JJ CAN'T SLEEP, he's been laying down on his bed later that night for hours but his eyes refused to give up and let him to have his sleep. After what happened at the beach, they all went straight to their house but made a stop at John B's first to drop him.
Usually, he would stay at the Chateau with John B and he's been staying with him for as long as he can remember. He knows John B didn't mind, because he's been living alone after his father went missing and his uncle out of the reach.
But it also a way to stay out from going back to his house, to face his piece of a shit father.
But tonight, he thought maybe he wants to be all alone inside his room instead of staying with John B. When he arrived at his house, he's so grateful that there's no presence of his father anywhere. He quickly brings himself right into his room, before he jumps on his bed
JJ can't get Hope off from his mind, the fact that she just bolted from the party really not helping at all. He thought maybe she would get mad at him, or at least shoved him for what he did to her brother.
He knows he was being stupid, he knows it and everybody keep reminds that to him
But he just wants to protect John B, Topper was about to drown him. And he wants to make Hope feels better, to stop the fight. The gun really not a good idea but it worked, for most part of it, of course. But that totally pissed a lot of people and that includes Hope.
He wants to apologize to her, he wants to make sure that she's fine, he wants to know if she's all good after she ran away from the party but he doesn't know how.
And maybe that would be a bad idea to confront Hope, she might hate him right now and wants to stay as far as away from him.
JJ knows that shouldn't bother him but it does. He's in desperate to see Hope now, to see how she's doing. But he doesn't know why, he doesn't have her number and neither of his friends. But, he knows where is she staying.
He quickly gets up from laying down, an idea creeping into his mind. Though he knows it probably be the worst one, but he can try and give it a shot. He wants to see Hope and he will.
Without wasting any times, he grabs his bag pack and his keys from the desk. Putting his shirt back on and slipping into his shoes before he runs out from his room right to his bike. And that is how he currently standing in a land of Kook, more specifically, a lawn of the Thorntons'.
He parked his bike couple block away from the house before he runs to here, looking up to the big mansion that belong to the rich ass family of a girl he can't get his mind off from. Most of the lights from the room already off, but the yard still glimmering with the outside post light. Helping him to see.
The problem is, he doesn't know which room is belong to Hope and he can't risk himself to just knock at any windows to see if it's Hope's or not.
That would busted his ass off, especially when he just hold one of them at a gun point. He rounded the house, stay as stealthy as he can without making any noise.
When he reached the backyard where the swimming pool placed, he caught a figure sitting at the edge of the pool with the legs half dipping into it.
He starts to find somewhere to hide himself but when he notices who's that is, he stops. It's Hope. He recognize the fiery strands of her red hair very well.
Suddenly, he feels all of his braveness start to falter and wants to turn away and run back to his room. Maybe he shouldn't do this, maybe he only makes everything worse than it already has.
Hope could get mad and hates him even more, she can report about his presence here to the cops and what he pulled at the beach and he'll be behind the bar no doubts.
But part of him convinces himself that Hope won't do that, maybe she would listen to him and let him talk to explain. Maybe she can forgive him and they can be friends after this.
JJ has enough with the monologue inside his head, he needs to see that girl and he will do it now.
After making sure there's no one there except Hope, he keeps striding toward her at the pool. Her back still facing him, the sounds of water splashing lowly made by the movement of her legs under the water.
She's humming some of her favourite song, letting the silence of the night drowning her own thought. She always do this, just hanging outside in the middle of the night.
It bring some sort of comfort to herself, especially if the day time was a stressful event for her. Night time always the time when she feels the comfort the most.
Hope heard something from her back but that's not enough to make her turn to look at it, probably just winds. Until she feels someone standing behind her and a voice muttering her name.
"Hope--" the familiar voice said and she looks up to see the person and she swears she almost fall right into the pool when she saw JJ Maybank standing behind her only couple inches away.
She blinks her eyes, afraid if she's seeing thing and her mind did some tricks on her but the boy still standing there.
"What the fuck! What the hell are you doing here?!" Hope squeals, she quickly gets up from the edge and facing the boy. She completely unaware that she's only wearing a crop top with a short, half of her body now revealing to the boy.
It's not like she never wears anything like this before but it's still inappropriate especially when this boy just show up out of nowhere.
"I know this looks crazy and it sounds crazy too but---I need to talk with you, can we talk?" JJ quickly said when he saw the panic expression on her. "And please don't yell or try to get cops here. I swear I'm not trying to hurt you or anything, I just want to talk"
"Why shouldn't I? Why would I believed you? You pointed a gun to my brother's head just hours ago!" Hope snapped but still control her tone, not trying to wake up anyone in her household.
"I know, okay. I'm sorry, I shouldn't do that" JJ admits, hold out his hands as gestures "But Topper was drowning John B and I had to do something"
"You can do a lot of things, JJ. Anything other than a gun" Hope said "You could hurt someone with that. I don't mean that only for my brother but to anyone. The safety was off and you actually shot two times after that" she starts to freak out at the thought of it.
She's not only concerned of what would happen to Topper, but to everyone else. Even to JJ. People might use it against him and he really can get hurt because of it.
"I know, I know. That's why I'm here, I want to apologize" JJ shudders, approaching the girl
"Apologize to me? why would you want to apologize to me? you didn't do anything to me"
JJ froze a little, she's right about it. Why would he wants to apologize to her when he barely touch the girl, not even slightest.
But he's not going to apologize to Topper, he thought the boy deserved what he did to him and he's not regretting it. But he feels like he owed Hope an apology.
"And are you seriously just get all the way from the Cut to here because you want to apologize to me? At this time? Do you know what time is it now, Maybank?" Hope continues when JJ didn't answer to her and just stand there, like he's losing his braincells or something.
"Uh---I don't know, do you?" JJ said making Hope almost yells at him
"It's 2 in the morning. You should be asleep, not pulling some shit like this" Hope added up, showing her wristwatch at him to show the time.
JJ eyes falls on her hand and reads the time but then he looks back to Hope. It doesn't matter what time is now, he can't sleep either way if he's not being here to talk to her.
"I just want to talk to you, okay? I want to know if you're okay"
"Why would you want to talk to me? why would you want to know if I'm okay?"
"I don't know!" JJ yells a little but he calms down when Hope startle at the sudden action "You just---you just bolted from the beach. And I feel guilty, I thought I scared you or something" he continues with the calm tone.
"Of course, I'm scared, JJ. You have a gun with you and you threatened us with that" Hope shrieks out.
"You scared of me?" he silently asked. He doesn't want her to be scare of him, he would never to hurt her. With or without purpose, he never really used the gun. He just found that and tonight was the first time he pulled that out, but he did that just to save John B.
Hope hesitates, she bites her lips and looking at JJ with mixed expression. She's not scared of him, she never did. She found him as a genuine person, despite of what people talking about his father.
Especially after their first conversations with each other at the Heyward's, she's been looking forward to see him again
But after tonight, after what she saw and what he's capable of doing. She's not so sure anymore if she should be scare of him or not. Hope doesn't know him, they just talked couple of times and barely a friend. She knows nothing about him.
JJ swears his heart almost drop when he saw the hesitant looks from Hope. She's not answering him but he can read it very well from her silence. She is scare of him.
"Please don't be scare of me" JJ said and taking couple steps closer to her but he stops when Hope backing away with every steps he took.
He takes a deep breath "Please don't be scare, I'm not trying to hurt you or anything" he starts to speak again.
"I'm not so sure about it, JJ" Hope shook her head, not convinced enough with that.
"I'm not! Look, whatever I did was stupid and I know it. Everyone told me that, my friends told me that" JJ trying again "But it was, it was a move to save my friend and I just did. I don't think and I just did"
Hope gives him a look. She don't understand why he looks so desperate to explain that to her, why he needs to get all the way from the Cuts to here for this.
Why should he care about it? It won't change anything if she's scared of him or even mad at him. It's not like they're seeing each other that much, they lives on different sides of the island.
"Why are you even care? We don't know each other, why are you even bother to come here and apologize?" Hope questioned, she can't help to shake the curiosity away.
JJ swallowing hard at the question, his eyes wildly gazing on her but he has no answer for that question. He doesn't even know what is he's doing here. He just did.
"I--I don't know" he replied, looking away from her.
"I don't want to talk about it, JJ. Not now. I think you should head home" Hope sighs, she walks away from the edge of the pool to grab her things from the lounge chair
"I will, okay, I will. But I need you to know that I'm not going to hurt you, okay? And I'm sorry for what happened, I'm sorry for--for puts the gun on Topper" JJ finally admitted, even though it took everything in him to say it.
Because he's not sorry for Topper, only for Hope. And if it's not because of her, he won't give a shit.
Hope looks at him
"Would you actually never use that again?" she asked.
And this time, it's JJ times to hesitate. He never really thinks about that because he barely owns the gun for 24 hours but he's so not sure if he's not going to use the gun if he has a chance. He gulped, licking his lower lips.
Hope pursed her lips at the silence, she knows the answer immediately.
"That's what I thought" she mutters it and smile a little "Go home, JJ. It's late now, go get some sleep" she urges, starts to walk away from the conversation and him. She thinks they had enough.
JJ sighing, dropping his head in defeat and running his fingers through his hair. Hope already starts to walk pass him to get into her house without saying anything, ignoring the frustration. She needs some time to think, maybe she should listen to her brother and everyone here.
Stay away from the Pogues, stay away from JJ. Maybe they were right about them, about him. Maybe that is what the Pogues did and she just learned it now, maybe they're not as good as she thinks all this time.
All the times Topper prevents her from the outside world really keeps her from knowing something like this but now she kinda understands why.
"Hey, JJ" but suddenly, Hope stops walking and turns back to him who is still standing at his previous spot. He doesn't look like he wants to move for any seconds. JJ looks up and glances to her, seeing she's stopping halfway from getting into her house.
"Yes?" he answered.
"Be careful, okay?" she mutters it, giving him a plain smile before she turns away and keep going. Though she's still has a mix feeling about what happened, she's still want him to get home safe without any accidents.
JJ face lights up a little, a smile tugging on his lips. How can a someone can be so sweet and kind like her? Even after what he did.
"Hey, Red" JJ calls out back to her forcing Hope to stop walking again, glancing at the boy who already moves from his previous spot. She raise her brows, waiting for him to speak.
"Don't ever change, okay? Remember that" he said and Hope smiles once again at the wise words from him that seems always out from his mouth for her, she nods her head at him.
JJ hides the smug smile, watching Hope getting into her house safely before he starts to walk out from the house.