THREE SOBER UP

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Another weekend, another boneyard party. Helena really was getting sick of this routine, knowing at this rate all of her friends (herself included) would be alcoholics by the time it was even legal for them to be drinking. At least this time, her friends were in a better mood than they were before. Helena had cut herself off a bit ago and was beginning to sober up as the moon began to rise in the sky. She really didn't know what she was doing here, but as long as she got to spend time with her friends she didn't mind too much. Boneyard parties weren't usually this boring, but Helena didn't mind the calm all that much.

"Girl, where's your head?" Tanya interrupted her thoughts as she leaned on her best friend's shoulder, "You're really quiet tonight, what's up?"

Helena shrugged, "Just thinkin' about some things. Do you guys wanna head home soon?"

Every one of the girls nodded, Evie speaking up, "Are you thinking about JJ? I know he took you home last weekend, everything okay with you two?"

"You act like they're actually in a relationship, Eves," Haily piped up with a taunting laugh, "My sister is much too commitment-phobic to partake in such activities. Not to mention JJ is not boyfriend material in any sense of the word. Maybe in middle school, but now? He's gonna end up Cut garbage just like his daddy."

"Don't say that shit about him," Helena exclaimed with teeth bared, surprising herself by jumping to JJ's defense. Normally she just let her friends talk shit about him. After all, he was the embodiment of Pogue trash, but it was only okay when she said it. "Just because he's poor doesn't mean he's not nice. We were poor once, too, Hailey. You always tell me I'm such a rich bitch, but has your faux-communist ass looked in the mirror lately?"

"God, you're such a bitch all the time," Hailey scoffed. She went to stand up, but the alcohol coursing through her veins caused her to stumble enough for Evie to pull her back down. Helena laughed, but there was no humor behind it.

"Can't you guys just be nice to each other for once?" Maude asked, her voice desperate, but her eyes were drawn to something else before anyone else could respond to her question. "Oh, shit, speak of the devil, is that JJ talking to Sarah Cameron? Topper is gonna throttle him, what are they thinking?"

Helana scoffed, "Yeah as if Topper is gonna do anything about it."

However, she was proved wrong as soon as she turned around to see Topper land a punch square in John B's face. So, it appears Topper did have some balls on him; interesting development. John B went down and soon enough a full-fledged fight broke out. The girls stood and began to group together but something in Helena caused her to step forward away from the group.

"Girl, stay out of it," Maude warned, "Alcohol and testosterone? Bad mix."

"It's JJ and John B, how much harm can they really do?" Helena scoffed, but when she turned around apparently the answer was a lot. She had looked away for just a moment, but when she looked back, Topper was holding John B under the waves, but JJ had a gun to his head. "Where the fuck did he get a gun?"

"Helena, we need to leave now," the dark-haired girl instructed, reaching out to her best friend as people ran through the trees to get off the beach. Maude and Tanya were currently holding onto a very drunk Hailey and trying to keep her on her feet while Evie was searching her bag for her keys.

Helena watched the scene with a certain horror as Topper backed up off of John B with his hands raised in surrender while JJ's friends were yelling at him to put the gun down. JJ screamed at the crowd and fired the gun into the air. Kie pushed JJ to the side, but he still didn't calm down. Before she knew what she was doing, Helena was running over there and shoving JJ off of Topper. The boy stumbled and hit the ground, the gun falling onto the sand but it was still within his reach. Gun or not, she wasn't scared of JJ. She picked up the gun, putting the safety back on before handing it over to Kiara who had been watching the scene.

"Don't let him get his hands on that again, please," Helena commented as she looked at the boy struggling to get up from the sand. "JJ, care to tell me what the fuck you were thinking?"

"You're not my girlfriend," JJ spat as he got up from the sand with no help from his friends as they went to go help John B up out of the water. Sarah had taken Topper and ran, but Helena's friends were still watching from a safe distance away. This was not how Helena wanted to spend her Saturday night.

"Yeah and thank fucking God because I would hate to be dating someone who pulls some stupid shit like that," the girl yelled, getting in his face as best she could despite the seven-inch disparity between them. It was times like this that heels would come in handy, but she had taken JJ's advice from last week and not worn them this time. "Where the hell did you get a gun, even?"

JJ scoffed, "None of your business."

"What are you gonna do if someone calls the cops, JJ?" Helena posed the question with a daunting expression on her face, "You think you could afford a lawyer? I can already smell the unlawful possession of a firearm charge. Not to mention if you had actually shot Topper? Know what you get for killing a spoiled little rich boy? A hell of a lot more than 2-10. I knew you were dumb, but I didn't think you were this much of an idiot, JJ."

Helena used to see the good in people. That was part of why her and JJ worked. For all the negativity he carried in his judgments of the people around them, she evened him out. Now, the tables had turned. All she saw when she looked in the mirror was the best in herself and now she saw the worst in everybody else. Right now, she was seeing the worst of JJ. A boy she had once trusted had once again proved why he didn't deserve her trust or even his respect.

"Stop treating me like shit, God, all you do is treat me like shit!" JJ screamed back, taking her by surprise. She was hyper-aware of his friends watching this altercation with eagle eyes as they struggled to get a passed out John B in a position where they could move him.

"Because sometimes you fucking deserve it!" she shouted back, shocking even herself. Words that blatantly hurtful, especially since she knew far too much about JJ's home life for two people who had become strangers, are ones she never expected to leave her mouth. She wasn't even sure she meant it, she just wanted to see how much it hurt him in some sick way. Helena was fuming, but hurting JJ was never meant to be her endgame. Fuck buddy or not, he was human.

His breathing was labored and it was clear all he was seeing was red when he looked at her. Pointing towards the direction of the exit to the roads, he seethed, "Go. The. Fuck. Home. Now."

"I don't take orders from you," she spat, not knowing fully where this anger was coming from. Maybe it was anger buried from the breakup with JJ or maybe it was residual anger from the comments her sister made, but she didn't care anymore. If JJ wanted to demonize her, a demon she would be. "I would never take orders from a low-level halfwit who waves a gun around and thinks that makes him respectable. I don't know who you think you are, JJ, but I certainly don't know who you are anymore and right now looking at your face makes me sick."

Through the anger, she could see the sadness in his eyes. She was fairly sure hers would reflect similar emotions, but she would not be as careless as to give that away. He took a step towards her, but for every step he took, she took one back. Helena knew she shouldn't be thinking like this simply because of how monumentally pissed they both were, but he did look kind of hot like this.

Probably the most surprising turn of the night was that JJ's expression softened, "You're really hot when you're being mean to me."

"God, you're the fucking worst. Go home, sober up, and don't ever pull a gun on a Kook ever again you fucker," she exclaimed, but she hated how much that idiotic comment made her heart flutter. There was a time and a place for that shit and this was certainly not it. She didn't give JJ room for the last word before she turned and stomped away back towards her friends who were all watching with more than displeased expressions.

"Helena--" Maude started to say, but Helena cut her off.

"Let's just get the hell out of here."

helena has such big dick energy in this chapter i cannot believe