"THAT'S A LOT OF WAX ON YOUR BOARD," POPE TOLD JJ. All of the Pogues, minus John B obviously and Sarah who never came back from meeting Wheezie, were sitting outside of the Chateau. JJ was waxing his surfboard, Pope was fiddling with something, and Bree was lying on her back on a table and throwing one of JJ's hacky sacks up in the air while she listened to Kie play her ukelele. "Put too much wax, it's gonna be slippery."
"Are you telling me how to wax my board, Pope?" the blonde boy questioned, pausing what he was doing to look up with an annoyed expression.
The Heyward boy answered with a small shrug, "Just saying that's a lot of wax."
"You're telling me how to wax my board," the Maybank boy said, turning all the way around — well, as far as he could without taking one of his hands off of the board. The two girls sent frustrated looks at each other. Why did they have to fight over everything? "Are you kidding?"
"That's a colossal waste of wax," Pope informed him, interrupting him by yelling over him, which just made him more mad.
Kie rolled her eyes and piped up. "Guys, really?" All of a sudden, something cut them off, causing all of them to whip their heads toward the noise. It was a car honking.
"Did you hear that?" JJ questioned, but the honking came again, and they all gasped when they saw a vehicle pulling toward them. The engine sputtered, and the two girls launched out of their seats. "Hold on. Am I dreaming?"
John B.
"No! Guess who's out of the clink, boy!" the Routledge boy called to them, and they all sprinted toward the boy who was climbing out of the car, slamming the door closed.
As Kie and Bree embraced the boy, the Heyward boy laughed out, "No freaking way, man!"
"My boy's out of the can!" JJ smiled as he and Pope jumped in and joined the hug. They all held to each other, especially him, tightly as if they were scared that one of them could disappear at any point. With everything going on, Bree would not be surprised if one of them did.
The Callaway girl chuckled, "Oh, my God, we missed you."
"I missed you guys too," he responded, while JJ rubbed the back of his head and dug his fingers into his hair.
"How'd you do it?" the blonde boy questioned once they all pulled away. His raised his eyebrows at his best friend with a small smirk. "You bust out?"
He shook his head in response, the grin still plastered on his face. "Uh, they dropped the charges." They all started cheering, but the Maybank, still looking excited, also looked kind of bummed.
"You're telling me I did all that work for nothing?" he quizzed, referring to the very failed plan that had happened a few nights ago where he and Bree almost got arrested for pretending to be EMTs and breaking some random guy that knew JJ out of jail when they were trying to break their friend out.
Pope rolled his eyes and scoffed, recalling how awfully that plan went. "Oh, the most elaborate escape plan of all time?"
"'Foolproof.'" the Carrera girl muttered sarcastically.
He glared and stuck his tongue out at her frustratedly at her before telling her, "Yeah, it was, actually."
"You know, aren't foolproof plans supposed to be, well, I don't know..." the brunette girl trailed off for a second, jokingly thinking about the right word as the raven-haired girl giggled. "Foolproof?"
"Shut up, Callaway. You thought it was a good idea too," he argued, and she had nothing to say to that. He smiled smugly when she could not come up with a snarky comment.
"Wait, where's Sarah?" the Routledge boy asked, looking between his friends when he noticed that his wife was not there. They all just glanced at each other, not sure how to answer him without him freaking out. He shook his head frantically. "No, no, no. Where...where...where's Sarah?"
"She went to go meet Wheezie last night. She didn't come back."
After they told him that, they went out onto the dock to discuss it because he was really worried. He was pacing when he questioned, "So, Sarah just dips and doesn't call?"
"Yeah, man. She just left her bag. Didn't tell anybody," Pope answered, looking at at him from where he was sitting on the boat next to JJ and across from Bree.
"Okay, dude, I really think Ward got to her. I mean, the dude tried to have me killed in jail," the brunette boy announced, causing all of their jaws to drop in shock. He nodded, confirming what he just said. "Yeah. He sent somebody to the prison who yoked me up and almost killed me."
JJ asked angrily as if he was ready to fight, which he probably was, considering the circumstances. "Do we know who this dude was?"
"No, I have no idea. Dude, I just swear to God, one day I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch," John B muttered as he stepped onto the boat and sat down in front of Kie, running a stressed hand through his hair.
Kie assured him, "It's okay."
"No, Kie, it's not okay. We gotta find Sarah," he reminded her, but little did he know that both the girls in front of him were facing the opposite direction knew something that he did not.
Kie explained, pointing behind him to where Sarah was pulling up on a boat. "No, literally, it's okay. She's right there."
"John B?" the Cameron girl called from alongside Topper — which was really scary — once she saw the boy sitting beside her best friends. "John B!"
"What the hell is she doing with Topper?" the Carrera girl asked as the rest of the Pogues scowled at the Thornton boy.
Bree added, "What would anybody be doing with Topper?"
"Oh my God. I'm so glad you're okay. Hi," the Routledge boy greeted as Topper pulled The Malibu to the boat and allowed the blonde girl to step on board.
"I didn't know if I'd see you again. What happened?" she told him, embracing him for a moment before pulling away and looking him in the eye.
"Uh, they dropped all the charges. Yeah, no, yeah, I'm a free man. Yeah," he explained to her, and she smiled excitedly. "I know. It's great, but listen, Sarah, they're coming after Rafe."
She nodded like she was agreeing with it, and she seemed a little freaked out over something, which concerned them. "Good. He's completely unhinged. He jumped me last night.That's why I didn't come back."
"What? Are you okay?" the Callaway girl exclaimed, and she received a nod in response.
"Yeah, man. Rafe has lost his mind. Literally almost drowned his own sister," Topper confirmed before grinning, proud of himself. "Thankfully, I got there...got there just in time."
The Routledge boy smiled up at him sarcastically. "Uh, well, I guess I owe you one, Topper, don't I?"
"It's all good. I mean, somebody had to rescue your girlfriend, right?" the Thornton boy replied, and Bree had to fight the urge to not walk over there and punch him in the face.
"Uh, that's funny because she's not actually my girlfriend, right?" John B chuckled out before looking over to the blonde girl and nodding for her to continue with him. "Tell him."
Sarah hesitated for a moment before saying something that caused all of their hearts to drop. "I'm... I'm with him." A look of betrayal crossed all of their faces, especially John B's because she refused to tell her ex-boyfriend that she's married.
"Gotcha. You're with him. Okay, yeah. I just, like, needed a little clarity there. You guys clear on that?" Topped laughed because he clearly thought that their announcement would be bigger that what they just said.
Bree was the one to answer him. "I think it's clear you gotta go now."
"Think I'll head out," he said, acting like it was her that suggested the idea. It's about that time."
《✵》
"LET ME KNOW IF I'M HURTING YOU," SARAH TOLD HEYWARD. They had gotten a call that something had happened to Pope's pops, so they rushed over to the house quickly. They found him sitting at table outside with a huge gash on his head. The Cameron girl was now working to bandage it up.
Bree could not believe that Limbrey came after Heyward. That was something that she definitely did not expect. It made her angry as well because he had not been involved in anything until that moment. So, nothing that had happened had been his fault. They were the ones that had done everything, and he was the one getting punished for it. It was not fair.
"You're doing fine," he assured her, and as she finished up, he smiled up at her gratefully. "Thank you, darlin'."
"Pop, what happened?" Pope asked him worriedly.
The man explained to them, recalling what happened, "Oh, I should've known better. He came in just as I was about to lock up. Caught me by surprise. Once he had me down, he put his knee in my chest, and he asked me about that... that key from that drawing you showed me. And in case you're wondering, I ain't tell him nothing. Now did you track it down?"
"I found it in Mee-maw's old apartment above the pharmacy just like you said," his son informed him, pulling the key out of his pocket and handing it to his father.
"Shit, boy, you should've gave this to me.I wouldn't have had to take a beating," the man sighed as he examined the key in his fingers with a confused expression, wondering what was so great about it. "What's the big deal? It ain't worth anything. Why they want it so bad?"
Pope shrugged before telling him the entire adventure that they had been on involving it. "I don't know. First, I get this letter telling me that I need to go to Charleston. And then I meet a rich lady who wants me to give her a key that I didn't even know was in my family. None of it makes any sense."
"Well, don't y'all just sit here whining about it. Figure it out!" Heyward ordered.
"No. I'm just gonna give the key to that lady," Pope responded, shaking his head like he was giving up. After they came after his father, Bree did not blame him. "It's not worth—"
"No, no, no. Did I raise you to back down from a fight, boy?" his dad questioned, cutting him off.
The boy answered, almost ashamed, "No, sir."
"Well, all right. Now, I... I didn't think about it before. I admit that. But now..." he gestured to the bandage on his head and the blood showing through it. "Now? I'm interested. Well, did they say why they wanted it?"
"Something about an old cross. I think it might be some kind of lost treasure," Pope told him.
"You know who you should talk to? Your great-grandmother, Mee-maw."