The Fighter *ON HIATUS*

Chapter Thirteen: Confessions

"What happened with you and Axel the night of the party?"

"What?" I scoffed, focusing completely on her hair. "Nothing happened with us..."

"Come on, I'm not as clueless as my adorable boyfriend! You guys were so weird the day after the party. And then, he just disappeared after that for like a week! And you were so distressed about it. And then you guys kept sneaking these looks at each other at lunch. So...."

I sighed. "Fine... But you can't tell Kyle... Kevin knows because he's a little eavesdropper..."

"Okay, fine, I won't tell him! What happened?"

"Well... Okay, at the party when Axel and I were outside... We made out." Lillian gasped. "But, he said he doesn't want to date me. So, there goes all of your theories about him liking me."

Lillian groaned. "He obviously just said that because he thinks you don't like him, which you obviously do, so he's also stupid!"

"Lillian!" I exclaimed, "I do not like him!"

Lillian scoffed, "Oh, please, of course you do!" When I went to argue again, she talked louder, interrupting me completely. "Delilah, you cannot keep denying it to me! Maybe Kevin will believe you, Kyle will definitely believe you, and you probably even believe you! But, Delilah, I am your best friend. I know everything about you! I know you better than you know you! You like Axel, honey..."

At this point, I had just finished putting the purple hair dye in her hair, so I clipped it up, before looking at her in the mirror. "I don't... I don't feel that way about him..."

"Delilah... You know, how you feel jealous when he's with Raven... Or any girl, really... You know how your heart beats faster when he touches you or looks at you a certain way? You know how you kissed him when you were drunk? Delilah, I know it's easier for you to think you don't have any feelings for him because you're friends... But, you do... And you're not happy right now and I don't think you will be until you at least tell him how you feel."

I sighed, avoiding eye contact with her by looking at her hair. "Uh, we can rinse your hair out now..."

"Yay!" she exclaimed, following me to the bathtub so I could wash out her hair. As I rinsed out her hair, I couldn't stop thinking about what she'd said. Truthfully, I had been feeling those things she said, things I had never felt before. My heart would never pound in my chest with Landon the way it did with Axel. I would never feel jealous when the guy I lost my virginity to talked to other girls, even the prettiest ones.

"Okay, Delilah, you're zoning out and it feels like you're going to drown me," Lillian laughed.

"Whoops, sorry!" I exclaimed, looking down to pay more attention to her. I finished rinsing out her hair before wrapping it in a towel.

"I'm so excited!" she exclaimed. We took her hair out of the towel, brushed it, and then dried it. "It looks so cute!" she yelled, running her hands through it. "Can we FaceTime Kyle?"

"Yeah!" I exclaimed. As it rang, I took her phone, planning on surprising him with her new hair.

"Hey- ah, Delilah!" he exclaimed, a look of shock on his face. "Why do you have my girlfriend's phone?"

"Because," I said with a giggle, "we have a surprise for you!"

"A surprise?"

"Yeah!" I exclaimed, carefully handing the phone to Lillian. "Are you ready?"

Kyle laughed, a little nervously. "Yeah, as ready as I'll ever be!"

Lillian gave me a quick smile before turning the camera around on herself. "Surprise!" she exclaimed.

"Holy shit, your parents finally let you do it?" Kyle exclaimed, his eyes lighting up.

"Yeah! What do you think?"

"I love it! You look so good!"

"Aw, thank you babe!"

"Like, seriously... I'm being tame so I don't scar Delilah over there, but I like it a lot."

"Okay, gross!" I yelled, and Lillian giggled.

I shook my head, cleaning up the hair dye from the counter. While they were still talking, I sneaked downstairs to put everything away. Without Lillian to distract me, I couldn't help but start to think about Axel again.

People had been telling us we liked each other since we started hanging out, and I always denied it instantly. It was always the easiest thing to do since he was one of my best friends. Letting them say anything about me having feelings for him would just complicate things. I thought that these things going into my brain would eventually make me have feelings for him.

That was stupid, because...

"Hey, Delilah!"

I jumped, dropping the hair dye bowl I was washing into the sink. "Oh, jeez! Hey, Lillian."

"Sorry!" she laughed. "I didn't mean to scare you, I thought you'd hear me coming down the stairs. You must've been super spaced out."

"Yeah, I must've been... I'm really glad Kyle liked your hair so much!"

She smiled, a look of relief on her face. "Me too! I was so afraid he wouldn't like it."

"Oh, please," I laughed, waving her off. "You could shave your head and Kyle would still be so into you."

Lillian smiled, running her hands through her hair and looking at it again. "Yeah, I guess. I found a good one, didn't I?"

"You found the best one for you," I agreed, a grin on my face.

She sighed again, almost dreamily. "So," she said, snapping out of it, "I should probably head home soon. I told my parents I was just coming over for you to dye my hair... That is, unless there's anything you want to talk about..."

I put on a smile. "Nope! Nothing more that I need to talk about. I'll see you tomorrow!"

She stared at me for a few seconds, before matching my smile. "Okay... I love you, see you tomorrow!"

She put on her shoes and left the house. I took a deep breath, looking at my hands, before suddenly taking after her, not even bothering to put my shoes on. When I got outside, she was about to get into her car.

"Lillian!" I yelled, and she jumped, looking up at me. "I... I like Axel... I like him a lot... I like him so much that it completely takes over me and I can't breathe sometimes... I want to be with him so much but I'm so afraid that he's going to hurt me or what to be just friends or something..." I huffed, running a hand through my hair. "I just... I like him..."

Lillian's face turned from one to complete confusion to one of sympathy as I was talking. She ran over to me, enveloping me into a hug. "I know, Delilah..."

***

Hey guys! Thank you for reading chapter thirteen! I hope you guys liked it, and Delilah finally admitted she has feelings for Axel! Yay!

Question of the day: What do you think of Delilah finally realizing she likes Axel?