broken rules

𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐩 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞

Once we were situated behind the tree line, we waited to see if our plan actually worked. As we waited, the awkwardness started to set in. I was waiting for something to be said, but JJ didn't say anything. He just continued to play with his fingers while he stared on at the tracks. Earlier he didn't want to talk about what happened yesterday, but now all we had was the time to talk.

I looked down the track as I heard the train horn blow. It still hadn't completely rounded the turn and it made me wonder where everyone else was. Why was it taking them so long to get down here?

JJ moved from his spot next to me, making me look back to him. "You think we could talk now?" I asked as he sat back from peeking down to where the train was.

"There's really nothing to talk about, Laney. You heard what Mike said earlier. I'm a thief, a liar." He turned his head way from me. Saying, "Probably a bad boyfriend too. I am my dad." quieter, but not quiet enough that I didn't hear.

I reached for his forearm, hoping he'd look back over to me. "You're nothing like your dad-"

"I saw you with some guy last night. I was coming to apologize for what happened and you were in your yard with some guy."

I shook my head, "That was Miles."

He quirked a brow, "From Charleston?" He looked behind me to where the train was getting closer.

I nodded, "He was in town to see Liam. Decided that if I heard he was in town and he didn't visit that I might be upset. We talked and he completely took your side." I jokingly rolled my eyes, hearing a small chuckle come from JJ. "And he made me realize that I can't be upset because you didn't tell me about the boat because nothing really happened."

I removed my hand from his forearm and looked toward the intersection where I could see truck lights coming down the road toward the tracks. "Can I ask about Liam then?" I let out a little huff of air. Liam McDermott was going to be the death of me.

"We just hung out while you guys were gone. He knew I had feelings for someone else and respected that. He also apologized for being Team Rafe and we moved past it." We made eye contact in the moonlight as it sparkled in his eyes.

"Team Rafe." he repeated back with a chuckle. Maybe we were getting back on the good side of things.

Our conversation ended as the train started to slow down, finally coming to a stop. "Jay, it stopped." He punched the air with the biggest smile on his face. Our celebration ending quickly when the truck turned out to be someone from the rail company coming to see what was happening. We hadn't accounted for someone checking on why the train stopped.

I whispered, "What the hell?" as the worker got out. Pope and Cleo's window had narrowed down a ton in only a span of a few seconds. "That's not part of the plan." All we could do was watch the worker try to figure out why the train had stopped. It wasn't like we could ambush. Before we could blink they were taking the jumper cables off and I was sure we had just lost every chance we had. I knew it was really over when the light turned back to green.

We sat in silence waiting to hear anything and hoping Pope and Cleo had enough time to get the cross. I squinted as I saw headlights down the track and nudged JJ. As the train started back up, we ran to his bike to go down and help them.

I watched the money clip hit the ground as he got on the bike. I reached down to pick it up and extended it out to him. "Jay, you need to give this back."

"They think I'm a thief. Might as well give them a good reason to."

"But you're not. Doing this only makes things worse for you."