{AN: I don't know why chapter 5 keeps getting labeled as chapter 4, but I've fixed it and hopefully it'll stay that way. I feel like this story is kind of repetitive in a way, so I'm trying to break that cycle.
Also, am I moving too fast, too slow, or neither with the romance between JJ and Pope. Comment to LMK. Enjoy chapter 6 :).... }
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JJ:
I'm in a really bad place with Kie right now. It sucks.
"Seriously, JJ what's going on? She won't even look at you."
"Nothing. I don't know."
"Uh-huh. Sure." He says, rolling his eyes.
I laugh.
Pope walks into the room, and I look up at him, then immediately look away. Yeah I'm in a pretty bad place with him too.
I expected things to be awkward with him, but I don't know why he's mad at me. He sits down next to John B.
Kie and Sarah are currently surfing without us because they wanted "girl time." Kie's probably just talking shit about me to Sarah.
Pope won't even look at me. Ugh.
"Well I'm gonna smoke a blunt, then go take the Pogue out on the water. Y'all coming?" I say.
"Hell yeah. I'll get the cooler ready."
He gets up and takes the cooler out, puts a shit ton of beers and ice in it, and closes it.
I take the blunt out of my pocket and light it, then take 3 hits of it before passing it to Pope without looking at him. John B sits back down on the couch and takes it from Pope.
Once we're on the boat I take a beer and take a drink. Oh my fucking God it's hot out here.
Pope also takes a drink of his, as does John B.
After about 25 minutes, my skin hurts it's so hot. I take my shirt off, there finally being no bruises or scars on my body. I catch Pope looking at me, then looks away once I look back. He doesn't even look mad, he just won't look at me.
John B is standing on the edge of the boat and I sneak up behind him and push him into the water.
He makes a huge splash as he lands on the water.
"DICK!" He yells at me.
I laugh, "I know."
Pope laughs from behind me.
"Feels good though." He says.
I stand on the edge of the boat and prepare myself to do a flip. I quickly flip off of the boat, landing in the semi cold water.
"You coming Pope?" I yell to him up at the boat.
He nods. He whips his shirt off and jumps in.
After we're all cooled down we hop back into the boat. John B walks to the other side of the boat.
"You mad?" I whisper.
"No."
"Then why won't you talk to me?"
"Just haven't had anything to say." He says dryly.
I roll my eyes as JB comes back to this side of the boat.
Pope:
I'm kinda mad at him. But really more upset. Upset at what I saw.
JJ:
Once we get back to the house, Kie and Sarah still aren't there.
"They were supposed to be back an hour ago." Pope says.
"They're never late." John B says, worry starting to hint in his voice.
"They'll be back soon." I respond.
I walk back to the backyard and turn the Cat's Ass on and let it get hot. I run back in the house and grab some beer and I'm stopped on my way out.
"What're you doing?" JB asks.
"Going out to the hot tub. Coming?"
"Nah, I'm gonna wait for Sarah and Kie to come back."
I walk out the door without asking Pope and climb into the hot tub.
Pope walks outside right as I sit down in the hot tub.
"Aren't you gonna ask if I wanna come?" he says, sarcastically.
He walks over to the hot tub and leans over it, his arms resting on the side.
I take a minute to look at him and notice the distinct bags under his eyes.
"What's up with the bags under your eye?" I question, the awkwardness between us ceasing to exist right now.
"Haven't been sleeping much lately."
"Why?"
"Everytime I close my eyes I just feel so, like, sad. I can't stop thinking about my mom and everything."
"I'm sorry. That must really suck." I say, not being able to think of anything else to say.
Just then, Kie and Sarah arrive back. They're walking slowly, sadly. Kie is hugging Sarah, Sarah obviously crying. I hop out of the tub, and jog over to them, alongside Pope.
Sarah's face is red, like she's been crying, and Kie's face shows evidence that she's been crying too.
What the actual fuck.
"What? What is it?"
Sarah starts crying harder.
"John B get out here!" I yell. He walks out the front door, and as he sees Sarah crying, he runs over.
"It's Topper. He's dead. He was shot."
We all freeze.
We all walk inside after a few minutes of standing there.
"So what happened?" I question.
"We were on Figure Eight because we were near it, and Sarah wanted to see Wheezie. So we're walking to her house when we see cops and ambulances all grouped together 5 blocks from Sarah's house. We asked someone what was going on, and they said some guy had died. So we moved through the crowd and saw his body being loaded into some truck." Kie says, and Sarah's crying becomes louder.
John B hugs her tighter.
"They're investigating."
I know Sarah and Topper dated, but I didn't know she actually cared that much about him. My face is sympathetic, I hated the rich fuck, but I feel bad for Sarah.
Who killed him? All the Pogues hated Topper, but none of us would've killed him. Who would have the motive to kill him?
When Sarah calms down me and Pope get up and walk outside. I guess the awkwardness is kind of disappearing.
"I feel really bad for Sarah." He states.
"Yeah, me too. I never knew she actually cared about that asshole that much."
"Yeah, me neither. I can't think of who could've killed him."
"Someone had to have a motive. The guy was a complete dick." I point out.
"You think it was a Kook that killed him?" He questions.
"A Kook wouldn't kill another Kook."
I stare at him for a second, and he stares back. I don't feel like looking away, and apparently neither does he.
"We ever gonna talk about movie night?"
"Which part? The part between us, or the part where right after that where you were making out with Kie?"
Oh.
That explains a lot. That's why he was mad at me.
"It wasn't like that-" I begin, but get cut off.
"I know what I saw. Look, I should get back inside."
He begins walking towards the door. "Pope, wait." I say loudly, as he closes the door on his way inside.
"Fuck." I whisper, then wait a minute before going back inside. Sarah is sitting at the table drinking something clearly hot, since there's steam coming off it.
I sit on the couch and watch her talk to John B and Pope about something.
Kie comes and sits next to me.
"Hey." I say.
She doesn't even acknowledge me. Oh my fucking God, we're not in grade school anymore, she's acting so childish.
"You can't keep ignoring me." I say.
"Yeah I can."
"I'm sorry."
"You said that already."
I roll my eyes. I know it's my fault, and I don't really have a right to be mad, but I'm a little pissed. Like I'm admitting I was wrong, and I apologized multiple times.
"Hey, Sarah" Kie softly yells to her, "I"m gonna run to the store. You want anything?" She says kind and sympathetically."
"No, I'm good. Thank you."
I follow her outside.
"Can we just talk for a second. Please? I can't stand you being mad at me."
"What do you wanna say?"
"That I know I was bein' dumb."
"Well, at least you're aware."
OMFG.
"Did you know that you didn't see it going anywhere from the beginning?"
"I- yeah." I say shamefully.
"Wow."
She walks slowly away from me and I catch up to her, us now standing side by side. I walk in front of her and stop her from walking any further.
"Look, JJ, I get it, you're sorry. I know you didn't mean to hurt me. I understand. But I'm not just gonna forgive you right away. I'm still angry."
"Okay. Okay." I say and head back inside.
Later:
I'm sitting up on the couch, looking at the empty couch in front of me. Pope's staying with his dad. I hope he's okay. I feel bad that he's not able to sleep.
I hear JB's door open. Sarah walks into the living room, her eyes puffy and red. She grabs a water bottle from the fridge and comes and sits next to me.
We sit in silence for a few minutes. Everyone else is asleep. I look over at Sarah, and even in the dark lighting I can see that her face is clearly sad.
I wrap my arms around her shoulders and she leans into me. A tear rolls from her eye. She leans more into me.
"I want to talk to John B about it, but I don't know how he'd react."
"What do you mean?"
"Like he always hated Topper and hated that I cared about him."
"Yeah, that's true. But he cares about you more than anything in this entire world. You can talk to him."
She nods.
"But if you're more comfortable you can talk to me too." I suggest. It's pretty dark in this living room, but I see the faintest hint of a smile rise in the corners of her mouth.
"I knew him since we were in grade school. We were friends for a while before we ever dated, and he was the sweetest kid around. And I know he was an asshole at times, most times, but he wasn't always."
She breathes out slowly.
"I've just known him for SO long, that it's hard to process that I'm never gonna see him again, you know."
"Yeah, I can't imagine, Sarah. This is all so depressing. There's a lot of death and sad shit going on."
"There really is. How is Pope doing?"
"From what I know, not good. He's not sleeping well. He's having a hard time coping."
She exhales sadly.
About 20 minutes, I look over and Sarah is fast asleep. I don't wanna wake her up. She looks comfortable and finally not sad. I guess sleep makes everyone look peaceful.
5 hours later, the sun slowly starts to rise. I couldn't sleep at all last night. Sarah's still asleep on my arm. I hear JB's door open in the distance, and he stops at the bathroom before walking into the living room. He begins to say what I assume is "good morning" but stops once he sees Sarah asleep on my arm.
Not wanting to wake her up, he tiptoes into the kitchen and turns on the old, janky, piece of shit coffee maker. He tiptoes back into the living room and sits across from me.
Once the smell of coffee seeps through the room, Sarah wakes up.
"Oh, sorry." Is the first thing she says to me.
"For?"
"Falling asleep on you."
"Nah, it's good. Glad you were able to sleep."
She looks over at the couch and sees John B sitting there. She gets up and goes to sit next to him. She kisses him for a few seconds, then grabs his hand. He uses his free hand to stroke her hair gently. He smiles at her, trying to cheer her up.
"Feeling better, babe?" He asks.
"Eh. Sleep helped a little, but I'm still really upset." She says, and his smile quickly disappears.
"Want me to stay home from school with you today?"
"No, it's alright you guys go. I'm gonna head over to Figure Eight and spend some time with Wheezie."
John B nods, then gets up and goes into the kitchen and pours 2 cups of coffee, emptying the pot. He brings them over and sets them down on the not so sturdy coffee table.
He goes and knocks on Kie's door, getting her up since we have to leave in roughly 10 minutes. I get up and grab a beer from the fridge and return to the couch.
JB gives me a "you're crazy JJ" look.
"What? Y'all drink coffee in the morning, I drink beer. Same thing."
"No it's not JJ. I don't know how you drink that shit in the morning. It would make me wanna throw up." I laugh at his words, and Kie comes out of the bedroom, not dressed for school.
"I'm not going to school. I have a migraine." She says, then goes back into her room. Uh-huh, sure. Kie has never not once had a migraine. Me and John B shoot each other a glance.
Then the front door opens. Pope looks around the room.
"Everyone ready?" He asks.
"No. Kie and Sarah aren't going, and me and John B still have to get dressed."
He groans. We both get up to go get dressed. I return in a white tank top with a beat down flannel-like hoodie on, and jeans.
Once we're all ready, we head out to the Twinkie.
"I shouldn't be leaving Sarah." JB says to us.
"She has Kie, and she's going to see Wheeze. It's okay." I tell him.
He nods.
About halfway through the school day, I feel like absolute shit. I'm nauseated, my head hurts, and I'm more than exhausted. Most of it's because I didn't sleep last night. I decide to head back to JB's early.
I slowly walk to the house. When I arrived, there's a random car parked in front of the house. I walk in to the house and when I see the scene on the couch in front of me, I freeze.
Wtf.
"Shit." Kie says, when she sees me standing in the doorway.
I walk out of the house and close the door behind me, shocked and pissed off.
{AN: Take a guess on what JJ saw and tell me what you thought on the chapter in the comments. -------->}