REALLY ✓

11: The Little Talks

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      TAYA's POV:

Jenny made one hell of a pasta dish. 

Yup, by the time we sat down for dinner, I was already on first name basis with Judah's mom. Overall, I would say that dinner went great, except for Judah who looked extremely uncomfortable as his mom and I made small talks.

I sensed that maybe he didn't like me being around his mom...

But I couldn't help it. Jenny was just so nice to me and we bonded over shoes. She had such great taste, we could actually be friends if we were the same age.

After we ate dinner, I helped Jenny with cleaning up while Judah was outside in the backyard, smoking.

"So Taya," she started as she piled the dirty plates on the sink. "Judah never talked to me about these things, so I'm just curious, how long have you guys been...?"

"Oh no, no, no. We're not dating. We're just friends," I shook my head quickly. "We're in the school play together. What you saw back then was us rehearsing... for the play,"

She took a moment to consider whether to believe me or not as I stood there innocently.

"Judah's... in a school play?" she raised her eyebrow in disbelief.

"Shocking isn't it?" I nodded my head and smiled.

"I'd say. He never talk to me about school or anything. And I never met any of his friends, I was starting to worry if he even have any," she laughed and I laughed with her. 

"So tell me, how's he doing at school?"

"He's doing alright. I think he just needs to... not miss so many classes," I said cautiously and she let out a sigh.

She stepped to her side and pushed the sliding doors so it opened just a little.

"Judah! Did you skip school again today?" Jenny screamed through the cracks of the sliding doors.

"Blondie! Did no one ever tell you; snitches get stitches?" Judah yelled back.

"Ignore him," Jenny said, closing the sliding doors shut and returning to the sink.

"He's not a bad kid. Although he looks a lot like it," she smiled bitterly and her eyes were somewhat teary as she kept on with the dishes.

"Life hasn't been exactly kind for him... Especially with what happened with his father... he's been through a lot of pain and anger. I don't know if you knew this, but back in California, he got caught up with the wrong crowd and got kicked out of his last school. He got into a lot of trouble, but he's agreed to get clean and went to rehab. I wasn't sure what's gonna happen with us moving here, but I can see that he's changing. He's been clean for almost three months now and he's made good friends... I'm really proud of him. And thank you for being a good influence on him,"

"Aw no... I haven't done much, really," I shuffled awkwardly, not knowing how to respond to all that. Honestly I was shocked, Judah never told me anything about his past...

"You see, he puts on this tough guy act and he's got all these walls built around him. But, deep down, he has a really good heart—"

"Ma, are we done here? Blondie has other places to be," Judah chimed in suddenly, cutting his mom from her train of thought. I didn't even notice him coming back inside.

"Oh, of course. Sorry for keeping you here so long," Jenny smiled sweetly to me.

"No, thank you for having me. Dinner was great," I smiled back at her.