The Bad Boy Next Door Stole My Diary | Completed

Chapter 23: Old Pals and the Stars

Beep. Beep. Beep. I slam my hand on my nightstand trying to find my phone. I finally found my phone after slamming my hand on the table for the hundredth time. I look at my phone that ready: 7:45 a.m., Sunday, March 14. I stare at the time showing up on my phone screen in disgust. I growl at my phone and through it to the other side of my bed. I shove my face into my pillow and let out a long groan. "Why do I have to work?" I groaned into my pillow.
I turned on my side so that I was facing my window to look at Duke's window. I thought about what happened when Duke dropped me off at my house:
"Duke, wait! Um, I need to ask a-"
"Can we talk about it tomorrow? I'm tired and they're going to kill me," Duke said, rushing.
"Oh, um, okay. Do you want to come over tomorrow?"
"Yes!" Duke replied frantically. He stared at me and must've realized that he replied a little too quick. "Um, yeah, I'll be here at 12:50," Duke finalized.
    I'm going to find out what Duke is hiding from me about his past. I told him everything he could possibly need to know about my traumatic past. Now it's his turn to tell me.
    I swing my legs off my bed and stand up, grabbing a clean pair of clothes and a towel. I take a quick shower. In my case a quick shower is an hour. I have those moments where I contemplate on life four a good forty-five minutes and then use the other fifteen minutes to actually shower. I dry off and throw on plaid skirt, blue tank that shows a little stomach, and white converse. I have a special place in my heart for 90's style. I straighten my blonde hair and do a half braid down the back. I apply a little bit of makeup so that I don't look a zombie that rose from the dead.
I walk back into my room to grab my phone. When I opened the lock screen I saw a text from Gramma: You can come down to work at 9:00 xoxo. Wow, Gramma knows how to text. After I taught her how to text when she got her new phone. I look at the clock to see it read 8:15. I grab a book from my shelf and go through my window to sit on my balcony. Duke's curtains were still closed. He's normally up already with his curtains wide open. On weekends he makes sure to stand shirtless by the window and stretch. He thinks he's impressing me. I mean, his back muscles or beautiful but I try to not show it. As I was sitting in my chair reading, I look at Duke's window to see him standing there. I jumped ten feet up in the air. "How long were you there for?" I asked as I hold my heart from having a heart attack.
"Not long. Are you working today?" Duke asked as he sat on his window sill. His arm muscles were perfectly toned. Every muscle that was showing was perfectly toned. This boy right in front of me is a piece of artwork. "Take a picture. It'll last longer," Duke said winking at me, waking me up from my trance about dreaming of his muscles.
I knew my face was red because he started chuckling at me. I cleared my throat and fixed myself so I didn't look like a blushing mess. "Yes, I have to head down to the bakery in twenty minutes," I said giving him a straight forward answer.
Duke nodded. "When I come over, can I help out at the bakery?" Duke asked. This is like his new thing. When he has nothing better to do he offers to work. So do the other guys but they're always busy.
I nodded and smiled. "Sure, we could always use a couple of extra hands," I answered. I got up from my chair and headed for my window. "See you later," I said waving as I climbed through my window.
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"Have a good day!" I said as I finished serving my customer. It's not so busy today for some reason. It's always busy around here on Saturdays. But, it's only the afternoon and it'll get busier getting towards the evening.
"Valentina," Gramps called me from the kitchen.
"Coming," I called back. I walked into the bakery to see Gramma and Gramps looking like they were getting ready to leave. "Um, where are you guys going?" I asked a little confused. They never told me if they were going out today.
"We have a community board meeting. So we'll be gone for a few hours," Gramma explained holding a cake box.
"Have Nicky or one of the guys come over. We left all of the instructions on the counter," Gramps said pointing to the paper on the counter.
Gramma walked over to me to kiss me goodbye on the cheek. "Sorry for short notice, honey. We'll be back soon," Gramma said feeling bad about leaving me alone.
I smiled at her. "It's okay. Duke is coming over to help out so I won't be alone," I said reassuring her everything would be fine. We said goodbye and they left me alone in the kitchen. I waited for them to lock the door until I let out my emotions. "Oh what am I saying. It's Duke! It's not okay," I whined as I walked back into the bakery.
The bell on the door ranged as someone opened the door. I looked ahead of me to see Duke walk in. "Hey, I just saw your grandparents leave," Duke said a little confused.
I walked out from behind the counter to Duke. "Yeah, they have some community board meeting," I answered. "So that means it'll just be you and me working the bakery today," I said as I cleaned up the tables.
"Okay, just let me know what I need to do and I'll get the job done," Duke said, giving me a grin of reassurance and a thumbs up.
As we were working the bakery, Gramma called me informing me that her Gramps weren't going to be home until later on in the night because they had to celebrate someone's birthday who's on the community board. So, that leaves me with this moron for a couple of more hours. As I turned the 'closed' sign Duke walked out of the kitchen. Business wasn't horrible today. Duke tried to flirt with every girl that walked into the bakery. Him and his flirting charms. "Hey, do you have any chocolate cookies that you made fro Kerry when you babysat her last time?" Duke asked as he patted his hands cleaned.
I walked over towards the counter. "No, sorry. They sold out," I said. Duke nodded and looked upset. I sighed. "But, I guess we could make some more," I said with a small smile.
Duke threw a fist pump in the air. "Awesome sauce!" Duke said with excitement.
Awesome sauce? Where have I heard that before? "Parks and Recreations," I said stating the name of a television show on Netflix.
Duke looked at me with a worried look. He looked taken back. "Does Valentina Cruz watch other shows before anime?" Duke asked teasing me.
I rolled my eyes. "I was bored one day and didn't feel like watching anime. So, I looked around on Netflix and found that. Pretty stupid to be honest," I said as I lead him into the kitchen.
"Yes, it' stupid. But, it's good!" Duke defended.
"Whatever," I said chuckling at his childish behavior. "Okay let's get the ingredients out for your cookies," I said as I walked over to the cabinets. I opened the cabinets to get out the bowls. Because I'm so short I had to stretch my whole entire body to get the bowls. My finger tips just met the bowls.
As I tried to pull the bowls closer to me the bowls on top of the other bowls were unbalanced and almost came crashing on my head. I threw my hands over my head. Nothing. I looked up to see Duke standing over me, holding all of the bowls. I let out a sigh of relaxation. "Thanks for saving my head," I said as I took the bowls we needed from him.
"Don't mention it," Duke said as he put the other ones back in the cabinet. "I am your Superman, right?" Duke asked winking at me. Halloween. Where he dressed up at Superman and called me his Lois Lane. And he saved my ass from the drunk guy.
"Sure," I said shrugging. As we started putting the stuff into the bowl he was ready to put the flour into the bowl. "Careful with that. It'll spill out of the bowl," I told him. I don't need flour on me. He nodded. And what does Duke do? Get's flour all over my shirt. "What did I just tell you?" I asked slowly as I bit my lip in annoyance.
"Sorry, I do things my own way," Duke said smirking at me.
"Well, doing things your own way doesn't always work-" I was cut off my flour being thrown in my face. I gave Duke a icy cold glare. "Two can play it that way," I said as I grabbed flour from the bag.
I threw the flour at his face. "Oh, it's on, chica," Duke said as he grabbed an egg from the egg carton. Before I could even move he smashed the egg on my head.
"My hair! I just washed it!" I complained and pouted. "Listen, you can mess with my clothing and my face. But you cant mess with my hair!" I informed him. He turned around to grab something. I took this chance to smash the egg in his hair.
"Excuse! No one touches the hair!" Duke said pissed off.
"Karma's a bitch, right?" I asked. After I said that, it went into an all out food war. With us slipping on the floor from egg yolk, flour all over the place, sprinkles and chocolate chips in our hair, anything edible was on us. I was about to crack him in the head with another egg but he grabbed my wrist and pushed me up against the counter, sitting me on it. I stared into his flour battered face. "Do you just want to admit that I won this war?" I asked with a smirk of victory.
"I don't except defeat," Duke said smirking. "And, I won't," Duke said as he took the egg out of my hand. He smashed the egg into my hair again. I winced as the cold, goopy, egg yolk slipped down my face. I opened my eyes to stare into Duke's brown eyes and to see him staring into my brown orbs. His hair was a mess from the egg and flour. I'm sure mine looked like a rats nest. I stared into his eyes.
I took baking flour and dumped the bag on his head. He blew flour out of his mouth. "I don't know, Duke. I always win in the end," I said sounding proud of myself.
Duke chuckled. "Really? How about that bet on Halloween when I found out your fear of lightening?" Duke asked wearing a smirk of victory. Crap. I forgot about that. And he gets to kiss me. Wait? No. Do I want him to kiss me? Yes, I do. But, what will that make us? Can we stay as friends for a while? Wait what if he doesn't even want to kiss me?
Duke put his thumb up to my lips to wipe the flour off of them. I think he could sense that I was nervous. I want him to kiss me. But, at the same time I don't because I don't want it to ruin our friendship. Maybe it won't. But, Duke's strange when it comes to this stuff. He drops girls like hot potatoes. He leaned in. Oh. My. God. I felt my heart ready to burst out of my chest. "You, know, the flour and sprinkles all over your face makes you look irresistible," Duke said in his deep, low voice. Oh my god it's happening. He leaned in and oh my god! I could've sworn I saw fireworks. Duke. Duke Taylor. The Duke Taylor. My school's hottest bad boy. Is. Kissing. Me! Oh my sweet lord! I kissed him back. It feels, magical. We release from each other, staring at each other. I let out a shaky breath. "Wow, you're not a bad kisser," Duke said smirking at me.
"Erm, um, uh-" I had no words. I put my fingers up to my lips. What was I suppose to say back?
Duke chuckled at me. "Don't worry about it. Let's clean up," Duke said. Don't worry about it? Does he mean in not replying to him? "I know I'm a good kisser," Duke clarified for me. I dead panned. Cocky jerk. That kiss...felt...good...
After we finished cleaning the war zone in the kitchen, Duke ran back to his house to shower while I washed all of the egg and flour off of me. I was too lazy to make myself presentable in front of him. Being the lazy ass I am I threw on gray sweatpants, a black t-shirt, and french braided my wet hair. I walked into my room to see Duke sitting on my balcony. I grabbed my sweatshirt and crawled out my window and onto my balcony. He bought Domino's pizza! Could this day get any better. "An apology for starting a food war in your kitchen," Duke said putting a piece of pizza on my plate.
"This makes up for the mess in the kitchen and the egg in my hair," I said as I took the plate from him, giggling.
We ate our delicious Domino's pizza for a while. My grandparents still weren't home so Duke wasn't rushing to go back into his room. We stayed on my balcony sitting in my bean bag chairs. Would this be a good time to ask about his past? I don't want to pressure him into telling me something that he doesn't want to tell me. Then again I did tell him about my past. But, if it was something that he could trust me with knowing he would've told me straight out. Instead, he's been hiding his past and secrets from me. There's something that I need to know. "What's your zodiac sign?" Duke asked out of the blue. He was staring up at the stars, infatuated with them.
"Aquarius," I answered bluntly.
Duke hummed in a thinking tone and stared at the sky. He lifted his hand up and pointed at a section of the sky. "Found it," Duke said proud of himself.
"How do you know what the zodiac constellations look like?" I asked shocked. I never thought Duke would be one to study about astrology. Yes, he's smart. But, he's just never shown interest in the stars ever. I stared at him waiting for an answer.
Duke let a small smile slip. "When Kerry and I were younger, my parents use to take us up to the mountains. We had a house up there. My mom was into astrology and she taught me and Kerry everything about the stars," Duke said sounding intelligent. I stared at him, wanting more information about what he knows about the stars. I think he got the hint because I was staring at him with eyes of interest. He pointed his finger back up at Aquarius. "I can name every important star in your constellation," Duke said.
"Okay, prove it. I won't believe you until I see it," I said crossing my arms over my chest. This should be interesting.
Duke cleared his throat and prepared himself. He pointed to each tiny star as he named them. "That one is Albali. Then there's Sadalsuud. Right next to Sadalsuud is Sadalmelik. Under Sadalmelik is Sadalachbia and Ancha. And then there's Situla and Skat," Duke finished off.
I stared at him in amazement. My jaw hanging form his intelligence of the stars. "Wow! You know a lot about the star's names. Do you want to study astrology?" I asked being really interested. Most of the time I would pretend to be interested. But, something about Duke made me want to learn more about him and his love for stars.
Duke chuckled at my childish actions towards his knowledge of the stars. I slumped down in my seat a little embarrassed. "My mom was an astrologer. When she came home from work she would show me and Kerry all of her research papers on the stars," Duke said, still staring at the stars. "I do want to study astrology. Something about the study is mesmerizing. The stars are just there and they form images that people can create stories out of," Duke finished off.
I smiled at Duke. He really is something. "What's your zodiac sign?" I asked curious of his knowledge on his sign's stars.
"Mine is Aries. My birthday is towards the end of March," Duke answered. He searched for his constellation and found it fast. "Okay so there's Ari, Hamal, Sheratan, and Mesarthim," Duke answered. He must be into mythology also. There's so much I don't know about him and I want to learn more about him. We spent the next fifteen minutes finding as many constellations as we could and named all of the stars. Duke taught me a lot about the stars and it was really fascinating.
After staring up at the sky for hours on end, we went into my room to watch another anime I suggested, Soul Eater. Hey, I have a problem with loving anime. I'm sure if it was a disease Nicky and I would've been diagnosed with it already. "Duke," I called his name. He was laying right next to me, focused on his phone.
He placed his phone down and gave me his full attention. "What's up, chica?" Duke asked, smirking at me.
Here goes nothing. "So, listen. I told you about my past. And in exchange, I feel like I should get to know a little bit more about your background," I said trying to not sound as rude as I possibly could.
Duke looked away from me and up at my ceiling. What is on the ceiling that everyone has to look up at when they have to think about something? Is something going to fall out of the ceiling? Is a magic portal with all of our memories going to open in the center of the ceiling? It really dazes me.
He let out a sigh and sat up. I sat up and crossed my legs in Indian chief style. Duke rubbed the back of his head. "I guess it's fair enough to give you some insight on my past," Duke said. Here it comes! "When I was ten my dad died in an accident. My mom couldn't handle the bills so she sent me to live with my grandparents and I haven't seen her since then," Duke finished.
Lies. That's bullshit. There's more to his story. What about the phone call he received a couple of days ago about needing something from his grandparents. What about Kerry asking for her parents back. What about the picture of Duke, Kerry, and Dylan together. Lies. "What?" Duke questioned. I clasped my hands over my mouth. Did I just say lies out loud. Duke looked around my room and got up. "I have to go back to my house," Duke said jumping up from my bed.
I ran to my pants that I wore yesterday and grabbed the picture out of my jeans pockets. I grabbed Duke's wrist before he could leave and spun him around. "You're lying to me," I said straight out.
Duke gave me a confused look. He looked like he was in a hurry. There's more to his story. "I don't know what you're talking about. Val, I have to get ho-"
I rose the family picture up to his face. I had anger written all over my face. Duke is lying to me. "How do you know Dylan?" I asked referring to the picture.
Duke grabbed the picture out of my hand and stared at it. "Where did you get this?" Duke asked sounding pissed off.
I'm not backing out of this. I want to find out what he's hiding from me. "When Alex and I were in Dylan's basement we were doing a little bit of looking around. I found this photo album and saw a picture of your family, Dylan, and a man who didn't look like your father in Kerry's photo album," I answered. As I answered him Duke rubbed his temples in frustration.
Duke waved the photo around. "This is none of your concern," Duke answered me straight out.
"What do you mean it's none of my concern? How come I can trust you enough to get a deeper look into my past but you don't trust me enough to know anything about yours. Aren't friends suppose to be honest with each other?" I asked getting mad at his stubbornness.
"When did I say we were that close of friends where I could trust you?" Duke asked like it was a rhetorical question. I felt a pulsing pain in my chest. Did he just really say that? What does anything that we did together mean to him? What did that kiss mean to him?
"That kiss," I said. He stared at me with his eyebrows furrowed. "What did that kiss mean to you exactly?" I asked. To me, it meant a lot. It was my first real kiss. Justin Evans doesn't count because he was forceful into this whole dating thing. But, with Duke, I felt something.
Duke scratched the back of his neck. "I don't know. I panicked. I kissed plenty of girls and don't have a reason for kissing them," Duke said. "And it was part of the bet to kiss you if I won, right?" I did my best to hold back the tears that were ready to burst. That kiss meant nothing to him? That kiss meant nothing to him. I looked away in embarrassment. I just wanted to bitch slap him in the face. But, I didn't have anymore energy. I knew he could sense my sadness and how hurt I was. He took a step forward. "Val, I didn't mean to-"
"Go," I said pointing to my window.
"Val, come on. I didn't mean to-"
"Duke! You stole my first real kiss. Justin never kissed me when we dated!" I yelled. This was my time to unleash all of my anger out on him. "It hurts me that you kissed me for no reason or that it was because of the bet. To me, that kiss meant a lot! It was my first kiss and I thought we were growing closer to be friends! Clearly we weren't. So please, leave," I said pointing to my window.
Without another word, Duke walked away from me and left through my window, jumping off my balcony and into his window. Five minutes later, a book appeared on my balcony. I ran to my window to see my diary back! I grabbed it from the balcony and watched Duke's window slam shut. I looked down at the diary, watching tears fall onto it. I threw it onto my desk and threw myself onto my bed. Dammit, Duke. You played with my mind.
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Monday. Definition: one of the worse days of the week. I woke up all groggy. I haven't stopped thinking about Saturday night's blow out with Duke. I showered and changed it a pair of leggings, converse, a white t-shirt, and a jean looking button down left opened. As I walked down my stairs I felt my legs go numb. I grabbed onto the banister quickly before I could fall. I felt weak all over my body. I've been taking my medicine so I shouldn't be feeling like this. Maybe I'm just starving. After eating a really big breakfast to gain back some energy I left my house and drove to Nicky's house.
On our way to school, I explained to Nicky what happened on Saturday. She's ready to murder the boy. He better say his prayers at night that she won't come into his room and kill him quietly. The girl knows how to do things that no one has ever imagined. "Just ignore him for the the week. Maybe things will cool down," Nicky said as we walked to our lockers. "But, if he starts trouble I get to take the first punch at him," Nicky said cracking her knuckles.
I rolled my eyes and smiled. "Thanks, Nicky. I can always count on you to beat the shit out of someone," I teased.
"You know it," Nicky said sending me a playful wink.
When we reached our lockers we saw Drake and Matt standing there. Matt and Drake waved to me. I waved back, not having any reason to be mad at them. Why should I be mad at them for Duke's actions? "Good morning, boys," I greeted as I unlocked my lock. After Duke and Matt's locker prank I had to switch out my lock for a new lock with a new code.
"Hey, Cruz," Matt greeted. "So, we heard what happened on Saturday," Matt said leaning against the locker next to mine. I buried my face into my locker to hide my red cheeks.
"And we're going to straighten Duke out because he had no reason to treat you like that," Drake continued for Matt. I looked up at the boys who were smiling at me.
Matt threw a fist pump in the air. "Duketina all the way!" Matt said still shipping us.
"Guys, the ship is over until Duke can get his shit together and stop jerking off," Nicky said not taking crap from anyone today. It's good to have a friend like Nicky around.
We turned our backs towards the hallway to face Drake and Matt. "C'mon, we know Duke fucked up big time," Matt said sounding bad for me and Duke.
"But, Duke doesn't know how to control his emotions," Drake continued. "He's like a bottle that gets filled too much and needs to release it," Drake finished.
I rolled my eyes. "Well, he didn't need to release it on me," I sassed back.
Matt pointed a finger at me. "Hey, take your sass, put it in your pocket," Matt quoted from Thugisa from 50% Off Free. I laughed at his quoting.
I felt a hand wrap around my eyes. I touched it. Definitely a dude's hand. "Guess who came back all the way from Australia," I heard an oh so famous voice sing.
Nicky and I turned around to see the best person in the world and jumped on him to hug him. "Tony!" Nicky and I shouted in unison. Everyone let me introduce you to my best friend since birth, Tony Wilson. Tony, Nicky, and I have been amazing friends since birth and preschool. Tony was like my older brother who always took care of me when I needed someone to care for me. Tony left us in freshmen year to go and swim in Australia to train for the Olympics. He's the best swimmer I know personally and now he has come back to make everything better. Tony is Korean-American, just like Vernon Hanson Chwe. I always tease Tony about Korea and how him and his people have blessed me with K-Pop. Tony has dark brown hair, fairly tan skin, and he's tall and well built.
"Tony, I thought you weren't coming back until next year?" I questioned as we let go of our hug.
"Well, I was getting homesick and the team I was training with is way out of my league," Tony confessed without hesitation.
"Nah, I'm sure those Australians were just jealous of your swimming skills," Nicky said waving her hand up and down. "How's the soccer team there?" Nicky asked. Tony also plays soccer. But, I think swimming is more of his style.
"Pft, yeah, I'm not in shape to train with those dudes," Tony said laughing.
We heard fake coughs and clearing of the voices. I turned around to still see Drake and Matt standing there awkwardly. Tony knows Drake from the football team and Matt knows Tony from one of their clubs in school. "Drake! Matt! How's it going?" Tony asked as they did a bro-high-five.
"Long time no see, dude!" Matt said as he patted Tony's back. "Find any cute Australian ladies in Australia?" Matt said nudging his elbow into Tony's side.
Tony wrapped his arms around my shoulders and Nicky's shoulders. "Please, none of those girls could be compared to these two pretty ladies," Tony said being the player he is. Just like the four morons Tony tends to be a player who drops girls left and right. But, the three of us made a pack to never have any romantic feels towards each other.
"How do you guys know Tony?" Drake asked me and Nicky.
"Tony, Nicky, and I went to school with each other," I answered. We spoke for a while about all of the craziness Tony has missed and about his crazy adventures and swim meets in Australia. It made me feel better tos see Tony and his big smile facing me. I forgot about the craziness between me and Duke. But, do I want to forget Duke?