15

After waiting a little while, Seb and later Adelynn joined Edward and I, subsequently driving off the awkwardness between us. As they were discussing their next basketball match, I spoke nothing and stepped out a bit. Not only was I not part of their respective teams, but I didn't know how to contribute to their conversation...

The starting time for our first class inched closer, but Aly was nowhere to be found. Usually she would arrive a couple minutes after I did and have some chat, but her lack of presence had me scanning throughout the area. She might not be as early as I did, but it was unusual for her to be this late.

Maybe she's feeling under the weather. I promptly opened up her message board on my phone and dropped her a text.

Rena: Are you coming to school?

"Rena, let's go!" called Adelynn as she waved her hand. "We're gonna have our PE class by the fields today. Don't wanna have Mr. Thomas chewing us out!"

"Ah, yeah sure!" I responded, shoving my phone into my bag and strode after the group as we entered the building. Hopefully she'll answer me soon.

We went our separate ways as we prepared and changed our clothes in the locker room. I was pulling up my gym shorts, tuning in Adelynn as she told me tales mostly about her friends that had me chuckling and raising my brows. One of them was Edward—obviously perking me up—snorting loudly in the middle of Mr. Sturges' lecture, which had sent the teacher fuming and confronting him.

The bell chimed across the hallway, and that was when someone burst into the room, which got all of our heads turned in unison. The doors revealed an exasperated Naomi, before she tramped towards us. Her high ponytail looked rumpled more than ever; wisps of her tawny hair jutting out of her head as she threw her bag to the locker and slumped herself into the bench.

"That. Was. Fucking. Close!" She wheezed at every word as she clasped her chest. "Oh my God, I thought I was gonna get detention. Jesus Christ, I was legit flying."

"Boy, oh boy," Adelynn giggled. "You were literally saved by the bell."

"For real! I don't wanna get detention again, my volley team's gonna beat my ass."

I couldn't help but to laugh. Unlike my best friend, Naomi had always arrived at the last minute—or should I say, seconds. Like Sam had always said, Naomi truly loves the thrill. Speaking of which...

"H-Have you seen Aly?" I asked.

"Nah, nope..." she said between her breaths. "I thought she was with you?"

I shook my head. Looking at my phone once more, it was empty of notifications. "She h-haven't replied to me since this morning. I thought she might be sick."

"God... I really don't know." Naomi unfastened her ponytail to tidy it up. "Hopefully if she's here, she'll be on time!"

I nodded quietly, wishing for the same case.

As the three of us stepped outside, we were quickly greeted by the sunlight, which had ascended much higher than before. Most of the boys were already stretching their limbs, and some were playing basketball and football with the others. Adelynn's expression brightened up while she strode towards them, and she was instantly embraced into the group. She's such an outgoing person just like back then.

If I can be like that someday... Unfortunately for me, that was a lost cause. You'll be an embarrassment with your stupid anxiety.

"I see you're already hanging out with Edward's circle..." Naomi sniffed as she rubbed her eyes, like there were tears on them. "God, I can't believe it... our ship is sailing to the open seas!"

"Well, I kinda know Adelynn s-since we were fourth grade," I pointed out.

"Still!" She elbowed me. "You're doing good, Rena!"

As if on cue, Edward and Seb emerged from the locker rooms, and the moment I rested my eyes upon him, they were feasting all the details. His gym uniform perfectly fitted his rather large physique and broad shoulders, showing off outlines of the muscles in his arms and legs. And the way the sun shone upon him as he skimmed his hand through his bright hair, fluttered the heck out of my heart.

And he saw me... because of course he did. Then, there was Naomi, who kept on poking me in the arm. I really can't stop being such a creep, huh?

Wonderful, Rena. Wonderful.

The duo were then flagged over by some of the basket guys, and the ball was passed over to their direction. Seb quickly stood in front of his distracted—thanks to me—friend, and effortlessly caught it with a single hand. With a big grin, he dribbled the ball and towards the group, leaving Edward to... blink and abruptly sprint towards me...?

Wait, what's going on?! My feet were super-glued to my spot, and unable to react at his rapid speed. What the heck?!

"Girl, watch out!!!"

Naomi shrieked beside me as she looked behind, then shoved me away from her. Even with the warning, my instincts refused to function at all; all I did was to squeeze my eyes and dread the imminent danger. However, everything flew by in a blur and nothing had happened, but a fleeting blast of air, indicating someone's presence, dared me to take a peek.

While my brain was unable to process all of the events, Edward appeared as though he had materialized beside me. Inspecting closer, his hands were gripped tight on a football. Wait, what? What just happened?

"Oh my God! Edward literally caught it midair!" Naomi cried out as she snatched my shoulders and grunted, "You could have gotten hurt!"

I shuffled backwards, somehow I regained the sensation of my legs back and found strength back in my knees. I managed to hear sorts of commotion from a series of gasps and some shouts as they stopped what they had been doing. As soon as nearly everyone drew their attention to me, I shuddered behind Naomi, while all of the details pelted upon me like a bullet of raindrops.

Edward... he had rescued my dumbfounded ass from getting whacked by a somewhat massive ball. He had detected the object zooming for me, which explained his lightning reflex to sprint and seize it before a terrible impact. Basically... he had saved me from having a large bump in my head.

"Yo, I didn't mean that! Miguel should have caught it!" A classmate—I believed his name was Jason—exclaimed from the opposite end of the field, and immediately, people zoomed in upon him. He then waved both of his hands at us. "Can you pass the ball, Christopher?"

Edward's brow furrowed as his facial muscles tightened. Even so, he lunged forward without giving too much thought and practically launched the football across the court. It seemed as though he was aiming for Miguel to catch it, but it bolted past the guy and landed on Jason right on his face... with an audible thunk and a yelp.

"YO BRO?!"

There were now even more gasps. While the other classmates ran towards Jason as blood slipped out of his nostrils, two of the boys stomped towards Edward, shooting all sorts of daggers at him. At the same time, Seb and Adelynn were also heading straight towards their friend too.

"What the fuck, dude, can you even throw properly?!" One of the men barked as Seb hampered his path. "What kind of aim is that?! And you're on the basketball team?!"

"If that's intentional, that's some petty shit!"

Edward remained quiet, being more focused on his shoes and taking their nasty jabs without retaliating. Seb and Adelynn were holding them back from getting too close. I would have already gone and supported them, if not for my body refusing to just get going.

It's like... something's holding me back.

"You really should cut that emo hair of yours so that you can see better."

And that one particular comment... had Edward baring his teeth. There might still be no comments, but the fact he clenched his fists so hard, his knuckles turned white, spoke a thousand words. He stalked off from them and chose to stand right beside me, where the intense vibes emanating from him stirred goosebumps all over me.

This doesn't sound so good...

"I left you all for a minute, and it's like a battlefield. What the hell's going on here?!" Mr. Thomas' rough tone reverberated across the vicinity, to which everyone went dead silent. Some of the people scattered out in the field, scurried back and regrouped, while Jason—who covered his nose, with blood sneaking out of his hand—and his friends hurried towards the teacher.

"Mr. Thomas, Christopher hit him with a football and he's bleeding everywhere!" One of the guys reported.

The blueness of Edward's eye was reduced to flames as his face was flushed red, I thought he was a time bomb about to explode in a matter of seconds.

"Ed, no. Calm down," Before he could do anything, Adelynn snatched his hand, seemingly prepared to deliver a corkscrew to the boy's face. He didn't hesitate to scowl at her, but he never attempted to squirm himself out. "Deep breaths. Deep breaths."

"Get Jason to the infirmary, quick," Mr. Thomas commanded, before he turned to Edward. "Well Christopher... is this true?"

Lowering his head, he slowly unclenched his fists as he muttered, "Yes."

I wanted to come forward and give insights of the situation.

There should be at least someone providing the context; they made it looked like Edward went through a blind rage and targeted a random person. Despite the strong urge, all of my words were all pulled back inside, and so... like always, nothing came out of my throat. Once again, I was being the stupid, useless friend; he had protected me, but I couldn't voice out my opinions, let alone approach him.

Why can't I just speak myself out? What is it with me, seriously?

***

In the end, it was Adelynn who cleared out the entire football situation and that it was a complete accident. When Jason  came back with a bandage wrapped across his nose, Edward murmured a rather hushed apology.

Despite this, Mr. Thomas still slapped him with a full-hour detention.

"Wow, impressive," praised the PE teacher, clicking on the stopwatch as Edward sped past him. "You're the fastest one so far."

Almost in an instant, he succumbed to the ground as shallow wheezes erupted out of him. He sprawled out all his limbs out on the grass, while sweat doused all over the fabric of his clothes.

I couldn't blame him. Mr. Thomas' jogging tests had our legs feel as if they were chopped off. I managed to sit up and lean against the tree, still steadying my shallow breathings from the previous run. Chugging a whole bottle of water, I let out a deep sigh of satisfaction, relieving all of my cramps.

"Christopher, you need to do push-ups at least 20 times," the PE teacher reminded him, "then you can take a break whatever you like."

Not only had he been given detention, but also push-up punishments. Please cut him some slack, Mr. Thomas. Speaking of which, I haven't had the chance to express my gratitude earlier. Furthermore, with him and I alone, there were so many opportunities for interactions.

Edward kissed his teeth and passed the PE teacher a dirty look when his back was on him, before he rolled himself over on his stomach. Straightening his legs and pressing both of his hands against the ground, he started lifting his body up.

At every push-up he performed, he grunted and took a rather loud intake of breath. Sweat glistened on his fair skin, with some dripping down to form a tiny puddle underneath. And for some reason, he seemed... so, um, irresistible?

Stop, your mind has gone south. I quickly shook off the intrusive thought. You're getting creepier by each second.

When he eventually reached twenty, a thud broke out as Edward slumped into the pool of sweat. He looked as though he developed asthma.

I grabbed a fresh bottle from the ice box and bestowed it to him. Edward ogled at it with such an intense look, and almost immediately, he snatched it off my grasp. He tore off the cap and gulped all of its contents until the last drop.

"Um, thank you... for earlier," I murmured, mentally giving myself a shoulder pat for saying it at last. "You really saved me."

"...It's nothing," Edward breathed as he brushed his hair. "How are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm okay..." I answered. "Just tired."

"That's good. Thanks for the water." He raised the bottle at me before he tried standing up, but staggered as he was unable to maintain his balance. He clearly needs help there. Don't back down on this one.

I offered him my hand, where he stared at it, before he momentarily reverted back to me. He grabbed my hand, and I used all of my leftover energy to pull him up. As he eventually found his footing, a rather fragile smile made its way through my face.

Then, his lips briefly twitched.