I couldn't sleep well even after my dad's promise. Sitting up, I picked my phone from the nightstand and reread the message. It was just the same as last night and I didn't get any more ideas, but I didn't give up. I kept reading it till the sunlight disrupted my thoughts.
Absentmindedly, I checked the time and was shocked. Immediately I threw my phone on the bed and rushed into the bathroom.
...
Fortunately, I arrived just in time for geometry. I hurriedly plopped on my chair and dumped my geometry textbook on my desk. All the while, I noticed Edward's eyes on me and I turned to him with a glare. I couldn't help but feel like he was mocking me.
He flashed me a smile and my words got stuck in my throat. He looked so otherworldly. His beautiful smile still stayed on his lips and I, almost instinctively turned away. I didn't want to act like I did at the pool.
His smiling face flashed in my mind over and over again, and I could swear that I was cursed at the rate at which my heart beats. Don't think about it cat, find a distraction.
A distraction, A distraction I kept repeating the mantra in my head till the teacher came in and as reluctant as I am to say this, I think what I felt at the pit of my stomach was.... Butterflies?
....
As much as I would like to kick the door open to vent my frustration, I still kept to my rational mind (OK who am I kidding. The door is so wide and thick and surely I'd end up getting hurt if I kicked it) and opened the front door.
My dad was probably in his study. I had noticed his car in the compound when I entered. His study is on the way to my room so of course I'll have to pass his study to get to my room. On a normal day, whenever he is around, and I pass his office, he'd always acknowledge me with a simple 'hi, or you're back' but today, I didn't hear anything like that.
I could hear his voice, accompanied by a male voice in the background. The other voice wasn't that deep, It sounded like a teenager or someone in his early twenties. Maybe he has someone over? I thought as I walked to my room. I was about to open the door when I heard the male voice again and this time it sounded so familiar.
Furthermore, I discovered which hospital my mom was last year"
" Edward Jones but my friends call me... Ed".
"Sorry for the incident at the beach, I tried apologizing back then, but I saw that you were quite distracted
I compared both voices, and it sounds almost... The same?
Curiously, I retraced my footstep back to the door of his office and leaned my head on the door. I had to strain my ears to hear tidbits of what they were discussing.
"Your dad was not a very straightforward person and I and my wife argue about him almost all the time. When I realized that most of our fights were based on him, I decided it was high time I kept a " he stopped abruptly, but I didn't notice, probably because I was still trying to digest the information that had just landed on my laps.
Suddenly, the door opened and a furious dad stood by the entrance, with his hands folded across his chest.
Knowing that I was caught red-handed, I laughed awkwardly and tried to alter the situation but my dad wasn't taking any of it.
"I didn't know when you picked up the habit of eavesdropping. Or did I see wrong?" I coughed when I heard the last sentence because that was what I planned on saying.
Ashamed, I look down and played with my fingers with hopes of him burying this matter and pretending like it didn't happen, but I was wrong. He stood unmoving and stared at me like someone questioning a criminal and when I saw that he wouldn't stop, I decided I had had enough of it. I only eavesdropped. I didn't kill. Right?
"Sorry. I heard a familiar voice coming from here, and I thought I should check".
"Oh yeah. He definitely is someone you know he gestured for me to enter and closed the door behind me.
Surely, someone was in the study with him, but I didn't know who it was because he had his back turned to me.
"Cather meet.... Umm. Edward Jones. He's Umm your childhood friend. You guys used to be inseparable back then."
A light bulb went off in my head when I heard the last sentence. Edward is my what? Is that why I looked at him that way at the pool? So he knew me all along?
I flashed back to the times we spent together, and I could swear he didn't even act like he knew me from somewhere. He had turned around at this point and I raised my head up to meet his gaze.
Now that I looked carefully, I noticed that they were deep. Like they held a thousand words, a thousand meanings it felt like his eyes had seen a lot. So much that it has its own sense. Of course, I didn't voice out my thoughts. With a fake smile, I alternated my gaze between him and my dad.
"Haha. That's quite unbelievable. We basically attend the same school. More is we even sit together haha it must have slipped his mind. "
Ed was smiling earlier but his smile froze when he got my point.
" Am sorry." He apologized with a sincere look on his face, but I didn't buy it.
Humphing, I was about to turn around and leave when my dad called me back.
Cather, why don't you give Edward a tour of the house"
I wanted to decline, but I decided against it when I thought of how that might make him feel. He might have hid some things from me, but he wasn't at all bad to me, so I have no reason to be either.