How to Lose Your Reputation in 10 Seconds

        “This one looks nice!” Zenyr gazed at the pure black dress in awe and tugged excitedly at the hem of Bradley’s shirt.

‘Hey.’ Bradley wanted to tell her to back off until he saw the light in her eyes and decided against it, not wanting to ruin her mood.

Besides, there wasn’t any chance of someone misunderstanding their relationship. At first glance, Zenyr looked to be in her early twenties while he was just in his teens.

“Huh? Aren’t you the mason’s kid?” the owner of the shop they were in called out to him. To some extent, he was already expecting this.

“Good morning.” He greeted the familiar yet unfamiliar face with the politest face he could muster.

“How’s your sister doing?” the shop owner was young, possibly in his mid or late twenties. The way he winked at Bradley suggested he may be interested in Audrey.

“She’s fine. Last time I checked; she was overseas.” This didn’t bother him as it wasn’t his first rodeo with something like this.

“Hoh? Who’s the pretty lady?” this part was whispered to him. Zenyr took this chance to introduce herself.

“I’m Zenyr. I’m an acquaintance of his parents. We’re currently living together.” Zenyr decided to add the last bit after thinking over it.

“Living together?” the man raised a brow and looked at Bradley and grinned.

“Don’t overthink it.” The man continuously elbowed Bradley and the latter ignored him and tugged at Zenyr’s hand. “Let’s get out of here.” He said.

“What was that?” Zenyr secretly suppressed a smile and feigned ignorance and asked.

“Don’t ask.”

“I thought you weren’t the social type.” Zenyr pursed her lips. Bradley shot a glance, thinking she was angry until he saw the mischievous light in her eyes.

Still, he decided to answer her. “I’m not. My family is. My parents are the kind of people that would probably have friends in Antarctica. The same goes for my sister. I’m probably the person with the lowest friend count in my family, only having three friends.”

Jason, Amelia, and Penelope. Those three were the only people he could call friends.

“How about adding one more to the list?” Bradley paused and looked at Zenyr.

“If you don’t mind me. I know I can get a little self-absorbed but—” Zenyr froze as a sensation of happiness and joy flooded her feelers from the person leading her by the hand causing her to blush a little.

“That’s my line. I’m not the most expressive or social person and it may be easy for me to give off the wrong idea. Still, take care of me.” Bradley was honestly surprised. This was the first time in his life that someone had asked to be his friend.

‘Well, the only reason Jason, Amelia and I became friends was primarily because of Jason. And none of us did something as embarrassing as asking to be friends.” Bradley let go of Zenyr’s hand and squatted before covering his face from embarrassment.

‘Yep, I’m definitely not doing that again.’ Zenyr seemed to be feeling the same way as she too took a place beside him causing the people on the streets to look at them weirdly.

‘I probably shouldn’t have said that in public.’ Zenyr thought as her back twitched repeatedly. Still, she was glad she did. For her, it was a step forward.

…..

“We’re back.” Bradley called out to the empty house as he and Zenyr walked in. After the incident that shall not be named, the shopping trip had gone almost good enough, if you ignored the fact that everyone in the market seemed to know him.

“You really are popular.” Zenyr commented as she watched Bradley arrange the things they bought. Apart from what he deemed as the daily necessities for her, they had also ‘purchased’ an ID for her and other means of identification.

“I still can’t believe a small watch like that can do all that stuff.” Bradley looked at the smartwatch on Zenyr’s wrist and smiled wryly.

For some reason, the people in the office seemed to know Bradley after he introduced himself. He felt a bit bad when Zenyr was manipulating them, but they seemed happy to do it and there was no after effects so he placed it in the back of his mind.

“Don’t worry. The watch isn’t capable of making people do what they don’t want to do. I was originally planning to spend some time convincing them but thanks to your reputation, it was way easier than expected.” According to her, it was like massaging a person’s mind; essentially softening them up. So long as it did not violate their moral code, they would do most things.

“Still, that doesn’t make it any less dangerous.” Bradley remarked.

“It’s not absolute. So long as you know it’s coming, you can easily repel it. It’s only useful for cases like this. Besides, its restricted tech on Xyr so not everyone has it.” Zenyr said as she took her stuff to her room.

Bradley stood in the empty living room and sat down. In the past couple of days, he had come to terms with the fact that he was living together with Zenyr but it was like the outing struck it home.

If it was before, he could easily convince himself that she was just a product of his imagination. But after seeing the way people acknowledged her, it was not so easy to back out anymore.

‘I just pray none of my family members come back home early.’ For the majority of the year, the house was basically empty so that thought was just excessive worry.

A melodious music rang out, breaking his thoughts and he brought out his vibrating phone from his pockets and looked at the caller.

“Hello mother.” Bradley spoke in a polite tone as he picked it up and was replied with foreign music and sounds of explosion in the background.

“Japan huh.” He mused as he recognized the language that was used in the song. He had picked up a bit here and there along the course of his life.

“Waga musuko. Genki desu ka?” Annabeth Mason, Bradley’s mother yelled over the background noise.

“I’m fine. And stick to a speech style for once.” Bradley sighed for the umpteenth time in his life.

“I will once you call me ‘mama’ like you used to.” He could hear the grin on his mother’s face and he coldly replied, “I have never said that in my life.”

“Aww, when it was your first word? How cruel.”

“My first words were ‘Mother’ not ‘mama’. There’s a difference.” Annabeth once tried to deceive her son into thinking that but sadly, his aunt and Annabeth’s twin sister, Annabelle, put a stop to it by telling the truth.

“You’d believe your aunt over your mother?”

“When it comes to matters like this? Yes.” Annabelle inherited the same frolicking disease everyone in his family had but she was always ready to frustrate the hell out of her twin. The enemy of my enemy is my friend kind of scenario.

“So, why did you call?”

“I just wanted to check up on you. Audrey told me you got rejected.”

“For freaks sake! Does everyone know?” Bradley paled as he slapped his forehead and offered his prayers to anyone who would listen. ‘Please, let that not be the case.’

“Nope. Your grandma is the only one not in the loop. She said she was going to the Amazon forest and we lost contact with her.” Bradley eased up at the first word but reverted to his previous state. By the time his mother finished, he was rolling on the ground while occasionally slamming his head on the floor.

“Bradley? Are you okay?” his mother called out several times to him. After he recovered, he nodded to her question until he remembered it was a voice call and blurted a weak ‘yes’.

“…I guess I’ll mention to the others not to call you and give you time to recover.” Annabeth seemed to have gotten the hint and promptly ended the call.

“… what’s going on?” Zenyr looked at Bradley who was still silently crying for his lost reputation.

“…I’m just going to pretend I didn’t see…this.” Zenyr tiptoed back to her room and gently shut the door.

‘Let’s just pray it stays within the family.’ was Bradley’s only thought as he laid on the ground defeated.