I waited for a few minutes before saying something.
"Hey," I started. I could hear a pause in his sobs, so I thought he was finally listening now. Then I continued, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have reacted like that."
"It's fine. I should've been more prepared. But I can't help it you know? I was the leader. And two of our members had gone nuts under my watch. I just..." He sighed. Then he continued, "It's been a month and I don't know what happened to you guys after that, that..."
I was silent. Now that I'm listening to him, I just realized I never got to know his side of story or how did he deal with all of these. I bit my lips softly for just realizing how selfish I was back then.
"I called Esther first. She rejected me right away. Then I tried Andrew, he picked up, but he said he didn't want to hear any of these again and then hung up. And, and, I just... The faculty contacted me, and I defended all of you as best as I could. It's on me now, really, Lynn."
I widened my eyes. He shouldered the blame for all of us? So the reason the faculty didn't discuss the detailed matter with me was because Glenn taking all the blame himself? That is so...
"Glenn..." I whispered softly. Feeling my heart just moved by his selfless act.
He was very different from my past self. But he didn't have to do that far. Even if he was the leader, he wasn't the one at fault. So why did he do that for us?
"It's fine, really. But, I very much would've hoped you didn't push me away. The rest of you... We promised to help each other until the end, didn't we?"
I didn't answer immediately. I didn't really remember any of the little details about the incident. So I didn't really know how to answer him. Before I could think of anything else, he continued.
"I just wanted to talk to all of you... I won't ask about what happened, just, just, talk to me... About anything at all! Please, Lynn...?"
I took my time to think. From what I noticed, this guy just needed support from us, the people whom he tried to defend. In my eyes, he took care of the report for us. Those things concerning what we had to explain to the committee taking care of the final project's score.
Was he the one who took care of those things to in the original timeline? If that's true, then I was being very, very selfish.
That instant, I felt guilt washed over my self-centered being. I wasn't the only one suffering from that incident. Glenn was too.
"Glenn," I started, "I'm sorry... I didn't know."
I heard him laugh, "Really. It's fine. I'm just glad you still want to talk to me."
"And I probably would not if you didn't just cry,"
He moaned, "I was desperate! I can't help it..."
I smiled and shook my head. This guy....
That signed our reconnection. So we called until it was almost midnight. We caught up on many things happening after I 'went home'. I told him how I deal with things for the last month, and he expressed his. It was almost like talking to him face to face, and that made me missed him.
Dang, I missed a lot of people after regressing. This wouldn't be good for my heart.
He asked me if I was okay with meeting him, and I gave him an affirmative since I also felt the same. We agreed to meet around one week from now.
Talking to Glenn made me thought about the incident. I had trouble remembering it, but Glenn would want to know of course. I mean, he had the right to know. Since I was being selfish in the original timeline, maybe I should fix that as well in this one.
Besides, this topic would eventually be discussed anyway. And Glenn's an open-minded person. So might as well start with him.
Thus, for the rest of the week, I tried remembering every single bit of the incident as best as I could. I stopped when I got too angry or when my head felt strangely heavy. And I became quite frustrated at this, because it made these past 7 days passed by quickly with me not remembering anything. So I gave up and just prepared myself for when the topic finally resurfaced.
-------
I sat by the swing while looking at the children playing tags in front of me. Glenn texted me to wait at the park near my house at a certain hour, so here I was since 15 minutes ago.
I saw Glenn walking towards me from across the field and waved my hand. He smiled sheepishly and gestured with his hand 'let's go'. I followed him to his bike and we're off.
He took me to a theater, of sorts, and went inside after presenting the tickets. I looked around and wondered whether this was the real Glenn all along? He never told us he liked theater. So I
"My sister gave me those tickets," He said as we passed by rows of empty seats in the big hall.
The place was quite deserted, save from the 2 rows in front of the stage that was brimmed with schoolgirls. Seated one row behind them were elders whom I assumed were their teachers. Aside from them, there were only us.
We took our seats behind them, in the 4th row. Then I started asking.
"Was your sister supposed to be with them?"
"No, no. My sister played here as well, she told me to bring a friend," he smiled.
I mumbled an 'Aaa~' before turning my head to look around the place. I'd never been to a sophisticated place like this, so I was soaking it all in. It reminded me of the theater in the children movie Sing. I felt like sitting on an almost similar audience seat of that theater, which felt weirdly good.
Glenn tapped me on the shoulder and that was when I noticed the play's about to play. I hoped they wouldn't play something boring.
The room darkened and I could hear the soft intro of a violin. As the play started, I glanced to my colleague and saw that he was biting his lips. He seemed like he was trying to hold something back.
"You can ask me anything, you know," I whispered.
He took a glance at me, before diverting his eyes elsewhere and nodded slightly, "Later. I just want to enjoy your presence today."
I nodded, "One step at a time."
He replied with a nod.
We sat in silence as a knight walked to the stage, holding a sword. I saw the knight's face and felt like I knew this guy. He was handsome, no, not that handsome, but he was attractive. I was about to ask Glenn, but the other characters started pouring in and began to sing. I decided to put that on hold.
-------
"So, did you enjoy?" Glenn asked when we finally leave the building.
"I enjoy it, although I thought the flirtations were a bit too much," I told him, completely forgetting the knight already.
"Great. I'll tell sis later," he replied as we walked to the parking lot on the field beside the theater. But suddenly, he stopped midway, and turned to look at me.
"Hey Lynn, can we go to the park over there?" He pointed to the park on the other side of the parking lot.
I nodded at him and we started walking there. On the way, I could see him trying to prepare something to discuss. I knew he was trying to start 'that' conversation. So I let him tried. He finally called me after a long silence.
"What happened back then?" He finally asked.
I instinctively pinched my own thumbs while looking down. He waited for me as we continued our walk.
I knew he would ask, and I felt it today. But I still couldn't make up a coherent answer because I still couldn't remember what happened. I couldn't just say anything, he would think I was messing with him. He would hate me.
"I..." I started, "I don't remember much..."
I felt him looking at me. I didn't look at him as I continued, "I tried to remember after I got back here, but I can't."
We had reached the park by now. It was deserted. Probably because it was almost dark. Weird, I just noticed it was dusk already. I felt my hand tugged and was led to sit on a bench.
Glenn and I sat next to each other. He then said, "I don't believe you."
I looked at him and frowned, then he added hurriedly, "But. But... I don't blame you."
I stared at him, indicating him to explain.
He swallowed, then continued, "Let's visit the others."
I shook my head at him, "No. They will push us away. Let them be."
"It was just a visit. Besides, you were once lost with Andrew, so—"
"So this was the purpose of this visit? To get me to talk to Andrew so that you can meet him?"
He was silent. I knew I had hit a point there. He was only going to use me to get to Andrew, I should've noticed.
I narrowed my gaze at him, "You're despicable."
"No, Lynn, I'm not—"
"I don't care. You could just tell me, I might get less annoyed that way."
"I know! It was low of me but—wait.. You what?" He blinked.
I looked away from his bewildered face. Maybe, the me in the original timeline would refuse. But I was sent here to fix my wrongs. So I had to go by this scenario and made up with everyone. Visiting them was just part of the scenario.
"I'm in a bad mood. Go away," I teased.
Instantly, arms wrapped around me and hugged me tight.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" He exclaimed.
I patted him on the shoulder, "Come now. People might get the wrong idea."
He released me and laughed lightly. The he stood up and said, "Let's go home! I can't wait to pack."
I chucked my head to the side, "Where're you going?"
"We're going to New Jersey! Andrew's there with his family. His mom told me."
I waved lightly at him, "Girls need time to prepare. You go first."
"What? I picked you up, I should take you home," he insisted.
I stood up and brushed past him to the swing, "You annoyed me."
"That was for real?!"
"Yeah. So go away. I'm walking home myself," I smiled.
"Che. I'm curious to see how long you gonna keep that up," he crossed his hands on his chest.
I ignored him and left the park.
"Lynn!" He yelled as he chased after me.
When I turned left from the exit, I bumped into someone who immediately caught me by my arm and back.
"Woah! Careful, miss," the person said.
I blinked and recovered quickly, mumbling an 'Okay' before turning at him. When I looked at his face, I roughly remembered him as the knight from the play. He was wearing a red and black checkered shirt with black tee underneath. I could also see there were two guys behind him, one with glasses and one the tallest of the three, each holding black cases.
"Hey, you're the girl in the 4th row," the attractive ex-knight said to me.
"Uhh what...?" I muttered.
The tall guy behind him poked him with the case, "Leave her alone, Mag, she was with someone."
"Oh hush, Eddy. It was her friend. Wasn't he, miss?" The ex-knight asked me, ignoring his friend behind him.
"Uhh yes... Umm, you're the knight, right?" I asked him.
He bowed his head and body a bit, "Sir Dancelot, at your service. Were you lost, mademoiselle?"
I stared at his behavior that seemed very familiar. But this was the first time we've ever met. That was as short as I can remember.
The other one with the glasses grabbed the knight by his left hand, "Sorry for the inconveniences, miss. He just escaped from the asylum this morning, we'll take him back," then he nodded to the tall guy, "Eddy, if you may."
"Don't mind if I do, Brett," the tall guy grabbed the other hand and inclined politely at me, "Enjoy your day, miss."
Then they started to pull the knight away, who reacted rather calmly. I could hear him saying, "Release me or I will really kiss the two of you whenever I see you again, at any place, at any time, in any conditions possible."
That got the both of them released him almost instantly. The ex-knight smiled and faked brushing dust of his sleeves. He got a bonk on the head from each of his buddies, though.
All of these happened in a very short moment. And at that point, Glenn finally caught up with me. He brushed my left side and stood there, looking at the boys before turning his attention to me.
"Who are they?" Glenn asked.
"Um..." I didn't know how to respond as I looked between Glenn on my side and the knight's group on the other.
The knight took my confusion as a cue and stretched his hand forward, "Hello."
Glenn shook his hand, "Glenn. You?"
The knight gave a gentle smile.
"I'm Maggie."