"MIDDLE OF NOWHERE," JJ MUTTERED. They had somehow managed to get the truck to a mechanic, and the blonde boy was complaining about the guy that was fixing their car, doing awful impressions of him. "Dude's in heaven right now. Gotta know the calibration point before you do anything with the intake valve, JJ. You do the—'"

"Hey, you okay?" the Callaway girl questioned, cutting him off when she noticed the pondering expression on the Carrera girl's face. He looked offended because of the interruption, but then he mouthed, 'Oh' when she gestured to the girl, causing him to realize what she was talking about. The curly-haired girl was still really bummed about how her parents reacted to her telling them that she was going to Charleston with the Pogues.

It was one thing to yell at her and say that she could not go, but Anna and Mike had told her that they were considering sending her to a boarding school. They tried to come up with good reasons for it, but everyone knew that it was to get her away for the bad influence of the Pogues. Bree could not blame them. They were a pretty bad influence. Now, Kiara's parents were going to murder all of them because they would have to drive back tomorrow. That is, if Mr. Heyward did not get to the kids first. He would be pretty pissed that they stole his truck as well.

Despite how much of a pain in the ass it seemed to be, the Callaway girl could not help but miss having someone to worry about where she was. Ever since her dad left, he mother had not really cared what she did as long as it did not lose them money or hurt their name, so even when she had a mom, it was more like just some random person that ate their food.

So, it made her just a little mad whenever their friend said things along the lines of it being easier without parents because it wasn't, really. Sure, it was easier to just skip school and go to Charleston, but it was not easier overall. Bree was homeless for fuck's sake. She was just staying wherever she could, so she was basically a squatter. Parents fed you and protected you, and now she just wandered around, hoping someone would offer her food because she had almost no money. She had the job at the Wreck, but she was not sure if she still had it because the Carreras kind of hated her at the moment for kidnapping their daughter. Plus, she not been at work for the past couple of days, and she always forgot to call to tell them that she would not be there. Moral of the story — having no one sucked. She would never voice her thoughts to her friend, though because she did not want to upset her.

Kie sighed, looking off into the distance as she thought and spoke. "My mom is so worried that I'm gonna be a Pogue that she's willing to send me to boarding school."

"Well, I guess that's what you get for hanging out with the wrong crowd, Kie," the Maybank boy told her with a shrug. He took a swig from the flask that he had brought with them which would not have been ideal if they had been found by a cop, but they weren't. So, Bree was grateful that he brought it.

"I mean, I'm not gonna go," the raven-haired girl assured them as the brunette girl reached her hand out to JJ, and he passed the flask to her while they listened to their friend. " It's too late anyway. I already am who I am."

The Callaway girl tried to smile comfortingly at her, and she reached over, grabbing the other girl's hand and rubbing it slightly. "Well, I love who you are."

"Thanks, B," the Carrera girl responded thankfully, shooting her a grin as her friend pulled away again.

"Ain't all that bad. Just look at that guy over there," JJ told them, pointing over to where the Heyward boy was talking to the mechanic about the truck. "He would do anything for us. That's a Pogue if I've ever seen one. Bone-deep." Kie just stared at the boy that loved her for a minute as he tried to get the mechanic to help them out. She smiled slightly as she watched him, and the Maybank boy grabbed the flask from the other girl and took another swig. "That's just one man's opinion, though."

They stayed silent for a moment until Pope called, "Kie!" He waved his hand, gesturing for her to come with him, probably to pay.

"Coming," she yelled back, sending her friends one last look before she climbed off her seat and jogged toward the building about ten yards away from them.

As soon as the door swung close behind them, Bree started giggling. She tried to cover it up with coughing, but it was not working. JJ furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at her. "What?"

"Nothing," she replied quickly, shaking her head.

He did not accept that answer, and curiosity was getting the better of him. "No, what?"

"It's just cute to see you play matchmaker," she told him with a small smile on her face.

"I'm not playing matchmaker," he insisted, shaking his head slightly do show her that he was denying what she just said. "I'm just trying to help my boy score."

Bree nodded slowly, and they both knew that she was not convinced. "Mhm. Sure."

"Don't think I just missed the fact that you just called me cute," he pointed out, quickly switching the topic from himself to her.

"I did not call you cute," she responded, rolling her eyes, but her cheeks were starting to turn pink, causing her to look away. It was dark, but the lights from the suto shop made it easy for him to see the color of her face. He was clueless, though, so he did not really notice it. "I called what you were doing cute."

He raised his eyebrows at her, coming up with a way to prove her wrong that did not really work. "So, if a puppy is doing something cute, then what the puppy is doing is cute, not the actual puppy?"

"That's a completely different situation," she responded.

He ran a hand through his hair as a smirk crept onto his lips. He leaned against the truck and brought the flask up to his mouth again. "I don't think it is."

"You can't compare yourself to a puppy," she told him, throwing her hands up in the air with a frustrated expression. She could not believe him. She was trying to talk about their friends, and he had turned it into a conversation about how cute he was.

He dropped the flask back into his pocket, and then he started listing things, counting on his fingers as he did so. "I'm cute, my hair is fluffy, I fall over a lot—"

"What are you talking about?" she asked with a confused expression because he was making absolutely no sense.

He answered with a sassy voice as if it were obvious, which just annoyed her even more. "I'm talking about how similar I am to a puppy."

"Puppies don't fall down a lot," she informed him, and by that point, they were both kind of yelling. She was really close to laughing though because she could not take the audition seriously. "They're not goats."

"Same difference," he responded, waving her off.

She shook her head slowly at that, running a hand through her hair in disbelief because at that point, he was just talking complete and utter nonsense. "But it's not."

Someone cleared their throat from beside them, and they both whipped around and realized that Pope and Kie were standing right there with very concerned and confused expression. Depending on how long they had been listening, they probably thought the duo was crazy, but they already knew that. So, it was not that big of a deal.

They were going to have to spend that night in the bed of the truck, and they were very lucky that it was a warm night or else they would be freezing their asses off. So, they all curled up in the vehicle, and it was very, very uncomfortable. Bree had stayed in worse, though. Her and JJ were laying side by side while the other two were laying perpendicular to them.

"Goodnight," Kie whispered to them, and she glanced at the blonde boy and brunette girl to make sure they were not watching. They were, but she did not notice it. So, she leaned over and kissed Pope on the cheek softly.

Bree and JJ's eye widened in shock and excitement, and their heads whipped toward each other. She mouthed, 'Did you see that?' He nodded almost aggresively, and they looked back to the other pair to see both of them smiling. The Maybank and the Callaway laughed silently, but they settled down after a second and got ready to go to sleep.

Her back was facing JJ, and she closed her eyes. She was slowly starting to drift to sleep when she felt lips on her cheek. Knowing that he was just trying to mock Kie and Pope, she got real dramatic over it. She exclaimed, "Ew!" He began chuckling at her as she wiped the kiss off her cheek and rubbed it on his shirt. The other two teenagers were glaring at them when they looked up. The Carrera girl groaned.

"Will you two just shut up and go to sleep?"