growing in love - jj maybank

Ch 19. Painful Realities

Dani waited in her empty house for several hours, cautiously anticipating some sort of sign. She walked laps, stared at the dead flowers littering her mother's old garden, sat on her bedroom floor, reading, and eventually migrated to her bed. Dani fell asleep easily, exhaustion overtaking her.

When Dani woke, her room was dark, the only source of illumination was the moon shining through her window.

Dani heard a sharp knock at the door, like what had woken her. She threw her blankets off herself and flew toward the foyer quickly. Dani opened the front door, blinking continuously. Her eyes were still crusty from sleep.

Kiara Carerra and Pope Heyward stood in front of her, smiling. 

Pope couldn't contain his laughter, "You look terrible." 

Dani frowned, she wasn't ready for any jokes yet, sleep still desperately clinging to her.

The girl narrowed her eyes at her friend, "Well I don't know about you Pope, but I've been through hell the past few days and I really need to rest." 

Dani tried to shut the door on Pope and Kie, but failed, the wooden plank catching the cheery boy's foot.

Pope cleared his throat. "Look, I'm sorry. Sincerely. Now if you'd like to join, Kiara and I are going to John B's to begin gathering the necessities and working on the plan. I mean you are welcome to stay in this quiet house, which is arguably the better option, but your presence at the Chateau would be greatly appreciated."

Dani's blinked again, mumbling slightly, "Ugh. Fine. Just give me like 15 minutes." 

Dani let the front door swing open, allowing for Kie and Pope to follow her into the large house, and to the living room. In ten minutes Dani had changed clothes, brushed her hair and teeth, rid herself of any other sleep-related hindrance, and gathered a random collection of supplies she thought might come in handy. At the stairs, Pope gave her a wide, toothy grin. They were ready.

On the way to John B's, Pope rambled every thought he had about their plan, and as they pulled into the driveway, Dani glanced at Kie in relief. There was finally a light at the end of the tunnel, or actually, an ending to Pope's continuous chatter.

Kie coughed, interrupting Pope's thought, "Okay, well, we gotta focus."

"I know. I know. It's gonna be fine. We got John B and JJ inside the well, and me up top. You two and Sarah will be outside transporting"

Pope shifted his dad's truck into park.

"Yeah, we got this." Dani smiled, a bit pained.

"Cool."

Kiara and Dani moved quicker than Pope, very eager to get out of the truck.

"Uh, I got a winch. That tin can hold over like... 200, 300 pounds," Pope sauntered after them, either ignoring or truly oblivious to the girls' hurried movements.

Dani braved a glance at Pope as they grabbed their things from the truck, "Look I appreciate your dedication to detail Pope, but you're going to have to go over all this again with Sarah, John B, and JJ, so can we maybe dial down the gold-related talk a little bit?" It was a light attempt at telling the boy to 'shut the fuck up.'

 Dani's words had only just left her mouth when an assortment of stringed lights turned on all around the teens. Her head instantly snapped toward the source, confusion crinkling her face.

"What the hell."

Kiara took the lead, "Who the hell is that?" 

The three friends rounded the corner of the Chateau, following the lights to John B's backyard.