My Bad Boy's Diary

~tWENTY-oNE~ charmer

"Thanks again for dinner, Mrs. Martins." Dalton leaned down from his considerable height and kissed her lightly on the cheek.

My mom put her hand to her blushing cheek and Mitch scowled. Tabitha and Georgie were trying to stifle giggles, and so was I, frankly.

"Our pleasure, Dalton. Come over anytime." My mom murmured dreamily. "We'll leave you two alone to say goodnight, properly." And she firmly herded everyone else back into the living room to watch TV.

I sighed, swinging my arms idly. "I'll walk you out." I muttered, and we stepped out onto the porch together.

"Oh my God, that was-a couple times there, I almost-" I closed my mouth as I caught him smiling an odd smile down at me. "What?" I said defensively.

He reached out and gently took my hand, startling me, but not spooking me. "It's okay, Brooklyn, don't worry so much. Your family is really sweet."

I frowned at him suspiciously. This just so wasn't like him.

He raised my hand to his lips and kissed the back of it.

My frown deepened and he laughed when he straightened up.

"I know, baby, I'm sorry. I know you want a kiss, too, since your mom got one." He teased me. "But I think it should wait 'til the dance, you know? Drag out the suspense."

I shoved at him, but he only laughed. "I'll pick you up at eight?"

"Sounds good." I crossed my arms to hide how my hands were shaking.

I did not want him to kiss me, dammit! Again.

He gave me a knowing sort of smile from the front yard now, then waved. "Goodnight, buttercup." And he loped back across the lawn to his house.

###

As soon as I came back into the house, my little sister ambushed me.

"Did he kiss you?!" Tabitha demanded of me and I jumped to find her standing there waiting for me in the foyer.

Mitch frowned from the living room. "I'm not sure how I feel about this, Alicia. He seems like kind of a sweet-talker to me."

My mom was in the kitchen doing dishes and I went to help her.

"Well, I think he's just the sweetest thing." My mom said, still glowing, in fact.

I sighed as I rolled up my sleeves and shoved my hands into the soapy dish water.

"He likes you a lot, you know." My mom said to me quietly, after my younger siblings had settled down in the living room and Mitch had fallen asleep in front of the TV.

I glanced at my mom in surprise. "I thought I was supposed to keep my distance from him, Mom, now you're encouraging me to date him?"

"I'm not encouraging you to do anything! And that was before I got to know him. I had no idea he wanted to be a child psychologist, did you?!" My mom was putting leftovers away and so didn't see my face.

"No." I said quietly. "I didn't."

"Well, I think you shouldn't be so hard on him, sweetie. He's clearly changed and grown up a lot since that unfortunate incident-"

"Mom, please!"

She sighed, straightening up the table and fussing with the damn flowers. "Honey, I know it's complicated, love always is. But you can't keep punishing him forever, I think he cares about you more than you know and you might end up regretting it if you can never forgive him."

I sighed in frustration. "Mom-"

"Just think about it, okay?" And she left the room to herd my little siblings and Mitch to bed.

I finished cleaning up, doing my damnedest not to think about what my mom had said.

She was just charmed by Dalton's...charm.

She had conveniently forgotten about all the hell he'd put me through, all the times he'd made me cry.

And he definitely didn't care about me! Ha! Not even a little.

More frustrated than ever, I went up to my bedroom to get into my PJs and do some homework before bed.

I texted a bit, staving off Kensi and Samoane's many burning questions. I sent Matheson several messages, as well, asking him if he was alright and urging him to talk to me.

I got no reply from his end.

Sitting back on my bed, I decided to write in my own diary for a bit.

I had written a page or two and doodled a picture of a peacock when my phone chirped at me.

Picking it up, I expected it to be from one of my friends, but it was from Dalton.

I immediately got the shakes as I opened the message.

'What r u wearing 2 the dance?'

I frowned. Why did he want to know? At least he hadn't asked me what I was wearing right then.

I suppose he had already seen my banana pajamas, to be fair.

'Y?' I sent back, not about to start doing him any favors.

'Cuz a man needs 2 kno these things.' He replied.

I sighed and gave up. 'Red.'

'Sexy.' Was his response, a few seconds later. 'I can't wait 2 take it off u.'

Needless to say, I didn't exactly get a good night's sleep after that.

*~*~*~*

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYBODY!

and thanks for reading!

HRH