||Pretenders||☄️

||PHASE 3|| (100).

"Let's Pretend"

Hefty amount of sand caught in between Alicia's toes and the sounds of sands being digged in her ears haunted her even in her sleep. She remembered the last words they had said to each other after they buried Theodore in the cold night. After all the sand was being dropped on Theodore's body she felt she should at least say something to them.

Then with a strong heavy heart, Alicia said, "Lets all pretend we're good people," a heavy breath followed. "I'm not a whore." saying this she bored her eyes with Maxwell's. If she was right, he looked sorry for all he caused her. He rather starred with his deep gloomy eyes, sun-kissed skin and afro-curly dark hair. "I did not fuck your brother, you did not pretend to have amnesia. You did not pretend she was never yours from the start. You did not pretend you never slept with her."

Tremendous amount of tears got caught in between her words. She silently wished all that she said were false and that it never happened. Every bit of it happened and she was glad she was not the only one who had to pay for all the bruises they left on her heart with their pretentious ridiculous heartbreaking games.

Alicia, saying all that in cold tears, looked at the only girl who went ahead with all that. The dirty schemes and lies. "...and you, pretend you never sent me those threats. Pretend you never approached him." Then turning to the last male who betrayed them all, Jake, she let her tears pour.

"Pretend she still isn't your sister. Pretend you never lured me to fall for you and break off my relationship just to make your sister happy. Pretend you still love me."

The cold breeze slammed on her face and froze her tears, filling her up with anger and betrayal. Those faces they had on, those weak emotions they showed, she could no longer tell which was genuine.

"Why should we pretend to be something we're not?" Alia asked, still trembling under the moonlight. Her tears from earlier had formed with her sticky makeup and she looked like hell. It was such a shame Maxwell thought she was prettier than Alicia.

Frowning at her, Alicia replied, "Because we're going to pretend we never killed him." Like a drumroll at her last sentence, they took turns in looking at each other and she still tried to push away any silly eye contact with him. It only got her sick to the stomach.

And now thinking of these last words, it still got her sick to the stomach. It had been a week after what they had done and she hadn't seen Maxwell since. She assumed he was grieving for his brother's death and for not doing anything to stop them. She wished they could all go on, and be happy.

•_•_•

Maxwell was seated in his apartment with Alia and their daughter was playing around in the living room. He raked his hair and sighed in his palms. "What do you want to talk about?" He asked her and she pushed closer to him.

"Let's start over." She said.

"That's never going to happen."

"Shouldn't we stay together for Cora's sake?"

"We should stay apart for her sake. I don't want to traumatize my daughter with your yells and stupid attitude. It's getting late. You should leave." He stood up from the chair and she held his hand. "Alia, we've talked about this before. The only reason you're here is because Cora wanted to see me. Get your ass up and leave." Alia stood up too and stood in front of him.

"You didn't change, right?"

"I did. I really did." He pushed her off and walked to Cora. Cora had a warm colored pale skin, eyes of her dad, face of her mom and hair of her dad. Maxwell carried her in his arms and smiled at her. "It's time to go home baby."

"But I want to be here." Cora whined and Maxwell glanced at Alia. She must be feeding his daughter with words. "Why can't we all be here?"

"Uh.. your dad has some business to take care of Cora. I promise to spend enough time with you soon." He convinces her and Cora pouted her lips at him. Maxwell kissed on her forehead and she laughed. "Go with your mom today."

"Okay daddy." Maxwell put her down and Cora ran to Alia. She held her mom's hand and Alia didn't stop looking at Maxwell. Alia sat Cora down and walked to Maxwell. He cussed under his breath at her attempts. Alia held Maxwell's hand and walked with him to the balcony.

"Max, are you still in love with her?" She asked.

"In love with who?"

"You know who the fuck I'm talking about?!" She raised her high pitched voice on him and he covered her mouth with his palm, pushing her against the wall. Alia slapped his hand off at the feel of the cold cemented wall on her back and his warm hand on her mouth. "Don't you fucking do that to me!" She scowled at him in a low tone.

"Mind how you speak to me when Cora is here. I've told you this before and I won't say it again."

"You're threatening me because of Alicia? What the heck is wrong with you? Don't you see how broken she is after what we did to Theo? She barely comes out and you still have feelings for her when she's still stuck over your dead brother. Grow up Maxwell. You and that girl will never work out. You and I took two lovers of hers out of her life. What makes you think she'll love you again?"

"Mind your business and take Cora away."

"Believe it or not Maxwell, the only person who will love your flaws is me. No one will stick to you like I'm doing right now. This whole thing and whatever I did to you, I paid for it with my dad's life. Your bossy mom took everything away from me too!" She yelled at him and tears fell on her cheeks. "And the only person you care about is Alicia. You push your daughter away when she tries to spend time with you because of Alicia and I'm fucking tired of that." She walked away from him and he held the handrail of the balcony, taking in air and looking up the skies.

Maxwell waited at the balcony for Alia to leave with a daughter he never knew he had. He had been feeling down for days and sometimes it gets hard to breath. Dying wasn't the way out for him. He wished he could be a better person and live a normal life like everyone else.

Minutes later, he walked into his bedroom and picked up the new phone he bought, together with his old phone. He sat on his bed and put the old phone down. The only number he had saved on his new phone was Alicia's number and she didn't of his new number. He opened the messaging app and clicked on Alicia's name. He scrolled through the unknown messages he had sent to her without her knowing who it was. He only hated her relationship with Theodore before and thought of scaring her so she calls it quits with him but it all turned out wrong.

He became another villain in her life and watched them take away the only guy she was comfortable with. He never should've sent Theodore those anonymous messages either. All his plans backfired and it was Theodore who's life was lost in the process. He regretted his decisions and it was too late for that. Theodore was gone and buried.

That could be a good thing and it should be a good thing for him but all it caused was heartaches and more pretense. To see where his life was heeded to, he clicked on the messaging box of Alicia and started his message.

•Unknown—Alicia•
This is not done. If you want to fix this, meet me at your lover's burial place. You should come alone.

He breathed out a sigh over the text and pressed on the send button. He waited for her text to pop out and in two minutes, Alicia responsed to it.

•Alicia•
I'm already dead inside. I don't care if I die tonight. Let's meet up.

•Unknown•
In an hour. Come alone!

A/N— Was Maxwell the anonymous person who sent her all the messages previously? Read to find out more.