CHAPTER 21: Fill Up

Getting slapped for being an asshole wasn't my thing anymore. No. My thing had become getting my ego and heart diced up and served in a silver platter like fruit!

If it's all the same to the universe, I'd like to switch back, please. A bruised cheek hurts much less than a beat-up heart.

A knock on my door brought me back to reality. I've been ignoring the knocks since I got home after the party. It was pretty easy with my music cranked up to full volume. Miraculously, that series of knocks was loud enough to cut over Shawn's voice.

"Trevor!" Louie's oh-so-familiar voice shouted. He kept banging on the door.

I sighed and continued ignoring.

"TREVOOOOR!" he bellowed, knocking so hard, I thought his fist was gonna slam through the door.

I turned the volume up.

"Trev-turd!" a new voice shouted. It was Donnie! Looks like Louie brought reinforcement this time.

I wondered what they were gonna do. Were they gonna pick the lock? Well, too bad. I'd already dead bolted the door from the inside. Louie's strong enough. Were they just gonna break it down?

The ruckus stopped and I heard their shuffling footsteps fading away. I sighed in relief.

Finally, I could listen to Illuminate in peace!

I put my arm over my eyes and started singing along to Mercy. My vocals were shit compared to Shawn's, of course. Hell if I cared! I just wanted to shout the lyrics.

"Oh, my God! Trev-turd, stop! You're gonna make it rain and my makeup's not waterproof," huffed London.

I shot out of bed. I could've sworn her voice sounded like she magically got into my room.

"Over here, turd!" Louie's voice called from the balcony.

Goddamn it! I knew I never should have put a ladder there.

London was already through the entrance of the balcony. Louie was shaking snow off his coat.  I hid under the covers hoping that they'd leave me alone. Monsters leave when you get under your blankets, right?

Moments later, a body crashed over me. I felt an elbow collide with my stomach. It knocked the wind out of me and forced me out of hiding.

"And the Lou-ser goes for a smack down!" Donnie yelled like a freaking WWE commentator.

"You asshole!" I gasped out, pointing at the jerk on my bed.

The Steffensons were laughing at my misery. Classic.

"You know, when a person doesn't answer the door, most people would just leave. They don't go breaking and entering!"

"We didn't break anything," London pointed out.

"We'll see about that. I think you fractured my rib!" I argued, holding my belly.

"I heard Shawn," Louie said, pointing to my phone. "I knew it had to be bad. So, we did what we had to."

I rolled my eyes. "You don't have to do anything," I grumbled, killing the music.

London came closer and pulled me in a sympathetic hug. "I'm sorry about Kaye, Trev-turd," she said.

"You told her?" I asked her brother.

Louie shrugged. "I had to. She's gonna help us."

"Help us?"

They both nodded.

"Help us with finally solving..." he paused, rummaging through my drawer. I tried to shoo him away but he persisted until he found the diary. Holding it up, he continued, "... this mystery."

"Why?" I asked monotonously.

Louie's shoulder drooped at my query. "Because!" he exclaimed. "You've put too much time and effort into this shit to give up just because of one petty rejection."

"Actually it was two," I corrected.

"Whatever," Louie dismissed. "The point is you're being such a pussy."

"What?!"

"When Emma turned you away, you sulked for days. When Kaye told you you're not her type, you ran out of a party and locked yourself away! You're getting so bogged down by things in the past," he ranted. "And you're in here with your Shawn Mendes album and your sorry ass-- I can't stand it! So, man up and stop feeling sorry for yourself."

His rant caught me off guard. Was I feeling sorry for myself? All I was doing was staying in bed.

"I'm not used to you like this," he commented, scrunching up his face. I looked down on myself. I was still on the get-up I wore to the party. That was yesterday. Yup, I got why he cringed. "You bein' all glum... It depresses me. You might as well go back to our emo phase in middle school."

London laughed at the memory. I rolled my eyes.

"Well, what do you want me do?"

"When I'm dealing with this kind of shit, I shoot some hoops," he said, "but since you could care less about sports, I came up with an alternative."

"And that is?"

"Bunny hunting," he answered, raising the diary. "It'll get you going again and we might actually find the girl you're looking for. It's like catching two rats with one cheese."

When I didn't say anything, he sweetened the deal. "And, if you agree to this, I'll give you one of my console games."

My eyebrow arched. "Any game?"

"Fuck, no!" he quickly scoffed. "I'll give you Tekken."

"Who am I gonna play that with? Lally?" I scoffed. "I want a first person POV game."

"Alright, I'll give you No Man's Sky," he offered.

"I've seen the reviews, Lou-ser," I said. No Man's Sky was all hype and no gameplay. "I want your Witcher 3."

"Deal," he easily agreed. "Shit's too scary anyway."

I laughed at his cowardice. But then I realized I had to go on the hunt again. Was hopelessly tracking a mystery writer worth a game?

"Deal!"

×××××

"September 30, 2016"

"Oh, this is bad! I think it was a huge mistake sleeping with Trevor. I think I caught something."

"What?!" London screamed, after reading the passage with us. "You told me you were clean!"

"I am!" I yelled back. What is this diary writer droning on about? Caught what?! Dammit! This girl is putting out false publicity about me and I don't appreciate it one bit.

"I think we should keep on reading before we overreact," Louie suggested in a calm voice, eyes transfixed on the page.

"Is being a slut contagious? Because I think I'm slowly turning into one. I had sex with another guy last night."

"Oh," London remarked. Whistling, she wiped an imaginary sweat off her forehead.

"Damn, Trev," Louie said. "Looks like you rubbed off on this girl, both literally and figuratively."

"Very funny," I said, unamused.

"And not just any guy. I had sex with Diego... Holy hell, I had sex with my ex!"

It was the second time the diary writer mentioned this Diego guy. And every time I read about him, my jaw tightened.

London must have noticed my uneasiness because she nudged Louie and pointed at me. The siblings shared a silent laugh.

I shut the diary. "What?" I asked both of them.

"You're jealous," Louie stated matter-of-factly.

"Am not," I lamely countered.

"You look like you just swallowed a yellow Starburst," he snorted, then mimicked whatever expression I had. He looked constipated.

"I'm not jealous. Could we just get on reading this thing?"

They both rolled their eyes. I turned to the page again.

I was not jealous.

" I bumped into him at the fairgrounds outside of town. Goddamn it, I should never have gone to Billie's. No amount of pizza can cover my stupidity for sitting still when I saw him walking towards my table. I should have just run! But I didn't. I talked to him.

It was just so surreal. I didn't even know he was back in town! He flew to Italy 3 days ago and now he's back?! Who even does that?

He told me he only went back to Italy to get his brother who's continuing elementary school here.

We talked and shared a pizza. Then we went to Quino's, which was so stupid of me! Never grab a drink with your ex. Just don't. It can only lead to one thing. At least, it did for me.

Ugh! Why'd I have to be so stupid? And why'd he have to be so damn charming?! Fuck his Italian drawl. Fuck him!"

"She took care of the last one," Louie jeered.

I leered at him. He stopped laughing only to raise his brows at me. The mofo was taunting me.

Before I could tackle him down, London piped up, "I guess it's another clue?"

"Yeah," I agreed. "So she has an ex."

"An Italian," Louie added.

Donnie was nodding her head. "Westmont's a pretty small town. We could find Italian dudes easily."

My eyes narrowed. Was she suggesting that we'd find this Diego person? But why? Coming face to face with the ex-boyfriend of a girl I'm trying to pursue's not really on my agenda.

"Why would we have to find him?" Louie voiced out my thoughts.

"Find the ex, find the girl," she simply answered. 

STOP! Take a little breather. The next chapter's gonna be one hell of a whirlwind. See 'ya on Friday!