"john b pullin' a houdini," jj said as he approached pope and looked around for riley. just as he was about to ask where the girl had gone, something else caught his eye. "speak of the devil - hey!" jj called and everyone followed his gaze to where john b was heading into the chateau with his head hung low.

"hey, john b-" kie called out after realizing that he wasn't stopping his fast strides towards the house. the three pogues walked quickly inside the chateau to follow their friend.

riley was considering leaving before she heard loud sounds radiate from inside the house. waiting only another minute or so in the backyard, riley heard yelling from the front and quickly ran over to see what was going on.

"ward knows about the gold," john b screamed, his voice hoarse. "and he killed my dad." the boy sped off quickly after that and riley snapped her head towards the direction of the others. jj was already looking at her, his brows knitted together and his lips in a tight line. she could see him swallow hard as they all stood their motionless, unsure of what their next move should be.

riley was extremely quiet the entire way that the pogues travelled to the cameron's house. she didn't even having the courage to glance over at jj; having a tightness in her chest while replaying his words over and over in her head. riley didn't know if she was only overthinking, but she couldn't stop herself from continuing to do so. riley had wanted to leave but considering everything going on with john b, she didn't want to cause anymore trouble.

it was dark by the time the group had parked the boat outside of the cameron's. "what now?" jj asked. "we just go up to the front door and ask, hey have you seen john b?"

"look he lives at tannyhill now. it's plausible," kiara shrugged, her hair blowing over her face due to the summer wind. "we can play dumb?"

"it's pretty late," pope said. riley knew he was anxious about the scholarship interview tomorrow; meanwhile she wished she could just forget about it all together.

suddenly pope gasped, peering threw the binoculars he held up to his eyes. "i see ward."

"let me see," kiara demanded, grabbing at the binoculars and pressing them to her face.

"doesn't look dead to me. let's go home," pope tried to reason with the teens.

"wait?"

"what?"

"uh.. okay. obviously mr cameron is fine, and even if john b was here, he isn't now," pope explained, growing increasingly frustrated. "plus, i have the biggest most important moment of my life in six hours. and so does she!" pope pointed at riley who sat on the bow picking at the skin around her nails, not even bothering to lift her her head up at his comment.

"okay, so that's it?" kiara snapped. "our friend is in trouble. in a time of need, you're just gonna bail? you're just gonna walk away?"

"okay, yo, guys, can we not do this right now?" jj huffed in distress, taking his hat off to run a hand through his hair.

"i have a scholarship interview in the morning," pope tried to plead with the girl.

"okay well what about john b?!"

"why is it always about john b?!" pope growled, taking a step closer to kiara.

the two continued to bicker, raising their voices as their words overlapped each other's. riley tuned them out, too focused on the fact that this was the last place she wanted to be right now; surrounded by people who couldn't give a shit about her. to her it seemed that lately, no one gave a shit about her anymore.

"hey! yo, cut it out, alright!" jj's booming voice caught riley's attention and she looked up to see him putting his body between kiara and pope. "if i'm the one mediating we've hit rock bottom."

jj directed the two to sit on opposite sides of the boat. luckily for riley, pope joined her while kiara sat in the other direction. "pope, i'll drop you off," jj said as he started the boat again.

jj dropped pope off and then made his way to the carrera's house. he began to take a notice that riley hadn't spoken a word yet; as a matter of fact, he began to realize she hadn't even looked at him in what felt like hours.

when the boy pulled up to the dock riley practically leaped out of the boat and ran up and into the house before he could even say a word.

"what the hell was that about?" he muttered to kiara who stood on the boat, confusion washed over her features as well. she just shrugged before following her sisters footsteps, annoyance still boiling within her after the fight that struck between her and pope.

jj watched the door close behind kiara once she had stepped into the house; but, he didn't drive away then. he let his gaze trail over to the balcony of riley's room.

the next minute he was standing on that balcony, peering through the glass doors to see the girl lying on her bed, her back faced to him. he knocked lightly in hopes of not scaring her but she still jumped at the small noise and stood up quickly from her bed.

"hey," he breathed out once she had opened the door for him.

"hi," she mumbled.

"is something wrong?" he asked.

"what?" was he really asking if something was wrong when he's the one at my door? she thought.

"you were pretty quiet on the boat and you ran off right when we got here," he said. "what's wrong?"

"oh uh, nothing," she said, conveniently mocking his words from earlier that day.

"i thought we could talk to each other now," jj said quietly. "i thought we were-"

"you thought that we were what jj?" she snapped. "because i thought some things too but apparently i was wrong." she didn't mean to snap at him but she couldn't help it after overthinking for the entire night.

"what are you talking about?"

riley just scoffed and turned around to walk back into her room. with the balcony door still open, jj walked right behind her with no intention of ending the conversation right then.

"riley, what's going on?" he pressed.

"jj, it's nothing. just-"

jj stopped in his spot, "did i do something?"

riley tried to take a deep breath but the only breath she could take was shaky. "fine. can i just ask you something?" she said and jj nodded for her to continue. "what are we, j?"

"oh," jj said, as if he was shocked that that was the question the girl wanted to ask. "i uh... i mean i guess we, you know... we talked about the friend with benefits thing..."

"that's what you want?" riley asked, her face saddening with each word she spoke.

"i- i just thought that's what we had agreed-"

"b-but last night i-" riley's voice cracked as she spoke. "you didn't think that meant anything?"

"i don't know..." jj trailed off, his head hung low.

"i-i'm sorry. i know that we agreed on the friends with benefits thing or whatever the hell we were. but last night changed how i felt and i just..." riley trailed off as she struggled to take even a shallow breath. "i just thought that you had felt the same too."

"like what? you have feelings for me?" jj said. riley wished he would've just stabbed her in the heart instead of saying those words like he had.

"are you serious? the things i told you last night i- i've never told anyone besides kiara! the things we talked about were fucking personal, jj!" riley cried.

"last night meant a lot to me too," jj managed to say calmly.

"but what? i'm still just some midnight fuck to you?" riley mumbled.

"no," jj shook his head. "no, no it's not like that. you're- i- i don't know what you want me to say."

"just forget about it jj," she turned her head to the side, quickly wiping at a tear that had escaped from her eye.

truly though, she had known what she wanted him to say. she wanted him to tell her that she wasn't just a midnight fuck, no, nothing like that. she wanted to hear him say that she was his midnight love.

but she supposed that was just unrealistic.