AUGUST 19TH.

It felt cruel, in a way, like a sick joke that the first day of school fell on what would have been Avery's seventeenth birthday. Staring up at the building that almost seemed like it was mocking him, JJ took a long drink from the flask he had stashed in Kiara's glovebox, not even looking at Pope as he climbed out of the passenger seat of the car.

The two hadn't talked since that night. It was something the two of them regretted, they regretted more than anything. The Maybank wasn't exactly sure what thoughts were going through his inebriated mind when he made the decision to hook up with the Heyward boy less than a month after Avery Decker's passing, but it wasn't the worst time of his life by any means. It still felt like a betrayal to his late girlfriend, however. Despite the fact she was now nothing more than a cold body in a wooden box buried states away, JJ still had a nagging feeling of guilt clawing at his chest when he thought about the possibility of being disloyal to her. After all, the two had never technically broken up.

"Hey, chill out." Kiara attempts to caution. JJ ignores her.

"If I black out, just don't remind me." He mumbles. He glances over at his friends. Kiara's skin is more pale than it's ever been, and her eyes constantly hold at least a semi-glazed look in them, a product of all the weed she's smoked in the last few months.

Two months, three weeks, and four days, if you wanted to get specific- but, hey, who except for JJ was counting?

He trudged towards the school building reluctantly. His feet drug the ground and his head hung low, Kiara and Pope trailing behind him. The Heyward boy hadn't touched a textbook in months. He'd picked up drinking, started smoking weed more. Just yesterday, he had accompanied Kiara to vandalize a wall outside Tannyhill. His life had done a complete 180 in the span of a few days.

When the three teens made it to the front of the school, whispers around them falling on deaf ears as rumors about what had happened in July continued to circulate, even after the statements released by the police confirmed that the three Pogues had been cleared on all their charges.

JJ's jaw clenched as his eyes landed on what had been placed in the school's front lawn. A broken surf board with John B's name spelled on it, and next to it, a cross bearing Avery's. It was nothing compared to the one the Pogues had given the two teens, but still. Pictures of the two teens were plastered across their little makeshift memorials, and JJ swears he can feel hot nausea boiling in the deepest pits of his stomach.

Why can't they just let them die?

Why is half of Kildare plastered with photos of Avery, praising her as a victim and blaming John B for a murder he didn't commit? Three of them, actually.

Sheriff Peterkin.

The kidnapping and disappearing of Sarah Cameron.

And the murder of Avery Decker in the Tannyhill wine cellar.

All of which his friends were positive he didn't commit.

"I can't do this." The Maybank grits, turning on his heel and walking away from Kiara and Pope. The Carerra calls for him, her attempts at getting him to return to his friends falling on JJ's deaf ears as he walked back to the parking lot. Opening Kiara's passenger side door, snatching his flask from the glovebox and starting across the parking lot.

He couldn't go back to normal, not right now.

Not when Avery was dead and buried states away.

K E E P S C R O L L I N G