Best Friends and True Love
Awkward Aftermath
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"I really need to work out more," I said as I struggled to pull myself up to the branch of the tree that was closest to the window.
How did Ed do it? He climbed trees all the time and he made it look so dang easy.
"Made it," I whispered to myself as I reached the window. Luckily, it was halfway open. I opened it a little more, just enough for my to get through it. I stepped onto the washing machine without a sound and closed the window.
As soon as my feet landed on the floor, hurried over to the door and quietly opened it.
There was no sign of my parents. Things seemed to be going good. I left the utility room and closed the door without a sound and hurried down the hall to my room.
As soon as I was safely inside, I went over to my bed. I'd made the bed before I left for school yesterday.
I'd leave it like it was.
I took my clothes off and threw them into my basket before I stepped into the shower. I always woke up before my parents did and they should have been waking up about now.
And when my mom came to check on my I would be in the shower and nothing would look out of the ordinary.
I couldn't believe that I woke up this morning in Edward Elric's arms! I felt so happy and well rested when I opened my eyes. But then when I realized exactly where I was and what time it was, I panicked.
Still, though, the feeling of his arms wrapped around my, feeling my head against his chest, hearing the steady beat of his heart…
I sighed. He was just too good to be true, too perfect to be real, and yet there he was.
I dried myself off and wrapped a towel around myself before reaching for my hairdryer. My hair was dry in no time and I went to get dressed.
I returned to the bathroom to brush my teeth and that was when my mother opened the door.
"Hey mom," I said calmly through the toothbrush in my mouth.
"Morning. Ed's here rather early this morning. He said that Al had himself a ride to school and you two were on your own."
I continued to brush my teeth, not trusting myself to speak. Being alone with Ed might be awkward. Wait, what was she thinking? Ed, my best friend, awkwardness…that just didn't add up no matter where I woke up that morning.
My mother left and Ed came into the bathroom.
I gargled the mouthwash and spit it out.
I picked up my brush and ran it through my hair. He just stood there in the doorway, watching me without saying a single word.
I wondered what was on his mind, but I was reluctant to ask him.
Instead, I decided to make normal friendly conversation.
"Why are you just standing there like you got your tongue yanked out and you're incapable of speech?" I asked him as I stuck a piece of gum in my mouth and picked up my backpack.
He rolled his eyes and yanked the pack of gum out of my hand before taking a piece, too.
"I have something to say to you and I've been wondering how to tell you this ever since you left my house," he finally spoke.
I looked at him curiously.
"Oh? What is it?"
"It's…kind of hard to say. I'm afraid…"
"Huh?"
"I don't know how you're going to take this and…"
"Ed, just spit it out!"
He tossed the Chemistry book I'd left at his house onto the bed. I'd originally gone over there so he could help me study for our Chemistry test, but we'd ended up watching that dumb movie and then we'd fallen asleep.
"Winry, you didn't study for the Chemistry test and the test is today."
The horrified look on my face must've been priceless to him, but at least I know he did feel sorry for me.
He'd always been good at science, him and Al both. It just came naturally to them, something they got from their father.
He didn't have to study to do good, but he was worried about me since I had such a hard time changing grams to moles, moles to grams, converting to atoms, etc…
He'd explained it all to me the other day. He just hoped I would be able to remember it. I'd hadn't really been paying attention that day so he had no idea how I'd do…
I groaned as I looked down at my paper. She just had to give us all of these stupid problems where we had to convert and all of that stupid stuff. Why couldn't she throw some definitions or multiple choice at us?
Ed was the first person finished with his test. Noah was the second.
'I can't let Noah do better than me,' I thought angrily. 'I have to try to remember what Ed taught me. Now what was it he said….?'
I sat there for like ten minutes just trying to remember when all of a sudden it all came back to me.
'Oh, I get it!' I thought happily. 'You put 35 moles of aluminum there and multiply that by that and divide it by one and there's the answer!'
I got a bit excited and everything began to get easier for me. 'Oh, Ed did say that'd be easy,' I thought as I worked on the last problem, which had to do with percentage composition.
I finally finished and turned in my paper, giving Ed a happy smile.
As I sat down I looked up at Izumi who was looking over my paper briefly. The woman seemed to be pleased with it and she added it to the pile she'd grade after she got home.
I grabbed onto his arm and hugged it happily.
I grabbed a blue marker out of my bag and wrote "Thank U," on the top of his left hand.
He must've thought it was weird that I was writing something on his hand, but he just shrugged and got out a red marker before writing "U R Welcome" on my right hand.
I smiled at him and began to write my closest girl friend, Sheska, a note. There wasn't really much else to do to kill the time since the teacher didn't like for us to talk during tests.
I saw Noah glaring at me out of the corner of my eye. I kept my expression stoic even though I was smiling inside.
'She's jealous, isn't she?' I thought as I started the note. 'Ed probably wouldn't let her close enough to him to hug him on the arm…let alone fall asleep in the same bed. Uh…why can't I get that out of my head?! I've slept in the same bed as him before right? Then again, things are different since we are much older now…'
Things had drastically changed. It's like ever since we turned sixteen, maybe even a bit before that, our parents seemed to watch us more closely, as if they were expecting for something to happen…
I couldn't blame them considering what some of my classmates were doing behind their parents backs, though…
But I wasn't like that and neither was Ed.
I ran my fingers through my hair before I finished the note and folded it up, writing her name on the front of it. She was in my next class so I'd see her then.
The bell finally rang and I gathered up my stuff and waited on Ed. We left the classroom and headed for our lockers.
Somehow he managed to open his locker himself and looked extremely proud as he pulled out his book. I took a look inside of it and smiled at the picture that was inside. It was a picture of me, him, and Al at my fifteenth birthday party.
I was blowing out the candles, Ed was looking at the cake and he had his chin resting on my shoulder while Al was waving at the camera.
"Chocolate cake sounds yummy," I said as we headed toward the Spanish classroom. This class was nice and safe for me since I easily had an A in there.
Even though Ed was really smart and he was great at Chemistry what he wasn't that great at, however, was Spanish, which was our next class. I thought it was easy. What was so hard about it to him?
"Hey Sheska," I said as I sat down at our table. She sat to my left and Ed sat to my right.
Alphonse was in this class, too, even though he was a year younger than us so he sat on Ed's other side.
I handed her the note and got my notebook out of my backpack before grabbing a pencil, too.
The one thing I hated about this class was all the notes I had to take. I was good at the class, but I needed notes to help me understand. I wrote neat, but after about two pages of notes handwriting got a little sloppy. Then again, Spanish notes were nothing compared to the notes I had to take in my AP classes.
Ed and Al, on the other hand, always managed to write neat. I mean, I'm the girl, dang it! I should be the one to write pretty and neat. They both put me to shame…
Sheska laughed as she read what I wrote her. I told her about a joke I'd heard the other day and about how I thought I passed my Chemistry test and about how my wrist always felt like spaghetti after taking notes.
"Okay, class. It's time to get started. We're going to do a review of things from the first semester that you definitely should know."
"This should be easy for you," I told Ed. "This is the simple stuff."
"Yeah, easy for you to say…" he replied.
"Now you know how I feel in Chemistry when you say it's easy," I said with a grin.
"Okay…Translate this sentence to Spanish…Um…Winry. I am from Resembool."
That was one of the easiest things she could've asked me. I had no problem with this one.
"Yo soy de Resembool?" I answered.
"Si, muy bueno!" our teacher, Mrs. Sanchez, spoke.
See? It was easy, child's play, really. She gave Ed an easy question, too, but he was clueless.
"Ed…Let's see…How do you say "my name is Edward"?"
He looked rather nervous. Okay, I knew he sucked at Spanish, but this badly?
"Uh…um…"
He had no clue!
"Mi nombre es Edward," I whispered so low that he could even barely hear that.
"Um….Mi nombre es Edward?" he answered.
"Si, muy bueno."
"Thanks," he whispered with a smile.
This was something kind of like him forgetting his combination. It was times like this that he needed my help and I was happy to be of assistance.
By the time fifth period rolled around, something was strange about Ed. Russell had said hi to me before gym class started and I talked to him for a few minutes, but I wasn't talking to Ed because he was in a conversation with some random girl in the bleachers.
Anyway, they were playing dodge ball today. Normally Ed like to get Al out first just to get him out of the way, but today, for some reason, he viciously threw the ball straight at Russell Tringham's head!
It missed….barely…and he claimed that it was an accident to miss his head by half an inch.
After that, Ed tried to get Al out like he normally did, but Alphonse dodged every time Ed through the ball at him.
"Go Al!" I called from the bleachers.
Ed turned his head and glared at me. He was obviously getting frustrated.
"Damn Al! Just hold still!"
Al dodged him again and laughed at the angry look on Ed's face.
"You know brother, there are lots of other guys here to throw the ball at. If you're tired of my dodging, then you should aim for them instead."
"No way," Ed said. "I'm not getting them out until I get rid of you!"
It continued that way until Ms. Izumi told them to head to the locker room.
Al was the first one out and he hurried over to me.
"Hey Al, you did good!" I told him as I put my arm around his shoulder.
"Thanks. I'm tired of being brother's victim!" Alphonse said with a fake tear in his eye.
I laughed.
"Winry…have you noticed that brother is acting strange today? When I told him good morning he ran right by me and straight into the bathroom."
I shook my head.
"Nope. I don't have a clue. Are you sure he got a good night's sleep last night?" I asked, though I was laughing inside at that question.
"I don't know…Oh hey Noah!" Al said as he hurried to talk to her.
Al totally and obviously liked Noah. She was just too interested in Ed to see that Al liked her. He shot other girls down cold because he liked her so much.
I was ready for the day to be over with so I could go home. Spring Break was starting soon and I planned to do lots of sleeping and hanging out with Ed.
It sounded like a good plan to me.
He looked like he was in a bad mood when he left the locker room and sat down next to me. What had gotten into him lately?
I shrugged my questions off.
