𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥 ━ 𝐣𝐣 𝐨𝐛𝐱

part thirty three

hannah's pov

"you found our gold," john b said as he crossed his arms in front of his chest and smiled at me.

i audibly choked on air as the words came out of his mouth. i wasn't sure if my body was able to handle this much shock and panic in one day. my brain stuttered for a moment and every part of me went on pause while my thoughts caught up.

"wha- i- you-" i began to stutter out.

"although the gold had always been in the back of our minds, we never thought we'd get a chance to find it. but when your dad told us that his daughter drunkenly stumbled upon where they had been hiding it all along..." john b smiled as he blew out a whistle, "probably the best day of our lives."

"because of you, your dad got a way in with the authorities to work on deciding who the gold rightfully belonged to," sarah explained. "when he sent you away he moved us into the house for the time being, while he worked on the case."

"we had to attend a lot of court cases, and meeting and what not before the conclusion was finally made that we got to claim most of the money," john b grinned proudly at the girl next to him.

i'm sure the two could notice the way my skin tone had completely paled during their explanation, my eyes and mouth still frozen wide open in an expression of stunned surprise.

"am i- am i supposed to know how the gold connected to you in the first place," i finally squeaked out after a long pause of silence.

"wait," john b said, shaking his head and furrowing his brows, "jj didn't.. jj didn't tell you about the gold?" i shook my head no in response to his question and the two teens looked at each other cautiously.   

"i think it's about time that you tell us your side of the story," sarah said.

i inhaled a long breath and closed my eyes. the times i spent in the outer banks still circulated my mind and it felt as if they were not yet ready to be put into words and flow out to the world. yet here i was, about to explain it all.

"well i'm not sure how much my dad told you about my where-about's but i moved in with my aunt after getting into the uh, the legal trouble with the gold," i began.

"i guess your dad didn't realize how small of an island it is, probably didn't think you'd end up hearing about us there," sarah said.

"yeah, everyone seems to know everything about everybody there," i chuckled softly.

"so if you were as well off as you are here," john b started as he looked around the office, "then i'm assuming you were living on figure eight."

"uh yeah," i replied.

"now i'm even more confused how you knew jj," the boy muttered.

"well he kind of hated me at first," i chuckled softly remembering when i had first met him, "he liked to mock me for being a kook."

"god i haven't heard that word in a while," sarah sighed as john b and her shared a sad look. he grabbed her hand and squeezed it before they turned their attention back towards me.

"i kind of kept getting myself into bad situations and jj was basically forced into helping me out of all of them," i explained. "i met kiara and pope after one of these times that jj had helped me and i really clicked with ki. so jj was kind of forced to be around me when we would hang out."

"long story short jj lost his cool towards me one day and then broke down in front of me a few hours later and we kind of connected... i guess," i bit my tongue to keep down the bile i could feel rising in my throat as i resurfaced the memories in my mind.

"we spent a lot of time together, ended up confessing our feeling to one another and uh, started dating," i blurted out all in one breath. both of the teens in front of me had their mouths agape at my rushed statement.

"you're telling me jj finally gets a girlfriend and i'm not there to witness it," john b laughed after a long pause of silence.

"well we're not.. i mean i don't think... i'm not sure if we're together anymore," i whispered trying to hold back the tears that threatened to escape my eyes.

"did something happen?" sarah asked.

"i-uh-i," i began to stutter. even thinking about the mess i had made caused a pit to form in my stomach. the two teens only stared at me, waiting for me to continue what i inevitably would need to tell them.

"i lied to him.. to them, about the reason i moved," i shakily said, "because of the legalities and just the embarrassment of it all, you know. and then when i finally ended up telling the truth it couldn't have been at a worse time.

"we broke into the sheriff's department to look at your files and almost got caught and i just- i put us into a really bad situation by keeping the truth from him until then," i continued. "we got out thankfully but my lie... it-it hurt him really bad and i-"

tears began to slip down my cheeks without my consent and i wiped at my face harshly to try and prevent the meltdown i knew was to come in front of the two teens i had only just met.

"shhh," sarah cooed as she walked over to me and pulled me into an embrace.

"i have to... i have to call him," i hiccuped. i could feel sarah nod against my shoulder and through my blurred vision i could see john b look at me with sad eyes.

after crying into sarah's arms for longer than i would've liked, i finally calmed down and john b began to speak.

"i turn eighteen in two weeks, which was when we were planning to call them so we could go home immediately after," the boy explained.

"you-you have to let me call him now," i begged, "please. i can't keep something like this from him. you haven't seen the way he's so torn up about you two, it hurts to even think about it."

the brunette sighed as he glanced over at sarah who just shrugged.

"okay," john b finally said, "we'll go get your dad so he can help us explain our situation over the phone."

sarah nodded, "why don't you... why don't you get him on the phone. meet us in the kitchen when your ready."

both of the teens got up from their spots where they had been leaning against the desk. they walked out of the room, closing the door behind them.

i felt paralyzed as i stood there. it felt like my thoughts were strangling my brain. i never thought i'd talk to the boy again and here i was, only a couple of hours after arriving home and i dialing his number into my phone.

my knuckles were white as i shakily brought the device up to my ear and listened to it ring. once, twice, three times...

"hannah?"

the sound of his voice choked me up to the point where i couldn't even speak. i almost hung up at the shock that it had put me through.

"jj," i finally breathed out, afraid that my own voice was about to fail me. "jj it's- it's john b and sarah. th- they're here. i'm with them."