[Edward POV]
Despite me only inviting Alex into my room, Abby and the entire Dunphy family had followed along– squeezing themselves inside my small room to join in the fun.
"Let's try the circular frame glasses first." I said as I held a papier-mache glasses frame model that took me a lot of work to detail gently and put it on Alex's face.
As I had told her not to move casually to avoid breaking the model, she had to face me without managing to avoid her gaze as we sat face to face for me to study her compatibility with the glass frame.
"She looks like Harry Potter." Luke said.
"Urgh You-" Alex was angered and wanted to turn her face toward Luke who was standing behind her, but I grabbed both sides of her face to stop her from moving.
"Stay still, Alex. First warning."
"First warning? What are you going to do when she runs out of warning?" Phil asked while closing Luke's mouth to prevent him from saying anything else. Except for Haley and Abby who were sitting on my bed, the rest of the family was standing behind Alex.
"Punish her of course." I replied casually and with a mischievous smile. Before Alex could retort, I said, "The frame is great-"
"So Vain." Abby retorted from behind. I gave a side eye to her before continuing talking to Alex, "But as your baby fat is still there. It's not compatible with your face shape. Let's try something else."
As she had to take off her glasses during the test, Alex's farsightedness only allowed her to look at my face clearly– only at my face. Her eyes were glued to my every facial expression change, laugh, face symmetry, and everything else that she could see on me.
Her face blushed red which made me wonder if she was embarrassed to be doing this in front of her family.
Haley laughed a little and said, " Hey Alex. He called you fat."
"You have Baby Fat cheeks too." I said before Alex could explode, stunning Haley immediately. Alex and Claire laughed at Haley's reaction while Phil and Luke got distracted and went on to take a tour of my room instead.
"I'm not fat!" Haley said hurriedly.
If there was one thing I understood clearly about Haley was that she was very self-conscious about her weight– Alex even said she had an eating disorder in the series one time in my previous life. Therefore, I had to tread lightly while dealing with this topic.
"I'm not saying you're fat. Your figure is very thin. I'm just saying you have a baby fat cheek. It's common in adolescence, and it'll disappear when you become an adult. Just ask your mom and dad." I said reassuringly without even looking at Haley and changed Alex's glasses type to a top-half rectangular, bottom half circular glasses type.
"Oh. She looks good in this." I muttered in satisfaction.
"Let me see!" Claire said hurriedly and got in between Alex and I. "Oh. She looks really cute!"
"Wait really?" Phil said excitedly.
"Really?!" Haley muttered in disappointment.
Abby already grabbed the circular glasses and put them on while calling for me.
"Ed. Does this make me look cute?" She said as she made a few poses with the empty glasses frame.
"It does. But if you wore glasses for a fashion statement rather than necessity, my opinion on you will be lowered instantly."
"Uhhh…" Abby was flabbergasted as didn't expect me to be so callous while Alex nodded lightly a few times as she felt satisfied that someone had shared the same line of thinking with her in this world.
"So we're picking this for Alex right?"
Haley wanted to end the test quickly as the sight of me getting intimate with Alex was making her uncomfortable. But I haven't finished testing all of my frames yet.
"This one is a full rectangular frame." I said as I put a Rayban design frame on her face. After studying her face for a few seconds, I said, "This one is great too."
"But you said it with no excitement in your face. Why?" Alex asked.
"I'm torn now. Which one should I pick?" I said as I put my hand underneath my chin and started thinking deeply.
Alex was baffled and said, "Couldn't I choose?"
I mulled her words and said decisively, "...No."
Alex became irritated and said, "Why not? I'm the one who's going to wear it!"
"You can't even look at your reflection wearing that, and I'm supposed to trust your decision?"
She opened her mouth to retort, but no word could come out. "Um- Well…"
"Well is a hole on the ground when you're thirsty. Just trust me. You can count on me to make the right decision."
"Uuuuu….Burn!" Luke exclaimed to tease Alex. She turned to him and said with a scrunch up, puzzled face, "That's not a burn. Just shut up if you can't understand english."
"Well yeah. How about this for a burn? You're short!" Luke retorted…well…he tried. Claire and Phil shook their heads slightly while Haley laughed at Luke's burn as she really thought that did something.
"Ed, you're going to take the pictures now?" Haley asked. I turned toward her and saw both of the girls were playing with the frame model. "Want us to model for you?" Haley said while lowering her half-half glasses frame seductively.
"... if the model is broken I'm going to sue you guys." I said without mercy.
…
After getting the pictures, I returned to the living room to clean up, just to see that everything had been straightened up and tidied. The empty glasses had been put into the dishwasher, the sofa cushion had been fixed and chopped up, and the table had been wiped with a clean rag.
"Claire. Did you do this?" I asked in confusion as I turned to Claire who was standing behind me.
"No. I went up straight after." Claire replied, not knowing what was the problem there."Ed. We're going to go home now. Abby, you're going home too." Claire said.
"But-"
"No. I'm not letting you guys hang out alone in an empty house. That kind of environment is dangerous for teens."
"Hey. Are you really going to create a song for me? I want you to know that it isn't necessary anymore. The glasses are enough." Alex said as Claire had pulled both Haley and Abby to the front door.
"Too late Alex. Too late." I muttered mischievously, causing Alex to widen her eyes.
"You'd…done it?" Alex asked with a mixture of horrified and excitement displayed within her expression.
I shrugged and said casually, "I got inspired while testing the frames before this. It still needs a few tweaks though."
"MOM! I NEED YOU HERE!" Alex called out to her mother automatically as she didn't know how to handle the situation. Claire turned her head to look at Alex and I while releasing her grip on Haley's and Abby's hand.
"What happened?" Claire asked as she walked toward us.
"He wrote a song. For me." Alex replied woodenly, amusing me with her colorful reactions. Haley and Abby's face turned pale white as they heard it.
"That man-whore." Abby muttered while Haley agreed with her.
Phil ran towards me and hugged me unexpectedly as he was too happy at this moment. "One new song per day?! I don't know which world I had saved in my past life for me to be blessed like this."
"Pandora. Where the blue aliens live." I said seriously, making it seem to the simple others that I wasn't joking .
Phil was absorbed instantly and asked, "Am I the human or the alien?"
"Neither. You're the fish the dragon ate."
Luke laughed while Phil sighed in displeasure as he thought he could be something awesome in his past life.
"How can a fish save the world? You're not making sense." Phil said.
"Because…if the dragon didn't eat the fish, then they wouldn't have the energy to fight the human mecha robots. So the fish's sacrifice allowed Pandora to fight back against the invasion."
The entire group of people there was stunned by my eloquence, and even Phil had started to think that maybe being a fish wasn't bad at all. The Avatar movie was released in March instead of December 2009 in this world, therefore the people here could understand the reference. The movie was one of the slight changes this world has compared to my previous world among a few others.
"Okay. Stop talking about a fish. Ed. You really created a song? Do you want to play it now, or do you want some time to practice?" Claire asked.
"I can do it now. But it'll be quite embarrassing since you guys are here."
Claire became anxious and muttered, "What? Us? Is it a sexy song? IS IT A LEWD SONG ABOUT MAKING LOVE-"
"Lewd?" I muttered, confused by the accusation.
Before Claire could spiral further, Phil closed her mouth and dragged her to the sofa to calm down. "Ed. Pretend we aren't here. We won't say anything. We really want to see you play your new song." Phil said, his eyes were begging me to let him stay.
I sighed and said, "Okay then. But reserve all comments till tomorrow. I'm too mentally exhausted to deal with the feedback now. I still need to finish up my game."
"Ed. If you're busy, we can postpone this." Alex said as she was feeling incredibly embarrassed and scenarios about me serenading her started to play in her mind.
"Which instrument?" Abby asked.
"I can do ukulele or guitar." I replied before Abby ran to my room to pick it up.
[Haley's commentary]
"Guitar will be too romantic for just Alex. So ukulele is better for him to play with. Also, HOW DARE HE! Ughh He's such a player! JUST ONE DAY PASSED SINCE HE MADE A SONG FOR ME-"
[Commentary cut short as Haley spiral into madness]
"Okay. Here goes." I said as I sat on the edge of the sofa while facing the group audience sitting and standing nearby in the living room. Holding the ukulele in position, I started to strum a high tempo beat that reminded people of a cheerful atmosphere.
{Bruno mars- Count on me}
" ♫♪Oh-oh… If you ever find yourself stuck in the middle of the sea…I'll sail the world to find you…♫♪"
Claire muttered, "He has a lot of songs about seas huh. No wonder as he's the son of a ship's captain." Haley widened her eyes as she heard the intro.
[Haley's commentary]
"Damn it. That song is catchier than mine!"
[Commentary ends]
"♫♪If you ever find yourself lost in the dark and you can't see…I'll be the light to guide you
We'll find out what we're made of…When we are called to help our friends in need…♫♪"
"Another hit!" Phil shouted abruptly, causing all of us to be stunned. I froze and my hand that was strumming the guitar string stopped. I slowly raised my head to look at Phil and said in confusion, "What?"
Phil became apologetic and said, "Sorry. Please continue." Claire and Haley rolled their eyes at him while I shrugged and continued with the chorus.
"♫♪ You can count on me like one, two, three…I'll be there…And I know when I need it, I can count on you like four, three, two…And you'll be there…'Cause that's what friends are supposed to do, oh, yeah…♫♪"
Alex blushed and muttered to herself, "Damn it. Now I can't be mad anymore." Haley let go of her jealousy as she heard the word friends, and started to enjoy the song instead of keeping her vigilance.
"♫♪Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh, yeah, yeah…♫♪"
Luke was humming along unconsciously at the melody while Abby decided to record the whole thing using her Iphone.
"♫♪If you tossin' and you're turnin' and you just can't fall asleep…I'll sing a song beside you..♫♪"
"Really?" Haley said in excitement. Abby rolled her eyes at her and said, "It's only for Alex…Maybe…I don't know."
"♫♪And if you ever forget how much you really mean to me~!
Every day I will remind you, oh~♫♪"
"♫♪We'll find out what we're made of…When we are called to help our friends in need…"
"Everybody!" I called out to the audience for a sing along.
Together: "♫♪ You can count on me like one, two, three…I'll be there…And I know when I need it, I can count on you like four, three, two…And you'll be there…'Cause that's what friends are supposed to do, oh, yeah…"
Edward: Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh, yeah, yeah
"♫♪You'll always have my shoulder when you cry…I'll never let go, never say goodbye…You know…You can count on me like one, two, three…I'll be there…And I know when I need it I can count on you like four, three, two…And you'll be there…'Cause that's what friends are supposed to do, oh, yeah…"
"Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh…
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh…
You can count on me 'cause I can count on you…♫♪"
I ended the melody abruptly and stood up. "Thank you all for coming. Have a nice day."
"Wait-wait-wait! Ed! Why are you chasing us away?!" Claire said with a smirk as she could deduce what I was feeling right now.
"He's embarrassed. He didn't think the song through." Abby added to my misery by explaining to everyone about the situation.
"Hmm? Why are you embarrassed for a song about friends?" Alex asked with a reddish hue on her face from blushing.
"It makes me look like I've never had any true friends before!!" I said in embarrassment before I walked to the stairs. "I'm going to scream in my pillow. Have a good night everyone. Please don't contact me for the next 2 or 3 days. Otherwise the cringe will reappear."
The group laughed at my actions before ending today's gathering. The Dunphy's then said their goodbyes and walked to their house while Abby returned to her home.
[Phil and Claire's commentary]
"I feel bad for suspecting him. Feeling embarrassed from a song about friends proved that he's still a young kid." Claire said and paused for a while as she waited for Phil to talk, but he didn't.
"Phil?" Claire called out to him softly to snap him out of his daydreaming.
"Uh sorry. I'm thinking about my life as a fish. If I'm a fish I have to be a swordfish…or a hammerhead shark…" Phil said in excitement.
"Or a blowfish." Claire added with a smile. Phil laughed as he looked at Claire's face before pushing her shoulder with his finger and said, "Someone's feeling naughty."
Claire was flabbergasted by her unconscious innuendo and gazed into the camera with disbelief.
[Alex's commentary]
"At first, I thought he thought about it a lot when he made the song for Haley. But when this happened, it made me realize that he didn't plan anything at all. Rather, the song is too easy for him to get it out; it's like putting coins into a musical vending machine." Alex said.
She paused and then showed a bright smile afterward, "And that vending machine is my best friend."
Her face turned deadpan and she said, " I really hope he won't date my sister. Ugh. I wanted to puke when I thought about it.."
[3rd Person POV]
"Abby, I'll walk you." Haley said as she separated from her family members to walk with her friends.
"Haley. Don't take too long!" Claire shouted from afar as Haley moved into a different direction from her house.
"Okay mom!" Haley said as she grabbed Abby's arm before whispering, "So. Are we going to talk about it?"
"Talk about what?" Abby asked, trying to play it cool.
"About how you blatantly seduced your ex-boyfriend at his house. I thought you guys were finished. So why did you do that? Do you want him back?" Haley asked while hiding her tumultuous heart.
"I don't know. I lo- Like him. Just because we were broken up, doesn't mean that I can throw away all of my feelings for him. I missed him…a lot." Abby said with a sigh.
She turned to Haley and shared what was in her mind, "Although we said we're going to be friends after. It was… awkward between us. We talked, but it wasn't the same."
"So when we reach a point where we can hang out normally again, all of the feelings I have resurfaced. I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable. You helped me to avoid making things awkward before, right? That's why you sat on him with me?" Abby said, feeling extra grateful today that she has a friend like the girl in front of her.
Haley's eyes shook and she said, "Y-Y-Yeah. It's all planned out."
"You know. You're pretty smart Haley. You helped me in such a sophisticated way. If someday after I had gotten back to New York, and you felt that you wanted to ask Edward out. Do it. I will be rooting for you then." Abby said as she gave Haley a light hug.
[Haley's commentary]
While punching her chest a few times, Haley said in frustration, "The guilt is eating me inside out. UGH! But…thank god Ed and I didn't date. Otherwise…it'll be a disaster."
[Commentary ends]
…
[Edward POV]
"I need a shower." I said as I took off my clothes and walked to the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around my waist.
I turned on the shower and put my head under the cold water to distinguish the excitement my body was experiencing from the girl's attack before this.
"Damn those two girls." I said as I put shampoo on my hair. My lower body kept asking to be 'taken care' of, but I was too tired to care. As I was washing my hair, I suddenly heard the door hinges shrieking quietly as if someone was entering the bathroom. I didn't lock it as I knew I was the only one in my house before I took a bath.
"Hmm?" I peeked at the door with a head filled with soap, but I didn't see anything unusual, just the door was opened slightly.
"The wind maybe." I muttered as I continued to take a bath. After finishing my shower, I put on a robe and walked downstairs to get some coffee as I planned on staying up late today.
Suddenly, the doorbell rang. I was confused as it wasn't time for my dad to get home yet, but then I heard a familiar voice calling for me from the outside.
"Ed. Are you there?" Haley was calling me with a frantic voice. I hurriedly opened the door in case something terrible had happened to her and said, "What happened? Are you alright?"
"No. I'm in trouble. We both are in trouble." Haley said with desperation as she barged into my house. I closed the door and walked toward Haley who directly went to sit at the sofa.
"Explain it to me." I said calmly.
Haley opened her mouth, and then she realized she had almost exposed what Abby had shared to her personally before.
"Anyway. You shouldn't flirt with Abby, or me anymore!" Haley said. I sighed as I thought something terrible had happened. "I know. I'd controlled myself greatly today. It was the two of you that decided to torture me. What are you guys thinking about anyway?"
"When did we torture you?" Haley said as she closed her face with mine, her left hand fell into my thing.
"You know what you were doing this evening, like you're doing right now. Don't put your hand so close. I'm not wearing anything underneath."
Haley blushed, but she didn't take off her hand. "I'm serious about this. No more."
"You said that yesterday too, and today you did it in front of your parents. So forgive me if I can't believe what you're saying right now." I said teasingly. Haley's eyes shook before her gaze was distracted with something else.
She saw the light hickey mark on my neck that became prominent as I took a hot shower before. She was quickly reminded of the affairs of last night, and wanted to remove her hand before she accidentally slipped and it fell straight to my manhood.
"Ah!" Haley let out a cute yelp before she said, "Why are you fidgety"
"Haley! Come on!" I said as I stood up abruptly. "Also I'm not fidgety. But you and Abby's teasing make me almost out of my mind. So, just leave. Before I do something that I would regret."
Haley ignored my words and said, "Wait? You're not? Then…why is it so…"
"Haley. Be sure where you are going with this." I said as I turned toward her. Haley sighed before she said, "Okay. I know."
She stood up from the couch and stood facing me before she said, "Seriously. After today. No more."
"Yeah. No more."
Then, she gave me an unexpected hug. A hug that someone would give if they wanted to say goodbye to someone else. I held the back of her waist as she wrapped her arms around my neck. Then, she realized something was poking at her from underneath.
After a short period of internal struggle, she followed her impulses and said, "You know. It is my fault anyway."
"What is?" I asked in confusion. Suddenly, she infiltrated her hands underneath my robe. "So I-I'll help you to t-take care of this. After that, we're not flirting anymore."
…
After walking Haley almost to her house, I returned to my home to take a nap. I had set an alarm to wake me up at 4 am to finish the game before the 9 am launch.
I planned to send her to her house but she thought if someone saw it, they would get suspicious about it, and only allowed me to 20 meters from her house. I could see she walked in safely, and that was enough for me.
As I laid in the bed and fell into dreamland, I didn't realize that someone was standing nearby my bed and was watching me sleep. The same person who had peeked at me while I was showering was still in my house, as I technically haven't sent her away today after the beta test was over.