Sidelined by Kyra Lennon

of our friends and Jude’s family and told everyone we would be together forever. I lived a fairy tale life, and Jude… Jude was still my Prince Charming. I just needed him to listen.

Chapter 5 – The Age Of Curiousness
     
    I took Jesse’s advice as soon as I woke up and had breakfast on Monday morning. I pulled up the websites I’d bookmarked with the courses I liked the look of.
    “You’re not giving this up, huh?” Jude asked from behind me.
    I kept my gaze focused on the screen. Annoyance rose inside me at his tone. Slightly pissed off like I was, I don’t know, trying to buy more shoes. Actually, no. He didn’t mind the shoes. Or the clothes. So why did he mind me wanting to earn the money to buy my own?
    It had been so much easier telling Jesse my plans and he hadn’t gotten huffy over it.
    Jesse’s not your husband.
    I blinked a few times. I didn’t want Jesse to be my husband; I had a husband, and Jesse had an Isabelle. What I wanted was for Jude to be as laid back as Jesse.
    Everything had jumbled up inside my head. My wants, needs. I had other friends, of course, but Jesse felt like the only constant in my life. The only person never too busy to listen no matter how ridiculous I sounded.
    “I’m only looking around. But no, I’m not giving up. I can do this.”
    “Give me three reasons why you want to.”
    “Really?” I spun the chair around so I faced him. “I need to justify this to you?”
    “All you’ve given me so far is that Leah suggested it.”
    His eyes focused on mine and he stared at me like I’d been hypnotised and he was trying to find the real me behind the spell Leah had so obviously cast over me. We’d been together for years; he hadn’t noticed my love of make-up?
    “Get over that already. I never ate sushi until you suggested it. Now it’s one of my favourite things. I guess that’s okay since you recommended it.”
    “Don’t make me out to be controlling. I told you, I just don’t want you getting carried away with something you aren’t going to see through.”
    “So what if I don’t see it through? If I don’t try, how will I know?”
    Jude put on his sensible face. “Having money doesn’t mean we can waste it on any passing fad.”
    “Right. How much did you spend on my birthday party, Jude? One night of entertainment. How much?”
    “I did that for you!”
    “I know, but what about me doing something for myself? Why is that so awful to you?”
    He sighed and shook his head. “We’ll talk about this later.”
    We won’t talk about this later. You’ll pretend we didn’t have this conversation like you pretended we didn’t have the last conversation. He hadn’t brought it up, and I hated this side of him; the side that suddenly ignored the things I wanted. I’d never seen this side of him before. I wanted it to pack its shit and move along.
    Jude leaned forward to kiss me on the cheek. I never usually passed on the chance to kiss my yummy hubby, but he didn’t look so yummy all of a sudden. I mean, physically he was, obviously. But he wasn’t acting enough like himself for me to want to connect. I needed him to hear me, and he kept trying to pass my opinions about my own life off like they didn’t matter.
    I spent a full hour comparing what each make-up course offered, prices, and the time they’d take to complete. What surprised me the most was how short the classes were.  Some promised training in one day. The one I liked best lasted for six days, would teach me everything I needed to know, and give me a Make-Up Artist Certificate. That sounded pretty cool to me. My name. On a certificate. It was kinda expensive so my next step was to check out reviews of the class I’d chosen. Not only on the official website, elsewhere too. I read, amazed. Not a bad word was said, and some of the former students had even gone on to work on movie sets.
    I hadn’t decided what kind of work I’d like to do. I didn’t particularly want to deal with movie or