My Bad Boy's Diary

~Thirty-Three~ betrayal

I woke up the next morning, kind of hungover, and alone in my bed. Not that I was expecting anything else; my parents got back today, after all.

In fact, I could hear them moving around downstairs and when I glanced at the clock, I winced to see that they were home early and I was running late for school.

I pushed myself out of bed and scrambled around my room in a numb, sickened state of panic.

Had I lost my mind? How could I have let things get out of hand like this?

When I had yanked on random articles of clothing, thrown my hair into a ponytail, and had brushed my teeth, I grabbed my phone – which I hadn't charged – and prepared to go downstairs to face my family.

I paused at my bedroom door, however, when I saw that amid other text messages from friends, I had three from Dalton.

With a flickering smile, I opened those messages.

The first one read, 'Still got the taste of u in my mouth, baby. XOXO.'

I flushed and tingled all over as memories from last night flashed through my mind.

The next message read, 'But u need 2 hide ur personal belongs better. Missing anything?'

I sucked in air so sharply, I felt lightheaded.

I literally threw my phone onto my bed and rushed to the corner of my room. I had to step up onto the old chair that was piled with my dirty laundry to shove open the crawl space lid in the ceiling.

Feeling around desperately in the dark, I let out a wail of genuine horror.

It was gone!

My diary was gone!

###

I checked and double-checked all the other hiding spots I had for my diary, but it wasn't in any of them.

With trembling fingers, now feeling sick to my stomach, I picked up my phone again and read the last message.

'Now I have UR diary, lil girl. This game is about 2 get more interesting, don't u think? Kiss u l8r, slut.'

###

I slowly made my way downstairs, dead certain that life could get no worse, only to be immediately contradicted by the universe.

"Brooklyn Rosa Martins!" My mom railed at me as soon as I entered the living room, and I winced.

"Hi, guys, welcome back." I murmured, looking between the two of them. They were both stone faced. Then my stepdad stepped aside and gestured to the coffee table, or more specifically, to the empty beer cans littering said coffee table.

I sighed. Of course Dalton hadn't bothered to clean up before he'd left.

Typical!

"Sorry I didn't clean up." I groaned. "How was the trip?"

My mom's sculpted eyebrows shot up high on her perfect forehead. "Oh no, girly, you do not get to brush this aside! You are 17 and I trusted you to be left alone for one night; I vouched for you!"

Mitch was shaking his head with his hands on his hips. "We both trusted you, Brooklyn, and we expected more from you than this."

I expected more from myself right then, too, but not about the stupid beer. I couldn't believe that I had trusted Dalton for even a single second, about anything.

Of course, it all made sense now. Why he'd been so nice to me lately; things had been way too smooth sailing. He'd toyed with me all evening, pretending to take me on a date, pretending to open up, getting me to lower my guard and then seducing me, all to steal my journal.

I was such an idiot! I so knew better than this.

I knew him better than this, and I definitely knew better than to let myself become that girl.

My brain was whirling with his words, all his damn, treacherous little words.

'You mean something to me.'

'Slut.'

'You're so fucking beautiful.'

'You're so paranoid?'

'I've always noticed...'

'You're such a freak.'

My parents were talking to me, both of them, but I could barely even hear them over Dalton's lies ringing in my head like all the bells of Hell.

"Brooklyn! What do you have to say for yourself?!" My mother demanded of me.

I was numb yet I was somehow shaking inside. I was so angry and hurt and confused that I blindly lashed out at them.

"It's just a couple beers, oh my God, get off my back!" I shouted at my mom. "So my friends and I had a few, what's the big deal?!"

"Don't talk to your mother that way!" Mitch said, frowning.

My mom held up her hand to him. "It's okay, honey, let me handle this. Brooklyn, how did you get the beer? If you had boys over..."

"No! We got some random college kid to do it, like I said, it's no big deal."

"Well, you're late to school and you smell like the city bus, so I don't know how much of a big deal it is, I guess; how much does your future mean to you?"

I sighed and glanced at my watch. "Can I go shower now, then?"

"No, you're going to school, and if you smell like a hobo, then let that be your lesson for being so irresponsible that you would get wasted on a school night!" My mom was really incised about those 6 little beers, good thing she didn't know even the half of what had really gone down last night.

I grimaced and went to grab a banana and a power bar and a vitamin water out of the fridge. I had missed the bus, so my mom drove me. We rode the whole way in icy silence.

They had grounded me, of course, from everything except homework, basically, but I didn't even care.

All I could think about was the fact that Dalton Patricelli had my freaking diary!

*~*~*~*

I think things just done got serious.

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