Chic and I, mainly me, set up a party for when Jude arrived. We had bright and colorful streamers, and balloons with silly faces drawn on them. There were solo cups filled with cherry kool-aid, lots of chocolate chip cookies, and a few welcome home gifts. Mandie, Chic, and I set up the living room so we could watch movies, and play board games. Honestly, to say that I was excited for Jude's return was the understatement of the year, and it got to the point where Chic thought I had gone mad.

"Do we really need this much kool-aid?" Chic had asked, watching me make pitchers of the sweet liquid. 

"Chic, Jude drinks cherry kool-aid like water." I informed him with a slight chuckle. 

When I heard a knock at Chic's door, I bolted right to it and threw it open. I saw Jude standing before me. He was, once again, in his uniform, and his hair was pulled back into a smaller bun than usual. He looked tired, and he was obviously stressed, but when he saw me, he smiled a genuine smile. Jude looked like he might cry as he set his green duffle bag down on the floor, and pulled me into a tight hug with one arm. I wrapped both of my arms around him tightly, and felt him tighten his hold on me.

"Hey Sugar." Jude said, his voice full of a variety of emotions.

"Hi." I responded as my own eyes began to water.

"I missed you guys." 

"We missed you too Jude. Come on, we have a surprise for you." I said, pulling away from Jude. I picked up his bag, with great difficulty actually, and lead Jude inside. 

I showed Jude to where his room was, and showed him how I had unpacked all of his stuff already so he didn't have to worry about it. I set his bag on his bed and turned to face him. I watched him wipe a tear off of his cheek with his thumb, and his face broke into a soft smile. I just slipped my hands into the pockets of my jeans and smiled back at him. Suddenly, Jude's face got more serious than I would have expected. I thought he was about to talk about what had happened to him, or something, but that's not what he decided to talk about at all.

"Did you ever tell Chic about what happened with me before I left?" Jude asked. I furrowed my brows, wondering why that was Jude's main concern at the time.

"Yeah. Of course I did." I responded, a little awkwardly.

"How'd that go?"

"All things considered, not bad. He was calm, and let me know that I had hurt him, and he made me sleep on the couch for a while. But, he said he's willing to work on the relationship, so, we're still together." I explained.

"Good." Jude noded. He wanted to apologize again, I could feel it. He was sorry, and blamed himself entirely, but it wasn't his fault. It was my fault and I knew it. I smiled at Jude and grabbed his hand to lead him to the living room where the party was. 

Mandie immediately jumped  up and hugged Jude. He lifted her up slightly with his one arm, and placed a soft kiss on the top of her head. A fresh set of tears made their way into Jude's eyes, and down his face as he looked at the party that we had set up for him.  Mandie looked as though she was going to cry too, at the site of her dear friend. Jude smiled awkwardly at Chic, who seemed to glare back. I gave Chic a look from behind Jude's back that told him to be nice, and be supportive. Chic, in turn, gave me a look that told me that it was my fault that he was glaring at Jude, and that I should feel sorry. And I did.

"It's great to have you back Jude." Mandie said happily, picking up a cup of kool-aid and holding it out to Jude.

"Thanks Sugar. It's great to be back. I wish I could have been back sooner, but they had to help me heal, fit me for a prosthetic arm, build the arm, put me through PT, and I spent a while arguing with the psychologists. They kept trying to make do therapy."  Jude chuckled. I chuckled a little bit too.

Ever since we were in middle school, Jude would refuse to go to any sort of therapy. He didn't like talking about his feelings, and he had no interest in paying someone so they could tell him he's wrong and pretend to care about him. He was independent, and stubborn as all hell, but it wasn't a flaw or anything. I, infact, admired him for it. However, lots of other people seemed to think that Jude needed therapy. This pissed Jude off to no extent, because he was sick of people insisting they knew what was right for him, and ignoring what he told them. He seemed to have a good attitude about it this time though.

"They tried to make you do therapy? Those poor suckers. How many did you kill?" I asked with a laugh.

"Actually, I did almost stab my doctor with a plastic fork." Jude laughed in response. 

"Well, we're all glad that you're here. Come on, we have kool-aid, snacks, and games." I lead Jude over to the couch and sat him down before going to get him a cup of kool-aid, and a brownie. 

While I did this, Jude awkwardly took off his jacket. I think...all three of us felt bad for staring, but it was hard not to. Jude seemed to understand, but he still looked comfortable. Jude had gotten his right arm blown off, which really sucked because he was right handed, and he had a prosthetic arm. I knew that Jude would have to have a fake arm, but I was expecting some cheap plastic or something. I didn't think he would have fingers that could move a lot, I figured his movements would be slow and few, and I thought he would look genuinely disabled. However, Jude sat on Chic's couch with one fleshy arm, and one full blown robotic arm. 

It was made of dark metal, and I could see some of the wires running through the metal bars. He had round joints in his elbow, his wrist, and along his fingers. He looked as though he was a hyper realistic animatronic, and that he got hurt so his robot skeleton was showing.  It was strange, and a little unnerving to see my best friend with a robot arm, but, at the same time, it seemed like a beautiful, and majestic sight. Jude ran his robot hand through his hair, pulling it out of it's bun, and I watched in awe. When he dropped his hand back down, I saw that he was bouncing his leg. This was the ultimate sign of an awkward, and nervous Jude. 

I coughed awkwardly, and sort of shrunk a little bit before walking over to Jude and handing him the kool-aid and brownie. Jude thanked me, and I sat down beside him. Chic sat down rather close beside me, and, at this point, Chic, Mandie, and I were all trying to avoid staring at Jude. Neither one of us would really look at him, out of fear of offending him. We would get used to his robot arm eventually, but it was still really soon. I heard Jude sigh really loudly beside me, and he set his cup and brownie down on the coffee table that sat in front of him. He seemed frustrated, but controlled. I tensed, knowing that emotions were about to fly out of control.