CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Gun and Cash
‿︵‿︵‿︵
(PRESENT)
Pope's words circled her mind.
With a hard stare, Avery watched JJ play with the gun they had discovered in the safe. She was actually relieved that it had opened, listening to John B poking random number patterns were beginning to make her want to shove his torch up his backside. It was a surprise to see multiple stacks of money piled up with a SIG Sauer resting on top.
"Sure, let's just make our own incriminating evidence. Sounds like a good idea, J" Avery sarcastically said. She was standing next to John B, wearing a similar expression as the blond posed with the gun in front of them.
"Wait, what was that?" JJ ignored her comment, watching John B rush past him and peek through the blinds. "What?"
"Shit" the brunet cursed quietly, jumping over the bed to the front window.
Avery instinctively reached out for JJ, tightly wrapping her fingers around his forearm. A knot twisted in her stomach as she watched her friend sneakily peer through the other blind, eventually whispering the one thing she definitely didn't want to hear. As if on cue, there was a loud knock at the door. The teenagers panicked and started to scatter around the room.
"Kildare Country Sheriff's Department!" A voice yelled.
"This is so fucking stupid" Avery mumbled. She could feel JJ's hands on her waist and gently nudging her on as she climbed out the window, carefully stepping onto the thin ledge that luckily sat underneath the window ledge.
The trio found themselves pressed up against the white bricked wall. Avery's heart was pounding and her chest heaved, making it hard to steady her heavy breathing. One of JJ's arms were wrapped around her waist, his fingers considerately digging into her stomach. He had pulled her close, tucking and keeping her at his side. John B balanced on the other side, cautiously peering through the wonky blind.
Avery scrunched up her face and rested her head against the wall, feeling JJ's hot breath fanning her face. Reluctantly, she peeled open her eyes and gazed up at him, watching him gesture towards Pope and Kiara, who were holding down the boat and intensely watching, staying quiet and low-key.
He met her eyes and mouthed, "I got you, Flower"
As he awkwardly repositioned his arm around her, tugging her closer to him, the gun dropped from his waistband. The cluck made the group cringe. Avery sharply inhaled and subconsciously held her breath, burying her face into JJ's tense shoulder.
His hand quickly moved from her waist and to the back of her head, holding her head against his shoulder. The blonde was about to fight against him, wanting to check on her friends, but the sound of the blinds shooting up made her obey, keeping her face cuddled into JJ's shoulder.
What felt like hours, Avery felt JJ move and heard John B's feet shuffling carefully across the ledge. Once the coast was clear, the brunet managed to pick open the window and pushed it up. He was the first one to step through, signing in relief at the feeling of both his feet securely on ground.
"Come on, Aves, slowly" John B softly said, sticking out his hand for the girl. She hesitated before sidestepping closer to the window, feeling JJ's hand rest on her back until she grasped John B's hand and cocked a leg over the windowsill.
The trio safely got off the ledge and sneaked out the room, retracing the way they came. Avery was in the lead, overly eager to get back to Kiara and Pope, and get away. She rolled her eyes, jumping down the last few steps as she ignored JJ's fast talking, obviously being hit by a wave of adrenaline. She swore she could have cried once she was in arms reach of the HSM Pogue, immediately hopping on board and dramatically falling onto the beak.
"Well, that was fun," JJ deadpanned, laying back on his elbows next to Avery. He let out a short chuckle, "could have warned us sooner"
"We would have, expect Pope was on the math team" Kiara spoke up, glancing at the Heyward boy.
"You were on the math team?" John B questioned.
"Yeah, co-captain of the mathletes" Avery confirmed, sending Pope a smile as he looked over at her. He tried his best to disguise the surprise, appreciating that she remembered that little detail.
"The cops took everything like it was a crime scene. Did you guys find anything?" Pope diverted the conversation.
"Did we find anything? No, I don't think so. Oh, yeah, we did" JJ's lips tugged into a grin as he pulled out the gun and stack of cash, holding them up to show them.
Avery looked down at the glares that were shot her way, knowing that she was trusted with babysitting the two. In all honesty, she didn't think it was that serious, it was hardly a crime scene. She didn't see any dead bodies or leads, just a load of useless crap a stranger owned. Plus, she didn't have time to scold her best friend for stealing a gun, she was too busy climbing out onto a ledge and not getting caught at the time.
"I'm gonna lose my merit scholarship" Pope exclaimed, clearly bothered and worried about the stolen items and thinking ahead of time, like he usually does.
"No, you're not P, don't say that" Avery whined, trying her best to stop the boy from overthinking and reassure him that it won't happen.
JJ stood up and wrapped an arm around Pope, shushing him. The blond raised the gun up in between them, immediately being smacked away. JJ frowned a little and patted his friend's cheek, "at least you have us, right?"
"I'm living the nightmare" Pope sighed, stepping away from JJ and sitting back down behind the controls.
The group left Avery at the Chateau while they followed the word about something occurring at the docks. The area was full of reports and authorities, pedestrians stopped by to see what the commotion was about. A local showed them a photo of the dead body that was discovered, telling them that he had copped a brand new Grady-White, specifically the one they had found, and that everyone was out looking for it.
"Shit" Avery mumbled under her breath, jumping up from the seat she had just got comfortable on. Her head whipped around at the familiar sound of rusty breaks, grasping a fleeting sight of her father's pickup rolling into the driveway.
Without thinking too much , she sprung up and crept through the door. Her heartbeat picked up, she wasn't sure if it was due to the panic that was twisting inside her stomach or because she was almost sprinting through the shack. Feeling her hands starting to tremble, she opened John B's bedroom door and quickly shuffled in, quietly shutting the door behind her.
"Hey, Noah, what- what you doing here?" John B's obnoxiously loud voice appeared. It was clear that he was trying to be loud, hoping that Avery wasn't unaware that her father had turned up unannounced.
Biting back the whimper that wanted to escape her mouth as she stumbled and hit her shin on the corner of the bed. She dropped to her knees and peeked out the window, squinting a little to see her friend's climbing out the Twinkie and her father joining them. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, holding her breath as if they could actually hear her, which was extremely unlikely but she couldn't help it.
"Sorry, I just wanted to check in and you know-"
"I'm sorry, Mr Creed, she hasn't turned up" Kiara's voice was the first to respond. The girl gave Noah a soft smile, titling her head to the side slightly.
JJ stuttered as the man glanced over at him, "Uh, yeah, she hasn't. Neither of us have heard from her either. I'm sorry, Noah, maybe we were wrong"
"But we will let you know if we do, as always" Kiara lied through her teeth, she hated that she was lying but knew that she had to. A part of her still held on to her old friend and wanted to protect her, even though she never would verbally admit it.
"Yeah," John B nodded, stealing a glance at JJ who was playing the lie well with the solemn expression. "All we can do is keep trying to reach out and let her know that she can come home. And if that happens, you will be the first to know"
"Thank you, guys. Sorry for coming over without warning, I just shut the store early and thought to stop by on my way home" Noah sighed heavily, opening the drivers door of the red vehicle.
"It's fine, Mr Creed, we don't mind and totally understand" Pope spoke up. He was nervous to speak, that was obvious in his tone, but he didn't want to say something wrong or say too much.
Letting out a breath, Avery awkwardly shuffled around so that her back rested against the small space underneath the window sill. She brought her legs up to her chest and rested her head back on the wooden sill, closing her eyes as she listened to the faint farewells and the old truck grunt to life. She refused to move until she was completely sure that it was safe to, until her friends came in to find her.
Scuffing footsteps wandered towards the bedroom, a head of blond hair appeared in the doorway. At first he didn't notice her but when he did, JJ didn't hesitate to join her. He dropped down onto the floor and rested against the wall, "hi"
She turned her head slightly, looking at him in the corner of her eye and whispered, "hi"
Taking her fidgeting hands in his, JJ threaded his fingers through hers. He softly spoke, "are you okay?"
Avery knew he already knew the answer but if he didn't ask, she would shamefully continue to pretend. The girl shook her head and dropped it onto his shoulder, only then did she realise that she was holding back tears and didn't bother to stop them from falling. JJ remained silent, allowing her to let everything she needed out, and assured her that he was there for her by holding onto her hands a little tighter and peppering chaste kisses on her hairline.
EDITED: spelling and grammar!
AUTHORS NOTE!
i'm so obsessed with javery!! there's so much to come still, i'm so excited :) i'm trying to update every two days, maybe sometimes three, depending on how life's going!