◜ 　　　　　                                                     ◝

𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗘𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧𝗬 𝗢𝗡𝗘
❝ hide the body ❞

◟ 　　　　　                                                      ◞

・・・・☆・・・・☆ ・・・・

The ride back to their home was filled with questions for Kyla, hyping up Kyla, and then complaints in general about the Kooks. It seemed like Alex and Rhi finally learned why they hated them so much, and they understood why Kyla punched one. But they had just never seen her act like that at college, so they weren't sure if she was actually okay or not.

John B then parked the Twinkie underneath the the big tree across from the house and they all started to get out. "Just every single time, like, every single time we see them, something goes wrong. Like, we can't do anything without them getting triggered," Kiara continued to complain after she had stopped crying halfway back to the house.

Normally, she would have been the one to punch Ruthie in the face instead of Kyla, but seeing the baby turtle dead pained her too much to even say a word.

"Kie, Kie, they're Kooks, okay? And besides, Kyla showed them not mess with us anymore," JJ assured her, sending his girlfriend a proud look. Although he was also a bit surprised by her actions, he had to admit he was proud of her for finally standing her ground after all the years she would let people walk over her.

Kyla shrugged. "I don't know about that. They always seem to just want to annoy shit out of us every chance they get."

"Yeah, like what Topper said to you when we were waiting for that wave. It was like he wanted you to get angry," Rhi pointed out and Alex nodded along.

JJ furrowed his brows. "What did Topper say to you?"

Kyla shook her head. "Don't worry, it's not important now anyway." Alex silently breathed a sigh of relief at that, not wanting JJ to know that Topper thought the two of them were dating. That would just make the blonde hate him even more for no reason.

"Hey," Kiara then called out when she saw Pope walking out of the house.

"Yo."

"Hi."

"How'd it go?" JJ asked Pope before he noticed blood on the boy's hands. "Pope..."

"What is that?" Kiara questioned as she stepped closer. "Is that blood? Pope, whose blood is that?" Kyla looked down at his hands, her eyes widening as she saw the scarlet blood.

"Pope, Pope." JJ stepped forward and grabbed Pope's hands. "Pope, what happened?" Pope just looked up at JJ, not saying anything, which made JJ grab his shoulders. "Pope, what happened?"

"Where's Cleo?" Sarah brought up in concern.

"She's-she's inside," was all Pope managed to say before all of them raced to get inside to find the girl.

When the teens entered the home, they all gasped in shock when they saw a man dead on the floor with a gunshot wound. "What the hell happened?" JJ questioned, his voice breathless.

"Cleo. Cleo, are you okay?" Sarah asked, going over to the girl but she had stayed silent and looked down at Terrance's body with tears in her eyes.

"Cleo...who is this?" Kyla slowly asked the girl after she processed the whole thing. "Did he try to hurt you?"

Cleo slowly shook her head. "No." She looked up at Kyla, sucking in a long breath before continuing, "He raised ever since I was young. He was the one to saved John B and Sarah when they were lost at sea. His name was Terrance."

Kyla's mouth parted in shock and she looked at the others, seeing their similar reactions. "We're...we're so sorry, Cleo," Kiara slowly told her, but Cleo just looked away, keeping her eyes focused on the dead man.

Kyla then felt a presence behind her. "Can we talk to you for a sec?" Alex whispered to her and she turned around, locking eyes with the taller boy with Rhi next to him.

"Um...right now?" She replied, seeing as though it wasn't the best time.

"Yeah. Right now," he said and she nodded slowly, taking a glance at JJ who seemed to have watched the interaction with narrowed eyes. She then looked away and followed Alex and Rhi into the other room so the others couldn't hear them. "You didn't think to tell us not to maybe come when you guys are literally in the middle of a war right now? I meant, that's-that's a fucking dead body, Ky."

"Look, I didn't know this was gonna happen. I thought we would maybe run a little treasure hunt and that would be that. And I also totally forgot you guys were coming," Kyla explained quietly.

"Wait, you actually forgot?" Rhi asked, her eyes turning sad.

"Rhi, that's not important right now when there's a literal dead body!" Alex exclaimed before Kyla quickly shushed him, not wanting to upset Cleo even more. He sighed, "All I'm saying is, do you think we should leave now before we end up getting killed next?"

"No, Alex, we can't leave! We're already involved. What if these guys track us down?" Rhi pointed out and Kyla looked in between the two siblings, not really know what the better option could be at that point.

"We're not the ones that were looking for the treasure!" Alex argued back.

All of sudden, Kiara walked in the room. "Guys, Shoupe's here," she told them.

"Oh, fuck," Kyla cursed, walking back into the room where everyone else was with the body.

"Who's Shoupe?" Rhi asked worriedly as she and Alex followed Kyla back into the room.

"The Sheriff," Kiara told her, pursing her lips.

"Oh, so we're fucked," Rhi assumed with a nod, looking at the girl with wide eyes.

"Yeah."

"Why is here? He's just sitting in his car," Kyla pointed out as JJ tried looking out the window without getting spotted.

"I don't know, I don't know," Sarah reiterated, shaking her head.

"This is why we should have left," Alex whispered through clenched teeth to Rhi and she gave the boy a look, signaling him that it wasn't the time.

The Pogues all kept muttering to themselves, not knowing what the hell to do. "We have a dead body in our living room. What are we gonna do?" Pope questioned aloud.

"Shit, Pope!"

"What do you mean, 'what are we gonna do?' We have to tell the truth," Kiara spoke up.

"Are you kidding me, Kie?" JJ said to her.

"We didn't do anything wrong. Someone broke into our house!" The younger Carrera girl pointed out.

"Kie, it's Shoupe," JJ tried to tell her.

Kiara continued, "And attacked us and stole from us!"

"He's never gonna believe us!"

"Okay, usually I'm for telling the truth, but even when I tried to do that with Shoupe with the whole Ward thing, he didn't believe me. He's definitely not gonna believe all of us now," Kyla explained, even though she wasn't all for the lying option either.

"What we need to do is get out of here. We need to banana split," JJ brought up.

"Go where? That never works," Kiara argued.

"Okay, I don't know, but it's better than staying here. Number one rule, never trust a cop. Especially that one. Okay?" JJ quickly said.

"What the fuck did you guys do that the cops hate you so much?" Alex questioned as they heard Shoupe yell for JJ outside.

JJ turned toward him angrily. "Why don't you shut up because the adults are talkin', all right?" He said to the ginger boy.

"JJ," Kyla warned.

"Okay, what the hell is your problem with me, dude? You've been taking jabs at me ever since I got here," Alex finally confronted the blonde boy.

"Alex, stop," Rhi tried through clenched teeth, not wanting a full on argument to happen when they already had enough to deal with.

"What's my problem? What's my problem?" JJ said, getting all up in his face.

"Yeah, what is it? 'Cause I didn't do shit to you," Alex pestered.

"JJ, get away from him right now. We can't deal with this," Kyla demanded frustratedly.

"My problem is that—"

"JJ, I said, enough!" Kyla whisper-shouted, stepping in between the two boys so an unnecessary fight wouldn't break out. "How about we all calm the fuck down right now so we all don't get arrested for some shit we didn't do, all right?" She said, looking in between the two guys that were glaring at each other.

"What the fuck is happening?" Kiara breathed out quietly.

"My brother and friend's boyfriend hate each other for no reason, that's what," Rhi answered and they both sent each other a tired look.

"John B, what do you wanna do?" Sarah spoke up after a few seconds.

"We did nothing wrong," Kiara repeated once more.

JJ went up to John B, placing his hands on the boy's shoulders. "Okay, I need you to make a decision right now. What's it gonna be? What do you wanna do?"

John B glanced between JJ and Terrance before he ultimately said, "Hide the body."

"Hide the bo— Hide the body, where?" Pope quickly inquired in shock.

"Hurry, shut ho, that's what we're doing, okay?" JJ quickly said, following John B's lead.

"Hide the body where?" Pope questioned again.

"Behind the couch," John B answered. "Hey, move the couch."

"Behind the couch?!" Both Pope and Alex exclaimed, thinking that this was never going to work and they would just be thrown in jail.

They all quickly tried grabbing the body to move him behind the couch while JJ went outside to stall. They ultimately found a skateboard to roll him over to the couch since dragging him would just smear more blood.

Sarah, Kyla, and Rhi grabbed towels and bleach to try wiping the blood off the floor, the both of them grimacing in disgust.

Alex, John B, and Kiara moved the couch so they could place Terrance's body behind it, trying to position him in a way where it wouldn't look suspicious. Meanwhile, Cleo made her way upstairs since she was in no condition to be lying to a cop.

"Bleach. We need more bleach," Pope said, pouring more bleach onto the floor as the girls kept on scrubbing.

"Wait, the gun, the gun. Pope, you have to do something with the gun," Kiara said as she picked up the gun off the floor, handing it to the Heyward boy.

"We'll get rid of it later. Just wipe the prints off." Pope quickly took a towel and wiped the gun before placing it in a drawer.

"Come on, come on, come on," Rhi urged as they were so close to getting done.

"Everyone act normal!" Kyla demanded once they were done scrubbing that portion, sitting down at the table with Rhi and Alex and pretending to tell them about different landmarks they should go see. John B and Pope sat down at the other table while Kiara plopped herself down on the beanbag chair.

Sarah quickly grabbed a magazine and laid down on the couch. "He's coming, he's coming, he's coming," Sarah noticed JJ coming back with Shoupe behind him. "John B, hurry. Sit down!"

"There's so much blood in the hallway," John B told her as he sprayed more bleach and wiped down the rest of the hallway.

"Oh, shit. What's up, y'all?" JJ said as he came inside, acting normal.

"Hi, Shoupe," Sarah pretended to act groggy, getting up from the couch.

"Hey. We were just hanging out," John B told the man.

"Yeah, yeah. Gang's all here, huh?" Shoupe pointed out before his eyes landed on the Craft siblings. "Who are you two?"

"Oh, they're my friends from college. They're visiting," Kyla told him, hoping that would make him less suspicious of whatever he was here to accuse them of.

"Uh-huh," Shoupe nodded. "So, uh, y'all too high to hear me knocking?"

"It's just, uh, it's just been a long day," Kiara answered.

"Hey, everybody mind clearing out for a minute and letting me to your boy and Kyla alone?" Shoupe asked and Kyla furrowed her brows.

The Pogues also looked at one another in confusion. "Uh, yeah, yeah. No problem, Shoupe."

"We'll just get out of your hair."

"We'll, uh, be outside."

"Yeah, yeah. We'll see you guys in a sec," JJ said as Kyla slowly rose from her seat, going over to her boyfriend.

"JJ, what's going on?" She whispered to him and he just shook his head.

Once the teens all filed out of the house, it was just Shoupe left with the couple. "Why don't y'all sit down over there?" He suggested, pointing at the couch.

JJ and Kyla glanced at each other knowingly before they sat down on the couch. "There's way too many damn pillows on here, man," JJ started to complain, throwing the pillows off the couch to hopefully cover Terrance's head that was poking out on the side. "Alright, uh, let's just make it which, you know? Ticktock."

"Let's," Shoupe agreed, sitting down on the table in front of them.

"Excuse me, but, what is this about, exactly?" Kyla slowly inquired, knowing that there was no way the police could know what have gone down here.

"A little, uh, at-home entertainment for you," Shoupe answered as he pulled out his phone and Kyla's brows furrowed. "Take a gander."

Shoupe showed Kyla and JJ his phone and a video of Kyla punching Ruthie was on it before JJ had said, "You come near her or any of us ever again, and I'll kill every single one of you."

"Shit," Kyla mouthed to herself, tilting her head to the side.

"That you two?" Shoupe asked even though he already knew the answer.

"A.I. has come a long way," JJ responded, scratching his face and Kyla just shut her eyes.

"A.I., huh?" Shoupe clicked his phone off. "Well, looks clear to me. Come on, guys. You're lucky Ruthie's parents aren't pressing charges for what you did, Kyla. They don't want the hassle since Ruthie's fine, just bruised." Kyla nodded slowly, looking away in embarrassment.

"Okay, Shoupe, like, they came at us with a truck, ran over a turtle hatch, nearly killed Ky and Kie, all right?" JJ explained.

"Kyla punched her, which is bad enough, but you said you were gonna kill 'em all," Shoupe detailed.

"Yeah, out of self-defense, all right?"

"Do you know how many parents were calling me? And then I get a report from the ER saying you guys vandalized a hyperbaric chamber. What is hell is that?" Shoupe questioned and Kyla pursed her lips together; forgetting that happened.

"Well, that was a huge misunderstanding because they kept us in there far too long, okay? We were cooked like a chicken, like, uh — There's the Improper Patient Care for a Patient Act, where it, like, protects me from—"

"Just stop. Stop. I don't want to charge you guys for this shit, but I'm gonna need you to help me on something. I'm...trying to put this together." Shoupe pulled a few photos out of his chest pocket. "Take a look at these. You know anything about him?" JJ shuffled through the photos as Kyla looked at them from next to him. "You never seen him around?"

"No," they both said. "No, seriously, I've never seen him in my life," JJ continued without Kyla before he handed the photos back to Shoupe, making some fall onto the ground.

The couple's eyes quickly widened and JJ reached down and tried picking up all the photos before Shoupe could so he wouldn't be able to see Terrance behind the couch. "It's good. I got it, I got it."

"All right. I appreciate it."

"Yeah, uh...is that it? You know, 'No further questions, Officer?'" JJ asked and Kyla got up from the couch, going over to where JJ was.

"Actually, come to think of it, there is something else." Shoupe got up and went over to them. "Listen, just between us...we're looking into the cause of death for Wes Genrette."

JJ and Kyla looked at one another. "For Wes?" JJ asked.

"Mm-hmm. So, what were y'all doing on Saturday night?" He asked and Kyla's eyebrows raised. Does he think we killed him? She thought.

"Seriously? Goddamn it, Shoupe."

"I gotta know."

"Okay, we were here. We were-we were here. We made a campfire, uh, fried a fish up, and then we put on some tunes, sang some-some songs," JJ told him. "And, uh, and that was it."

"Okay. And Kyla, you can corroborate this?" Shoupe asked the girl.

"100%, I was there, too," she nodded.

"Okay. Cooking up fish and singing songs?" Shoupe repeated for good measure.

"Yup. That was it."

"All right. That's all I need from you guys. For now."

"'Kay. Happy to help."

"Thanks. But listen, guys, you just gotta stay out of trouble for a minute. And keep being honest with me, all right?" Shoupe said before he left.

"Yes, sir."

"JJ, what the fuck was that? He thinks we killed Wes?" Kyla said, blinking rapidly.

"When does he ever think we didn't kill someone?" JJ pointed out before he looked outside, making sure Shoupe went back into his truck. "Okay, come on."

Kyla and JJ went outside to the cabana where the others had been sitting in. "What'd he say?" Sarah immediately asked them.

"What-what was he doing here?"

JJ made sure Shoupe had driven off before speaking, "We're good. Kind of."

"Man, did we find the body or not?" Pope cut to the chase.

"No, he did not find Terrance, okay?"

"What did he want to talk to you two and all of us" Sarah questioned.

"Because one of the Kooks recorded Kyla punching Ruthie and me saying, 'I'll kill you all' at the beach or whatever," JJ explained like it was no big deal.

"Oh, my god," they all groaned.

"Well, there's also the hyperbaric chamber," Kyla added.

"What did you do to the hyperbaric chamber?" Alex asked her.

"That doesn't matter. He didn't see Terrance. That's the main thing, okay?" JJ told them quickly. "There's something else, though. Shoupe thinks Genrette was murdered and it had something to do with us. But I told him we weren't anywhere near his place."

"And he believed you?" Kiara asked.

"About everything. I mean, Kie, look whose sellin', all right? He bought it." However, the others didn't look convinced.

"He did, guys. Trust me, I was there," Kyla told them, not noticing if Shoupe seemed suspicious in any way. But then again, that man never seemed to be on their side.

JJ looked at Pope, seeing he had put his head down. "Pope, he didn't see him. Nothing to worry about there. Hey, yo. Pope, you handled it, all right? We got it. We got nothing to worry about."

authors note!
couples who get in trouble
with the cops together, stay together!
(this is me trying to cope)