Such a Beautiful Lie to Believe In

Out of breath, Kathy had just finished explaining her ‘perfect’ escape plan to me. I stared at her with my jaw completely dropped open. “Are you kidding me? That would never work!” I protested, standing up and pacing the room.

With a quick glance at the clock, I saw that we only had 10 minutes before my ‘shift’ was over and one of the guys would be here to pick me up.

“Joie, we’re running out of time here. We don’t have a choice,” Kathy said, pushing me suddenly out of our secret hide out and right into Alex, who had been holding a folder full of paperwork.

“Damn it, Joie, what the hell?!” he shouted, angry that his papers had now flown all over the place. “And where did you come from?” he asked, glancing around the room, but seeing only walls. Ha, good thing me and Kathy are sneaky enough.

“Alex, relax, we have more important issues at hand than your stupid papers!” Kathy said from behind me.

Alex scoffed, “What could be more important than this file filled with today’s receipts?”

“My life,” I said solemnly.

Before Alex could add some sort of sarcastic remark, Kathy said, “Joie’s life was threatened today because she ran away after I didn’t believe what I told her. Alex, she has guys following her around and watching her, just waiting for her to do something wrong so they can hurt her again!”

Alex looked a little shocked at first, and tried miserably to cover it up. He always was one to try and show a minimal amount of emotion. “You’ve gotta be kidding me,” he sighed, leaning up against the wall and completely forgetting about his precious papers. “So, what are we going to do then?”

Kathy smiled, proudly ready to announce her plan, “Alright so here’s the deal: Joie will be waiting up on the roof when whoever the hell is supposed to come get her gets here. I’ll direct him up there, she’ll have a few last words with him, and then before he can stop her she’ll jump of the building as a fake suicide. We’ll have a body waiting on the ground below to make it look like she really jumped while we somehow catch her before falling. Then, we’ll take her back home to grab a few things and have her live with you, Alex!”

“WHAT?!” me and Alex shouted at the same time. Kathy definitely didn’t mention that last little detail to me when she originally told me the plan.

“Anyway,” Alex said shaking his head, “how do you plan on ‘catching’ her before she actually hits the ground?”

Kathy laughed nervously before saying, “Well, see I was hoping that you could offer a possibility for that…”

He rolled his eyes, “I should’ve known.” He paused a few minutes while thinking of an idea. “This might be a bit risky, but if we time it right it should work,” he said suddenly, upon reaching an idea. “There’s a pool on the second floor of the restaurant that retracts in and out, hence why it’s an indoor and outdoor pool. It’s suspended over the ground below. If we can push it out at the same time that you jump, then you should be able to land right in the water, swim off, and allow us to close it back before he even notices.”

“Wait, we have a pool in our own restaurant?!” I gasped, completely unaware of this fact. Kathy and Alex looked at me like I was crazy.

“You’ve been working here…as our top chef…and you didn’t know that?” Alex asked, completely shocked.

I felt a tad bit embarrassed by now. “Hey, it’s not my fault I spend 95% of my time here in the kitchen!” I said, trying to justify myself.

“Fair enough. Now, let’s get this thing going. He’s gonna be here any second now!” Kathy said, changing the subject and pushing me toward the stairs to the roof.

“I so don’t have a good feeling about this,” I mumbled to myself as I jogged up the stairs and waited on the roof for my ‘escort’ to arrive. Well, it looks like it’s about time to pull out my good old acting skills... because it’s show time.

The sun was finally setting out in the distance, and I guess in a sense, the sight gave me a sense of peace because I was nervous as hell about what I was about to do. What if he caught onto me before I could even get away with it? What if I don’t end up landing in the pool that I just found out about today? So many ‘what if’s’ were clouding my mind, that I totally lost sense of the world around me, which would explain why I jumped when I felt someone’s arms wrap around me.

“Whoa, babe, calm down it’s just me,” Brian said. I breathed a sigh of relief, glad that Brian really was the one who came to get me and not someone like Matt.

I spun around, still wrapped within his arms, and felt my heart skip a beat when I saw his face. There were three scratches across his face. There’s no way that he was the guy in the alley earlier today. That can’t even be possible – I mean he’s the only sensible one of the group, right? “W-where did you get those scratches from?” I asked, feeling myself tremble a little.

“Oh those…they’re from me playing around with Pinkly a little too much.”

“Who’s Pinkly?”

He looked shocked. “Oh shit, that’s right I forgot – you haven’t met him yet! Pinkly is my cute little doggie,” he said with a smile at the end.

That has to be true…Brian wouldn’t attack me like that other guy did. Obviously, the scratches were from the dog…at least, that’s what I made myself believe for now.

“So what are you doing all alone up on this rooftop?” Good, I thought he’d never ask. Time to cue the fake tears and over-dramatics.

“There’s something I guess I should tell you,” I said, catching his attention. “I can’t handle this shit anymore. I know it’s only been one day but it’s just too much for me. I loved you Brian, but not enough to put myself through this. If I can’t live my own life, then no one else can either.”

“Wait, what are you talking about? It really won’t be that bad, Joie.”

I broke away from him and began walking backwards toward the edge. “That’s easy for you to say, since you don’t have to be put through it! I’m sorry Brian…I hope that you realize what you guys have done once I’m gone.”

I stepped onto the ledge now, refusing to look down below me, seeing as I have a very slight fear of heights. The wind suddenly began blowing all over the place and I swear I was about to just give up on this whole thing…I was so damn scared. It felt as if I was losing my balance, and soon I heard myself scream as my body ending up falling off the ledge before I was actually ready. The wind spun me around so that I was facing the ground, which caused me to scream out even more because I realized just how far I was falling.

Finally, I was right above the pool. I squeezed my eyes shut and enjoyed the feeling of the cool water washing over me in contrast with the warm Californian air. I swam forward, hearing the shifting of the gears below me as the pool was pulled back inside. Damn, this was such a cool invention! Anyway, I reached the end of the pool and caught the towel that Alex threw at me.

“Nice dive. Although I must admit I thought you would’ve taken much longer before you came down – seeing as we all know how you love creating drama at every chance you get,” he said.

“Well I wanted to! But then the damn wind started blowing all over, and I got scared and accidentally lost my balance,” I said.

He started laughing, “Wow, you just amaze me everyday, Joie. You’re afraid of heights?!”

“Maybe…” I mumbled, not really appreciating his sarcasm in a time like this.

Regardless of that, I followed him back toward the exit of the restaurant where Kathy was anxiously waiting, ketchup smeared all over her clothes. “Guys, hurry the hell up we have a major problem!” she shouted.

*Brian’s POV*

There’s just no way that Joie is actually serious about jumping. Based off what I’ve observed from her so far, she wouldn’t have the guts to commit suicide. She does have a confident personality, relating to people, but when it comes to doing certain things, she shies away from it. I watched her as she stepped back onto the ledge. It almost seemed as if she was purposely avoiding looking downward. What, was she afraid of heights or something? Well that’s all the more reason to believe she wouldn’t go through with it.

I felt a light breeze enter the air, and saw that she suddenly looked scared. Without jumping or anything, she actually fell off the ledge and screamed as she was probably caught off guard. It took my mind sometime to register what had happened. I lunged forward toward the ledge, careful not to fall off myself.

As I was running over, the rooftop below me trembled a bit, which was odd but I just ignored it because once I looked over the ledge…I saw her body lying in a puddle of blood. She actually did it. What the hell are we going to do now?! I felt a mix of emotions arise inside of me. On one hand, I was completely distraught that I had caused her to take her own life. But the stronger of the two emotions took over. Frustration overcame that remote amount of concern I had felt and I dialed my phone while running down the flights of stairs.

“What is it?” Shadows asked on the other end.

“Dude, we have a major problem. Joie…well, she jumped.”

“What the fuck do you mean ‘she jumped?’”

“I mean she jumped off the roof and landed on the ground in a bloody mess!”

“She’s dead?!” he screamed.

“Yeah…”

“And you couldn’t do anything to stop it?!”

“I didn’t think she was really going to go through with it! Actually, it was more of an accidental fall. She was afraid of heights and lost her balance.”

“I don’t give a shit what the case was. You better make sure no one finds her body within the next three minutes until we get there.”

“I got it.”

I slammed the phone shut and leaned up against the door leading to the alley. All those stairs in addition to what has happened wore me down momentarily. I still can’t believe any of this shit…

*Kathy’s POV*

“Wait what? Why do I have to be the fake dead body?” I groaned, following Alex around until he gave me a legit reason.

“Uh, because you’re a girl and also because I’m the only one that knows how to work the retractor on the pool?”

“Hmm, I guess you might have a good point there. Damn, this is still unfair though!” I shouted, grabbing the bottle of ketchup and squirting some all over one of Joie’s spare uniforms. “I’m keeping this bottle!” I informed Alex as I went outside and waited till I heard the faint splash in the pool before sprawling my body across that filthy alley floor.

Since I was bored already, I began squirting the ketchup all around my head and using my fingers to smear it all in. I bet this looks pretty realistic, thanks to my amazing art skills. All of the sudden, I heard heavy footsteps pounding down the stairwell, which happened to be right near where I was laying.

I heard Brian and someone else’s conversation reverberate off the metal walls. It sounds like the rest of the little gang of friends is gonna be showing up…and that ‘Shadows’ guy he was talking too didn’t sound too happy that Joie was supposedly dead. Obviously, I can’t just lay here until they arrive because then they’ll realize what Joie’s up to. I have to get the hell out of here and get Alex and Joie back to our place to start Part 2 of the plan.

*Normal POV*

Kathy just told Alex and me what she had overheard Brian saying…and it was not good. “Well what are we standing around for? Let’s get the hell out of here!” Alex said, shoving us both toward the emergency exit door.

We took off running to the nearest bus stop, taking all the back roads to avoid being spotted by the guys. Once we got on the bus we all let out a simultaneous deep breath. “That was a close one,” Kathy gasped.

“It’s not over yet,” Alex reminded her.

That’s true…we’re not safe yet. They’ll find out eventually that there is no body in the alley anymore. And I don’t even want to think about what would happen if they found me.

*Brian’s POV*

Matt called my cell as soon as the others arrived and we all met up in the alley. “So, where is the body?” Zacky asked after we had all spent a few minutes scanning the place.

“My guess would be somewhere near this red stain,” Johnny pointed out.

There was a circular red stain on the ground that looked fresh enough to be from Joie. But if that was the case then where was the damn body?! Matt knelt down and touched the still wet substance. Jimmy was right next to him, also examining it. Then he said, “Dude, that smells like ketchup or some shit!”

“You’re right…” Matt said, standing back up. “It looks as if we’ve been tricked.”

“Well obviously, a dead body can’t just get up and walk away.”

Matt growled as he slammed his fist into the nearest dumpster, easily indenting it. “I swear as soon as we find that bitch I’m going to make her wish she never was born!”

Meanwhile, I had continued looking around at the ground. “Look at that,” I pointed out, “there are footprints leading back inside the building.”

We didn’t waste anymore time following the red prints through the kitchen, pushing anyone out of our way, toward the furthest exit and all the way to the bus stop. “How are we supposed to find her now?!” Zacky whined.

“She’d probably end up going home first thing,” I said.

“Then let’s go burn that fucking place to the ground,” Matt said leading us onto the next bus.

All feelings I had for Joie were gone at the moment. I was just as ready as Matt was to beat her in for what she has done. She will be sorry.