Deception

bonus #3: how it all began

// the greater the love, the greater the chaos //

Nate arrives first at the rooftop and closes the door behind him. He does not realize the footsteps that followed him until he hears the door creak open again. "Why are you here?" He asks and a feminine voice answers. 

"I just want to talk to you." The voice sounds hopeful and a little desperate. "You followed me. You're crazy." Agitation is laced with disbelief in his voice. He takes a few steps away from her, trying to create distance between them. 

"Are you afraid of me? Why are you walking away from me? I would never hurt you Nate, I still love you." She sounds hurt yet angry. "I just want everything to go back how it was. Remember when we were together, we were so happy. Why can't we go back to that time? I know you still-" He cuts her off before she has the chance to finish her sentence. 

"We're over Cassidy. You need to move on, I'm with Kris now." He sounds annoyed but Cassidy persists. "What do you mean? We were so good together, we can still be good together!" She's almost yelling at this point as she tries to convince him. 

"You must be insane to think I still want to be with you. Just leave. This conversation is over." Silence follows his words and none of them speak for a few moments. The sharpness of his tone and words successfully renders her speechless. 

"I know what you've been doing secretly. So I'll give you a choice, either be with me now or go to jail." Her words cause him to laugh before he replies. "Why would I go to jail? Don't give empty threats Cassidy, we all know you're not all that intimidating." Now, she's the one laughing as she says her next words that leave him in shock. 

"Yeah Nate, I'm sure the medical schools would love to accept someone with a history of drug dealing." Her tone is sarcastic and mocking, a contrast to how she spoke earlier. As if the tables have turned, Nate replies in a soft tone that is void of any anger. "Okay, okay." It almost sounds like he's admitting defeat, yet the white flag has not risen completely. "I'll break up with Kris and we can be together again." His words sound forced and there's a lack of genuine agreement. 

"I'm so happy you're finally seeing things my way. We're going to be so happy together! You can go to medical school and be the doctor you've always wanted to be." She sounds excited but not completely satisfied. "It's weird how fast you agreed when you said it was impossible for us to be together again less than five minutes ago. Prove that you're not lying to me." 

"How do you want me to show you I'm not going to back out? My future is already in your hands, what else do you want?" He sounds as if he's trying to mask his annoyance. "I want you to call Kris right now and break up with her over the phone. Then tell her that we're together now." 

"Okay, sure I'll do it. But don't you think using your phone to call will be better? She'll know that I'm with you now without a doubt." Cassidy doesn't reply immediately as if she's considering his words. "You do have a point, maybe you are smart after all. Here, my phone." There's shuffling of feet as he gets closer to her and says, "I know I'm smart." 

Suddenly there's a gasp and the sound of something dropping to the floor. Nate has his hands around Cassidy's neck, strangling her. She stretches out her arms as she struggles to push him off but his grip is too strong. Her face is slowly losing color as she fights more aggressively. He only tightens his hold and it is obvious that she's losing oxygen. 

I sneak up behind him and put him in a chokehold, using all my strength to pull him back and away from her. The shock of my presence causes him to lose grip on Cassidy's neck and she falls back. I can hear her pant heavily trying to breathe in air. Nate is clawing my arm as he begins to choke and I pull him closer to the ledge. He should have known by now that he's no match for my strength. I turn us around until he faces the edge of the building. I use my other hand to hold his wrists behind his back before loosening my arm around his neck. 

I feel her presence behind us before she even speaks. "What took you so long? I could have died, Alex." She sounds annoyed and I can't help but roll my eyes. "Well, you're fine now so I don't see a problem." I feel Nate struggling to escape to I tighten my hold on his wrists. 

"I cannot believe this." I hear Nate mutter softly as he pants. He's probably still confused, but there's no need for explaining. "You two are working together." He says louder and chuckles to himself. "I can't believe I actually fell for your trap." 

"I'm not surprised. You were never really that smart anyways." I say nonchalantly as I push him until half his body is hanging off the ledge. A pathetic yelp comes from him as he realizes the height of the drop if I let go of him. It doesn't come as a surprise when he starts to beg. 

"Please don't drop me! I'll do anything. I'll get back together with you Cassidy! I'll help smuggle drugs across borders and make you rich! Anything at all! Just please don't drop me, I'm too young to die." I scoff at his cowardly pleading before saying, "Any last words?" 

Before he could utter a single word though, I let go of his body. I hear his scream as he falls then everything becomes silent as the body makes impact with the ground. I hear a sigh behind me and turn to see Cassidy rolling her eyes at me. "Did you really have to be that dramatic?" she asks and I just shrug without giving her a reply. 

We look down at the body one last time before retreating from the scene. I pick up her broken phone before handing it to her and she mutters a soft thanks. 

Our job here is done. 

  ☯ 

Uh.... surprise?

We weren't kidding when we said that this bonus chapter would come out soon! This is the final bonus chapter we have for you, hopefully it was worth the wait. A long note about something really special that we've been working on will be posted shortly after this, so do keep a look out for that. We hope you guys will be excited because we certainly are. 

ps. if you have any questions about the chapter feel free to comment and we'll try our best to answer. 

Love,

Leah & Lacy

**EDIT: Hi everyone, sorry we haven't been responding to questions from this chapter but here's a brief explanation. We've realised that many of you are confused by Alex's existence which is understandable since he kind of just appeared out of nowhere.

Basically, Alex is Nate's drug smuggling friend. Both of them are involved in shady business so Nate is not the perfect boy that he seemed to be. Alex was the one who called Nate up to the roof to talk but as you have realised from the chapter, it was actually a hoax planned by Cass and Alex to kill Nate.

If you have any other questions, feel free to leave an inline comment here!