Such a Beautiful Lie to Believe In

“Alex, how the hell is it that you are taking longer than it took me to get ready?” I gasped, lounging on the couch, using the reflection of my cell phone’s screen to admire my new appearance. I was now a fire-engine-redhead with an eyebrow piercing (which I’d probably take out once this was all said and done) and some of Joie’s black clothes.

“How about you try piercing your own lip?” he retorted, steadily holding a needle above his lower lip, about ready to break through the skin.

He went for black hair with blonde emo-style bangs and clearly his difficult lip ring. Although these disguises were more on the permanent side, I didn’t mind. I don’t want those guys figuring out who we are. Plus, I gotta admit…Alex kind of got a tiny bit hotter with his new look as well.

There was a slight groan/cry coming from the bathroom, and I knew then that the needle did its job and that a ring was in its place. “Ready to go?” I laughed at his distorted expression.

“No…not like I have a choice.”

“Oh, Alex, cheer up. This is going to be fun! It’ll be like our own action movie.”

“Yeah,” he said, pulling the car out of the driveway, “I’ll enjoy it even more once it’s over.”

Alex’s voice registered at the governor’s front gate and we pulled up the winding driveway. I wish there was some way I could get a hold of Joie to see if she was here already or not. I could call Brian’s number, but that’s far too risky.

“When we run into Joie, just act cool, alright?” Alex warned, holding the door to the kitchen open for me.

“Not a problem.”

“Ah, thank goodness, the last two waiters have finally arrived!” a man in a suit exclaimed, pointing toward Alex and I.

“No, I’m the manager of –,” Alex started to say.

“Better late than never, I suppose,” the man said, handing each of us a large tray and a pad of paper.

This wasn’t going to work out well. Sure, Alex and I worked in a restaurant…where Alex was a manager and I was a host/part time chef. “Now what do we do?” I muttered.

Alex didn’t respond right away; his eyes were busy searching the crowd. “I see the governor at the table all the way across the room. And…there! There they are,” he said nodding to the far left where the bastards themselves were sitting at a table, waiting to be dinned on.

“Let me take their order,” I said suddenly, tugging on his arm. He gave me a questionable look. “I know more about waiting than you do. It would look suspicious if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

It seemed good enough for him, seeing as he headed to some tables nearby with a pitcher of water. Truth be told, I didn’t know anymore about it than he did. I just don’t want them to kill him…before me.

As it turns out, I must’ve ended up looking like an idiot standing still with this big ass tray in my hands, staring at all the fancy people. The man in the suit from before tapped on the shoulder and gave me an irritated stare. “Excuse me miss, do you mind doing your job? Go serve tables 14-21,” he ordered, pushing me over in the very direction where a7x was sitting.

Each of the tables were numbered…I wonder what the chances are that theirs falls into my range. My heart beat harshly against my ribcage as I scanned each table. I looked up at theirs and nearly cried when I saw the number 19 on the edge.

Really though, what do I have to worry about? I’ve got a new disguise…they’d never know.

Cue fake smile.

“Hello gentleman, enjoying yourselves tonight?” I chirped up, trying to ignore the lump in the back of my throat.

The leader, the one wearing the Aviators indoors, glanced up from his menu and smiled at me, revealing a set of grills. “Quite a bit thanks. I suppose you’re here to take our order, gorgeous?”

“That would be my job. What would you like?”

“Just five glasses of your finest wine and what’ll it be guys? Lobster tails?” he paused to glance around the circle. All the members agreed.

“Alright I’ll bring that right out to you,” I said, pretending to write their order down and turning to leave.

“Hold on a second,” one of the other men spoke up, this one being the chubbier one with snakebites.

“Have we met before?”

I scratched the back of my head to make it look like I was seriously thinking, “N-not that I know of. Why do you ask?”

He just shook his head, “I’m not sure…I just feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before.”

He seemed to be backing down on the accusation, so I decided to have a bit of fun. “Hmm maybe it was in your dreams,” I shrugged as I walked away hearing the laughter of all the other guys in the group.

Now to find Joie…

*Normal POV*

Life in an actual governmental kitchen was much more hectic than I could’ve imagined. Steam kept flying up into my face, I kept burning my fingers on the edge of the stove, and the sauce dispenser decided to malfunction, squirting ketchup right in my face. I know I’m a better chef than this but, as you could imagine, I had a lot of other things plaguing my mind at the moment.

I could hear a loud roar of applause and laughter coming from outside, suggesting that the governor was about to speak. I really need to keep up with what’s going on out there…all I need is someone to take my place.

Just as I was about to turn around with a handful of flour, I bumped into someone with blackish hair. Flour flew out everywhere, covering this dude in it. I was about to start apologizing immensely, but then I burst out laughing when I realized that it was Alex…after his emo transformation.

“Alex! I’ve never been happier to see you,” I breathed out.

“I’ve had better moments,” he sighed, trying fruitlessly to remove the layers of white dust from his nice black shirt.

“Sorry, but I’m in a rush. I need to get out there and talk to the governor before they can get their work started,” I explained, “so do you think you could take my place in here for just a few short minutes?”

“Joie, you know I’m not the world’s greatest chef…”

“Well apparently neither am I,” I said, referring to all my previous accidents in the kitchen.

“Ok, I’ll take care of it for you. Just hurry up and get to him,” he said pushing me out the door.

The governor was standing up at his seat, basically thanking everyone for coming and all that good stuff. C’mon…just say something…go somewhere. I can’t risk going over to his table and talking to him because one of them will see me...although it didn’t look like all of them were even at the table right now.

After a joke he had said, he finally got the audience to stop laughing and made a move away from the table. This is it! “I’ll be back,” he said his signature line as he exited the room.

Sneaking through the back room, I waited outside the bathroom I had seen him walk into. When he walked out, he was a little startled to find me standing there…looking very much like a creep.

“Ah! Joie, you of all people should know it’s not a good idea to sneak up on me. I might bust out some karate chops!” he laughed.

I forced a small smile. “Sorry about that, Gov, but I really need to talk to you…alone,” I told him seriously. He took the hint and led me to one of the nearby spare bedrooms.

Glancing around the room, it was just your basic bedroom – a large bed with elegant quilts, a window hidden by curtains, and some other cherry wood furniture. The room was very dim, and made the beeping red light up in the corner pretty obvious. How did they already get a camera up there? Maybe that’s why their table looked a little empty…some of them must already be monitoring them. Great, now I’ll have to continue with part of their plan.

He sat down on the bed and crossed his arms over his chest. “What is it, Joie?”

I bit my lower lip nervously as I began to unbutton the top of my chef’s uniform. “It’s a secret…” I said, buying more time before actually jumping on top of the bed and running my fingertips along his broad chest.

“What are you–?” he started to ask, but I pushed him down so that his head was resting on the pillow and I was straddling his waist.

“Relax, Arnold, this will be worth your while,” I said in a horribly fake sexy voice…just in case the cameras had audio capture as well.

He began protesting, trying to push me off of him. Guess I better start telling him before he starts to freak out too much…especially since he just realized that I’m almost entirely naked. I leaned down toward his ear and dropped the fake voice.

“Listen to me, sir, I know this is awkward…but there is a camera mounted up in the corner of the wall. Avenged Sevenfold is here in this building and they are trying to get a camera up in every room. I’m not sure what their exact plan is, but they sent me in here to ‘distract’ you long enough for them to get something done. They’re planning to kill you and I couldn’t let them try without first warning you,” I breathed out.

He seemed relieved. “That’s all, Joie? What a relief. Those fools I can handle, but being jumped by you…that’s a little scary,” he laughed.

Wow, I wonder if he really feels that confident…or it’s just a front. I joined in his laugh and relaxed after I got my clothes back on and he gave me a quick hug before we went back to our respective positions.

At a quick glance it looked like everyone was back at the table, however I was mistaken…Zacky was missing, and so was Brian. And there was someone waiting in the shadows.

A scream echoed loudly throughout the mansion’s three story dinning room causing all chatter to cease.