"theres just one thing
I hope you know,
I loved you so."
RED BARELY SLEPT THAT NIGHT. It was like all her thoughts collectively bottled up in her mind and she couldn’t shake it off. First JJ and Kie, now her family? It only took one day for everything to come crashing down on her.
Although it was rather hard to bring herself out of bed, Red eventually got up and brought herself to get ready and head over to the Chateau, hoping to talk to JJ even though she didn’t want to.
The pogues, including Big John, gathered in the back of the Chateau, everyone welcoming Big John, Bennie, and John B back home from searching for El Dorado. Sarah has explained to Red that what had happened last night was a complete and total failure, and it got them nowhere. Now all she needed to know was what was up with El Dorado.
“Yeah, yeah, so we um… we went to the archives in Charleston, and, uh…” John B spoke, sitting in the middle of everyone in the backyard and filling them in on what has happened with the three of them. “It-It was a dead end.” John B clenched his jaw. “A dry hole… so.”
“So that’s the gold, the cross, and now El Dorado. We’re three-for-three, guys.” Pope listed, throwing a rock into the distance out of anger. He was right. They’d gone three mysteries, risking their lives, and always coming out with nothing. “The streak continues.”
Red scoffed, trying to hide how hurt she was that they’d lost yet again. “This is pathetic.”
“It’s okay, Red. You just have to trust the process.” Kie replied. Red whipped her head in Kie’s direction, giving her a spiteful look. “What’s with the dirty looks, Red? You’ve been acting so weird since we got home from Poguelandia.”
“You wanna know why I’m acting weird?” Red shouted, finally snapping at Kie. She was fed up with her acting so innocent and trying to make her feel like a bad guy. “Maybe it’s because you’ve been sneaking around behind my back for who knows how long now.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Cut the shit, Kie,” Red demanded, trying not to cause too much of a scene in front of everyone else. “Just tell me the truth.” Instead of responding, Kie stayed silent, barely acknowledging her. “Now you're shy? That’s funny because you didn’t seem too shy when you were trying to kiss my boyfriend.”
Red looked over at JJ, the rest of the pogues, then back at Kie. Her vision was blurred by the tears she fought to stay in her eyes. The pogues looked shocked, except Pope and John B, who likely saw it coming. They just felt bad for the girl. Red let out a shaky breath, feeling herself start to break down. “Well, Kie, I hope you enjoyed the 3:00 showing of the reason I don’t trust people.”
With that, Red stormed away from the group and into the Chateau. John B stood up, about to go in after her, but JJ sat him back down, knowing it was something that he had to do.
Only seconds after Red slammed the door to the guest bedroom, holding so many memories of Red and JJ, she paced back and forth, waiting for the wooden door to swing open and reveal JJ.
JJ closed the door, taking a breath before talking. “Red, you can’t just go around yelling at people, y’know.”
“Y’know what? I am so sick of people telling me what to do and how to feel.” Red spat, looking up from the floor and meeting JJ’s eyes.
“Red, the person you want to yell at is me.”
“Kie?” Red spoke, allowing tears to start streaming down her face. “Kie? Really? It’s so obvious. I would have given you more credit than that-”
“Red, I promise I had no idea any of this was going to happen.”
“Great, more excuses.”
JJ placed his hands on his hips, allowing a few moments of silence before speaking again. “Go ahead and say it. You’ve been wanting to all month.”
“No! Because I don’t actually want to talk to you!”
“You have to talk to me.”
“You did this! You ruined our relationship. Everything that we fought for, everything that I risked. For what? So you can go ditch me for my best friend?”
“I had no idea any of this was gonna happen.”
“Stop, JJ! Just stop trying to spare what’s left of our relationship, because it is not worth it.” Red looked down at her shaky hands, her eyes landing on the metallic ring of JJ’s she kept on her thumb. Tearfully, she pulled the ring off of her finger and placed it in the palm of JJ’s hand. “So don’t call me, don’t talk to me, don’t come by my house. We’re done.”
Before JJ could even comment, Red stormed out of the room, passing by the living room where John B tried to get her to stay back, but she just pulled away from him and continued walking out to her car, slamming the car door behind her.
Red cupped her hands over her eyes, sobbing quietly. A few seconds later, Red whipped her hands under her eyes, whipping the tears off of her eyes and driving off.
She wasn’t going anywhere. She was just driving, trying to somehow get her mind off of everything that had happened. She wanted to be alone, and she didn’t want to see either JJ or Kie. She really didn’t want to see anyone.
The buzz of her phone brought her eyes over to her phone screen, ‘Incoming call, JJ MAYBANK’ Red pressed the off button on her phone, declining his call.
“Hi! This is Red, I must have missed you. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.” Her voicemail spoke. JJ banged on the wall of the Chateau, sliding down the wall. The one person who would have been there to comfort him was gone. What had he done? Why had he done it?
sorry for the short chapter, but
I had to make it short because
next chapter is in Red's POV
wish me luck writing in first
person...lets hope I don't change
Perspectives mid sentence.
this chapter BROKE me to write.
I hate that they had their downfall,
but its ok :((
if your an author that had to break
go two characters that spent
SO MUCH time developing their relationship,
you can probably imagine how I'm feeling.
lowkey miss them already, but
that's why flashbacks exist.
I'm also falling in love with Red and Zack's
love story rn!! can't wait for
you to read it!
don't worry, you'll meet my darling
zack next chapter ;)
he's an icon in every way and probably
my fav character out of the series. sorry
bennie, it was a close race.