"Bird.." Melia tries to yell, but it just comes out as a whisper, she knows she needs to just let him cool off.
"Look, I've got a plan. You two coming or what?" He asks, stepping back over to the water.
"Four hundred MILLION, JJ. How much do you owe in restitution?" JB says, watching the blonde boy finally give in and wander over.
"I need to go to Kie's, get ready for midsummers." Melia says awkwardly, biting her lip. "I'm sorry guys, I'll catch up with you after."
And they part their ways.
///////////////////////////
Melia had pretty much ran off to Kie's house, blowing off some steam. Now she was lying face first on the brunette's bed.
"They were non-stop yelling at each other- Scrap yelling, screaming at one another! I was two seconds from tearing all my fucking hair out." Melia complains, turning her head so she could see her best friend getting ready.
"God, they can be so annoying sometimes. I cannot live with two boys - can I not just move in here with you? We would be such a power duo. Oh my god, we could get married and have two little chihuahua-"
"Mills- Girl, slow down." Kie laughs, going and sitting down next to her. "I know you're stressed and tryna cover it up, but my head is going to explode in a minute."
Melia sighs and sits up, laying her head on Kie's shoulder. "You know me way too well."
"Well, duh. You're my girlfriend." Kie jokes, rolling her eyes. "No but seriously, Mills, what is going on with you and JJ?" She asks, looking down seriously at the blonde girl.
"You two almost kissed?! You always have been touchy but at the moment? You're inseparable. I'm surprised you even made it here without him."
Melia bites her lip, sitting up from the girls shoulder and leaning her back against the headboard.
"...I don't.. know." She says, shrugging.
Kie stares at her nonchalantly, furrowing her eyebrows.
"Anyways, where is the dress you said would suit me?" Melia asks with a grin.
"Uh, no honey. I'm not just having an 'I don't know' as an answer, I need more than that." Kie purses her lips.
Emilia groans, knowing she wasn't doing anything before telling Kie how she feels.
"I.. I really don't know, Kie. I guess, I sort of get butterflies around him sometimes.. It's just- It's easier to talk to him than most people. I always feel safe around him, y'know? It's just-" She pauses, taking a deep breath in.
"Since everything that happened with Rafe.." She says, staring down at her burnt hand. "I don't know if I'm ready.. Plus- He might not even like me back-"
"So you do like him?" Kie asks with a grin.
Melia opens her mouth to defend herself, but it quickly closes once again. She nods, feeling defeated.
"Mills, you really can't let what happened with Rafe stop you from being happy. JJ would never be like that, you know that most of all people." Kie explains, grabbing Melia's hand.
"I know you're scared, but it'll be okay. I'm like- 99.8765124% sure that he likes you back anyway- So don't worry about that." She says with a laugh.
Melia nods once again, biting her lip.
"Anyways, we need to get ready- make ourselves look hot as fuck. Maybe something will happen between you two, tonight?" Kie says, smiling mischievously.
—————————————————
"Ok no, this is disgusting." Melia says, scrunching up her face in disgust as she looks into the mirror at herself. She was wearing a matching dress to Kie, yet rather than lilac hers was champagne coloured.
"I look like a dirty poor girl who got invited to a fancy event by her rich best friend- wait that's true... Uhm- Bad analogy." She shrugs, earning a laugh from Kiara's mother.
"I know, it's just horrible isn't it girls. I'm asking you two to relax and go to a fun party!" Her mom quips, playfully rolling her eyes.
"We look like bourgeoisie pigs." Kie purses her lips, looking at her mom.
"Would you please just, not worry about socioeconomic injustice for ONE night?" Anna asks, rubbing her forehead.
"Mom, people not three miles from here have no power, no running water, and we're going to Midsummers? One of those people is literally with us!" Kiara yells, walking over to her mother.
Melia plays with her necklace uncomfortably, knowing she probably just set off an argument between the two.
"Honey, do you know how hard we had to work to get into the Island Club? Can you not be grateful we are bringing one of your pogue friends in with us, it'll ruin our reputation but we are doing it for you." Her mother says firmly, pushing her earrings into her ears.
"I- I can leave?" Melia pipes up.
"Yeah, Mom. How could I forget how hard you worked? You had to grovel for, like, ten years-" Kiara mocks, rolling her eyes.
"Twelve, and we also had to cough up a huge chunk of dough, and do you know WHY we did that?" Anna yells from the hall.
"To keep up with the Joneses?" Melia quietly jokes, trying to lighten the mood.
"So that you could have the same experiences that I had as a child." Anna says, looking at her daughter.
"Honey, do you know what the Island Club is?" She asks, walking up to Kiara.
"A factory farm for debutantes." Kiara snaps back, rolling her eyes once again.
"It is a nice place, with nice people, where you can do fun stuff!" She says, cupping her daughters cheeks.
"With out-of-touch rich people, that are half the reason I just spent an hour trying to cover up my best friends bruises?" Kiara asks, furrowing her eyebrows.
"Okay, I want you to put on your party face, Kie, if you wanna live." Her mother yells, walking out of the room.
Kie sighs angrily and plops back down into her bed next to Melia.
"Well... That was fun!" Melia says cautiously, smiling softly.
—————————————————
"Excuse me sir, do we have to shuck these ourselves?" Melia asks Pope in the most possibly WORST english accent in the world.
Her and Kiara's family all arrived to midsummers together and Melia ran off to try find one of the pogues, Kie stayed to avoid her mother getting even more angry with her.
Pope internally groans, turning around expecting to see some rich woman - not his best friend.
"Cause you know.. It might mess up my costume." Melia says with a laugh, seeing a smile grow on Pope's face.
"No we wouldn't want that now, would we?" Pope smiles, walking up to her and doing their classic handshake.
"That accent was terrible." He notes.
"Yeah it was... I'm never doing that shit ever again." She laughs, tucking the front pieces that were out of her messy bun behind her ears.
"You ever seen this many Kooks in one place?" Melia asks, looking out towards them all.
"Yeah." Pope shrugs. "Last year."
"We're in the lion's den.." Melia sighs, shaking her head.
"Exactly." He says, looking off into the distance, he was clearly hesitating asking something.
"Uhm, Melia?" He says, looking at the short girl.
"Yeah?" She asks, smiling softly.
"Have you heard anything from JJ?" He asks, a guilty look in his eye.
"Uhm, yeah.. He's okay- He's with my brother. He isn't mad at you Pope. He's pretty- beat, but that isn't your fault, alright?" She says, looking up at the boy sympathetically.
"It's all my fault." Pope says, shaking his head.
"You didn't do this, Pope. Topper and Rafe almost killed us, remember?" She says, looking sadly at the boy.
The two were cut off by a bunch of clapping coming from the crowds, they look up to see the Cameron's entering.
"Here comes Lord Capital and the Exploiters!" Melia claps her hands with sarcastic excitement, earning a chuckle from Pope.
"Rose is gonna poke somebody's eye out with that wannabe headpiece she is wearing.." Pope says, shaking his head.
—————————————————
Long story short, Melia had gotten fed up of all the Kook shit and needed air, so she was sat down by the beach infront of the Midsummers set up - and that was when she saw the HMS pull up.
"Ready?" She hears JJ ask her brother.
She stands up excitedly, jogging over to the two boys, lifting her dress up as to not get it dirty - it wasn't hers after all.
"Guys!" She calls out, waving and finally slowing down once she caught up to them.
"Oh, Emi- Hey!" Her brother says, smiling at the girl, before he looked down at her outfit and broke out laughing.
"Em- That is nothing like you-" He says between laughter.
The girl glares at the brunette boy, flicking his forehead angrily. "It's not like I wanted to wear it!" She yells - before looking over to JJ.
JJ - The JJ that was simply staring at her in pure shock, a soft blush coating his cheeks and had the prettiest suit on that made him look incredible.
"I- Lia. You- You look- Uhm." He tries to say, shaking his head and looking away. "You look amazing." He finally says, smiling softly at the girl.
"Not so bad yourself.." She says, a nervous giggle escaping her lips.
"Uh guys? I'm still here?" John B says, standing between the two - who quickly nod and brush off whatever the fuck just happened.
"So, what was the plan again?" JJ asked, fiddling with his tux.
"Okay, look, I need you to get this to Sarah." John B says, passing the note to the blonde boy.
"Sarah?" Melia asks, furrowing her eyebrows.
"Ooh- Can I read it?" JJ asks, grinning.
"Yeah, I wanna read it!" Melia adds, moaning about how she was out of the loop.
"No, you two can't read it." He says, carrying on walking towards the venue.
Melia walks beside JJ, looking at the note as he opens it up.
"Who the fuck is Vlad?" She asks with a laugh.
"God, do you two ever listen?!" JB groans, shaking his head.
"Hold on-" Melia says.
"Are you mackin' Sarah Cameron?" JJ asks at the same time, face portraying pure shock.
"Would you shut up?!" He yells.
"You're macking Sarah Cameron?!" Melia yells, slightly hurt, slightly confused on how on earth her ugly brother had managed to pull her.
"Would you two shut up?! I'm doing it for everybody, all right?" He says, very unconvincingly.
Melia shakes her head, laughing emptily. JJ wraps an arm around her waist and walks ahead of John B.
"What?" JB calls out.
"Nothing!" JJ yells back.
"Thanks for being a team player, big bro." Melia says, shrugging.
"So just give it to Sarah." John B says, watching as Melia adjusts the boys tie slightly.
"Vlad... Really?" He pokes fun of John B, laughing quietly. He swings his backpack off his back and pulls out his one and only - gun.
"Are you kidding me?" John B says, shaking his head.
"No, I am not kidding you." JJ shrugs.
"If you get caught, you're going to jail! Again! I'm not dealing with Emi crying over you being sent to jail twice." John B snaps.
"Uhm? That never happened-" Melia says, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.
"Fine- But if I get ambushed, it's on you."
JJ says, placing the gun away once again and dropping the bag outside.
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AUTHORS NOTE: hey guys 😝
i know this is a sort of weird ending for a chapter but i have mega ideas for the next two? maybe three chapters!! so i wanted to break it up before any of it happened so i have a lot of space to write without the chapter being like a million words.
TYSM FOR 2.5K READS YALL ARE INSANE?!?!
love u and see u in the next chap! 💕