Dee woke up the next morning in a weird mood, she felt on edge about facing Hayes after the argument, but also excited that her and Judah kissed. She got up and got dressed. She styled her hair and applied a little makeup before heading downstairs. She found Taylor with Malakai in the living room watching some kids cartoon as she fed him his breakfast.
"Hey, where's everyone else?" She questioned the girl curiously.
"Liz, Johnnie and Skylynn went shopping for the day and I believe the boys are out the back" she told her with a smile.
"Cool, thanks. I'm gonna quickly go say hi" Dee told her before heading towards the backyard. She headed out to see Hayes and Nash on their quad bikes, racing around whilst Judah and Tez were stood watching.
"Hey" Dee beamed as she joined the two boys, smiling more at Judah directly.
Judah simply half smiled whilst Tez greeted her with a hello. Instantly noticing how Judah's behaviour was off, she decided to question him on it.
"You okay?" She asked him. He still avoided eye contact, watching the boys as they raced.
"Yeah" he told her bluntly. She felt her heart sink. Why was he being like this? She didn't realise this was hurting him to do, just as much as it did her.
There was only one answer for this. Hayes.
Dee's face dropped and she headed for a quad bike that was available.
"Woah, what are you doing little one?!" Tez finally spoke up after standing there awkwardly for a few moments.
"Dealing with all of this bullshit" she spoke before revving the engine of the bike and speeding off towards where Hayes had currently stopped, far away from them.
"Fucksake" Judah muttered to himself, watching her drive away and knowing shit was about to kick off again.
"That's one thing you gotta learn about Dee, she don't back down" Tez told him.
"Yeah, you don't say" Judah retorted, watching the girl intently.
"Dee? What are you doing?" Hayes questioned the girl as she pulled up beside him.
"That's my cue to leave" Nash spoke, speeding off on his quad bike and heading back towards Tez and Judah.
Dee watched as he drove away before turning back to Hayes.
"What did you say to him?" She asked, walking over towards the boy.
"What? To who? What are you talking about?" Hayes asked confused.
"To Judah! He's hardly talking to me, WHAT did you say to him?!" She repeated herself, fed up with all of the bullshit.
"I haven't said anything to him, it's all his choice" Hayes spoke, remaining calm.
"What was?" She questioned.
"To stay away from you, he said it last night" Hayes told her.
"What are you talking about?" She questioned him, feeling her heart sink ever so slightly.
"After you two kissed, which yeah I fucking know about by the way, he came downstairs, told us it was a mistake and that he was just caught up in the moment and then told me he valued his friendship with me more than he's valued knowing you these past 4 or 5 days. He said he'll stay away from you for that reason" Hayes spoke, not caring if he said things he shouldn't have.
And just like that. Dee felt her heart shatter.
She felt tears well up in her eyes and she started walking back towards her bike.
"Where are you going?" Hayes called out to her. She ignored him and rode off back towards the boys. She parked up the bike and the boys headed towards her.
"Dee you okay?!" Nash asked her first as they all stood around her. She ignored him and stepped of the bike.
"Dee?" Judah questioned as he noticed her face was holding back tears and anger.
She swung around to face him and looked him dead in the eye.
"Fuck you" she told him before walking off.
"I'm guessing Hayes told her what you said last night..." Nash spoke.
Judah looked at the ground, disappointed in himself. He shouldn't have expected anything less. He stepped forward to follow her but was stopped by Tez.
"Just let her go man" he spoke calmly. He didn't want to though. He wanted to explain everything from his point of view for her and he wanted to comfort her and not make her feel the way she felt last night and whenever she was around Hayes for the last two months of their relationship. But that was where this situation was different. Him and Dee aren't in a relationship, they've only known each other for 5 days. There was nothing to fight for, he started thinking to himself that Tez was right. That he should just, let her go.
He watched until she was out of sight and kicked the ground in anger. Hayes approached them all on his bike to find out what's going on and in the mean time, Dee had stormed into the house, grabbed her phone and key and stormed out of the house. Taylor watched this in confusion and stopped feeding Malakai for a moment to head outside to the boys and see what's going on.
"What just happened?!" She snapped, cutting them all off from their muttering amongst themselves.
"What do you mean?" Nash questioned her.
"Dee? She's just stormed out the fricken house and I'm pretty sure she was crying as well" taylor added. Judah and Hayes made faces to show they felt bad.
"I should go find her" Hayes spoke.
"Is that wise?" Taylor sassed.
"Well who else is gonna go? She's clearly pissed off at me so it's me who's gonna have to fix it" Hayes added.
"Pretty sure she's pissed off at me too" Judah muttered but loud enough for them all to hear.
"Let's just all go and find her, she could be anywhere and if she's in a bad mood we gonna need some back up cos that girl is SCARY" Tez advised them all, not kidding about the last part.
"I'll stay here with Malakai incase she comes back" Taylor spoke before heading back inside. And with that said, the boys left the house to try and find Dee and fix the mess that was made.
They searched for two hours and nothing. They checked places like the park, the mall, the supermarkets and she was no where to be seen.
"This is stupid bro we aren't gonna find her" Nash told them frustratedly.
"Where else could she be?!" Hayes complained, bringing his hands to his face in frustration.
"I don't know has she got some favourite places around here or something?" Tez muttered, looking between the boys.
And that's when it hit him. Judah realised there was another place they hadn't yet looked at.
"The Diner" Judah said quickly.
"Huh?" Hayes asked.
"The Diner, she told me the other day it's her favourite place to go to. It has to be, she's gotta be there" Judah explained, smiling slightly, feeling proud of himself for remembering.
"Well let's go" Nash ushered them to move along and head for the diner.
It was about a ten minute walk from where they were and when they arrived to the car park, they could see Dee sat at a booth on her own, staring at nothing.
"Hayes you go" Tez pushed him forward. Hayes glared at him but walked towards the entrance anyways. Judah watched as he walked ahead, wanting to be the one to go in a talk to her. He wanted to fix things himself and tell her why he said the things he did. But he couldn't. This wasn't his situation to fix in the eyes of the others. It's only been 5 days of knowing her, so their friendship is almost irrelevant to everyone else.
Hayes opened the door to the diner and a small bell rang to signal he was entering the shop. He walked through the little diner and approached Dee's table. She looked up when she noticed someone was heading towards her and rolled her eyes immediately at the sight of him.
He could see she had been crying. Her eyes were bloodshot and her face was tear stained and puffy. He felt bad. He never liked seeing her like this. And this was partially his fault. He was to blame for her crying.
"Can we talk?" He asked her, remaining stood up next to her table.
"Outside" she mumbled, grabbing her phone which rested on the table and walking out of the diner with Hayes following closely behind. She opened the door to leave the diner and immediately stopped as she saw Nash, Tez and Judah stood watching from a distance.
"Let's go over there" Hayes told her, pointing to the side of the car park. She walked over to where he pointed and crossed her arms, staring at him, waiting for him to speak.
"I'm sorry" he told her.
"For what?" She snapped.
"Everything. I'm sorry I was a shit boyfriend to you. I'm sorry I cheated on you. I'm sorry I came back here and expected you to come running back into my arms. I'm sorry I told you what Judah said last night, it wasn't my place to. I'm sick of this tension between us, Dee. I just wanna be able to make things right but it feels like I'm doing everything but that" Hayes ranted to her.
"Thank you for apologising. I'm over this bullshit too. But you gotta realise how much you've fucked me up these past six months" she told him, not holding back on how she feels. He simply nodded, not knowing what to say.
She stared at him, awaiting for him to speak as she too had nothing else to say.
"Dee?" He asked her. She didn't move, she just waited for him to continue.
"I know I shouldn't say this but I want to...I still love you. I never stopped, it's just since seeing you more this past week my feelings have gotten stronger and I-"
"Hayes stop it" she told him sternly. He immediately shut up.
"Don't say that shit to me anymore, that's the kind of shit that fucks with my head and I'm done with it" she snapped at him. She started walking towards the rest of the boys who were watching them but had no idea what was being said. Hayes followed closely behind her, unsure on what was going to happen next.
"You can't tell me you still love me after endlessly treating me like shit" she told Hayes as she stopped in front of the others.
"Judah has made me feel so much more in the past 5 days of knowing him than you did the last two months of our relationship" she explained, gesturing towards Judah who diverted his gaze to the ground.
"...but even he couldn't do it for too long without showing his true colours" she spat, looking at him with sheer disappointment on her face.
"Dee-" he tried to defend himself, but she started shaking her head.
"You used me at my most vulnerable moment. You only kissed me because you felt sorry for me and was caught up in the moment, that's a dick move right there, Judah" she told the boy.
"No, it wasn't like that. You know what fuck this, Hayes you're not gonna like any of what I'm about to say right now but I don't care. I said that kissing you was a mistake because it's deep on Hayes that I would do that to him when he invited me here, especially this soon into knowing you. And besides, I didn't want to kiss you this soon, I wanted to be able to take you on some incredible date where I could spoil you so much and then kiss you at the end of the night like those gentlemen in the movies. But I was caught up in the moment like I said and what I mean by that is that it was way too difficult not to kiss you when I'm obsessed with you and you're stood in front of me looking as gorgeous as you are and it's the only thing I wanted to do in that moment. I only told Hayes I would stay away from you because it bothered him so much that I kissed you. He's my bro at the end of the day I have to respect that, but I also didn't think about how any of this would make you feel in that moment and I'm sorry for that. I wasn't thinking. I said the kiss meant nothing to me but that was a lie, I was just telling Hayes what he wanted to hear in that moment, it fucking broke me to say that shit as it is, but I PROMISE you, I didn't mean it. I know I've only known you for 5 days, but like you said yourself, I've never felt this way about someone so soon into knowing them. It's kinda scary. But I wouldn't have it any other way." He explained to her. He had stepped towards her during this and their faces were extremely close to one another. Dee looked up at him in disbelief. This was why she was falling for the boy. Because everything about him was perfect.
They were interrupted by a fake cough from Hayes. He didn't look impressed but he also didn't look overly pissed off.
"Hayes, I'm sorry man. But I couldn't have her thinking things the wrong way anymore..." Judah told his friend, feeling uneasy about the situation he was in.
Hayes shrugged.
"I appreciate the honesty man. Obviously this kinda sucks for me, but, if anyone can make her happy again, I'm glad it's someone I know and someone as good as you" he told his friend. This was hard for him to say and do, but he didn't want to be that asshole of an ex boyfriend anymore.
Dee continued looking at Judah with a small smile on her face, this was all she ever wanted. A boy who would fight for her. A boy who would make her feel safe. A boy who was obsessed with her.