the middle ≫ jj maybank

xviii. the princess

Slater and Kiara sat on John B's porch swing, passing a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon back and forth.

"So, you kissed John B," Slater said, watching her friend out of the corner of her eye.

"And you kissed Rafe Cameron," Kiara replied smoothly.

"Shh," Slater said, elbowing Kiara in the side. "Not cool! That was last summer, and I told that to you in confidence."

Her manner with Kiara was joking, but Slater's heart was racing in her chest. She was desperately hoping that none of the boys had overheard that. Number one, if they knew, she'd never hear the end of it. Number two, if JJ knew ... well, she wasn't sure how he'd react. And if one of the boys knew, it would only be a matter of minutes before the news circled back to JJ.

"Yeah, well," Kiara rolled her eyes. "I didn't kiss John B, he kissed me. I'm not into him that way, and he's clearly into Sarah Cameron that way. Besides, even if we did like each other, we have this rule, you know? 'No pogue on pogue macking.' Just makes things weird and uncomfortable."

Slater quickly took a sip of the beer and turned away, her cheeks reddening with a deep blush. She and JJ still hadn't really talked in private since what happened in her room the night after he was released from jail, but he'd also mentioned the "no macking" rule. At the time, she'd thought it was just a little joke, but she could now see that the group, or at least Kiara, took the rule seriously. She wondered if Kie would be upset if she found out about Slater and JJ.

Slater desperately wanted to tell Kie what had happened, and that she actually liked JJ, but she didn't know how. Plus, with everything happening surrounding Sarah and John B, she didn't figure it was a good idea to say anything now.

The porch door opened, revealing JJ, who was holding two cans of beer. He was clearly looking for Slater, but upon finding the girl with Kiara, he shoved one of the beers into his back pocket and cracked open the other one, before taking a seat on the edge of the porch railing.

"Am I interrupting something?" JJ asked. "Girl talk?"

"If we said you were interrupting something, would you leave?" Slater teased.

"No," JJ said, smirking at her as he took a sip of his beer.

"Give me one of those," Kiara said, pointing at the extra beer in JJ's pocket. "You don't need two of them."

JJ rolled his eyes and tossed the extra beer to Kie. "Slater, do you want one?"

"I'm good with this one," she said, raising the beer she'd been sharing with Kie. "I guess I'm fine with Kiara backwash."

"Which is actually John B backwash, if you think about it," JJ teased, to which Kiara responded by kicking her sandal at her.

"Where is John B, anyway?" Slater asked, looking through the window into the empty Routledge residence. They were all at John B's house, yet he wasn't there.

"Probably at Tannyhill with you know who," Pope replied as he walked out onto the porch, sitting next to JJ.

"Ugh, don't remind me," Kiara groaned.

"Speak of the devil," JJ said, nodding to the road, where John B approached with Sarah and her bicycle.

Slater felt Kiara tense beside her, and she nervously looked at JJ and Pope, who were waiting for the impending confrontation with what could only be described as an "oh shit" face.