[Edward POV]
Jay bust out his grill, and Phil was helping him cook some nice steak while Pepper and I had the discussion in the living room.
My Dad was helpless in this matter, therefore he just sat around to provide me emotional support, while my aunt was grinding her teeth at the audacity of the film studio.
"Hmm…So they wanted to include the song as a part of their marketing plan?" I asked, troubled by the sudden change in the schedule.
"Do they know how hard it was? For me to edit the song as Taylor and I recorded our parts in different locations?" I slumped my shoulders, not blaming Pepper at all for the current situation.
While wiping his sweat, Pepper said, "That's their plan, and they are prepared to compensate you for this. But, I still told them I would talk to you about it first. If you feel we should release it now, then I will follow you. "
"Pepper. That is putting too much pressure on him don't you think?" Mitchell interjected as most of the guests inside Jay's house had heard about the current situation.
"Why don't you release 'Put my hands in my pants?' That song is good. (A/N: The Lazy Song)" Luke interrupted while passing by to get away from Manny.
"Cause it doesn't suit the theme." I replied and my mind quickly spun to think about the potential song replacement for "Two is Better than One."
"Go play somewhere else." Cam said as he herded Luke away before returning to his position– standing behind Mitchell.
As the night deepened, I decided to no longer care about it and said, "I'll think about it tomorrow."
Pepper nodded without saying anything else as he understood that I couldn't make the decision wantonly.
As she was in a bad mood, my aunt did something drastic after she caught Elsa and Jacob making out in one of Jay's 5 bathrooms, and had sent them both home– separately of course.
During that time, when I looked at their aggrieved faces, I noticed that they were no longer clingy with each other. In fact, they seemed to abhor each other.
'Did they fight?' I thought as I waved at Jacob while he was driven off.
'Nevermind. I'll call him later.'
The premier was finally over, and my aunt drove me home as my dad needed to head straight to the port. However, she didn't stay over today and left after dropping me off. Apparently she had a 'job' to do, which was a topic that would interest me more if I wasn't in a dilemma right now.
Pepper and the others decided to give me some space to think, therefore no one would try and urge me to come up with an answer.
After taking a quick shower, I changed into my rarely worn pajamas and laid down lazily on my bed. I covered my forehead with the back of my hand as I let out a heavy sigh.
'Now. What should I do? What should I do?' I thought as I racked my brain for the solution.
'I really thought I could finally relax a little tonight. But that was just a pipe dream huh.' I set up an alarm for me to get out of bed after getting some rest on my phone, but…
"I don't think I can sleep again tonight." I mumbled with a heavy tone. "Fuck." I cursed softly as I forcefully closed my eyelids to force myself to sleep. While I was struggling, I heard a metallic sound coming from outside the house, but I just ignored it.
However, I soon heard a knock coming from my window, I was startled by the sound and sat up hurriedly while looking at the closed curtain.
"Wh-Who is it?" I asked with a stutter as I slowly walked to the window.
"It's me." Haley called out from outside.
I opened the curtain, and saw the tiny girl cheekily smiling while looking at me.
"Why are you here?" I asked in confusion as I unlocked the window to let her in.
As she landed inside the room, I saw that she was wearing thick clothing that was covering almost her entire body. I peeked outside and saw that she had carried a ladder to come here. "Smort."
"Thank you." Haley said as she fixed her messy clothes.
"I thought…You'll stay up all night again today. So I come to…offer my service again." Haley said casually while hiding her embarrassment.
"The body pillow service?" I asked and a grin suddenly appeared on my tired face.
"Y-Yes. We can call it that." Haley said while avoiding my eyes. As she was always being teased by me, she wanted to pay back so she said, "But. You need to grab me and throw me to the bed like in the music video-"
Before she could finish her words, I did what she wanted and brought her to the bed. We fall side by side while locking eyes with each other.
"This is a bad idea." I muttered.
"I know."
"We will be in BIG trouble if we keep doing this."
"No need to worry, I have a solid plan this time. I will get back to my house the minute you fall asleep." Haley said as she brushed my hair before tracing my eyebrow with her slender finger. Then, she pulled me closer and cuddled me before closing her eyes. "So. Don't think too much. Just sleep."
[3rd Person POV-Flashback]
Mitchell: "Sooo…."
Haley: "Soooo…."
While Haley hitched a ride with her guncles (Gay uncles), sitting at the back with Lily while the adults were in the front of the car, Mitchell finally spoke up about their earlier topic. He glanced at Cam while hesitating, but Haley said to him, "I don't mind."
"Mind what?" Cam retorted immediately.
Mitchell nodded to Haley and said, "Are you sure about… just being friends?"
"It's not like there's anything else I can do about it." Haley said in self-depreciation.
"Don't say that. You're a beautiful girl. He should be glad you're interested in him." Cam said to reassure Haley before mumbling to himself, "Although…you're not the only one."
"What was that?" Haley said while leaning forward to hear better. Even Mitchell couldn't catch what Cam said.
"Nothing." Cam said smilingly while scratching the top of his head.
"But to be fair Haley. You guys are really different. Maybe not getting together is a good thing?" Mitchell said in a concerned tone.
"We get along well. I mean…Reaaaaaaly well. There's never a dull moment when I am with him." Haley said.
Mitchell smirked and said, "I thought you were moving on. Why are you trying to defend your relationship with him?"
Cam widened his eyes and exclaimed, "OOO….I didn't catch that. Nice one."
"Thank you." Mitchell said with a slight nod before getting back to Haley.
Frustrated, she leaned backward and crossed her arms before pouting.
"I didn't mean to tease you. But, you guys didn't even start, and you just…gave up. When you're so clearly interested in one another."
"Really? You think he likes me?" Haley leaned forward as Mitchell managed to bait her again.
Trying his hardest not to roll his eyes, Mitchell said, "Weren't you the one who told me that before?"
"Oh. right."
"I also think there's more you haven't shared with me yet, but I'm not going to dig into that now. What do you think…Ed will do about the song?"
Mitchell avoided the sensitive topic as the time with his niece was reserved only for him. Cam smiled in understanding and didn't say anything…yet. He'll hold a grudge and slowly retaliate later on.
"I don't think he should agree to it. He worked really hard in order to get everything ready before the singles release. He couldn't even get a little rest, but now, he will not be sleeping again."
Cam got concerned and asked, "What do you mean? Did he have trouble sleeping?"
"CONSTANTLY." Haley said in frustration.
"... Why?" Mitchell asked after a slight pause.
Cam became smug and said, "if you checked the records of the world's geniuses. They'll have a quirk of their own. Van Gogh cut off his own ear. Tesla went crazy and took a pigeon for a bride. There's a lot more examples out there."
"But…you can only remember two of them." Mitchell said, exposing Cam.
He avoided Mitchell's eyes and looked away. Haley fell into a deep thought and mumbled to herself, "Maybe I should go there…just to check up on him…I don't want him to go crazy after all…But first, I need to go change my clothes…to make sure he didn't get tempted to do anything else…"
-Present time-
"Oh. You're already asleep. It's unfair if you keep behaving like this. Why do you fall asleep so easily when you're with me?" Haley mumbled to herself as she studied Ed's sleeping face.
"I'll wait for a few more minutes before I leave."
Although Haley planned to go back to her house, something unexpected happened outside Ed's bedroom window. A peculiar event occurred when a single gust of wind suddenly knocked down the ladder Haley prepared to sneak away, letting it fall to the ground.
Haley heard the clicking sounds, but she didn't expect that it was coming from her escape route as the weather was clear today.
…
[3rd Person POV]
After Camila dropped Edward off at his house, she drove all the way to Calexico- A city on the border of Mexico and California. The part of the city she entered was desolate and quiet, and only the sound of her car engine could be heard.
She pressed a button, and a warehouse door opened automatically. She drove inside of it before the door closed again, and it was like she was never there. Outside of the warehouse, a suspicious black van that had been following Camila since she drove off from Jay's house stopped 100 meters away from the building.
"We finally have a lead. Who is the warehouse registered to?" A geeky agent named Mike asked his other team members.
The lone female member of the team was continuously tapping her keyboard before saying, "It's registered to a Donny Flaco."
"Flaco? Like the drug lord in Brooklyn Flaco? Is Pritchett connected to them?" The leader of the team, a tough looking man that looked like Ryan Reynold asked.
"...I don't think that this is the same Flaco. This Flaco is clean, and only a collector." The hacker said.
" A fake identity then. Wow. This guy is good. He's very clean." The team leader said as Mira sent him the documents to read.
"Or. he's really an ordinary man." The hacker said wryly, as she didn't believe in the entire operation from the start.
The geek took out a parabolic microphone to try and eavesdrop into the building, while excitedly saying, "If she is really meeting with the supplier, we will have the necessary requirement to continue investigating the case-"
"Hey. She's coming out now." The hacker said, cutting off the geek's sentence.
"What happened? Did the deal fall off?" Ryan Reynold look-alike asked hurriedly.
"I…don't know. I was too late." The geek said in frustration.
"Go infiltrate the warehouse, and find out what happened there. Mira, find out all you can about her. And for me…" The Ryan Reynold look-alike combed his hair and used his finger to neaten his eyebrows.
"I'll… seduce her."
Mira rolled her eyes at her team leader while digging out everything the FBI got on Camila and the rest of Jay's Pritchett's family.
-What actually happened inside the warehouse-
"Is it here?" Camila asked in excitement as she met with Flaco.
"Yeah. it's here." Flaco said before revealing a rare car muffler that Camila had been looking for a long time now.
She grinned and rubbed her cheek on the cold metallic coating of the muffler. Then, she threw a couple thousands of dollars to Flaco and said, "I won't go to the race today."
"I know. I know. You want to enjoy putting this beast together huh." Flaco said as he admired Camila's car. However, Camila smiled softly and said, "No. I won't be doing that."
Flaco was shocked to his bone, and almost fell to the ground. "Re-Really? YOU…won't? Camila…The mad racer…won't?"
"Shut up. I need to go be with my nephew." Camila said as she packed the muffler into her car. "Also, I'd quit street racing for years now."
"I see, I see. Too bad. I wanted to see the beast in his prime." Flaco said as he rubbed the engine hood in longing.
"Call me if you find the engine." Camila reminded before she drove away to get back to Ed's house. After a few hours round trip, it was almost 4 am when she arrived back in the town.
Inside Ed's room, Haley was flabbergasted when she wanted to sneak out of the house, only to find out that her escape route had fallen.
'Ed's dad comes back at 7 am, so…I will just go back home at 6.' She thought before she slept next to Ed as his body heat while being in his embrace kept making her sleepy.
When Camila returned to the house, she went to check on Ed in his room as she wanted to see if he wasn't sleeping. That was also the main reason why she returned home, otherwise she would just sleep in a hotel nearby, or stay together with Flaco for the night. Flaco was her friend since she was 18, so she trusted him a lot.
"What the-" She exclaimed as she saw Ed was sleeping with a girl on the same bed together.
But as she saw his peaceful sleeping face, she came to a realization and closed the door slowly before entering the guest room. The room used to be a store room before, and Ed had prepared it to be her place as it was harsh on Ted if she kept stealing his bed. Of course, Ed used professional service on the cleaning as he was too busy to do it on his own.
…
[Edward POV]
I woke up at almost 7 am today, and found out that Haley was no longer next to me.
"When did she go back?" I muttered groggily as I haven't gotten a non-interrupted sleep like that for more than a month now, since I got my memories back.
"24 hours left, before the Singles release. Ughhh…" I said to make myself feel better. The Singles would be released at midnight, therefore I actually have less than 17 hours to decide if I wanted to change the song.
"Guess I won't be going to school today." I muttered as I walked to the kitchen to have some breakfast. Fast forward to the afternoon, and I still haven't come out with a decision.
*Ding Dong*
"Ed. We're here." Cam knocked on the door before giving Lily to me the second I opened it. He barged into the house with his keyboard, and set up the instrument in the living room.
"You know I have my own synthesizer right?" I asked him.
"No. This one's for me." Cam said and looked at me as if I had just asked a dumb question. I was stunned and couldn't even argue with him next before we jammed to a few songs together.
He asked, "Your theme is Love and Heartbreak right?"
"Yeah." I replied. "I can think of several songs to replace it, and bleed the studio dry. Harvey is drawing up a few contracts to make sure I will receive a cut from the box office, and she promised me she can bump my numbers from 2.2 % to 7.5% if I let her handle it. Of course, it all depends on whether I'll push back the song release or not."
"I see." Cam said and went silent after. He only knows the surface knowledge of Hollywood, therefore he wanted to avoid giving me bad advice.
"What songs have you prepared?" He asked as he stopped playing the piano. I was still holding the guitar, and I said, "Well…One of them is named, "Treat you better."
"Why don't you play it, and I'll give my opinion after. Wait- Haley will be back from school in 10 minutes. Why don't we call her here too?"
"Sure." I agreed without thinking much.
[Cam's commentary]
"As much as I like the idea of him dating Taylor, I didn't find any evidence to support that theory. So, if Haley really likes him, then I'll try to help them be together."
Although he tried to be nice about it, his face broke down and he started to sob. "I'm sorry. I thought I could be okay with this…But I'm not." He kept crying before he ran away from the camera screen. The number one EdXTaylor shipper was heartbroken when he finally accepted the reality that the two artists couldn't be together.
[commentary ends]
We had lunch first as we waited for Haley. She then arrived together with Abby and Tara as they were there when Cam called her before this.
"Ed. You'll push back the release? Will you have time to record a new song?" Abby asked.
"IF I want to push it back, Pepper said he'll just rent a nearby studio instead of going to our studio in the desert. As long as I record it within 3 hours of the release, then it'll be fine."
I was confident that I could edit the song in that time as long as there weren't any complications with the machines. It was just an audio release for now, and music video production will be considered after seeing the people's reaction.
"Well then, we shouldn't waste time anymore." Haley said before she dragged Abby away from me and sat together with Tara on the couch. "We'll help you judge whether the song can replace it or not." She added with a cute face.
"Sure. This is one of the options. "Treat you better." I picked the guitar strings as I slowly played the melody.
The beginning of the song was already addictive, and the girls couldn't help but felt excited as they were the first people in the world that could listen to it.
(A/N: It's not the selected song, just the one of the options)
♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪
"I won't lie to you…I know he's just not right for you…
And you can tell me if I'm off,
But I see it on your face,
When you say that he's the one that you want,
And you're spending all your time,
In this wrong situation,
And anytime you want it to stop."
Cam gasped with widened eyes.
[Cam's commentary]
He took out the monthly gossip magazine– February edition that showed an article about how Taylor was badly treated by her previous ex-boyfriend, one of the Jonas brothers – Jose Jonah. The article even mentioned that he 'allegedly' broke up with her over text.
"I KNEW IT!" He said in excitement as he took the songs meaning the wrong way. "He likes her. WE STILL HAVE A CHANCE!" exclaimed the Tayward shipper.
[Commentary ends]
"♫♪I know I can treat you better than he can.
And any girl like you deserves a gentleman
Tell me, why are we wasting time
On all your wasted crying
When you should be with me instead?♫♪"
"♫♪I know I can treat you better
Better than he can♫♪"
I stopped after the first verse as I wanted to play some other songs too, but the group was looking at me in disbelief.
"Why the hell are you stopping? CONTINUE!" Abby demanded and the others agreed with her. Stunned, I nodded and said, "O-Okay."
♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪
"♫♪ I'll stop time for you
The second you say you'd like me too♫♪"
The girls plus Cam squealed as the song directly touched their teenagers or teenage-like sentiment and they couldn't help but fall deeper into my charms.
"♫♪I just wanna give you the loving that you're missing
Baby, just to wake up with you.♫♪"
Haley gulped her saliva as she looked around guiltily.
"♫♪You would be everything I need, and this could be so different
Tell me what you want to do♫♪"
"Damn. I'm falling for him." Tara said while biting her lips.
""NO!"" Abby and Haley admonished her at the same time.
I laughed as I could hear the girls conversation and continued with the chorus,
"♫♪'Cause I know I can treat you better than he can
And any girl like you deserves a gentleman
Tell me, why are we wasting time
On all your wasted crying
When you should be with me instead?♫♪"
"♫♪I know I can treat you better
Better than he can
Better than he can!♫♪"
"This is it. He needs to release this one." Cam said as he sincerely hoped that Taylor would hear this song. He directly called Pepper to notify him about the song.
"♫♪Give me a sign
Take my hand, we'll be fine
Promise I won't let you down
Just know that you don't
Have to do this alone
Promise I'll never let you down♫♪"
Finally, I reached the last chorus verse. At this moment, all 3 girls were propping their chin with their hand as they leaned in to watch me while looking at me with swooned eyes.
"♫♪'Cause I know I can treat you better than he can
And any girl like you deserves a gentleman
Tell me, why are we wasting time
On all your wasted crying
When you should be with me instead?♫♪"
"♫♪I know I can treat you better
Better than he can, oh
Better than he can
Better than he can♫♪"
I ended the song and asked them, "So…what do you think?"
Tara said, "It's a THOUSAND times better than the previous one. I mean, I can't even remember the song-"
"Two is Better than one." Abby helped her.
"Yeah. That." Tara nodded slightly to thank Abby.
"Soo…which girls did you write this song for?" Haley asked.
"Umm..No, I just created this one as it suits the theme." I said while avoiding their eyes. "Next song is-"
Cam interrupted before I could continue playing, "Ed. You don't have much time left. We can all agree that this song is great right?"
"Totally!" The girls supported Cam at the same time. Abby and Haley were elated as they didn't like the previous song as it featured another girl, but they didn't share that feeling with the others.
Cam nodded and said, "Now. You have the song replacement, so why don't we move to a studio to record it. It's to see if you can finish the editing before the release. That way, you can think about it clearly, and you won't feel rushed to make a decision."
"You think so?" I asked.
"I know so. I already called Pepper after the chorus."
I laughed a bit and said, "Okay. We'll record it first. Girls, do you want to come with me?"
"YESSS!" They replied at the same time.