Until Now

Ch.4

Dee entered her bedroom and Judah followed closely behind, closing the door behind him.

"You okay?" He asked her softly. Dee didn't hesitate to burst into tears and throwing herself into Judah's arms.

"It's okay, sshhh" he told her softly, trying his best to calm her down. He rested his hand on the back of her head, holding her as close to him as possible and tightly to reassure her.

She continued to cry for a few minutes, before eventually calming down.

"I-I'm sorry, ugh, I'm so fucking ugly when I cry" she laughed to herself, letting go of Judah and looking in the mirror to see her makeup completely ruined.

"Even when you're crying you're still just as beautiful" he told her, looking at her from behind her in the mirror and smiling slightly. She blushed once again, and grabbed a makeup wipe to remove her makeup. Whilst she was doing so, Judah watched her from his place behind her.

Once she was finished, she turned back around to face him.

"See...still beautiful" he laughed softly, wanting her to see her worth and beauty. Dee laughed nervously and looked up at him as her cheeks heat up.

As they fell into silence, Judah placed his hand on her cheek, rubbing his thumb over it softly and looking into her hazel eyes which were bloodshot from all the crying. His eyes flickered from her eyes to her lips and back to her eyes. And then he placed a soft kiss on her lips which lasted no more than five seconds. When they pulled apart their faces stayed close to one another for a few seconds before awkwardly stepping away.

"Let's talk" Judah told her, sitting on the edge of her bed. Dee sat at the head of her bed, cross legged, looking over at the boy who had kissed her moments before.

"About what?" She asked him gently.

"Everything you said back there to Hayes, about hating yourself, is that really how you felt?" Judah asked her, feeling bothered by what he heard.

Dee remained silent for a moment and looked down at her lap.

She didn't know what to say, so instead she simply nodded.

Judah sighed.

"I'm sorry he made you feel like that, and if I could change any of that in this moment right now I would. I think you're perfect, I think you're beautiful. I don't think you're worthless, I just wish you would see this in yourself too" he told her, feeling pissed off at Hayes for ever making her feel this way.

"I'm getting there...thanks to you..." she whispered. He lifted his head up from his feet to look over at her. He saw a broken girl, trying her best to beat her demons.

"What do you mean?" He asked her, furrowing his eyebrows together.

She shrugged slightly, looking back down at her lap once again.

"Even though it has literally been 4 days since I've met you, you've made me feel special, you've made me feel like I'm worth something, that's more than I've felt in the past 8 months. And...I really appreciate that from you" she told him. He smiled over at her before sighing to himself.

"I should probably go check on Hayes, he'll probably flip out on me if I stay in here much longer" he spoke, standing up from his seat at the end of her bed.

Dee remained looking down at her lap, nodding sadly but understandingly.

"You gonna be okay?" He asked her softly.

She nodded again.

"I'll see you tomorrow" she told him, forcing a smile on to her face.

"Delilah?" Judah asked, smirking slightly as he used her full name. She looked up at him, not bothered he had said that.

"I'll see you tomorrow" he winked at her before leaving the room.

Judah headed downstairs to where Nash, Hayes, Tez and Taylor still were. This time they were sat on the sofa and Hayes was still trying his best to calm down.

"Oh here he is, the man with the cape" Hayes spoke sarcastically, gesturing towards Judah.

Judah made a face at him.

"Mature" he retaliated to Hayes.

"I went to make sure she was okay, something none of you guys were doing" he spat, feeling disgusted no one else wanted to help her.

"I'm sure she's fine after you two fucked" Hayes spat.

"Oh my gosh, Hayes seriously?! Chill the fuck out, you're even pissing me off now" Taylor snapped at him.

"What? Are you seriously telling me nothing happened between you too up there? You expect me to believe nothing happened?!" He challenged, looking at Taylor to begin with and then Judah.

Judah remained silent, gulping from nerves as he was unsure on what to say.

"Yo Judah, did something happen up there?" Tez questioned, noticing something was off about his behaviour.

Judah sighed before speaking.

"I kissed her" he told them. Hayes' eyes grew wide whilst Taylor smirked slightly, knowing this was something that would happen eventually.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Hayes stood up, feeling angry.

"Hayes. I know it was wrong and I shouldn't have done that, I was caught up in the moment. But have you not processed that shit she said to you in there? About how you made her feel? She doesn't deserve that. Nobody deserves that, but especially Delilah, she doesn't deserve that. I've only known her for a few days, it doesn't mean anything, but I know her well enough to know that she isn't worthless and shouldn't feel the way she felt because of you. But I also know you well enough to know you're not that guy anymore, Hayes. So what? She said she doesn't want to get back together with you? We don't always get what we want in life but we also say shit we don't mean in life. If you wanna fix shit with her you can't sit around waiting for her to let you in. You gotta figure out how to earn that shit on your own. I value my friendship with you way more than I do my four days of knowing her, I'm just not an asshole who will let a girl cry on her own and think shit about herself that's no where near true" Judah ranted.

Taylor stared at the boy in disbelief, feeling like he was some sort of asshole for half of the shit he said there about his kiss with Dee meaning nothing to him and how it was a mistake.

"I'm sorry, I can't listen to this bullshit anymore" Taylor spoke, brushing past the boys before heading upstairs. Judah gulped slightly, knowing exactly why she was pissed off and how this would get back to Dee, but he didn't want his friendship with Hayes to be ruined.

Once Taylor was out of sight, Hayes spoke up.

"I'm sorry man, I was caught up in the moment too and I find it hard to control my anger sometimes. I'm just feeling shit I didn't expect to feel again after seeing Dee since the break up" he explained. Judah nodded understandingly.

"It's okay man, I understand. Im sorry I kissed your ex girlfriend" he chuckled softly.

Hayes laughed also.

"It's okay bro, I'm glad we could sort this shit out." He told his friend.

"Me too. I'll steer clear from Dee from now on, I don't wanna be stepping on anyone's toes and this drama is too much for me" he told Hayes. That broke him to say, it wasn't as easy as he made it sound to be. He didn't want to stay away from Dee, he liked her a lot. But like he said before, he valued his friendship with Hayes too much and he had to respect his boundaries.

"Thanks bro, I appreciate it" Hayes told him.