||Pretenders||☄️

(40).

"Bring It On"

      Jake crawled on the tiled floor in his room, ribs broken here and there, cracked lips and a broken nose. He was so sore. He crawled to get his phone and dialed a number. He pressed onto his sore face and waited for the call to be answered to. "You know what, I'm done! What exactly are you gaining from this if he doesn't even remember you? How long do I have to keep pretending?"

     "Long enough."

    "Seriously?!" He screamed and his whole body ached. "I can't do this anymore. You either show up and tell him who the fuck you are or I'm done. I won't take anymore bullshit. Take some fucking responsibility because I will not sit still if he dares one more time."

     "You want to dare?"

     "What?" He wiped the blood from his forehead.

     "You can fucking bring it on Jake. Do as I say or we'll both get hurt. You know I can do that."

     "At least he's not the only one who suffered. You fucking need to be admitted to a psychiatry." He hanged up angrily and punched the couch. He didn't sign up for that shit.

•_•_•

      Alone in the bed, Alicia tried her best to get some sleep. It wasn't coming to her. She had to call him. As expected, he didn't answer her calls. She felt bad to the extent of shedding tears over and over again.

•Alicia•
I'm sorry Max. Can you please come home? I'll go back home when I see you. Please, let's just talk.
She sent. Few minutes later he replied;

•💯❤️•
I know he's waiting. Go if he keeps calling for you.

•Alicia•
I don't have that kind of relationship with him! Stop running your imaginations wild and talk to me.

       Maxwell's texts stopped coming through and he wasn't answering her calls. He had lodged into a hotel for the night and he watched his bruised knuckles. He was sure he would've killed Jake if he didn't stop hitting him. She was turning him into a beast. She knew exactly how to turn his beast mode on. How she was able to keep what she did with Jake from him, was triggering the anger. His head ached for the night, his foggy images appeared and he sat on the floor of the hotel room, staring at the floor with guilt.

      "Please.. make it stop." He heaved. He held his head and all that ache conjured in his head. It was unbearable and hard to breath again. He closed his eyes and things he didn't remember doing, flooded his head. He slowly fell to the floor and whimpered on the cold tile. "Please," he cried. Maxwell held onto his chest and rubbed on it to ease his pain.

'You're a monster! I really hate you. You made me this way! You don't deserve to be loved. I wish you die!'

      The voices appeared again for the thousandth time. He convinced himself he wasn't a monster and deserved to be loved and all those images of blood and dead bodies proved he really was a monster.

      Alicia spent the night, staring at her phone and sending thousand apology texts. She had little sleep and was exhausted when day broke. Luna and her spent another day, waiting for Max. She felt so guilty. Luna was worried about her little brother and it was Alicia's fault. Alicia carried her phone from the couch and started typing in the message box.

•Alicia•
Max please. Luna is worried about you. We all are, so please answer her calls and let her know you're okay.

     Few minutes later, the door opened and an angry Max walked in. Alicia finally breathed a sigh of relief. Luna ran to him and held his cheeks, turning him around to check if he was okay. He slapped her hands off and looked at Alicia. "I'm sorry." She mouthed to him. He eyed at her and looked at his sister. Luna saw the bruises on his knuckle.

     "Hey, what's that?" Luna asked, pointing to his hand. Alicia moved closer and saw the bruises on his knuckles. "What did you do Max!" He moved away from her and headed to the kitchen. "Maxwell!" Alicia stopped him from entering the kitchen and he glared at her.

     "What happened to you?" Alicia asked. He pushed her away and entered the kitchen. He opened a cabinet and pulled out an old bottle of alcohol. He opened it and poured half of it in his mouth. Alicia rushed for it and took the bottle away from him. She already felt bad for Christ' sake! "Why are you making me feel so bad? Is this what you want?"

     "You don't know what the fuck I want!"

    "I know.." She put the bottle down.

     "You know?" He frowned. "Do you remember me asking you to be mine and let no one fucking touch you? Do you remember all the shit I said to you? I should've known you'll be like everyone else. All you were interested in was the money. That's all this thing was. That's all you all take me for. Your money lending machine. Nobody ever did!.." he yelled the last part and suddenly stopped. The crazy images flooded his head again.

    "Max," he pushed the bottle of alcohol down, it crushed and spilled all over the floor. Alicia stiffened right there and watched the alcohol keep spilling from the broken bottle.

     "You didn't." He scowled and left her there to deal with his problems. She was one one of his problems. Tears spilled out of her eyes the same way the alcohol did. Like those broken pieces of bottle, her heart felt that way.

     What she was concerned about was him. She did him wrong. She didn't know he'll react this way. He kept her hidden from everyone, went ahead seeing Kiera and made her wonder what they really were. He acted so nice to her when they were alone and treated her like a fly in public.

     There was something she was missing about him. She had to dig around the accident that caused his memory loss and find out what his girlfriend and friends did to him. He repeated she played him too. He repeated nobody ever felt something for him. Was he lying about the loss of memory?

A/N— Do you think he's pretending about the memory loss too? Share your thoughts with me.