Deception

While Cassie had been waiting for Adrienne, she had called Tre again and asked him to come down. She didn’t want to be alone while something so terrible was going on. She now knew that Billie was in no life threatening danger and would probably be out of the hospital by tomorrow, but it was still a horrifying thought to know she caused all this.

Tre had dropped Frankie and Ramona off at the Armstrong’s and came as soon as he could.

“Cassie!” He ran to her and embraced her “How is he?”

“He’s fine, he has a few bruises and a small wound on his head. He’ll be out of here tomorrow with any luck.” Cassie smiled. She felt so much better now with Tre’s arms protectively around her.

“I feel so horrible for hitting him.” Tre said sadly. His voice was quieter, muffled because he had his face buried in her hair.

“Don’t be.” Cassie pulled away from their embrace so she could look at Tre’s face.

He had a tortured expression on his face, he had dark circles under his eyes like he had been crying. He looked like a boy who had lost his mother.

“Tre…” Cassie reached out to stroke his cheek with the back of her hand. He closed his eyes at her touch.

A single tear dripped from his eye and he hurriedly wiped it away; not wanting Cassie to see him shed tears.

“It’s okay, Tre. You can feel whatever you need to in front of me.” She reached out with her other hand to take his.

He opened his eyes and leaned closer to her so he could lean his head on her shoulder.

“I love you.” She whispered to him. Then she stiffened, although Tre didn’t seem to notice.

Cassie’s grip around Tre’s hand tightened as she thought about the words she had just uttered.

She had told Tre she loved him many, many times. The first time because she wanted to keep him to get closer to Billie Joe. The other times because she loved him as a best friend and companion.

This time however, she had said it because she truly meant it. She truly loved Tre. She didn’t realise it until now. Cassie wondered when she actually fell in love with Tre and then realised with amusement that it was possible to love two people at the same time.

“I love you.” She said again, enjoying the feeling it gave her to say it to him and really mean it. She was still in love with Billie Joe, but with her realisation, the feeling was somewhat numbed in favour of Tre.

“I love you, too.” Tre answered, moving his head so his cheek was touching Cassie’s.

“You are so impossibly amazing.” Cassie breathed into his ear. It was like someone had lifted a blindfold off her eyes and she could now see Tre for what he was. She had always thought him wonderful, but now she felt differently.

“Thanks…” Tre was clearly not used to hearing Cassie gush about him because she had been so distant for the last few weeks.

“I’m sorry I’ve acted so weird lately. I promise it is going to stop.” Cassie promised and this time meant it.

“Why this sudden turn around?” Tre pulled away from her gently and looked into her grey eyes.

“I’ve just realised how lucky I am to have someone who loves me like you do. Who drops things at a moments notice for me. Who would knock out his best friend for me. You just adore me and I haven’t appreciated you lately. I’m sorry.” Cassie realised that it was a whole combination of all the things Tre had done for her that made her cross the threshold into loving him.

“That’s…okay.” Tre grinned.

“It’s not okay.” Cassie wondered how she could make it up to him.

“It really is, but you could always make it up to me by-” He looked around sneakily for a second then began whispering the filthiest things any mind could imagine into Cassie’s ear.

“Cassandra Walker, you dirty mole.” Adrienne was stomping over to them.

“What?” Cassie was taken aback.

“Billie Joe told me everything. I knew there was a reason I didn’t like you. Stay away from my husband or I’ll break your nose.” Adrienne stayed a distance away from Cassie and Tre.

“Billie Joe was talking shit. Tre was right, he is jealous.” Cassie sneered.

“Adrienne, please. Don’t do this here.” Tre raised his hands in a pleading motion.

“No. I believe my husband. You’re using Tre to get to Billie. I’ve seen it happen before.”

“I love Tre.” Cassie stated and this time she was telling the truth.

“Honestly say you don’t love Billie Joe.” Adrienne demanded, pointing a black nail polished finger at Cassie.

This was also true, but Cassie could never admit that.

“I love him,” She decided to tell the half truth “As a sort of brother in law type thing because of Tre. I feel like Billie and I are related.”

Tre placed a protective arm around Cassie. “Adrienne, I think you better go back to Billie. Please tell him I’m sorry for hitting him but he needs to stop slandering my girlfriend.”

“Tre. This girl is a liar, just like some of your other girlfriends. You trust too easily and people take advantage.” Adrienne took a step towards Tre.

Cassie began getting upset. It was true she was a liar but she wasn’t anymore. She thought the time she must have fell truly for Tre was at Mike’s barbeque when she was finally strong enough to walk away from Billie instead of be enchanted by him.

“I really do love Tre. Adrienne please stop this.” Cassie said softly.

Cassie then turned away from the conversation and headed for Billie’s room. To her surprise, Adrienne didn’t try to stop her.

‘She must want alone time with Tre to try to poison him against me.’ Cassie thought to herself as she went behind the curtain to Billie’s side.

“Billie.” She said loud enough to wake him up.

His eyes opened and he stared at her without speaking for a long time.

“I don’t want to see you. You wrecked Tre and my friendship.” Billie turned his head away from her in disgust.

“I didn’t ask for you to say anything to him. Imagine if he had have believed you. You would have destroyed him.” Cassie thought about the worst possible scenario.

“Oh, like you care,” Billie said scornfully “Cassie, listen, I’m never going to cheat on my wife for you so you might as well just give up. Leave Tre alone. Move on to your next victim.” Billie rolled his eyes at her.

“I’m not going to leave Tre.” Cassie said truthfully. “He’s the best thing to ever happen to me.” Cassie then began having an epiphany.

Billie Joe was talking but she didn’t hear a word she was saying because she was so deep in her own thoughts.

Her epiphany was that she had loved Tre all along. Although she was obsessed with Billie all this time, it was Tre she truly loved. That’s why she was always so conscious of hurting him and why she could keep her ‘act’ up this long; because she wasn’t acting at all, she just thought she was because her judgement was clouded due to her Billie obsession.

If she wasn’t in love with Tre, she wouldn’t have made such an effort to love and be loved by his children. She wouldn’t have made such an effort to be accepted by his family.

She wouldn’t be able to be so comfortable in his arms if she didn’t truly love him. Cassie laughed to herself; it was so simple. Obsession is so different to love.

She realised that all the times she had said ‘I love you’ to Tre were not white lies but in fact the truth. The love she felt for Billie Joe was sick love, compulsive love that wasn’t really real.

She thought back to all the times she had giggled in serene enjoyment as she watched Tre clowning around with Frankito or walking around with chocolate smeared across his face and then blaming Ramona, who didn’t go near the stuff, for the missing chocolate cookies.

She was so impaired by her fixation on Billie Joe that she didn’t realise the feelings she got from seeing things like the above examples was in fact real love. She had truly fell for him around the same time he fell for her.

She had been obsessed with Billie Joe from the beginning, however but in the awakening of her once preoccupied mind, she could see true love and her mania was wearing off.

“Cassie? Are you listening?” Billie was looking at her in annoyance.

“I was having an epiphany.” Cassie said simply.

“Whatever. Just get out and tell Tre I forgive him.”

“Tre doesn’t forgive you unless you stop saying shit about me.” Cassie said indifferently. Now that the cloud of addiction was gradually lifting, Cassie was finally seeing Billie Joe for what he was, not the perfect Adonis her mind had created.

“I’m only telling him the truth.” Billie said, turning away again.

“The truth is that I never loved you. I was obsessed by you. I thought you were perfection but the truth is, Tre is perfection. I have always been in love with Tre. I just had some strange fixation on you.”

“Bullshit.” Billie Joe turned back to look at her quickly.

“Look in my eyes, you have always been able to see the honesty there.” Cassie leaned a little bit nearer to the man in the bed.

Billie Joe did as he was told. He looked closely into her pale eyes and scrutinised her face.

“I really love Tre, you don’t have to fear me hurting him. I have always loved him.” Cassie uttered.

“I want to believe you but I can’t. You told me yourself.” Billie’s features hardened.

“Love and obsession are two different things. That was my epiphany.”

“Hmm.”

“I know it’s going to take forever for you to trust me again, especially Adrienne, now. But since I’m planning on being with Tre forever, I guess I have the time to prove my love for him to you all.”

“You’re right. I don’t know if I can ever trust you. In this business, real people are as rare as hen’s teeth.” Billie said this unkindly, but his features had softened once more.

“I really want to be your friend again. I promise I don’t think I’m in love with you.” Cassie smiled uncertainly.

“Tre hit me because of you. I don’t know what to say about that. I just lost one of my best friends and now Green day is going to break up.”

“Tre already told Adrienne to tell you that he’s sorry for ever laying a hand on you and he said he would be willing to put the whole thing behind him if you apologise for what you said about me. Considering what I just told you about my epiphany, you should apologise. I am in love with him and not in love with you. Never have been. How funny is that?”

Billie obviously did not see the humour. “I am not going to apologise. You can go on about fucking epiphanies all you want; doesn’t mean I’ll believe you. I’m still not sure about you.”

“You can be sure.”

“No. This whole one-eighty thing has got me confused.”

“Epiphanies can do that do you.” Cassie smiled again.

Tre walked in then, clearing his throat loudly to announce his presence.

“Billie…shit.” Tre’s face scrunched up into a grimace when he saw his friend.

“Looks a lot worse than it is. The Doc said I’ll be out by lunchtime tomorrow.” Billie Joe never smiled at Tre. He was looking out the window now.

“That’s good. Hey I’m sorry I hit you.” Tre looked down.

Billie nodded and swallowed loudly. His throat was as dry as a desert.

Cassie went over to Tre and placed her arms protectively around him. She looked pointedly at Billie Joe, who now looked uncomfortable.

Billie studied Cassie’s eyes as she averted her gaze and began admiring Tre. The look of love he saw on her face was something you couldn’t fake, he thought.

He watched Tre’s face break out into a huge, sunny grin when Cassie edged herself closer to him. He obviously was head over heels for her and for the first time, he saw the love emanating from Cassie.

She began caringly rubbing her manicured hand up and down over Tre’s stomach. She was staring at Billie again, waiting for his apology.

Although all this interaction happened over the course of two seconds, it seemed like hours to Billie. It looked like Cassie was getting back to the way she was; an aura of warmness and happiness that radiated from her, causing everyone else to be immediately brightened up.

But how could he be sure this was not an act to throw him off? So that he would once again allow her into his heart, only for her to try and worm her way in to destroy his marriage?

“I’m sorry. I guess I jumped the gun saying what I did about Cassie. I’m just so protective over you. There have been so many women to break your heart…I find it hard to trust anyone around you.” Billie groaned inwardly. He saw how happy Tre was and didn’t want to take it from him.

‘I just hope to God Cassie is telling the truth about him being the only man she loves.’ Billie thought to himself.

Tre began beaming and boisterously bounded over to Billie to give him a hug.

“All is forgiven, man. I love you!” Tre planted a sloppy kiss on the top of Billie Joe’s head.

“All is definitely not forgiven.” Adrienne said warily from behind Tre and Cassie. Nobody had heard her come in.

“Adie, Tre apologised, Cassie explained everything and I have apologised. It’s over now.” Billie said in a deep and powerful voice.

Adrienne heaved a sigh “Billie, is she in love with you or not? Make up your mind.”

“I’m in love with Tre. Always have been.” Cassie said, feeling completely liberated for being able to speak with absolute truth.

“Can you two please bury the hatchet?” Tre pleaded, looking from his girlfriend to Adrienne.

“I’m completely fine with Cassie as long as she’s not out to hurt you and steal my husband.” Adie crossed her arms over her chest angrily and narrowed her eyes at Cassie.

“It doesn’t sound like it…” Billie sat up a little straighter.

“If it wasn’t for her, you wouldn’t be in the hospital. Mike wouldn’t feel like shit. Tre wouldn’t have hit you…It’s all her fault.” Adrienne was spitting her every word now.

Tre’s hands began shaking slightly and it did not escape Cassie’s notice.

“Calm down, babe.” She encouraged.

“You guys are fucked. Call me when you get out of hospital. Cass and I will go to your place to get the kids, then I’ll send Mike and Britt over. Mike feels terrible, like this is his fault.” Tre said tightly then grabbed Cassie’s hand and led her from the room.

Adrienne’s disapproving glance followed them the whole way.