Chapter 71: A forced break.

Chapter 71: Chapter 71: A forced break.

(There's a fucking heatwave in my city. My brain is melting away. Someone throw me inside a fridge!)

[Edward POV]

"Ed. You're scaring us." Mitchell said after I wouldn't stop smirking and burst out into laughter at inappropriate times while recording the songs.

With a grin sculpted on my face, I turned to look at Mitchell before I bursted into laughter once more. "Muahahaha!" I laughed madly as I kept hearing the sound of coins falling into my pocket throughout the day after I knew the Flappy Bird game would be a financial success.

There's more than 1000 reviews of the game right now – mostly being orchestrated from my fan club, but the game has gotten a 4.8 star review on both of the platforms.

Pepper showed a soft smile and admonished Mitchell, "Why are you bothering him? It's obvious that he's feeling so happy he couldn't hide it right now."

"Ka-ching bitches!" I muttered before laughing madly once more.

Mitchell shakes his head before turning his attention to Lily instead.

[Mitchell's commentary.]

He looked around the room to make sure Cam wasn't around before saying, "So. I know what he and Haley did."

"I thought he liked her. But today, I was surprised when I finally realized who Edward's true love really is..."

"It's Money." Mitchell said while gesturing money with his fingers.

He then smiled and said, "Of course. I'm just kidding. But Haley still needs to be careful around him. With the way she spoke about him, I know for sure she would be ready to give it up to him at any time.."

Mitchell stopped in the middle of his sentence and muttered, "...I should teach her about birth control." He widened his eyes as he realized what he had done. "I...Shouldn't have said that."

[Commentary ends]

Today as I worked on my music, Cam chimed in here and there to try and give me tips about the songs I recorded for the first time here.

"Okay. But what if I do this?" I said while doing the same exact thing I did before he gave me the tip.

He smiled brightly and said, "That's better. You're lucky I'm here-"

"There's no consultation fee for a meddling middle aged man." Pepper interjected.

"MIDDLE-AGED MAN!?" Cam let out an offended gasp before he retorted, "If I'm middle aged, you're a grandpa!"

Pepper gasped too, but their conversation was annoying me, so I chimed in, "For me. All of you are middle aged men. You guys belonged to a generation two levels higher than mine."

Mitchell, Pepper and Cam all let out an offended gasp. Mitchell said, "I'm only one level higher. I'm wayyyyy younger than these guys."

"By 4 years. Calm down Mitchell." Cam retorted.

"Please Mitchell. There's no way you're a millennial unless you think about killing yourself everyday. And Gen Z like me wouldn't care about the facts anyway. So all Gen X please get out of here so that I can finish my job."

I chased them all out before finishing the recording for the song 'Before You Go.'

"For Something Just Like This, I need EDM....But is that a genre that I want to dip my foot into?"

Suddenly, the trio barged into the room again, strutting their walk as they wanted to make things clear with me.

"WE'RE NOT OLD!" Mitchell said as he was selected as the group's representative.

"I mean...older than me. You guys still have some good years ahead of you." I said casually.

"If we were at a bar, young people would come to us. So we're not that old." Cam interjected. I stared at him with a deadpan face before saying, "You just said 'young people.' Sooo...."

"So we're NORMAL...aged people." Mitchell intercepted.

"Sure.' Normal aged'. I think that's a thing... somewhere, probably... Maybe lol ." I replied with a sarcastic teasing, making them all angrier than before.

Before they could spiral any further, I said, "There's a simple test to see which generation of people you are-"

""DO IT!""

"Okay. But first, answer me this. When you go to a bar, and find a stranger sitting on your seat after you come back from the bathroom, what do you do?"

"Ummm..." Mitchell struggled to find the answer, but Cam was confident in his answer, "Simple. Talk to them-"

Pepper cupped Cam's mouth quickly before he said dramatically, "Can't you see? The question is the test. THIS is ALLLLL....a trap!"

I smirked at Pepper's quick-wittedness before allowing them to think about the answer.

"Come on. I don't have all day."

"Mitchell...You answer..." Pepper nudged his chin toward Mitchell while he kept his hand on Cam's mouth to prevent him from destroying their chance.

"Ummm....Ahhhhh....Mmmm... I will just ignore them and find a new seat?"

I widened my eyes and said, "That's surprisingly Millennial-like."

"YES!" Mitchell exclaimed in excitement while Cam was finally released by Pepper.

"Why is that the answer? Why can't we go talk to them and find out their story? They may be private detectives that come to town to find someone." Cam asked.

"What are you imagining Cam? The question just mentioned a stranger. There's no backstory here."

Cam was offended by Mitchell and said to me, "Okay. Mitchell's answer wasn't because he's young, but he has avoidance issues. He will also avoid talking to an acquaintance if we meet them on the streets."

"CAM!" Mitchell exclaimed in bewilderment. I laughed at them and asked them, "Next question. What drink do you order at the bar?"

""" Cherry Daiquiri""" All three of them answer at the same time.

"Wait, the question cannot be used for you guys. Forget you guys are gay." I said while they laughed at me.

"Okay last question. How much time do you spend on the internet a day?" I asked.

"Hmmm....For me, 1 hour for leisure surfing." Mitchell replied. I turned to Cam and he answered, "I'm basically on the phone all the time-"

"Not connecting with you friends. But opening websites such as meme sites, reading articles, playing games, and other similar stuff. Not for faking human connection."

Cam thought for a while before he answered, "None then. I get my gossip from the magazines and newspapers."

"Same here, but I also can get first hand gossip from my friends in the New York Times. Do you know Lady Gaga is going to be guest starring on Gossip Girl?"

"WHAT. NO WAY?!" Mitchell exclaimed and was absorbed in the gossip before he realized I was smirking at them.

"We failed the test huh."

"Yup."

I saw they were saddened by it, and a light bulb suddenly lit up inside my mind.

Pepper asked knowingly, the edge of his lips curled upward, "Why are you smirking?"

"Nothing." I replied as I covered my mouth.

"You got an inspiration...didn't you?" Cam asked with some anticipation in his eyes.

"...Uhh....No?"

"HE DID! HE WAS INSPIRED BY US. THE OLDER GUYS!" Pepper announced to the rest of the studio. The band laughed at us before all of them were looking at me with anticipation.

I sighed and said, "Okay. I will sing it only once. Also, this song will be for the next album, not this one. We already have more than 18 songs for this one."

"18? How...Wait... Let me count." Pepper said as he raised his hands up to count with his fingers.

"We had 6 songs at the beginning. Grenade, Toxic, It Will Rain, Amnesia, 7 years, The Lazy Song."

Cam added, "Then, after he came to our house, he sang 'Photograph.' So that makes it 7."

Mitchell inhaled sharply and said with a grimace, "Weeeeelllll....The song is great...so great...but the lyrics..."

"Ahh..." I exclaimed in realization as I understood what he meant. "Don't worry. That's just MTV's influence. You don't expect me to actually be dead drunk at a bar and need someone to carry me back right?"

"Not before the song. No." Pepper said with some hidden concern behind his tone.

...

[3rd Person POV]

"Congrats. Now he's not singing the song." Pepper said sarcastically towards Mitchell.

While avoiding Pepper's eyes, Mitchell said, "You're the one who asked him if he had gone drinking before. So don't put all the blame on me."

"Ugh. This sucks. That song is addictive. I could hear it being played at bars all over the country. Thanks a lot Mitchell." Cam added.

"It's not my fault!" Mitchell said in frustration.

"If only we had recorded it." Pepper exclaimed. Leo was walking by at this time, and he stopped when he heard Pepper's words.

"What's wrong mini boss? Did I forget to press record again? I'm pretty sure I did before."

The trio widened their eyes as they looked at the hippie. Pepper gripped both of Leo's shoulders and said, "Are you sure? You recorded it?"

"Yeah.I think. I didn't smoke...you know...for a few hours now. So...pretty positive."

Pepper released him and said in excitement, "Oh you high earth smelling man. Now, I'm no longer thinking about firing you. Instead I am thinking about pushing you into a bath."

Leo sniffed his arm, but his nose had stopped working decades ago. He didn't notice anything wrong with his body odor, shrugged, and then left the room.

...

[Edward POV]

It was almost 11 pm when I arrived home after a hard day of work at the recording studio. Mitch and Cam left at around 7 in the evening as they had other appointments to get to.

Cam insisted on being there for the music video production, however he gave up after learning that the shooting was tomorrow.

"Sleep. Don't do anything else. I need you to be fresh for tomorrow. Are you sure you're bringing your own outfit?" Pepper asked after dropping me off in front of the house.

"Yeah. I want to do it in my own style." I said. "You called the actress right?"

"Are you sure you want to go with Penny? I do get the impression that she's a sweet girl, but I don't think she is the best choice for the female lead." Pepper expressed his concerns.

"No need to get worried. She'll only come out for a few seconds. For some people, it would be hard for them to even catch her face." I said with a smirk.

"Hmmm... Okay then. It's your music video. Now. Go to sleep." Pepper said before stepping on his gas pedal and driving away.

I sighed and turned toward the front door. I still needed to check up on the game for bugs or other reports. I took off my shirt as I entered the empty house. Dad would be back around 1 am, so I knew I had at least some time to myself.

While I was walking with heavy steps toward my room, I suddenly heard someone giggling from inside it.

"What the hell?" I opened the door, only to find Haley sitting on my bed while talking to someone on her phone.

"Oh. he's here! I need to go!" Haley said excitedly before ending the call with Tara. "Uhh...why are you shirtless?" She asked as she finally realized it.

"The real question is, why are you here?" I asked, masking my confusion.

"Ah. I want to congratulate you for launching the game. I have been here since 10. Had to sneak out of my house to be here." Haley said as she scooted off the bed and walked towards me.

"Anyway. Congrats." She said as she gave me a platonic hug.

"I haven't taken a bath all day." I said teasingly, expecting her to release her arms immediately, but she said, "It's okay. You don't smell."

She finally released me after half a minute and said, "I'll go home now. You should go to sleep."

"I actually want to do a bit more work-"

"After working all day?!" Haley asked in shock. "You'll get burnt out. You should rest too, you know. You're still young, so you don't have to do everything by yourself."

I chuckled a bit and said, "I'm doing some more work."

I walked past her to open up my laptop but she grabbed my wrist from behind.

"You have the music video shoot tomorrow. So go get some rest!" She demanded. I got a bit irritated and I turned toward her. "What are you going to do if I don't? Will you cuddle with me until I fall-"

"Yeah. I'll do that if you can get some rest." Haley said before I could finish my sentence. And even though I had run the same simulation inside my mind thousands of times, I still couldn't understand how we reached the next scene.

Haley was hugging my shirtless body on the bed. She was wrapping her arms tightly around me as she pressed my head on top of her chest while singing a lullaby.

"Uhhhhhhhh...."

"Rockababa...How does it go again?" Haley asked. I chuckled a bit and said, "Okay. I'll go to sleep. You can go back to your place now ."

"No. I know that if I go away, you will just start working again the second I leave . So I'll stay here until you fall asleep."

I wouldn't do that. Not anymore, not after I saw her effort in trying to take care of me.

"Okay. Then, I'll try to sleep now. So you should definitely stop singing."

"..."

After the initial embarrassment, my tiredness took over my mind, and I fell asleep in her arms despite the fact that I only wanted to pretend to sleep in order to make her go away.

[Haley POV]

After cuddling with him for a while, I finally realized that he had fallen asleep.

"Even while asleep he is so pretty. Damn it." I let out a grunt as I played with his face. He didn't respond, so I was sure he wasn't faking his sleep. Although I could've released him and returned to my house right then and there, I decided to stay a little bit longer.

But then, he unconsciously moved in his sleep, reached out and wrapped his arms around me before pulling me close to his body.

"Oh damn it." I muttered using a whisper so as to not wake him up. "I'm not a body pillow!"

'Well. he'll release me soon...right?' I thought as I buried my face in his bare chest.

Minutes passed by, and I didn't realize that my eyelids were getting heavier. And so, I fell asleep without even realizing it, while still inside the comfort of his arms.

...

[Ted POV]

For the longest time, It had only been Ed and me in the house. I knew that the loss of his mother had taken a toll on his mental wellbeing , but Ed still pretended that he wasn't affected by it and kept masking his true feelings by putting on a steel face.

Pepper and I had a long talk after he called me on the phone last night as soon as I got home, and I finally realized that I couldn't put off Edward's psychological therapy any longer. He needed an outlet to express his feelings in a safe space.

After waking up from my short sleep, I walked to Edward's room to wake him up for today's shoot. God, I was willing to bet that my son was the busiest kid in California at the moment.

I turned the doorknob slowly and opened his door as usual. "Ed. Are you-" I paused as I saw he wasn't alone in the bed.

The light coming from the hallways made him open up his eyes, and his calm demeanor broke for the first time in a long...long time as he saw the Dunphy's kid sleeping next to him. Haley opened her eyes abruptly as she heard my voice, and the two kids locked eyes with each other on the bed, only to realize that they were still hugging each other while they were sleeping.

"" AHHHHH!!!!"" Both of the kids screamed at the same time andI felt a huge wave of relief wash over my entire body as I saw Edward's childish reactions.

"W-W-Why are you still here- DAD! This isn't what it looked like!"

He tried to convince me, but I just couldn't wipe off my smirk at the moment.

"I'll give you guys some privacy. In the meantime...work on your story. Make sure it's the same one for when you try to explain this to other people." I said teasingly as I closed the door again. I heard the two kids scream again inside the room, and I chuckled as I walked to the kitchen.

"Teenagers." I exclaimed. "Also...Haley huh..." I muttered as I remembered how comfortable Ed was around her. "Maybe...I can postpone his therapy...just a little bit longer."

I was excited to see what change Haley could bring in Edward as they were with each other, not realizing that they had an agreement to keep things platonic, and were already regretting their night together inside the room.