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𝐓𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 Francine was surprised would be an understatement, she was bewildered. It turns out that JJ might have actually taken up Pope's and Kiara's idea to be chill with Francine for the night. She thought that, at least. There was still a little voice in her mind telling her that it was fake and he was pretending the whole time. But even if he was faking it, she didn't mind, he wasn't being a dickhead, so it was a win for her. There was also that overenthusiastic voice in her mind telling her that he actually came to a realization that he was acting childish, but that was not realistic. JJ isn't the person to forgive that easily and come to his senses quickly. Then again, he might surprise her, but she still didn't think too hopefully.
He was talking to Francine and even did some friendly actions, something she never thought she'd get out of JJ, at all. She was sure that her eyeballs almost fell out of her head for how wide they went when JJ asked her if she wanted some of his popcorn. She was so shocked that for a solid few seconds she just sat there, staring at him, her mouth hanging open. She snapped out of it quickly and nodded.
It was like the boy had split personalities, and it really bothered Francine, JJ went from refusing to be anywhere close to her to asking her if she wanted some of his food, nicely. After that happened, she assumed that there was something going on with him. Pope must be paying him to do that, but no matter what negative thoughts ran through her mind, she ignored them, placing the little bit of hope she had left in her body on the fact that JJ might actually be genuine with everything he's doing without having any ulterior motives.
They were around an hour into the movie and Francine was already asleep. She wasn't that tired, but the movie was really shitty, so no one could blame her for falling asleep. She told Kiara that she refused to watch it and then a few minutes afterwards, she was almost snoring. The girl had forgotten to bring her phone to the movies, there was no reason to bring it anyways, the movie was supposed to be good and the cell towers were down anyways. Sure, she had her games, but she didn't think she would need to play them. So, without her piece of technology, the only way to make the movie pass fast was to sleep, and that's exactly what she did.
Within forty minutes of the movie playing, she had fallen asleep and at forty-five minutes her head had rolled slightly to the left and onto JJ's shoulder. She definitely wouldn't do that consciously, so at that point, her friends knew that the girl was one hundred percent asleep.
At first, JJ wanted to push her off his shoulder and wake her up, oh he really wanted to. But, then, he thought back to what Pope and Kiara had said and he wanted to at least try to be nice to the girl for the night. Maybe he'd get that same feeling he had when they were younger because, to be honest, some of his best memories were made with the girl who was asleep on his shoulder. Yet, his worst memory was caused by her.
The blonde barely moved, too scared that he might wake Francine up. Whenever he'd reach for his beer, he'd do it softly and slowly so he wouldn't move too much and wake her. These actions did not go unnoticed by the other two teens who would exchange grins and suggestive looks whenever the boy would check if the girl was still sleeping as he drank his beverage.
It wasn't until a few minutes later that Pope had the sudden urge to pee, he didn't want to bother the boy like he really didn't want to. That meant that he would disrupt whatever was happening while Francine was asleep on his shoulder. He tried to hold it as long as possible, but it was one of those times where 'when you gotta go, you gotta go' comes into place. Pope tapped the boy on the shoulder. "JJ," He whispered in a hushed tone, trying not to wake up the girl or attract the attention of Kiara.
"What?" JJ hissed, turning his head towards his friend with raised brows, an annoyed expression taking over his face.
"I gotta take a piss," Pope mumbled.
The blonde shook his head, glancing at Francine to see if she was still sleeping before raising his voice a little bit, but still whispering since other people were watching the movie. "Hold it."
Pope looked around the crowd nervously, hoping no one was paying attention to them, his leg began bouncing again, "I can't hold it, I drank too much soda."
"It's too exposed," JJ began, he glanced back at the bathrooms to see the three kook boys sitting in front of it watching the screen intently. "They'll totally see us."
"I gotta go," Pope pleaded, also looking behind to the bathrooms. He almost cried out in frustration when he saw the boys who he was planning on avoiding all night. "They're blocking the bathrooms."
"Jesus, can you guys shut up," Francine groaned in a whisper, she moved her head a little bit on JJ's shoulder, trying to get comfortable. This made the two boys turn their attention to the girl out of surprise. They definitely thought she was sleeping very soundly, she was basically snoring. JJ wasn't as surprised as Pope that she woke up, when they were younger and he would stay over at her house, she was never a heavy sleeper. That was in her own bed, so when she was on his shoulder in the middle of the park, the smallest noise would probably wake her up.
Francine was still half asleep when she took a deep breath, trying to get back asleep. She froze when the only thing she smiled was weed, cologne and the beach. That's when it hit her, she shot up from JJ's shoulder quickly with wide eyes, suddenly wide awake. She couldn't even begin to understand the fact that the blonde didn't push her off or wake her up when she accidentally rested her head on his shoulder. He just let her sleep. The girl was shocked.
"We have a problem, Fran," JJ spoke with a sarcastic smile, which she returned but then looked between the boys with furrowed brows. She didn't know what they got themselves into but she guessed it had to do with the kook boys who were always stirring up trouble. She didn't pick up much of their conversation while she was sleeping, only hearing that Pope drank soda. She wasn't conscious, so it was surprising that she heard any bit of what they were saying. JJ glanced around the park before focusing his attention back on Francine. "Pope here has to take a piss, and-"
As JJ spoke, Francine scanned around the area, her head going to the direction of the bathrooms, cutting him off, "And the three stooges are blocking the bathrooms, I see that."
JJ glanced around the park again, trying to find out a solution for Pope's problem, "Yeah, so if you have any idea on what we could do, that would be nice."
Francine rolled her eyes, an idea coming to mind immediately. She was surprised that Pope still hadn't thought of it, he was smart, and it was common sense. She crossed her arms and sighed, "Dude, you guys can just whip it out, go by the trees or something. Just go somewhere no one could see you."
JJ nodded and gestured his head for Pope to follow him, "Come here, I know where."
They got up and began to walk away, Kiara seemed to notice them because right when they stood, he moved her attention from the movie to the boys. "Hey, where y'all going?"
Francine pursed her lips as JJ shrugged as if he already had an answer, she had to learn how the boy got so good at acting. "We gotta wring it out."
The boys turned again, so they could leave and get back to their seats as soon as possible, but Kiara furrowed her brows and still wouldn't let them go, "You gonna hold it for each other?"
The boys ignored their suspicious friend and walked away. Francine couldn't help but let out a small laugh at Kiara's question, she was sassy, but the other girl was a whole other level. The same as Sarah, the blonde could whip up a comeback quicker than Rafe can make up an excuse for his money suddenly disappearing, totally not caused by his coke addiction.
Her loud snort caused a few scattered eyes to shoot her way. Francine sunk further into her lawn chair and turned to Kiara, trying to get the girl's attention to stray away from the boys and where they walked off to. She'd get too suspicious if she saw that they didn't even go to the bathrooms and will definitely ask questions. She had to do it, even if it meant sacrificing herself in the conversation. Pope and JJ better thank her later, "Why the hell didn't you wake me up?"
Kiara sent a smirk Francine's way, and raised her eyebrows suggestively, "I would've but JJ insisted that we let you sleep."
"Fucking liar," Francine hissed, a disbelieving tone in her voice. She couldn't help the grin that formed on her lips, and the hopeful feeling that rose in her stomach, for some reason. Probably because JJ might've actually tried to be nice, to her. She hit Kiara's shoulder to distract the girl so she couldn't see the smile on her face. "Do you know how weird it was to wake up like that? I can't stand to be around the dude."
Kiara shook her head and smiled sarcastically, "No, you can't stand to be around him when he's an asshole, now, he's not."
"Yeah, for tonight-" Francine muttered, jumping when a gunshot went off in the movie. That seemed to happen often, she was surprised she didn't wake up before, she was a light sleeper. "- then-then, he's gonna go back to acting the way he actually feels."
The girl rolled her eyes, crossing her arms as she hummed, "And how is that?"
"What, Kie?" Francine asked incredulously, wondering why Kiara even bothered wasting her breath on this question when the answer is clear. "He hates me."
Kiara scoffed, "No, you see, this is where you're wrong, you're both the same. You want to hate each other, JJ doesn't actually hate you, he was just hurt so bad that he basically forces himself to hate you. I know, don't doubt me, hun."
"Yeah whatever," Francine muttered in a sarcastic tone, receiving a raised brow afterwards from her friend.
"Okay, so if he doesn't actually hate you, then why didn't he wake you up earlier, hmm? Tell me, I'd like to know."
Francine didn't answer her, in fact, she wasn't even paying attention for most of the time that the girl was speaking. Instead, her attention was focused solely on the human-shaped shadows that looked like they were in a brawl behind the movie screen. They were faint, barely noticeable, the only reason she saw it was because she could see the faint silhouette of their legs at the bottom of the screen that the projector missed.
Francine furrowed her eyebrows as she narrowed her eyes to focus on where she saw the people, double-checking, in case she was only seeing things. She glanced quickly to where Pope and JJ disappeared and found they were gone awfully long, Pope must've really had to go. Then realization struck her, the girl quickly spun around to see Topper, Rafe, and Kelce's seats were empty.
"Shit," Francine whispered to herself, knowing exactly who was in a fight behind the movie screen.
The girl looked to her left at Kiara, who looked like she spotted the people behind the screen too. Francine only hoped that no one else thought anything of it, they probably wouldn't do anything anyway, kooks like to ignore things that seem problematic. Kiara tapped her shoulder, "Baby, do you see that?"
"It's the boys, grab JJ's bag," Francine whispered quickly, not glancing back at her friend as she stood up from her seat. She ran behind the screen, wanting to get to the boys before the kooks do too much damage. Kiara followed behind her, the girl more confused than ever, wondering how Francine knew it was the boys. She grabbed JJ's bag like she was told, she was worried.
As they were running, Francine hoped that she didn't need to take the gun out on anyone. She didn't know how to use it, but she saw how much damage only two of the kooks could do to Pope when he didn't do anything to wrong them, so when he sunk Topper's boat, she was afraid that they might really hurt him. So, if saving him meant she had to use a gun to scare the kooks away, she would.
Kiara and Francine were behind the screen quickly and were immediately met with the violent scene of the five boys fighting. Rafe and Kelce were taking turns hitting JJ. Two on one, low blow, Francine thought as she watched Rafe repeatedly punch the blonde boy in the face. Then, off to the side were Topper and Pope, who seemed to be in worse shape than JJ.
Kiara ran to Pope right away, raising the blonde pogue's backpack over her head and bringing it down onto Topper's back repeatedly. "Let go of him, Topper! Fascist asshole!"
After seeing that Pope already had his backup, Francine knew that she was the unfortunate one who had to save JJ. Why couldn't this be a normal night? She didn't think much about it, thinking that if she got involved sooner, the better. The girl only hoped that the fighting skills John B taught her in middle school were still intact. Francine ran to Rafe and jumped on his back, wrapping herself tightly around him so he'd get distracted.
"What the hell?" He yelled as Francine started leaning backwards, pulling him back so he'd lose his footing and fall down. It didn't seem like her plan was working though, Rafe didn't move very much. The girl wasn't surprised though, he was built like a tree, very tall and bulky.
Rafe's hands stopped beating JJ and moved to Francine's forearms as she tightened her grip around his neck, cutting off his airway. He tried to yank her off of him but she held on with all of her strength.
The older boy's distraction caused JJ to break free of Kelce's grip and fight back, quickly gaining the upper hand.
Francine couldn't hold onto Rafe for much longer, he was too strong for her, which sucked, but what did she expect, he was like three times her size. The kook suddenly peeled her arms off his neck and pulled her off him. She landed on her back roughly, a sharp pain ran up her back, but instead of staying on the grass, she stood up quickly and looked around. She'd deal with her pain later.
Rafe was now taking Kiara off Topper, she seemed to have the same idea as Francine, jumping on his back. He threw the younger girl on the ground almost as hard as Francine, but still being kind of gentle with her. JJ seemed to have the upper hand with Kelce, so the girl wasn't worried about him. Kiara yelled as she hit the ground but when the other girl began to approach her, she shook her head and gestured for her to help Pope instead.
Topper had the other boy in a chokehold, speaking to him harshly, "Come on, man. Just admit it! Admit you did it, bitch!"
Francine's eyes caught Kiara as she slowly crawled towards JJ's bag. She quickly averted her attention to Topper and Pope, running towards them. The girl reeled her fist back and punched the blonde right in the cheek, "Chokeholds illegal, asshole!"
After her hit, Topper loosened his grip on Pope, just enough for the boy to get away. The kook's face scrunched up in pain while Francine hissed at the throbbing in her hand, she hoped she never had to do that again. Topper's look soon went away though, his grimace turning into a smirk as his eyes caught sight of something behind Francine. She furrowed her brows but turned around quickly, bringing her fist back in case it wasn't one of her friends. As soon as she faced them, she punched them. The girl smiled because as soon as she turned around she had heard a low groan, coming from none other than Rafe Cameron. He grabbed his nose with a grimace, while Francine shook her hand as it began hurting even more than before, "Damn!"
Rafe quickly recovered from her hit, coming after Francine again, but since she had punched him, he was still stumbling a little bit. JJ took that as an advantage, he came behind the boy and kicked the back of his knees, making him lose his balance and fall on the ground.
Topper was yelling at Pope again after he put the boy in another chokehold, but before Francine could do anything, orange light from the movie screen caught her attention.
It was on fire.
The flames grew quickly and Francine could hear the people who were watching the movie yell, out of surprise.
Rafe got up fast and was currently grabbing Topper off of Pope but Kelce suddenly had a hold on JJ. "Get off of him!" Kiara yelled at them.
Francine ran to Kelce and grabbed his arms, trying to pry them off of JJ, "Kelce, let go of JJ!"
The kook immediately let go of the blonde boy, pushing him towards Francine with force, making both of them fall onto the ground. JJ landed on top of the girl, both of them groaning from the impact, not really registering what position they were in.
Francine opened her eyes, feeling the weight of his body on her, she tapped his shoulder over and over again, hoping to get his attention, "Get off me, you elephant."
"Just let me breathe for a second," JJ mumbled, he had himself held up with his arms as he hovered over her, his eyes closed. Francine was able to see his face and- well, you could barely see it. A layer of blood was coating it along with bruises and cuts.
"Dude, someone's gonna see us, come on" She pushed him off her and then helped him to his feet.
He raised an eyebrow, "Where are we going?"
Francine shrugged, "Home, but you need to be quiet, if my mom finds out I'm sneaking a pogue in, she won't be happy."
He nodded, knowing that if he came home looking like that, his father would be angry and there would most likely be more bruises to decorate his face afterwards.
While JJ and Francine were running off, Kiara ran to Pope asking if he was okay.
"You're a freakin' idiot," Pope coughed out, shaking his head.
"I saved your ass, come on," Kiara laughed as she put Pope's arm over her shoulder.
He stopped walking though, "What about the other two?"
"They'll figure it out," Kiara smirked as she glanced back at Francine and JJ, the boy was limping and the other girl had his arm wrapped around her shoulder as they walked away.
Pope laughed at her response as they fled the scene along with the other two, each pair going separate ways for the night.
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Word Count: 3308