9

As if it was not so obvious, Edward didn't bother responding to my genius question while he continued munching on his lunch. I mean, I wouldn't even pay an ounce of heed to it too if I were him. Like, wasn't that self-explanatory? Perhaps I should take the plank out of my eye or something.

The stack of sugary goodness shrank as he devoured them endlessly, with a handful of them left. Drawing my lips, my gaze trailed towards him, examining him up and down like he was some museum display. I took note of each and every detail he sported: his long bright bangs covering his bad eye, the somewhat sharp features, and his fair complexion.

Now that he's much closer than usual, he looks much cuter. He might be wearing such an apathetic expression, but I didn't care about that; him being himself was already enough to get me all giddy. Also, the way his face bloated up as he chowed down on his beloved food was... equally endearing as a grumpy chipmunk storing its food.

Alright, alright... that's enough fooling around. Stop being so besotted over him, when you haven't even done anything useful. I slapped—I wished I could slap myself in the face too—my temples and shook my head to clear off all those charming thoughts. I went to this table not to drool all over Edward, but to be friends with him. Let's get on with it.

"Um..." I set out without a deeper contemplation. For some reason, my heart leaped at my own screechy voice. Calm down, just calm down.

Thankfully, Edward's attention was already focused on me from the start. His cheeks were much thinner as he had swallowed everything at once, but I would be lying if I said I was not disappointed. Please, please, Rena, stop going all over his chubby cheeks and say something.

"My mom started baking recently," I said, "You can try them out, if y-you want to. I'll bring them some tomorrow."

My skills at beating the hell out of my growing anxiety were finally getting there, but my stuttering... were still something I absolutely loathed with all my soul. If it was an Oscar-worthy kind of talent, I would have swept over the awards.

Nevertheless, I waited patiently for him to at least say something, no matter how short or long his words were. I just wanted to hear his voice at this point, but I guess fate didn't feel like getting my wishes granted.

Edward nodded, before his teeth shredded out the leftovers. Once a stack of bread, there were now only two left, like he was stuffing himself with bread as an excuse not to say anything. Also, is his stomach a black hole or something?

"Hey, let me get one!" Seb, who had been sitting beside me, suddenly leaned forward and tried snatching one of the loaves closer to him. His friend was quick to thrust his sneaky hand away before he shot daggers at him, but did not resort to any remarks.

"God, share your bread for once..." Seb grumbled before he leaned towards me and whispered, "Looks like Ed's not in the mood... don't push him too hard."

"I figured," I said between my nervous laughs. Seb's right. My efforts might be for nothing, but I shouldn't be forcing Edward to talk.

And so, for the rest of our time, I silently watched Edward obliterating the rest of his bread to smithereens. With only small crumbs left in his tray, he licked the corners of his lips to end his lunch.

Truly the biggest bread fanboy.

***

While my classmates said Mrs. Summers their goodbyes, I clutched my bag and firstly slipped out of the room; the perks of sitting near the door, so no one normally noticed.

After that one-sided conversation with Edward during the lunch break, he continued to predominantly occupy my thoughts. Even the lectures all the teachers had brought out, they failed to distract me. When I went back to Aly and friends, they were already interrogating me like detectives.

Yeah... with Edward being like that, the reconciliation plan's gonna take a while.

I strode towards my locker and fumbled on the padlock. Opening the door and pushing all of the thick books and folders inside, I was about to take deep breaths before my body sensed a shifting presence. Aly's locker was right beside mine, so she was the first one coming to mind, but the voice greeting me... sounded too soft to be my best friend.

"Heya," said Adelynn.

"H-hi!" I hastily returned. I found myself speeding up on organizing all of my stuff before I slammed the locker shut. Right, Aly told me Naomi's team needed some help today, so she probably had gone ahead.

"Wanna go together?"

"Oh yeah, sure!" I nodded vigorously, before we both strolled off into the busy hallway.

Years have gone by since Adelynn and I directly interacted, so for her to approach me out of the blue, it felt a little strange. Well, strange might not be the good word to use; I had been attempting to reconnect with Edward, so the others would have been made aware too. Seb was just the same case. Also, she has always been so nice, so it's not like she's gonna do anything.

"God, it's been forever! How have you been, girl?" Adelynn beamed. "How's Aly doing?"

"W-We're good! Aly's helping out with volley right now, so I'm going home first," I said, trying to raise my tone. "H-How about you?"

"Tired with school... but my team's taking some time off so I got time to rest." She placed her arms behind her head before. she groaned. "Ugh, I really hate that they're giving all these assignments like it's easy, and the deadlines are also the worst thing."

"Haha, yeah..." I said.

"I don't even get enough sleep from the last biology exam, and now they're expecting us to finish like what... 3 homeworks?" She groaned. "They're seriously torturing us."

"I-I can see that."

I sheepishly grinned while I opened up my ears as Adelynn rambled on about her life. Considering their teams and time together, Adelynn obviously should have maintained friendship with Edward, so I should also consider building trust with her, at least to make him at ease. She's amiable too, so not only can she give me pointers, but perhaps we can all... restore our bonds too.

A win-win situation if I had ever seen one, but that was way beyond expectations. You seriously dream too big, Rena. Calm down.

"I can't ever understand Ed... that dude just doesn't care. He's on a different level," she complained, brushing her hair. "But hey... I'm just curious, what makes you..." she paused. "...speak to him after all this time?"

The next thing I knew, I halted on the bottom of the stairs and stared down at my feet. "I... I wanna be f-friends with him again," I said, scratching my hot cheeks. "So, um... yeah."

"Makes sense. You two used to be so close. He would always invite you to our many shenanigans." She chuckled. "He really likes you. Why don't you say so earlier? I can be a big help, y'know."

Probably not. The possibility of Edward romantically liking me was as high as finding ancient artifacts in my backyard. He just sees me as a friend... but I'm content with it.

"T-Thanks... that will be great," I said.

We were so immersed in our conversations that I jolted when the cool air blasted upon my face. The bulging, dark clouds had entirely carpeted the entire horizon, blocking the sun from providing its rays. The trees and bushes rustled with might, trembling underneath the strong pressure of the breeze. Yikes... time to go home fast.

A lone pigeon leaped and flew away from us, leading my gaze towards... a familiar blond-haired boy—speak of the devil. He observed the gloomy skies, expecting for water to pelt upon him any time soon. The wind ripped through his school blazer and lifted his bangs up and down.

It's him. Butterflies were already fluttering against my gut walls. Honestly, I could have walked past him and snuck away to the bike parking lot before he saw me, but...

"Hey Chris!" Adelynn yelled for him.

His eye narrowed into a slit when he snapped towards us, his lips curled into a deep scowl. Despite this, she casually sauntered towards him as if it was nothing. Swallowing my breath, I slowly trailed after her, taking very short strides at a time. She's so brave shouting from this far...

"It's Edward," he corrected when we were close enough to him.

"Christopher's a good name! I don't understand why you hate it."

I clenched my hands on my sides. My ears started picking up my pounding heartbeats as cold sweat formed all over my skin. And of course, heat rushed towards my warm face, because it could not be me without getting flustered so easily. Ugh, I hate myself.

"So why are you still here? Where's Seb?" Adelynn asked, tilting her head in curiosity.

Edward didn't respond, because his attention gravitated from Adelynn towards me. Well, this turned out to be the same staring contest I had been hosting with him. While I studied all of his features, he would look back at me, devoid of any forms of expressions. Gosh... he's making me so nervous...

"H-Hi Edward..." I instinctively greeted him, dodging the unpleasant silence just like our previous lunch. Perhaps I should have spoken up more with him, even though he would not say much.

"... Hey."

Now, this was a different case; he opened his mouth and acknowledged me back. This was the epitome of finally finishing the hardest assignment ever, and obtaining a decent grade in return. A tinge of happiness bloomed inside of me, but then, it vanished as fast as it had appeared. He could have just said it to appease me. I sounded like I was just there to annoy the heck out of him.

Well, this was not what was supposed to happen. Him being turned off with me was not part of the plan. I should probably try not to get too clingy with him.

"Dude, at least answer me or something," Adelynn grumbled. "It doesn't feel good to be ignored."

"Sorry. I got a lot of things in mind," Edward muttered, hanging his head low. Lastly, he threw me a brief glance before he turned around and ambled away. His hands slithered into the pockets of his pants.

"You always do," Adelynn huffed as she followed after him, while I decided to stay behind. "Did Seb leave already?"

Countless times, Aly had told me to never jump into conclusions of how other people thought of me... but it seemed like her advice did not get through my skull. I was not sure, but the feeling of him not being so fond of me pounced hard on me.