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Eli groaned as they walked towards the outdoor theatre setup, trailing behind Kie with Pope and JJ who looked equally as awkward and out of place.

“I’m so glad that they’re doing this,” Kiara spoke as she rushed to find a good spot, leaving the trio to drag their feet behind her. “Keep calm. Carry on. Back to OBX life. Aren’t you guys glad I made you come?”

“Ecstatic,” Pope replied in the most unenthusiastic tone.

“Why are we here, Kie?” Eli complained, clearly in disagreement as she eyed all the kooks who were laying around on the grass or sitting in camping chairs. “There’s way more fun things we can be doing. Like surfing. Or..” Eli trailed off. “..more surfing?”

“Eli’s couch was pretty comfy, I’ll be honest,” JJ added, to which Eli nodded.

“My couch is pretty comfy.”

Kie sighed as she grabbed Eli’s wrist. “I’ll get you some snacks, will that make you happy?”

The blue-haired girl immediately grinned, allowing Kiara to drag her off towards one of the stalls. 

“Hey, uh.. can I get two Pepsis, please?” Kie requested from the person running the stall. “And also some gummy bears.” Eli grinned as she excitedly tapped her feet. She loved gummy bears.

“Hey Kie, hey Eli.”

Eli’s grin immediately dropped from her face upon seeing Rafe Cameron walk up to them, now replaced by a scowl. 

“Hey, what’s up,” he greeted again as he stood beside them. “How are you?”

“I’m fine,” Kie curtly cut off. 

“I was fine, until I saw your ugly face,” Eli muttered.

“Good, good,” Rafe trailed off, ignoring Eli’s comment. He paused for a moment as if he were organising his thoughts. “Tell your boy that we know what he did,” he continued, suddenly talking with a serious tone as he leaned closer to Kie. 

“Sorry, what boy are you talking about?” Kie shrugged with furrowed brows.

“Uh, he’ll know.”

Eli scoffed as she placed a hand on his chest and shoved him back. “Is that a threat?” she questioned as she stood between Kiara and Rafe, staring up at the boy to show she wasn’t intimidated in the slightest.

“Let’s go, Eli,” Kie called as she grabbed her items in one hand and Eli’s wrist in the other.

“Bye,” Rafe called out after them, with Eli turning around to throw up a middle finger at him.

“Douche,” Kie called back, not even turning around to address him. 

The two girls settled down in the chairs that JJ and Pope set up, puzzled expressions on their faces. 

“Ugly rat,” Eli muttered as she grabbed her snack from Kie, tearing the bag open before angrily munching on the gummy bears.

“Uhh, what happened?” Pope questioned, leaning to look at the girls from beside JJ.

“Just saw Rafe, and he said, and I quote, “Tell your boy that we know what he did.” What is that?”

“Um..” JJ trailed off, as Pope turned to look at the boy. “Where is he?”

“Right there,” Kie gestured with her head.

Eli raised her brow as Pope turned around suspiciously fast to look behind them. 

“Great, the whole death squad- ah!” the boy yelped as JJ twisted his head back around. 

“Just warning you, bro,” JJ stated as he stared at Pope, “If they corner me, I’m coming out swinging, okay. Slice and dicin’. I’m on edge right now.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Pope nodded. 

“Why would you be on edge?” Eli questioned, as both girls stared at the boys with confused expressions. 

“If that doesn’t work,” JJ continued, ignoring the girl. “I got this right here,” he added, raising his backpack. 

“Yeah, yeah. So we just gotta stay in the group,” Pope rambled. “They can’t get us in the group.”

“Like a school of fish.”

“Stay in the school. Stay in school.”

“I’m sorry, JJ…” Kie trailed off. “Please tell me that you did not bring a gun here. JJ, there are kids.”

“No! Kie, I didn’t bring the gun. Everything’s fine, okay?” JJ tried to reassure, but Eli wasn’t convinced.

“Oh, wow, thank you!” Kie sarcastically exclaimed. “That’s really convincing. I love that, JJ.” Eli continued to stare at the two boys  with squinted eyes, who awkwardly looked away from the girls as Kie continued to grill them. “Founding principle, you guys. No secrets amongst Pogues. What is Rafe talking about?”

“Kie, Eli,” Pope spoke up as he leaned over to face the two girls. “It might go down tonight.”

“What are you talking about?” Eli questioned with furrowed brows.

“What does that mean? ‘Might go down tonight.’ What did y’all do?”

The sound of cheering cut them off, their heads turning towards the screen to see a countdown ticking to signal the start of the screening. 

Whilst Kie and Pope chose to settle into their seats and wait for the movie, Eli leaned closer to the blonde boy. 

“What's wrong, J? Are you in trouble?” she questioned with a whisper as she looked up at the boy, who simply shook his head at her with a small smile. 

“Everything is fine, don't worry about it,” he tried to assure, but Eli wasn't having any of it. 

“What are you hiding from me?” she questioned with a slightly raised voice as the sound from the speakers suddenly blared as the movie came to life. “You've never hidden anything from me before.”

“El, I swear it'll be fine-”

“You're really not gonna tell me?” the girl cut off with a disappointed stare. 

“I-” 

“Fine,” she cut off again as she leaned away from the boy, twisting in her seat so she could physically cut the boy off from looking at her. “Don't talk to me unless you're gonna tell me the truth.” 

She huffed as she aggressively shoved her hand into the plastic packaging, grabbing a handful of gummy bears and angrily shoving them into her mouth. If there was one thing Eli was good at, it was at being petty. 

☀︎︎☀︎︎☀︎︎

The movie had been running for about an hour, the sun had fully set, and Eli was about five seconds away from falling asleep. Despite her pact to not talk to the Maybank boy, she partially gave in so she could use his shoulder as a headrest. Technically she wasn't talking to him, so it's fine, right? The least he could do was make sure she could nap comfortably. 

“JJ,” Pope called out in a whisper, grabbing onto and shaking his arm. 

“What?”

“Gotta take a piss,” Pope continued to whisper, but JJ shook his head, causing Eli to grumble at the movement.

“Hold it.” 

Pope huffed. “I can't hold it,” he responded, giving up on the whispering. “I drank too much soda.” 

“It's too exposed.  They'll totally see us!” the blonde exclaimed. 

“God, shut up and stop moving,” Eli complained, lifting her  head and plopping it onto Kie sitting on the other side of her. 

“I gotta go,” Pope continued, much to JJ’s dismay. The two boys turned their heads in the direction of Rafe's group, who seemed to be engrossed in the movie. “They're blocking the bathrooms,” he stated in realisation. 

“Come on, I know where,” JJ suddenly spoke, the two boys quickly getting up to scurry off. 

“Hey, where are y'all going?” Kie questioned with a hushed whisper. 

JJ shrugged. “We gotta wring it out.”

“You gonna hold it for each other?” Kie questioned, an expression of disbelief on her face.

Eli snickered as the boys scurried off, trying to get comfortable in her new position. The sound of gunshots in the movie wasn't doing much to settle the girl. 

“Don't you think they're taking too long?” Kie questioned after a while, causing Eli to finally crack her eyes open, wincing at the brightness of the movie screen.  

“Wait,” Eli began as she twisted her body around, sitting up in alarm as she noticed Rafe and Topper were missing from their seats. “Shit,” she began as she scrambled to her feet, followed by Kie who made sure to grab JJ's backpack before following Eli in the direction the boys had gone off to.

The sound of muffled fighting directed them to behind the screen that the movie was being projected onto, only for them to find Topper beating up Pope and Rafe and Kelce ganging up on JJ. 

“Let go of him, Topper!” Kie yelled as she swung the backpack at his head. “Fascist asshole!” 

Eli made a dash for Rafe who was landing punch after punch to JJ's face. 

“I have had it, you greasy rat bastard,” Eli exclaimed as she jumped onto Rafe's back, arm locking around his neck to try and stop his endless assault against JJ.

“Fucking bitch, get off me!” Rafe yelled as both hands latched onto her arm, simultaneously trying to shake the girl off him. 

The girl shrieked as she lost her grip and fell to the floor, her shoulder colliding with the floor. 

“El!” JJ desperately called out, grunting as Rafe began to pummel him once again.

“This is your final warning, you greasy, shampoo needing fuck,” Eli warned as she pulled herself to her feet, “Get off him.” To her annoyance, Rafe paid no heed to her words. “Don't say I didn't warn you.”

The girl latched both hands onto the arm holding JJ's shirt, and bit down on his forearm. Hard. 

“What the fuck!” Rafe yelled, letting go of JJ and using his free hand to wrap his fingers around her jaw. “Get off me, you freak!” 

“El, just let go!” JJ yelled, who was still held back by Kelce. 

The girl didn't let go, and instead began to further dig her nails into Rafe's arm despite the fingers that began to wrap around her neck. 

The screen began to erupt in flames behind them, the burning heat washing over them and snapping them out of the fight. Screams began to fill the air, with the crowd beginning to run in panic. 

Eli finally let go of Rafe’s arm, taking advantage of his distracted state to land a punch to his nose and disorient him.  She quickly ran over to JJ and grabbed his hand, pulling him over to where Kie and Pope had moved off to.

“You're a freaking idiot,” Pope coughed out as he hunched over, hands on his knees.

“I saved your ass,” Kie laughed out as she threw an arm over his shoulder. 

JJ looked down at his hand still held by Eli, awkwardly shifting on his feet. 

“El-” 

“Let's get outta here,” Eli cut off as she let go of JJ’s hand.  She has had enough for the day. 

~°• ☀︎︎ •°~

eli you're so real girl

Nova x