Three months later…

“Fresh from their very successful Asian Invasion, here they are—Four O’clock Deadline,” Susan Crowley started, forcing a smile as much as her obviously Botox-filled face could allow. I was scared her face would rip apart.

A rumble of applause and shouts filled the studio. The guys waved and smiled for the entire world like it was their first time being on TV. I’d bet their faces hurt by now.

“We all know that Four O’clock Deadline’s music video went viral in the internet, not to mention, it became extremely controversial. ‘What If’ topped the charts and had been since the band’s most popular record-breaking song.”

Ricky gave me a nudge in the ribs. Startled, I looked up from the cup of coffee in front of me and to Susan, then to the audience and back. Chuck handed me my mic, throwing me a meaningful look. The three of them—save for Nate, of course—had faced The Wrath of Sarah after that incident and I could tell none of them would like to talk about it.

“Yes,” I replied with a smile. “It’s just us guys and my… b-brother”—even now, the word still get stuck in my throat, so excuse me for that—“fooling around and having fun. It’s a pretty popular past-time for us. Only, this time, they were making fun of me, and it was caught on cam. So, I say that wasn’t much fun in my part.”

A roll of laughter filled the studio. The camera lights fixed on me burning holes in my eyes. I swear I’d go blind at the early age of thirty, tops.

Susan laughed—it was like she was being strangled with her mouth open— with the audience and got back to business. “There have been rumors that the girl in the music video is your real-life girlfriend. How true is this?”

I heard Ricky whisper to Reed. “I thought this is just a promotion interview.”

“That’s what Moira said,” Reed hissed back, smiling to the crowd. “We need this to promote the sitcom.”

Ricky sighed. “But Moira didn’t mention anything about this.”

“We are all happy with how the music video turned out and—“ Reed started to change the topic, but I shook my head and smiled.

“It’s okay, Reed,” I said, feeling abnormally calm. “About your question, Susan. The answer is, yes.”

Murmurs filled the hall.

Chuck and Ricky were making this discreet scared faces at each other. Sarah just wanted a peaceful life, away from the spotlight and if she could help it, gossips. She was very clear on that. But if she wanted to be Leon Walden’s girlfriend, she knew she’d have no choice but put up with it. It was in the job description.

Susan finally recovers with, “The ladies who had been linked to you before; Louella Cole, Hayden Levine and many others had been through a lot of bashing. A columnist even said Leon Walden fans will never approve anyone for you. What does she—your girlfriend think about this? Isn’t she scared at all?”

The murmurs were replaced with screams. If those were violent reactions, I couldn’t tell.

I took in a lungful and faced the audience. “She’s a very private person. Honestly, she’s terrified. But we’ve known each other for quite a long time. She’s the strongest girl I know. We’d been through a lot and by now, I believe she knows that I won’t let any of these things come between us. I’ll… protect her no matter what.”

“We still love you!!!” a group of girls screamed, turning into a lot of screams that bounced off the walls. “Four-Oh-Dee! Four-Oh-Dee! Four-Oh-Dee!”

Susan beamed. “There’s you go, guys. Your fans still love you.”

“We can never thank you people enough,” said Reed. He had taken on this well-mannered, mindful façade. “We promise to keep giving our best in every song that we make and to dedicate it to you who never stopped believing in us.”

***

“It’s a first,” Moira said to me, browsing at the news from her laptop. “Your fans never liked it whenever a girl is linked to you before. Now, they even want to know if Sarah is going to enter in show business and when you two are going to be paired in a movie.”

“Weird,” Chuck grunted from the front seat. “I can’t picture her like that at all.”

Ricky fidgeted with the keys of his notebook and looked up at us. “She’d be the worst actress ever. You should’ve seen her in third grade.”

“Why? What happened?” Reed asked.

With his eyes widening, Ricky turned his attention back on his notebook, muttering, “Never speak of this to her if you don’t want to attend my funeral any time soon.”

“Don’t worry,” Reed snorted. “Sarah will kill Leon first.”

I couldn’t help but smile. She’d totally kill me for sure. But I just couldn’t keep it a secret anymore. It wasn’t like we were still in high school. We were already two responsible adults. For sure, she’d get mad. But that didn’t make me want to go home to her less.

“We’re here, bro,” Reed gave me a nudge, waking me up.

I opened my eyes and removed my shades.

We were home. The familiar neighborhood. My Dad’s house. Emma’s front yard right across. The trees strewn along the road. The memories came rushing to me like a movie reel. And I was happy to realize that I, who used to think that my life was a big charade, had found the reality I’d always wanted in my not-so-normal double life. And I couldn’t ask for anything else.

It was very early in the morning. Moira had done a great job of making our homecoming a secret. For once, we got out of the van without people tugging at us. For a while, we just looked around, sighing.

“Never thought I’ll miss this dump,” Chuck mumbled.

“Here,” Ricky said, handing me a pair of glasses and a gray beanie. “We don’t want anyone seeing your pretty face here, do we, Mr. Popular?”

Grinning, I put them on. “You guys go. Dad’s waiting. I’ll just check in on Sarah.”

Before they could cross the street to Dad’s house, I heard Chuck chanting, “Leon and Sarah, sitting on a tree—“

“Shut up, Chuck!” Ricky, Reed and I shouted at the same time.

Chuck just snickered, putting a finger over his mouth. “Sshhh… you’ll wake up the neighbors.”

***

I watched Freddy flit around the kitchen. He was making pancake and bacon as far as I could tell. The silence was building up the tension between us. For once, I wished Emma was around. Freddy had been like my second Dad so I used to hang with him when I was younger. Turned out, he was going to be my real second Dad, and that made me nervous.

Jeremiah was running around the kitchen in a cow suit, trying to coax the sleeping Kidnap into chasing him. I guess he never really outgrew his love of cows. So far, all that changed about him was that his head was bigger. Now, he was really becoming Mini-Freddy with Sarah-eyes. In the last twenty six minutes I’d stayed in the house, he tried to bite me at least four times. I mean the kid. Not the dog.

 “So you and Sarah gonna take your… uhh…” he cleared his throat in the middle of flipping a pancake. “That thing between the two of you to a higher level? Y’know. With you announcing to the whole world that she’s your girlfriend.”

“Uhh… I guess?”

He slammed the pan on the stove it made me flinch. Then, he stared at me long and hard. “I used to like you a lot, kid.” Note the terms ‘used to’. He actually looked a little scared, even frantic. “But… But now, I’m not sure. My Sarah’s turning twenty one soon, but I think she’s still too young for marriage!”

“W-what?”

He went and loomed over me. “You intend to marry my daughter, do you not?” (Insert almighty booming voice here.)

I totally did not know how to answer that. I was trying not to shake in my Vans. “Y-yes? Of—course?”

“What?! My Sarah’s just twenty years—“

“I-I mean, no, Sir.”

“After everything that happened. You still can’t commit?!”

My mouth opened and closed repeatedly. What was I supposed to say that’d prevent Freddy from hurling thunderbolts at my face? No one told me he’d eventually turn into a bipolar maniac when it comes to Sarah.

I took in a lungful. My palms were sweating like crazy. “I mean… Of course, I will marry Sarah. But not today. And on the account that she accepts my proposal.”

He let out a deep breath of relief, patting the sweat on his forehead with his apron. “Glad we’re clear on that.” He set a plate of pancakes and bacon in front of me, glancing at the wall clock. “Sarah’s late. I thought she was going out for a jog. Thought it was weird if she was jogging in that dress. Maybe she went to that place again,” he shrugged.

“Where?”

“The cemetery.”

“Again? What—Why?”

Freddy rolled his eyes and threw me his car keys. “Can’t explain. Just go to her. Arthur lifted the driving ban yet?”

“Nope. Not until Nate passes his driving tests, which might happen in like… never.”

He finally caught the squirming Jer and set him in a high chair. “Okaaay…” He made it sound like a three-syllable word. “Just be sure to bring back my car and my daughter in one piece.”

***

I ran around the cemetery for several minutes before I found Sarah. She sat in front of a small tombstone, eyes closed as if in prayer. A few little flowers dotted the grave and there was a half-eaten apple on it.

Quietly, I stepped behind her and read the writings on the tombstone. “Here Lies Sarah’s Lost Memories. They May Be Forgotten, But Still Are Cherished.”

Sarah scrambled from the ground and quickly brushed the grass that clung on her baby blue sundress. “Leon! You startled me!” she cried, running to me, arms wide open. But before she could give me a hug, she dropped her arms and took a step back.

“You mad?” I sighed, pocketing my hands. “Look, Sarah. I didn’t actually tell them your name—“ I thought I forgot what I was just about to say.

She shook her head, her brown wavy locks swaying with the breeze. “It’s just that… it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you like this.” Her eyes were outstandingly blue today, without a trace of gray indicating zero chance of rain. Then, a smile curved the corner of her lips. That smile. It made the seven-hour drive worth it.

“What?” I blinked, my mind blank.

She walked up to me and touched my glasses. “This.”

“Oh this stupid thing?” I removed it, somewhat feeling embarrassed. “It’s Ricky’s idea of homecoming.”

“No. Don’t take it off,” she laughed, fixing my glasses back on. Then she turned away before I could point out the blush on her cheeks. “I like it. It’s like… we’re going back. Besides, when you wear that and no one recognizes you, I feel like you’re the Leon only I know. I’m not making any sense, am I?”

I reached out for her hand and pulled her to me. Looking at her eyes, I felt like I could ramble on and on, blurt out everything and anything inside my head and it would be alright. Because I was with her. And that made me feel somehow invincible. “It makes perfect sense. Because I can only be myself… I mean my real self whenever I’m with you.”

She laughed quietly. That laugh that came through in spite of all the bad and the worst. That made all my defenses crumble. Holding her like this, I couldn’t help but think that everything that was broken was already fixed, everything that used to hurt gone with the snap of her fingers.

It might just be me going nuts, but I could already see all possibilities the future had in store for me with this girl.

I momentarily tilted my head to the tombstone. “What up with that?”

She tried to break free from me but I didn’t let her. In the end, she just looked at it over her shoulder. “Uhh… that. That’s where they buried my tumor. You know, from my brain?”

My forehead creased involuntarily. “I’ve never heard of a tumor burial before.”

Her brows knotted. “If you lost an arm, wouldn’t you give it a decent burial?”

“Fair enough.”

With some sympathy, she gazed at the tombstone. “It was an abnormal neoplasmic growth but was benign in origin. It used to be a part of me.” She said that like a eulogy.

“You should’ve put that on the tombstone too.” I pressed my lips into a thin line to keep myself from laughing, but I still did.

We both ended up laughing.

Once I was able to compose myself, I let her go. “That was why Freddy said you were here when I tried to see you. I thought you actually—“ I stopped myself before I could ruin it for the both of us.

Sarah placed her hands on the sides of my face. “D-did you cry?” Her lips quivered, her eyes turning misty.

Hesitantly, I nodded, taking her hands from my face before touching them on my lips.

Before I knew it, a tear had trickled down her cheek. Her lips were pressed tight while she tried not to sob. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

All I could do was fold an arm around her. “Sshh… You’re such a crybaby.”

“Sorry,” she croaked into my shirt. Her arms slowly, hesitantly curled around my back. “I missed you.”

The moment she lifted her face from my chest, I inched my face close to her and kissed her. She kissed me back and time had stopped. There was nothing that existed but the two of us. My heart was racing so loud and hard I was scared she’d notice. You thought you’d be used to it after a few years but every time felt like the first time.

As we walked to Freddy’s truck, she tugged my hand and said, “W-we might have a problem.” She had that matter-of-life-and-death look on her face.

“Yeah, what is it?”

“I think I… I’m late.”

“For what?”

She let out a panicky sigh. “Leon, I might be late. I haven’t done the test yet so I can’t be sure—“

“Late…” I went blank for a few moments. “Oh, you mean… Late as in… You’re… From that one time?”

“Yeah.” Her eyes rolled. “From that one time.”

I nearly laughed for some reason but I had to force it back when I saw how scared she looked. I pulled her to me and embraced her as tight as I could. I buried my face on the hollow of her neck. “How’s that a problem, Sarah?”

I didn’t know if I was more excited on telling Freddy that I may have to marry his daughter soon or that she’d have no choice but to say yes to my proposal. Or that I may have a mini-Leon of my own sometime soon.

“I don’t know,” she murmured. “Dad might kill you, for example.”

“Good point. Besides that.” I finally let out a laugh. “How’s that a problem?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

End. For now.

Hi! Shim here. If you're reading this, it means I have left the planet on an eshpheni battle ship. No. Just kidding. Means you've finished the story. Thanks for sticking with me until the end. I do hope you had a good time. And see you in my other books!!!

If the book does really well, there's a chance i might do a NATHAN Book. So watch out. ♡♡♡

Other works by Shim Simplina:

Reapers Chronicles
Reapers-Thirteen Brothers (published)
Reapers-The First Familiar (completed)
Reapers-Master of Souls

Nerd Diaries:
How To Date a Nerd (completed)

Filipino Stories:
31 Days to Die
#LoveTeam