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𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲: 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿

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Once they all arrived back to the Château, since John B and Sarah didn't want to cause a ruckus at Tannyhill, they decided to celebrate by cracking open some beers and messing around. Just like teens were supposed to do. Except these teens were treasure hunting ones that were somehow able to find said treasure.

Surprisingly, Cassie didn't grab herself a beer and instead, watched her friends have fun around her. She knew it would probably be the last time she'd be around them after JJ would most definitely expose her in the morning.

There was nothing stopping him from doing it. Now that they found the gold, telling the Pogues her secret wouldn't distract them. In fact, it would help them make the choice of not giving her a piece of what the gold was worth like JJ had said.

Cassie watched as they bounded around John B's house happily, laughing with one another. John B and Sarah were flirting drunkenly, Kiara was strumming on the ukulele, and JJ and Pope had even started to sing "We Are the Campions" by Queen despite the notes Kiara was playing on her ukulele. Their singing was very bad, but entertaining nonetheless.

Since they were all busy with one another, Cassie took the opportunity to sneak out toward John B's dock. If she had watched them anymore, she probably would have started to cry knowing that she would be losing them.

The only people that seemed to actually, maybe, truly care about her.

Once JJ had finished singing with Pope and took his arm off the boy's shoulders, he looked around and noticed that a certain someone had disappeared. Mostly because he didn't hear her insults of his singing capabilities like he assumed he would.

He furrowed his brows in confusion, spinning around to see where she had went. His eyes then locked onto a figure outside once his gaze flitted over to the window. They seemed to be making their way over to the dock.

He instantly knew that it was Cassie, the way that her braid had slightly swayed back and forth as she walked. The way her phone sat in her back pocket where she always kept it and it somehow never fell out in all the times they had ran away from people trying to kill them. The way she carried herself with a sense of pride, but an underlying feeling of insecurity.

He knew everything about her...only because he had to if he wanted to use things against her, of course. He had to know what made her tick, what made her angry. How else was he supposed to make her grow frustrated and angry with him?

He turned back around, looking at Kiara. "Hey, Kie. Why don't you play us a song? You know, one of the ones you're planning on recording at Marley Studio?" He suggested, remembering what she said she would do would if they found the gold.

All the Pogues looked at the Carrera girl expectantly and she started to laugh in embarrassment, her cheeks growing red. "Okay, okay! This one isn't really finished yet, but I've been working on it a bit," she let up before she started to strumming the ukulele, allowing them all to listen.

JJ glanced around, waiting for them to all have their focus on Kiara before he slipped out the door unnoticed. He made his way over to the dock, seeing Cassie leaning on the railing as she looked down into the dark ocean.

He just watched her for a moment, not say anything as he wondered what she was thinking. He always found himself wondering what she was thinking. She always confused him. One second, she was yelling at him and then the next, she would be teasing him.

He guessed he couldn't really complain about it though since he did the same thing to her, which would make him a hypocrite. But he really wanted to complain.

He then cleared his throat, causing her to look over and straighten up once she saw who it was. "JJ," she said, her eyes going slightly wide. "What are you doing out here?"

"I could ask you the same question," he replied.

"Well, I asked you first," she tilted her head at him, masking what she had just been feeling in front of the boy since she had already been too emotional the last few days.

"And I asked you second," he countered with a sly smirk.

She narrowed her eyes at him slightly as he did the same, having some sort of unofficial staring contest with one another. They both stayed like that for a good ten seconds or so before JJ had been the one to glance away first, making her raise her eyebrows impatiently at him.

"Okay, fine. I saw you walk out here, so I followed you," the Maybank boy admitted, crossing his arms as he leaned against the railing.

She arched a brow at him, slowly teasing, "Okay, stalker."

He scoffed at her, but only shook his head as a response to that. "Your turn. What are you doing out here?"

Cassie sucked in a breath, wondering if she should be honest or not with him. Might as well be, she thought to herself since she would probably never speak to the boy again after tomorrow. "I was just, uh, thinking about what my life is gonna be like after you tell all of them my secret since we found the gold."

JJ gaped at that, his eyes going wide. He should've known that was why she slipped out after seeing the way she had reacted to all of them cheering in the Twinkie.

She was scared to lose her friends.

JJ thought back to the night we Midsummers, recalling how she had been begging him not to tell the Pogues, especially Kiara: "JJ, please, I beg you. Please don't. Kiara can't find out. She-she can't find out. If-if she finds out, she's gonna hate me. I-I can't go back to having no friends. Please, JJ, you don't understand. You don't understand what it was like. To have no one to go to after my dad died. I-I can't go back to that. I can't do it. I won't do it."

JJ knew that if he didn't have John B, Pope, and Kiara around him, he would have probably went off the deep end a long time ago. Well, more off the deep end. There was only so much he could take from his father, but just by being surrounded by his friends...he knew he wasn't going through it alone.

Cassie, on the other hand, did have to go through a rough time alone before she befriended Kiara. He saw the way the two girls had always seemed to be there for each other. He honestly couldn't say that Cassie was a bad friend to her because she wasn't. She had just made a mistake. One she clearly regretted.

JJ didn't want to be the one to ruin it for her. No matter how hard Cassie tried denying her friendship with the Pogues, it was as clear as day that she was grateful for them. Grateful that they put up with her, in JJ's mind, but grateful nonetheless.

And JJ didn't want to have the fact that he destroyed multiple friendships on his conscience. Not when all that he valued was friendship. He had been the king of friendship and he wasn't about to lose that title any time soon.

Cassie looked away from him once he didn't answer, taking that as a sign that she was right: He was going to expose her. He was going to tell all of them what had happened with Rafe and they were no longer going to trust her. She was just going to go back to being a Kook who had gotten into fights with people and got out of trouble because of her privilege. They were going to despise her.

"Cassie..." He began after moment and she glanced back over at him, swallowing hard. "I'm not gonna tell them your secret."

It was her turn to gape at him. "You're...not?"

How could this be? Everything that he had been saying to her pointed to him ultimately telling them, it just wasn't the right time to do so. But now that they had gotten the gold, shouldn't he have been jumping for joy to finally get rid of her?

He pushed off of the railing, taking a few steps closer to her. "No," he shook his head. "I mean, you saved my life tonight. If you hadn't pushed me out of the way...I would've been chopped liver," he said, referring back the conversation they had before she snuck into Mrs. Crain's house.

Cassie released a shocked laugh before she composed herself. "Well...I owed you again, didn't I? That was me owing you," she came up with although, in the moment, she hadn't even thought about that at all. All she had thought about was saving the boy no matter how hard she wanted to take a gun and shoot his annoying mouth off. And his dick. Can't forget that. "I don't see how that's stopping you from telling them though. You never even wanted me here in the first place and this gives you what you want."

JJ pursed his lips at her words. Was that what he wanted? That's what he wanted in the beginning, when he thought she was a pureblood Kook slumming it with them just for Kiara. And that's what he thought he wanted again when he found out she slept with Rafe. But after she had risked her life to save his, was he starting to change his mind again?

Because no true Kook would do that, especially not one that clearly hated his guts. And yet, those guts had been miraculously saved.

"Just because I don't want you here, doesn't mean they don't want you here," he told her, gesturing back to the others with his head who were still hanging around inside. Cassie looked back at the Château, seeing the way her friends had all been laughing giddily with one another and a small smile formed on her lips. JJ had noticed it and he had subconsciously started to smile as well before he realized and quickly shoved it away. "So, you should probably thank me now. You know, for not exposing you," he said smugly after a moment.

Cassie turned her gaze back into him, scoffing, "I should thank you? If I remember correctly, I don't think you thanked for saving you from a bullet to the head."

"I thought I did," JJ pointed out, knitting his brows together.

She shook her head. "The words 'thank you' never came out of your mouth."

JJ narrowed his eyes. "Okay, but if I remember correctly, I don't think you ever thanked me from saving you from a bullet either."

Cassie tilted her head, wracking her brain to see if she did or not and she...hadn't. When JJ had saved her, the only thing uttered between them was the, "I owe you."

Shit.

She released a sigh, trying to come up with something to fix this little issue. "Okay, how about this? We both say 'thank you' at the same time and then go back to hating one another. How does that sound?" She suggested.

"Sounds great, princess," he replied, his lips twitching into a smirk.

"What the hell?" She breathed out at the nickname he had suddenly given her. She had never heard that one before. It had only been "blondie" so far and she had come up with that one, and he just stole it. Classic Pogue shit.

"What?"

"Don't call me that," she shook her head at him, crinkling her nose in repulsion. "Where'd that even come from?"

JJ shrugged nonchalantly, running his fingers along the railing since God only knew when everyone would see the day JJ finally stopped fidgeting around as much as he did. "I just knew you would get mad if I said it."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Let's just get this over with, dipshit."

"Okay, okay, fine!"

"Okay, ready? Three...two...one..."

"Thank you," they both expressed at the same time, and the both of them had been shocked that the other had actually went through it.

"Okay, so that's it. Back to hating each other?" JJ said after a second as he reached his hand out, going in for a handshake to seal the deal.

She glanced down at his hand and then back up at his cerulean eyes. "Back to hating each other," she repeated as she took his hand, shaking on it.

She couldn't believe it. JJ Maybank, the one that had hated her the most out of everybody she knew, was going to keep her secret. Sure, he had expressed very hateful things to her when he had found out about her secret, but she knew she would do the same if she found out someone had betrayed Kiara's trust. He was only looking out for his friends. And she honestly found that very admirable for someone who was a loose cannon.

She was obviously still going to keep on insulting and making fun of him since he definitely deserved to be, especially after those said hateful things were uttered to her, but she pondered the fact that she maybe was wrong about him this whole time. He wasn't just a manwhore Pogue who fucked around and found out. He actually had some...character. She couldn't even believe she was thinking that to herself and almost shuddered when she did so.

JJ stared into her blue eyes as he shook her hand, getting a little too lost in them for some reason to the point where he was shaking her hand a little too long.

She furrowed her brows a bit, which had made him quickly pull back, wiping his hand on his shirt in feigned disgust. "Eugh, gotta go wash my hands now," he jokingly said which made her scoff and roll her eyes at him. He started to walk away, looking over his shoulder at her to see that she hadn't been following. "You coming?"

"Think I'll just stay out here for a few more minutes. I need a break from your...presence," she told him with a shit-eating grin .

He held his head back and laughed. "Suit yourself, blondie."

Cassie waved him away as she looked back out in the water. "Get outta here, dipshit."

However, despite going back to "hating one another," that had been the least the two had hated each other in a while. Not that they would ever admit that to each other or themselves in a million years.

They were Cassandra Blake and JJ Maybank, the Kook and the Pogue forced to work together who had hated each other's guts since day one. And that's all they would ever be. Nothing was going to change that.

Right?

authors note!
told you there was more cassie
and jj interactions hehe. i was
so excited writing this chapter
yall have no idea, hope u guys
enjoyed it too!