◜ ◝
𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗙𝗜𝗙𝗧𝗘𝗘𝗡
❝ 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒐𝒌𝒂𝒚, 𝒋𝒋 ❞
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・・・・☆・・・・☆ ・・・・
The crew, without JJ, drove back to The Wreck to get a break and to just think. "Look, he'll come around, all right? It's...He's doing a JJ thing," John B told them after a moment, sitting down at the table next to Kyla and Sarah.
"You think he'll go home?" Kiara asked as she stared down at the table with an emotionless expression.
"There's about a zero percent chance that JJ goes home," Pope said as he stared out the window, his arm placed high against the wall.
"I hope he doesn't. It isn't safe for him there," Kyla spoke up, licking her lips nervously.
"Wait. How do you know that?" Kiara asked her sister, finally looking up from the table.
Kyla glanced between all of them before let out a sigh. "Look, we didn't want to tell you last time, but—"
"Oh, my God, are two hooking up?" Kiara questioned with a horrified, and hurt, look on her face.
"What? No! Why would you even think that?" Kyla questioned, giving her sister an offended look. "No, I just stopped by his house to check on him after he had gotten released from jail, and...I just see him, with new cuts and bruises on his face, pointing a gun at his father, who was asleep on the couch. I was able to stop him from pulling the trigger, and that's how we got into the argument we mentioned before. Just without the extra information," she explained.
"Wait, what the hell? Why didn't you tell us?" Pope questioned, his eyes wide like everyone else's.
Kyla sighed again. "Because I knew he didn't want me to. And it also wasn't my place to, either," Kyla told them and Kiara looked down. "I'm sorry."
"No, you were doing the right thing," Kiara told her, not looking up. "If you told us, JJ probably wouldn't have forgiven you." Kyla nodded slowly at her sister's words.
John B then looked over at Sarah, who hadn't said anything the whole time. "You okay?" he asked her.
She nodded, blinking slowly. "Yeah. Are you?"
"I mean, I'm in one piece, so..." he trailed off, trying to lighten the mood. Sarah smiled at him for a moment, before it turned back into a frown.
Pope sighed, "Okay." He then took his hand off the wall, walking back and forth. "It's too dangerous to pawn this thing off piecemeal. So...our best bet is to go down there and get the rest of it. Bring it all up at once. Put it in — in — in a safe, or a vault, or something. I-I don't know. Just until we can find someone who won't rip us off. Okay? I can go figure it out tonight, get it done, and we can be out there as early as tomorrow morning," Pope explained, getting back onto the gold topic.
"All right, let's do it," John B said and Kyla nodded, placing her elbows on the table.
"Easy."
"Let's go."
"What about that thing with my dad?" Sarah asked her boyfriend, and Kyla furrowed her brows.
"Shit," John B muttered, looking down.
"What thing?" Pope questioned, leaning forward.
"I have to go fishing with Ward," he told them slowly and Kyla scoffed. Fishing with Ward is more important than the gold? she thought. Whoa, these Pogues have corrupted me.
"You can't get 400 mil 'cause you're gonna go kill fish?" Kiara questioned in disbelief.
"Look, I have to go," John B said.
"Blow it off! It's 400 million in gold!" Pope told him and Kyla nodded rapidly, her eyes wide.
"Make something up!" Kiara exclaimed.
"Look, I-I have to, okay? He...he saved me, all right? And if it weren't for Ward, I'd be in foster care," the Routledge boy told them and Kyla bit the inside of her cheek, forgetting about that. "So...I have to go. Plus, it'll be better to do it at night." He then glanced around at them before he added, "Right?"
The others looked at each other, contemplating their decision. It was either get it done fast and risk being seen, or wait until night so that their chance of being seen was slim. The night option was probably better in Kyla's opinion.
"Fine. Fine, go fishing," Pope let up, pointing at the brunette boy.
"And at least JJ will probably be washed up by then," Kiara added.
"You just made it sound like he's a whale," Kyla pointed out, giving her sister a look.
"Well, he's definitely not as smart as one," Kiara muttered.
・・・・☆・・・・☆ ・・・・
Kyla, Kiara, and Pope pulled up to the Château to get their supplies ready for their 'gold retrieving mission' later that night. "So we gotta be done before my scholarship interview in the morning," Pope told them before he parked the truck.
"Oh, good luck on that by the way," Kyla said, patting his shoulder encouragingly from the seat in between Kiara and Pope since there were no backseats in the truck.
"Thanks," he replied with a small grin.
"Okay, well, we gotta focus," Kiara said, bringing the attention back onto the mission.
"I know, I know. It's gonna be fine. We got John B and JJ inside the well, and me up top," Pope said as Kiara opened the door to get out. "You both and Sarah will be outside transporting."
"Yeah, we got this," Kiara said before Kyla hopped out after her sister.
"Cool. You got it, Ky?" Pope asked.
"Yep, I understand the plan," she told him with a smile.
"Hey, that rhymed," Pope pointed out before Kiara gave him a look. He quickly cleared his throat, getting back on the task at hand. "Uh, I got a winch."
"Yeah."
"That tin can hold over like... 200, 300 pounds," Pope told them as Kiara opened up the back of the truck.
Kiara smiled at him before she randomly said, "Thanks." Kyla gave her a look, but Kiara just subtly shook her head at her.
"Uh...what for?" Pope asked in confusion.
"Stranding us. You know, making us all make up," Kiara told him and Kyla grinned softly. She enjoyed actually not fighting with her sister as much. It felt like they were becoming close again.
"What makes you think that was me?" Pope asked before a machine whirred around them, making Christmas lights light up all around them on the trees. Kyla furrowed her brows in confusion, not remembering them being there at all. "What the hell?"
Kyla looked around before she spotted something that looked like a lot like a hot tub in the distance, with a figure sitting inside it. "Uh, guys?" she said, squinting and pointing at it.
"Who the hell is that?" Kiara questioned before the three of them made their way over to the hot tub. Once they got closer, Kyla realized that the person inside the hot tub was JJ. She glanced over at her sister, an even more confused expression on her face as JJ opened a bottle of champagne.
"What did you do, JJ?" Pope asked in shock.
"I got a jet going straight in my butt right now," he told them, making Kyla's mouth part and her eyebrows raise in disbelief since she noticed that he was definitely not sober. "Y'all should get in immediately, you hear me?" he said before he poured himself some champagne. "Salud!"
"JJ..." Kyla trailed off, not knowing what to say since she was at a loss for words.
"How much did this cost?" Pope questioned.
After JJ took a sip of the champagne he said, "Uh...Well, with the generator, the petrol, and, oh, hey, express delivery..." he laughed, "...pretty much all of it, yeah."
Kyla's mouth dropped just as Pope's did at the same time. "All of it?" Pope repeated.
"Yeah, all of it."
"You spent all the money in one day?"
"Yeah, burned a hole right through my pocket. But, I-I, mean, like, come on, guys, like, look at this! Finest in jet-based massage therapy, that's what they told me," JJ said with a slur in his words and Kyla just blinked rapidly. "Kie, Ky, what? Can't a man have a little luxury in life?" he asked.
Kyla slowly shook her head and replied quietly, "Not when the money was supposed to be used for the something more important."
JJ whipped his glasses off. "Come on, all this scrimpin' and scrapin'... I mean, like...guys, we — You only live once, right? Enough of this emotional shit. Get in the Cat's Ass. Come on," he urged.
"In the what?" Kiara asked quietly.
"The Cat's Ass. That's what I named her," he told them with a proud smile. "Oh, hey, yo, I almost forgot." JJ leaned over and tapped a button, making the disco ball above him, and the hot tub light up."Uh-huh? Yeah, that's right, I know. Disco mode. That's right, baby!"
"Are you kidding me? You could have paid for restitution!" Pope exclaimed angrily.
"Or literally given it to any charity!" Kiara added, finally speaking up.
"Or better yet, you could have helped us buy supplies to get the rest of the gold out of the well!" Pope shouted.
"Okay, well, you know what? I didn't do that!" JJ yelled as he stood up, revealing all the bruises on his torso and stomach area. Kyla brought a hand up to her mouth in shock and thought immediately, His father. "I got a hot tub! For my friends. I got a hot tub for my friends. You know what? No, you know what? Screw friends. I got a hot tub for my family!"
"JJ, what the hell?" Kiara said in disbelief.
"I got this for you. Guys, look what I did for you! All right? Look at this! Look at this!" he continued as Kyla glanced away from him, blinking rapidly in shock at his wounds.
Kiara shook her head and said, "JJ."
"JJ, what happened?" Kyla finally asked, looking back up at him with a tremble in her voice.
"No, you stop being emotional. It's fine, okay?" JJ told them, but once Kyla saw him crying, her caring instincts started to take over. She began to walk over to the hot tub, slowly climbing in. "I mean, it's sweet, right? Everything — Just get in!" he exclaimed before Kyla wrapped her arms around him, enveloping him into a hug where he started to sob. "I just couldn't do it," he said into her shoulder.
"It's okay, it's okay," Kyla told him softly, pulling him in closer to her.
"I can't take him anymore! I was gonna kill him," he admitted and Kyla shushed him comfortingly, rubbing his back. She then glanced over at Pope and Kie, and motioned with her head for them to come over, so they did. Once they made it into the hot tub, they wrapped their arms JJ and gave him a group hug as he cried, "I just wanna do the right thing."
"I know. I know," Kiara told him in a high voice.
"It's okay, JJ," Kyla told him quietly as he continued to cry.
This scene is so sad 😪 I feel so bad for JJ : (((