Of Confession and Crashes

        ‘This is awkward.’ Bradley thought as he and Penelope arranged the returned books in silence.

As soon as Penelope and Bradley arrived at the library, the librarian ditched them in favor of going to a mixer leaving them the only ones at the counter.

‘At least there’s other people here.’ Bradley scanned the faces of the people who were pouring over the books in silence. Well, most of them.

Two girls sat next to a boy with both of them tugging his arm with frustrated looks on their faces. The hapless boy smiled awkwardly as he sat there stiff as a board.

‘Hmm, smells like a romcom protag. I guess this is where I show up.’ Bradley nodded at Penelope and dropped the books he was carrying and headed to carry out the scenario.

“Excuse me.” He lowered his voice and deepened his tone, scaring them stiff as they looked up at him.

“You are disturbing the others. I will have to chase you out per the rules of library if you are to cause a ruckus again. Understood?” Bradley coldly smiled at the three of them and they nodded their head. Probably pissed their pants too.

The girls diverted their head and Bradley broke out one of his rare smiles as he winked at the boy, conveying his intentions.

The boy smiled gratefully and Bradley headed back to his post, satisfied.

“The Demon Hound of the library strikes again.” Penelope smiled and Bradley felt the invisible wall that was present, thin out a bit.

“No one calls me that except for you.” He replied in a soft voice and continued with his work.

“Hey,” Penelope called out to him. “If you have time later, can we talk?”

Bradley already knew the contents of the discussion and nodded his head immediately.

‘I guess it’s time to resolve it.’ He pressed a palm to his aching chest and bitterly smiled.

“Sure.” With a talk already scheduled, the wall was temporarily taken down and the two of them silently fulfilled their duties in silence.

…..

“Thank you so much.” Ms. Sakuya shook their arms with force, almost yanking it out of the sockets.

Bradley and Penelope just smiled and after listening to the woman rant about how her friends jabbed at her in a not-so-friendly manner, they left the library behind them.

“You wanted to talk about yesterday, right?” Bradley spoke first. The whole reason they had this talk in the first place was because of him.

“Yeah.” Penelope nodded. “Look, I wanted to say I’m sorry for–”

“No need to apologized.” He interrupted. “It was all on me. All you did was tell me your true feelings which is way better than lying.” That was what he thought. After giving it some thought, he found this outcome to be better among other possible ones.

“You aren’t going to ask why?” Penelope said.

“Nope. I’ll probably just sink into self-loathing if I did.” Bradley shook his head and the two of them laughed.

“I’m not going to pretend I’m fine though. It hurt a lot.” Bradley decided to intimidate her a little and she visibly paled.

“But part of the reason I fell in love with you was because of the friendship we had. I really loved out time together, romantic or not.” What scared him the most was the fact that their friendship could be destroyed, that his confession would kill it.

“Thank you.” Penelope smiled and Bradley returned it with one of his own. His chest still stung a little but it was mostly just light.

“Then, friends?” Penelope extended her hand and he took it.

“Friends.” He affirmed.

…..

“Looks like they made up.” Jason commented as he leaned on the window sill of the classroom overlooking the entrance of the school from the third floor.

“Thank goodness. I wouldn’t have been able to handle it if he remained depressed.” Amelia said with her hands in the pocket of her signature lab coat.

“You think so?” Jason frowned as something still didn’t sit right with him. He couldn’t place a finger on it but he knew it existed.

“Well, so long as the matter has been settled, we can resolve the rest later.” Amelia swung her bag onto her shoulders when someone took it from her.

“Let me help you with that.” Jason said, sliding one strap of his own bag off his left shoulder and placing hers there.

“What are you after? My body?” Amelia hugged herself and shrugged in mock fright.

“Maybe.” Jason played along with a deep voice, trying to sound like a villain.

“Haha.” Amelia laughed in a dry tone when she sensed the presence of an unknown entity.

“Can you stop dubbing over my thoughts?” she shot a glare at Jason and asked before nodding at the person who walked into the room.

“Yo.” Bradley nodded at the two of them and gave them a once over and smiled.

“A secret rendezvous?” He raised a brow.

“Nope. Just checking how you were planning on resolving all that.” Amelia gestured with her hands, referring to Bradley’s failed confession situation.

“We decided to not let it affect our friendship and continue interacting like normal.” Bradley shrugged and turned his back on them.

“Was it really alright?” Jason furrowed his brows as the strange feeling that he had earlier reappeared.

“Yes. It’s for the best. For everyone.” Bradley confirmed with a nod and left the classroom with wide steps.

“Let’s go.” His voice echoed into the room. Jason and Amelia exchanged glances and walked after him. Whatever happened, they would be at his side to resolve it.

…..

“What have I done?” Zenyr collapsed and knelt down with her hands on the floor as her eyes widened in shock and disbelief.

In front of her lay the fruits of her destruction; countless metallic parts covered the rug in the living room, turning it into a metallic haven.

And it wasn’t just metal. Rubber, plastic, glass and all sorts of material of different shapes and sizes were buried in between the metal, some ever leaving the boundary of the rug.

“He’s definitely going to kill me. I better run.” Zenyr muttered and stood, up when the front door was unlocked.

“I’m home – what the hell happened!?” Bradley screamed, shell-shocked and the sound of the door closing behind him punctuated his anger.

“Welcome.” Zenyr smiled, knowing she had lost her chance to run and decided to take responsibility.

“Talk. Now.”