Tuesday.
"You asked him out?!"
Everyone at the table recoiled when Naomi legitimately flew from her seat, her elbow nearly toppling her orange juice over. Next, she burst into a series of high-pitched squeals, while Samantha and Mark smirked and joined in through their whistles. Thank God the cafeteria was boisterous enough to drown Naomi's screams, otherwise I would have melted from all the neighboring stares.
"That's the spirit, I love that confidence, Rena!" She cried out. A pair of hands gripped my shoulders, then pivoted my body towards the sparkling chocolate eyes of my fangirling friend. "So how did it go? What did you do and say? How did he respond?"
She was practically bombarding me at the speed of light that I could no longer generate coherent replies, so my speech ended up cluttered and gibberish. However, one of them made me bounce like a startled bunny: "Did you manage to kiss him?"
"Gosh you. Stop scaring her and asking weird stuff!" warned Aly as she pulled our ponytail friend away from my sight. She instantly puffed her cheeks up and pushed her bottom lip forward like a little kid who could not get what they wanted.
"I just wanna know what happened!" She objected, trying to squirm out of Aly's grasp.
Of course I wanted them to know. I have always sought to spill the beans, starting from Aly's words of encouragement, until Edward's answer that I still couldn't decipher even from all the pondering last night. That was supposed to be my intention, but... I wound up nibbling my cold french fries without giving details, although my appetite was already flowing down the drain.
"Um... that doesn't seem like good news." Naomi's grin shrank as fast as it appeared when I revealed about Edward. She slowly slumped back on her chair while Aly let go of her. "Did he... reject you?"
Reject. Even a simple word had me nearly choking and coughing on my meal. An acute pain shot out through my breast as if a butcher knife had stabbed through it. I latched into the french fry as if my life depended on it, but I ended up crushing it.
"Naomi!" Aly snapped.
"It's okay, Aly," I mumbled. "M-Maybe it sounds like rejection, but it's just that he..."
Said something about me deserving a better friend.
Of all the times, my voice decided to wander off at the moment I was about to tell the most accurate explanation to this matter. It was as if some unknown entity obstructed all of my actions and forced me to hold them back inside my throat. His nonchalant statement subsequently played in my head over and over again, taunting me for not figuring it out sooner.
A tornado of unanswered questions came swirling about, demanding to be appeased. Did he reject me? What does he mean I deserved better? Perhaps... is it something like I didn't deserve to be his friend?
"That he...?" Samantha tilted her head and hoped for me to finish, but that became the least of my concern when my peripheral vision captured the familiar glimpse of tousled blond hair on the other end of the cafeteria. The moment Edward made his presence known, my scattering thoughts scrambled together to combine into one.
I watched as Sebastian strolled alongside him as they entered the cafeteria. Meanwhile, their basketball group had already congregated in their accustomed table. One of them then waved their arms, signaling the two to join in.
I could have pretended he was not there and resumed the discussion, but I did nothing. My attention was inclined to him, blocking out my friends' calls for me. Needless to say, Edward was fast to catch me in the act, sending pins and needles pricking my skin. Now the last resort was to break out of this stupid awkwardness I had dug myself into, but... I just could not steer clear.
Something's wrong with me.
Sebastian bumped his friend's hips and gestured his head at me. Edward looked at him fleetingly as they were exchanging a couple of phrases I wished I could pick up. I kept staring at them, but both my heart and guts went on a nosedive when instead of settling down with their group, they decided to head towards our table.
Yup, it's definitely our table. The fact Edward kept looking at me was a dead giveaway. My breathings became more ragged as his figure grew closer and closer.
Why are they coming here? What's he gonna do? Did he change his mind? Is he going to explain what he meant? Is he going to reject me here and for all? And once again, the turbulent storm went all out inside my head, hitting me with more rain of questions.
"Yo, he's coming here, he's coming!" Naomi whispered loudly as if it was going to do anything better, while Mark returned to his lunch, as if he was avoiding any forms of interactions. On the other hand, Aly shot up, her glinting eyes squinted into slits and her arms folded. Samantha... perhaps was the one who didn't react so much, but her mischievous smile proved me wrong.
If I could communicate with someone through my thoughts like in those supernatural movies, I would have called out for assistance from other people. A tiny voice inside my head, however, threw that idea out of the window. Nah, you won't do that. You'll just let your instincts take the best of you, retreat and hide like you usually do.
Adrenaline surged through my veins as I sucked in a large volume of air. I was literally on the edge of my seat, simultaneously trying to straighten myself together. Calm down, just calm down! Take deep breaths, Rena, deep breaths! Don't run away!
In the midst of all the mental war, I managed to notice Naomi and Sebastian bobbing their heads at each other, as if some sort of acknowledgement. That made sense, since they were both in the sports teams. Wait, Edward's the top priority here. Why am I all over the place now?
I hesitantly peered up at the two men and studied their polar opposite expressions. While Sebastian cast us a warm smile although he brushed Aly aside, Edward was solely focused on me and me only; his eye pinned me to my place, so withdrawing was no longer the option. What's he gonna say... I can't even read this guy...
"Heh, you abandoned Rena, and now you wanna talk?" Aly snickered derisively. "God, I can't believe you."
Although Edward did not retaliate against her remark, he ultimately acknowledged her through a side glance, before focusing on me again. She snorted, shook her head and hopped back to her seat, but maintained her glare. It's strange to see this when a few years ago, they were inseparable.
"Sorry... about yesterday," he said, ruffling his entire hair.
"Oh, um... it's okay," I murmured before I gulped down my accumulating saliva, helpless to the inevitable heat rising up to my face. Edward's response might be a series of codes I have to crack, but in his defense, Aly and I were the ones barging into his life after such a prolonged period of no contact.
If I were him, I would too be perplexed.
"So..." Sebastian chimed in to slam into the silence taking over us. "Are you guys just gonna stare at each other?"
"Oh, n-no. I was just... thinking." My throat constricted. Thinking about what?! My God, talk like a normal person will you?!
"My guy here doesn't know how to continue a convo, so you sometimes gotta speak up." He simpered and wrapped his arm around his friend, who instantly furrowed his brow at him. "After all, dude's so focused on being grumpy all the time!"
Sebastian's laughs earned him a rather forceful elbow bump right on his chest from Edward, which cut off his voice.
"Shut up, bastard," the blond man barked, but that didn't seem to stop him.
"What, ain't that the truth?" He guffawed, feigning innocence. "You sound just like Squidward but with extra steps—"
Edward promptly clamped his friend's mouth from spouting out even more. He didn't even give any ounce of attention, as he was already back to me.
Regardless, Sebastian seriously underwent a huge amount of change. Back then, he was once a boy of few words, standing behind the scenes and barely expressing too much of himself. Nowadays, he would be seen hanging out with Edward or the others, and his smiles would come up so frequently.
I feel like it has been decades since then...
"Ignore this idiot. He has no manners," Edward sighed in frustration.
"Haha, i-it's all good, really."
There was a slight movement on his chest. "Also, about your request..."
And it was back to the main topic.
"Ah, don't worry about it. It's nothing too much..." I quickly dismissed that concern as I tittered. For now, rebuilding all the nostalgic bonds with Edward might be out of the picture, but re-establishing contact was adequate. He can always reach out whenever he's comfortable enough.
However, he chose to step forward, now barely a few feet from me. With an eye drilling straight at me, he disclosed his intention.
"I don't mind... being friends again."