CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
HERE COMES THE SUN — THE BEATLES
Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
UNLIKE HER FRIENDS, Stella had always loved the first day of school. After the long break that the summer provided, she often found herself mentally under-stimulated. Her thirst for knowledge was adequately quenched as teachers went through the syllabus and discussed the summer readings she had finished back in July, and she loved catching up with the friends she hadn't seen over the break.
She should've been excited for this year. After everything that had happened, her mother thought it would be best to transfer her from Kildare Preparatory Academy to the public school the boys attended.
(Emma knew that her grades were high enough to get into any college she pleased without the help of private school recommendation letters and that the young girl would need her friends if she was going to face the rumours surrounding John B being a killer.)
She should've been excited by the fact that Kie had also convinced her parents to let her transfer or that she'd be with her friends, but as the curly-haired Pogue pulled into the student parking lot, all Stella could feel was dread.
"If I black out, just don't remind me," JJ said, pushing the door of Kie's SUV open. He waited for Stella to get out before shutting it.
Kie shook her head and looped her arm with the golden girl's. "That's not funny."
When they looked up, they saw that everyone in the front yard of the school was staring at them, watching them with curious eyes and whispering under their breaths.
"It's them."
"I wasn't sure they'd show up."
Stella's hand found the other and she twirled the ring on her finger, her eyes nervously flickering from group to group before she clenched her jaw.
"Heard they got arrested."
"That wouldn't surprise me."
She could feel everyone's stare burning into her skin. They treated her like some lowly specimen under the microscope of scrutiny and she despised the way it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand.
"Think they have something to do with it?"
"They had to."
Beside her, Kie spoke up. "I feel like people are staring at us," she deadpanned, looking around at the small field.
"Yeah, no shit," Stella muttered. She let out a small huff and turned on her heel to face the groups of people that shamelessly gawked at them. "If you guys wanted an interview, all you had to do was ask," she said loudly, causing people to look away from the embarrassment of being caught. "Maybe take a picture? It'll last longer!"
Kie tugged on her arm, forcing her to turn around again. "Draw more attention to us, will you?" She snapped, knowing how Stella's attitude had gone unchecked for the past two weeks.
"I don't know," Stella drawled lazily, her head lolling to the side as she carelessly shrugged and glanced around, "they look like they're looking away to me."
From Kie's other side, Pope started advancing towards the building. "Guys, I can't be late," he stated, fixing the bag on his shoulder. He turned to leave again, but Kie reached out to him with her free hand.
"Hey, we gotta stick together." She and Pope intertwined their fingers then looked over to the former couple with an expectant expression.
Stella looked over at JJ, only to find that he was already staring at her. Her gaze dropped as he put his hand out for her to take.
A fluttery feeling erupted in her stomach, but she couldn't tell if they were nerves surrounding the rumours or because she was making contact with JJ again.
A part of her hated how hesitant she was to touch him. If it were three weeks ago, she wouldn't have thought twice about it. Even throughout their entire friendship, they would always be touching somehow. It shouldn't have been a big deal to take his hand, but after the explosive episode held between them, it almost felt foreign.
Swallowing her nerves, she lifted her hand and wrapped it around his bicep instead.
"Stick together," JJ breathed out, hyper-fixated on the way Stella gripped his arm through his shirt. "Yeah."
Pope and Kie shared a knowing look before stepping forward and guiding the other two into the building.
The day was spent avoiding questions and preventing fights as rumours flew through the air and JJ's temper got the better of him. Somehow, word had gotten around that JJ and Stella—a pair that many people thought were already dating before the start of the summer—had broken up and that simple fact mixed with the speculation of their involvement in Peterkin's death made the day seem longer than it actually was.
Just before their lunch break, the remaining Pogues found themselves sitting in history class. JJ sat in the back, struggling to stay awake; Pope sat at the very front, scribbling notes down like the star student he was; and Stella and Kie sat in the second row, listening with half an ear and passing a post-it note of hangman back and forth.
"...And the slave becomes the new ruler. Now, Diocletian splits the sprawling Roman Empire..."
The sound of a phone vibrating cut through Mr. Sunn's lecture and all heads turned to the source. Stella sunk in her seat as multiple sets of eyes studied her and she slid her phone from the table into her lap.
Just as she looked down at the screen and saw the notification of a text from an unknown number, three more phones went off.
"Whose phone was that?" Mr. Sunn questioned, turning to the class with a raised brow. "Nobody?" He was met with silence and clicked his tongue. "You will be tested. Now, to recap, who was Diocletian? An ex-slave who became the ruler of the Roman Empire. His reign began..."
Kie tossed her eraser at Stella, causing the girl to look up. The curly-haired Pogue wore a look of confusion and held up her phone, showing her that she had received the same notification.
JJ left his seat, crouching as he made his way across the room and settled in the space between Kie and Stella's desks. "Did you get it?" He questioned quietly, reaching over to tap Pope's back.
The four Pogues were careful not to attract their teacher's attention and put their phones side by side. Together, they opened the group conversation. What they found caused their hearts to fall from their chests and onto the floor below them.
"Oh my God," Kie breathed, her eyes wide as her gaze flickered between her friends.
Staring back at them was a picture of John B and Sarah Cameron smiling in the golden glow of a sunset.
"Is this..." Stella's hands started to shake and the phone slipped from her grasp, falling to the floor with a loud thud. The sound caused more of their classmates to look over at her, but this time, she was too shocked to feel embarrassed about it.
JJ glared at them, knowing that Stella wouldn't want the additional attention on her right now, and grabbed her phone from the ground. He placed it on her lap, then swiped her books from her desk, shoving them into the bag that leaned against the leg of her chair. When her table was cleared, he took her elbow and prompted her to stand up. The feel of his skin on hers snapped her back to reality and when their eyes met, he nodded towards the door.
Stella grabbed her bag from his waiting hands and slung it over her shoulder just as their teacher turned to face the class again. "Sir, can— Can I be excused?" She asked, already heading towards the door with JJ's hand on the small of her back. "I have, uh... lady problems."
The former couple didn't wait for a response before running out of the room.
Kie copied their actions, standing from her chair with a nod. "Family emergency."
Pope looked between his friends and his teacher, panicking due to the choice of priority he'd have to make. Raising his hand, he asked, "Um, can I be excused to help them in the bathroom?"
When the four Pogues left the room, their classmates shared a number of odd looks. It wouldn't be until the annual bonfire that they'd find out the entire school thought their hasty exit was a result of Stella's doctor confirming that she was pregnant with JJ's baby—a rumour that made them all laugh.
"What're you thinkin', Stel?" JJ asked as he and Stella rushed down the hall. His eyes stayed on her the entire time.
She took her phone out and studied the picture with furrowed brows. "I don't know."
"You think it's them?"
"I don't know, JJ."
"Is there anything you do know?" he pressed further, scratching his temple with a look of discontent. "Considering you're the smart one and all, you're supposed to know everything!"
"Not if it involves our best friend coming back from the dead!" She snapped, sending him a glare before turning back to her phone. "The papers I've read on zombie ants probably don't apply to this situation so if you could just give me space to think, that would be great."
At the mention of space, the blond opened his mouth to make a retort but was cut short when he tripped over a bucket and fell.
Kie and Pope caught up to them moments later, choosing not to say anything about the boy on the ground or the strained look on Stella's face. When JJ was back on his feet, they ran to the closest exit.
"I mean, is that even possible?" Kie asked, pushing the door open to the courtyard and walking down the steps. "Shoupe said that they didn't make it. He said that."
"They were presumed lost at sea," Stella pointed out, sitting on top of a picnic table and setting her bag down. "That doesn't necessarily mean dead, right?" She glanced at JJ as he passed her and furrowed her brows at the way he was anxiously rubbing at his chest.
At her questioning look, he gave her a dismissive wave of his hand. It was nothing but a new habit he had picked up to cope with his ever growing stress.
Pope took an apprehensive breath. "Okay, but I... I think we're overreacting," he confessed, "'cause we can't rule out the possibility that this could all be some kind of weird, cruel hoax."
"I'm just gonna ask," Kie decided with a shrug before typing away on her phone and sitting beside Stella.
JJ leaned against the wall of the school and ran a hand through his hair. "What if it's actually him, though?" Hope was a dangerous thing, barely a strategy and sometimes too good to be true. But after everything he had lost in the past two weeks, he needed to believe that the universe still had some good left in it.
Stella shook her head and slid off the table to stand next to him. "It has to be," she asserted, showing him the picture again. "Look at his bracelet. Look familiar?"
There was a sharp intake of breath as the other teens looked from the picture to the identical threaded bracelets tied to their own wrists.
"I gave that to him right before he left on the Phantom. He wouldn't be wearing it if this was a prank. It has to be him."
A skeptical expression remained on Pope's face as he twisted the bracelet in question. "I don't know, okay? I don't know."
Their phones buzzed again.
Is JJ there?
Stella and JJ shared a look before he typed back, I'm here B.
Did you pimp out my short board yet?
And just like that, doubt was wiped away from their minds. Only the group would know about the inside joke he was referring to. When they were hiding John B from the cops the day after Peterkin's death, JJ had teased the boy saying that if he went to jail, he would charge people five dollars to ride a criminal's surf board. Only John B would know the significance of a simple question.
"It's him," JJ confirmed with a relieved chuckle, tears of happiness prickling in the corners of his eyes.
"It's him."
"It's definitely him."
"Oh my god." A weight lifted from Stella's shoulders and for the first time in weeks, she had felt something other than pain and sadness. She felt like she could finally breathe again.
As the warmth of hope spread across her skin and tears of relief came to her eyes, the bad habit she had of thinking everything would work out for the rag-tag group of six only shifted from fantasy to reality.
Against all odds, John B and Sarah were alive.
They were smiling, and breathing, and alive.
Stella turned to JJ with a wide smile, not caring that there was still so much to fix between them. Because for as long as she could remember, he had always been the first person she looked for—in a crowd, in a room, at a party. It was almost instinctual. He was the first person she wanted to share anything with and this moment, despite their broken state, was no exception.
He matched her expression and threw his arms around her, pulling her in and holding her tight before lifting her off her feet and spinning her around. "Yeah!" He shouted in victory, placing her back on the ground. Soft laughter fell from his lips as he buried his head into the space between her shoulder and neck and he soaked in the melody that followed when she laughed along with him.
Tears splashed over his shoulder and the pounding of Stella's heart could be felt under his touch. When the pair pulled away from each other, their eyes met and they realized just how close their faces were. If they were still together, this would've been the part where they share a celebratory kiss and rejoice in the luxury of good fortune. But they weren't together, so they didn't kiss. Instead, they awkwardly let go of each other and turned away, moving to hug their other friends. Stella hugged Pope, and JJ hugged Kie, and then they switched.
Their phones buzzed again, and Kie read the message aloud. "Laying super low in Nassau. How the hell did they get to the Bahamas?"
JJ sat on the table and shook his head in disbelief. "You can't kill a Pogue, dude."
"Especially John B," Pope nodded in agreement.
Stella chuckled. "Survival instincts of a cockroach," she mused. Her phone vibrated in her hand. "Can you clear my name? Wanna come home."
JJ laughed before typing an answer. "Hell, yeah, we'll clear your name, boy."
"Be in touch. P4L."
"P4L, man." JJ stood on the table he sat upon and screamed into the sky. "That's what I'm talking about! P-4-FUCKING-L, BABY!"
The others shook their heads with fond smiles and pulled each other in for a group hug.
"Holy shit," Kie breathed out as JJ jumped to the ground and joined the embrace.
Stella chuckled at her dazed expression and nodded in agreement. "My heart's racing, dude, feel it," she said, removing her arm from Pope's shoulder.
Kie reached over and placed a hand above her heart. "Oh, shit! It is!" she exclaimed, prompting Pope to do the same.
Not wanting to feel left out and using any excuse to touch Stella, JJ placed his hand over her heart and let out a surprised, oh damn! He didn't say anything when her heart rate started to quicken under his palm.
When Stella lifted her gaze, their eyes met again. His lips curled and she gave him a quizzical look, but he didn't glance away. He just let out a soft chuckle and shook his head, giving her that same smile she loved so much.
RAE SPEAKS !
stella still has some anger towards jj, but she can't resist him and we can't blame her for that, anyways..
me resisting the urge to have jj and stella make up already: