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𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗳𝘁𝘆: 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸

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The four Pogues sat underneath the roof of the outside area of the John B's house. Kiara had been strumming a ukulele, Pope had been trying to fix a mini fan, JJ had been waxing his board, and Cassie had been braiding her hair.

After the events of last night, they all needed a break. Although Pope seemed to find Denmark's key that Limbrey had been talking about, Cassie and JJ had been in no mood for celebration.

Not when they tried busting the wrong guy out of jail.

The only one that hadn't been with them was Sarah. According to Kiara and Pope, she went to go meet Wheezie somewhere and never came back. Cassie hoped that meant she was just getting a good statement down from her sister and not anything else.

"That's a lot of wax on your board, man. Put too much wax, it's gonna be slippery," Pope warned JJ.

JJ paused in annoyance and looked over at him. "Are you telling me how to wax my board, Pope?"

"No, I was just saying, that's a lot of wax."

"No, no, no, you're telling me how to wax my board. Are you kidding me?" JJ took offense.

"I'm just saying, that's a colossal waste of wax," Pope pointed out a matter-of-factly with a shrug.

"Guys, really?" Kiara cut in before they could get into a stupid fight over wax of all things.

"If y'all don't shut up, I'm gonna wax your eyebrows off," Cassie threatened and the boys gave her a petrified look since she most definitely wasn't bluffing. She sent them a sarcastic smile and they both looked away.

Suddenly, a car honked.

"Did you hear that?" JJ asked no one in particular before the car honked again.

They looked over to see none other than John B Routledge pull up in the Twinkie, making all their eyes widen. "Are you serious?!" Kiara squealed.

"John B?" Cassie gasped, sharing an excited look with Kiara.

"Hold on, hold on. Am I dreaming right now?" JJ questioned.

John B got out of the car, practically skipping over to them with a beaming smile. "Guess who's out of the clink, boy!"

"No freaking way, man!" Pope exclaimed as they ran over to him, enveloping him in a much needed hug. "Bro!" He laughed.

"My boy's out of the can!" JJ cheered with their arms all wrapped around each other.

"I can't believe it!" Cassie exclaimed with a large smile.

"Come on, man."

"We missed you."

"I guess I missed you guys too," he said before he laughed, pulling apart from them.

"You guess?" Cassie gave him a feigned offended look.

John B pretended to think about for a moment. "Okay, I did," he let up and they all laughed happily.

"How'd you do it? You bust out?" JJ asked interestedly.

"Uh, they dropped the charges," the Routledge boy told them and their eyes all widened again.

"They dropped the charges," Pope repeated as he and JJ shared a stunned look.

"Dude, that's phenomenal," Kiara lightly punched his arm.

"Does that mean they're looking for Rafe and Ward now?" Cassie inquired and John B nodded at that. "Holy shit."

"Wait, what about your mom?" Pope pointed out.

"John B was in there for killing Peterkin. Unless they look into my dad or Gavin...she wouldn't be a part of their search," Cassie guessed although she really hoped her mother would be roped into it. She wanted to go back home to just sleep in her own bed and wear her own clothes since she hadn't been there in days, but she couldn't with her mother there.

"Yeah, they only mentioned Rafe and Ward to me. But once they look into everything, I'm sure your mom's name will come up," John B added.

"Good," Cassie breathed out, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Wait, so you're telling me we did all that work for nothing?" JJ questioned as he pointed between himself and Cassie, referring to last night.

"Oh, the most elaborate escape plan of all time?" Pope mocked.

"It was almost foolproof if they didn't give us the wrong guy," Cassie contended.

"Oh. 'Foolproof,'" Kiara made air quotations and Cassie gave her an annoyed nudge.

"Yeah, it was, actually," JJ tried to argue.

"Wait, where's Sarah?" John B realized and they all paused, looking at one another. "No, no, no. Where-where-where's Sarah?"

Kiara sucked in a breath, shaking her head. "She went to go meet Wheezie last night. She didn't come back," she revealed and suddenly, all of John B's high spirits had been crushed just like that.

Another reason why romantic love terrified the Blake girl: your partner was always on your mind and if they didn't show up, that's all you could think about. It was painful.

The five of them decided to make their way over to the dock and sit down in the Pogue for some relaxation time even though John B was still worrying about Sarah.

Cassie had been sitting next to Kiara where the two of them had been silently texting one another. Kiara had yet to tell Cassie what had happened with Pope even though she was severely itching to. She just didn't have the time since they were caught up in a bunch of shit until now, when they were finally relaxing.

Kiki
So
Pope took me to the break
We made a bonfire
And then we...hooked up

Cece
Hooked up as in made out or sex?

Kiki
What do you think?

Cece
Girl IDFK it's Pope
He might be a freak but not that type of freak

Kiki
Oh my god
I'm gonna kill you
We had sex, bitch

"Holy shit!" Cassie accidentally exclaimed as she read the text, making Kiara send her a warning glare from next to her.

Pope and JJ turned their heads toward the girls, giving them a weird look. "What happened?" Pope asked.

"Cece got sent a dick pic from this guy she's talking to," Kiara lied easily since Cassie accidentally decided to make the boys turn their attention to them when Kiara did not want that happening.

Cassie's eyes widened at her before she glanced at JJ, who looked like he was about to murder somebody with the way his jaw had clenched and his nostrils flared.

"Uh, no, she's joking. I'm not talking to any guys right now. No guys. No roster. I am totally independent right now. No men," she rambled, and Kiara and Pope both gave her a weird look.

She glanced back over at JJ, whose face had relaxed a bit at that confirmation. Cassie then cleared her throat. "I just...saw something crazy on my Insta feed, that's all," she lied further for Kiara's sake.

"Oh," Pope and JJ both said, sharing a look.

"So, Sarah just dips and doesn't call?" John B questioned as he walked over to them on the dock, thankfully changing the topic of conversation.

"Yeah, man. She just left her bag. Didn't tell anybody," Pope told him.

"Okay, dude, I-I-I really think Ward got to her. I mean, the dude tried to have me killed in jail," he revealed and they all turned to look at him in surprise.

"What?" Kiara said.

"The fuck?" Cassie blurted out.

"Yeah. He sent somebody to the prison who yoked me up and almost killed me," John B detailed, holding his hands up to his neck.

"You serious?" Kiara prodded.

"Yes!"

"Do we know who this dude was?" JJ quizzed, probably planning a thousand different ways to kidnap and kill him in his head.

"No, I have no idea. Dude, I swear to God, one day I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch," John B muttered as he plopped himself down on the Pogue.

"Can I join?" Cassie asked.

"You'd be the first I'd call."

"Aw, thank you, JB."

"It's okay," Kiara suddenly said to John B.

"No, Kie, it's not okay. We gotta find Sarah."

Kiara pointed past him. "No, literally, it's okay. She's right there."

They all turned to see Topper riding up in his new Malibu with Sarah sitting inside. Once she saw them, she got up and called out, "John B? John B!"

"What the hell is she doing with Topper?" Kiara whispered.

"Oh, hell no," Cassie muttered.

Topper pulled his larger boat next to the Pogue, allowing Sarah to climb out and immediately go toward John B. "Hi," John B greeted.

"Hey!" Sarah laughed happily before she wrapped her arms around the boy, engulfing him in a hug.

"Oh, my God. I'm so glad you're okay. Hi," John B breathed out as he rocked back and forth on his feet while he hugged his girlfriend.

"I didn't know if I'd ever see you again," Sarah admitted before she pulled away. "What happened?"

"Uh, they dropped all the charges," John B answered.

Sarah smiled in disbelief. "What?"

"Yeah, no, yeah. I'm a free man. Yeah," John B confirmed with a few nods.

Sarah went in for another hug. "That's amazing."

"No, I know. It's great, but...But listen, Sarah, they're coming after Rafe," he told the Cameron girl.

"Good. He's completely unhinged. He jumped me last night," Sarah revealed.

"What?" Kiara said, bewildered.

Cassie's blood began to boil. "Are you serious?"

"That's why I didn't come back," Sarah continued as she shielded her eyes from the sun, and Cassie and Kiara both shared an angered look.

That boy was going to get what was coming to him soon, but they wished it could be even sooner.

"Yeah, man. Rafe has lost his mind. Literally almost drowned his own sister," Topper spoke up, making everyone look at him. "Thankfully I got there...got there just in time."

"Yeah, he did," Sarah confirmed.

"Uh, well, I guess I owe you one, Topper, don't I?" John B pointed out although it was obvious he really didn't want to.

Why would he want to owe him when the guy tried drowning him and pushed him off of the Hawks Nest? Apparently, Topper helped John B and Sarah escape from the church, which the Pogues only just found out recently, before they fled the Outer Banks. But one good deed couldn't outweigh the rest.

Topper laughed. "It's all good. I mean, somebody had to rescue your girlfriend, right?" He replied and JJ gave the Thornton boy a look before looking down at the shades in his hand that he had taken off.

"Bitch, please," Cassie grumbled under her breath.

"Uh, that's funny because she's not actually my girlfriend, right?" John B said, looking at Sarah with a proud smile. Oh, right, she's his wife.

"Uh..." Topper trailed off, chuckling. "Well, what is she then?"

"Tell him," John B said to Sarah, gesturing over to Topper.

Sarah looked over at Topper and told him hesitantly, "I'm-I'm with him."

Kiara beared her teeth before she looked down from second-hand embarrassment as Cassie pursed her lips, rubbing the back of her neck at the extremely awkward moment.

Her and JJ, and Pope and Kiara, had their fair share of awkward moments but this one between Sarah and John B definitely took the cake.

Topper let out another laugh. "Gotcha. You're with him. Okay, yeah. I just, like, needed a little clarity there. You guys clear on that or...?"

"I think it's clear you gotta go now," JJ voiced, itching the side of his face nonchalantly.

"Yeah, think I'll head out. It's about that time," Topper agreed, raising his eyebrows.

"Topper," Sarah quickly said, making her way over to him. "Thank you." She then wrapped her arms around him, giving him a hug.

"Yeah, of course. I'm just glad you're okay," he responded as he sent John B a smug look from over the girl's shoulder.

Cassie rolled her eyes at him. "Boys and their egos," she commented quietly to Kiara.

"I know," Kiara agreed with a curled lip.

Once the two exes were done hugging, Topper drove off.

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

Cassie, Kiara, and Pope were sat under the roof outside John B's again as Pope worked on cleaning the key that he had found using a magnifying glass and a towel. Apparently, Pope had figured out that the key had a secret message that read: "The path to the tomb begins in the Island Room."

Whatever that meant.

Cassie had been trying to avoid JJ at all costs because now that John B was out...that meant that they would have to talk about the other night.

Thinking about it just made her shudder.

"Hey, Kie, can you look up the 'Island Room,' the 'Royal Merchant,' and 'Denmark Tanny,' please?" Pope asked nicely.

Kiara ignored his question and said, "Have you thought about it?"

"Uh, thought about what?" Pope replied and Kiara gave him a look. "Oh! I mean," he chuckled, "I mean, yeah, of course. I've thought about you like every day for a year, so yeah, I've definitely thought about it."

"And that's my cue to leave," Cassie saluted them as she got up and walked away from the two of them, not wanting to hear where that conversation would go. Especially since it seemed like Pope was more excited about what they did together than Kiara was.

She decided to walk back over to the dock, leaning against the railing as she looked out to the ocean. Oh, how it reminded her of a blonde's certain eyes.

"Goddamn it..." She whispered to herself seeing as though everything seemed to always go back to JJ in her mind.

"Hey."

"Oh, God!" She yelped in a fright as she turned to her right to see JJ standing right there, who had put his hands up. "Oh," she breathed out once she realized it was only him. But that somehow made her more scared.

Not of him, but of what he was definitely about to say.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—"

"No, no, you're so good. Just got scared, that's all," she interrupted him, waving it off before she realized that his chest and abs were exposed since his shirt had been unbuttoned. Is he trying to mess with my head?

"Okay, good. Good," he nodded and she looked away from his abs back to his face, watching as he took a step forward her. "So...now that John B's out and we have some time...do you wanna talk about the other night?"

Why did Kiara have to start talking about her night of sex with Pope? Just kill me now.

"Um..." She trailed off, her eyes darting around. If they had started to talk about it here, that could mean any one of the Pogues could potentially see and hear them. "Not here."

JJ tilted his head in confusion. "Not here? Why not here?"

"You know, the others are here and, um, they could hear us," she told him with shrug, trying to act normal about it.

JJ blinked at her. "Do you not want them knowing what happened?" He asked her.

She ran her tongue across her top teeth before she answered honestly, "No. I don't."

JJ let out an ironic laugh at that. Although he hadn't told anyone either, it wasn't like he didn't want them to know. He just wanted to figure his shit out before anyone else knew.

"Are you, like, embarrassed of me or something?" He questioned her, growing angry.

She recoiled. "What? No. No, of course not."

"You're not? You're not embarrassed because of who my dad is, what my name stands for?" He pressed, taking another step forward. "You don't want people to know that you kissed a Maybank, is that it?"

She instinctively shushed him after he said the last part for fear of her friends potentially listening, and he scoffed at her in disbelief. "Wow. Wow. So that's it? That's why you didn't want to talk about it. You wanna pretend it never happened because you're embarrassed by me. Yeah. Okay," he assumed, going to turn around and walk away.

"No, that's not why!" She quickly said, grabbing his arm to stop him.

"Then what is it, Cassandra?" He questioned as she let go of his arm, practically seething her name. "Because if that's not the reason why, then you must have a better reason."

Her face twisted as her chest tightened. She couldn't talk about this now, not out in the open. She already felt vulnerable enough out here, she couldn't open up in even more. "I'm-I'm just confused, JJ," she ended up stammering.

"You don't think I'm confused too?" He pointed at himself. "You don't think I'm confused when we started the summer of hating each other and now we're..." He trailed off, shaking his head. "And now I don't know what the hell we are." She pursed her lips at him, not being able to come up with a response. "That's why I want to talk about this with you, but you keep pushing me away."

"I'm not pushing you away," she tried to defend herself.

"Then what are you doing?!" JJ raised his voice, only for him to take a breath and calm down to respect her wishes of not wanting the others to overhear. "What are you doing? Because one second, you're pushing me away and the next second you're-you're being so nice to me. Like-like at the Sheriff's Department and-and in the ambulance. I just — I don't get it. I don't get you."

I don't get myself either.

She chewed on her lip, trying to think of something, anything to say to get her out of this. She felt too exposed. Like her clothes had suddenly been ripped off her body with no way of putting them back on.

"JJ, I told you. I don't want to talk about this here," she said, trying to push past him but he ended up grabbing her arm. "JJ," she pleaded.

"Cass, please. I just want to know. Do you like me or not? Because-because I think I-I like you and I just need to know what you think. Because either way, something has to be done about it," he admitted, desperation in his tone.

Cassie felt her body go rigid at his admittance to his feelings. Hearing him say it out loud just made her even more scared. If he liked her, then that definitely meant she liked him. And that made her feel like she was about to throw up.

She needed to get out of there.

"JJ, I-I don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know?"

"You just — You won't understand."

"Then help me understand. I want to understand," he said to her as he slowly let go of her arm, looking down at her.

She peered up at him, stunned that he seemed to truly care about what she had to say. She never knew JJ could be like this. Wanting to truly know how she had felt. A part of her had thought that maybe he had only wanted to hook up with her since she had only seen him flirt meaninglessly with tourons or random girls at parties.

But after hearing him say he liked her and that he wanted to understand what was going through her mind...Was she somehow the only exception to his recurrent behavior?

JJ looked down at her, wanting her to say something. She may have been confused, but he was also confused too. He had never felt like this before with anyone and she was only making this so much harder for him to deal with his feelings by not speaking to him about.

He just wanted to know if she liked him back or not. If she did, then great. But if she didn't, then he could try to get over her. And it was kinda looking like she didn't since she kept trying to avoid the conversation.

He just wanted some kind of answer that would tell him which one it was so he could process with his own feelings.

However, before she could even get to answer, JJ's phone began to ring. He was going to go ignore it before Cassie demanded, "Answer it."

"Cass—"

"Answer it," she said more firmly, trying to stall as much as possible.

JJ searched her face before he released a frustrated sigh, pulling his phone out to see he was getting a call from Guffy. "Guffy? What's up?" He said once he answered the call before his eyes widened.

"What? What's wrong?" Cassie questioned.

JJ hung up the phone. "It's Heyward. Something happened," he told her.

"Oh, shit," Cassie spoke. "We need to tell Pope. Come on."

Instead of being saved by the bell, she was saved by a phone call apparently.

"Pope! Pope!" JJ called out as he and Cassie ran over to Pope and Kiara, who were hugging each other in the same place that Cassie had left them to chat. "Just got a call from Guffy. Something happened to your pops."

Pope pulled sway from Kiara, eyes widened in concerned. "What?" He breathed out before they all ran off behind JJ to get to the Twinkie.

"John B! Sarah! Come on!"

authors note!
merry christmas guys!!! 🎄
this chapter is for the girlies who
crave romance and intimacy but once
there is a chance of it happening, they
get scared and run away. so aka me!
every time i say i want a bf and a guy shows
interest in me im always like "actually no!"
and i don't do anything about it. should
probably look into that since now i only
have my attention turned toward celeb
or fictional men but that's a problem to
look into for a another time 😝 ngl tho
making this fic has actually helped me
a lot since i relate to cassie and the way
cassie deals with her emotions cause im
like same girl!!! i get so crazy when i
think i like someone and i do self sabotage
which is exactly what cassie is doing right
now...did not mean to do that on purpose
LMAO also off topic but kie and cassie's text
messages r so funny to me bc that's almost
exactly how me and my bsf text LOL