Such a Beautiful Lie to Believe In

_1 Week Later_

Finally, it was 8 o’clock and that meant that my shift was over. Even though I am the head manager back here in the kitchen, I still have shifts, which I am not complaining about. There is no way in hell that you’d see me working from noon to 11 pm everyday.

I began driving home to the small house that me, Kathy, and our other friend Brittney shared. I reached the gated entrance to the parking lot and slammed my fist against the steering wheel.

“Damn it!” I shouted, “Today’s my day to get the groceries.”

It might not seem like a big deal to have three girls living in a house with an empty refrigerator, but trust me it is not a pretty sight. I angrily did a u-turn and drove back in the opposite direction until I reached the grocery store.

By the time I was done shopping, my basket consisted of candy, cookies, maybe one can of vegetables, frozen pizza, ice cream, Spaghetti-O’s, popcorn, noodles, ingredients for pasta sauce, beer, milk, chocolate frosting (Kathy just loves eating it out of the container), bread, peanut butter, and umm did I already say candy? Anyway, it wasn’t exactly the healthiest shopping spree I’ve had at the grocery store, but I’m sorry, I want some damn chocolate by the time I get home!

I went over to the U-scan part of the check out area. I scanned all the items and the machine told me that the total was $74.32. That’s such a random amount. Anyway, I pulled out my wallet and realized with wide eyes that I left my credit cards at home for Brittney to borrow! I only had $70 in cash.

“God damn it,” I cursed under my breath, not really intending for anyone to hear me.

“Having a problem?” a surprisingly sexy voice asked from behind me.

I turned around to come face-to-face with the hottest guy I have ever seen. Why would someone as hot as him be in the grocery store?! But the weird part was that I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’ve seen him somewhere before. Well, if I had seen him before, wouldn’t I remember his face? I mean, how could you forget it?!

“Uh, sort of. I let my friend borrow my credit cards, so I’m stuck with cash and I forgot that detail. I have only $70, and my total was $74 and some change.”

“I can help you with that,” he said stepping forward with a $100 dollar bill.

“Whoa, whoa,” I said pushing his hand away from the money slot on the machine. “I can’t just let you pay all that money for me. I don’t even know you!”

He shrugged my hand away and inserted the money before I had a chance to retrieve it. “Well, how about you get to know me right now? Hi, I’m Brian Haner, Jr. I’m 27 years old and I like playing guitar. I live in Huntington Beach, right off of the beach actually and I have a dog named Pinkly. I live with my five friends. And I would like to get to know you better,” he finished with a smile.

He was absolutely amazing, and I felt drawn to him, like I just had to respond to him. “Nice to meet you Brian. I’m Joelle Monroe. But you can call me Joie. I’m 24 years old and I’m a professional chef at Endless Oceans. I live with three of my friends in a house not too far from here. How about I give you my number?” I said, getting out my cell phone so I could program his as well.

He took my phone and put it back in my purse. “I have a better idea, how about you come back to my place?”

I stared at him incredulously. Do I look like a slut or something? I do not just give it up that easily. “Ok, that’s kinda fast for me, Brian. I’m not a slut, ok? Plus, I have all these groceries that I have to get home.”

“Oh, Joie I’m sorry I didn’t mean it like that at all! I just meant, why don’t you come back to my house and hang out with me and my friends. And as for the groceries, I could just ride back with you to your place and then we can head over to mine.”

“What about your car?”

“I walked here, I just stopped in here to buy a Gatorade,” he said holding up the drink that I had not previously seen.

I was still a little skeptical, but then again, I didn’t really have any plans tonight…Kathy will be out with Alex and I think Brittney still has her dance classes to teach. Why not? I sighed, “Alright, that sounds good to me. Thanks for paying for my groceries.” “It’s not a problem at all. Just let me buy my drink and then we can head out.”

I have a feeling that tonight is going to be an unusual night…and I still can’t shake the feeling that I know this guy from somewhere…

_M. Shadows’ POV_

We waited a week after the governor’s speech before putting our plan in action, mostly just to avoid suspicion. We had followed Joelle home from work, and then followed her over to the local grocery store. Syn got out of the car and promised us that he would come back to our place with her. None of us doubted him, considering it was obvious that he wanted her so bad. So in the meantime, we headed back home waiting for them to arrive and for the party to begin.

I was tossing knives at the dart board in my room with a picture of my number one enemy on it. Let’s just say it wasn’t that hard for me to get a bull’s eye with this method. Zacky randomly came into my room, the knife barely missing his face as it wedged itself into the dart board.

“Are you trying to kill me?” he gasped.

“No, but haven’t you ever heard of knocking?” I retorted setting down the knives.

He looked thoughtful for a minute and said, “That might have been a good idea. Anyway, I think you know why I’m here.” Oh that’s right, Zacky was out fucking some girl when we had our meeting to plan out our take-over. He probably wants to know the plans.

“You wanna know the plans, right?” He nodded his head eagerly, so I continued, “Well, right now Syn is getting her to come back here. We’re gonna get her drunk so that Syn can go have his fun with her. Then, we’re going to trick her into leaving the back doors to the governor’s mansion unlocked so we can get inside. Then she’ll call the governor down, to meet her new ‘friends’ and we’ll shoot her up. Since she would have seen too much by then, we’ll keep her locked up with us to be our little sex slave. Basically, she is the key to our success.”

Zacky smirked evilly, “I sure hope it doesn’t take long to win her over cause I want all that shit to happen right now!”

“Me too, dude.”

I heard the garage door open, so it sounds like they’ve arrived. That was way faster than I thought. Syn is the best of the best when it comes to that though, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Let the party begin.

_Normal POV_

“This is your house?!” I gasped, staring up at the enormous mansion that stood before me.

Brian laughed, “Yeah, and I can just tell that you are going to love it.” I nodded my head quickly, dying to see the inside.

As we walked up the stairs, it seemed like Brian decided to be bold as he held onto my hand randomly. I looked up at him questioningly and he explained, “I just want to make sure you don’t fall.” I laughed at the cute little excuse he just came up with and held onto his hand.

I really do like this guy, I think, but I don’t want to move too fast because from past mistakes, that has not exactly worked in my favor. Once we walked inside his house I gasped yet again. This place was amazing, and hell I wish that I lived here too! I just didn’t know that that wish would become reality within the next week.

I heard random screaming and looked up to see a super skinny guy sliding down the banister next to the stair case. I laughed as he landed in a heap on the ground. He jumped up quickly and extended his hand, “Howdy, I’m Jimmy! You can call me…Jimmy.” Wow this guy is filled with energy.

I shook his hand and smiled, “I’m Joelle, but you can call me Joie.”

Three other guys suddenly walked into the room. And they each took their turns introducing themselves. From what I could tell, Brian was the hot bachelor, Jimmy was the funny guy, Zacky was like my long lost buddy, Johnny was a cutie, and then there was Matt. He was just plain creepy. Seriously, there was just something about him that I didn’t trust. His smile seemed to be hiding something, and it made me feel very uncomfortable. But luckily I got to stay close to Brian most of the night.

Two hours later, and most of the guys were drunk off their asses. I maybe had one beer. Zacky stumbled over to me and tossed a bottle of JD into my lap.

“C’mon Joieeeee, live a little!” he slurred.

I glanced down at what looked like a brand new, full bottle. It wouldn’t hurt to have a few sips, right? Well, what felt like a few sips turned into me drinking half the bottle. I never even thought that I liked JD that much. Needless to say, I caught up to their level of drunkness within half an hour and that cannot be a good sign.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Matt and Brian walk into the other room to talk about something. I didn’t want Brian to leave me alone. I sprawled out across the couch and stared up at the ceiling, looking at the stars through the small, rectangular windows in their ceiling. All of the sudden someone sat on top of me, blocking off my breathing, and blocking my view. It was Brian.

“You look a little lonely, why don’t you come over there with me?” he said, nodding his head in some other direction. When I’m this drunk, I tend to be dependent on whoever I’m with…in this case Brian. So without any hesitation I followed him back to his bedroom. Looks like I’m about to make yet another drunken mistake.