Chapter 43: Argument.

[Edward POV]

Mr. Green came to pick us up after the party was over. Although he saw we were a bit drunk, he didn't scold us and even teased Jacob when he saw the lipstick mark on his neck. The Viking dad widened his eyes in surprise after he heard the tale of the fight from Jacob as we were riding in his car. Jacob was sitting next to the driver while I sat in the back seat.

He looked sideways from his position with his eyes on the road to scan Jacob up and down with skepticism.. "You. Tackled someone?"

"Yeah Mr. Green. He tackled 2 boys at the same time." I vouched for the shy Jacob.

Mr. Green turned to look at me and said, "Do you know why Jacob didn't join the football team even after all the training he has done? It's because he's afraid of anything physical."

'More likely he was too soft to inflict pain on someone else.' I thought.

Finally, I realized why Mr Green was so doubtful about the fact that his son fought someone. He placed his palm on Jacob's shoulder and said with a soft, yet proud smile. "My son is all grown up."

"Yeah like a mini giant." I muttered underneath my breath at the side without Mr Green being able to listen to it.

"Finally, this means you can try out for the football team. We'll start your training again before you're going to high school next year." Mr. Green declared. Jacob tried to object and turned to me for help, but I ignored his desperate plea because I was too tired.

I recalled the events before we rode home as I closed my eyes. Jenna called a limousine for Penny to drive her home after I objected to her suggestion of calling a cab for Penny.

"Why? Do you want to go home with her? Huh?"

Jenna got up close to my face and was being stubborn.

"If you want to get some tonight, just stay at the house-"

"Jenna. You're pretty, so people won't tell you this straight to your face. Shut your piehole if you have nothing good to say."

Seeing my menacing gaze, Jenna took a step back fearing I would hate her if she continued talking about it. Suddenly, her fear turned into excitement. She broke into the brightest smile I had ever seen her wear and said coquettishly, "So. You think I'm pretty?"

"Shut. Your. Piehole Jenna!" I said sternly once more before I gave up on trying to have any rational conversation with the girl.

Penny the waitress didn't have her id or wallet on her as everything was kept by the agency to prevent a possible identity leak. She also didn't have any clothes with her, and was only wearing a teeny tiny bikini. As the night deepened, the cold wind was severe. Therefore I could see her…'something' protruding from her bikini.

I advised her to quit the job immediately that night in case they sent her off to another mansion where she could become a plaything for the high society – not that she couldn't take care of herself on her own.

After I investigated the company that she registered with in the future, I would find out that they did a lot of shady stuff. Luckily, Penny was still a newcomer and she was still just a simple waitress for now. She could quit the job quite easily and without any hassle.

'A simple dreamer huh…'

As I took one last look at Penny's anxious face, I couldn't help but wonder.

'When reality hits her, she will stop pursuing her dreams…which is kinda sad…'

Holding the phone with her contact number inside of it, I couldn't help but want to at least help her get started.

"She really is just a mediocre actress…All she ever did was that stupid serial-Apeist movie…and its sequel."

The opportunities for her wouldn't be abundant, but at the very least she could add something else that was good to her resume if I interfered.

When I arrived home, my mind was already tired from the fight, the alcohol, and the persistent 14 year old who threw herself at me all day. Now, I only wanted to sleep and do nothing else. But the moment I opened the door, I knew that I wouldn't be able to get what I wanted.

"Hey hot stuff." Abby said while waiting for me in the living room. Wearing a cropped tank top and a red plaid miniskirt, she walked to me as I closed the door and wrapped her hand gently on my waist while maintaining eye contact.

"You had some fun tonight." Abby still maintained a smile, but for some reason I felt ominous inside. "What did you do over there?" She asked.

"Well…My palm is still sore from continuously slapping some ruffians who want to make some trouble." I said as I fixed a stray hair on Abby's face back and slid the stray hair behind her ear. She saw that my palm was still red and bit her lips in anger at the brats.

"Anyway, I'm pretty tired now. Do you want to sleep together with me? We can cuddle." I teased Abby as she continued staring at me.

"That can wait. Do you want to tell me about anything else that happened tonight?" Abby asked again with gritted teeth, but still maintaining her smile.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Nothing." Abby replied curtly and released her hand from my body before she went to sit at the sofa again. I walked to the sofa and placed my phone at the coffee table as I stared at her face. She continuously avoided my gaze which was kinda cute, but also unnerving at the same time.

"I'm going to take a shower." I said as I ignored the annoyed girl and walked upstairs to my room. "Don't peep."

"I'm not going to peep!" Abby shouted in anger and threw the sofa pillow at my back. I chuckled and finished my shower before getting out of the bathroom wearing only a towel wrapped around my waist.

"Hey Abby." I said as I walked toward her with my hair still wet.

The sudden intrusion caused Abby to be flabbergasted. "Wh-what do you think I came here for? I didn't come here for that!"

"Ahh…Too bad…" I exclaimed sadly as I sat next to her without putting on my clothes yet. "Anyway, why are you being so sulky tonight?"

"So you noticed that huh? Can't you also notice that I'm sitting here quietly stewing while waiting for you to come out of the shower? Why shower- So you can wash away any evidence?" Without looking me in the eye, Abby started to argue with me which left me quite befuddled.

She was projecting her past experience in our relationship, but I missed the clue at this moment.

"Why are you mad at me?" I asked in confusion.

She turned her face quickly, gazed me in the eye and said, "I know what you did at the party."

"What? The fight?" I asked.

"Not that." Abby replied.

"The drinking?" I asked.

"Not that."

"Then, I'm stumped. I don't think I did anything to make you mad at me, except for that."

"Think…REAL…hard…" Abby said deliberately.

So I put my finger underneath my chin and started thinking. "Umm… What did I do…What exactly did I do…Oh, are you upset because I bought the cake and marked it as company expense? In my defense, I don't have a bank account yet so I can't use my own money."

"NOT THAT!" Abby said in a high pitched voice while crossing her arms. "I know about the kiss!"

"What kiss?" I asked as I looked at her face. "I didn't kiss anyone."

"The kiss with the waitress?"

"I kissed a waitress?"

"Don't play dumb with me, you incubus!"

"I want to say sorry, but I have no idea what you're talking about right now. Are you pranking me or being serious?"

"I am being serious!"

"Then what waitress- Oh, you meant Penny?" I finally realized what she was talking about.

"See…so you finally admit it?" Abby said menacingly.

"It was an accidental peck on the lips. It's not like we want to kiss each other." I explained calmly.

"Then, did you get her number after the kiss?" Abby said angrily. "Why? Was it so that you could meet her and kiss her again?"

"No. I only- Wait, how do you know all of this?" I suddenly realized that there was no way for Abby to know about any of that as the kiss happened at the end of the party.

"Did you send someone to spy on me- Is Enid THE SPY?" I widened my eyes in realization after playing all the possible scenarios in my head and eliminating the suspects one by one.

"How- No.We're going to talk about the kiss first." Abby returned to the original topic, but I was a bit too annoyed at this moment, and a little bit hurt too.

"You didn't trust me being at that party so you felt the need to spy on me?"

"WHY DID YOU KISS HER THEN?!" Abby yelled in anger as she stood up.

"I DIDN'T KISS HER!" I yelled back and stood up with her.

"Don't lie to me!" Abby shouted with teary eyes.

I rubbed my head in frustration and calmed myself down.Taking a deep breath, I replied "Okay. She was kissing my cheek to thank me, and I stumbled so her lips accidentally brushed with mine. We didn't kiss willingly, nor were we interested in one another."

"Then, delete her number." Abby demanded while giving me my phone back as I had left it on the coffee table.

"Why would I delete her number?"

"So you're interested in her then?! BOY WITH MOMMY ISSUES!" Abby said in frustration.

Still trying to keep my calm, I explained, "She is an aspiring actress. Who almost got tricked into an escort for hire agency, So I promised to contact her if I ever needed an actress."

"Don't do that!" Abby said with a raised voice.

"Do what?!" I replied in frustration.

"Speak calmly! It's as if I'm the one who's over reacting!"

I sighed and I tried to say calmly, "You…You're not not overreacting. I understand your feelings, but you need to learn how to trust me."

"I hate that!" Abby yelled again with tears in her eyes. "Being so understanding and all that! I'm not a hysterical woman that you need to talk to like I'm a child!"

Frustrated, I said with a bit of a raised voice, "So you want me to keep raising my voice and be mad at you?"

"Yes!" Abby replied honestly.

Therefore I gave her what she wanted.

"So are we going to talk about how you spied on me? Who is Enid?"

"Well…Enid is Tara's sister." Abby explained before she exploded once again. "Are you really not going to delete her phone number?!"

We argued for 15 minutes after that. I don't even remember what exactly we were arguing about. In the end, we were both tired so we sat back on the sofa side by side.

With her head resting on my right shoulder, she finally said, breaking the silence in the room, "It used to be simple, you know."

"Yeah." I replied in understanding.

"We hung out, we had fun together before. I didn't have to think about anything else except for that.. Now that we are dating, I can't help but feel miserable every time I see you with another girl."

"... Do you still feel… miserable right now?" I asked although I was afraid of the answer.

"...Yeah…But…it's not that I hate you…I'm just…scared… I don't even care about the waitress…But I care about you leaving me…" Abby sobbed and tears finally fell from her eyes.

"I can't help but think you're going to cheat on me, even though I know you wouldn't. I know it's unfair to you, and I hate myself for feeling this way."

She covered her eyes with her palm as her tears continued to fall. I wrapped my arms around her shoulder and pulled her closer to me to comfort her.

"So what do you want to do now?" I asked even as my chest started to hurt. "What are We supposed to do now?"

"It was easier when we were just friends." Abby said with some hesitation. "We're only going to be dating for 1 more month. I think…It's a mistake…for us to start a relationship that we both knew was going to…end."

"Is that…how you really feel?" I asked.

She turned to look at my face and lied, "Yes."

…

In front of Abby's house.

"You didn't have to walk me back." Abby said as she stopped in front of the door and turned toward me.

"I didn't have to. But I wanted to." I replied with a soft smile. "Just because we've broken up now, that doesn't mean that I will stop caring for you."

Abby hugged me a long time before she separated, her eyes were glassy and her chin was quivering. I wiped the lone tear that ran down her left eye with my finger and said with a sly smirk, "Who knows, maybe we can be friends with benefits after this."

She rolled her eyes and the sad atmosphere was destroyed instantly.

"Go home and stop daydreaming." Abby said and showed her tongue at me as she opened the door.

"That wasn't a no!" I yelled playfully from afar as she entered the house and slammed the door.

As she disappeared from my sight, I no longer felt the need to fake my smile. My face turned expressionless and I walked slowly back to my house alone in the middle of the night.

The cold wind blew once more, as I stopped and raised my head to look at the moonless sky. A drop of rain fell right on my left cheek, but I felt no urgency to reach home.

"Spring rain huh. That's rare." I muttered as I continued walking at a slow pace.

Although I had the break up experience, it was never easy for me to do it again, especially with someone I cared so deeply about.

She was traumatized because of her dad– someone that I will make sure to beat up if I ever had the misfortune to meet. Her choice to label what we had as a 'fake relationship' was her way to circumvent the trauma, but she still couldn't bring herself to trust anyone, despite all of our affection for one another.

However, like Abby, I too had my own worries in continuing the relationship. Every time someone brings up the topic that she would one day return to New York, or when I realized that I couldn't hold on to her forever, it kills me a little bit inside.

"Maybe this is for the best." I muttered before a few more droplets of rain fell on top of my head. But I guess I was lucky that I arrived home before the rain finally started to pour.

"So I guess I'm lucky? Even the sky is mocking me sarcastically right now." I muttered as I entered the door and went straight to my bedroom.

I laid on top of the bed, just trying to repress anything that I might have felt that night. I even took the sleeping pills that Mrs Henderson gave me to help me sleep, but I still kept staring at the ceiling till 3 am– struggling with my thoughts.

'Calm down. Don't open the dam. Everything will come out if you open it. Just continue to repress. Repress. Repress. Repress. Repress. Repress. Repress. Repres…"

Anger, unfairness, longing, rage, despair, desperation…My thoughts kept changing, and I felt as if my heart had been ripped out from my chest.

By this day, repressing things was my usual routine for every night since I became Edward Newgate. It wasn't fun to repress things, but that was how I coped. Breaking up with Abby tonight became a trigger for my emotions to bubble up once more.

"FUCK!" I cursed in the middle of the night. I wasn't sure what time I fell asleep, but I was sure that I saw the sun coming up before I managed to do so.

(A/N: Some of you will think he's pathetic, but read back the previous few chapter cause I showed signs of him being a little depressed - insomnia, pushing himself to work, needing alcohol to sleep, and so on. )

[3rd Person POV]

Abby closed the door and rested her back against it. Her left hand was still holding the doorknob–shivering as she wanted to open the door and ran back toward him.

"What's going on dear?" Desiree walked into the living room as she heard the front door being opened and saw Abby shivering at the front door.

"Did something happen?" She asked as she hurriedly got to her daughter. Suddenly, Abby hugged her and buried her face in her mom's chest and without explaining anything, Abby broke down crying. She grabbed her mother's robe tightly till her hands felt numb as her sobs turned to wail.

"What's going on Abby? Did someone hurt you?" Desiree asked anxiously as it was rare to see her daughter cry.

"Did Edward do something to you?" Although Desiree felt that Edward was a nice kid, she still felt the need to ask just in case he had done something to hurt her daughter.

After a while, Abby explained in a broken sentence mixed with her sobbings.

"No…(Cry) We…broke up!"

It took Desiree a long time to calm her daughter down and listen to the entire story. She respected her daughter's decision to end things, and she realized something from Abby's cry.

As she took her daughter to bed and kissed her forehead when Abby fell asleep, Desiree muttered, "You don't even know that you love him. My stupid little girl…"

After the long night for both Abby and Edward, a new day finally arrived.

Inside the Newgate's house, Ted was confused when he realized that his son wasn't waking up on time to go to school as usual. Finally, he decided to enter Edward's room to find out what was going on.

Ted shook Edward's motionless body after he placed his palm on Edward's head to check for a fever.

"Hey, Ed…wake up…Time for school…" Ted said whisperingly.

"Umm…" Edward groaned but he wasn't waking up from the bed. Ted sighed and asked, "Did Abby come by last night?"

"She did…and we broke up…" Edward replied groggily.

Ted finally understood why his son wasn't waking up today. "Okay. I'll call your school and let them know you won't be going today. I'll come by this afternoon and we'll do something fun." Ted said and brushed Edward's hair before he went to work.

"Umm…" Edward groaned once more as an agreement before he continued sleeping.

…

Palisades High School.

Haley was texting Abby after finding out that she didn't come to school today.

"She still isn't answering?" Tara asked Haley as she sat next to her in class.

"No..I'm worried.." Haley muttered with a face full of concern. "She was being weird last night after knowing Edward kissed another girl."

Tara scratched her face and said, "Yeah…about that…"

Haley finally turned to her friend and asked, "What?"

"They didn't kiss on purpose. It was an accident."

"Wait seriously? Did you tell Abby that?"

"I did. But she still hasn't responded to me." Tara said.

"I…will ask my mom to talk to her mom." Haley said as she texted Claire who was working from home at that time.

Claire read the text message, and called Desiree with the house phone. They talked for a while, and Desiree finally told Claire what really happened.

"THEY broke up!?" Claire was flabbergasted when she heard it.

"Yeah." Desiree replied from the other line. "I'm taking her somewhere fun to get her mind off things today."

"I see…I'm going to go check up on Ed." Claire said hurriedly. Phil suddenly appeared out of knowhere–standing behind Claire and asked, "Check up on Ed for what?"

Claire raised her hand to stop Phil and continue to listen to Desiree.

"Check up for what?" Phil asked again with a whisper.

"They broke up." Claire whispered back without putting down the phone.

"Who?"

"Edward and Abby."

Phil couldn't believe his ears. "Oh my god seriously? I'm going with you to see him." At the moment, there was no plot to set up Ed with his daughters, but he truly cared about Ed and wanted to go and check up on him.

Claire finally ended the call and stopped Phil as he was running to the front door.

"Phil. Let me call Ted first. We don't know whether he is at home now." Claire said hurriedly. At this moment, she received another text from Haley asking about Abby's situation, so she texted her back without thinking much.

In Palisades high school, while the class was commencing.,

"THEY BROKE UP!?!" Haley suddenly stood up and shouted, almost giving her teacher a heart attack. Her face was full of disbelief and she started to text blast Abby while still standing.

"Miss Dunphy, what are you doing?!" The teacher shouted at her. "Sit down!"

"Eh." Haley realized that she was still in class and sat back down after apologizing to the teacher.