CHAPTER 25: Confessions of a Meddler

I'm not dumb. I'd like to believe that I'm not. But when Diego said Sage, my brain went kaput. It rewired, and I couldn't move.

"Trevor?" I heard Diego ask in concern. I saw him, too. He was waving a hand in front of my face. When he noticed how unresponsive I've become, he looked around. I could see the awkwardness in how his eyes shuttled from left to right. He cleared his throat. "I'm – uh - going back inside."

My head was stuck in one direction, facing the gazebo, but I heard Diego's footsteps blending with the music.

15 minutes later, my brain finally worked! The frost finally got to me.

"Sage?!" I yelled at the empty lawn.

Diego had already made his way inside the house. Meanwhile, I was left with my mouth hung wide open.

How in hell's bells did Sage become the diary owner?! I've never slept with Sage!

... Or have I?

My hand found its way to my aching head. I gazed up to Diego's room again. The lights were now off.

I wanted answers and I knew where to find them.

My feet shuffled me back to the party. I maneuvered through the mass of bodies in the living room. It seemed like an eternity to get to the stairs. The music had been drowned out by the volume of questions in my head.

Why Sage? She was never even a suspect. I'm fairly sure I never slept with her. And I'm definitely sure that she couldn't have written the diary because we've been friends since junior year but she never showed interest. So how could it be her?

The door came in view. My breathing got a lot more labored as I imagined of how this whole confrontation would go. Should I wake Sage? Would Gwen even let me back in the room? What if Diego's there, too?

I guess I'll never know the answers to those hypothetical questions, because when I reached for the doorknob, the door flung open and a seething Kaye Montgomery rushed out.

"Kaye --"

"Shh!" she hissed, grabbing a fistful of my shirt and shoving me backwards. My back hit something. A door, which Kaye opened and hauled me in to. She checked to look if anyone saw what she just did before stepping in with me and locking the door behind her.

"What are you doing?" I questioned. She just pushed me into a fancy-looking bathroom. What the hell is this girl up to?

But instead of an answer, I got a smack in the head. "You idiot!"

"Ow!" I rubbed the area she just hit. "I'm sure you're right, but why?"

"You gave Diego the diary! Why did you do that?!"

"I thought he'd be a better fit for the job," I shrugged, but then did a double take. "Wait," I said, peering at her. "How did you know I gave him the diary?"

"Because I was eavesdropping!"

"Why?!"

"Because my senses tingle whenever someone does something stupid!" she deadpanned and groaned. "You were supposed to give the diary back to Sage! Not him! Now my whole plan is ruined!" she wailed and sat on the toilet with slumped shoulders.

"Your plan?" I questioned. She knew about Sage. She knew about everything. "Kaye, what did you do?"

She looked up at me and sighed. "I suppose there's no reason to keep it a secret now, since you've ruined it already." She motioned for me to sit down, so I did. I sat on the rim of the bathtub, facing her.

"Dax, Gwen, Diego, Sage and I had a pretty tight pack in middle school," Kaye started out. "We were like the How I Met Your Mother gang, you know?" She chuckled at the idea. "But of course, when you're that close, some are bound to fall for others."

"I was asking for you plan, Montgomery," I reminded her, "not your backstory."

Kaye narrowed her eyes at me. "You need to hear this bit so that you'd understand why I did what I did!"

When I kept quiet, she continued, "Gwen always liked Diego, since we were kids. But when we got to middle school, Sage entered our little gang. And from the start, she caught Diego's eyes."

"So this is a love triangle thingy?"

"Stop interrupting me!" she yelled.

Sheez! I put my hands up in surrender.

"Earlier this year, when Sage and Diego started dating, Gwen left the group. She couldn't stand the fact the she lost out to Sage. But that was the end of that love triangle. Gwen didn't like the thought of Sage and Diego, but she wasn't angry. She was just... hurt.

"But then the real problem arrived," she paused. "A few weeks into the relationship, Sage and Diego began fighting over stupid things. Then, they'd make up. But then, they'd fight again. It was like one minute, they're Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher, next they're Rihanna and Chris Brown.

"Sage would always come to me when they fought. And every time, she was so broken. She was all happy when they were good again but I still saw the cracks. I knew their relationship was toxic. And I couldn't bring myself to let that happen to my best friend.

"So I talked to Sage. Made her realize how bad she and Diego had it. When she realized what I was saying made sense, she went to talk to him. Diego didn't like it. So Diego dumped her and hightailed to Spain. That's when you entered the picture."

"Me?"

"Yes, you!" she stressed. "Sage slept with you as a rebound --"

I shrugged. "Girls have slept with me for lesser reasons."

"It doesn't matter. Point is Sage thought it was just rebound sex. But I knew she liked you ever since junior year!"

"What?!"

"It's true," she firmly pressed. "I'm her best friend, I know these things. Do you remember the day you first talked?"

"No." Sage just sort of popped up into my life. I didn't have a marker on my calendar to remind me when it happened.

"She does. It was when Louie put super glue on his hands and--"

"-- got them stuck on his crotch," I finished. So that's why she remembered Louie's mishap. I remember she talked to me so that she could get the story on the school publication. I refused to give her the deets. And we had an argument. She wouldn't stop tailing me for days. Huh, I guess I do remember.

She cleansed a breath. "Sage needed someone else, Trevor. You were the only person I could think of that could patch her up. I had to do something to get you two together."

"So you stole Sage's diary and left it in alleyway for me to find?" I scoffed. I really thought she was smart. Didn't know Montgomery was a meddling fox.

"No, you asshole." She grimaced. "I was going to hand it to you. I was going to explain the whole thing! But at the last minute, I chickened out! I realized how nosey it was of me, so I ran away! I was trembling, and that's when it slipped out of my hands!"

"You dropped the fucking diary?!" I couldn't believe it. All of this shit had gone down because someone dropped a notebook!

"It was raining! My fingers were slippery, I could barely hold the damn thing," she retorted.

"My God, Kaye!"

"I'm sorry, okay?!" she exclaimed. "I didn't mean for all of this to happen but it already has. You're already here and you already know. How the diary got to you isn't the issue now. The issue is, what are you gonna do next?"

"What do you mean?"

Kaye was biting her tongue for a moment but then let go. "Look," she paused. "Diego's back and he also wants Sage back. It'll just mess her up again, I know it! Diego's my friend but he's kind of a dick."

"And I'm not?"

"Maybe! All I know is, you didn't leave Sage behind. She told me about that time you helped her get away from those Hooligans. Also the time you took her to the hospital."

"I was just trying to help."

"Exactly." Kaye had a triumphant smile on her face as she stood up. "You're no knight in shining armor, Jettison. So what made you become one for her?"

At my lack of an answer, Kaye took the opportunity to exit the bathroom.  But when she opened the soundproof door, jeers and clatters came from the outside. Drunken cheers echoed from downstairs. "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!"

I shot up to my feet and rushed to the balcony.  Kaye got there just a second's length before I did.

Downstairs, a small fight circle was formed and in the middle of the brainless fanatics, I saw London, yelling.  Only when I focused on the people squabbling did I realize why Donnie was in hysterics.

Diego looked a lot different than he did a few minutes ago. Now, his hair was tousled and he sported a brand new bruise on the corner of his mouth.  But despite how painful it must've been, the Italian boy had a vindictive smirk as he pummeled down on his opponent, pinning the poor boy down with his knees.

It took me long to figure out who the other boy was. I think my eyes were clouded with disbelief, because it was Louie! 

My best friend was in a fight with the host of the house! But that wasn't the most unbelievable part. The most unbelievable part was: the Lou-ser was losing. 

I'M ALL TWIST AND NO PLOT!

I SERIOUSLY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN NEXT. That said, I apologize in advance if I don't update at all next week, or the week after that. I'mma try to wriggle myself out of this mess I made. You just hold on for a little while. XD