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𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘆 𝘀𝗶𝘅: 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻

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Since JJ had found out the guy that had tried to steal their gold was some drug dealer named Barry, he decided to pay his home a little visit. If he was going to try to take from them, then he was going to find out what would happen.

It seemed like the other Pogues hadn't been on board apart from Cassie. Both her and JJ had given Barry a piece of their mind before and they were both itching to ransack his place for pointing a gun at them and their friends. It seemed like this was the one thing they could actually agree on with each other and, of course, it had to do with getting revenge.

Or as JJ liked to call it: getting even.

"Welcome to Crackhead Wasteland," Sarah narrated as JJ drove up to a mobile home that seemed to have been hit by the hurricane pretty hard due the plastic chairs and other pieces of trash that were lying around in front.

"I don't know about this, man," Pope voiced his concern as JJ pulled in front of the place, parking the Twinkie. Cassie had been sitting in the passenger seat as she ran her tongue along her front teeth, her eyes narrowed as she looked at the house. "Dude, why are we at Barry's?"

JJ opened up the car door. "This'll only take a second," he told them briefly before he hopped out of the car and began walking to Barry's residence. "You coming, princess?"

"I told you, don't call me that," she sneered, but got out of the car anyway and followed JJ to the trailer since she was seriously hoping to fuck the place up.

"Princess?" Kiara muttered to herself, sharing a look with Sarah who just shrugged and shook her head. Sarah had usually been the one to be called princess since she actually fit the role: prim, proper, well-mannered. Cassie, on the other hand, was more like the witch (still a hot one, though!) who tricked the princess.

"Where are y'all going?" John B called out as Pope slid the car door open so they would be able to see the two blondes entering the house.

"Yo soy justicia!" JJ told them in Spanish, even though it didn't make sense grammatically, before he entered the place with Cassie right behind him.

She took a look around, scoffing. "Place is a shithole," she commented. "So I'm sure it won't be a big deal to fuck it up even more," she began to smirk as she searched the place with her eyes to find things to break.

JJ poked his tongue into his cheek as he subconsciously looked her up and down, finding her whole attitude about this to be quite...hot. He thought she had looked hot at Midsummers all dressed up in that tight pink dress he seemed to be thinking about lately, but here...here she was exuding all kinds of confidence and passion to get revenge for their friends.

And since JJ's core value had been about friendship, he had to admit that this whole vengeful look looked good on her. Okay, maybe he wasn't actually going to admit it out loud, but he was admitting it to himself nonetheless.

This was going to the second and last time he found her hot, though, he assured himself of that. While he typically found many women hot, Cassie could not be one of them. That would just ruin all of his perceptions about her.

"While you do that, i'mma search for his stash," JJ told her before he turned around, heading into the kitchen of the trailer to search through cupboards.

"Sounds good to me," she said in a singsong voice before she walked around, finding different dressers and tables to knock shit off of to cause it to break. "Ooh, was that expensive?" She said to herself when something had crashed onto the floor and shattered. "Eh, probably not."

"Cassie, what are you doing?" John B questioned from behind her and she turned around. "Are you breaking shit?"

"Uh...duh?" She replied as she slapped a bunch of beers bottle onto the ground, causing them to shatter. "Oops," she spoke sarcastically.

John B scoffed at her before he looked at JJ. "Okay, so what's your plan, slick?" John B asked him since JJ was clearly doing something entirely different from the Blake girl.

"Well, as thou hath stealeth from us," JJ began as he picked up some couch cushions, "we shall stealeth from ye."

"Yeah, that kind of got lost in translation," the Routledge boy admitted.

"An eye for an eye, John B," JJ clarified as he continued to pace around the place to try to find Barry's stash of cash.

John B quickly stepped in front of him. "Yeah, yeah, that's great, JJ. But what happens after you rob a drug dealer, huh? He knows who we are!"

JJ scoffed, pushing past him. "I'm not scared of this guy."

"Me either. He's a fuckin' pussy," Cassie insulted as she and John B watched JJ head into another room.

"JJ, don't—" John B sucked in a breath once JJ disappeared into the other room, turning toward the girl beside him instead. "Cassie, come on, you're seriously doing this?"

"What, JB? This prick can't fuck with us and get away with it. If we don't do something, he's gonna think he can just come after us again," Cassie explained, raising her brows at him and placing her hands on her hips.

"Yeah, but don't you think it's a little stupid to be doing this now when we have millions of more gold coming our way anyway? And this could potentially place a bigger target on our backs?" John B countered through clenched teeth.

I didn't think of that, she thought to herself as she sucked in a breath. John B was right. They really didn't need to be stealing this guy's money since they would be getting millions of dollars soon anyway. She realized that she had been blinded by her anger, jumping right to do the most impulsive thing she could think of doing. And JJ had been doing the same thing.

Maybe they were more alike than she thought.

"Shit..." Cassie breathed out before she pursed her lips.

"Yeah, exactly," John B shook his head at her before he called out to JJ, "What are you doing?"

"I'm getting even!" JJ replied before he came walking out of the room, holding a small duffel bag. "All right, took care of business."

John B went toward him and grabbed him urgently. "Hey, hey, look at-look at me. If you keep going down this road , you're gonna end up just like your dad, do you underst—" JJ immediately reached up and grabbed John B by the collar aggressively, causing Cassie's eyes to widen at the quick action.

It was clear JJ's dad had been a sore subject for him and Cassie still didn't know what the situation was with that. JJ never told her and the others didn't seem to want to tell her, but she had a feeling it had something to do with how bruised and cut JJ's face had been at Midsummers which definitely wasn't from Rafe.

She just didn't know if it was her place to pry. Especially when JJ probably wouldn't even tell her anyway. He didn't when she tried to ask over the phone when he was stuck in a cell.

"You watch your mouth, man," JJ threatened, his lips pursed. "Aren't you tired of being messed with?"

"That's not the point, JJ."

"'Cause I am," JJ whispered before he let go of John B's collar, looking at Cassie expectantly since she had been the only one to back him up in this escapade.

She sighed, "JJ, look, I don't know if—"

"Seriously, Cassie? You just came in here with me and now you wanna back out?" He interrupted her, rearing his head back.

"No, no, it's just—"

"Nah, I don't wanna fuckin' hear it," he cut her off again as he walked past her, making her nostrils flare. "All right, so we're looking at around four grand each for reparations for putting us through that bullshit. Sorry about that, y'all," JJ announced once he made it outside, John B and Cassie walking behind him.

"So that's what we're doing now? We're robbing drug dealers?" Kiara interrogated, tilting her head at JJ accusingly.

"This Barry guy's gonna find out. And he's gonna come after us," Sarah added in concern.

"Yes, he will. Okay, this is not the time to start wilin' out," Pope lectured sternly at the blonde boy.

"How'd you guys like having a gun pulled on you?" JJ questioned, growing more frustrated than he already was.

John B stepped towards him closely and said, "Relax."

"He had it right here in you, bro," JJ mimicked how close the gun was to John B's head with his finger.

"Look," John B said, pushing his hand down. "We've gotta go get the gold, okay? Just give me that shit." We're putting it back." John B tried to reach for the bag, but JJ quickly shoved him against the Twinkie aggressively.

"JJ!" Cassie seethed since everyone else had seemed to be too scared to get involved with the two boys.

"Stay out of this," JJ growled through clenched teeth as he kept his eyes on John B, making Cassie tense up.

"You feel like a tough guy? Huh?" John B challenged the blonde. "What are you gonna do when he comes for us?"

"We punch him in the throat," JJ answered him, their faces just inches apart as they stared each other down.

"Yeah, good fuckin' idea, JJ," John B replied sarcastically.

"I'm not putting it back," JJ said as he picked up the duffel bag and walked over to the Twinkie, sitting inside. It was clear that he had wanted them to follow him, but no one had. They just glanced around at one another, the tension thick in the air.

Cassie had been conflicted. On the one hand, she wanted to get payback for her and her friends. But on the other hand, she knew this would probably only make shit even harder for them. But JJ was stubborn, just like her. She knew he wasn't going to budge in his position since it was clear he was more furious about this than she was.

"You guys getting in or what?" He called out, but they still didn't move from their positions. JJ breathed out sharply before he climbed out of the Twinkie. "What?" He asked them impatiently with his hands on his hips.

John B walked towards him. "We're sick of your shit," he told him.

"Oh, my shit?" JJ laughed.

"Yeah. Yeah. Your shit," John B confirmed.

"Yes. You're pulling guns on people shit," Kiara added, shaking her head at him.

"You acting like a freakin' maniac—"

"Okay, Pope! I took the fall for you, man!" The blonde exclaimed. "Know how much money I owe because of you?"

"I'm gonna pay you back, and I didn't even ask you to do that!" Pope argued as he stepped closer to the Maybank boy, standing up the boy which was something not like him to usually do.

"I just did!" JJ yelled in his face as he took a step forward, making Pope back down a bit. "Pay it back. Right here, right now, by myself." He then looked over at Cassie, making eye contact with her. "You know what? That's exactly what I'm gonna do," he said as he grabbed the duffel bag, still keeping his eyes on the blonde girl for some reason. Maybe something deep down told him that she would come with him, seeing as though she had been on board with him before. "Go off by myself."

That's when she decided to step forward, but JJ had gotten his hopes up when he heard the next sentence that came out of her mouth. "JJ, come on. Let's just drop it," she tried to reason, knowing that if she had been the one to try and mediate all of this then it was definitely fucked.

JJ scoffed at her, moving away from Pope and going towards her menacingly. Her eyes widened a bit as she took a few steps back, her back hitting into the Twinkie just like John B's had done just before. "JJ," John B warned as he watched what had just happened.

JJ ignored John B as he stood close to Cassie's body, the warmth from his boiled blood radiating off of him. "You fuckin' come in there with me, saying how badly you wanna fuck this guy up and now all of a sudden you're bailing?" He questioned, their faces inches apart like he and John B's had been before. "What, did you just do that to mock me or something?"

Her mouth had gone dry at how close he had been to her, not knowing what move he could possibly make in this situation. She had suddenly thought of her and Rafe at Midsummers and how he had cornered her in the bathroom, bringing his hand up to her throat and pushing her against the wall.

She felt her throat constrict. "No," she forced out and had been the truth. John B had just been the one to make her realize that what they were doing some extremely stupid. She would've expanded on it more had it not been for the fact that she was too fearful to say anything. When she tried it with Rafe, he put his hands on her. She didn't think JJ would do that with her, but then again, she didn't think Rafe would actually do that either.

JJ ironically laughed, "There you go with the fuckin' lies again." The boy thought she had been done with these lies after their conversation last night. He thought that even though they went back to "hating each other," it would be a different kind of hate. But now all he wanted to do was just call her out on what he thought was bullshit.

"I'm not lying," she defended herself, growing a bit more self-assured once her character had been insulted. Every time she thought she had been wrong about him, she had been completely misguided. He was like a loose fucking cannon that went off in different directions every five seconds and all she wanted to do was take away the gunpowder. JJ pursed his lips at her, tilting his head as if welcoming a challenge. "I'm not fucking lying, JJ."

JJ rolled his eyes, glancing away from her before back at her face again. "You always gotta do what everyone else wants, don't you? Because you wanna fit in so bad?" He taunted without even thinking.

Cassie inhaled sharply. There it was again, him using everything he knew about her against her. He knew just how to get under her skin and she fucking loathed it. "Fuck you, JJ," she spat lividly.

JJ stared her down before his eyes flickered to her neck, seeing the faint bruises that seemed to almost be going away. It would be hard to see had he not been standing so close to her. He then looked back up at her face, seeing the way her bottom lip had been shaking ever so slightly. She had been thinking about Rafe, he realized.

That's when he decide to back away from her, feeling an ounce of regret for being so aggressive with her but he didn't let it show on his face. Instead, he looked at the others one final time before he set off. "JJ..." Pope tried going after him.

John B placed a hand on Pope's shoulder. "Hey, wait, man," John B told the Heyward boy. Cassie watched him walk away, her face twisting as she pushed off of the Twinkie. "Cassie, you okay?" John B asked her in concern.

She rolled her shoulders. "I'm fine. Just let him go."

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

The Pogues decided to drive to The Wreck without JJ, not knowing what else to do. They had no idea where he had been going and they had know idea what he had been doing. He had just...disappeared.

When Cassie had entered into Kook territory, she had gotten a flood of text messages from her mother demanding to know where she was and to come back home instantly. She had even threatened to call the police.

This had only pissed Cassie off even more and she quickly wrote her mom a text, coming up with some excuse. She placed her phone back in her back pocket, not even wanting to read her mother's response.

"Look, he'll come around, all right? It's...He's doing a JJ thing," John B assured them after a moment, sitting down at the table next to Cassie and Sarah.

"You think he'll go home?" Kiara asked as she stared down at the table with an emotionless expression.

"There's about a zero percent chance that JJ goes home," Pope cut in as he stared out the window, his arm placed high against the wall.

"What is up with that, by the way?" Cassie spoke up, her arms crossed over her chest. "I mean, what is so bad about his father other than the fact that he's got some substance issues?" She asked, remembering how JJ said his father got fired for being hammered on the job.

Cassie looked around at all of them as they stood silent, not saying anything. Either they really didn't know or they had been keeping a secret for him. Either way, she had been pissed. "Y'all are seriously not going to tell me? After he just ran off with 25k in cash and could be in trouble?"

"It's not our place to, Cece," Kiara told her. "And besides, you didn't seem that worried about him before," she added quietly.

Cassie scoffed at her best friend. "You serious?" She questioned and Kiara just shrugged. "He was yelling in my face, of course I was gonna be pissed. And, may I remind you, I was the only one who actually wanted to steal from Barry? I would've backed him up if it hadn't been for the fact that I realized the gold was more important. If anything, you guys didn't care."

"Cassie, let's not do this now. Please," Pope pleaded as he looked over his shoulder at her. Cassie met his gentle eyes and she released a sigh, not being able to argue with him. She would...feel too bad. "Thank you."

John B then looked over at Sarah, who hadn't been saying anything. "You okay?" He checked up on her.

She nodded, blinking slowly. "Yeah. Are you?"

"I mean, I'm in one piece, so..." He trailed off with a small smile, trying to lighten the mood. Sarah smiled at him for a moment before it turned back into a frown once she looked away.

Pope pushed off the window and sighed, "Okay." He started to pace back and forth, clearly stressing. "It's too dangerous to pawn this thing off piecemeal. So...our best bet is to go down there and get the rest of it. Bring it all up at once. Put it in-in-in a safe, or a vault, or something. I-I don't know. Just until we can find someone who won't rip us off. Okay? I can go figure it out tonight. I can get it all done and we can be out there as early as tomorrow morning," Pope explained, getting back onto the topic of the gold.

"All right, let's do it," John B said right away.

"Easy."

"Yeah. Let's go."

"What about that thing with my dad?" Sarah reminded the Routledge boy.

"Shit," John B muttered, looking down.

"What thing?" Pope questioned impatiently, leaning forward.

"I have to go fishing with Ward," he revealed slowly since he knew how stupid it had sounded in comparison to the gold.

"Fishing with Ward?" Cassie repeated, wondering if she had heard him correctly.

"You can't get 400 mil 'cause you're gonna go kill fish?" Kiara questioned as she blinked at him.

"Look, I have to go," John B said as he kept his head down, shutting his eyes.

"Do you, though?" Cassie countered, giving him a look. He really didn't have to go if they were talking technicals. He could have just came up with a lie as to why they were busy. Hadn't that been what they were all doing to their parents? Why was Ward any different?

"Blow it off! It's 400 million in gold!" Pope argued.

"Make something up!" Kiara exclaimed.

"Look, I-I have to, okay? He...he saved me, all right? And if it weren't for Ward, I'd be in foster care," the Routledge boy told them. Cassie pursed her lips, starting to understand the boy. If Ward hadn't been there for her and her mother when her father died, who knew what would have happened to the both of them. Especially her mother, who seemed to lean on him a lot.

"So...I have to go. Plus, it'll be better to do it at night." He then looked around at them before he added, "Right?"

The others looked at Pope, waiting to see what he had to say since he had been the brains of the operation. He seemed to have been thinking it over carefully in his head before he bowed his head and let up, "Fine. Fine, go fishing."

"And at least JJ will probably be washed up by then," Kiara pointed out.

"Washed up or beached?" Cassie retorted, rolling her eyes.

authors note!
sorry about that yall 😃 dw
next chapter will hopefully make
up for the angst in this one 😙