𝐒𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓
𝟐𝟐:𝟓𝟕 - 𝟑𝟔:𝟓𝟎
𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘨: 𝘪𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 » 𝘤𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘳𝘴

❦

THIRD PERSON POV:

The three remaining Pogues stand in their boat, staring up at the large house belonging to Ward Cameron in search for their best friend. The teenagers had no clue that the boy had returned to the Chateau so continued to search for him elsewhere.

"What now?" JJ speaks through the night, "We just go up to the front door and ask, 'Hey, have you seen John B?'."

"Look, he lives at Tannyhill now." Kiara snaps, "It's plausible. Look, we can play dumb."

"Play dumb?" JJ scoffs, turning around to face her, holding in his laugh; known her that if Ava is there, she'd be laughing her ass off at the assumption.

"It's pretty late." Pope shrugs.

Kie turns to the boy behind the wheel, "Look, I've never seen John B like that, and it's making Ava much worse too. We should honesty be going to the cops."

"The cops— Yeah, and say what, Kie?" JJ straightens up, head tilted, "We're worried about our friend because he's on a rampage. because Ward Cameron killed Big John? Like, they're not gonna fuckin' believe us! And if Ava was here, you know she'd agree."

"Hey, I see Ward." Pope waves his hand, lowering his binoculars from his eyes before passing them over to Kiara, "Doesn't look dead to me. Let's go home."

"What?" Kie's eyes widen and she snaps her head angrily to the boy, eyebrows furrowed.

"Uh. . . okay." He sighs, "Obviously, Mr. Cameron is fine, and even if John B was here, he isn't now. Plus, I have the biggest, most important moment of my life in six hours."

"Yeah," Kie purses her lips, "Well, our friends are in trouble!"

"I'm in trouble." He replies quickly, "Guys, I haven't been home in three days. My dad's probably put all my shit on the street by now."

"Okay, so that's it?" She looks at him urgently, "In a time of need, you're just gonna bail? You're just gonna walk away?"

JJ rolls his shoulders back, adjusting the position of the hat on his head, "Okay, yo, guys, can we not do this right now?"

Inside, he's dying to go back to Ava and make sure that she's actually okay. He felt bad enough leaving her earlier, but along with that they can't find her brother. He goes and places himself down on the edge of the boat, his head in his hands as he continues to listen to the other two Pogues argue.

"Hey, I have a scholarship interview in the morning." Pope says desperately, "I can't—"

"Okay," Her voice raises as she cuts him off, "Well, what about John B?"

He rolls his eyes, throwing his arms up in the air, "Why is it always about John B?"

She hesitates for a moment, swallowing thickly, "It's not always about John B. You're so stupid. It would be any of you in this situation—"

"Oh, bull-shit." He snarls.

"This is about friendship." She steps closer, "This is about Pogues for life!"

Pope leans forward, "What about forensic pathology, huh? It's my life. Everything I've worked for."

"That's your priority?" She raises her voice.

"Stop the moral high ground bull shit!" He shouts, his face centimetres away from hers.

"Pope, come—" JJ attempts to butt in, but he's shoved out again by the boy's anger.

"No." Pope turns to the blonde, "No. She has no room to talk." He faces her again, "Where were you when Big John went missing? You weren't there. You weren't there for John B and Ava. You weren't there for any of us." He scoffs, "Remember your Kook year? Yeah, you forgot about us."

She starts smacking his chest, and he returns the action, their hands smacking weakly against each other.

JJ shoots up, rushing over to the pair, shoving them apart, "Cut it out, alright? If I'm the one mediating, we've hit rock fuckin' bottom." He glares at Pope while moving behind the wheel, "Go to the Bow, now. And I'll drop you off."

JJ sighs heavily, shoving his hat back onto his head, flicking on the engine of the boat; his mind begging for Ava to be by his side again.

❦

Ava shoots awake at the nose of several footsteps marching up the dock where'd she had been sleeping. Her exhausted eyes land on Kiara and John B walking towards, mumbling back and forth but JJ trudges behind them silently, his gaze trained on the sleepy girl, "Ava?" He questions, kneeling down beside her.

She hums, slowly pushing herself into a standing position and he follows her, lifting her up and placing her gently on the horiztontal beam, silently sitting beside her while the other two Pogues talk.

Ava's eyes float down to the cig in the blonde's hand, smiling up at him brightly and he chuckles lowly, digging into his shorts pocket, "You can just ask." He rolls his eyes, handing her a cigarette and being kind enough to light it for her.

"Thanks, J," She mumbles, turning her head slightly to look over at her brother, "Where did you go?"

"Back to the gold well," He replies, "Ward took the last of the fucking gold."

Her mouth follows open and a cloud of smoke is released while she sighs heavily in disbelief, "So, he's got everything. You sure?"

He nods firmly, laying lazily down on the floor, his head resting on a life jacket, "Every bar. The whole enchilada." He roughly pulls his damaged cast off, throwing it to the side carelessly, "Look, it's not like I expected a happy ending or some shit."

"John B—" Kie sits up straighter, quickly being cut off.

"What, Kie?" He holds up his exposed wrist, shrugging, "It's a hairline fracture. Who cares?"

She scoffs, rolling her eyes, "You should care. Your arm's gonna be messed up for life."

John B sighs, wiggling his fingers and rolling the joint to prove his point, "It's fine. See?"

Ava glares at her stupid brother for a moment before averting her gaze to the water below her, watching as a hand makes it way onto her thigh, squeezing it gently and causing her to look up at the blonde, both of their eyebrows furrowed.

"You okay? Not exactly like you to not be talking." He questions quietly, leaning in slightly while he searches her face for an answer, his eyes now full of worry when he doesn't recieve an answer, "Ava. Are you okay? And, tell me the truth. No bullshit."

She exhales, letting out the intoxicating air she'd been holding in for far too long and bites her lip anxiously, "Truthfully, no," She speaks in a hushed voice, her gaze trailing down to his soft grip on her leg, his thumb rubbing circle on her thigh, "Are you okay?"

"The whole of last night I was shitting myself because none of us knew where you were," He replies, he swallows, "Then Kie and Pope had an argument about his scholarship, so that was fun."

She chuckles lowly, "It sounds it."

"GUYS!" An out of breath scream screeches down the dock and their heads to whip over to notice Pope waving his arms frantically, his flip-flops smacking agaisnt the wood as he sprints over, "Guys," Finally, he reaches them bending over slightly to regain his breath, "OH. Oh, God. I ran all the way here," He breathes.

"How was the interview, Pope?" Ava asks, looking back over her shoulder at the exhausted boy with a smile, "Did it go well?"

"Don't— Don't ask." He pants, turning to the other twin, "JB. Look, I'm sorry, dude. About— about everything. But— but I don't have a lot of time, and I have information that is tactically relevant. So, before I had my interview, my dad said he was going down to the private airstrip to cut palms for Cameron's big plane. Because it was too heavy, it needed a longer landing strip to take off," He explains quickly, waving his arms around, "So, I'm there sitting in my interview, thicking to myself, 'Hm. Why would Cameron need a longer airstrip to take off? What could be so heavy to weigh it down?'"

John B sits up slowly, realisation hitting him and his mouth falls open. The two blonde Pogues slowly look over at each other, wide eyed and they both mumble in unison, "Gold."

"Exactly!" Pope claps at Ava and JJ, "Guys, this is our chance, but it leaves tonight, and we have to go."

Ava swings her legs around the beam, jumping down and pulling Pope into a short hug, a smile beaming from ear to ear, "Guys, we can not give up now. Not when we're so fucking close."

JJ smiles at the girl's excitement, standing beside her and pulling her into his side happily while turning to John B, "What's the plan, big man?"

"We're gonna steal that shit back." He smirks.

Ava twirls out of JJ's grip, putting her cigarrette out before heading down the docks, motioning from them to follow with Kiara by her side, "Come on, boys!" The blonde calls out, speeding up when she hears JJ start to catch up.

His arms wrap around her waist from behind and she lets out a yell while he laughs happily, continuing to run while her legs flail around in attempt to get free, "We're doing it, baby!" The blonde boy shouts, swirling them both around in a circle.

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it's the runway next 💃💃