of those feelings behind me.

It was possible that I was overreacting.

By the time I was in front of Nathan’s townhouse I was panting and had a stitch in my side. My throat was coated in oily butter like it always got when I ran too hard. Mrs. Gaspari didn’t even look up when I let myself in. The house was a wreck as usual. Somehow seeing the hockey sticks lying on the stairs as I jumped over them as usual was comforting. I launched myself up the stairs, nearly crashing into the wall. It felt like if I got to Nathan’s room soon enough there would be more of a chance that I would find both him and Jude there.

After all the momentum I had built up, finding Nathan’s door locked was extremely jarring. My fist rammed the door once. Nathan yanked it open before I could ram it again.

“What?” he growled. Apparently, Nathan had fallen asleep in an over sized World's Greatest Grandpa shirt and I could only imagine who he took it from seeing as he had no grandparents. His eyes were bleary and smudged. The stubble of a sixteen year old who just woke up took residence on his face. I couldn’t identify the emotion in his eyes so I pushed past him without confirming how he was doing.

“Do you have Jude?”

Another hockey stick tripped me and the junk littered carpet rushed up to meet me. Nathan gripped my elbow and slid me to my feet. He patted my back and stumbled back into his bed.

“God what the hell is he, a puppy?”

Nathan trying to situate himself under an afghan was among the cutest things I’d seen him do. A lot of the time Nathan is so unbelievably angry and stereotypically Italian I forget that he is still the kid who pulled my hair in second grade and third grade….and eighth grade.

He rolled on is back and glared. “You’re smiling, why are you smiling?”

I immediately scowled, remembering my superhero mission to find my ally Negative Nathan and convince him to join me in the quest to find Jude the Misplaced Gentleman. “So you don’t have Jude?”

“No Delilah, he’s under the blanket. Join us won’t you?”

Nathan sarcasm could only distract me for so long. I stole his afghan, screening the primal screech that followed the action. "C'mon big boy. Did he sleep over last night?"

"Noooo! Give me my goddamn afghan!" Afghan's are a very big deal in the Gaspari household. They are everywhere, just like the hockey sticks and ceramic salt shakers. The only time I see afghans are when I go to Nathan's place. It is very weird. Tossing the afghan over Nathan's computer I hunkered down on the bed. He glared and turned over onto his stomach. It was one thirty in the afternoon and his lethargy was starting to really irritate me. The event made me feel like my mom trying to deal with my little brother in the morning. Brandon is seven years old, but trying to wake him up can reduce my mom do sobs.

So I began pinching his arm.

"You," pinch "need," pinch "to help me," pinch "find," pinch "Jude!"

"Stop it."

"Help me!" Pinch.

"Delilah!" He shoved me away. It wasn't that hard a push, but I slid off the bed anyway. I wasn't really that hurt, but Nathan sat up and gave me this look. He looked terrified. If he had kicked a toddler, I don't think he would have looked as guilty and scared as he did right then. "No, no, no Delilah! I'm sorry, I really...are you okay?"

The Jekyll and Hyde maneuver freaked me out. Nathan got down on the floor and gently took my arm. "Oh god, did I hurt you? I'm sorry...I promise I didn't mean to."

I took my arm back. "Look I'm fine. Don't freak out man. I shouldn't have pinched you."

"Promise you're okay?"

He looked like a little kid at the doctor. I leaned forward and took hold of his head. “I’m fucking spiffy. And I will forgive you fivefold if you help me find Jude.”

Nathan sighed and took hold of my head so we were like wrestlers locked in the middle of a severe staring contest.

“So why are we looking for him?”