40

As we left the school premises, the sun had finished its diligent work.

Its diffusing rays bid the day farewell and caused a huge fluff of clouds to catch on fire. With nothing standing on its path, bright orange flames ferociously strewn across the skies—a painting only mother nature could achieve. Crows were merely reduced to black dots, but their distant but reverberating caws informed their kind that it was the time to return to the safety of their homes.

Beneath all of the dynamic nature, here I was, ambling alongside Edward. He had volunteered to carry my bicycle, the noises of wheels hitting against the pavement and the clatter of our bags made up for our silence. The fact he insisted on helping me bubbled up all sorts of euphoria, and it felt like I was in paradise or something.

I wonder where he's going to take us. He had not given out any clues of the location we were currently heading to. He simply asked me to follow him and that was it. "You'll see when we get there," he had said.

While he craned his head to gaze into the heavens, my eyes could not help but to gravitate upon him. Perhaps it was just me, but not only his blond hair shone brighter, but had grown longer than I thought. It completely shrouded the back of his neck; his ears were barely noticeable.

Jordan's freakish comments regarding his hair suddenly intruded into my head, but as fast as it had appeared, I shoved it back to my head. No one shouldn't be judging Edward solely on his appearance, especially when they had no clue of his backstory. He's more than that.

Nothing wrong with "emo" hair either. After all, Edward's haircut perfectly stood out from among most of the boys in my school, perfectly encapsulating the rougher edges of his face. It even accentuated the cool and the reserved vibe he had given off. Seriously, what's so emo about it? Is Jordan blind—

"We're here."

Not only Edward finally revealed, but he abruptly stopped midway. Forcing myself to surface out of my thoughts, I winced when I nearly collided against his back. Well, I just stopped myself from all the imminent embarrassment, that was new. It must have been hard since he is kinda muscly... not that I want to feel what it's like.

However, the piercing scent of salt had all of those intrusive thoughts evaporated—thank God. I further piqued distant roars of what seemed to be crashing waves reverberating in the distance; this was way too familiar. The wind grew in intensity, gyrating numerous strands of my brown hair.

Don't tell me...

Peering behind him, my lips twitched on his corners; why did I even have to question it? It was the same park where I had visited alongside Aly and Adelynn; the park drowned with laughter and the shenanigans of our childhood selves, acting as if ignorance was bliss. The same place where everything began.

There laid the sleeping sun, its lights rolled across the glistening ocean. The iconic Ferris wheel flooded the darkening horizon with its flamboyant ornaments. Just beside the wheel, the flickering red and blue ornaments originating from the roller coaster tracks joined in. What a dazzling scene...

I chuckled and placed my hands behind my back. "Of course you brought me here. Used to be our hangout spots after all."

"You've always loved it and never complained once," said Edward, which made my heart pound harder than it should be. He then brought the bicycle to the nearest parking lot, where I locked its wheels. "A perfect place where we could talk... just the both of us."

Both of us. Yes, yes, both of us. No one else. I did not know why the heck I was reaffirming that statement all over again. Nodding with no comment, the tempo of my heartbeats became irregular. This could, at last, be the chance where we could catch up with each other's lives with no limit.

Edward and I strolled for the gazebo hidden by overgrown shrubs, but the view of the vast, endless blue painted over with tinges of orange was at its glory. With him settling down across from me, our past conversations and sounds of our DS lingered about. His child self would show me how to battle Pokemon trainers and give strategies on how to win battles, where the others would trade theirs.

Adelynn was right. He surely remained faithful to this place, and no matter what he had claimed, he would come back to it. I guess Ed can get pretty sentimental, I'm sure he misses those days too.

Watching the unfurling ocean was relaxing, but the seldom sight of Edward was quite distracting to not observe. His predominantly tensed and monotonous mien had dissipated—his brow eased and his scowl morphed into the ghost of a smile. He was not exactly smiling, sure, but regardless, it looked as though he had achieved absolute tranquility. Now, this is the other side of Edward I want to see often.

I gradually closed my eyes, my mind finding comfort as waves barged into the shore and the adjacent trees rustling. Not only being with him privately had me over the moon and filled me with nothing but warmth, but nature never failed to captivate me, even though I had seen this seascape a million times.

"Rena," called Edward.

"Hmm?"

He paused for a second or so, before I could feel his stare rested on me. "Are you hanging out with Seb on Sunday?"

Once again I hummed... rather absentmindedly, because it dawned upon me that Edward was questioning that he supposedly was not aware of. I shot my vision open and abruptly turned towards him, but he quickly detached off my gaze, as though he was avoiding it. I could barely observe his countenance, his long bangs were his saving grace.

How did he know?

"Seb told me about it. You both were looking for Lynn's presents," Edward murmured, as though he was responding to my question. As he fiddled with the small bandages on his fingers, one of his legs started bouncing. "I wanted to tag along, so I asked him, and he said yes."

"Oh, go ahead! I-I don't mind." Three heads were much better than two, and that was why I nodded rather furiously—well, honestly, it was more to the fact Edward was also around. That was enough to enrapture me and I could imagine all sorts of things we would be doing. "But I've heard you bought a hoodie for Lynn online—"

"I have not, I suddenly had a change of mind," he filled in before I could finish my sentence. That was when Edward promptly faced me, and the way his eye glinted, it produced some sort of explosion in my heart. "I checked the price and the hoodie cost too much with shipping, perhaps it's better to buy them in-store and all," he explained, his speech unusually fast.

"Oh yeah, shipping can get pretty expensive, unless you wanna meet a certain price threshold..." I leaned back against the fence of the gazebo. If Aly and I ordered clothes online, we would drag the girls in so that we could get them shipped for free. "That's how we ended up with empty wallets most of the time even with savings," I chuckled.

Falling into a comfortable silence, I watched as a sailing yacht moved so gracefully through the waters. It quickly reminded me of Sam and Naomi, probably because of their earlier remarks this morning.

Well, I have to admit, they were not bad metaphors; my relationship with Edward indeed started with a small boat swaying in the rugged sea, slowly upgrading itself into a yacht.

And as for cruise ship... maybe not. I tucked my hair behind my ear. Again, I'm already happy talking with him like we are now.

"You've really changed so much."

The ocean waves roared in the background, ramming its unbridled wrath against the coast, splattering drops of water against the rocks and the railings.

Now, there were times Edward had said the most unplanned things out of context, but this was way down in my catalog—the last—of topics he would bring up into our conversations. Even that one friendship question did not cause me to have all various forms of emotions crashing upon me that my brain could not compute.

"W-What do you mean?" I dared to ask.

"You..." he breathed. "You're not hiding yourself anymore. You're more... open now and you've become more confident. You've reached so far, Rena."

Where's all of this coming from? Why is he saying all of this? Why is he throwing all kinds of compliments?

Multitude of questions flocked in, demanding responses but to no avail. Now it was me that refused to meet his affixed gaze, glowering hard at the ground that I swore it could have drilled holes. My entire cheeks were furnaces, and my heart... I could not even describe its awful state. Flying out of my chest? Certainly. Reduced into ashes? Maybe.

"T-Thanks, but I still have a long way to go," I said, rubbing my arms together.

"It's true." Edward scooted closer, exactly to our "designated" spots. "You've told me, you've always wanted to put yourself out there. You don't want to be left behind and you want to start taking chances. And you did all that yourself, especially when you... approached me."

I clenched my hands. "I guess so..."

Suddenly, my brain took me to the time where I sat with him by the park stairs. We were waiting for the others to come, so one conversation leading to another, I clearly remembered how I simply... let almost everything out—everything I wished I never had... and I wished I could erase.

"I-I don't like how I stutter so much..." I muttered while I was hugging my knees, while Edward listened in. "I h-hate being so nervous all the time. I-I always need Aly's help even if I can do it myself. I... I just hate it. I-I am such a freak."

"I also hate it when you call yourself a freak because those idiots label you that," he quickly spoke, standing up on both of his feet. "You're not, okay? Don't let those people walk over you. You need to learn how to be more confident!"

"H-how? I-I'm trying to..."

"I'll help you with it, how's that sound? I'll make you feel less nervous, and you'll be hanging out with the others in no time! Willingness and practice is the key... that's what my coach always said!" He exclaimed, casting a huge grin, his sunny demeanor radiating towards me and causing butterflies to devour my gut walls.

Edward did assist me. He would make me speak for my own opinions, as he accompanied me. Albeit all the stammers and countless awkward pauses, there was no rush at all; he was silently standing there, with no hints of annoyance.

If this was all the case, why did the tiny voice inside my head always begged to differ?

"You know Rena... after that day, I've come to learn something." Reality bombarded me when the real, grown-up Edward diverted into another topic. Seagulls pranced about the grasses, squawking at each other as they pecked the soil for scraps. "Something that I had been too gullible for so long."

I straightened my posture and pulled myself together—he was most likely referring to those following months after the accident.

"People are a bunch of trashy idiots. They bring all kinds of unnecessary problems and dramas then think they're the good guys," he grumbled. "All of them are two-faced douchebags, backstabbing me whenever they have the chance."

"What makes you think that...?" I cocked my head. "Did something happen?"

He shrouded himself behind his bangs once more, which rippled with the breeze. "A few years ago, I used to hang out with what I thought was the epitome of cool kids. However, the moment they became renowned at school, they..." His lips trembled. "...committed unimaginable stunts. I played no part in it, but..."

Suddenly, his forehead creased as he clutched the side of his head, which had me jolting forward but he quickly raised his hand.

"Sorry, it's my headaches," he dismissed before his muscles tensed up. "But without my knowledge, they pinpointed all the blame on me, saying I was the mastermind and I was the one giving them ideas. They framed me, wronged me, slandered me," he breathed. "It turned out that they had been talking shit about me."

"Wh... What? What the hell...? W-Why?" Fire began to flicker inside of me, and I gripped my jaw, my teeth grinding against each other. For whatever motive they have, I never, ever understood how harmful actions brought them such sick pleasure.

"I wish I can answer you. And that accident... they thought I did it on purpose so that I could garner sympathy," he ended as he placed his hand on his damaged eye.

Garner sympathy, my ass!

The boldness for those assholes to even contemplate that all the calamity was a trivial play, seriously making me want to storm at them, yell at their foolish faces right this instant. Not only us, everyone was struck by this; Aly's cracking sobs, Lynn being dead silent, Seb's dreaded announcement and Raphael's absence ran vivid in my memories.

"They tried spreading rumors, Rena... then they came after me, and I..." He abruptly slammed both of his fists—his knuckles were white—against the railings. The seagulls instantly flinched and thrashed their wings, their legs scurrying out of the vicinity. "Fuck! I don't wanna remember anymore..." he grunted.

Who in the right mind thinks losing an eye means looking for attention? Not to mention, attention was nowhere near Edward's priority. Because of it, he had closed himself off from everyone else, most likely he had gone through... countless circumstances that I myself could not even picture.

"I-It's okay, Ed... you didn't have to force yourself to tell me..." The instinct to massage his hands and embrace him around my arms was utterly tempting. "What happened next? Did you ever report them?"

"...I'm fucking exhausted to deal with bullshit, Rena. Everything was such a mess." Edward's breaths hastened. "Thankfully most have moved schools, but... never in my life did I despise everything that existed. I can't even think. Process. I'm just... lost. Being alone was the only solution."

Was this... behind one of the reasons why Edward suddenly buried everything to himself, shutting Aly and everyone else out of his world? Connecting all these stories as well as what I have heard from Lynn, it was all making sense. My heart practically wrenched at how much he was forced to deal with all of these ordeals.

Additionally, after he returned from his hospitalization, he would intermittently show up, then vanish into thin air for the following few weeks.

"I... I'm sorry to hear all of that, Ed," I croaked. "I... I didn't know this happened."

"You don't have to. It's fine," he rumbled. "I was... breaking apart, I want to end all of this fucking disastrous shit, but one chose to stick up with me. He could have abandoned me, but he... did not. He cleared some things up for me when I can't even do shit..."

Seb. It was certainly Sebastian. I did not have to even second-guess who he was alluding to. Lynn also mentioned him too, the boy who had continuously reached out to him. The one who firstly and tirelessly rebuilt the bridge back to his childhood friend.

The one who stayed when he left.

"B-Both him and Lynn are genuinely awesome people." I found myself standing up with my hands folded behind my back, I watched as the sun completely submerged itself into the waters. "Those are the friends who you should be seeking for. N-Not all are fake, Ed."

And I'll also try my best to help you back. Those words unfortunately refused to slip out of my mouth, instead they were lodged in the back of my vocal chords.

"I feel comfortable being with you too," Edward announced, but he winced and widened his eye, as though he was taken aback by his own words. Without second thoughts, he clasped his mouth from uttering further and abruptly looked away.

Good heavens, the fact that I was not knocked unconscious or even dead from heat stroke was another huge miracle in itself. Right now I was so sure I was like some lobster which had been long boiled in a stockpot. My pink hat could no longer conceal all of myself anymore.

"W-Well, that's good to hear!" I stumbled upon my words like some madman. Jesus, again with him saying the most unexpected things and making me feel weird...

"...By the way..." he cleared his throat. "What time are you and Alyssa going tomorrow?"

"Hmm..." I scratched my scorched cheeks. "I d-don't know yet, maybe like in the morning...?"

"Be sure to know the bus schedules. There are not many on the weekends," he advised. "I'll wait at Hamilton Avenue by 10."

"I'll try..." I nodded. "How's your biology project?"

"Barely started. Seb and I couldn't find the perfect time to do it together, we were both busy with our jobs."

"Do you understand all the topics?"

Edward shrugged. "No. Not really. Biology is not my forte."

"I can help you with it tomorrow." Somehow, in some way, I courageously flaunted the remains of the scarlet hues in my face.

"Mm, that would be helpful. Thank you."

"I should also make some pastry tonight and bring it for everyone tomorrow!" Out of the blue, I just had the sudden desire to continue with the conversation, sharing all of my ideas. I even had the need to clap my hands and stared up high at the indigo skies. "Perhaps, I-I'm gonna try the Japanese salt bread. The ones my dad makes are so good!"

What is this sudden confidence I have?

Edward suddenly stepped up from his spot as well, standing beside me. "You're gonna make something new? I've never heard of salt bread before."

Relief washed through me when I saw his colors brightening up a little, especially after all the stories he had divulged.

"M-My dad's in the process of putting them up on his pastry menu," I divulged.

Edward then faced the entirety of his body at me. "Am I gonna be the first to try?"

"Of course! Y-You're my first customer, remember?"

And the next thing that happened... the shrilling noises of the seagulls and the ocean's crashing waves fainted in my ears.

The universe became the least of my worries, as his lips gradually lifted on its corners. They did not twitch, he was not holding back at all. It further expanded as though a blooming flower, until it curved up, forming an expression that was not only as priceless as an infinite pot of gold, but as though it had its own life to share.

"I'm looking forward to it."

***

A/N: Not me smiling like a dolt when Edward finally showed his true colors-

1. What do you think about Ed and Rena's relationship?