Carefree || JJ Maybank

Chapter One Hundred Twelve

Eventually Pope caught up to Cleo, and Kiara drifted behind them. Stupidly, that left Everleigh and JJ to straggle behind on their own.

"JJ, can I ask you something?" Everleigh asks.

JJ was using his machete to clear the path for Everleigh, but he still didn't let go of her hand. "Of course, what's up?"

Her sighing is what made him stop in his tracks, turning to look at his girlfriend. She hesitated, but his reassuring smile made her continue. "What if all of this is for nothing?"

His brows furrow and he blinks a few times. "Come on, babe. Surf trip remember? What do you mean for nothing?"

She's quick to shake her head no. "We couldn't even enjoy this as a surf trip if we wanted to. We're being hunted. Like wild animals, JJ, they want to kill us. What if the gold isn't real, what if John B and my dad are dead, what if we lose one another..."

He cuts her off, pressing his lips against hers and placing his hands on the small of her back. She leans into him, pulling JJ closer to her.

When she pulls her head away, JJ pulls her into a hug, letting her bury her head into his chest. "You can't think like that." He tells her, feeling her choke back a sob against his chest. "We're all gonna be alright, I promise."

Everleigh backs away and JJ kisses the top of her head before pressing their foreheads together. They both close their eyes and let the air flow between them before Everleigh speaks up again. "What did I ever do to deserve you?"

JJ couldn't help but chuckle, taking her hand in his again and staring to chop the weeds in front of him to create a path. "I could ask you the same question."

They realized they were pretty close to the top, and that Cleo, Kiara, and Pope were all probably waiting on the couple before moving forward.

When they finally got high up enough to see them, JJ shouts in their direction. "Pope. Hey. We couldn't find anything. You guys find something?"

"Wait..." Everleigh mumbles only so JJ could hear, spotting Pope and Cleo standing a little too close to each other to just be friends. JJ barely acknowledges her, squeezing her hand to let her know that he was seeing the same thing that she was.

"Yeah." Pope responds as he points to the area behind him. "The path leads this way."

"Great, so now I'm fifth wheeling." Kiara mumbles as Everleigh and JJ pass by her.

"And we're not even with John B and Sarah yet." Everleigh asks, earning a sarcastic thank you from Kiara. "Come on, babe. You'll always be first in my heart." Everleigh smiles.

JJ pretends to get offended, placing his hand over his heart and acting as if he'd been shot. What they weren't expecting, what what made them all jump.

A loud explosion followed by the sound of something collapsing made them all duck. No debris fell, indicating that maybe it wasn't what they thought it was or that it was far away. Everleigh was the first to stand back up again, seeing the smoke and clouds coming from the sound.

"Hey." She starts to panic, brushing her knees to rid of the dirt and grass. "No, no." She took off. Completely ignoring all of the other Pogues who were calling her name. "John B!" She screams, not hesitating once, nor watching where she was stepping. But only one time did she twist her ankle, she refused to let it bother her.

Even though she had no proof of her brother being apart of the explosion that had made all of the Pogues ears ring, Everleigh knew deep down inside of her, something was wrong. And she was going to be the first person to find out.