[Edward POV]
Maggie paced in front of Ness and I after we had dinner with everyone.
"What's the big deal?" Ness said, sitting at the edge of the bed next to me. She turned to me and said, "It's not like we never did that before."
I nodded in agreement with her and added, "Besides, both of us needed that."
"I don't care about the "driving factor" behind it." Maggie made a mocking bunny ear gesture. "Ness, you said that after the pandemic is over, you want to move on from him."
"Well." Ness avoided my eyes and said, "I did move on from him."
"For two days!" Maggie said with frustration.
"That is the limit of my self-containment." Ness said with a cheeky grin.
She leaned closer to me and wrapped her hands around my neck. I met her eyes and we giggled together.
Maggie rolled her eyes and turned her attention to me, "So, are you picking her amongst everyone else? Or are you going to continue sleeping with everyone– you slut."
I gasped, faking being offended. Ness laughed at my expression.
Then, I said, "You know what? I've thought about it since. I really enjoy being with everyone."
Ness's eyes faltered a little bit.
I added, "I mean, I can't contain myself when I see Ness's ass. She had trained me to get turned on whenever she backed down on me–"
"Stop– Ugh. I'm going to throw up." Maggie gagged, seemingly revolted by my words.
Ness blushed a bit and hit my hand slightly in embarrassment.
"Then, I came to the conclusion. Why am I thinking so hard about it anyway? I'm only 17. It's not like we're getting married soon. Ness said she wants to get married when she's 30. That's in 2021."
"When we really want to settle down, I think that's when we should revisit it. Right now, I just want to do.. Well, Ness." I added.
Maggie's face froze in disbelief.
Ness thought about it and said, "I actually have no problem with that. Not labelling it– I think that's the best way for us right now. No being boyfriend or girlfriend. Just… sex."
Ness turned to me and I turned to her. Then, we both began to devour each other's lips.
"Stop that!" Maggie hits the both of us with a pillow. She had to pry us away from each other.
…
In the living room, the next day.
Claire and Phil decided to go back before the new year. Alex and Luke went along with her, but Haley decided to stay.
"He's going to go back in a couple of days. I'll just go back with him." Haley told her mother.
[Haley's commentary]
"Yes. I know that Eddy had picked Ness. I'm not an idiot. I'm only here because he asked me to stay back for… whatever reason."
[Commentary ends]
Claire hugged me and brushed my back warmly. "Oh Edward. If you need anything– Anything at all. You can call me, alright?"
"And me." Phil added, then he pushed Claire away and hugged me too.
"You're like a son to me Edward." Phil said. I was slightly taken aback by it.
He continued, "So you can depend on me if you want. I– No, we will be there when you need us." Phil hugged Claire and pulled her back in.
Both of them had a strained smile on their faces.
I chuckled and said, "Did you rehearse this? Why do your smiles seem so awkward? And Claire, I didn't see you grin like Joker when we talked about death, so I'm really disappointed actually."
"Why would I grin like the Joker?" Claire was taken aback. Phil turned to her and said, "Hun, you kinda did that when you got the call."
"Did you tell him?! Ugh!" Claire was exasperated.
I laughed and said, "It's fine Claire." I put my index fingers on the edge of my lips and pushed it upwards into a fake smile. "I related to that very strongly when I heard it."
Claire's eyes flickered a bit. "What's that supposed to mean–"
Before she could ask, Luke pressed the horn in the car and pushed his head out of the window. "MOM! There's a huge spider in the car! MOOOOMMMM!!!"
"Coming Luke!" Phil and Claire rushed to the car hurriedly.
[Claire and Phil's commentary]
"What did he mean by that? Is he faking a smile
I waved goodbye to Claire and Phil. Alex then approached me and said, "Did you open my present yet?"
"Oh. I did." I smiled as I remembered her present. "A Megalodon tooth. That must've been hard to procure."
I took out the megalodon necklace from my shirt and showed it to her.
Alex grinned and said, "It was. A lot of people chipped in for it, not only me. Dr Cooper, Dr Hofstader, Dr Rostenkowski, Dr Fowler, Dr Koothrapali, and lastly, Mr Wolowitz."
I laughed slightly, although I wasn't clear about why I was laughing.
"I will thank them personally later on. With this, I finally have the DNA of an ancient megalodon. Thus, it made perfect sense for me to start the cloning process to bring it to our current time."
"What– No! Don't bring it back!" Alex was flabbergasted.
I ignored her and said, "I should get some dinosaur DNA too, build my own Jurassic Park."
"No! Stop that." Alex tried to wrestle the megalodon tooth away from me, but I took a step back and avoided her hand.
"Hey, no take backs."
"That's before I know you're going to mess with the world. Now, it's my moral responsibility to stop you before you do any of that." Alex said, reaching her hand again, but I side stepped to avoid her.
"What about the morality of scientific advancement? People may question I'm playing god, but when they ride a Triceratop, do you think they will still care about it?"
Alex froze, face full of horror. Then, she said, "Do it then. I'm going to tell your grandma."
I grimaced slightly, taken aback by her threats. "Alright. You win."
Alex giggled and then left for the car that would take them to the airport.
I offered to send them back using my suborbital jet, but they rejected it since they had bought the tickets.
My phone rang after they left.
"Yes Pepper." I picked it up.
"Edward, one million people for the concert? There's no venue that can do that." He said urgently, without even greeting me.
I nodded in understanding slightly and said, "Don't worry. We can build one."
"The concert is in a week! Just do the 250 thousand in Coachella like you planned." Pepper said with exasperation.
"I already called JB, Eminem, Jay Z, Taylor, Selena, Ariana, Jessie J, and a couple more artists to collaborate with me." I said casually. "Billie and Finneas… They will also join me on the stage." I added.
Pepper went silent for a while. Then, he said, "Are you really doing this?"
"Yeah. The participant will only have to get the ticket from the website. It's non-exchangeable so they can't scalp it."
Pepper listened intently to my planning. I didn't charge much for the concert ticket.
And the androids could build the facilities– the toilets, the medipod, create zones, and also put holographic projection on each zone so that the fans could experience the concert fully.
The news about the concert was leaked, and the media went ballistic from it.
Of course, I ignored any request for an interview or the rights to the concert. I also rejected any sponsorship offers too.
That night, I asked Grandma to come with me to California.
"It's not forever. Just a couple of days. Until the concert." I said to her whiningly as she expressed reluctance to go.
My grandma sighed and then said, "Okay. I will go!"
"Yes!" I raised both my hands in the air in celebration. She laughed at my enthusiasm.
Ness whispered to Haley from afar, "Did you notice that Edward had changed in the last few days?"
"He just went through something traumatic. I guess this is his way of coping." Haley shared her thoughts.
"No… This is different. This is like… he stops thinking deeply about things now."
…
The next morning, after I fed the livestocks, Haley came to the barn.
"Are you here to pick up the milk?" I asked.
She shook her head and tried to touch my horse instead. "No. I just woke up early."
"Really? You?" I looked at her with shock.
She grimaced and asked, "What's that supposed to mean? Do you think I'm not hardworking enough and sleep all the time?"
I shrugged and said, "I'm thinking that most beautiful girls slept longer because they needed their beauty sleep. Case in point, I don't think Ness is going to wake up for a couple more hours."
"Aww." Haley was touched. "I actually haven't slept yet." She said casually.
"That made more sense than you waking up early." I teased.
She pouted slightly and said, "You know, being the reason why I didn't have any sleep, you really are chippy so early in the morning."
"I'm the reason you didn't have any sleep? What did I do?" I was confused.
She rolled her eyes and sighed at the same time. "Don't make me spell it out for you."
"I think you need to do that since I have no idea what you're talking about." I grabbed her arms softly.
Then, I smirked slightly and said, "Want to fool around in the hay?"
Haley widened her eyes in shock. "Wait. I thought you and Ness–"
"We're just doing it. Ness won't be able to face the public pressure that comes from dating me. So she just wants to keep doing what we're doing right now."
"Oh!" Haley was surprised.
I smiled, furrowing my eyebrows at the same time and asked, "Do you not talk to Ness about it?"
"I mean. She tried to tell me I guess, but I wasn't prepared to hear it so I… Well I changed the subjects all the time." Haley stuck her tongue out mischievously.
"Wait. Are we finally going to find out what a romp in the hay means?" Haley was taken aback slightly, face slightly excited.
"You're an idiot." Maggie said with disappointment as she caught me in the barn again when she came there to pick up the milk.
…
We went back to LA that evening.
Dad, Frankie, Grandma and everyone else used the ordinary plane while I took the suborbital plane with only Ness and Haley.
So I arrived 4 hours before everyone else. When I opened the door, Jenna, Enid, Elsa, and Finneas were sitting in my living room and stood up as they saw me.
"Eddie." Jenna muttered with a sad tone. They came to offer me support in a hard time.
I smiled and looked around, asking, "Where's Jacob–"
Suddenly, I heard a voice from behind me. "EDDIE!" Jacob shouted and rushed towards me, giving me a football tackle from behind.
"Urk–" I just let it happen now. It would hurt him more if I didn't relax my body and absorb the momentum.
"Edward. We're really sorry for your loss." Enid said as I laid down on the ground.
"Enid, I can see up your skirt from here." I told him.
"Really? Do you want me to get closer so you can see it better?" She said teasingly.
Jenna rolled her eyes and pulled Enid back. Jacob finally let me go and held his hand out to me, pulling me up.
"You've become careless now." Jacob said with a grin. "I finally managed to tackle you down once."
Elsa interjected sarcastically, "Yes. Tackle a man in mourning when he has no energy to fight back." She pulled on his ear and scolded him.
I laughed and said, "Thanks for coming. I really appreciate it. I appreciate all of you… a lot."
Everyone was slightly taken aback and they exchanged glances with each other.
Finneas sneered and said, "What's that about? Did you suddenly find a new sense of profoundness after– Oh right. Your grandpa just died."
He changed his tune and said, "It made sense to get a renewed sense of appreciation now."
"Ohhh." Everyone exclaimed in understanding and looked at me with sympathy.
Jenna pulled me to the couch and sat close to me. She smiled and said, "We'll be here for you Edward. Anything you want to do– anything at all?"
"Well there is something I want to do." I replied.
"What is it? We'll do anything." Enid said excitedly.
"I want people to stop telling me they will do anything for me. Also, the sympathetic look, the head tilt, I want it all gone." I said.
Jacob laughed nervously. Finneas was taken aback and then chuckled.
"Alright. We will treat you like normal from now on." Finneas said.
Jenna pursed her lips and hugged my arm, saying, "Although I wish you will want to depend on us more."
"Yeah. Give us more screen time you bastard." Finneas interjected.
"Pfft–" Everyone laughed at the inside joke. Then, Ness and Haley walked into the house.
"Edward. We will go pick up our stuff– Oh Hi guys." Ness greeted my friend casually.
"I'm also going to go back with Ness. See you later tonight?" Haley said.
"Yeah. See you later, Darlings." I said, which made both girls smile bashfully.
"Darlings?" Finneas was confused. Jacob scrunched his eyebrow. Enid was stunned. Jenna bit her lips in jealousy.
"Why are you calling them both darling? Didn't you pick one to be your girlfriend yet?" Jacob asked, a little agitated.
"Um.. About that. I think I need more time to decide–"
"Oh god." Jacob stood up and exclaimed with exasperation. "Babe. Calm down." Elsa told him.
"I'm sorry if that was offensive to you, but I have no other choice. I like both of them." I said, feeling defensive.
Jacob argued heatedly, "Yeah. But do you love them? What you're doing right now, is just a coward's maneuver."
He added, "You don't really want them. You're just doing this until one of them backs down first, so you don't have to be the villain in the story."
I widened my eyes and stood too. "That's not true at all. We already ended things when the pandemic was over."
"Then why did you start again?" Jacob asked.
Elsa tugged on his hand and said, "Babe. He just lost his grandpa. He might've done this because of that. Go easy on him."
"I'm not going to go easy on him. As his best friend, I need to tell him when he's doing an irresponsible thing." Jacob said to Elsa.
Then, he turned to me and said, "You said you're going to take some time to think about it. What happened to that? And if you meet the others, will you bring them back too?"
"If they want to." I replied, a little baffled.
Jacob rubbed his face with frustration. Enid and Jenna looked quite disappointed with me.
"What? They want it too. They told me they are fine with it." I argued defensively.
Enid said, "Of course they are going to say that. They are in love with you."
Jenna added, "The question is. Do you love them back? Or are you just doing this to stop being the bad guy?"
I walked away a few steps and then sighed. "I don't think you have any idea what's going on with all of us."
Finneas said, "Edward. You may be right about this."
Everyone turned to Finneas. He continued, "But as someone who had done a stupid thing and let the love of his life go, I have to tell you, to not do this. You will hurt them. You're already hurting them right now by doing this."
"How? How is this hurting them?" I asked with exasperation. "I can give them everything they want in the world. I'm great at sex– phenomenal really. How am I hurting them by keeping them at my side?"
Jacob said loudly, "Because you're not picking them. You're just using them– I"
He breathed heavily and then added, "Look. The world was fucked up for a while. So, it was fine for you to do that."
"But you know what's going to happen when people ask them, 'Who are you dating?' , 'Oh! You're in a throuple?', 'Will I be able to join in too?'.
"Soon, they'll think, 'I'm not special at all. Since the man who claimed to like me wouldn't hesitate to add another person into the harem he's building.'
"You think you're protecting them by giving them what they want, Eddie. But what you're really doing… is taking away the thing they need most. To feel like they matter to you. To feel… chosen."
I went silent for a while. "Jacob. Punch me." I said.
"Wait–" Enid wanted to stop it. But Jacob already cocked his fist and then punched me in the right cheek. I fall back to the couch from the punch.
"JACOB!" Jenna looked at him with disbelief. "HOW CAN YOU DO THAT!?" Enid shoved Jacob away angrily.
"What? He told me to do it." Jacob replied. "I assume he needs the punch to wake up or something." He added.
I rubbed my cheek which was barely in pain and said, "Thank you Jacob. I needed that."
"Anytime buddy." Jacob smiled sincerely. Then, he rubbed his fist and said, "Your head is like a metal slab. My hand is really hurting right now."
Finneas said, "Edward. I called dib the next time you needed a punch. I can fracture all of the bones in my hand if I can do that."
I went to Haley's house and then Ness's house afterward.
I told them we needed some time apart to actually think about our relationships and tell them to stop packing their stuff.
Both of them were really dejected and hurt by it, but understood it was for the best.
…
In the next few days, I spent most of my time with Grandma. We went shopping. We go to the beach. We went to some concerts by some old timey bands.
"Thank you Edward for trying to cheer me up." Grandma said. "But I'm fine now."
"You sure?" I asked.
Grandma sighed as she sat next to the countless presents and gift bags around her. She was also wearing 5 new hats at once.
"I'm sure." She replied with a deadpan tone. "You took care of me so much I'm feeling smothered now."
"Well, I may have gone too far." I smiled mischievously.
Since I put the relationship stuff on hold, I focused all of my energy on grandma and preparing for the giant concert which would be held next year.
I also practiced with Finneas and Billie every night and hung out with my friends.
"1 million people. Will this concert go down in history too?" I muttered.