Chapter 67 : Curse of the Yellow Bird (Part 2)

[3rd Person POV]

-Dunphy's family-

"Come on, Claire. I wanna go over there!" Phil said whiningly as he urged his wife who was reading a book while sitting on the dining table.

"See here. He wrote this while he was 10." Claire said while showing the book to Phil.

She muttered flatly, "' Always had a fear of being typical. Looking at my body feeling miserable. Always hanging on to the visual. I wanna be invisible'... I mean. What kind of life had he lived to actually write something like this when he was 10?"

"Don't pretend to care. You're only searching to see if he's done bad stuff . Now, don't invade his privacy any longer. What's done is done. We're giving Ted his family stuff back." Phil said after he snatched the book away from Claire.

The only reason he didn't stop her sooner was because he didn't know what she was reading about. But now that he knew they were wasting time because Claire wanted to know Edward more, they could go over to his house to play the new game now.

"But Phil. If he's becoming family, then I need to know more about him. Give me-" Claire tried to take the book back, but Phil kept it away from her quickly.

"No Claire. Imagine if he found out. Then, he won't talk to us again. Is that what you want?" Phil said while trying to convince Claire.

"FINE! I'll stop!" Claire said in frustration before walking away to change her clothes. She stopped midway, turned to Phil and said, "But you've got to admit. Some stuff in there is worrying. If it were me, I'd put him in therapy immediately."

"I'm sure…he's just expressing his creativity through writing. It's fine Claire. If you're that worried, I'll talk to Ted about this."

"You don't ever talk to anyone about anything. Have you talked to Ed yet about why he spoke Japanese when he was asleep?" Claire said mockingly.

"I will…Soon.!" Phil replied defensively and said, "Go change now. We're really really late!"

Claire suddenly realized something. "Wait Phil. Did Ted say he was going to be home?"

"I don't think so. Also, he's your boss. You are supposed to know." Phil said in confusion. Claire checked her laptop, which was open on the kitchen counter quickly and her face turned spooked.

"Phil! He's at work!"

"So?"

"That means, there's no adults there! The kids are partying…without anyone to supervise OH GOD. THEY ARE GOING TO MAKE LOVE!" Claire said then ran to her bedroom to change her clothes quickly.

"NO THEY WON'T!" Phil shouted to Claire to reassure her while keeping complete faith in Edward.

…

[Edward POV]

"Uhhhh…"

To be honest, I have no idea what to do now. I've had girls on my lap before, but normally only one at a time. I should be able to enjoy these feelings of something new, but why the hell did it make me anxious instead.

"This is, a card game? Are people going to be playing card games on their phones?" Abby said while gently pressing her firm buttocks on my hips. As the two girls continued moving, the flag was raised at half mast, and I didn't know how long I had until it reached full mast.

"I'm sure he'll do great. Let me see the Kwazy Cupcake plans again." Haley said while pushing Abby's buttock away with her ass and perching hers on my hips too. Then, she took it a step further and started grinding slightly.

My half-mast was now surrounded by each of their cheeks and was raised slowly, and it's entering the danger zone. Luckily I was wearing jeans so it was a bit restricted at the moment, but it was still pushing against the girls, which made them even more excited.

"Guys. if you don't get off of him, I'll spray you with a hose." Tara said with a deadpan expression as she watched her two best friends compete with each other and completely victimize me in the process.

"Yeah Haley. Go sit with Tara. There's a spot open near-" Abby turned to look at the 3 seat couch, only to find that Tara had changed seats to sit with her little sister at the 2 seat couch, and Jenna had sat on the empty seat there.

But something even more eye-catching at the 3 seat couch was that Elsa was sitting on Jacob's lap and in between his arms and was playfully kissing his neck as he was playing the game.

"That's…so brazen…" Abby mumbled under her breath before glancing sneakily at my face. Haley did so too and she started leaning back into my embrace.

"No." I replied curtly before the doorbell rang and pinched both of their asses, causing them to let out a cute yelp at the same time. Claire knocked on the door anxiously from outside saying, "Hello Ed. We're here!"

"OH MY GOD!" Haley was flabbergasted and pulled Abby with her as she dove to the floor the instant Claire was opening the unlocked door. Claire and Phil walked in, and Gloria walked to the living room from the kitchen to greet them, as she was excited to see another adult there.

While the trio was talking, Haley and Abby sneaked away– crawling on the ground to get to the 2 seat couch directly in front of Edward's seating spot.

"Tsk Tsk Tsk." Tara clicked her tongue at her friend as she watched them in their miserable state.

"Shut up." Abby and Haley said the same thing to Tara. She shrugged and continued playing the game while talking with her sister.

"Is this a normal occurrence for you?" Enid asked her sister in a whisper.

"Kinda. Both of them are pretty weird." Tara replied casually.

"You. Get off him." Claire said while snapping her finger as she pointed at Elsa. Although dissatisfied, Elsa reluctantly slid down to the floor, leaning her back on Jacob's legs as she didn't want the adult there to report it to her mother.

"Hi Claire. Phil, you're looking dapper." I greeted both of them without standing up as my body needed time to calm down from the attack before.

"I mean. I always look handsome. Claire could back me up." Phil said jokingly, which was met with an awkward smile by Claire.

"Ay Claire. They aren't doing anything. They are just playing games. Don't bother them." Gloria said as she tried to pull the adults away.

"Dad, do you want to play?" Luke called Phil from his spot. The two kids were completely oblivious to what was happening behind them as they were focusing on the game before.

"Ed. Whose laptop is this?" Phil said as he pointed at the laptop Luke and Manny were playing with. "That's my dad's."

"Oh yeah. You're still using the laptop we bought before? How is it?"

I was a bit confused when Phil was searching for reaffirmation from me, so I replied, "Yeah. It's a great laptop. You showed real skills for picking the right one, Phil."

Phil celebrated happily with a turn and a fist pump. "Eat it Claire."

"Eat what?" Claire said in confusion.

"You always thought I picked useless things. Ed is telling you that I don't."

"Is this about the new thermostat again?" Claire rolled her eyes before the couple started to bicker with each other. Suddenly, the doorbell rang again.

"Wait." I looked around to see that all of the people I'd invited had already arrived, so I was confused as to who was at the front of the door. " Did any of you invite anyone else?" I asked the question to the group.

"No/Nu-uh/Who has other friends?/ Who did it?/Who is at the door?"

Murmurs were coming from everyone, but no one actually got up to open the door. Claire was in disbelief and shook her shoulders before saying, "Fine. I'll do it."

She opened the door only to find a police officer in front of the house.

"What's going on officer?" Claire asked with a hint of nervousness.

"Oh. Hey Buddy." I called out from my seat.

"Ed! Don't call a cop buddy! They hate that. Be cool." Abraham said hurriedly as if he was actually guilty of something.

"No. That's my dad's friend. Buddy." I said while walking to the door.

"Who wants some tea?" Gloria suddenly walked outside the kitchen with a few glasses of iced lemon tea I had prepared. "I'll have one. Thank you." Jenna said to Gloria as she picked one glass from the tray.

"Hi Ed. Long time no see." Buddy said.

"Yeah. "Dylan's car was set on fire the last time you were here."I replied casually before hearing someone spitting out her drink and coughing a lot in the living room.

"Ay What's wrong? Why you spit? Did I mistake salt for sugar again?" Gloria asked hurriedly as she helped Jenna wipe her mouth with a napkin.

With a strained voice, Jenna said, "No. Just entered the wrong pipe," as Gloria finished wiping for her.

"So. No napkin for me?" Abraham said, his face drenched in ice lemon tea, as Jenna had previously accidentally aimed her projectile at him.Gloria gasped as she finally noticed him and said, "You need to change your clothes."

"You can borrow my shirt. First Floor. Haley can show you the way." I said from afar as Claire and I were talking with Buddy.

"Why are you here?" I asked the cop.

Buddy was feeling a bit guilty so he explained, "No, See…Actually, someone called the station and said that some teenagers were partying with booze and having a…sex party here. I didn't want to but I had to come here to check if the report was true, which it clearly isn't. Obviously someone filed a false report. It happens sometimes, people have too much free time (Karen) and think the police are their own goon squad. Sorry Ed, I'll leave you alone now."

Buddy turned his back to leave but I said, "Wait. If someone did that, they are probably somewhere nearby… perhaps taking a few pictures to share online…or with the rest of the school tomorrow.So why don't you come in and try out the game I made? I'll appreciate any feedback you may have."

Buddy turned to look around the neighborhood before making eye contact with a blonde haired teenage girl who was taking a picture of him talking with me from afar from inside a green convertible.

"HEY!" Buddy shouted at the girl, and she pressed the gas pedal and drove away hurriedly after getting what she wanted.

"This…is going to be a problem. I'll need to get back to the station-" Buddy said, almost walking away, but I grabbed his shoulder to stop him.

"Why? So you can search the license plate? Just come in. The picture and the slander will surely be on Facebook a few minutes later. Maybe they are there now. So please come in and we'll see who is the culprit together."

Buddy gave up and nodded before walking into the house. He used the laptop to play the game and took a commemorative picture with all of the guests inside the house before getting back to the station. In the meantime, I had already called Harvey and explained the situation to her.

"Yeah. Sure. If they are stupid enough to use their own accounts or you can get the IP address, I can sue them for defamation, slander, libel, anything you want and make sure to teach her a lesson." Harvey said from the other line. "If they're over 18 I can insert counts for pedofilic actions there." She said viciously.

"Thanks babe. I knew I could count on you."

…

[Jenna POV]

Although Ed had asked Haley to lead the nerd into his room, I took the lead instead and guided the geek there as if I had entered his room before. As the situation was too chaotic downstairs, no one actually noticed that I was doing it.

"Well…Sorry, but I'm not interested in girls like you-" Abraham said as we walked into Edward's room. I threw a random shirt at him and promptly kicked him out of the room before he could say or do anything.

"He-he~" I couldn't help but let out a giggle as I was alone inside the room.

"It smells like him." I muttered as I lay in his bed and started sniffing his pillow. Without me realizing it, my hands reached underneath my skirt, but I quickly stopped myself after a minute and said, "What the hell am I doing? He'd hate me if he knew. He's a clean freak after all!"

Then, I walked out of the room, not knowing that I had left my scent all over his bed sheet and pillows over there.

[Edward POV]

While in the living room, I hung up the call before talking to Haley. "Hey, can you check who's the one who will be posting the picture?"

"Are you sure? I don't think anyone would do it on their real account." Haley said as she opened her Facebook page on my laptop. As a lot of people were interested in the scandal, I changed the TV screen to show the Facebook site instead of the game scoreboard.

"Imma bet 20 bucks that nothing will happen." Abraham said to Jacob. "Okay. Deal." Jacob said, and they shook hands on the bet.

"Wait. Someone tagged me in something." Haley said before clicking on the notification that popped out on the bottom left of her profile. "Madelyn posted this a minute ago."

"THAT BITCH!" Tara cursed out loud as she read the Facebook page.

The culprit claimed that my party was shut down by the cops, and that I was arrested– she knew I was trouble of all sorts, claiming everyone who came here were sluts, and even the picture of me talking with Buddy before this was taken from an angle where people couldn't see Claire in the picture who was actually standing by my side.

"Told ya." Jacob said to the beleaguered Abraham, who had run out of money.

"I thought she would use a fake account to do it. I didn't think she would be dumb enough to post it on her real profile." Abby muttered.

"Yeah…" I said before emailing Harvey the details of the defamation.

"Ed. Are you really suing her?" Claire said in concern. "She's pretty young, she might've made a mistake-"

"Claire. She was smart enough to use the police to back up her claims. She was smart enough to use the media to slander me. I'm doing her a favor now. She needs to learn the consequences of her actions. Some people live their lives without anyone holding them responsible for their shitty behavior; they live their entire lives thinking it is okay for them to do this kind of stuff."

"...You're kind of scary now." Luke was reminded of how persistent I was with his bike conspiracy prior to this.

"But Ed. "Won't it be better to forgive?" Manny said as he couldn't pry his eyes away from the beautiful girl's Facebook pictures displayed on the screen.

"Manny. You're talking with your dick. Pretty doesn't mean they're not responsible for their actions." I said before turning to Haley, leaving a stunned Manny and Gloria, who were trying to cover his ears as I cursed, but it was too late.

"Can you post something for me?"

"S-Sure." Haley replied with a stutter as she too thought that I was looking extra scary even though I had a smile on my face the entire time.

Tara said hurriedly, "Ed. I'm really sorry for this. It's all my fault. If I didn't tell Madelyn about where you-"

"Don't worry about it. It's not your fault. I'd expected this after she asked me out, and I rejected her before."

With their eyes widened in shock, Haley and Abby exclaimed at the same time, "She asked you out?!"

I was a bit startled by their synchronization before I answered, "Y-Yeah. She told me to forget about what happened before, but in no way did she give me an apology for it. She said, and I quote, 'You can do whatever you want with my body' . But honestly, I'd rather touch a 100-day-old rotting corpse with maggots than actually touch her."

Jenna heard my words and blinked her eyes slowly twice before asking, "Did you say that to her face?" And she continued under her breath, "...like you did to me?"

I didn't quite catch what she said at the end, but I answered her with a short smile regardless, "No. I actually put a lot of effort into… not doing that. I didn't say anything to her."

"I'm sorry for before...you know...when I called you names," I said as I noticed she was avoiding my gaze. "You turned out to be a pretty good friend when I got to know you better."

Jenna beamed up and giggled to herself shyly while Elsa rolled her eyes at her best friend. "Great. Now she's going to be even more insane." Elsa muttered.

"Ed. Maybe if you get to know that girl better too-" Phil tried to intervene to diffuse my anger.

"Nah. This is different. She maliciously schemed against me. I won't forgive her so easily." I said decisively before typing something on Haley's feed and attaching the picture of the cop before.

Phil attempted to calm me down once more, "But. Ed. She's so young-"

"Phil. You do know she's the reason why Haley and I fought before this right?"

Phil widened his eyes before declaring seriously, "Burn her to the ground."

"PHIL!" Claire admonished him quickly.

[Hey guys, Edward Newgate here, borrowing Haley Dunphy's Facebook page. Big things are coming soon, so look forward to them.

I know some malicious rumors have been started around here, but here we are with the one and only Buddy we know and we love, settling things right with the law. Don't buy into the filth out there, and don't worry, our label's legal team is already working hard to protect our good name.]

The picture showed Buddy the cop smiling while being with a group of children, therefore, it would change the slander narrative that I was arrested by the police. If the people were smart enough, they would figure out that Madelyn was lying. If they couldn't figure it out, that was just an indictment of the American education system.

"By the way, 2000 friends? Do you even know all of them?" I asked Haley jokingly after uploading the post. Likes and Comments notifications begin popping out before I log out of Haley's Facebook account on my laptop.

"Okay, let's continue with the beta test. I want to finish the game tonight." I told the group to change the topic.

The testing went on for 3 more hours before I finally got the data I needed. One by one, the guests left the house. I gave Abraham the empty container back after we had all enjoyed his mother's brisket before this.

"Say thanks to your mom. And don't forget to give her this." I said while handing him a slice of tiramisu cake to take home.

"At least this will soothe the anger in my heart." Abraham said in a depressed tone.

"Big deal. Alex ignored you, and Haley beat your high score easily. Maybe you should consider the undeniable fact that… 'you suck' instead of blaming it on others-"

"Bitch!" Abraham cursed before laughing out loud at my joke and waving goodbye as he walked to his mother's car.

Next were Jacob and Elsa, who were dissatisfied as I caught them in front of my room trying to find a private place to make out with each other.

"Don't be mad. Next time, maybe you'll get lucky and Jacob's mom will need to go on a church cruise or something. Besides, it's too risky to do it here anyway as there are a lot of adults here at the moment."

"Okay. Stop talking about it." Elsa said while pulling Jacob away. "We're going to go and watch a movie at the mall. We can make out there."

As Elsa, the little girl, pulled the giant Jacob away, he said, "I would love that."

Manny and Gloria had headed home earlier than everyone else as Jay planned to take them out for dinner at a restaurant. Jay wished me all the best with my launch and even offered to invest in the game, but I rejected him as the game was almost completed.

After Jacob left, Tara and Enid were picked up by their parents to get home as they had plans to go on a vacation together.

"You're quite a good gamer Enid. I hope we can hang out again soon." I said to the little one.

"...Wait. Really? You want to hang out with me?"

"Yeah. Aren't we already friends now? That's what friends do?" I was confused by her choice of words, but then I noticed that her face lit up with happiness. She tried to control it and act cool though, saying, "Sure. I'll hang out with you if you want."

"Sweet. Bye!~" I waved goodbye at the two siblings before returning to the living room. I snapped my fingers at Alex before saying, "Let's go take the pictures. I want to see what suits you best."

"O-Okay."

"Wait. I wanna model too." Haley said in a hurry before following us from behind. "I want to watch." Abby said as she followed the group too.

Claire said to Phil, "I should probably go supervise them…"

(Author: Its been a tough couple of days. I want to get right back into writing, but I find myself unable to do it immediately. I will slowly get back into it.)