TEN ABOUT TIME

◥✥◤

Kie's hand poked out of the hole in the mausoleum, handing a package off to Pope before passing over the lantern so she could crawl back through. It wasn't the prize they expected, although Helena wasn't really sure what they had been expecting in the first place.

"That's not gold," Pope muttered as he handed the package off to John B who took it carefully, brushing it off as he read the words written in sharpie. For Bird it said.

"Holy shit," the boy spoke, his voice filled with awe as he looked down at the package, "This is from my dad."

JJ, who hadn't been paying attention to the rest of them as he smoked off to the side was suddenly alert as he exclaimed, "Code red, code red! Square groupers! Square groupers!"

"Go!" Kie exclaimed as the group ran. The blond boy ran over to Helena and placed a gentle hand on the small of her back as they ran and hid behind the mausoleum way from where the headlights were shining right where they had just been standing.

"It's the guys who robbed your house," JJ said, turning to John B.

"The guys who what?" Helena exclaimed with a gasp, "What kinda shit are you guys getting into?"

Kie sighed, running a hand through her hair, "You don't even know the half of it."

Pope rushed to turn off all of their flashlights, yelling, "Light! Your light!"

She watched as JJ and Pope poked their heads around the corner quietly and carefully, Kie asking, "Do you really think it's them?"

"There's no way, how would they know we were here?" the blonde asked. Then again, she didn't really know enough about this to be asking such a question, but she was internally freaking out so she had to figure out some way to calm herself down and denial seemed to work just fine.

They were waiting with bated breath, ready to be discovered, when Kie stood up and ran, "Screw this."

Of course, the rest of them followed. They reached the wall and JJ didn't hesitate before giving Helena a boost to get over the wall. When she got to the top, she helped pull him up and they jumped over, second to last. Still getting over the fence was Pope, but their pursuers were gaining on them.

"Hurry up!" JJ exclaimed as he pushed Helena in the direction of the van.

"Go, go!" Kie shouted as she held the door open, ushering Helena inside as they waited for Pope who was now stuck on the top of the fence. "Shit."

"Guys, I'm stuck!" came Pope's worried voice. JJ, who was about to get into the van, ran back to help along with Kie. For some reason, JJ pulled out the gun.

"Jesus Christ, JJ, give that to me," Helena scoffed, "My parents are wealthy Republicans, at least I know how to use this shit."

John B wrestled the gun out of the boy's hands and handed it to Helena for safekeeping, "I trust you with it more than him."

Helena smiled and made sure the safety was on before tossing it back into the van and away from JJ. Meanwhile, Pope had ripped his shorts off in his attempt to get down the fence while being caught by Kie. Helena held in a laugh at the piece of cloth stuck on the fence.

"Nice! Come on!" JJ cheered as they all ran back to the van. Piling in, Kie slammed the door shut and they fell back as John B began driving as quickly as he could. The blond turned back to Helena with a smile, "You know how to shoot a gun?"

"My dad doesn't force me to go to the range for nothing," Helena scoffed, "He says I need to know how to defend myself. I tell him that's what the nails are for."

Kie laughed at this, grabbing the gun off of the floor where Helena had thrown it and shoving it back in the bag, "Rich people are ridiculous."

"Kie, you're rich," Pope exclaimed with a bewildered tone, "If anyone gets to say that rich people are ridiculous, it's me and the boys."

"The boys?" the blonde girl laughed outwardly at this, shaking her head, "Now that's ridiculous. Also, JJ, babe, can you guys drop me off at home? All due respect to your... quest or whatever, but I'm gonna get murdered by my bitch of a sister if I'm out any later."

John B nodded as he drove, "Yeah, yeah, happy to provide the escape route for you. Even though you don't even like us."

"I like you fine," Helena scoffed, "I mean we all used to be friends, right?"

"Yeah, used to," Pope muttered, but it didn't go unnoticed by the girl. She pouted, but she didn't want to say anything further. Helena didn't think that money had changed her that much, but apparently, it had since there was such a disconnect here. It was like they forgot she was like them once, too, but she couldn't blame them. Sometimes she forgot, too.

"Sorry," she mumbled, giving in to the silence that fell over the van. When they pulled up outside of her house, they didn't say much as she hopped out of the van. "Thanks for the ride."

"Helena!" JJ called, getting out to follow her. "Wait, wait, lemme walk you up. Dangerous neighborhood and all."

Helena scoffed, but let the boy follow her anyway. "Your friends hate me."

"They don't hate you!" JJ exclaimed, but the hesitation in his voice was loud and clear, "They just don't know you yet! I'm sure deep down... deep, deep, deep down, there's a very nice person in you. They just need to get to know you!"

"You're an asshole," the girl shook her head and smack the boy's chest gently, but she kissed him anyway because he felt like home. She knew she was wandering into girlfriend territory more than she wanted to, but she couldn't stop. JJ was addicting and she didn't know why. She was fairly sure she heard faint barfing noises coming from the van.

"You like me," JJ scoffed once they pulled apart, standing across from each other on her doorstep. "Don't let Hailey kill you, I wanna get to kiss you again."

"Don't say gross shit like that, goodnight," Helena laughed at the boy's offended expression, kissing it off his face before digging for her key and inserting it in the door. Before she pushed it open she looked at him one more time, saying, "Thank you. For tonight."

He mock-saluted, smiling, and saying, "Any time, princess."

The girl shook her head, pushing open the door and watching as the boy walked away and back to the van. Her house was dark and she could only assume her father had gone to bed, but she knew Hailey would be waiting up for her like she usually did. She was dreading it, but she was also in a good mood from seeing JJ so she wasn't sure how much damage Hailey would actually do.

Her suspicious were proved correct when she entered her room and the light was already on, Hailey waiting for her.

"About time," the girl muttered as she stood up and met her sister face to face in the doorway. "I don't know what it is about that stupid boy or why he makes you so happy, but if... ugh, this kills me, if he is what you want... for now, then I won't force you to do anything you don't want to do. Clearly, he's got some magic dick or something, but whatever. I guess I'm just gonna have to wait for this to burn out on its own since you refuse to listen to me."

"Aw, so sweet of you," Helena's voice dripped with sarcasm as she stepped aside to let her sister out of her room. "What caused this oh-so-magical change of heart?"

Hailey glared at her as she stood in the doorway before leaving, explaining, "I don't know what it is, but when you were fucking running away from me, I've never seen you look happier. And I don't... I don't want to push you away from me."

"Could have fooled me."

"I think mom's cheating on dad," Hailey burst out, causing Helena to freeze in her spot. The girl's voice was strained like the words were hard for her to say. "And I want... I want you to have someone to look up to, a woman to look up to since she failed at being that for us. So, I'm gonna stop being so... controlling. I don't wanna lose you the way she's losing us."

Helena didn't know what to say to such a thing considering if she knew Hailey at all, she didn't know how long this spout of kindness was going to last. The girls were always hot and cold with each other, but this felt... real.

She nodded, "Okay. I won't... I won't run from you anymore, then. This will go both ways."

"Okay, yeah," Hailey forced a smile, "Uh, goodnight, Hels."

"Night, Hail."

it's been a hot second since i updated this but people kept telling me to update which automatically makes me want to take longer to update so blame those people if you got tired of waiting