"GOTTA BE DONE BEFORE MY SCHOLARSHIP INTERVIEW IN THE MORNING." Kie, Pope, and Bree were in Heyward's truck that they had borrowed to drive to the Chateau so that they could work on the plans to get the rest of the gold. They also had a whole contraption to build before the Heyward boy had his scholarship meeting the morning after they planned to get the gold.

Kie nodded. "Okay, well, we gotta focus."

"I know. It's gonna be fine," he assured them as he parked the car and they began to climb out. "We got John B and JJ inside the well, and me and Bree up at top. You and Sarah will be outside transporting. Uh, also, I got a winch. That tin can hold over like...200, 300 pounds."

"Thanks," the Carrera girl told him as he gestured to the supplies in the trunk of the truck. Their voices were drowned out by the Callaway girl as she looked around the property and noticed something hanging from the trees.

She muttered, "What the fuck?" The other two weren't paying attention though because they were too busy making goo-goo eyes at each other to notice that she was not listening to a word they were saying.

Fairy light turned on above them, and they went silent and looked around to see the lights strung up on all of the trees, giving the place a magical look. The sound of running water reached their ears and Kie stepped forward. "Who the hell is that?"

They walked over, pushing through the trees with Bree in front of all of them, and the Callaway girl widened her eyes when she saw JJ sitting there in a lit-up hot tub with a bunch of glasses of champagne floating around in flamingo drink holders. He popped a cork and stared at them over his sunglasses.

"What did you do, JJ?" Pope asked with a concerned expression.

"I got a jet going straight in my butt right now," was all the Maybank boy said in reply, and the brunette girl could immediately tell that something was wrong. He began pouring glasses for all of them. "Y'all should get in here immediately, you hear me? Salud!"

The Heyward boy was worried about something else. "How much did this cost?"

"Uh...Well, with the generator, the petrol, and oh, hey, express delivery...pretty much all of it, yeah," the blonde boy answered with a chuckle, and his friends' jaws dropped.

Pope questioned as if he hadn't heard him correctly. "All of it? You spent all the money in one day?"

"Yeah, burned a hole right through my pocket. But, I mean, like, come on, guys, like, look at this! Finest in jet-based massage therapy, that's what they told me," he explained, and he frowned when he saw the look on the Callaway girl's face, his voice beginning to crack. "Come on, Bree. Don't give me that look. I can't stand it when you give me that look. Can't a man have a little luxury in his life? Come on, all this scrimpin' and scrapin'...I mean, like...guys, we — You only live once, right? Enough of this emotional shit. Get in the Cat's Ass. Come on."

"In the what?" the brown-haired girl questioned with furrowed eyebrows. He was not making any sense at that moment.

"In the Cat's Ass. That's what I named her. Oh, hey, yo, I almost forgot," he informed them, reaching over and flicking a button that lowered a disco ball and made the tub shoot out water like a fountain. "Huh? Yeah, that's right, I know. Disco mode. That's right, baby!"

Pope was still so confused and angry, and frankly, Bree was confused as well. But she was also mostly worried. "Are you kidding me? You could have paid for restitution!"

"Or literally given it to any charity!" Kie added.

The brunette girl stayed silent and just stared at the boy in front of her. Something was most definitely wrong. He reached a hand up to his forehead, massaging it in frustration as Pope spoke up. "Or better yet, you could have helped us buy supplies to get the rest of the gold out of the well."

"Okay, well, you know what?" the Maybank boy shouted, standing up, causing all of them to freeze in their places when they saw what he revealed. "I didn't do that!"

There were bruises all across his torso, and they were deep purples and browns. The Callaway girl was in shock, her jaw hanging low as she glanced between the boy's face and the marks across his stomach. They looked really bad, which made her wonder how long they had been there and how he'd gotten them. The answer came to mind quickly though.

His dad.

"I got a hot tub! For my friends. I got a hot tub for my friends. You know what? No, you know what? Screw friends. I got a hot tub for my family!" he shouted at them.

While Bree remained completely speechless as she looked at him with pity in her eyes, Kie exclaimed, "JJ, what the hell?"

"I got this for you! Guys, look what I did for you! All right? Look at this! Look at this!" he ordered them, but none of them were focused on his voice or his words at that moment.

Bree breathed out, "JJ."

"No, you stop being emotional. It's fine, okay? I mean, it's sweet, right? Everything..." he trailed off. He was crying now, and the brunette girl did not waste any time in kicking off her shoes and pushing herself up on the side of the tub. "Just get in!"

She pulled him into the tightest hug she had ever given anyone in her entire life, and they both started sobbing as he wrapped his arms around her waist. She was there. He was hurting, and she was there, and that was all that mattered in the world.

 "I just couldn't do it. I can't take him anymore! I was gonna kill him." After a couple of seconds, Kie and Pope climbed in with them, and they were all wrapped up in each other. "I just wanna do the right thing."

"I know. I know," Bree muttered to him.

They stayed like that for a while, the Pogues, holding each other, and at that moment, Bree knew that these were her best friends in the world. Like JJ said, they were family. They were all broken in some way, shape, or form, but they knew that they would always be there to catch each other when they fell.

《✵》

AFTER EVERYONE WENT TO SLEEP, BREE WAS STILL WIDE AWAKE. She sat up on the bed, careful not to wake Kie who was lying next to her, and she looked out the window, prepared to be met with the waves and the stars. She furrowed her eyebrows when she saw the silhouette of JJ swinging in the hammock outside with a beer in his hand as he took a sip from it. His shoulders were slumped, and he seemed pretty upset.

She stood up, grabbing her jacket from the arm chair next to the bed, and made her way out there. She opened and closed the door as quietly as she possibly could and wrapped her jacket  tighter around her when she felt the cool summer breeze wash over her.

He didn't look up when he heard her approach. He simply slid over a bit so that she could lay down next to him, her feet by his head and vice versa. He had put on a tank top to cover the bruises, but she remembered exactly where they were and could practically see them through the fabric. He held out a beer, and she took it gladly, opening it with ease. They just sat like that for a couple minutes, drinking their beers and looking out at the ocean.

"It's not your fault." JJ was the one to break the silence. 

She turned her head back to him and met his eyes with furrowed eyebrows and a confused expression as she took another sip of her beer. She questioned, "What?"

"It's not your fault," he repeated as if she was asking because she didn't hear him, but they both know that wasn't why. He placed a hand on her knee in comfort, and she became suddenly aware of his entire left side touching her entire left side.

She sighed before asking again, still a bit confused. "What are you talking about?"

"I can see it in your eyes," he explained, gesturing to her eyes as he did so. "You blame yourself for not knowing, for not noticing it earlier in your bedroom. I just wanted to let you know that it's not your fault."

"I should've noticed," she insisted, giving in.

He shrugged, taking another sip of his beer and gazing at her with a look that showed her that he was being completely serious, not just joking around like usual. "I didn't want you to know."

"Well, being your friend isn't about doing what you want," she told him. She was being incredibly cheesy, and they both could tell. "It's about doing what you need."

"Oh, so we're friends now?" he quizzed with raised eyebrows and an amused expression.

She rolled her eyes at how stupid he was being, fighting the urge to kick him in the back of the head with her foot. "Of course, we're friends. Hell, we might even be best friends?"

"Best friends?" he asked, a smirk appearing on his face.

She sighed, already regretting that she had said that at all because she knew that it would just inflate his ego, and that was the absolute last thing that they needed. "Yeah...I guess."

"So, we're, like, BFFs? Besties?" he questioned, putting his arms behind his head so that he could rest on them, and he missed the frown he got from the brunette girl when his hand left her leg.

She groaned, "Oh, my God. Just forget I said anything."

 "We should make bracelets and have sleepovers," he suggested excitedly and sarcastically, teasing her with a smile. " And make little matching seashell picture frames."

"Will you shut up?" she demanded, and this time, she actually kicked him in the back of the head. He did not seem all that phased by it and just shook it off with a shrug.

His eyes widened in mischief as an idea to add came to mind, and Bree shook her head, already knowing that it was going to be stupid. "Can we have a tea party? Please?"

"Goodnight," she told him, and she told herself that she was going to get up and go back to bed. However, it was really late, and she was really tired. She just couldn't bring herself to get up.

It did not look like he was bothered by the fact that she wasn't leaving. "I love myself a good tea party."

"You're an idiot," she muttered before leaning back in the hammock with her eyes closed, and JJ did the same, pulling his hat to cover his face, the smile never leaving it as they slowly drifted to sleep.