#Skype

After dinner, he quickly retreated back to his room. His laptop was already on standby mode. Dropping himself onto the chair, he couldn't help wondering how he should reply to Mia. According to her message, he was the reason her phone was broken. Actually it was his message, but what difference did it make? The problem kept running around in his mind during the whole dinner time. As a result, he had made his mom worried since he didn't finish his entire meal. However, Mia's accusation wasn't the only part that made his food unappealing. It was also because there were olives in the recipe. He hated olives.

He logged on back into his laptop and found Mia's latest messages on the screen. He had seen them earlier, but before he had gotten a chance to type something cunning back to her, dinner had been ready. Good thing was he had more time to draw out a plan for their first Skype chat. He thought he had taken it too fast when he asked her to Skype with him. But having read all of her tweets and seen old photos she uploaded on Twitter, he couldn't help being curious. Most of her pictures were from Tumblr; some were from We Heart It. There were a few photos of One Direction's Niall, but no picture of herself.

It wasn't just her photos that caught his interest; her tweets were also something out of the ordinary. Though many of them were for Niall, there were tweets for him as well. His lips had faintly curled up while reading them. He liked that she didn't end the sentence with a "Follow Me, babe" or "I love you so much, babe"; and every single tweet either for him or for the band's members was like a line from daily conversations between friends. To him, until now, Mia was more than just a fan.

It had only been two days since he'd first talked to her. However, a strange urge kept pushing him to think of Mia. He wanted to meet her and talk to her. He wanted to be her real friend not some complete stranger or virtual buddy.

His hand moved up, his fingers digging through his messy hair. Edward sat still for a moment. His eyes focused on the flat screen before he leaned forward to type his answer. Recently, his fingers had become more nimble as he had been practicing with the piano quite frequently. Therefore, he had been typing pretty fast these days.

Edward chuckled as he reread her message: "I will SUE you..." His hands carried on typing while his lips were curling up into a small smile.

@hesloveturtles: Nice threat.

He was writing back his ID so she would accept his friend request later but he stopped.

Oh, right.

He realized she didn't know who he really was. And he wouldn't want her to know. She would think of him differently if she knew. He wouldn't want that. He enjoyed talking to the girl who vented her anger on the keyboard, who said she found it more secure to tell a secret to a complete stranger than to an acquaintance, who treated him and his mates like her normal friends, not like some gods who fell from Mount Olympus down to Earth. Then it occurred to him that maybe she wouldn't change her attitude.

His eyebrows furrowed in thoughts. Should he give it a try? Tell her who he was? Would that be a smart thing to do?

He ruffled his hair nervously then combed it backward with his fingers.

"Hmmmm..." He gave out a long and loud hum, resting his chin on his fist. He slightly frowned while biting his lips. His eyes drifted with thoughts, looking at nothing in particular.

OK. Let's do it like that.

Agreeing with himself, Edward sat up, pulling the chair closer to the table. His hand slid inside the drawer and took out a small stack of memo stickers. And there it was, that mischievous smile forming on his lips.

~*~*~*~

Mia stood up from her chair as soon as she finished her dish. Picking up the dish, she told her mom that she would go up to her room and come down to wash the dishes when Harold was done with his meal. Mom looked at her with sadness in her eyes, but she knew that Mia didn't like the smell of alcohol as much as she didn't like Harold. After what had happened five years ago, Harold rapidly fell out of shape, making Mia who had already shared no family feelings for him come to despise him more and more. Even so, she didn't want to push Mia to look at Harold with a different point of view; it was better to take things slowly. With that thought, Victoria looked up at her girl who was not so little anymore.

"Alright." She smiled. Mia let out a sigh of relief as she put the dishes into the sink. "Oh, right." Suddenly mom clapped her hands as she remembered something. "I have to go to the convenience store."

"Why? Can't you go tomorrow? Going out at night is dangerous. You know our neighborhood." There was a tone of weariness deep in her voice before her lips pursed in disapproval.

"It's really an urgent." Taking the coat down from the hanger, her mom said. "And you know it isn't really that dangerous."

"OK." Mia's voice fell in defeat but she hadn't given up yet. "But is it really impor-" Seeing the look on mom's face, Mia left her sentence hanging, realizing that no matter what she said Mom would still go. Mom's expression was full of secrets, the secrets that were not for sharing. She sighed in defeat as Mom put her coat on.

"I'll be back soon." Giving a peck on her cheek, her mom smiled and left.

Mia quickly jogged up to her room, covering her nose as she walked pass the bathroom. Its door was left open. The horrible smell of puke and alcohol permeated into the air, making the small hall replete with the toxic aroma. She turned on the ventilator in the bathroom and closed the door quickly, then dashed inside her room.

Mia closed the wooden door of her bedroom with a loud slam. Her hand pressed the lock button as her legs veered to the laptop.

There was already a new window popped up on the screen.

(SKYPE)

This person would like to connect with you.

Hes_love_turtles (Edward S.)

Hiiiiiiiii.

Ignoring the notification, Mia went on Twitter. And it startled her when she saw the number of new messages in her inbox. Mia rolled her eyes. Apparently, she had given her Skype ID to a child.

@hesloveturtles: You ignored my friend request, didn't you?

@hesloveturtles: Come on. Accept it.

@hesloveturtles: It's simple. Just press the accept button.

.

.

There were more but Mia didn't want to read them all. It would be easier for her to just accept the stupid request.

Please don't let me accept a friend request from a childish weirdo.

She turned her eyes away as she pressed the Accept button. It would be more like an accidental click and she wouldn't feel stupid for intentionally accepting the request. Yeah. She did not accept his request on purpose. It was just a big accident. It wasn't like she wanted to add him, a complete stranger. Well, he wasn't a complete one but still, he was someone she didn't know well. However, Mia could not deny that there was a part of her, a small little tiny part that wanted to know more about the boy who she had vented out her anger on, whose advice had kept him in her head all day. Who was he?

Who are you, Edward?

.

Rrrrrrrrrrrr

"Ohmygod." She jumped up from her chair as the strange sound broke the silence in the room. Her eyes quickly scanned for the source of the noise.

Oh...
.
(SKYPE)

Edward S. calling

. . .

~*~*~*~*~

Notes

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