PLAYING GAMES

A/N: hope u enjoy, don't forget to comment, love u 💓 ps: unedited

BRENDAN's POV

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PRESSING MY HANDS on the motor's accelerator, I watch from afar, on the other side of the road, Evren's body reluctantly entering her back vehicle, always checking her surroundings looking for something suspicious.

My hamlet fits perfectly inside the corners of my shaped head, although I'm starting to get annoyed about the few drops of rain that lend on the exact spots to block my viewsight.

Am I regretting my decision to join forces with someone I've never had contact before? Probably. I'd be an hypocrite if I said I trust Maddox by now. I need to know her better, her personality traits, intentions and how much effort is she welling to put on this.

I can say though she has determination. Whatever side she decides to take, I bet this girl isn't going to quit that easily, by the way she moves her lips without showing any signs of anxiety or how her brown confident eyes penetrate mine without glancing away, she has my full attention now.

I don't trust her yet, but I do hope we can be allies. It's weird enough to have to stare at someone whom you've have a lot in common, and yet never met. It's weird enough to sympathize with a stranger who dislikes the inner circle members just as much as I do. It fucked me the hell up to barely recognize her existence, knowing my best friend lied to me for years.

I am still disappointed, fuck, I felt betrayed. Why wouldn't he just mention he had another close friend as I was, why the need to lie about a girl? Although I can't quite comprehend the circumstances and Colber's reasons behind Evren's mystery, something told me I had my one shot here.

Either way, getting closer to her is only going to provide me some new answers, which is everything I look for right now.

Playing her won't be easy, I might just end up being played myself. But it is worth a shot. For Colber, at least.

I start to ride the bike while I feel the cold humid air ripping through my clothes. Before going home, there's something I need to check out first. And later who knows if Evren might help me out - it would provide me the truthfulness of her commitment and accuracy of her word to me.

I am able to turn around some corners so I can reach the West side of the town, where Sean and a bunch of others live. It's still early, the lights are turned on, though the main road is practically and strangely empty and quiete.

I park my vehicle, preparing to move myself from the sidewalk into the garden of a very well known resident area. The rain hasn't stopped since I left minutes ago, my dark blackish leather jacket is soaked in water while my thick revolutionary hair keeps disturbing me.

Once I reach the house, I change my posture and light a cigarette - I might be wrong but I got a feeling I'm going to take part in an unusual conversation.

My right hand fingers hit the tiny brown bottom to ring the bell. I hadn't announced myself when I'm startled with a pair of stormy eyes looking back at me like I'm some kind of horror - not that I don't agree, by the way.

"Uh- Brendan, hi." Page greets me, confused by my presence in her doorway.

Her cunning wary expressions leads me to believe she doesn't want me here, so I act as natural as I can be. "Hey" I say, before my lips touch the tip of the cigarette.

"You texted me days ago to have a chat with me, then you disappeared out of college without leaving a message. You okay?"

I'm trying to show the best spontaneous version of me, in order to gain her attention. Page has always been a girl who's fragile in terms of emotional symptoms of the whole self caring, mental structure. I've known her as the image of a girl who's smart, hardworking and polite, her mostly unlikely trait being her fondness on bring very straight edged.

She used to care a lot about her grades and her own personal problems, in a very egocentric way, as if there was no one in the world besides herself. I think she stresses too much, but then again she's always been like that.

When I saw her cry at the party, I had the urge to ask her if all of it was about Travis - he was the one who knew how to manipulate the good in people and how to transform a little bird into a snake.

Since he picked her on high school back then, he wouldn't stop chasing her until he destroyed her. He was responsible for her entrance in the Circle, plus he would always mess with her when he had the chance to. Too bad Page was expecting for him to be her royal prince, he definitely wasn't.

"Uh yeah yeah I'm good. I just- I wasn't ready to return to school after what, you know, happened..." She said, sounding worried.

Her voice is weirdly rougher, and her body looks tired, leaning towards the door while she looks at me giving me the impression she doesn't want me in her house.

"Sure, I can tell. I got your rose by the way, I placed it like you asked me to." I tell her, trying to find out why she is so uncomfortable.

I found it odd to say the least when of all people Sean gave me a white rose on the cafeteria, telling me it came from Page. It's not common of her to disappear out of nowhere.

"Oh right I- I called Sean to pass by my house before the funeral, he lives just right next to me." She reacts.

I smoke the rest of the cigarette and say, "I figured out. I mean, I wasn't expecting you to skip the funeral."

She is eyeing me with her big brown eyes and opened lips, the lack of oxygen in her system is worrying. Is she fucking sick or what?

Finally noticing I was getting wet, she enters her house again, giving me space to do the same.

"I... had a lot to think. Besides, you know how close I was to Colber. I was one of the first people to enter the circle back then, it- it took a toll on me."

She spoke, turning her back on me while her hands pointed to a picture on her entrance hall. My gaze roomed over the young faces of 16 year old Colber, Sean, Cassidy and Page.

"How you're holding up?" She asks me.

"Me? Oh c'mon you know me. I miss him and all of that shit but I'm used to face the reality of human life so-"

"Yeah, what a type of guy like yourself would say. You won't change even when it's about the death of a close friend. You're pretty convincing too. But you ain't got a heart made of rock, I've seen it" Page turns around to face me, her face finally gaining some color.

"Maybe I do. Who cares."

She laughs a bit. "He would've. Colber cared about everyone more than himself." She knots her robe close to her body, feeling colder. "Anyway... we can't bring him back."

True, I note. But my eyes also catch a strange  look coming from her eyeballs - as if she has already given up. What happened to you, Page?

"We can make justice. Wasn't that why you texted me when I got the news about being innocent?" I question her.

I've been thinking about it a lot, that's why I came here in the first place. Page said she needed to talk to me when the electronic newspaper came out, and the informations of me being no longer a suspect surfaced. Then, I tried to see her in college but she wasn't there and I was having my moment to grief too.

"I- Uh- well, I wasn't surprised as you can imagine. You would never warm Colber." She tells me with so much conviction, then proceeding carefully,

"Actually- I, I called because, you know, the police was making some questions about the Circle and stuff and I didn't know where we, the group stand."

The investigators? I mean, we had all been there at the station.

"How so? On the night of the party we all got interrogated and we all closed our mouths remember?" I say.

"Yeah.. but, look Rhys - they're out there still. You got a powerful alibi to exclude you from the events, the rest of us don't, since we got to his house at the time we agreed on. Some of us are still being stalked by the detectives."

I start to get a fishy feeling creeping out of my stomach, like a warning showing me I should remember this moment.

"What do you mean exactly?"

"I- they... they stumbled upon me on the street and asked me privately if they could interrogate me a second time. That's why I haven't been out since."

Page tells me, but I'm not trusting her completely. She has been through a lot I can tell, with Travis and all but I know her to well to sense she isn't being fully honest with me.

"Fuckers." I react, "I hope no one opens their damn mouth. If they find out why there was a party in the first place-"

"I know. That's why I'm being careful. But since he.. died, the group has been departed. No one talks with each other anymore, everyone's suspicious about one another. There's a lack of guidance."

I agree, the pressure is on all of us right now, yet Page was never a person who was scared and feared for her well being. She was always careful with her actions yes, but that's why she felt safe and remained comfortable. Watching her now completely different has me question her words, therefore, her loyalty.

Something doesn't add up.

"Page- the police might be a bunch of pricks, but they're just doing their job and they got something right: one of us betrayed Colber, someone inside the Circle who was in his house just like we were, had him finished. Don't you want to know who?" I test her, but she is unresponsive.

"I..."

"Look, at least you got to leave your house. Face the investigators and lie about the circle, tell them you didn't know, fuck I don't know, just don't lock yourself in here." I say to her, now noticing her serious features.

"I am not a murderer, Brendan." She tells me, afraid what I might think of her, though she loses her confidence right away,

"But w-what if one of them tries to frame m—?"

"You want to frame what? Your high school diploma? I mean for a 4.3 GPA I can see the excit—"

I can not believe what my eyes are seeing when I watch the person behind Page invade the room wearing a pure relaxed mood on his face.

"Jonathan?"

He's dumbfounded, as I am. "Oh- hum. Wow, Rhys, hey, you cool?"

My mind clicks in a second. So, she has been inside this house for days, not talking to anyone besides freaking piece of shit Jonathan?

"I'm cool? What the fuck are you doing here?"

"He's just-" Page tries to intervene.

"Page is already having difficulty with advanced geometry, so I'm helping her out" He says, casually, holding a book.

Geometry? For fuck's sake, you study sports, dumbass.

"That doesn't make any fucking sense. Where's Travis?" I ask the obvious elephant in the room so I can study their remarks.

"Hum we-"

"They broke up. Oh and by the way, just to be clear, I was an As at geometry in high school." Jonathan speaks out, proud of himself.

Ugh, fucking help me God. I can't stand this guy.

"That's why you were crying?" I turn my face to Page.

Now I'm starting to resonate. Thinking about it, before I went to Colber's bedroom where his body stand, I encountered a very highly disturbed Page, though she refused to tell me what had happened. Travis was in the party too and they hadn't been together inside Colber's house, but were still dating the day before.

Then, after seeing Colber dead, she was interrogated, got back home and closed her door for days, but decided to let Jonathan in. It doesn't make any sense - these two were never really close, besides having to attend the weekly reunions and meetings of the Circle's members. However, she still asked me specifically to hold the rose - not Jonathan, who's apparently making a move on Page.

"I..."

Jonathan says, "Yeah she cries everyday. You know how this works, bro, girls need more time and space to-"

"Shut the fuck up Jonathan, I asked her, not you."

Page remains silent, and I got my confirmation. If Travis broke up with her that same night, it probably would fuck her up. However, a girl like Page would always fight back - using Jonathan for example, she would mess with Travis' head. No - she hid him inside her house instead.

Argument? She says she is mourning Colber and is afraid of the investigators. Afraid of what? Page was always the clever one inside the group, not even Travis could disorient her to the point of betraying her- when in fact, he would be affected too. If someone betrays Page, by telling something to the cops, then the rest of the Circle members are compromised too.

What the fucking hell is going on here?

"You know, I've been sensing a weird growing hostility coming from you recently. Did I did something wrong I need to know about?" Jonathan introduces his bad irony into the conversation.

"Yeah, existing, for example."

"Rhys, what the fuck?" He reacts immediately.

I've seen everything I needed to see here today, "Anyway, I'm leaving. We'll talk some other time." I say to a nervous silent Page, before tuning around to meet the rain again. They're totally together.

My fingers trace the path to grab a new cigarette again. I know what I must do now.

"Hey, Brendan. Next time we'll solve things out." Jonathan screams for me, though I feel unbothered.

"Whatever, dude."

My bike is right in front of me when I get the time to press the password of my brand new iPhone. I enter the messages section, and send a message to the only number I've got registered.

To: unknown :)

our deal starts now.
I got a lead and the perfect opportunity for you to show your worth.

his name starts with a T,
wanna guess who?
- Queen's61trainers

Usually I don't laugh that much, but my lips show off a wide smirk.
Let the games begin.

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To be Continued

🔪🔪 finally action, can't wait for u to know Brendan's plan. Any thoughts on this chapter? Did you guys understand where the secret code  Queen'61trainers came from?😂

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