Maze

29

Getting together with Lynn lasted longer than expected; neither the three of us realized until the skies had begun to darken. Catching up with her never felt... this good.

Loosening ourselves in the gazebo, we were all smiles and laughter as we reminisced moments where ignorance was truly a bliss, even to the moronic—as per Aly's words—things we had done as kids. On top of that, I grasped more information of the current Edward; the man my younger self would never believe had I told her that this would be the boy she would soon encounter.

Guiding Aly back home, an image of Edward's vacant expression found its way to show up, staring down at me with a frown that seemed to only twitch if I managed to find a needle lost in a haystack. He would then turn around and walk away, disappearing into the confines of my mind. With a high fever like that, he's probably sleeping right now.

Hopefully he gets better soon.

Pushing on my brakes to the red lights and making way for people to cross, I rummaged from my phone. It had been constantly vibrating inside my uniform pocket; that explained the cannonade of new messages filling up my screen. Aside from my best friend telling me she entered the proper bus this time, of course most of these texts came from Mom.

Mom: Rena, where are you? It's getting late

Mom: Jordan wants you to pick him up

Mom: Also also, I got something for you back home rn

Mom: Hope I'm using that right :p

Mom: Rena are you okay?

Mom: Where have you been?

Mom: Renaaaaaa

Mom, seriously? I let out a long breath at such a huge batch of messages. Heck, all of the missed calls both from my lovely brother and her made me shake my head. Immediately I dragged my bike over to the side and started punching my responses.

Rena: Sorry I just saw your texts. I was with my friends, but I'm omw

Mom: There you are

Mom: Gee I'm getting worried

Mom: Thought you lost your phone or something

Mom: But pick up Jordan first before you get back, okay? He's waiting in Sydney Avenue I think

My nostrils flared and my shoulders slumped. As much as I wanted to jump straight to my bed and let him slip out of my mind, there was not much of a choice. What was worse, my brother had been sending me a series of demanding texts I neither replied nor read. The least I wanted was being forced to listen to his endless strings of complaints.

I hastily stowed my phone away and propelled back to the street, my body tagging along with the breeze. Thankfully, when I arrived, my cranky brother was still present, standing by the sidewalk—twice he had gone home when I was about to pick this grumpy boy up. This time, a girl was accompanying him, and they were so engrossed in their conversation, they did not notice me heading towards them.

If I remember correctly, Jordan mentioned his new friend awfully a lot with Mom. Maybe she was the one?

"Jo!" Only at my call, both of their heads jerked simultaneously. And needless to say, he scoffed, furrowing his brows and pressing his lips to form a thin line. Folding his arms, he passed me his darkening look and I sighed once again. And here we go.

I was prepared to put in my ear plugs as soon as he opened his lips. "Do you even check your phone?" He grumbled. "Mom and I called you so many times and you never picked up. I've been waiting you for almost half an hour, I should have left earlier and—"