This Diary I Found

23 :: Detour

CHAPTER 23: Detour

"He's coming around. He's opening his eyes."

"He's alive!"

"Trevor, can you hear me? How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Grazie Dio!"

"Dammit, Diego! You didn't have to kick the ball the hard!"

"I'm sorry. I thought he could block it."

"Stop arguing, you two!"

"Hey, hey. Trev-turd, you there?"

The first face I saw was the one nearest to me. It was Louie. Opposite of him was London, looking so worried you'd think Louie was the one on the ground. And behind the kneeling Steffensons was the motley crew.

Diego and Sage looked like they were arguing. Kaye and Dax were between them, trying to stop whatever it was. And Gwen...

Gwen was towering over the three of us. She was staring at me. Her eyebrows were furrowed, button nose scrunched up in what I could only guess was pity.

I pressed my elbows down to sit up. Louie helped me. And when the world didn't seem so hazy anymore, I noticed the bickering had stopped and everyone was looking at me.

"You okay?" Louie asked, clasping my hand to pull me up.

"Yeah." That was a fucking lie. My nose stung like hell! This is exactly why I don't play sports outside of the screen. "Did we win?"

Louie laughed as we stood up. "Fuck no! Nice save, though."

"Yeah, I really put my head in the game."

Standing up might have reassured the gang that I had no serious injury so they went closer. Diego went a bit too close.

"Trevor," he said, "I apologize for hitting you. It was not my intention."

"Nah, it's okay, man," I lied, trying to sound all breezy about it.

Diego was speculating. With narrowed eyes, he observed, "Your nose is turning purple."

"It does that all the time," I said with a shrug. That was a lameass excuse. But I just got my brain rattled by a fucking soccer ball. Give me a break!

"I'm still very sorry." He sure looked like it. Diego's bright green eyes were clouded by guilt. That's when Dax oh-so-subtly nudged him.

"Go on," the brunet encouraged.

Clearing his throat, Diego looked at London, Louie and focused back on me. "Again, I'm sorry for hitting you in the face.  But, I'm having a small get-together in my house.Do you guys want to join us later tonight?"

The others behind him chuckled. "It's a party," Dax said. "Diego just likes calling it 'get-together' because it's more subtle." He then asked, "You up for it?"

"Sure," I answered right away. I assumed that when Diego said we, it included Gwen, too.

And if that were truly the case, the diary would be returned to the mystery girl tonight.

×××××

Louie was carpooling to the party. I mean, get-together.

After swinging by my house, we drove up to Sage's house just south of the park. We needed to give her a ride because she had Diego's address. And if you knew Sage, you'd know that she doesn't give out information for free. A ride in Romanoff in exchange for the address.