hannah's pov

"okay but can we like actually talk about it for once," jj begged his friends, "like not just deny all of my ideas and actually take some time to consider them."

"jj he's-" kiara began only to be cut off.

"say dead one more time," jj snapped.

the blonde was trying to get the group to sit down and listen to him talk as we all ate our dinner at the now empty wreck. i knew how passionate he was about john b, it was clear to me over the past few weeks that we've been talking to each other. however, i knew kiara and pope were not so adamant in the matter.

it's not that the two friends didn't love the missing boy just as much as jj did, that was evident in the way their faces lit up whenever they would talk about him. it was because i think they had lost hope since it had been so long since the incident, and they didn't want to hold onto the pain for any longer.

i knew it was hard for them to feel like they could conclude his death and it was just as hard, if not harder for jj to not let john b go just yet. i could never imagine losing someone who i loved that dearly and i could tell it was breaking him.

you could just see the pain in his face as he urged kiara and pope to listen to him about creating a plan.

i sat at the counter with my legs crossed, biting my lip nervously as i watched jj pace around the room. he watched his two friends who were seated at one of the tables.

"you know what this is," ki began, "concocting."

"ki-"

"just like john b did last summer. and i'm not going to let you go down that rabbit hole," she stated.

"the concocting wasn't the problem and you know that," jj said sternly. he glanced over at me for a moment before turning his attention back to the two. i could tell from his many glances that he was nervous and i think it was because the crew hadn't told me all that there was to last summers events.

i didn't blame them though, i knew it would be hard to relive. and it wasn't like i wasn't keeping secrets of my own. so i didn't want them to tell me if they didn't feel comfortable.

"fine let's hear it," pope said all of a sudden.

"i-what?" jj stopped pacing, not expecting his friend to let him speak so easily.

"go ahead."

"okay, listen what we all want to know is how much the sheriff's department is actually working on john b's case, right?" jj asked his friends.

"right," they replied.

"and obviously they won't tell us shit after the many dreadful attempts," jj muttered.

"oh you mean like when you came up with the idea to have an absolute meltdown in front of them and instead of telling you anything they tried to boot you from the chateau?" kiara questioned sarcastically.

"whatever," jj said, "what i'm saying is, what if we got the information about john b'a case ourselves?"

pope sat up straight at this, "you mean like break into the sheriff's department and-"

"-find the case files to see the progress?" jj finished for the boy. "yes that exactly what i mean."

"jj that's-" pope started to say.

"kind of a good idea," kiara mumbled.

"what?!" pope exclaimed, looking at the girl with wild eyes.

i took the liberty of hopping off my stool and joining them at the table at this point. i was excited to hear jj finally let out everything that had been keeping him in a daze recently.

"look he's got a point," ki began, "we all want to know how shitty of a job the cops are doing, and if they've found any evidence at all."

"yeah and what if their evidence led us to something we could actually use to find him?" jj added.

pope sat in silence for a moment, i'm assuming to ponder the information his friends had presented to him.

"well if we were to agree to this shenanigan..." pope began.

"which you should," jj interrupted.

"let me finish," the boy scolded. "if we were to agree how would we even pull it off? it's a sheriff's department for god's sake."

"well you're the brains of the group," jj said, patting pope on the shoulder, "so let's hear it."

"of course you didn't think it through," pope mumbled.

"hey, hey, hey, we all have our own strengths here," jj scoffed. he then pulled up a chair to the table and sat down next to me, proceeding to grab my hand under the counter. i smiled at his small gesture.

"pope," kiara began, addressing the boy she was looking at, "i don't know about you but... but i want answers."

pope took a deep breath before nodding his head, "me too."

i bit my lip as i looked over at jj who had the biggest grin on his face. i couldn't be more happy for him, and i squeezed his hand to show it.

"we'd have to go on a friday," pope began, "around midnight. most cops are busting parties so we'd have the best chance of not getting caught then."

"next friday?" jj suggested.

"midsummers," kiara muttered, rolling her eyes.

"midsummers?" i repeated not knowing what she was talking about.

"yeah its a kook event, surprised you don't know about it yet," she explained. "basically it's a preppy dress up party for all the rich people and i am forced to go every year since i.. you know."

"oh," i replied, "my aunt's probably going to make me go then i guess."

"so next friday's off the table if we're both out," kiara started, "so how about the following weekend?"

the two boys agreed and the group started to discuss roles in the plan.

"okay so kiara and i will be look outs," pope went on.

"oh yeah because you were just such good look outs when the cops almost busted our asses at the motel last summer," jj scoffed. i furrowed my brows at him but he just gave me an 'i'll tell you later' look in return.

"whatever," pope grumbled, "and you and hannah will go into the sheriff's office."

"does she have to come with me?" jj immediately interjected. i thought it was cute that he was concerned about me getting involved, because i knew he was just looking out for me.

"if the cops bust your ass there's no way you can be the one to get yourselves off the hook, they'd never believe a word you'd say. and your dad..."

"pope," jj said tersely.

pope paused for a moment before continuing, "look there's nothing better than a crying kook girl to get y'all out of it."

my breath hitched, "y-you think we could be caught?"

"i mean.." pope trailed off. "listen, you can probably weasel your way out of it and if you can't kiara's dad will like bail you out right away."

"but that's not going to happen," jj said as he glared at pope and then looked at me. "i'm not going to let that happen."

"then i guess two friday's from now we'll be breaking into the sheriff's office," kiara stated, smirking.

jj grinned and then whistled, "pope?"

the boy nodded as well, agreeing to the plan. then the three glanced over at me.

"hannah?" jj said, the look he gave me would have literally made my knees give out if i was standing. i knew how much this meant to him.

the thought of getting caught was scaring the shit out of me but before my mind could even decide for myself, i was nodding my head. the smile on jj's face was enough to ease my nerves.

"okay now that that's settled would y'all please take your interlocked hands out from under the table and admit to us that you're together," kiara bluntly asked.

before i even had time to react to what the girl had said, jj pulled my hand from underneath the table and placed our interlocked fingers in front of the two friends for them to see.

"we're together," he said rather quickly.

kiara widened her eyes not expecting jj to be so open with his life and to be honest, neither did i. i thought it would take some heavy convincing on my part to get the blonde to finally tell his friends about our relationship.

"well okay then," kiara smiled, nodding her head looking impressed.