The Good Boy's Facade

27

This chapter is 3/4 conversation I'm tired :/

It was late in the night, and the trio, that is, Claire, Adam and Wesley had come back from dinner back to their hotel room.

As Claire was taking off her shoes, she could feel something was off in the room. Was it just too hot here? Or was it the jacket she was wearing?

Adam sat down as the table, looking through his phone, while Wesley.. yeah Wesley kept staring at Claire. So that's what's off here.

"Yeah?" She asked, quirking her eyebrow.

"Nothing." He replied, which only made Claire click her tongue at him and chuckle in amusement.

"You know, you can ask anything." She urged, totally taking her shoes off now and just leaving it at the door shabbily next to Adam's neatly placed clean shoes. "I'll answer, have nothing better to do anyway."

"Oh." Wesley nodded, locking his lips. "What's your plan?"

"What?" Claire asked, while walking to the table Adam was at and sorting out the papers on there.

"I'm pretty sure you're not doing this without any."

Claire let out a small laugh, eyes on the papers. "Bringing his company down."

It took a few good minutes till Claire was done explaining, Wesley was totally baffled and against this exact destructive idea. You see, Wesley might have been MIA but he surely didn't want the business to go down.

Adam was busy with his phone, stalking Instagram accounts and and giggling to himself once in a while which made Claire question whether this exact device was good for Adam's mental health.

Whatever, she can't care enough about it, atleast it's entertaining him.

"Hey," Wesley interjected. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"Nothings ever a good idea, Wes." Claire cleared her throat. "Can I call you Wes?"

"Of course." Wesley agreed, running a hand through his a little longer hair than she remembered. It was long enough to cover his eyes a little or brush past his cheeks. "I think you should try something else."

"Like what?" Adam asked, eyes still trained on his phone screen.

"There isn't really a lot to do." Claire told him. "If you see it, Lucas looks totally okay with this whole deal."

Wesley scoffed. "Looks okay? I know my brother, he's good at pretending he's okay."

"Not in front of Claire." Adam lifted one of his fingers and pointed at Claire. "She's too good for that."

The said one, shot a hard ass glare at Adam, making his grin brightly at her. He only replied with "stating facts" which Claire was totally not interested in.

"Have you tried talking to him?" The older of the trio asked, tired eyes trying to keep up with the situation.

"Apparently, Hailey has."

"No, I mean, you, Claire."

"Me?"

Wesley gestured to her with his palm. "From what I've been hearing, you're aggressive yeah? And Lucas probably listens to you?"

Claire stifled a laughter that erupted from her throat. "Forget what I said at the dinner, that's now how it works anymore. It was back in highschool when Lucas was naive."

"I see, you haven't tried talking at all?"

"No, we haven't."

Wesley sighed in disappointment.

It was true, wasn't it? Lucas was too naive back then and was easily manipulated. Wesley did worry about it, but at the same time he also did tease him. As an older brother he also did take advantage of his innocence.

I mean, the good advantage. Like asking him to go to the shops or like asking him to get a glass of water.

Wesley was nice.

"Right." He said. "But just try talking to him, yeah?"

Claire understood where Wes was coming from. As a family member, he did cafe about the youngest one in the house.

She remembered when Lucas would talk about him for hours even though his dad was partial. Lucas loved his brother because he was careful around him. Oh also spoiled him a lot.

"By the way," Claire started. "Would you mind if I ask you the reason for going missing?"

Wesley froze, looking at Claire intensely. "I know we were friends back then, Claire. You've met me after the Vincent's case. Doesn't mean you have to know everything about me."

"That doesn't answer my question."

Adam put down his phone once he heard the tone the both of them were using.

"Hey, what's going on?" He muttered.

"Don't sweat it, Claire." Wesley pursed his lips. "You don't have to know."

Claire sniggered. "You can't answer me, can you?"

Wesley looked away. "Shut up, Claire."

"You ran away, didn't you? You left Lucas all alone to bear the burden."

"Claire, that's enough." Adam tagged at her arm, wrapping his hands around it firmly, just incase she threw a punch.

Wesley didn't answer, he didn't even meet her eyes because.. Because it was all true.

"Why?" She asked, anger bubbling up by each passing second.

"I didn't mean to." Wesley said. "I really didn't."

"Liar. I know how big of a liar you are. You never actually claimed guilty in front of the law and let your dad handle it. Aren't you such a good little liar and a coward?"

"Claire-" Adam stood up, pulling her back in fear of worsening things.

"I really didn't mean to. I just wanted a break from all the stress. My dad wanted me to take over the business right after graduation. I couldn't." Wesley looked up at her, eyebrows furrowed and eyes glistening just a little. "I wanted to be away for a while but when I came back, Lucas had already taken my place. Do you know how it feels to be replaced? I do."

She couldn't help but grimace at his words. Was he playing pity? If so she wouldn't let him get to her.

"Don't try to make it look like you've been wronged."

"I'm not. Do you know what made me leave again? It was when I found out Lucas could handle this fucking business better than I ever could. And that was enough to know that I won't ever be trusted anymore."

"You did it to yourself." Claire clenched her fists.

"I know. And I also know that none of us, my brother or I, were ever going to be happy in this. So I took my chance." Wesley tried smiling. "I took my chance to be happy. Trust me, I tried to be happy after leaving, yet.. I couldn't."

Wesley. The one person who always was involved in hurting everyone Claire loved.

Then again, he also somehow managed to hurt himself.

For some reason, Claire was able to relate to Wesley. She hated that she could.

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Uffff