Maze

25

I tilted my head. What's going on?

When everyone rejoiced upon the arrival of lunch time, I mustered the courage—or at least some sort of courage— to reach out to her and see what troubled her. Unfortunately, she had thrown her bag upon her shoulders and belted out of the room before I could even stand up.

Yeah, something was going on... and it was far from good news.

Surely it took me some time to process Adelynn's actions, but I found myself running after her, especially when my peripheral vision caught her retreating figure in the hallway. The curiosity pouring in me had caused the crowds to be the least of my concern... until my elbow bumped into something hard—or someone, because they yelped straight into my ears.

"Hey, watch it!" They snapped.

"S-Sorry!" I apologized, but with all of these people swarming all over the place, there was no way I could tell which person I crashed myself into.

And as a consequence, Adelynn slipped out of my sight, leaving me in a series of pants and a basket of questions. Geez, what's up with her? Why did she look agitated? And what's she running for?

Edward then emerged out of the class in front of me, where he acknowledged my presence. "If you are looking for Seb, he's gonna come here," he informed me.

The fact he appeared so conveniently... made it as though he was the answer. Well, if I couldn't talk with his friend, then I could just turn to him.

"Oh no, um, I... uh..." Where did my courage go? I was already breaking into stammers! "I just... um... did you know what happened to Adelynn?" I gulped. "She looks upset."

Although Edward said nothing, his postures helped him do the talking. His entire muscles instantaneously stiffened, before his right foot started shaking. Breaking his tensed gaze off me, he withdrew his lips, sealing it from muttering any responses.

He must have been directly involved too. Perhaps some kind of conflict or something? They were fine the last time I saw them. Needless to say, he wasn't open for discussions. Divert the topic, Rena.

"Oh um, well..." I scratched my cheek. "H-have you thought of anything for her birthday...?" I had the urge to let out some terribly forced laughs, at least alleviating the suspense hanging between us. But I think that's kind of good enough?

"No," breathed Edward while he leaned against the wall with his legs shifting all over. However, he loosened in the instant Seb waved his arm towards our direction. You came at the right time, Seb. Don't want this to be super awkward.

"Ah, where's Mark?" He questioned.

"He's in chemistry."

"Well then... let's get after him," he suggested. While I nodded and the three of us headed for the lab, the thought of my best friend flashed inside my head, and had me stopped in my tracks.

"Wait, how about Aly? Are we—"

"Huh, her? Don't even bother." Seb dismissed, waving the back of his hand as he snickered. "She doesn't want our help right? Let that girl be."

Yeah, why did I bother asking this guy? Of course he was going to shove her aside and disregard her entire existence; Aly would have done the same. Not that Edward any better either; the moment I turned towards him, his empty stare greeted me. All I hope is that Seb didn't influence Edward to hate her as well... especially when they used to be inseparable.

When we got into the lab, Mark was already finished and was buttoning up his blazer as he ran towards us. "We're going to the library, right?" He blinked twice. "How about Aly? I thought she said sh–"