✘QUEENIE✘ Maybank

Happy Birthday

JJ and Bailee walked into the Chateau the next morning with fresh bruises and a soft smile on JJ's face. Unbeknownst to the two of them who were talking about this loud chicken Bailee had named Lizard, Kie and Pope were sitting on the couch waiting expectedly for something that was past the other two's knowledge.

Bailee opened the porch door, making Pope's head snap up only to be met with disappointment. He sighed, bringing his head back onto the couch as Bailee walked back into the room.

"Where'd you guys go off to?" Kie snapped. "Have fun with your restitution money?"

"Yeah. Real fun." JJ yanked up his shirt quickly, letting his chest show for a moment.

Kie looked to Bailee, shock evident on her face from what she had seen. Bailee sighed and shrugged her shoulders as Kie inched closer up until she grabbed her.

Bailee froze while Kie wrapped her arms around her and JJ, not understanding what was happening.

"I'm glad you're okay," Kie whispered, much to Bailee's shock. She slowly hugged her back as they rocked from side-to-side. "I didn't know. I'm sorry."

She closed her eyes, breathing heavily before sighing contently as JJ tightened the hug when Pope walked over and joined in. "It's okay."

After a few tears and heavy breaths, the four separated and wiped their eyes. Kie shook her head, trying to shake off her emotions before looking at JJ who had his arm around Bailee's waist and his thumb on her face as it wiped away a stray tear.

Bailee looked up through her long eyelashes with a small smile, burying her face into JJ's neck as his hand wrapped around her waist.

"Okay, you guys are disgustingly cute." Kie faked a gag as she wiped a stray tear of her own and sat back down on the couch next to Pope.

"Where's John B at?" JJ asked from where he stood with Bailee. "I thought we were supposed to be making the thing today and getting the gold?"

Pope sighed. "He's fishin' with Ward."

"I- Why?"

"I don't know, man." Kie groaned, leaning back on the couch and fanning herself with her hand to try and keep away the morning humidity. "Something about loyalty or whatever."

"Well, whatever his reason, we gotta get started now." Bailee pulled Kie and Pope up by their arms and moved towards the door with JJ behind them. "We gotta build this thing now."

In the span of ten minutes, the four had created a plan. Bailee was going to be gone for most of it because she had 'something to take care of' that the others didn't question by her tone of voice.

While she was doing that, Kiara and JJ would get the supplies from the scrap yard and Pope would go to Heyward's to get the diagram he had drawn. The four split up with Bailee walking to her motorbike.

She drove off with no helmet and the wind throwing her hair back, but she felt anything but free at the moment. She turned onto a familiar dirt road and memories of JJ's and her's kiss crossed her mind.

The bike stopped and Bailee felt the uncut grass prick her ankles when she turned off the motor and stepped off. The grass got shorted and shorted when she walked past the old engraved stones to one behind a tree with small flowers growing beside it.

She sat for a few hours, mostly in silence, picking off the grass and silently letting tears slip down her face as the engraved words of her mom's name started her in the face.

Time didn't seem real at that moment, but when Bailee looked up to see the sun starting to set she realized it was her time to go. She plucked the lighter out of her back pocket with shaky hands.