Chapter 172: A breather.

Chapter 172: Chapter 172: A breather.

[Edward POV]

"Ahhh...I'm finally home!" I muttered with exhaustion as I sat on the couch in the living room.

"It's not dusty at all." Abraham said while wiping the wooden cabinet near the TV. Enid and Haley sat at my left and right side respectively, while the others were lounging around the house.

"Hmm...That's true." I muttered in confusion. "I'm sure that my dad won't care about tidiness, so I wonder if he had hired a housekeeper."

"Don't you have an aunt?" Enid asked.

"That's sexist. And also, same situation as my dad. Both are messy people." I replied jokingly.

Alex looked at Haley while holding back her laugh. Haley whispered to her angrily, "One word, and you're dead."

Of course, their interaction didn't escape my eyes. "What's going on?" I turned to my right and looked at Haley straight in the eyes. She was startled at first and was trying to dodge the question, "Ed, are you hungry–"

"A little bit. But I want to know what's going on firs– Wait, were you...the one taking care of my house?" I asked with a hint of awe. I shocked myself when I came to the conclusion, but when I saw her expression, it added even more evidence to my assumption.

Alex laughed and sneered, "Don't think that she's been taking care of this place every day. She only came here last weekend, and forced Luke and me to help. My mom supervised the entire thing..." She then trailed off, causing me to be suspicious.

"And your dad?" I asked.

"Who said anything about my dad?" Alex replied dodgingly.

I narrowed my eyes at her and asked, "What did your dad do while you guys were cleaning the house?"

"Well...It's not what he did during, per se, but it was after we all finished." Haley replied with a trace of disgust and unwillingness to elaborate.

I chuckled when I saw their weird reaction, "What? Did your mom and dad use my hot tub or something?"

"EWW! EWW EWW EWW EWW EWWW!" Alex groaned in disgust as she recalled the memory.

I was shocked, "What happened here? You better spit it out or I will check the CCTV–"

"NOOOO!!!" Alex and Haley shouted to stop me at the same time. "Let me delete it for you! Or else you'll have nightmares like us!" Alex shouted urgently.

I looked at Alex's face, then I turned and studied Haley's face next. Their unwillingness for the matter to be exposed and the disgust on their faces let me learn one thing. Whatever happened here, was sexual in nature.

More accurately, it was sexual between their parents. I definitely wouldn't want Alex to delete those, but as both of them were almost crying, I had to relent and let them handle it. It needs to be mentioned that they only deleted the data superficially, but out of respect for them, I didn't restore the data....in front of them.

"Jenna, how's your church camp?" I asked. Jenna smiled brightly and said, "It was great. I am going to be baptized next week."

"Oh, they're going to dunk you in the water right? Good for you." I teased. Jenna didn't get embarrassed and said, "You're welcome to join?"

"Yeah....no...." I replied.

"Why not?"

"I'm going to catch on fire when I enter the church, so I'd rather not." I replied jokingly and changed the subject quickly, "How many priests did your mom make them renown their vows during camp?"

Jenna smiled and said, "None!"

"And the truth?" I jeered at her. She smiled wryly and said in a sad tone, "4..."

I laughed out loud before Jenna threw a pillow at my face.

"Ed, you haven't gone to the beach yet, right?" Haley asked.

I removed the pillow from my face and replied, "Not yet. But I didn't plan on it."

"Why?"

"I'm too busy. I have this night free...and tomorrow I need to start shooting again."

"Music videos?" Enid asked. "With Taylor?"

Haley pouted and crossed her arms while I turned to Enid and replied, "Yeah."

"Wait. I thought you guys had broken up?" Elsa asked.

Jacob nodded and said, "Yeah, you said to–"

"Bup bup bup bup– That's supposed to be a secret between us. Remember?" I hinted at Jacob with vicious eyes. He gulped his saliva and said, "Sorry."

"So...You told Elsa...and I can assume that Jenna, you know about it too?" I asked Jenna who was startled when I mentioned her name.

"Yeah...sorry." Jenna confessed.

"And you hang out with Alex a lot, so Alex and Enid also know it too huh?"

"We do." Enid said in a low voice.

"And We're not sorry." Alex replied jokingly. "It's 4 against 1 mister!"

"Alex is dating Finneas, so Finneas knows about it too. So I guess Billie knows too." I continued.

"You already told me yourself." Haley chimed in with a proud look on her face.

I nodded and then turned to Abraham, "So I guess...You're the only one who doesn't know anything?"

Abraham smiled and said confidently, "Yeah, Jacob wanted to mention it to me, but I refused!" He lied. Jacob never wanted to tell him the secret.

I nodded in acknowledgement and said, "You're the only REAL friend here!"

"I want to watch Cloudy With A Chance of Meatball." I replied casually. Jenna rolled her eyes and ignored me. After the girls...and Jacob banded together, we had to watch The Proposal movie tonight.

After eating, the parents came to pick up their children one by one. Jacob's parents arrived first. As Jacob was finally selected to the football team, his mother brought a chocolate cake with strawberry frosting to celebrate.

They all ate one slice of the cake, and left the rest of it at my house. Mrs Green also packed up 3 chicken legs, 2 chicken sandwiches, 2 pounds of potato salad, and some vegetables for me as she knew I had just returned home from working so hard.

Finneas and Billie left after Jacob left, and then Abraham was next. Jenna hitched a ride with Elsa, and before she left, she looked at me with a hesitant expression, "Ed. Um..."

"What?" I asked in confusion.

"Well...Are you really making a movie studio?" She finally braved herself and asked.

"Huh? Oh right. The rumors. Yeah, but it's not going to be now. Maybe after the company is ready for another expansion. I planned to do it next year."

"Oh." Jenna widened her eyes before she fell into contemplation. "Is this about your mom?" I asked her.

"What? NO!" She replied with a weird high pitched voice.

"So it's your mom. She's not getting any roles huh? Wait..." I thought about it for a while, "You know, she's really suitable to play Emma Frost in the X-Men series. I heard they are rebooting it."

Jenna was hesitant to correct my misunderstanding and then played along to hide her embarrassment, "What's the connection between that movie and my mother?"

"I mean, your mom should try auditioning for the role. I'll make sure that Pepper keeps an eye on the production so that she won't miss her chance."

"Ed...it's not that simple to become an actress." Jenna smiled wryly. Not that she didn't believe in me, but from her experience watching her mother try and fail days after days, she didn't believe in my words much.

"I know it's a longshot. But, I really think she can do it." I replied. The movie that came to mind was actually because I had met with Matthew Vaugh and Bryan Singer – the director and producers of the X-Men First Class movie.

They wanted me to try out for the movie, and also gave me their contact information. The movie would start its production early next year, and would be released in 2011, so I have a lot of time to think about it.

'But unless I can be 'QuickSilver', I don't want to take part in that movie.'

And because my acting skill has become renowned because of my documentary and short videos, many directors and movie producers have been reaching out to the agency. They also sent their scripts despite the fact that I had no mention of entering the films industry.

"Just tell your mom about it. Let her be familiar with the source material." I told Jenna.

She scoffed and then burst into laughter, "You mean, making my mom read comic books? Yeah, now I know it's a joke."

I didn't correct her and just told her to tell her mother that. If she was really desperate, then she would reach out to me to grab her last lifeline. Or else, she would just fade out from the film industry not that she promised Jenna not to do dirty deals anymore.

'Anyway, it's not like she didn't have any roles in the past few months, so I didn't know why she was asking.'

Alex and Haley were the only one left after everyone had gone away. Haley widened her eyes at Alex and gestured for her to leave, but Alex was having fun teasing her sister and she pretended not to see that.

"Edward, last I came, your lab is locked, so I couldn't see it. Can I check it out now?"

"Umm...Let's do it tomorrow. I just want to lie down and rest up now." I replied to Alex. She got the hint and said, "Okay. Haley! Let's go!"

"You can go home first." Haley said. Alex was in disbelief, but Haley chased her away quickly. She locked the door and then looked at me with glittering eyes.

"What? Why are you staring at me like a predator?" I joked while shielding my chest with my arms. She rolled her eyes and said, "I'm not going to eat you!"

"Alright. I'm going to take a shower–"

"Wait!" Haley grabbed my shirt before I could leave, causing me to be strangled by my own shirt.

"What the-"

"Let's go out!" She invited me.

"Huh? It's already late–"

She sneered and said, "It's 8 o'clock. Unless you're an old man wanting to sleep, you should have a lot more energy than this. Also, trust me. I'm only doing this for your benefit."

I looked into her eyes, and then saw her resoluteness.

"Alright. How are we going out? Have you gotten your license yet? Cause I know you failed your first test."

"WHO TOLD YOU THAT?! DID MY MOM TOLD YOU THAT?!" Haley shouted in anger. I laughed and patted her head to calm her down. She pouted and said, "Well, I can call Tara–"

"Nah, I can drive."

"You didn't have a license. And you can't even take the test yet." She said begrudgingly.

Then, I reached into my pocket and took out my driver's license. "I already got it tho?"

She widened her eyes, "HOW!? You need to be 16 to take the test! It's fake right?"

"Nah. It's a real license." I gave her a plastic card for her to take a look at. She was in disbelief after she saw my real name and id there, so she looked at me in puzzlement.

I cashed in my favor with the FBI long ago when they requested permission to monitor my whatsapp chat apps.

They helped me bypass the age requirement for taking the drivers test, and now, I can legally drive around without needing to falsify my credentials anymore. Of course, I still had to take the DMV test, and I passed with flying colors.

"Great! Let's go!" She grabbed my hand and pulled me outside of the house. We took the Ford – the convertible that Abby gave me for my birthday present.

"So, where are we going?" I asked her.

"Well, you'll know when we get there!" She said in excitement. I then turned to her and stared into her face. She was confused, "What?"

"I need to know before I can drive us there."

"Ah right!"