"Oh, hi." Topper frowned his eyebrows when he opened his door. "You were on the druthers."

"Wheezie said a certain blondie would be here." Rio rose her eyebrows at him. "Not sure she was talking about you though."

"Sarah's in the guest loft." Topper spoke, looking at the fruit basket in her hands. "Do you..."

"Yeah." Rio walked inside as he shut the door behind her. "I just wanted to come see how she was doing."

"Not so good." he said honestly while leading her up the stairs. "How do you guys know each other?"

"Friend of a friends." she explained. "You?"

"Ex." he answered while going for the door.

Rio rose her eyebrows. "Lovely."

Sarah was still asleep, Topper nodded. "I've gotta get to school so..."

"I'll wait till she wakes up so she can lock the door when I leave." Rio nodded to him as Topper grabbed his bag. "Here."

He took the orange she gave. "An orange a day keeps the doctors away."

He gave a small point. "Close."

Rio shut the door of the room as she heard Topper go down the stairs again, setting the basket on the floor as she sat next to Sarah, giving a small shake. "Yo, blonde woman. You still alive?"

She immediately slapped herself in the head with a look of disbelief. "Why would you say that, dumbass?"

"Rio?" Sarah frowned her eyebrows. "What are you doing here?"

"I brought you a basket of fruit." she gave her a small grin. "Well, Kie and I did it together, but she had to go to school."

"Thank you." she sat up with a tired exhaled, looking around. "Topper let you in?"

"He did." she confirmed. "You have good taste in boys. Him and John B are both super cute."

Sarah looked like she was about to smile, but then reality hit her again as she simply laid back in bed. "I don't wanna move from here."

"Don't blame you." she shrugged with an exhale. "I also like to just lay in bed and take a bunch of super cutie selfies, then send them to everyone and talk about how good I look, even when just laying in bed."

Sarah laughed slightly as Rio cracked her a grin. "How are you feeling?"

"I don't really know how to feel." Sarah said honestly. "I just...I wanted John B to understand and be there for me."

Rio wasn't allowed to have much of an input on any of this yet, but she let Sarah say what she wanted to. "And he looked happy, like, he was glad my Dad died and I was literally having a panic attack right infront of him."

In Rios head, she understand John B's side. She wished he'd have been the one to comfort her at least, but she understood where maybe, even though she hadn't seen his face, his joy came from. "I think the both of you need to just take a breather, spend a few days apart, and talk it through. Communicating has gotta mean something."

"I know." Sarah sat up again. "Thank you for coming by. Seriously."

"Well, you're my friend and-" Rio stood up and turned around. "-I wanted to show off how good my butt looked in these shorts!"

Sarah had to laugh as she took an apple and fell back on the bed again.

"There's our girl!" JJ annoyances when Rio gave a dramatic twirl after showing up at the bon fire. "I was wondering when you were gonna show up."

"Miss me?" she hugged him and Pope at once and tried to cause them to fall over.

"Psh, no." Pope lied with a grin, grabbing a solo cup. "Drink?"

"Give me that." JJ snatched it. "She needs a real drink."

"Where's my lovely lady and your young man?" Rio hummed, not being able to spot Kie and John B anywhere.

"Who knows?" JJ handed her the drink. "Very lightly."

"I wouldn't trust it." Pope said as JJ gave a look of disbelief. Rio cracked a grin as Pope laughed, shaking his head. "I wouldn't trust it."

"Wh- no, okay. It's fine. It's fine." JJ shook his head, wrapping his arm around Pope and pulling Rio in closer to them. "We'll all take a sip."

"What? I don't agree." Pope shook his head.

"You're lucky I can pull off even the ugliest of disgusting faces." Rip shook his head, taking a sip as her entire face squeezed up and coughed.

"What'd I tell you?" Pope hummed.

"Nooo." Rio gaged as she pushed it away. "Get me a shirley temple right the hell now."

"It's not-" JJ took a sip, trying to hide a gag. "It's not bad."

"Pope." Rio encouraged him.

"No." He shook his head.

"Come on!" the blonde yelled for him.

"Give into some good old fashion peer pressure!" Rio announced as she laughed.

"Who's gonna be the designated driver?" Pope gave a look of disbelief.

"We'll walk!" JJ encouraged.

"Just one sip." Rio held up a finger. "Uno."

"Singular." JJ agreed, holding his finger up as well.

Pope took a breath, hesitating before taking a manly sip. He turned his head, spitting it out immediately as the fire grew. JJ yanked him back. "Pope, you're gonna set us on fire!"

"That bad?" Rio laughed as she patted his back.

"So bad!" he agreed, shaking his head. "Never again!"

"Needs some water." JJ nodded as he pulled Rio with him. "Some aqua!"

"H2O!" Rio agreed, following close behind.

"Adam's ale." Pope was still coming down from his fit of gagging.

"What!" JJ laughed loudly.

"Who's Adam Ale?" Rio rose an eyebrow

"It's based on the presumption that the biblical first man Adam had only water to drink in the Garden of Eden." Pope explained to the pair as JJ grabbed three water bottles. "It just means water."

"Ah, a Jesus thing." JJ nodded his head. "I went to sunday school."

"Do you guys think that all the things they say in the bible are actually sins?" Rio sat down after taking a gulp of her water, the wind blew her hair back and she looked very pretty.

"No." Pope shook his head, sitting across from her. "I mean, it wouldn't make any sense."

"Yeah, like how can cutting your hair be a sin?" Rio gave a weird look. "Not that I can't pull off some good old fashioned split ends, but i'd rather really rather not be trying to take a piss and my hair falls into the toilet because it's so long."

JJ hummed. "Fantasies image you just gave me, Rio. Appreciate that so much."

"Yeah, or not being a virgin." Pope pointed out. "Doesn't make sense."

"Like, does the big man really care? I can't imagine." Rio shook her head with a knowing look.

"Well, if he does care-" JJ gave a giggle. "See ya in hell."

"See ya in hell!" Rio cheered as she high fived him.

Pope exhaled. "See ya in hell."

A familiar yell came from near the part of the fire they recently walked away from, JJ looked over. "Yo, is that John B?"

"Ah, shit." Pope exhaled as he stood up. "And Topper."

Rio cheered as Pope and JJ went to his rescue, taking the joint JJ had before. "Yeah! Beat his ass, John B! He fucking deserves it! He stole your girlfriend!"

She inhaled on the joint.

•

kylie speaks

the pros of writing a full
book before publishing
the first chapter? still being
able to update every day despite
being a sickly