The Night I Woke Up Beside You

[SEASON 1] Chapter 24: Don't Pretend You Don't Feel It

Since that night of the game, everything had quickly changed.

"You seem tense," this was the first comment that Maddy made that Monday morning, staring at her sister's grouchy face across their dining table. Their father, on the other hand, indifferent and more engrossed in the contents of the newspaper in his hands, never seemed to mind them.

Regina did not even hear her sister. Deep in her thoughts, she slowly took a few bites of the toast on her plate. She sighed. Maddy, who had been watching her sister that whole time, even tried to wave her hand to call Regina's attention but she still got no response.

"Wow," Maddy said, a grin curving on her lips out of amusement, "You're completely out of it."

"Who's out?" Their father interjected out of the blue from the narrow end of the table, peering through his reading glasses over the newspaper he was holding. Maddy looked at him without saying anything but with eyes gleaming as she pointed her lips at Regina. She laughed at how Regina did not seem to notice everything around her too.

"Regina," her father called to her, sounding concerned, "Are you okay, darling?"

Pulled out of her long trance, Regina finally came to her senses, blinking her eyes to the sound of her father's voice. She distractingly turned to look at him and cleared her throat. Then she frowned.

"Yes?" she asked. Her father raised a brow at her. Maddy burst into a bubble of laughter. She could not help it. Regina looked confused.

"You've been spacing out," Maddy explained when Regina gave her a look. "A little too weird, to be honest."

"I'm just thinking," Regina said in a defensive tone, looking down on her plate. Their father just stared at them in silence, and after a few seconds of observing without knowing a single clue of the matter, he gave up went back to the newspaper again, flipping it to the next page.

Breakfast carried on back to how it was. But when Regina and Maddy left the house and got into Maddy's car, Maddy's curiosity returned again.

"What were you thinking back there?" she immediately asked as soon as she started the engine and pulled out of the driveway. It was her nature to be this nosy about things. Especially if it concerned Regina. However, Regina, on the other hand, was not the type of person who can openly talk about things in her mind. And that was the problem.

"Nothing much," Regina lied through her teeth, "Just school and stuff."

"Really?" Maddy snorted, not buying it, obviously. "Last time we talked, you were having some major reboot about your character. What's going on, seriously?"

Leave it to Maddy to be so persistent about things. Regina knew she was not going to give the time of day if she kept refusing to talk. But it was hard. The thing was, Regina had been worrying over the effects of her actions that had changed a few events in this timeline. Somehow, after that "incident" with Ryan last time, she had been thinking about how things led up to that change compared to what really happened in her original past timeline.

Regina was just too dumbfounded. She could not wrap her head around the fact that Ryan would even like her to that extent. That never happened before. But for some unbelievable reason, that happened now. And that brought Regina to the conclusion that changing something in this past would most likely provide both warranted and unwarranted results... And as for her situation, when she broke up with Charles, that led her to change the relationship timeline and future between her and Charles but also brought another complication in the picture.

Her relationship with Ryan.

"So you're not really going to tell me anything at all? Not even a simple clue?" Maddy's voice spoke again. She sounded a little unconvinced with Regina's lack of response. She gave her a short glance from the driver's seat, squinting when their eyes met.

Sharing was not the problem though, Regina thought to herself. If she could only explain to Maddy everything about her worries, she would have already told her all of it. But how can she even say it without sounding crazy? Traveling back in time? Who would believe that?

Regina can only sigh in defeat.

"Alright, if you don't want to talk, that's fine," Maddy went on, but her tone had gone a little on edge this time. "I mean, what can I do? That's your choice."

Maddy tried to laugh away her childish statements. But it was pretty obvious that she sensed Regina's hesitance to open up. Too bad. Regina immediately felt guilty inside. Feeling resigned, she decided to look out of the window to ignore the awkwardness between them. It started to put a weight inside her chest but Regina preferred to keep a blind eye on it.

There really was nothing else to say.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Charles had since been feeling that cold, teeth-gritting doubt in the back of his mind as he forced himself to smile and greet some peers on his way that early Monday morning in the school hallways. Lately, it felt more of a routine for him. Looking okay and trying to match the reputation he always had to please his crowd, Charles was now starting to feel more obligated to do it every day. And it seemed like his unpleasant feeling is not going to leave his mind anytime soon yet despite his efforts.

Everything just became much more difficult to handle. His emotions, his priorities... And Regina.

Thinking about her just made it much worse. He can't even make a move to face her after that night. Unfortunately, when he caught a glimpse of Regina before the beginning of the first class a while ago, Charles had instinctively turned around in the opposite direction. As it turned out, he was still not yet ready to see her face. The image of her and Ryan walking together away from the bleachers during Charles's bench time in the game that night was still fresh in his memory. He wanted to know why they left together. He wanted to prove that his suspicions were wrong, but he was still too afraid to confront her about anything. He did not want her to think that he was crazy... and clingy.

After all, they already broke up and it would only make things distant between them again. But somehow, the anxious feeling that something was going on between them never leaves. And by the time History class came, Charles found himself trapped in a room where he had to work on his own troubles.

Because how can Charles forget? It was the class where that person would also be there. But because that person had always been absent, it was then that Charles really felt that gods were playing a joke on him. Ryan actually attended class today. What changed? And how ironic, huh?

Out of all days, he chose to be there today... Charles can only smirk to himself.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------to be continued