𝖎 𝖑𝖔𝖛𝖊 𝖞𝖔𝖚, 𝖆𝖑𝖜𝖆𝖞𝖘 | 𝖘𝖙𝖎𝖈𝖐𝖘 & 𝖘𝖙𝖔𝖓𝖊𝖘

☄

We went to Mouth's house first, checking his room but they weren't there, Joey went inside but the two were still nowhere to be found. Then we went to Book's house, we asked his mom if she had seen them but she told us she hadn't. The last place we could think to look was the court, so we made our way there. 

As we got closer you could hear the sound of a baseball connecting with a wooden bat, the cracking noise it made. Joey opened the gate and walked in, I followed behind him. They looked over at us, Mouth had a smug look on his face, "Well, well, well, look who came crawling back" "Don't be an asshole," Book told him off, he rolled his eyes.

"What did you get scared Nat?" Mouth taunted, I threw him the baseball without saying anything, "What am I supposed to do with this?" "Look at the letters, it's Hayes's, he threw it into her backyard after school when he saw us go into her house," Joey told him, Mouth looked down at the ball then back up at me with concern in his eyes, "Oh shit, that's probably not good" "Thanks captain obvious" Book teased. 

I then saw Book's eyes widened, I turned around to see Hayes approaching us, "I see you got my message, Natalie" "You're pushing your luck" "Well I'd like to see how far I can go," he smirked, I bit the inside of my cheek to keep myself from saying anything more. 

"Hey, which one of you called me an asshole the other day?" Hayes asked the three of them tensed up. The blonde got up into each of their faces, he forced Book to say awful things about himself which resulted in him crying.

"God, what is wrong with you? you're a fucking asshole!" I snapped, Hayes glared at me, "It was me, ASSHOLE" Mouth yelled. Billy went punch him but Joey caught his fist before it could make contact, we all paused for a moment, "Oh no" I said softly. 

Joey shoved him before beginning to run, Hayes following closely after him, I looked at the other two boys, "We have to do something" "What? w-we can't do anything" Book said mildly paniced, I rolled my eyes in frustration. I did the first thing I could think of, I grabbed the bat and began running after them, trailing behind them. 

They were in my sight for the most part but once they turned a corner the boys went into someone's backyard and I didn't know what house it was. I ran up and down the street frantically trying to find Joey, I heard him yelling so I followed his voice then jumped the fence. 

Hayes had Joey's arm pinned behind his back and his head in the pool. I ran up behind the blonde and hit him in the back with the bat as hard as I could, he collapsed letting go of Joey. The brown-haired boy lifted his head up gasping for air, I quickly made my way over to him. 

"Holy shit, are you okay" I spoke breathily, he was coughing, struggling to catch his breath, I put my arm around his back to give him support and also hopefully some kind of comfort. Joey didn't say anything he just looked at me but it told me all I needed. His eyes said everything, they were no longer warm but instead heavy and dull.  

Hayes was groaning in pain, "What is your problem?" "My problem?" I scoffed in disbelief, "You have the audacity to ask me what my problem is after you almost just drowned a kid? Get a grip Billy my God" "You're not as good of a person as you pretend to be" he told me, "I'm a better person than you'll ever be you arrogant piece of shit" I spat. 

I helped Joey up then hit Hayesin the knee with the bat before leaving this whoever's backyard we were in. We walked for a few minutes without saying anything, he was holding his arm the whole time, we stoped at a beach that was near the park, "This is probably a dumb question but are you okay?" I asked, he half-smiled at the ground but didn't respond. 

Joey and I sat in silence for a while, just letting time pass. I didn't really mind because I enjoyed his company, I knew he would say something when he was ready to. "Thanks for coming after me," he said breaking the silence, "Yeah, no problem" "Also for being patient with me and everything," I smiled at him, "Of course, I know you'd do the same for me" he looked up at me and smiled.