The Fake Love

Chapter 13: The Fake Love

I've decided on some shitty things to do right now. Sit down before you read this part. I, me, myself, personally, decided to get along with Stella. I know what you're thinking, but wait. It's not that I like her and stuff, I don't. I have a crush alright? She's so perfect and goddamn pretty. But now, let's not talk about her. The point is I need to get close to Stella, and it wouldn't be something hard. But again, she doesn't seem like she would let go of Jimmey after she had manipulated him for several years. Jimmey however on the other hand Jimmey was willing to get the hell out of her and stop being a marionette belonging to her. She was a puppeteer of his, and he was silent about this the whole time. And according to my brilliant hypothesis, he is going to use this chance to escape her manipulative skills. And of course, what do you expect, he's going to get along with Pearl. But am I really into that? Not really. But is it my job? Yes, it is right now. And adding some spice to it wouldn't really make a change about it. I mean I am the one who's fixing the whole thing into a proper thing after all. Right? I started talking with Jimmey. He was very open to me and indeed told me almost everything about Pearl and their relationship. That was kind of suspicious because why on earth would people tell strangers about their relationship? Probably all because they are both stressed out and need help at the same time from someone. I didn't really take a side and give him a suggestion, because I knew he was stubborn and wouldn't listen to it.

 I went out later at night to find Stella. She had been missing the whole day and I couldn't just waste my time sitting and waiting for a murderer to come and confess the things she did. It was raining cats and dogs outside, which made me realize I had no clues to go find Stella and she wouldn't pop out of nowhere either so, I basically needed some plan. I could either sleep and relax, or go find Pearl. Maybe, only maybe, I could actually tell her about our relationship of blood, that we are brothers and sisters. But then again, I came here for the fun, and the fun would be completely destroyed if I ruined something in any part of this case. And you all might be wondering why I am very interested in this case, it's because I am learning criminology. I really wished to solve one when I was young, I mean till now, but I never wanted to join an agency and make this my entire career and life. So, I decided to work as a lawyer then, actually solving this shit as a detective. It would be hella awesome if I had to gather and solve my own problems and actually fight in the court. But those are all just a teenage dream. And now that I got a chance to actually solve one which is very complicated, I was willing to come here. Plus, it's concerning with my sister and her love, so, why wouldn't I join this? I was on my way heading outside but then, I saw a figure sitting alone in the rain, a familiar one. It was Pearl. For some reason, I wasn't shocked. Like not at all. I mean she indeed lost her so-called trustworthy and best friend, Arnt. So, I gotta be considerate here. I was holding an umbrella because why would I decide to go and run in the rain without an umbrella? I walked near her and covered her with the umbrella right ahead of our heads. "Someone's being a crybaby here," I said jokingly. Let me make this straight, by the way, I don't like Pearl. She's my sister. And I already have a crush. Again, she's so pretty that I don't want to lose her with all my heart, and whatever it takes I'd do to be with her. "Shut up! You barely know anything and you can't be judging someone just like this." She said as she wiped her tears off pretending to be a strong girl. "Alright, alright. Just saying. Rome, I'm Rome." I greeted her. "Pearl, call me Pearl. You're that new popular guy at the senior level, right? Correct me if I am wrong." She said. "Yeah." I nodded. "Well, heard that you had the iconic intro. Keep your distance from me. Very iconic huh?" She replied laughing. I knew that everyone took that funny but I meant it seriously. I did not want any drama to get into this problem and ruin all the plans I made. "Laugh it off. You're the girl with those murders right? I mean don't tell me that you don't know any of that. I researched a wholesome amount of information about the case. And I am not being a stalker, just letting you know that. I am just pretty interested in the case. Since you got kidnapped then the killer or the kidnapper just vanished? Pretty interesting since murders hadn't been there for decades. And I really wanted to solve one of the murders. You get what I mean by now." I spoke in a very casual tone. She looked at me her eyes were gleaming, as she was left bare speechless. I know I gave her too much information to take right now, but yeah. "I-uh. So, you managed to figure out all of those in just a couple of days? And you came here just for that? Why tho? Just why?" She replied questioning me. "You got me on the spot right there huh? So, yeah I am a pretty good murder solver. And why? Because I uh just like how this case is unique. That's the whole story, believe me," I replied. I knew that I couldn't tell her about our blood connection. "I am gonna assume that's true for now," she replied with a smile. 

Later that week, I started to trace around Stella, who seemed to be so dramatic around Jimmey. I wonder why she came back to school when she was literally the murderer of Arnt, but every time Jimmey and Pearl saw her, they both glared at her, but they couldn't afford to do anything to her as there was no proof. Stella couldn't bear herself to talk with either of them too. Well, in my opinion, this must be the best time I step up from scrutinizing. Today I was walking with glasses which seemed to capture her attention. I caught her staring at me the whole class; I laughed in my head, thinking this game was going to be easy-going. I decided to catch up on her later that day, and maybe get the hand of this chance. I swiftly walked past her and very purposely her sweater's threads got stuck on my bag. "Hey watch where you're going!" She shouted. "No, you're the one who purposely did that," I said with a sound of disgust. Her eyes lit up as she grinned. "I'm Stella, and you must be Rome?" She said changing her tone. This game must be very fun. It's not just for my sister but it's mainly for my boredom that I decided to abandon all my property to come here and solve this case. Arnt was apparently a good guy to me. Well, he knew that Pearl and I were siblings; he was the only one to know this as well. Now that he's died, I seriously got bored and came around to check and bring back some justice I guess. We spent another 5 minutes talking and starting the normal convo. "So-uh here's my number" She handed me a piece of paper with her number on it. I took it back home as my phone rang on the way. "Z-zoey? I-uh" I blushed so hard and I was speechless. Zoey was the love of my life. Well, she was mine but I was never hers. She was one of the girls you would name as perfect, beautiful, and quite daring. After a brief moment of hesitation, I realized I was zoning out and not replying to her on the call. "Rome, right?" She spoke softly. "Y-yeah? Why did you call me?" I didn't know what she had in mind. Calling me after ignoring me on campus. She's the reason I left campus. She made me feel like a fool, trying to chase her, but her mixed signals were not letting me go. "Why, I can't call you? So tell me how's Pearl?" The way she spoke still caught me off guard. "Pearl? Haha… Very funny. How's Jayden?" I replied Jayden was a guy from our university who she was very fond of. The day I said to her that I had to help Pearl with this case, she was quite unbothered. I guess she was quite bothered after all. "Oh, he's good. I was thinking to come visit your law school. Seems quite fun isn't it?" I still remember her being obsessed with murders, in fact, we spent hours solving them and watching murder mysteries. It was quite fun until she cut me off so randomly. "You're coming here? I have to confess though. All about these, but I guess you're busy." I replied quite excited about her visit. "You don't need to. Pearl is your sister, and I know that. I know who killed Arnt by the way. He's just another peasant. Why would you even care?" Her sarcasm still existed. "Because he was there at my lowest! You wouldn't understand Zoey! You played me like a game. You never cared and I needed to escape all your tragedy and drama. I needed you but you weren't there so I found myself searching for a replacement. You ignored me like I was nothing to you. And this is for the sake of my sister. She needs me now." I hung up the phone. I knew she knew everything. She left me a message. "I'm sorry". I almost threw away my phone but I didn't. I had to calm down and focus on Stella. The day after today was Christmas and we had a party at our firm. It was quite overwhelming but it was a chance for me to grab. I guess my love was ruined but I guess I still had a life to go on