"Senior! Over here!" Edward shouted. August was momentarily shocked, but soon recovered and waved back.
"-Coming!"
Edward was sitting alone on a 4 person table, all other seats empty.
"She is-?"
Before August could say anything, Clary extended her hand. "Hello. I'm Clarence Florence, vice president of the student council," At Edward's questioning stare, she explained, "We just happened to be together-"
"-She's my friend," August interjected. He carefully studied Edward's face, hoping for a change in expression, but his smile remained just as sunny as before, even brightening up a bit. So that's a normal reaction when you see your 'friend' with others...
"Uh, I'm going, then. See you at the next meeting, president."
"How can you be so heartless, Miss Clarence?" Edward smirked, "Senior just called you his friend. Shouldn't you at least join us for a meal?"
"I'm afraid I'd be intruding. We aren't exactly familiar."
"I'm pretty sure that won't be the case. After all, Kaitlyn would be joining us too."
"Who?'' August asked quietly, "Your girlfriend?" His tone was deathly calm, not matching his inner turmoil at all.
Edward chuckled, "Come on, senior. Please don't tease me like that. When I have a girlfriend, you'd be the first to know."
"I'm here!" Kaitlyn emerged from the second entrance. Her expression turned sour when she saw the additional two people at the table.
"Why are they here?"
Edward smiled and pulled a chair for her. "Senior is my friend, so of course he'd be here too. This is senior's friend, Miss Clarence. I asked her to join in."
"Oh? It's like that?" Kaitlyn pouted before latching herself on Edward's arm. "You know, I had some really high expectations for today. I thought it was gonna be kind of like..." She trailed off before suggestively saying, "...A date or something, Ed?"
"THUD!"
August slammed his fork on the table. Kaitlyn was startled and instinctively got away from Edward.
"What…What did you just call him, Miss Kaitlyn?"
"Ed?"
"I heard that. What I'm asking is, why are you calling him that?" August sneered, "Isn't that rude?"
Kaitlyn scoffed before raising an eyebrow. "-And why can't I call him that?"
"Because it's overstepping your boundaries?"
Kaitlyn laughed mockingly, "Oh come one, senior. Are we in the medieval ages or something? And besides, why are you the one having a problem with all this when the person being called gave me permission? Please don't butt your nose where it doesn't belong."
"You..." August stopped before looking up to Edward. "You did? You gave her permission?"
Edward laughed uncomfortably and said, "Well, using full names felt weird. We've been calling each other that way since a few days ago. Like, Kat and Ed, y'know?"
"You never called me that way though," August looked at Edward straight in the eye, his tone wronged.
Edward was surprised by his straightforwardness. This guy sure can be frank when he wants to. "It's, uh...Just...It would've felt weird doing this with senior."
"But-"
"Hey, August! Can't you see he's uncomfortable?" Kaitlyn interrupted. She sneered, "It's his choice, okay? Why're you acting like you're his girlfriend or something? Why does it even matter to you?" She rolled her eyes before guessing, "-Wait...Don't tell me, you have the hots for him? Like, two guys, together?"
August's face paled with every word she said. He wanted to shout in denial, to scream it's not true, but not one came out of his mouth. He could only watch silently as she continued to speak, wanting to stop it all but not being able to do something at the same time.
Clary's knuckles turned white as her grip on the glass tightened. This girl better shut up soon or she's gonna lose it.
"Look, don't get me wrong. I'm not some Karen or anything, okay? I'm very open minded," She leisurely tapped her finger on the table as she continued to destroy his life casually, not even blinking. "-But hey, isn't that kind of weird? Like, is love even possible between two men-"
"SPLASH!"
Clary threw her juice on Kaitlyn's face.
"W-WHAT?!" Kaitlyn used her sleeve to wipe her face and screamed, "WHY DID YOU THAT, YOU BITCH?!"
Clary was very naturally continuing on with her food like she didn't just throw her juice on someone's face before. "You were spewing some nonsense. I just felt the need to protect my ears from that, okay? It's self defense."
Kaitlyn gaped at her. "What the heck did you just say?"
"-Not my fault you have hearing problems."
"Y-You!" Kaitlyn turned to Edward and cried, "Ed! She's bullying me!"
Edward was watching the whole event curiously. He wasn't even the least affected when Clary threw the juice or when Kaitlyn was talking about August. He just witnessed it all, like a mere bystander.
When Kaitlyn asked for help, he shrugged, "What can I do, Kat? This matter is between you and Miss Clary. Me and senior should stay out of this."
"You..'' Kaitlyn felt like crying after being publicly humiliated like this. First, she had juice thrown on her face and now even Edward flatly refused to help her!
Seeing him continue his food naturally just made her more furious. She angrily snatched his glass and threw the leftover water at Clary. "-Take that!"
Clary didn't resist and let the water splash on her dress. "That's all you've got? Childish brat."
"YOU!" Kaitlyn grabbed August glass, intending to throw more juice at her.
"-Miss Kaitlyn! That's enough!" August stood up and grabbed her hand. He cried, "Stop!"
"You're telling me to stop? Me?! When she was the one who started it?!"
Clary wiped her face with a napkin and stood up. "No, you're wrong. You were the one who started with your bullshit first."
Kaitlyn sniffled as she felt her throat go hoarse and eyes starting to water. No one here was on her side. These two were already ganging up on her while Edward isn't participating at all. He just stood there, leisurely scrolling through his phone, like this whole thing here didn't concern him at all.
"Hic...sniff. Y-You're bullying me..."
She broke down, weeping on the table. A large crowd had already gathered when Clary threw the juice. Some of them were even filming the whole drama.
"...Wah...You guys are so bad...Sniff-'' She wept loudly, appearing as miserable as possible. "W-what did I even do to you...humiliating me like this...Ed..." Eyes shining with hope, Kaitlyn turned to Edward for some sympathy.
"Hey, don't grab my hand. Your sleeve is all sticky with juice."
"..."
Edward stood up and frowned, "Senior, let's go. Let the girls sort out their matters by themselves."
August was shocked by his indifference. Just now, he indulged her like she was his whole world, but ruthlessly turned his back the next second...Is he too, like Kaitlyn, just a momentary recreation for Edward?
He was glad. August felt bad for getting happy over someone's misery, but that doesn't change the fact that he felt himself getting happier when he saw Edward act like it wasn't his problem, like Kaitlyn was not his problem. Even if August knew she is the future him, he couldn't help but be glad when the person whom Edward called for, cared about at the end was him. Not Kaitlyn.
He knew the hope he was hanging on to was a severed rope, but still couldn't stop himself and watched as he voluntarily walked to his destruction, like moths to a fire. He knew deepening his feelings will destroy him when reality checks in, but it wasn't in his hand anymore. He was afraid that soon his 'reality check' would come and the higher the flies, the harder he'll fall. He really was hopeless.