[Edward POV]
Thursday. Late at night. Today, I stayed at my previous house as my seaside villa was crowded with paparazzis and fanatical fans trying to get the truth.
There were a few paparazzis in the neighborhood when I ca by, however, I snuck into my own house from the backyard and jumped to the window, so they didn't notice that I was there.
My dad and Frankie stayed behind at the seaside villa with the rest of my family mbers to give the paparazzis the illusion that I was there. No less than an hour after I got here, the paparazzis in the neighborhood all left to stake out at my sea side villa instead.
"Damn, this reminds of the 'Bieber Fever'." I muttered as I closed the curtains to my room before opening my book. Fans were following everywhere I went– especially my tween fans. This made wonder, didn't they have school? Were their parents enabling their behavior by letting them behave like this?
Exhaustion was prominent on my face as I stopped using my rest skill to sleep, which ant, I only got an hour or two hours worth of sleep daily.
Last night, it was longer, and it made start dreaming again– sothing that I hadn't really done since I started coming to the world. I dreamt of a scene where I saw my aunt bleeding out in my arm. Their resistance in Cuba had borned no results, and they were suppressed by the governnt's army.
As I recalled the dream, I furrowed my eyebrows and rubbed my forehead in concern. Suddenly, I heard a knock coming from the bedroom window. I jumped out of the chair and stealthily went to peek behind the curtains. There, I saw Haley waving at while standing on a ladder.
Breathing a sigh of relief, I opened the door and asked whisperingly, "Why did you co here– Better yet, how did you know I'm here?"
As I grabbed her hand and pulled her into the room, she replied with a struggle, "Amy told—- !" She breathed heavily as she was tired from the run to get here. "She said there's no food in your house, so I want to stop by–"
When Haley said that, she realized that she had forgotten sothing. I chuckled and said, "So, you have ti to do your hair and put on so makeup, but you forget to grab the food?"
"Shut up, I'll just go ho and grab it again." Haley rolled her eyes, but as she wanted to climb the door back down, I saw a paparazzi coming out of his car with his cara in his hand, so I pushed her head down and crouched on the ground.
"Get down." I told the confused Haley as I slowly closed the window and curtains while not making a sound.
"You seem like a criminal." Haley comnted as we both were crouching on the floor. I chuckled and said, "I am one. It's a cri to be this handso."
Haley giggled before she gasped as she noticed my hands, "You have a tattoo!"
"Temporary tattoos." I replied before I said, "Let's go downstairs. It's not ideal to stay in my bedroom for a long ti."
Haley beca confused again and she asked as I duck-walk away, "Why is it not ideal?"
I turned to her and said mischievously, "Oh, I'm a little hungry, and also pent up. One way or another, I'm going to eat sothing, so we need to make sure it's food."
She smacked my back as she heard it, her cheek blushed a little. "Pervert! I should've never co!"
"It's too late for regret now."
After we got out of the room, we walked normally and went to the kitchen. I searched the fridge, and Haley searched the cabinets. As my dad and I basically didn't live here anymore, there was nothing inside the fridge.
"Hey! I found so instant noodles." Haley whispered and glead in excitent as she found the ramyeon pack I had bought before. There were only 2 packets left inside the package, however, I didn't have anything else to put inside of it. No eggs, nothing.
"Are you inviting to eat 'Ramyeon' together Haley? Didn't know you're so forward." I said insinuatingly as I reached out for the ramyeon in her hand.
Confused, Haley asked, "Is there another aning for eating noodles together?"
I took out a bronze coloured pot– the stainless steel pot Koreans used to cook their noodles in, and a portable butane stove so I cooked it on the table. As I did that, I replied to her, "Yeah. They usually use subtle wording, and in this case, inviting soone to eat Ramyeon together ans to have sex."
Haley looked at disdainfully and said, "You're ssing with ."
"Google it then." I said with a cheeky smile before setting up the pot on the table. Pouring enough water for 2 packets of noodles, I waited for the water to heat up before placing the noodles in.
Haley exclaid as she read the Google result, "Damn it. Butttt–"
I interjected, "You said butt."
"Not that butt. The but. Wait, that sounds the sa. B.U.T." She spelled it out for and continued her initial topic sentence, "We're living in the West. So eating noodles are...eating noodles."
"You sound disappointed." I comnted. She bared her teeth at playfully, "I wasn't!"
Ripping out the seasoning packet with my teeth, I poured them inside next. After a short minute, the noodles were finally ready. Haley and I sat in front of each other as she wanted to watch eat, however, I told her, "Grab a spoon. Join . It feels a bit lonely eating all alone."
"Will this make my face puffy tomorrow? Cause the last ti I ate instant noodles at night, my face got very puffy." Haley said worriedly. I chuckled and said, "Yes, definitely. But do it anyway? For ?"
"Ugh. Fine." She groaned before smiling as she picked up a utensil. She slurped the noodles and exclaid in awe. "Uhm, this is great. It's so worth it getting my face puffy tomorrow. Um, Ed, tomorrow is when you're going to release the song reply right?"
"Yes." I nodded casually. "Luckily we didn't date. Otherwise, you'll be crazy jealous." I teased.
Haley rolled her eyes and said, "I'm not going to get jealous if sothing like that happens."
"You an, if we date, and I wrote a highly personal, affectionate, loving song to my ex-girlfriend, you will be cool with it?"
Haley swallowed the food in her mouth before she replied, "Strike my previous statent. I'll be hella mad."
I nodded in understanding, and when we saw each other's eyes, we burst out laughing. I started eating again, and Haley talked while I did, "So, you made sure to co to Luke's birthday party, and you're going to do the sa thing to mine right? Now that we're talking about Luke's birthday party, rember that you kissed there? What does that an?"
Her questions made choke on my noodles for a bit before I replied, "Um...I will definitely co to your sweet 16. I do rember kissing you in front of your mother. It's to ss with Claire...mostly."
"I see." Haley nodded in understanding, her eyes showed that she was deep in thoughts.
I propped my head with the back of my hand while it was still holding the chopsticks and leaned forward, "Did the answer make you dissatisfied? Perhaps, are you waiting for a different answer?"
"I'm still thinking about whether or not to be mad at you for using ." Haley said while glaring at . Taken aback, I tried to appease her, "Would it help in your decision if I say that I wouldn't have done it with anyone else in that party– I an, the prank?"
She mused the question for a few seconds before she said, "Okay, you're forgiven."
"Yes!" I pumped my fist slightly, which made her giggle.
We talked a lot while we ate. She told all about her life at school, and she asked about my family. I told her that my grandmother was pissed at , even standing behind as I wrote the reply song to make sure that the lyrics weren't suggestive in any ways.
"I think I'll go ho now. My parents don't know that I snuck out." Haley said before she peeked behind the living room curtain while I was washing the pot. "But the guy is still here though."
The lone paparazzi was still lurking in front of my house, which prevented Haley from returning. "I wanted to walk you back, but I guess you had to stay here longer." I said as I dried my hand with a towel.
"I guess I have too. There's no other choice." Haley claid with a shrug. We actually could distract the guy for a few minutes to let her leave, but none of us wanted to voice out this option.
"I guess you don't." I said with a shrug too. We walked to my bedroom where she laid in my bed and I continued studying for my SATs. Haley kept her eyes on , laying down sideways and propping her head up while I was focusing on the book, but her intense stare made lose my focus.
"What?" I turned to her with a smile. She giggled and said, "I've never seen you study before. Also, do you really need to cram at the last minute? I thought you're a genius."
I closed my book and showed her the title, "It's Literature. Math, Science, and any other subjects, I have no problems with, but Literature makes quite nervous."
"You should sleep. You look really exhausted. At first I thought it was makeup, but you're not wearing any right now aren't you?" She said with an affectionate tone. "Co lay down here." She patted the pillow next to hers.
"I prefer this natural exhausted face. But since you invited , I don't want to be rude."
We cuddled for a bit, and I wrapped my hand around her, pulling her close. Before long, exhaustion swept over and I fell asleep. Her, soon after.
...
[General POV]
Friday arrived, and Taylor woke up at as early as 4 am because she didn't want to miss out on the song release. "What ti will he upload it? Damn it! I should at least know that– He should've told that."
Selena groaned and whined as her sleep was disturbed by the lights Taylor turned on and her angry rambling. With her eyes still closed, Selena replied with exhaustion, "You didn't tell him anything. Why should he do that for you?"
"You should go back to sleep!" Taylor scolded Selena. It was a long and excruciating morning for Taylor. She had called Pepper more than 10 tis before 7 am, which made the old man curse every ti he was woken up by the ringtone.
Edward drove his car to the school, where the students were surprised to see him. He greeted Jacob with a fist bump, and Enid bumped her head on Edward's back as she ran to hug him. Enid wanted to wish him luck before the exam, so she made her sister drive her back to middle school even though she had already arrived at her destination.
Before a crowd could form, Principal Brown quickly led Edward to the SAT exam hall where he would've to stay there for 5-6 hours to finish the exam. He also couldn't bring his phone with him into the exam hall, so he would be disconnected from the outside world.
A crowd of paparazzis quickly ford outside of the school gate when the news that Edward would take the SATs were shared on social dia. Finally after a week, the paparazzi have a perfect opportunity to ask Edward so questions.
Edward sat inside the classroom together with the seniors in the sa school. As the exam paper was placed on top of his desk, his music video was uploaded into Entertain's website and also Youtube EntertainVevo Channel.
"Start." Mrs Henderson, the district representative, started the exam at 8 am. As Edward flipped through the exam questions, his song's views climbed up exponentially on the entertainnt websites.
On the Entertain website, there was a live chat feature for the premiere of the music video. Fans who waited for the song release instantly jumped on the chat feature and showered Edward with their support there.
The song and the music video carried a lancholic and dark undertone. It started with a few piano notes, and a short opening of Edward walking in a church.
[Daylight– David Kushner]
Using a baritone voice, Edward's singing made the fans have goosebumps when his voice hit their ears.
"?? Telling myself I won't go there... Oh, but I know that I won't care... Tryna wash away all the blood I've spilt??"
Taylor listened to the song intently while her eyes were fixated on her laptop screen. Her heart beats quicker as she becos anxious from the first verse, fearing that Edward would sar her in his song.
Selena quickly jumped from the bed and peeked at Taylor's screen as she woke up from her sleep.
"??This lust is a burden that we both share...Two sinners can't atone from a lone prayer...Souls tied, intertwined by pride and guilt??"
Selena was flabbergasted and smacked Taylor's shoulder. "Oh my god!" She covered her mouth and stared at Taylor in disbelief. The diehard fans also had similar reactions as Selena. Taylor's lips curled upwards, but she quickly cald herself down.
Edward's crooning at the pre-chorus made a lot of his teenage girls fans beco dazed. With his black hair, jacket and necklace, he stood beside a log cutting station and sang.
"??(Ooh) There's darkness in the distance... From the way that I've been livin'... (Ooh) But I know I can't resist it~~ (OH)??"
As the song entered the chorus, the Tayward shippers squealed in excitent, with several people, numbering in the double digit, fainted because of it.
"?? Oh, I love it and I hate it at the sa ti! You and I drink the poison from the sa vine! Oh, I love it and I hate it at the sa ti! Hidin' all of our sins from the daylight!??"
"?? From the daylight, runnin' from thе daylight! From the daylight, runnin' from the daylight! Oh, I love it and I hatе it at the sa ti~!??"
Pepper beca exasperated when he heard it, "He's gone crazy! He's really gone crazy this ti! He basically had admitted to the world that THEY HAD S–"
The fact that Edward used the sa wording of love and hate in his chorus allowed the fans to make the connection from Taylor's Hate U Love U song. Taylor found herself fixated on one of the lyrics, so she turned to Selena, "What do you think he ans by 'drink poison from the sa vine'."
Selena was confused, "Isn't that obvious?"
The song continued with Edward finding himself being dragged by people and stoned in the music video.
"?? Tellin' myself it's the last ti! Can you spare any rcy that you might find...
If I'm down on my knees again???"
"??Deep down, way down, Lord, I try! Try to follow your light, but it's nightti! Please don't leave in the end! ??"
Edward's sincere plea made the line resonated with a lot of people living in situations where they couldn't find their way out. A depressed teenager who shuts herself inside her room, began to cry as she watched the video. Not only that, divorcees, parents whose children were sick, all of those people in the sa spot related greatly to the song.
"?? (Ooh) There's darkness in the distance... I'm beggin' for forgiveness... (Ooh) But I know I might resist it, oh??"
In the music video, Edward consciously held hands with a fiery man, knowing that he would also be caught on fire.
Haley listened to the song and she rembered sothing from last night. When Edward and her were cuddling on the bed, she asked him an honest question.
"Ed, you know that I'll do anything for you. But, why haven't you asked to? We could just 'do it'. No strings attached."
From their flirting that night, and the fact that he's pent up, Haley was curious as to why he never actually crossed the line with her.
Edward hugged her close and said while closing his eyes, "I don't want you to just be a placeholder. I want to date you, properly. Even if it'll take 2 years to finally do it."
"??Oh, I love it and I hate it at the sa ti...You and I drink the poison from the sa vine??
"??Oh, I love it and I hate it at the sa ti, Hidin' all of our sins from the daylight??"
Haley giggled and said, "Too bad. I'm the last one in my class to lose my virginity. I kinda want to do it before my 16th birthday so as to not be la."
Edward chuckled and said, "I an, we can do that–"
"Don't go back on your words so easily!" Haley punched him in the chest.
"??From the daylight, runnin' from the daylight... From the daylight, runnin' from the daylight...Oh, I love it and I hate it at the sa ti??"
Back to the present, the song quickly beca popular an hour after it was released. It climbed the Billboards top 100 songs, and it was also being released on the radios.
"??Oh, I love it and I hate it at the sa ti!??"
"??You and I drink the poison from the sa vine??"
Taylor listened to the song and said, "So basically, he's saying that he still wants , but he won't let himself. Right?"
Selena was still confused by the lyrics and said, "I think your delusional disorder needs professional help."
"??Oh, I love it and I hate it at the sa ti, Hidin' all of our sins from the daylight??"
"??From the daylight, runnin' from the daylight, From the daylight, runnin' from the daylight??"
"??Oh, I love it and I hate it at the sa ti??"
The fans comnted heavily on the live chat, and within three minutes of the song, more than 30,000 comnts were posted. A large crowd, numbering in the hundreds and the numbers of people kept increasing at the school's gate as they waited to catch a sight of Edward.
It beca so large that police had to be involved to barricade the school and take control of the situation.
Inside the exam hall, Edward found the SAT test to be easier than he thought. The first section, which was the critical reading, comprises multiple-choice questions related to reading comprehension. The ti allocated for that was 75 minutes.
Next was the mathematics section,it includes multiple-choice and grid-in questions on various math topics. Edward took 10 minutes to finish answering the questions, then he got bored because he couldn't submit his papers early.
Mrs Henderson stood beside Edward, peeking at his exam papers. Even though he wasn't cheating, her presence made him anxious. Suddenly Mrs Henderson announced to the class, "Please read your exam questions properly."
"Hmm?" Edward was confused and he double checked his papers, then, he triple checked it, but he couldn't find anything wrong. When he looked at Mrs Henderson, he noticed a slight smirk on her face as she was watching him.
"Damn it. I was tricked!" Edward grumbled in annoyance.
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