growing in love - jj maybank

Ch 23. Run.

The four teenagers ran away from the tarmac, from the chaos, fast. 

There were multiple places within Dani's body that protested the exercise, different types of pain littering her body. Yet the girl pushed herself to keep moving, ignoring the muscle spasms in her calves and aches in her side. 

The friends rounded a deserted garage, practically falling on the shit that was piled everywhere.

 Pope stopped abruptly, practically collapsing and placing his hands on his sides to balance himself, "Guys – I can't..."

They all stopped. There was no argument among the four breathless teenagers.

Dani stood tall. She lifted her arms and tilted her head up toward the sky, attempting to open her airway so that she could replace the oxygen she expelled in her run.

The friends had barely managed to catch their breath when a plane whirred overhead.

"There goes the gold," JJ announced matter-of-factly, his tone roughly disintegrating as he kicked a pile of cardboard boxes. "Shit!"

Pope lost it as well, "Fuck!" Trash flew around the boy, "God damn it!"

Kiara stood in shock, watching her always calm friend lose his shit. "Pope." 

It really was uncommon for the chill ones to lose their temper.

Pop took a baseball bat to an old metal safe, "Shit! Fuck!" He moved through the garage, hitting everything he saw, "Shit! Damn it!"

As Pope continued to let his frustrations out, his screams of identifiable curse words turned into more of a jumble of incomprehensible yelling. A tornado of destruction had taken Pope captive, holding him tight.

Dani's eyes grew fearful. She did not want Pope to let himself go, to fall too far. "Pope! Please stop."

Kie shouted alongside Dani, "Pope!"

The desperate, pleading words seemed to finally catch Pope's ears as he collapsed on a braided wire bench. His breathing was shallow, fast, and there was sweat gleaming on his brow. 

Dani noticed tears of despair threatening to fall from Pope's lids.

"Pope," Kie said once more, moving in front of him so she could take in the mess he had created.

"Yeah, dude." JJ placed his shoulder beside Kie, leveling with Pope. "I was wondering when this was gonna happen." The blonde boy held a vape, gesturing to it while he spoke, "Here you go chief. A little weed never hurt no one."

Dani shook her head from her spot, separated from JJ and Kie but still observing all. Of course, JJ's answer was weed, always weed.

"JJ."

"Relax, Kie."

"You know he doesn't smoke."

Kiara's words were just the thing to send Pope over the edge. Apparently, Pope was done being a goody-two-shoes, grabbing the vape from JJ's hand to make a statement.

"Well, maybe not until today." JJ sat down beside Pope, allowing the boy to simply stare at the vape in his hands.

"Pope," Kiara continued to plead with her friend, "Yeah, what is that gonna help?"

Pope looked up at Kie, "I lost my scholarship. Walked out in the middle of the interview. Every – It's gone. It's not gonna happen."

"Pope..."

Kie cut Dani off, "You did that for us?"

Pope stood up, "No, not for us. For nothing." There was bitterness in his every word.