Maze

24

***

"...Rena, hey... wake up, Rena!!"

My eyes shot open as a gasp broke off me and my instincts propelled me into a sitting position. My hands were clenched tightly on my blanket as I could feel the pounding of my heart against my ribs. Taking deep breaths to regain my composure, I quickly scanned around the area as the memory of the energetic Edward dissipated into the void.

It's a flashback, huh...? I was confronted with the familiar curtains, closet and vanity of my room, and the familiar Jordan making himself comfortable on the corner of my bed.

Wait, Jordan?!

"Jo?!" He flinched hard as soon as I shrieked. "What the heck?!"

"God, stop screaming," grumbled my brother as, of course, he was more focused playing with his phone. "I'm not a ghost."

"W-Why are you in my room?" I cried out. Based on how wrinkled his fleece pajamas were and how his hair strands were sticking out everywhere on his head, he probably had just woken up. I noticed how his groggy eyes were in circles momentarily, but as expected they promptly narrowed into slits, as he shrugged and sighed profoundly.

"Mom asked me to wake you up. Wish I didn't have to. I'm not your personal alarm, but you were mumbling nonsense," he explained nonchalantly as he gave me a side glance. "Must be a wonderful dream right there?"

"And why do you care to ask?" I zoomed my gaze back at him.

"Because I can care whenever I want. I couldn't care less about you," he scoffed as he jumped out of my bed. He then strode towards my door and flung it open, but before leaving without even shutting it, he turned towards me for the last time. "Don't worry, I don't wanna know either. I know when not to pry into someone's business."

What a jerk.

While my brother's harsh footsteps echoed throughout the hallway, I didn't bother moving an inch and sat perfectly still on the bed. Now that Jordan brought up that one previous dream of the past, it was now lingering inside my mind, refusing to back down.

That's right.

Back then, I had asked Edward not just a similar question, but a verbatim.

It was as if all of these times he had been questioning me, he simply repeated what my past self had said.

Instead of being speechless like how my dumb self had been, he actually did respond. However, as I connected the dots, a profound silence consumed over me while Mom's calls for me rang throughout the house.

***

From breakfast to the time I met my friends at school, but I still couldn't shake off the dream from this morning. No matter how much I tried concentrating on my classes, it continued teasing me:"Why do you wanna be friends with me?"

Not only you had the gall to ask him, but you can't even respond to it as well!! I hurled both my bag and books on the desk, then plummeted down my seat. The teacher had yet to arrive, so I planted my head against my arms and rested my eyes.

Aly's most despised subject was my second course of the day; she even wished me well as we were switching classes. Honestly, I didn't mind it, and in fact, the topics discussed actually had my attention.

To kill some time, I pulled my phone out and opened my contact list, scrolling until Edward's name showed up on the bottom of the screen. Momentarily gazing at it, I tapped to read more of his details I had added yesterday. On top of it, I updated his profile picture with a snapshot of him and our group from the field trip back in fourth grade.

In the photo, I stood right in the corner with Aly and Sam. While my best friend's arm embraced my shoulder and pulled me closer to her, I was distracted with Edward on the other side of the line. Much to no one's surprise, he was grinning like the little boy he was, with his notable peace sign. His other friends had also put two fingers up behind his head without his knowledge.

Edward's expression was still beaming through although the picture looked a little pale and discolored due to its age. His blue eyes had always glittered with nothing but pure energy. If not for that awful accident, he would still have his childhood self.

"Good morning, Rena!" I instinctively locked my phone while I abruptly glanced up at the sudden greeting. I sighed silently when it was just Mark, who smiled and waved his hand. I acknowledged him back as he chose to sit beside me. Thank God he didn't notice anything!

Mark might be the only guy in our group, but he never once brought it up. With his slim physique due to his frequent jogs with the track team, distinct dimples, and dirty blond curls, this guy had the express eligibility to be with the popular cliques.

Nonetheless, he chose to stick with us instead, as per his words, "Nah, I never clicked once with them. They gathered for the sake of being looked as though they were these influential groups in those cheesy teen movies."

Also, it was probably because Mark had been looking after Aly ever since their friendship hit it out during middle school.

"What did you do on Sunday?" He questioned, while he removed his bag and placed his thick biology book on the table.

"Nothing much. J-Just watched YouTube the whole day and being trashed by my brother," I breathed. Unfortunately, I have to relieve all of our squabbles because someone apparently had a hobby of plucking my nerves. "How about you?"

"Your brother seems so much fun." Mark chuckled. "Well, I didn't do much either. I just went to the gym and jogged, then watched some movies Aly recommended to me."

"Ah, y-yeah. She always wanted us to watch her shows..." My voice trailed off when the teacher whom Aly perpetually insulted, Mr. Hills, gradually showed up.

He effortlessly carried some stacks of papers; I guessed those were worksheets we had to do. As he told us to open the book to our main topic and got his projector ready, I drew out my notebook to scribble not only the important details, but also to cringe at my horribly drawn sketches.

During the whole lesson, Mr. Hills had been dumping us with countless scientific terms and definitions that would be sure to drive Aly nuts. And to add salt to injury, this guy breezed through his slides as my classmates raced through their notes. Matching with his pace would mean I have to deal with my scrawled handwriting.

However, there were times where he slammed on the brakes for some questions, but that was where I resumed drawing a young Edward on the edge of my notebook. With the widest grin on his disproportionate face, his dotted eyes were large and derpy, but oh well... at least it had me chuckling inside. Pretty adorable, right?

"Alright, listen up!" The teacher announced, pulling the papers beside his laptop, "I'm going to give you a project due next week. All you need to do is write a research paper based on what you have studied, at least 5 pages. You can have a partner, or you can work on your own, that's up to you. Here are the instructions to help you all."

The class groaned as they distributed the papers, while I blankly went over the instructions. It was like I was bombarded with so many criteria and discussion topics that my brain began to spin around. Yeah no, there was no way I would want to work on this project by myself, but thankfully... I had someone I knew.

"Hey M-Mark," I leaned towards him, who was still reading the paper. "Wanna work together?"

"Of course, you've always been a big help!" Mark agreed without more contemplation, ruffling his hair. "Ugh, but I don't even get some of the questions here... maybe Sam and Naomi got some clues?"

I could not help but to laugh when he intentionally excluded Aly in his words. Needless to say, not only would my best friend drown herself in the sea of hopelessness, but she would help make complaints on how demanding this project was and how we should not be forced to do this. It would not be so dramatic if not for Aly's lamentations.

...but thanks to these projects, I was able to shove those other thoughts out.