Brooklyn:
After being forced to spend one summer in Italy with her grandma, Brooklyn always found her way back to the cobblestone streets but not for the feeling of a summer never ending, but for Valentino, a boy who radiates trouble and sees throu...
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POV: Brooklyn "Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory." – Dr.Seuss Summer #2
It feels like there is an earthquake.
My body and the bed were shaking violently, pulling me out of my long-overdue rest. With an exaggerated sigh, I force my eyes open.
Valentino.
He must have snuck through my terrace door, because now he was violently shaking me.
"What, Val?" I grumble, sitting up.
"You're awake," Valentino said with a hint of relief.
"Yeah, no shit," I gave him a dry look. It has been two days since I fully slept, and here he is disturbing me. I saw him a couple of hours ago, and I don't know what's so urgent that he must come here.
Has this man heard of calling?
Valentino slipped into my bed fully dressed in his usual black slacks with a black button-up shirt. I always joke with him that he is secretly emo. especially when his messy black hair would fall in front of his face when he talked.
"You know you could have done this quietly, right," I look towards Valentino, who stuck his middle finger at me, which he tried to bite before he placed his palm on my forehead, keeping me at a distance.
I gave him a bored look and gave him the finger back.
"Shut up, I just wanted to make sure you were okay," he said, turning onto his back and looking up at my artistic ceiling in a daze. Valentino seemed to worry a lot about me since I'm a "danger to myself and others," but I do feel guilty for adding to his already tremendous pile of stress. I crawled over to him and placed my whole body over him, disturbing his sleep like he disturbed mine.
"Your heavy"
"Are you calling me fat?"
Silence.
I gasp, chucking him with a pillow, he can be such a jerk, but my jerk, nonetheless. Valentino just chuckled and took my hand in his, bringing his lips to my knuckles softly.
"Now I can't fall back to sleep," I sighed, looking towards the ceiling covered in the patchwork of my paintings.
"I can name a few ways I can help you," Val smirked, flipping us over.
"How?" I asked breathlessly when he started kissing my neck.
"Arcadia," Valentino smiled, teasing me with his tongue and teeth.
I've only been there during the day, when the grass was green and the sun was high, but a part of me was curious what it looked like at night. As long as it's not scary, Valentino knows how paranoid I was sometimes. That's what too many episodes of Criminal Minds did to you.
"Okay, I'll go," I smiled, pushing Valentino off of me to get up.
Determined to leave without being detected, Valentino and I tiptoed down the stairs to the kitchen, where my car keys rested. Rose, my housekeeper and temporary caregiver, was sleeping in the downstairs bedroom, and since a pin dropping would wake her up, we had to be careful.
As if on que, I accidently stepped on a floorboard that was so loud that I swore my neighbors could hear it. I immediately cringed, closing my eyes and praying really hard that Rose wouldn't wake up.
She didn't, thankfully, so we continued like smooth criminals until I successfully reached my car keys in the kitchen's bowl, wiping the sweat from my brow in relief.
Valentino just stood there giving me a blank look. I know this was kiddie work to him, but he didn't have to judge my amateur criminal skills; I was only working with what he taught me.
"You the girl who talks about money laundering, but you can't even creep without waking the whole neighbor," Val shook his head, grabbing the keys from my hands.
"Shut up, its not my fault that good girls tempted me into crime with a hot gangster," I said out of breath.
Valentino rolled his eyes, closing the door behind us, and he held out his hand; without hesitation, I took it. Running into the darkness of the night didn't seem as terrifying as it had before because I knew...
I knew that I would be running away with him.
🝮🝮🝮🝮🝮🝮🝮🝮🝮🝮🝮🝮🝮🝮🝮🝮🝮🝮🝮🝮🝮🝮🝮🝮🝮 Arcadia was even more beautiful at night.
Sitting in a tree engulfed in Valentino's arm kept me from running into the darkness of the hills.
It was nostalgic, the darkness creating the illusion that the field was never ending. that if you kept running, you would be transmitted into a different world the way Alice walked through glass, entering Wonderland.
I always envied her for that; I wished I could disappear into a whole new world filled with wonders, creatures, and uncertainty where I could be the hero for once.
Be the one to slay the dragon instead of being the damn dragon myself, breathing fire on the ones I love the most.
I looked back into the darkness, wondering if it was a kind of rabbit hole itself, the beginning of my actual story.
As if Valentino read my thoughts, he said, "You're looking at the wrong place."
Confused, I turned in his arms to look at him, but he wasn't looking at me.
He was looking at the stars.
"If you always follow the stars, then you will always find your true home."
