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𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗿: 𝗽𝗼𝗽𝗲 "𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗼𝗽𝗵𝗶𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴" 𝗵𝗲𝘆𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱

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The Pogues, except for John B who was MIA, made it to the ferry in time in order to get to Wilmington. Cassie and JJ both allowed their vehicles on the ferry, just in case they needed some form of transportation for the cross if they came up empty handed.

Because something was better than nothing, right?

Well, JJ didn't seem to think that because he had been saying nothing to Cassie the whole entire time they sat around a table on the deck of the boat, causing her plan to get him back to not start off very strong. They had all just been talking amongst each other, trying to think of a decent plan, but not one word had been directed to Cassie by him.

Zero, zip, zilch, nada.

"Honestly, the hardest part is gonna be security, all right? So most of the guys are gonna be at the rail yard," JJ voiced, sitting on the top part of the chair while the others sat in their chairs normally.

"Right, so we're gonna need to find some place and guard it, maybe a little further down the line, like a whistle-stop or something," Pope thought out.

"Yeah," Kiara agreed, nodding her head slowly as she stared down at the table.

"You guys are getting ahead of yourselves per usual. We don't have a way to transport the cross," Cleo reminded them. "What you think? On JJ's motorcycle?"

JJ grunted, taking his cap off. "That's not my fault."

"I said we could use my car," Cassie recalled, raising her brows.

"The cross would take up half of your car, it'll never fit it and all of us. Especially if it's in a large crate," Pope reasoned and Cassie released an exhale, her lips vibrating. "Okay, so other options..."

"Oh, my God," Sarah suddenly said, pressing her hands together and bringing them to her lips as she leaned her elbows on the table.

"'Oh, my God,' what?" Cleo questioned, knitting her brows together.

Sarah gestured her head over to the bar area and all the Pogues looked over, seeing none other than Topper Thornton standing there and talking to some people with a drink in hand.

"Is that Topper?" Pope asked.

"No, that's Bottom," Cassie remarked, earning a small quirk of the lip from JJ before he shoved it away, not wanting her to see it.

"Why...is he everywhere?" Kiara breathed out in annoyance.

"Perfect," Pope drawled, nodding his head. "Hey, Jayj."

"What?"

"I bet you Topper has a way to transport the cross."

"Actually, Pope's right. He does have a rig," JJ pointed out slowly, wheels turning in his mind.

"No," Sarah immediately said.

"Yes," JJ replied back.

"No."

"Yes, come on."

"Absolutely not."

"Sarah, you already got him whipped anyway, all right? So why don't you just take one for the team?" JJ suggested, raising his eyebrows at her.

"What would John B say?" Sarah queried.

"I think John B will hate it," Cassie guessed at the same time Pope said, "I think John B will completely understand."

The two of them blinked at one another with Pope giving her a warning look before Cassie quickly corrected, "No, yeah, he'd completely understand. For sure."

Pope sighed before he continued, "Think about the circumstances. It's about treasure."

"We can handle John B," Kiara assured the girl. "Just talk to him."

Sarah looked around all of them, seeing the expectant looks on their faces before she sighed and got up to go to talk to her ex.

"Oh, hey, Sarah!" Cassie quickly called out and she turned to look at the girl. "Act like you're in need of saving. Guys like that. Especially guys like Topper," she advised.

Sarah hummed, slowly nodding. "I'll keep that in mind."

She was able to go over to Topper and talk to him alone near the steps while the Pogues listened from below, making sure Sarah got him right where they wanted him.

"I just can't believe you're here. I saw the news. I-I texted you. I didn't even know if you were alive, Sarah," Topper confessed. "How are you? You okay?"

Sarah looked past Topper, seeing Cassie who started to pretend like she was crying. Sarah seemed to get the memo. "You know, stop, um...things are a little tough right now," Sarah told the boy and Cassie began to smirk.

"Yeah? Tough how?"

Sarah looked back over and she saw both Cassie and JJ start to make the same movements with their arms, telling her to keep going. The two noticed and quickly stopped, looking away from one another.

"We've been after this...family heirloom of Pope's, which is why we were gone. And we ended up losing it, and uh, unbelievably there might be a chance that, um, we could get it back tonight. In Wilmington," Sarah detailed, forcing her voice to crack.

Topper listened intently. "Okay."

"It's crazy."

"Okay, uh, how-how-how can I help?" he immediately offered.

"No, I-I can't ask you to do that," Sarah acted.

"Oh, that's good," Cassie whispered and Kiara nodded along, admiring her acting skills.

"No, seriously," Topper said.

"Topper, I feel like if I ask you, just, like, just the person that you are—"

Topper started to laugh. "What do you mean, 'the person I am'?" he asked.

"No, I didn't mean it like that. I-I guess I mean, you're such a giver, Topper. You're just such a helper, and I feel like if I ask you, you're gonna feel like you need to—"

"Sarah, that's just-that's just who I am. That's just the way I was raised," Topper interrupted and the Pogues all slowly turned to each other, blinking. "And anyway, remember when I said I would do literally anything for you? You remember that?"

"Yeah," Sarah breathlessly recalled.

"I meant it," Topper claimed as he searched the stars in Sarah's eyes, which would always lead back to John B unbeknownst to him. "Unlike some people who will just say whatever to get you to go along with whatever they want," Topper went on and Sarah looked past him, seeing JJ urge her to cut to the chase already. "I'm not that person, okay? When I say something, I mean it."

"I need your truck," Sarah stated, her entire tone changing. "Four wheels."

Topper blinked at her, spluttering, "My-my-my dad's truck?" He sucked in a breath, scratching his head. "Oh, my God. He would literally kill me," he exhaled. "He's, like, super anal about it."

"So are we. We're super anal," Sarah promised and JJ brought his head forward, blinking at her as the others gaped. "We, like, we'll-we'll take such good care of it."

Topper rubbed his hair. "You put me in a tough spot. I know I said I would do anything but..."

"I'm so sorry about everything," Sarah apologized, placing a hand on his shoulder as she took a step forward deliberately, knowing Topper would fold. "I totally understand. You have no reason to help us. Actually, you have all the reasons not to help us."

Topper released a short laugh, tilting his head. "Why do I feel like I'm gonna regret this?" he raised and Sarah smiled, wrapping her around the boy to give him a grateful hug.

The Pogues down below all grinned, giving the girl a thumbs up in thanks and she gave them one behind Topper's back. They then all retreated back to their table, unfortunately leaving Sarah to kiss Topper's ass the rest of the ride to Wilmington.

They knew that if they started talking to him, it would probably make him change his mind on giving them his truck so they allowed Sarah to do the dirty work.

As they sat at the table, it was abundantly clear that JJ was trying to talk to Kiara more than anyone else and Cassie was becoming sick of it. Kiara's laughter to his jokes sounded like nails on a chalkboard and even though she adored her best friend, she couldn't bear to hear and see it any longer.

She knew she had no right to be mad at Kiara for liking JJ. She had no clue what about their relationship. She just didn't know how she was supposed to break the news to her if she couldn't even tell JJ she loved him back.

Cassie decided to push up from her chair, causing it to scrape against the floor, and she left without a word. The Pogues all shared a confused look, apart from JJ who knew exactly why she was leaving. He was being a dick and talking to Kiara for a reason, of course.

Pope glanced between the two of them again before he got up himself. "Hey, where you goin'?" JJ inquired, giving Pope a warning look.

"I wanna see where she's going," Pope answered briefly before he followed after the Blake girl, catching her go sit on the other side of the boat on one of the benches as she stared out into the water.

Pope started to frown a bit, noticing the way the light reflected off of her eyes and showcased the slight watering to them. "Hey, Cassie, you okay?" he gently asked as he went over to her, sitting down next to her.

She raised her brows in surprise, sniffling a bit. She wasn't expecting anyone to follow her. It kind of hurt her that it wasn't Kiara, though. She was too busy laughing at her...what were they now?'s...jokes that she didn't seem to care about her best friend at the moment.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she breathed out although it was a total lie.

And Pope saw right through it.

"Come on, you can tell me what's bothering you. There's no one else here," Pope said and she licked her lips, looking down at her hands. "Does it, uh, does it have anything to do with...JJ?" he dared to ask.

She snapped her head toward him, her eyes going wide. "What? Why-why-why would it be about JJ?" she frantically questioned, wondering if JJ had told him about the two of them.

Pope released a sigh, knowing that if he said what he was about to say he would probably die at the wrath of Cassandra Blake and betray JJ's trust all in one. But he wanted to make sure his two best friends were okay, especially when they had bigger things on the line and needed them all to be focused.

"Look, Cassie, I'm not gonna lie to you," he began and Cassie already knew where this was going.

"He told you?" she guessed.

Pope shut his eyes. "Yeah."

"Oh, that little fucker!" she cursed as she got up, getting ready to storm back to the Maybank boy and slap him across his perfect face.

"Okay, no, wait a second!" Pope quickly said, grabbing her wrist to pull her back down next to him. "Let's just calm down for a sec, yeah?"

Cassie released a deep breath, her nostrils flaring angrily before she asked through clenched teeth, "When did he tell you?"

"Back on Rafe's boat," Pope revealed and she poked her tongue in her cheek, not believing this. "But it was for a good reason, Cassie. You can't be mad."

She looked back at them. "Oh, really? What was the reason then?"

Pope sighed again. "Back on the boat, I walked in on JJ and Kiara talking. But...they were really close." Cassie felt like her heart had just stopped the second he said those words and Pope could tell. "But-but-but he told me nothing happened between them. He just fell because of the imbalance of the boat and she caught him."

Cassie released a breath she didn't even know she was holding at that important piece of information. "Oh. Oh, okay."

"Yeah. But from my point of view, it looked like something was gonna happen. From Kie's end of things anyway. So then JJ went to go talk to me about it later, you know, 'cause Kie and I..."

Cassie nodded slowly, understanding. "Yeah."

"Yeah. I told him I didn't believe what he was saying. Because he's JJ, you know? He's always thinking about women," Pope went on and Cassie sent him a glance, "before-before you, of course." She hummed at that. "And then I told him the only way I would believe him would be if he's with someone else. So, he kinda had to tell me in order to save our friendship."

Cassie took in the information that Pope had just shared with her. He was right. She really couldn't be mad at JJ. It was either keep their relationship a secret or Pope lose all trust in him for thinking JJ would try to be with the girl he was in love with for over a year.

JJ was just being a good friend. Like always.

She released a sigh. "Who else knows?"

"I mean, when he told me, he told me not to tell anyone else. So I'm assuming...no one," Pope honestly told her.

"Not even John B? Why was he trying so hard to get me to say that I was with JJ in secret then back on Poguelandia?"

Pope shrugged. "It's JB. He likes the gossip. I mean, he's with Sarah Cameron, the once Kook Princess," he pointed out.

Cassie let out a soft laugh. "True. That's very true."

Pope gave her a lopsided frown. "Why did you want to keep it a secret so bad?" Cassie poked the inside of her cheek at his question. "I mean, I know it would be crazy for everyone to find out since you guys have hated each other for a year, but...that can't be the reason."

Pope was right. That wasn't the reason. The reason was that Cassie was too afraid to show her true self to all of her friends. And it backfired on her. Once again. Just like it had happened with the Rafe secret.

She should've learned.

She turned to Pope, who had been looking at her patiently. Something about him just made Cassie so comfortable. Maybe because Pope was one of the best guys she knew and he wouldn't do anything to try to hurt her. 

"It's because...it's because I was afraid," she admitted, swallowing thickly. "Of-of showing myself to everyone other than JJ. I mean, when JJ and I first kissed...I avoided that topic of conversation at all costs. It was only when he confronted me about it at Bonfire that I finally just said whatever the hell came to my mind because I was already kinda drunk anyway. It was already so hard opening up to him, so how else was I supposed to open up to four more people? And now five, including Cleo?"

Pope hummed, taking in her words. He knew Cassie by now. He knew she liked to keep secrets if the secret was too hard to share with people. She tried to hide her slight addiction to alcohol, she tried to hide what had happened with Rafe, and now she was hiding her relationship with JJ. It was just her style of behavior by now.

They were the complete opposites. Pope was sensitive and rational, and Cassie was thick-skinned and irrational. Maybe that's why they got along so well.

But after hearing Cassie share this information with him, he started to believe that maybe she wasn't so thick-skinned like he originally thought. Maybe she did let things get to her, but she just didn't show it like he would.

The only times he had ever seen her cry was when they watched Ward "blow up," when he himself almost died from wasps, when JJ almost died, and when they all reunited after she escaped from Singh.

Those were all perfectly acceptable times to cry, but maybe she had shed a lot more tears alone, for no one else to see. Maybe that was why she was so angry all the time, all of her pent up emotions turning to rage instead.

The thought of that made him feel horrible for the girl. She always tried to make him feel included and yet, he completely saw past the fact that she didn't feel included enough to share her real emotions with everyone else.

"Cassie, I'm so sorry," Pope blurted out.

She furrowed her brows. "Sorry? Why are you sorry?"

"I mean, you shouldn't feel this way around friends. We should've made you feel more—"

"Oh, Pope, no. It's not you guys at all," she quickly interrupted him. "It's me. It's always been me. There's something...there's something wrong with me."

"Cassie, there's nothing wrong with you," Pope tried to tell her.

"But there is. I-I mean, I should've been jumping up and down and shouting from the rooftops that I was able to bag JJ Maybank." She scoffed at herself. "I mean, he's every girls dream, right?"

"Well, obviously," Pope wasted no time in agreeing. He had to admit, JJ was pretty hot. And he had many girls wrapped around his once sticky fingers. Pope was always kind of jealous about that since he had a much harder time getting girls to like him. And now the girl he was trying to get over liked him. Just his luck.

"Yeah, so I should've been bragging about it every chance I got. But...I wasn't," she continued. "Every time JJ would ask me to tell you guys, I always shut him down. I would tell him to wait only to stall, and I know he would get upset about it. He wouldn't tell me, but I know he would. And it all just kinda blew up yesterday."

"How did it blow up?" Pope asked curiously.

Cassie released a long sigh. "Okay, this is kinda TMI, do you care?"

Pope blinked. "Uh, what kinda TMI...?"

Cassie tilted her head, licking her lips. "Like, the, uh...sexual TMI," she answered hesitantly, scrunching her nose up.

"Oh," Pope drawled, immediately growing embarrassed by the thought. "Oh, okay. Er, okay. Um..."

"Yeah."

"So, um..."

"Uh-huh."

"You and JJ...?"

"Yeah...We did it."

"Oh, wow."

"Mhm," Cassie hummed and Pope nodded, not knowing to say. He would have never thought in a million years that Cassie and JJ would go anywhere near a bed together, but he guessed this was just the reality he was living in now.

If Big John could rise from the dead, then he guessed it was possible JJ and Cassie could be together.

Cassie placed a fallen strand of hair from braid behind her ear in slight embarrassment. "I won't go any further into it, but yeah, we did it. And it was great. Of course it was. I mean it was with JJ, he's like—"

"Thought you weren't going further into it," Pope abruptly interrupted, blinking rapidly at her.

Cassie's cheeks reddened. "Right, sorry. Um, yeah, so after that happened, I told him to buy me a phone. So he came back with a phone and another gift."

She slowly pulled the necklace out of her pocket, showing it to Pope. "A shark tooth necklace?" Pope furrowed his brows before he realized. "Oh. A shark tooth necklace."

"Yeah." She shoved it back in her pocket. "Told him I couldn't wear it because you guys would all figure out we were together. I mean, you guys can't be that dumb."

"Well..." Pope trailed off and she gave him a scary look. "No, no, you're right. Go on."

"Anyway, we ended up getting into an argument and then he told me he...loved me," she finally revealed, shutting her eyes and pursing her lips.

"JJ said that?" Pope questioned, genuinely shocked by that information. He knew how JJ was with girls but the fact he said that with Cassie...Oh, he must have thought she was the one for him.

"Yeah. And I refused to say it back," she added, scrunching her face up as her lip trembled. "I mean, it's not like I don't love him. Because I-I..." she trailed off before she got mad at herself. "See, I can't even fucking say it out loud right now! There's something wrong with me, I'm telling you. I'm not like Sarah and John B, who throw around the word like there's no tomorrow. I will never be that person."

Pope tilted his head, seeing how this was really eating away at her. "Is that really true or are you just telling yourself that?"

She smiled a bit despite her watering eyes. "Don't start philosophizing on me now, Popey."

"Too bad. Philosophizing is my middle name," he teased and she scoffed at him, nudging him with her arm.

"You're so corny," she insulted, but the way she said it kind of made it seem like a compliment. He shrugged, glad he could at least make her smile. "But seriously, I fucked up hard, Pope. Like, so hard. And now...now JJ is yapping away with Kie even though he was the one who told me he thinks that Kie likes him. I mean, did he already move on because I couldn't say it back?"

"No, Cassie, no. JJ is just being JJ. An asshole because he got hurt and can't deal with it, like always," Pope began. "He's never been like this with a girl. I mean, him telling you that he loves you? He's never said that to any other girl. Ever. Trust me, I know. I've been best friends with him since elementary school. I would know," he assured her and sucked in her lip. "JJ might think you don't love him back, which is why he's doing this. To be petty and to make it seem like he doesn't care. But trust me, he does. He so does. Honestly, now that I think about it, you guys are really similar in that aspect. Pretending not to let it get to you when it does."

She groaned at the comparison, holding her hand up to her face. "Ugh! This is so stupid!"

"It's not, Cassie. He can't force you to say it back if you can't. I mean...do you love him back though?" Pope dared to ask.

She sucked in a breath, staring into the ocean as if it were JJ's eyes. "Yes. I do," she confessed and the only reason why she was able to say it because she wasn't actually uttering those three, godforsaken words. "He's the only guy I've ever felt this way about. And that's what scares me."

"So why don't you tell him that?"

"Pope, that's why I'm in this mess! I physically can't without feeling like I'm going to throw up at any second! There's something wrong with me, I'm telling you there is!" she exclaimed.

Pope quickly grabbed the girls shoulder, turning her toward him as she widened her eyes. "You gotta stop saying that. There's nothing wrong with you. If you keep saying it, you're gonna make yourself believe it," he scolded her and she pursed her lips. "Look, I'm not saying to force yourself into something you're uncomfortable doing. But I can see how much you care about him and I can see how much he cares about you. It would just be good to try to talk to him to voice your uncomfortableness. That's all I'm saying."

She sucked in a breath, debating Pope's words. She did say she wanted to get him back, but actually doing it? Yeah, that would require some communication she wasn't sure she was ready for.

But she would have to be ready if she wanted to get her boy back. She just wasn't sure how things would work now that Kiara seemed to like him, and she didn't want to ruin her friendship with the girl.

Pope seemed to read her thoughts because he added, "You should probably try talking to Kiara, too. If she really does like him, you wouldn't wanna blindside her."

"Haven't I already?" Cassie pointed out with a frown and Pope frowned back, shrugging. She then released a sigh. "Thank you, though. For...trying to help. Everything is just so crazy and this adds so much shit on to it."

"I know, I know," Pope nodded. "If you ever need to talk though, you know I'm here."

She gave him a grateful smile. "Thanks, Pope." She then wrapped her arms around him, giving him a hug that she desperately needed.

"Hey, you two!" Cleo called out a few feet away and they pulled apart, looking over at the girl. "We're almost at Wilmington, get your asses up!"

Cassie and Pope shared a look before they started giggling, getting up to follow after her.

authors note!
cassie and pope NEEDED a cute moment bc
i feel like they haven't interacted in a hot
minute. yall i love their friendship so much
they're so cute :( pope just wants to see his best
friends happy and he already knows that's
by being with each other, how sweet