It's been almost a week since Duke has been back from the dead. Not really back from the dead, because he was inside of barn for the past six months. So he technically wasn't dead, but everyone thought he was.
He came back to Haven with a woman named Jennifer. I think they would make a cute couple, but apparently he didn't see her that way. From the way she looks at him, she definitely sees him that way.
Ever since Duke came back, Dwight has been more possessive than he ever been. He thinks that Duke is going to take me from him because I loved Duke more then I loved him. Given, Duke was one of my first loves; I loved him more than I loved Chandler.
But was in my past, and I'm in the now. I love Dwight now, and Duke isn't going to change that. Duke is going to be apart of my life, whether Dwight like it or not, but only as my friend, nothing else.
But this week, Jennifer helped Duke, Dwight and Nathan find the door to where Audrey is. But Audrey was actually a bartender named Lexi. To be more precise, Audrey was acting like she was Lexi. She managed to fool Nathan and Duke for the longest time, but I knew almost immediately that she was actually Audrey. She's not that good at acting.
And I finally managed to store away my troubles into objects. The objects that I chose are stones that I has the strength to hold a large amount of troubles. I put 30,000 troubles in each stone; my first stone was Lightning Ridge Black Opal, then the Fluorite and Burmese Turmaline.
They are all unique stones that would catch someone's attention, which was the opposite of what it needed to be. So the make things easier for myself, I melded each of the stones into a necklace and hid them in books in Vince and Dave's newspaper shop.
Anyway, so a lot of things have happened. Good things. And the whole good vibe was soaring for almost a month, then it all went to crap. The townspeople wanted to get rid of their troubles and they think Audrey killing Nathan would do it. Mostly because the last guy who suggested using my trouble to absorb theirs, got a broken jaw from Dwight. So I was the last resort, if a resort at all.
Eventually this tension was momentarily delayed and that's when Duke started to get distant. I didn't want to seem too pushy, so I didn't call him. When his silence reached almost a week, I decided to make my way over there to check up on him.
I drove down the docks where I knew he would be only to see him sitting on a bench. He sat with his elbows resting on his knees and his fingers laced in front of him. He blankly stares in front of him and I slowly approach him.
"Duke?" I say softly.
His head snaps to me and he says:
"Hey,"
He clears his throat and stares down at the wooden planks of the docks.
"Are you okay? You haven't called me in almost a week. I wanted to make sure if everything was okay before I jumped to the worst conclusions." I say playfully.
He doesn't show any signs of happiness and laughter.
He shakes his head with shame and bows his head.
"I don't want to talk about it." He says lowly.
"Alright," I say, waiting for a few moments to see if he was going to say anything else.
When he doesn't, I stand from the bench and say:
"Well I'll just give you some space then. Just.. call me whenever you want to talk."
He holds to my hand and weakly says:
"Wait,"
He slowly shifts his gaze to meet mine and he adds:
"I have to talk to you about something,"
His chocolate brown orbs are dipped with guilt and shame. Something really horrible must have happened.
"Duke," I hear Jennifer say.
We both look to her and she looks from me to Duke.
"I wanted to see if you were serious.. about leaving?" Jennifer says.
"What? You're leaving?" I say, pulling away my hand from his.
"Damn it, Jennifer. You ruin everything! Everything!" He snaps.
He stands from the bench and advances toward her. I jump in between them and place a hand on his chest.
"Why are you defending her? She's a home-wrecker!" Duke says as he points an accusatory finger at her.
"And you are out of line. Go to the car, we'll talk about this when I'm done here." I say.
He steps forward and I push him back.
"I don't want to use my troubles against you, but I will." I say.
He looks down and met my serious gaze. He scoffs before saying:
"Whatever,"
He walks to the car and slams the door as he hops in. My eyes fall onto Jennifer, who was a tearful and shivering mess.
"Oh sweetie," I say.
"What happened? Why is he so angry?" I ask her.
"If I tell you, he'll be even more angry." She says in a shaky voice.
"Are you- has he been beating you?" I ask.
She shakes her head no and I study her body language to see if she was lying, she wasn't.
"Alright, I'll tell you what. You drive your car to the station, go into Dwight's office and say that I sent you. He'll take care of you and I'll have Duke back to apologize to you in no time. Okay?" I suggest.
She nods her head frantically and I pull her in for a hug. She inhaled loudly as she tried to hold back her sobs.
"I'm so sorry, sweetie. I don't know why he is acting like this. Duke isn't normally like this." I add.
"I know.. it's just, I never thought that he would say such things." She says.
"Nowadays, anyone is capable is anything." I say.
I pull away from her and give her a reassuring nod before walking away.
"We're going to our place," I say as i get into the car.
Duke doesn't respond, he simply presses his thumb against his bottom lip as he looks out the window in thought.
I turn on the car and drive to our spot: the shed on the far side of town, by the beach.