Hot Summer Nights

Thirty Seven. half a heart without you

"Personally, I love plastic. Use it every day. Love that stuff." JJ chimed. 

"K, well hopefully, you recycle it and don't just let it flush into the ocean!" Kiara shot.

"Yeah, think about the fish, dude!" The other girl agreed.

"I thought you might say something like that, so. . ."  Pope trailed and held up a roll of trash bags that he brought. "Trash bags."

Both of them smiled at him. "Did you just proactively protect the environment?" Kiara asked proudly.

Dylan squealed and she walked forward, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I'm so proud of you!"

He hummed with a sheepish grin.

"You two are so adorable it makes me want to shoot myself," JJ commented sarcastically, resulting in Pope throwing the trash bags at him. 

After they finished picking up the trash, with help of Dylan's gloves, they still couldn't find the lost gun. "If it's not in the trash, then it's gotta be in the storm drain," Pope claimed.

"It's. . . It's in the drain." JJ affirmed expressionlessly.

Dylan stared into the drain with a disgusted look on her face. "This reminds me of that one case I studied about a man who butchered a ton of men and threw their body parts into a drain."

The two boys looked at each other disturbingly. "Yeah, I'm not going in there." Pope decided.

"Me either."

Kiara sent her a glare, making Dylan laugh regretfully. "Sorry."

"In the sewer, there's this worm what you get when you're down there," JJ informed while he and Pope ripped the front of the drain open with a crowbar. "It gets into your blood, and then it has to come out of her pecker. And Dylan's statement didn't make it any better, so, uh. . . That would be a hard pass for me."

"Yeah, that's gonna be a no for me too," Pope agreed. He looked at the girl next to him. "Sorry, honey."

"No, I get it. I get it. You guys are scared," Kiara mocked them. "They're scared, DJ."

"Aww, that's cute." She added with a wide smile.

"I'm not scared!" JJ denied.

"No, it's just the pecker thing," said Pope. "I'm not scared."

"You should've just led with that. You don't have to be scared. I'll do it." Kiara declared and moved them back so she could stand in front of the drain.

"Do you want me to go with you? Sister power?" Dylan asked but was secretly hoping she would say no.

"No, that's okay. I can manage swimming through trash myself," she answered with slight sarcasm.

She didn't mind because she didn't want to go in anyways. "Okay. Be careful."

They watched her crawl inside the drain. "Just, uh, holler if you need anything, okay?" JJ said into the drain, his voice echoing. "We'll, uh. . . We'll holler back."

"Very helpful. Thank you!"

"I can feel my skin crawling just watching this." Dylan said and shuddered. She stood up and looking at the two boys with a smile. "Well, and then there were three."

JJ looked at the couple reluctantly. "More like two and a half."

She kissed Pope on the cheek again and he sent her a smile.