Defender's Heartbeat 2

Chapter 20

Enzo

I heard Papa (Gerardo) went on a summer vacation. I felt sad because he never came to see me in the hospital or asked how I was doing. He didn't seem to care about me at all. I didn't even see him after leaving the hospital. Even after everything he had done to me, I still didn't hate him. I still wanted him to accept me as his son. I wanted him to treat me like he treated Pedro, Louis, and Juana. I wished he would talk to me like he talked to them.

After the fight with Louis, neither he nor Pedro visited me, and strangely, I felt relieved about that. It wasn't that I didn't want to see them at all, but every interaction with them ended in heartbreak, and I was tired of it. Louis always ended up hitting or slapping me, while Pedro at least blamed me. I couldn't recall a single day when Juana talked to me without blaming me for something. She didn't even come to the hospital to see me, probably off visiting her friends as usual. Papa let her go anywhere she wanted. Now she was off on summer vacation again. I heard Pedro and Louis were also going on summer vacation with their families, and I couldn't help but feel empty and neglected as usual.

"You have some visitors," Papa said as he entered my room.

"Who?" I asked, surprised.

"Why don't you come and see?" Papa replied, so I went downstairs to find out who had come to visit me in this viper's den.

As soon as I appeared, Diego stood up from the couch. I couldn't believe my three friends had come to see me. I didn't even know how to react. Inside, I felt happy.

"Why didn't you answer any calls or reply to any messages, man?" Diego complained, frowning.

"I got sick," I replied.

"Were you that sick? So sick that you couldn't even send a single message?" Elijah asked.

I glanced around and noticed that Papa had left us alone to give me some privacy with my friends.

"I was in the hospital," I said.

"For how long?" Noah inquired.

"Did you bring anything to drink?" I asked quietly.

"Is that what you're worried about now?" Diego asked.

"Well, I didn't. Do you know I sent you a message saying we were coming to see you today?" Noah added. I looked down, realizing I hadn't checked my phone.

"So, how long were you in the hospital, Enzo?" Elijah asked again.

"Like a week, I guess," I replied.

"What kind of sickness was that? Is it infectious?" Noah asked with a worried expression, as if he were about to move away from me.

"Yeah, it is. I think now you all are infected," I joked, but they looked at me with serious expressions. Seeing them like that, I accidentally laughed.

"Aw, aw," I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my wound. I had been shot near the chest. Although it wasn't deep or harmful to any organs, the doctor said it would take at least a month to fully recover. I had completely forgotten about that and laughed like an idiot. I bent over, touching my chest in pain.

"Hey, are you okay?" my friends moved closer to me.

"I'm fine," I said, but I knew they could see I wasn't fine. I was sweating.

"You don't look like you're fine," Elijah said.

"What happened?" Diego asked again.

"Don't tell anyone... I got shot," I confessed.