Page 9 of It Must Be Fate

“Um, just go along with it. Let him do the talking.Don’ttell him it’s a prank just yet,” Nera answers.

“Be cool, be cool,” Thayer urges.

“This is your fault,” Bellamy accuses.

“Let’s remember you haven’t actually done anything wrong, it’s just a prank.”

The prank seemed funny five minutes ago, but with how quickly he called her, I just know he’s mad. And his anger is explosive to say the least.

“Answer the phone before he comes down here and burns the whole Pen complex down,” I urge.

“Loudspeaker,” Thayer whisper-hisses as Bellamy presses accept.

“Hey, babe,” she answers, managing to keep her tone breezy even as her face reflects pure anxiety. “Thanks again for the flowers, you’re so sweet.”

“Hey.”

Rogue’s voice doesn't sound anything like what I expected. I share a startled look with Nera, confirming she’s caught off guard as well.

There’s no anger or aggression as I’d assumed there’d be. No, his voice is quiet.

Hollow.

Barely above a whisper and without any of the usual arrogant swagger. Even just with one word, one syllable, we can all hear it.

Bellamy more than the rest of us.

“You okay?” she asks, worry tightening her own voice.

“No. Do you have something you want to tell me?”

Bellamy bites her cuticles nervously, wide eyes meeting ours. I can tell she’s doing her best to hold up the pretense of the prank but his voice is making her waver. “What do you mean?”

“Are you fucking someone else?”

I inhale sharply and she sucks in a shocked breath through her teeth.

“Is that what you’re doing tonight? Are you with him?”

Rogue is missing the joke entirely. I’m surprised there’s a world in which he’d ever believe that she’d do that to him.

Her mouth drops open in disbelief. “What?”

“I didn’t send you those flowers. Have you been cheating on me?”

His words are raw with pain.

Bellamy jumps to her feet.

“I can’t do this guys, I’m sorry,” she tells us, face ashen. “Baby, we’re playingTruth or Dareand this was my dare. It’s a prank we saw on TikTok. Six ordered those flowers, they’re not from someone else.”

The line is silent for a couple seconds.

“Rogue?”

“You’re really with the girls?”

“Yes,” Bellamy says, breathlessly.

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