Dear Diary | Proxies

vii. yellow hoodies

Toby was quiet for a moment before huffing. "We-well, we ca-can come o-over to-to-to yo-ours!"

I laughed and nodded. "Okay, sure, if you want to hang out, you can come over to my house, Toby. Is it going to be all of you?"

"Yeah! Yeah!"

"Alright, well, you have the address."

We hung up shortly after, and I experimentally lifted myself from the bed again, biting my lip from the pain as I rolled my feet around, trying to figure out what hurt the least to step on. I grumbled as I stared at my legs. The bandages hadn't moved at all – the man being incredibly good at what he had done – but I really didn't care to get asked a bunch of questions. The thought of having to change my pants in this state, though, was even worse somehow.

I grumbled to myself and decided to just say I had fallen in the woods or something as I shuffled out of my room, holding onto the wall for support as I did. I was taking a break to catch my breath in the hallway when they knocked on my door. I guess I had been taking quite a while just thinking and walking after all.

"One second," I called out, taking another step forward and gasping as my knees buckled from the pain, and I dropped to the floor. I let out a groan the feeling of my cut-up knees taking the brunt of the pain, and smacked my hand against the floor in annoyance. I slowly pulled myself back up with a huff and shuffled the last few bits towards the door, unlocking and opening it finally.

Each of the boys had a worried expression when I opened the door, but I ignored it, trying to catch my breath. Toby's head jerked to the side a few times before he stepped forward. "Y-you sa-aid you we-were f-f-f-fff-fine!" He placed his hands on my hips, and I leaned forward, letting him take most of my weight.

"I am," I breathed out defensively. "I'm fine. Just a little hurt. I'll be good in a few days."

Tim was the next in the house, surprisingly. "What the fuck did you do? We leave you for a night, and we come back to you looking like you got attacked by a fucking bear." His voice was firm as he stared at my bandaged legs, particularly at the bloody ones.

I waved him off, pressing my head to Toby's shoulder as he wrapped his arms around me fully. "It's nothing."

Tim scoffed and sucked in a breath, his voice rising a bit. "Nothing? Are you-"

"Where did you get that hoodie," Brian cut him off, staring at the fabric with confusion.

I hummed and looked down, remembering that I had been wearing the frowny-faced man's jacket. I stuttered out something incomprehensible. "It's – uh – my friend's?" It came out like more of a question than anything.

The other two were also now staring at it, though Tim looked more caught off guard than the others. I guessed he was just bad at hiding his emotions when he was angry like he was now.

"Your friend's?" Brian was trying to stay calm, and I looked at him, puzzled. Why was he so worried about it? He licked his lips as he stepped forward, and then his fingers were trailing along a stitch in the fabric I hadn't noticed before. It was obviously hand-stitched with thread that matched the material, but it showed obvious inexperience. "Was he the one who hurt you- who did this?" His eyes flickered to my eyes and then my legs and then back to the hoodie.

"No." I was firm with my answer. "He just helped me last night when I hurt myself, and he let me borrow his hoodie. Why does it matter so much?"

Brian stared at me, his eyes looking me over for any sense of a lie, but I knew what had happened. The man had never tried to hurt me, and even if I didn't really know him, I wasn't going to let Brian think he had done something to me that he hadn't – that I didn't think he would ever do.