Early Bird | ✓

45 | emu

           Reece and Mateo noticed and ambled over to join him.

           "Can you believe that this is actually happening? We're going to get her after all this time?" Reece said, leaning back on the bench, his leg bouncing nervously.

           "It's only been two weeks," Mateo commented with a smirk.

           "Two weeks is a long time," Reece countered.

           "I think I'm going to be sick," JJ whispered.

           Mateo and Reece clenched their mouths shut and stared at JJ worriedly. "Should I grab you a bucket or a trashcan or something?" Mateo offered stupidly.

           JJ laughed but it felt fake. "No. I just—I guess I'm just worried about Teagan's plan. I didn't think Chase was dangerous but now...I don't think he'd hesitate to shoot me."

           "Which is why we're giving you a bullet-proof vest," Wallace informed the boys as he weaseled his way into their conversation. "We're going to need you to change out of your T-shirt and put this on instead with the bullet-proof vest underneath." He gave JJ two pieces of clothing and gestured to a police car where JJ quickly changed. The plaid, button-up shirt itched his skin and felt very stiff.

           "Why can't I just wear my T-shirt?" he asked Wallace.

           "That T-shirt doesn't have a camera built in, does it?"

           "No," JJ replied with a frown. He gently touched one of the shirt's buttons that felt different from the rest—a camera. A single wire flowed through the shirt like a snake until it reached its power source at the back.

           "It's wireless and already hooked up to all the police officers' screens," Wallace told JJ, gesticulating toward the cop cars vaguely.

           "Okay." JJ tried to muster up some bravery, but his knees barely held up his body. He rested a hand on Wallace's large shoulder to steady himself. "When do I go in?"

           Wallace pressed his lips together, his awful, accusing eyes boring into JJ's. He despised those eyes until concern softened them and JJ breathed a little bit easier. "Now" was the word that fell almost inaudibly from Wallace's lips like a feather.

           JJ walked over to Teagan, Reece, and Mateo. Now that they knew that he wasn't Lizzy's kidnapper, they seemed to accept him, finally viewing him as a friend, not a foe. He could feel their nervousness for him as he hugged them in a gigantic group hug.

           "See you on the flip side," Teagan said with a smile as Reece and Mateo simultaneously told him "Good luck."

           JJ strode in the direction of Chase's apartment for the second time that day, his heart beating wildly underneath the thick bullet-proof vest.

           "You changed shirts," Chase remarked suspiciously as he ushered JJ into his apartment.

           JJ wasn't sure how to explain his T-shirt change. His mouth opened and closed without a single word or sound falling into the awkward space between them. "I—uh—um, Mom bought me this the other day and she wanted me to wear it because she was going to buy you a similar one." JJ tugged at the sleeves, forcing himself to laugh. "It's so hideous and itchy that I didn't want to wear it, but I figured I'd warn you before you had to wear one too."

           Chase had stopped listening a long time ago and was in his rundown kitchen filling two cups of coffee. JJ glanced around the apartment, making sure to use his whole body so the police could see everything too. The place was just as awful as he remembered: it reeked of mold and drugs and piss, the couch was falling apart at the seams, the TV screen had shattered from a solid object that JJ guessed Chase had thrown when he was angry.