It was a chilly February evening, icy winds blowing through as a distressed, bruised Delilah made her way to her gang's hide out under the mini mart, her breaths shaky and her eyes red as if she had been crying.
Once Delilah made it inside, she immediately rushed to her part of the underground hide-out, set her beaten up backpack against the side of her bed, then curled up under her blanket, softly crying to herself. ".. I m-messed up so badly.. Cree's gonna b-be so mad at me.."
A few minutes later, she heard the door to the hide-out open and shut. "Delilah? Where are you?" Delilah began shaking as Cree's voice and foot steps got closer. Then a couple of knocks hit the door. Shortly but reluctantly, Delilah softly choked out, "Come in.."
Cree opened the door to Delilah's pad, only to be greeted with her girlfriend turned against the wall with a paper bag over her head. She also appeared to have the hiccups from crying so much. "Lily, what's going on?" Cree asked with a soft tone. Delilah looked over at Cree, then back towards the wall. "Nothin' important.." she softly croaked between hiccups. "Doesn't seem like nothing," Cree tilts her head to the side as she reached for the brown paper bag on Delilah's head, carefully taking it off to reveal that Delilah had a couple of bruises on her face and a black eye.
"L-Lily! What happened to you??" Cree gasped in horror. Delilah's ears wilted and just looked up at Cree with an expression similar to that of a scolded puppy.. an expression Cree knew all too well. "I-It's really dumb.." Delilah whimpered, tears threatening to well up. Cree just simply pulled her close, rubbing her shoulder. "You know you can tell me or Maurice anything," she crooned while nuzzling into her soft, golden hair. Delilah took a deep breath through her nostrils.
"I-I was out walkin in the school court yard w-when these three punks came up to me and.. started shouting mean things at me.. I tried to just ignore them at first, but it just got worse.. they made fun of my appearance, calling me a 'freak' and a 'dumb, mangy animal'.. then the proceeded to shove me onto the concrete and start hitting and kicking me really hard.. they also tried to take my b-backpack.. wh-which was carrying the s-stuff I got fer ya, and stomped on it.. several times.." Delilah felt a lump in her throat, her voice catching a little. "Then they said this to me, 'Cree only hangs out with you because she feels sorry for you.. she doesn't actually love you, and neither does anyone else. She'll ditch you when you least expect it because you are just a disappointment and can't do anything right..' th-th.. those were their exact words.. right in f-front of everyone.." Delilah whimpered, a few warm tears streaming down her face. ".. and they're right.. I-I've been tryin to be a good girlfriend and make you happy.. b-but at this point.. I feel like I've ultimately failed you.. p-please be honest with me, Cree.. am I good enough?.." Delilah sniveled as she looked up at Cree with her sad, bruised eyes. Cree simply gave a light smile before pulling her short girlfriend closer.
"Delilah, I hang out with you because you're sweet, funny, loyal, and you being my girlfriend is probably one of the best things to ever happen to me!" She wrapped her arms around Delilah and hugged her like she never wanted to let go, "And those punks are gonna regret even looking at you the wrong way, I swear." Delilah was so relieved and touched by what Cree had told her. A fresh river of tears poured down from her eyes as she buried her face into Cree's shoulder without another word, sobbing quietly and hugging her tight. Cree hugged even tighter as she felt her partner's warm, salty tears dripping onto her shirt.
After what seemed like 10 minutes of crying, Delilah pulled away and nuzzled Cree's cheek with her tear-stained nose. She looked up into those gold-tinted eyes and gave a weak smile, "Th-thank you, Cree-Bear.. you have no idea how much you being here means to me.. I love you so much~" the two girls leaned into each other, softly kissing on the lips a few times. After they broke away, Delilah turned toward her backpack, then picked it up and unzipped it. To her surprise and relief, her gifts weren't as badly damaged as she thought they'd be. There were still a few roses still intact, which she picked out and handed to Cree, and a custom Rainbow Monkey that was the color and pattern of Delilah's panda hoodie. It even had a matching bell collar and hair-style, and a gold sequined heart stitched onto its belly. Cree held a hand to her chest in surprise, "Delilah...!" she was breathless, "You got all this for me?" Delilah nodded, wiping her eyes and smiling, "only the best for my Cree-Bear..~" Cree's heart just about melted as she hugged Delilah tightly with the biggest grin, "Thank you, sweet thing! Ooohh...!" She nuzzled and snuggled her, overcome with affection. Delilah's tail finally wags a bit as she returns the warm hug, nuzzling into Cree's neck, purring softly and kneading Cree's shoulders..
As the next day had passed, Cree, Maurice and Chad had found out who had assaulted their friend, since the incident had apparently been recorded, and they ultimately tore the bullies a new one. "If we EVER have to come back here again, you can expect EVEN MORE where this came from!!" Chad snarled, his index finger pointed towards the bruised, battered teenagers as they walked off, trembling and cowering. The three teens then walked over to Delilah with soft, gentle looks on their faces. "If they or anyone else EVER bother you again, just let us know, okay?" Maurice said, running his fingers through her fluffy, golden hair. "You don't have to take that from anyone. Just know that we love and care about you, and that's all that matters."
"O-okay.." Delilah's ears wilted in a sheepish manner as she gave a small, cute looking smile. Maurice gave a quiet chuckle before Cree walked over and gently held Delilah's hand. "What he said," Cree nodded before giggling.
"Go on, you girls have a great day! We'll see you soon," Chad said as he and Maurice waved goodbye.
Cree and Delilah did the same before walking off hand-in-hand towards the malt shop, where they each got lunch: burgers, fries, and a large milkshake to top it all off. Delilah always loved to get either the cotton candy or neapolitan shake, and Cree's personal favorite being "Forbidden chocolate" with a caramel drizzle on top.
After they finished lunch, the two girls made their way to Delilah's house and played some of their favorite video games, like Kirby Super Star, Mario Kart 64 and Kirby's Dreamland 3.. games that took them back to their childhood and had brought them fun, laughter and joy through the years. Delilah's parents even let them order pizza and wings for dinner, which they ate in Delilah's room while putting on her favorite pokemon films.
They both sat close to each other, propped up against a wall of pillows they had made, holding hands. Then Delilah started to think of something. "Everything okay, Dilly?" Cree asked, squeezing Delilah's hand a bit. Delilah looks up at her. "O-Oh yeah! I, uh, almost forgot some'n important," Delilah stammered over her words a bit before reaching into her backpack and pulling out a piece of bright red, slightly bent construction paper, which she smoothed out before skimming the writing on it. "I-I.. this here is a little.. note that I've been workin on for a bit. I've been meanin to read it to ya.. it's a bit sappy, though," Delilah blushed, giggling at herself. Cree paused the TV, nodding a bit at her girlfriend as if to persuade her to read the note. Delilah nodded back, her heart pounding a little as she turned her gaze back to the pinkish construction paper and cleared her throat:
Since the first few days we started bonding in 2nd grade, you've stolen my heart, and have taken amazing care of it. You were the first one outside of my family that actually understood me, and I always feel like I could just be myself around you and all would be right with the world. You always know the right thing to say whenever I'm in one of my moods, or whenever I needed motivation and reassurance. You make me feel safe.. you make me feel special, and you make me feel loved.. Needless to say, you're like my guardian angel, and you've made me one of the happiest girls on Earth.
Spending time with you and the boys is really all I wanna do for the rest of my life, and I promise you nothing more than love, loyalty, affection and happiness.
I love you to the moon and back, and will never let you go. Here's to another year of you and I taking on the world together!
Lots of Love,
Lily 33
"Heh, so that was it! Whatcha think?" it was then that Delilah heard a few quiet sniffles. Then she felt a sort of tight but soft hug from her side, "Th-that was beautiful, Lily.. just beautiful.." Cree sniffled, a few tears of joy rolling down her cheeks. "I mean every single word I wrote~" Delilah crooned before kissing Cree on the cheek.
So the evening went on, the two girlfriends watching Pokemon: Indigo League, chuckling and making a few jokes here and there, until they had both had finally passed out in each other's arms. And life was good from then on..