The Strays ⎈John B Routledge⎈

Tiny Cabin

It was a year after she found it that CJ brought him out to their fort hidden in the woods. Only a month after JJ introduced them to Pope Heyward. In the four years since CJ met him (and JJ intruded like a protective sibling,) the boy had given the Maybanks something that they'd never really had. A family. To CJ and JJ, that meant everything. So, when John B had a particularly bad day, CJ took him to the treehouse. For all of its existence, he would be the only non-Maybank to step foot in it. 

CJ didn't tell her brother and she didn't ask. It was a spur of the moment decision and she knew in her heart that the boy wouldn't mind. The two spent that spring afternoon finally putting up curtains and cleaning outside while they talked; John B taking a break to 'test out the strength' of the tire swing. Ever since then, John B and CJ spent most of their free time there. They'd just lounge and talk and write music and swing on that tire swing. 

That tire swing broke in eighth grade. The year after John B pulled Kiara Carrera into the fold. As soon as it happened, John B rushed them to his house and grabbed a rope from the shed. His dad asked what it was for, but his questioning never stood a chance against a Pogue on a mission. Within two hours, the swing was as good as new and hadn't broken since. 

That year came with many new additions. It was the year the plants made their way into the treehouse and the year CJ got her guitar. It was a beat-up old thing, but it was loved; something that was only given to her because Ms. Gonzales saw the potential CJ held. Their doting music teacher had watched CJ for the entirety of her middle school career and saw how truly happy it made her. So, when the teacher got a new acoustic, the old one was passed down to her favorite student. 

That was also the year the three found the filing cabinet. A strange olive color, the dingy thing was abandoned by the trashes of the high school. On their way home one day, JJ spotted it. They carried and eventually wheeled that thing all the way to the treehouse and then struggled to get it up the tree and inside. It was totally worth it though. Now, the kids had some form of organization. 

The bottom drawer was always locked and CJ had the key stashed in John B's room. It held all of the Maybanks' important documents; things they were worried their father would lose or possibly even sell. The drawer above that held most of their random shit. Notebooks, lighters, etc, and of course, their emergency stash of weed and liquor. Currently, it housed Fireball; CJ's favorite. The top two drawers held clothes. The twins clothes were separated between the two and a few articles of John B's were thrown in with CJ's. Some of them he kept there and some were just clothes CJ had stollen from the boy. 

The next year, their first year of high school, is when the queen mattress finally went out. Unable to keep using it, John B pulled out the old futon mattress from his attic while the twins went off to search for new beds. That's how they found JJ's beloved mattress topper and CJ's lovely hunk of styrofoam. All the size of double beds, they pushed them against their individual corners. The corners had been long designated simply so they had spots to put their food and places to hang things on the walls. 

Everyone had their own light blanket and pillow. During the winter and cold nights, they pushed two beds together to snuggle close for warmth. Depending on who was there, the beds varied. If it was CJ and John B (on nights JJ was with Pope,) the two would simply bundle up on the styrofoam. Despite liking his beds firmer, John B would never complain. On nights it was the three of them or just the twins, the Maybanks' beds got pushed together. JJ refused to sleep on anything other than his memory foam. A heavy comforter would be pulled out from behind the filing cabinet and wrapped around them; CJ always smushed in between the boys when there were three of them. 

Unlike those nights, John B and CJ were as far away from one another as possible in the limited space. Not on purpose, it's just how their beds were positioned. Even with that space, CJ could feel when John B's gaze turned to her.