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𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗳𝘁𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗿: 𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗹𝘆

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꒰  𝘁𝘄: 𝘀𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗻𝘀𝗳𝘄  ꒱

The Pogues had taken the Twinkie back to the Château so they couldn't be bombarded with anymore Kooks. Turns out their night of relaxation also turned to shit for them and they didn't make any headways on fighting out what the Island Room was.

What was new at this point?

Cassie's knuckles had ached from punching Kelce and she sat down on JJ's bed since she had used it to sleep yesterday, going through John B's medical kit to get the supplies to clean her wound. As she dabbed the cotton round that had rubbing alcohol on it, she winced since it burned.

JJ walked past the room, seeing her inside on his bed trying to clean up her hand but it looked like she was having trouble. He looked over his shoulder, checking to make sure no one was there before he went inside and shut the door behind him.

She looked up once she heard the door shut, seeing the towhead blonde. "JJ?" She spoke up.

"Let me help you," he said as he sat down next to her, taking the medical kit out of her lap.

She started to shake her head. "Oh, no, come on. It's fine."

JJ gave her a look. "You helped me that one time. It's time I return the favor," he said sternly and she released a sigh, placing the used cotton round aside so he could get a new one.

He poured some rubbing alcohol on the new cotton round before he dabbed it on her knuckle, making her groan quietly. "You good?"

"Yeah. Just hurts. Hopefully that means there's a bruise left on Kelce, though," she smirked a bit, thinking about how pissed it would make Kelce to have to wake up in the morning and see the black eye left by the Blake girl.

She wished she could have been a fly on the wall to see that happen.

"Oh, there definitely is. That right hook was mean," he complimented and she laughed, her cheeks reddening a bit from the compliment. She wasn't used to it. "Remind me not to get on your bad side."

"JJ, you've already been on my bad side."

"Oh, right."

"Dipshit."

"Blondie."

"Hey!" She lightly punched his arm with her free hand and he held his head back, cackling like an idiot. "I guess even with what we established before, we're still gonna argue."

"Oh, yeah, I count on that," JJ nodded once he finished laughing and she breathlessly chuckled. "So, actually...about before..." He trailed off, getting a bit nervous with the thought of it.

"About before..." She repeated, tilting her head to the side.

"You like me. I like you. What are we doin' about it?" He inquired.

Cassie thought about it. She honestly had no idea what she wanted. At the beginning of the summer and that year even, she hated the boy. Wanted nothing to do with him. But now, he was all she could think about and even when she claimed she didn't want to be around him, she still always gravitated toward him.

Nonetheless, she knew she didn't want to jump into anything too fast, especially not when they were still dealing with this stupid treasure hunt. And she also didn't know how any of this worked, so she didn't want to mess up.

Cassie caught JJ staring at her as she thought, watching the way his eyes searched her face with an admiring look she hadn't noticed before behind his eyes. Had he always looked at her like that?

She glanced away, getting a bit nervous under his gaze. "What if we just...take things slow. Don't put a label on it so there's no pressure," she suggested with a little shrug.

JJ began to nod at that. He never really had a real girlfriend either, only hookups, so the no label thing worked fine for him for now. He wouldn't be pressured to act a "boyfriend" since he didn't know how to be one. "Yeah. That works. I'm cool with that."

"And also...I don't think we should tell the others," she slowly brought up.

JJ furrowed his brows. "Why?"

"It's just...I mean, you know how they are. They're gonna want to know everything and I really don't feel like explaining how we got here," she told him truthfully, gesturing between the both of them. "And I also just don't wanna jinx anything. I mean, you see Pope and Kie, and Sarah and John B right now, right?"

"True. That's true," JJ had to agree. "So, we just don't tell them?"

"For now. Until we decide what we wanna do, I think that's our best option," she said with a few nods.

"Okay. Yeah. We can sneak around." He then paused for a moment, catching himself looking her up and down as she sat in front of him. "That's kinda hot, actually," he said, his voice deepening a bit. "Kinda turned on by the thought of that."

"Oh, shut up," she rolled her eyes at him although a blush had creeped its way onto her cheeks.

"Oh, I'm serious," JJ said as he put down the cotton round, making her catch his eyes that displayed some sort of hunger. "The thought of sneaking around with you and only the two of us knowing about what we do behind closed doors," he gestured to the closed door, "is really fuckin' hot."

Cassie glanced at the door and then back at JJ as she thought about it in her mind. Well, as she thought about him and all the dreams that she had about him, and he wasn't wrong...it was fucking hot.

"I think you're fucking really hot," she blurted out breathlessly, but she didn't regret it as she moved herself closer to him.

JJ let out a low laugh, moving closer to her on the bed as well. "Oh, I know. You couldn't stop calling me pretty that one time you were drunk."

She shrugged cutely. "Well, I wasn't lying."

"I know that now." He looked her up and down again. "And I think you're pretty fuckin' hot too."

They stared into each other's eyes for a few more moments before JJ decided to close the gap between them, their lips touching for the second time to make them even guiltier than they were before.

Cassie brought her hand up behind his head, running her fingers through his soft, blonde hair. She then felt herself start to lean back onto the bed, taking him with her as their lips stayed connected. Suddenly, JJ decided to move his lips away from her mouth and onto her cheek...and then onto her jaw...and then onto her neck where he began to suck.

She let out a gasp mixed a moan due to the surprise of it and the way he had already nipped at a sensitive area. This made JJ bring his palm up to her mouth, covering it which made her brows raise at the action. He took his lips away from her neck, looking down at her as he kept her mouth covered.

"Shh, they could be right outside. You wanna keep this a secret, right?" He said in a gruff voice and she nodded immediately, causing him to remove his hand and to trace his thumb along her bottom lip before he kissed her lips once more.

She felt the way his hand traveled down her body, just like he had done in the dream she had a month or two ago. They had already done this in her head, but now it was real.

She couldn't believe that she was actually doing this. That she was doing this with JJ Maybank, someone she used to hate. And now, she was kissing him. Again!

It felt so surreal.

She brought her legs up, setting them loosely around his torso as they kept making out. JJ's hand maneuvered down her body and under her blue top as he kept kissing her, his tongue sliding into her mouth to connect with her's. Her heart rate picked up even more, feeling the way his hand felt on ribs, to her chest, to her breast. It just felt so right. Not like it had felt with Rafe.

Rafe.

Suddenly, she began to think about Rafe, how he was nothing like JJ when it came to this part. He had acted so fast, not even waiting for a buildup before he fucked her. He just wanted her lustfully whereas JJ...she could tell JJ was different. He was slow, gentle. Rafe was anything but that.

With the thought of Rafe, how she had hooked up with a coke-addicted murderer who was now free because his father took the blame for him, her heart had started to hammer in her chest and not in a good way.

She set her legs down and pulled her lips away from his, voicing, "JJ..."

"Hey, I told you to call me J—" He took his hand out from underneath her shirt, seeing the look on her face. "Wait, are you okay?" She started to shake her head and JJ immediately got off of her, his brows furrowed. "What happened? Is it something I did?"

"No, no," she said quickly as she moved her back up from the bed. "I just...God, this is gonna sound so bad," she breathed out, rubbing her face with her hand.

"It's okay. You can tell me," he said to her gently and she looked over at him, seeing the genuine look on his face. There was no impatient or angry look to it at all.

She swallowed hard. "I started...thinking about Rafe. How he treated me during..." She trailed off, not wanting to say it out loud. "And now he's a murderer and then I remembered I hooked up with a murderer and I-I started to panic, I'm sorry, it's stupid."

JJ looked at her in concern. "No, no. It's not stupid. How did he treat you?"

"I mean, it wasn't anything bad. It just felt like...it just felt like he only wanted to fuck me. Like I wasn't a human. Just some object only made for sex," she told him and JJ looked away, releasing an angered breath at the thought. "I also told him...I also told him I was virgin which I wasn't," she admitted and JJ looked back over at her. "Kie was the only one who knew I wasn't. So when I told Rafe I was, he seemed...really happy about it. He even made it seem like I was 'all his' because of it."

"I swear to God, I'm gonna fucking kill him," JJ seethed as his fists clenched.

"Don't worry, I want to, too," she said. "But I-I just panicked before because, well, you were touching me and I just thought back to it. I'm sorry."

"Cass, don't apologize for that. You have nothing to be sorry for," he assured her and she stared into his comforting eyes, a soft smile making its way up to her lips. "Like you said, we're taking things slow. We don't gotta rush into anything if you don't want to."

Even though that was the bare minimum, she couldn't help but adore the fact that he respected her. Like she was a human, and not just some object.

"Thank you," she said before she wrapped her arms around him, giving him a hug which he reciprocated.

Somehow, having him hold her like this felt so much different than the other times. Maybe it was because they had established they both liked each other and wanted to do more about it, but it just felt even holier than all the other times before.

And she never wanted to let go.

Suddenly, a knock sounded at the door and the were forced to let go as their eyes widened. "Uh, uh, grab the bandage!" She whisper-shouted to him and he quickly grabbed it, although he wasn't sure what he wanted her to do.

She forced his hand to help wrap the bandage around her knuckles and he got the memo as he started to wrap it before she said, "Come in!"

Pope opened the door before he arched a brow, not expecting to see Cassie and JJ in the same room and it hadn't exploded yet. "What are you guys doing?"

"Oh, I punched Kelce and the skin ripped so I was trying to clean it up. I couldn't wrap the bandage myself and JJ was the closest one to ask so..." She explained, hoping he bought it. It seemed believable enough.

"Oh. Okay. Well, we set up a bonfire outside to roast some marshmallows if you guys wanna join," Pope told them as he pointed over his shoulder with his thumb.

"Yeah, that'd be great," JJ was quick to say, sharing a quick look with Cassie before he finished wrapping her hand up. "As good as new. Though I was hoping your face would be kinda messed up too," he insulted with a wink with his right eye so Pope couldn't see.

She knew what he was doing. Trying to show they were still at each other's throats so the others wouldn't get suspicious. "Well, don't worry, you already got that covered," she shot back before he patted him on the shoulder, getting up.

"Can't even help each other for one second, jeez," Pope muttered as he rolled his eyes, walking out of John B's house. Cassie looked over her shoulder at JJ, giggling quietly since their plan had worked before the two of them followed Pope out.

"Hey! Where were you?" Kiara called out as she saw Cassie walk over with Pope and JJ, sitting down around the fire.

"I punched Kelce and my knuckles got fucked, so I was trying to clean it up," she told the girl as Kiara handed her a metal roasting stick. "I'm hoping Kelce at least has a black eye or something."

"I've had more black eyes in the last month than I've ever had," Pope commented, causing them to chuckle softly.

"That was building up for years. Rumble in the jungle," JJ rhymed before he burnt himself on a marshmallow, making Cassie snort at him. He sent her a look, but she just shrugged innocently which only made him smile and roll his eyes playfully.

"Hey, did you guys really stick up for Sarah?" John B asked Kiara and Cassie.

"Of course we did," Kiara answered, chewing on her enchilada that she bought on the way back to the Château. "She's not a real Kook."

"And we're friends now," Cassie added, although she wasn't exactly sure what Sarah was doing with Topper.

He had saved Sarah from Rafe, but that didn't mean she should be parading around with him now that her and John B were not together. All she knew that if Sarah actually cheated on John B, she didn't think she could consider Sarah a friend anymore.

"Right," John B muttered, looking down.

"Yeah, tell that to Topper," Pope said as JJ waved his burnt hand around to try to make the pain dissipate.

"Blow on it," Cassie suggested.

"You wanna blow on my what?"

Her eyes widened warningly. "Blow on your finger," she hissed, glancing over at the others who were giving them weird looks. "Blondes, am I right?" She forced a laugh.

"You're blonde," Pope deadpanned.

"Exactly!" She grinned forcefully and they all looked each other before shrugging, biting into their s'mores. She glowered at JJ, which made the boy also shrug and hold his hand out before he blew on his finger to get rid of the pain. She rolled her eyes at his antics.

John B stared at them skeptically before he grabbed Kiara's hand that held the enchilada. "I just want one bite. That...Mmm."

"What are you doing? No! Stop!" Kiara exclaimed, pulling her hand away which caused her to accidentally throw the enchilada on the ground.

"You're not having any of mine," JJ told him.

"I thought you were gonna share," John B said with his mouth full.

"I spent the last of my money on that," Kiara complained, shaking her head.

"Sixteen years in most federal prisons," John B voiced as he bent down to pick up the enchilada that fell.

"Well...I'm stealing your marshmallow," Kiara countered as she picked up the roasting stick that had his marshmallow on it and began to eat it.

"I believe that's a...not even a fair trade," Pope stated.

"It's not at all. Not even close," Kiara laughed.

"Steal his s'more too for extra measure," Cassie piped up and Kiara pointed at her, thinking that it was a great idea.

"Hey, hey," John B whispered before he shushed them, causing them to look over at him. "Somebody's here."

"You don't think that Topper would..." Kiara trailed off as she set the roasting stick down.

"I wouldn't put it past him," JJ said before they all began to stand up, following John B's gaze to look into the distance that was darkened due to the night sky.

"Do you have your gun?" Kiara asked the Maybank boy.

"Oh, now she wants the gun," JJ replied in annoyance, gesturing over at Kiara.

"Oh, now you don't have the gun?"

"No!"

Pope tried shushing them, but to no avail.

"Isn't that your 'secret' weapon?" Kiara retorted in frustration as she made air quotations.

JJ tried arguing back, but John B demanded, "Shut up," which caused them to stop.

"Oh, so now they shut up," Pope muttered in annoyance.

"Goddamn, now she wants the gun," JJ went on quietly to himself.

"JJ, just drop it," Cassie told him with a wide-eyed look and he pursed his lips, fiddling with the metal stick in his hand.

"Hey, who's out there?" John B called out.

"You Kooks better not try anything!" Kiara warned, but her voice wavered.

"Who's there?" JJ said as he held up the roasting stick in his hand as if it were a weapon.

"What are you gonna do? Roast 'em like a marshmallow?" Cassie retorted.

"If I had to," JJ replied seriously and she sighed.

Suddenly, Renfield appeared from behind some bushes with his hands held up to show he was unarmed. "How y'all doing?" He asked arrogantly.

"I swear to God..." Cassie trailed off, her nostrils flaring in frustration.

"It's this piece of shit," Pope muttered angrily.

"You gotta be kidding me," JJ breathed out.

"Lovely evening we're having," he noted as he continued to walk toward them. "Look, I, uh...I don't hold a grudge with any of y'all, all right?" He patted his jacket and pants to further show he had had no weapons. "But this can go hard," he spun around, "or this can go easy. You know what I'm here for."

"We don't, actually," Cassie deadpanned, crossing her arms.

Renfield looked at her with narrowed eyes before he smirked. "Let me give you a little demonstration. You see that swing, right there?" He pointed at the swing next to them that hung from the tree. "I got the best bow hunters in the Army Rangers with me," he told them.

"Yeah?" JJ hummed, not believing it as he placed his hand around the rope to the swing.

"Hidden."

Renfield whistled and an arrow flew out, cutting through the other rope on the swing and hitting the tree branch that was right next to all of their heads.

Silent but deadly.

Cassie swallowed hard before she instinctively pulled JJ away from the swing and from Renfield, not knowing what other tricks this guy had up his sleeve.

"Now, they're out there. They'll stick you just as soon as I say so," he continued as he began walking closer to Pope. JJ pulled away from Cassie and started to make his way up behind him to try and hit him before Renfield whistled, another arrow flying out and landing right next to JJ's foot. "Nuh-uh-uh. We clear?"

"JJ," Cassie urged from behind him since he was still holding the metal stick up. She didn't want him to get hurt for no reason because there really was no way out of this.

JJ stared at Renfield as the latter pushed his arm down, turning back to Pope. JJ released a sigh, taking a small step back as he glanced over at Cassie who looked worried. He sucked in his lip before he turned back to Pope and Renfield, seething.

"Now, I'm not gonna give you a countdown or any bullshit like that. I'm just gonna whistle," Renfield revealed and all the Pogues stayed silent, just staring at the man fearfully.

Pope stared at the man's face before he reached into his pocket and pulled out the real key, going to hand it to Renfield before he breathed out, "No." His grip on it tightened, trying to protect it.

"Oh," Renfield drawled darkly.

"This key belongs to my family," the Heyward boy said slowly and sternly.

Renfield let out a mock laugh. "I'm losing my patience with you, Pope," he warned before he went to go whistle.

That made Pope finally hand the key over.

Cassie wanted to knock out Renfield right then and there, but she knew she couldn't. Not with those silent but deadly archers that were probably aiming right at her head.

"Did the right thing, kid. Knowing when you don't have a choice is an under-appreciated talent. You be safe," Renfield pointed at him before he turned to JJ. "Easy there," he mocked before he began to walk off. "Y'all have a good night."

Pope began to breathe heavily and the Pogues all turned to him, their spirits crushed.

"I am so sick of this shit."

authors note!
yall im still not used to writing scenes
like that even though this wasn't even
bad 😰 but im older now than i was
when i first wrote my other obx book so i
thought id give it a shot (i still cringe
every time i write it tho but it doesnt
hurt to try lol 😁) also next chapter
is like hella long, i just didn't wanna
split it up into two chapters so im
warning you now lmaoo also the
no label thing is gonna come back
up in the future, either in a bad or
good way im not saying hehe 😜