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❝ sylvie, stop staring ❞
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𝘚𝘺𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘦'𝘴 𝘗𝘖𝘝

"Did you beat Joshua up?" I ask JJ, playing with a teddy bear as we lay on his bed.

"Did he tell you that?" JJ asks me.

"He said a blonde haired blue eyed friend of mine beat him unconscious and I knew it was you" I explain, turning my head to look at him.

"Ouch" He chuckles.

"JJ" I warn him and he sighs.

"Yeah, I beat his ass and I'd do it again" He admits.

"Why?" I ask with a frown and JJ rolls onto his stomach, looking down at me.

"He hurt my girl" The blonde states and butterflies erupt in my stomach.

"You can't go around beating up everyone that hurts my feelings, J" I tell him.

"Watch me, angel" He smirks, leaning down to place a light kiss on my lips.

He then jumps off the bed and I sit up, ignoring the dull pain in my side.

"Where are you going?" I ask with a frown.

"The shed. Come on" He answers, throwing a shirt at me.

I smile, slipping on the navy blue button up and placing the teddy on the bed before following him out to the yard. He opens the shed door and I pause, looking at the worn down green paint.

"I thought you painted this red?" I ask and he rolls his eyes.

"I'm getting to that, angel" He tells me, gesturing for me to go inside.

I stroll inside and the first thing I see is a large white sheet over the worktable.

"What's under the sheet?" I ask curiously, looking at him.

"Why don't you take a look?" He grins, crossing his arms over his chest.

I slowly walk over to the table and gently tug the sheet downwards. The sheet hits the floor, revealing a newly painted surfboard. The board is a snow white while the edges are a cherry red, my favourite colour, and there are red flowers painted down the middle. I turn to JJ in awe and he smiles.

"For me?" I ask, my voice just above a whisper and he nods.

"Turn it around" He says.

I gently flip the board and on the underside it has 'angel' painted on it in red.

"JJ, you shouldn't have" I tell him, my eyes shining with happy tears.

"But I wanted to" He replies, wrapping his arms around me from behind and laying his chin on my shoulder.

"I really love it" I smile happily.

"I'm glad" He grins, kissing my cheek.

✯¸.•'*¨'*•༻❁༺•*'¨*'•.¸✯

I lean against the side of JJ's house as he practices his shooting skills by shooting the teddy bear I was hugging earlier, much to my distaste.

"JJ!" I hear Pope shout.

"What was that?" JJ asks the teddy rhetorically, ignoring the yelling due to the fact he can't hear Pope because of his noise cancelling headphones.

"JJ!" Pope hollers as JJ fires another shot.

"That's what I thought, man" JJ states making me roll my eyes and grab the nearest pebble I can find.

I throw it at him and he jumps, spinning to me in disbelief.

"Sylvie, I could have shot you!" He scolds me, pulling off his headphones.

I point at a distressed looking Pope walking towards us and JJ turns his head looking at Pope in confusion.

"They know" Is all Pope says.

"What?" JJ asks.

"They know" Pope repeats himself.

"All right, chill, bro. All right? They don't know shit" JJ assures him.

"Topper knows I sunk his boat" Pope worries.

"Why do you think that, Popey?" I ask him.

"Rafe and Topper posted outside of Heyward's and mad dogged me" He answers.

"Oh, fuck" I curse.

"Will you calm down and get a grip, man? They don't know shit" JJ scoffs.

"They have cameras. They could've seen me" Pope exclaims.

"There was no power. How could they have seen you?" JJ asks.

"JJ, the generators" I remind him in worry.

"They don't give scholarships to kids who vengefully sink boats. It's not a good look on my transcript!" Pope panics.

"Enough with the regret, bro. They caved your face in. They could have broke Sylvie's ribs!" JJ barks, pointing at me in anger.

"They hit us, we hit them. It's the law of the jungle. Now, if any Kooks come up to you and ask if you had anything to do with it, you walk up to em, look em right in the eye, and..." JJ drawls off looking back at me.

"Deny the living shit out of it" I finish for him.

"That's right. Deny, deny, deny" JJ says.

"But just for safety, we don't go anywhere without protection" He adds, pointing at his gun which is laying on a tree stump.

"All right?" The blonde asks and Pope nods.

✯¸.•'*¨'*•༻❁༺•*'¨*'•.¸✯

Kiara leads JJ, Pope and I through crowds of people to find a place to watch the movie from.

She dragged us here since today they are showing an old movie on a huge big projector screen.

"I'm so glad that they're still doing this. Keep calm. Carry on. Back to OBX life, you know? Aren't you guys glad that I made you come?" Kiara smiles.

"Ecstatic" Pope says sarcastically.

"Meh" I answer nonchalantly.

"My couch was pretty comfy, I'll be honest" JJ shrugs as we set up chairs.

"We're out of the green zone, man" Pope whispers to JJ worriedly.

"Dude, tranquilo, okay?" JJ huffs.

"We're in the middle of Kooklandia. This is the last place I wanted to be" Pope hisses.

"Shut up, Pope" JJ snaps.

"Hey, Kie. Sodas?" I suggest and she grins.

"Sure, let's go" She says.

She turns and I shoot both boys a harsh glare, hoping they'll get the message to shut the fuck up in front of Kiara.

We reach the refreshments stand and I stand next to Kiara as she speaks.

"Hey, uh...can I get three Pepsi's, please?" She asks the man politely.

"Sure" The man replies, handing her the cans.

"Hey, Kie" I hear a voice and my whole body freezes up.

"Runt" Rafe greets me, looking me up and down.

"Hey, what's up?" He says "How are you?"

"We're fine" Kiara replies with a shrug.

"Good, good. Um... runt?" He turns to me.

"Psycho" I reply simply hoping he doesn't hear the fear in my voice.

"Tell your boy that we know what he did" Rafe states and my stomach twists in worry.

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about" I deny, acting clueless.

"Sorry, what boy are you talking about?" Kiara butts in.

"Uh, he'll know" Rafe assures her.

Kiara hands the vendor the money and storms off, tugging me with her.

"Bye!" Rafe calls out.

"Douche" Kiara spits.

She hands me a can of Pepsi as we reach the boys and I slip my hand from her hold, knowing that if she holds me too long then she'll realise how anxious I am.

"We just saw Rafe, and he said, and I quote, 'Tell your boy that we know what he did'. What is that?" Kiara asks them, handing them their sodas.

"Did he say anything to you?" JJ immediately asks me and I nod.

"He didn't do anything else?" The blonde then asks.

"No, nothing else" I assure him as I sit down in my seat between him and Pope.

"Where is he?" JJ asks Kiara.

"Right there" The girl answers, turning around.

We all turn around and I spot Rafe with Topper and Kelce, all three of the Kooks staring right at us without a hint of hesitancy whatsoever.

"Great, the whole death squad" Pope mumbles.

"Don't stare, bro" JJ snaps, turning the boy's head around to the screen.

"Just warning you, bro. If they corner me, i'm coming out swinging, okay? Slice and dicin'. I'm on edge right now" JJ states.

"Yeah, yeah" Pope agrees.

Rafe glares at me in rage and Kelce waves with a smirk, making me feel nauseas. Topper nods at me in a civilised manner and I nod back, feeling as though we've come to a mutual truce now.

"Sylvie" JJ huffs, grabbing my chin "Stop staring"

I nod softly and lay my head on his shoulder trying to relax, although it's hard to do under the angry gaze of my older brother.

"If that doesn't work, I got this right here" He then tells Pope, continuing their conversation by picking up his backpack.

"Yeah, yeah. So, we just gotta stay in the group. They can't get us in the group" Pope speaks.

"Like a school of fish" JJ adds.

"Stay in the school. Can't leave the school. Stay in the school" Pope mumbles to himself.

"I'm sorry, JJ...Please tell me that you did not bring a gun here. JJ, there are kids" Kiara snaps at him angrily.

"No! Kie, I didn't bring the gun. Everything's fine, okay?" He lies.

"Wow, thank you. That's really convincing. I love that, JJ" Kiara scoffs sarcastically.

"Founding principles, you guys. No secrets amongst Pogues. What is Rafe talking about?" She states sternly and I avoid all eye contact with everyone around me.

"Kie, it might go down tonight" Pope says vaguely.

"What does that mean? 'Might go down tonight'. What did y'all do?" Kiara shrieks.

"Deny, deny, deny" I hear JJ whisper to Pope and I.

I squirm uncomfortably in my chair as I feel the Kook trio's eyes on me but I try to ignore it as I watch the movie.