arden kim had always been known as the it girl--the girl who had it all yet underneath the sunny smiles laid a girl who was drowning under the weight of her mothers expectations. arden had thought she had finally managed to get her life together af...
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CHAPTER ELEVEN: TAKE CONTROL ( episode five: midsummers )
✲*'。
"It was me."
"JJ, no—" Arden tried to protest, slinking forward to try and grab his arm.
"He tried to talk me out of it," the blonde boy cut off Arden as she grabbed his arm. JJ simply shook her off without even looking at her, plastering on his best smirk as he waltzed up to the car like he had all the time in the world on his hands. "But I was mad 'cause he'd just been beaten up. I was so sick of those assholes from Figure Eight that I lost my shit."
The silence was so thick, you could've cut it with a knife. Shoupe was nodding slowly, his face remaining blank as he shared a look with his colleague. From where she was standing, Arden could see that Shoupe was unimpressed. He had come here to arrest someone. He wanted it done with now.
"Pope, I can't let you take the blame for somethin' I did. You've got too much to lose."
"JJ, what are you doing?" the boy in question hissed, looking terrified with his arms restrained but just as fearful over letting his best friend take the blame.
"I'm tellin' the truth. For once in my god damn life, I'm going to tell the truth." He looked around at each of his friends before meeting the skeptical and entirely confused gaze of Mr Heyward as he said, "I took his old man's boat, too."
"What the hell?"
"JJ, come on," Pope shook his head. He was on the brink of tears.
"Shut up, Pope. Just shut up."
"He's a good kid," he murmured to a frowning Shoupe. "You know where I'm from."
"Yeah."
At JJ's words, Arden felt a protective urge wash over her. All she wanted was to grab JJ by the arms and pull him into a tight hug, keep him out of Shoupe's grip. She wanted to crush him in her arms so he would back down from this idiotic idea.
"Where he's from shouldn't matter," Haven snapped, voicing Arden's exact thoughts. "Shoupe, you can't be serious—"
"Haven, just leave it alone," JJ shouted, refusing to look her in the eyes as he shot Haven a warning glare. He was doing this, no matter what she said. Even Arden's tear stained eyes that he could see as clear as day wasn't enough for him to change his mind. "This was all me."
"And that's the whole truth, Pope?" Shoupe questioned.
"Whole truth, swear to god," JJ muttered.
He rolled his eyes. "I know what you think, damn it. I'm asking Pope."
"Yeah, that about covers it..."
And so the handcuffs were removed from Pope's wrists and placed on JJ's. He was smirking to himself as he was pushed inside the truck, Shoupe slamming the door on him before nodding at Heyward and getting behind the driver's wheel.
