EMERY'S HEAD WAS IN HER HANDS.

the pogues were all sitting around a table at the wreck after everything that had happened at barry's. mara hadn't said a word since jj left. emery's leg was bouncing anxiously under the table like it had the entire ride home.

"look... he'll come around, alright?" john b said, breaking the suffocating silence that had been present since they arrived at the restaurant. "he's doing a jj thing."

"do you think he'll go home?" kiara asked, mainly to emery, who had her hands folded together and placed over her mouth. the girl nodded slowly.

"come on, ems." pope attempted. "there's about a zero percent chance he goes home."

"pope, you don't know." emery snapped. "this money- paying off his restitution himself? he probably skipped to luke's, he sees this as his only chance to make his dad proud."

john b reached across the table, grabbing emery's hand and squeezing it reassuringly.

"you okay?" he muttered, the girl across from him nodding slowly. "are you sure?" he asked again, and emery hesitated, but eventually slowly shook her head.

"i can't believe he left." she whispered, looking up at mara, who hadn't said anything since she yelled jj's name at barry's. "mar, come with me and levi. we're gonna go to my house for a few hours."

mara didn't say anything, she just nodded.

"okay, it's too dangerous to pawn this thing off piecemeal." pope started. "we need to get the rest of it, then put it into a safe or a vault or something until we can find someone who we can trust."

"if lee, emery, and mara all come we can get the winches set up tonight, we'll have it out by tomorrow afternoon." ainsley said.

"i have plans." john b said, regretting the words immediately after they left his mouth.

"what do you mean you 'have plans'? literally nothing is more important than this." emery asked, annoyed with the boy.

"ward cornered me yesterday. he said he wanted to give me my job back and take me fishing tomorrow." the boy explained. "i can't back out of it, ems. i need my job back."

"you can't go get four-hundred mil because you're gonna go kill fish?" kiara asked.

"now isn't the time for your environmentalist bullshit." mara snapped. "i think he should go."

"wait, what?" levi asked.

"if he goes tomorrow morning, we can get the gold at night and since you guys know how to get out of crain's house without waking her up now, she'll never know we came back." mara explained. "besides, jj should be calmed down by then, he'll be back and everything will be normal. just let john b go on his fishing trip."

"she's right." ainsley agreed. "then that gives us all night tonight and all day tomorrow to get ready to go."

"fine, fine, go fishing." pope caved. "kie and i will go get the stuff from my dad, we'll meet you at the chateau at ten." he told levi, emery, and mara.

"where are you going?" emery asked john b.

"i'm probably gonna go catch some waves, just decompress." he said calmly. "you need a ride home?"

"i live down the street." emery replied like he was stupid, turning on her heel and walking out the door of the wreck behind levi and mara.

"love you!" john b called.

"ditto!" emery called back, shutting the door of the wreck and she walked in pace with levi and mara.

"does jj do this a lot?" levi asked after a minute of no one talking. emery shrugged.

"he's run off before, but he's never yelled at us. he sure as hell has never robbed a drug dealer." emery added. "how're your knees?"

"they'll be fine." mara replied shortly. "he looked like he was ready to kill barry, i think he probably would've if he had had his gun."

"of all the times for him to leave it at the chateau." emery joked, a car stopping beside them. rafe cameron climbed out of the driver's seat.

"there they are- what the hell are you thinking, lee?" he yelled, walking around his car and stepping up to levi.

"what the hell are you talking about?" levi asked.

"i hear you're robbing drug dealers with your sister's little boyfriend?" he snapped, levi rolling his eyes.

"it's none of your business, rafe!" he yelled, emery stepping towards him.

"rafe, you have no idea what's going on." she snapped. "hate to break it to you, but your girlfriend came back to us, we all saw you smack the shit out of her at midsummers."

"emery, you need to shut the fuck up for once." rafe gritted, emery raising her eyebrows.

"you gonna try to kill me again?" she fired.

"i won't, but he will. you guys don't know him, i do!" he exclaimed.

"you sound like you're in love with us with how pressed you're getting." mara taunted.

"considering we beat the shit out of him, we're not scared of him, rafe." levi sassed, shoving the boy out of the way. "now how about you go back to what you do best, your daddy's money, your cocaine and fancy parties, and your hot, drunk, stepmom."

rafe was left in a stunned silence as emery and mara pushed past him to walk with levi again, the house was about twenty feet away. amelia's car was in the driveway, and the smell coming from the kitchen suggested she was cooking.

"hey, mamas." emery said, leaning over her mom's shoulder to look at the spaghetti cooking on the stove. the woman turned to face the kids, her face falling when she saw mara's state.

"what happened to your legs?" she asked, mara attempting to brush it off, but amelia insisted she get on the counter so she could examine it.

"levi, go get me the stuff from the bathroom, emery, watch the pasta." she ordered. levi came back with a large white roll of bandage, a bottle of rubbing alcohol, and a bag of cotton balls. amelia got to work immediately, pulling the excessive amount of bandaids emery had put on mara's knees, which the girl had bleed through anyways.

"you kids are always so reckless- i remember when john b broke a surfboard in half and gave himself a concussion all at once." she said to herself, wetting down some paper towels and starting to clean the blood off of mara's legs where it had run down her shins and stained her knees. "how did this even happen?"

"i was trying to shut the door of the van after john b had already started driving- thank god he wasn't going too fast- and fell out. i'm fine, really." mara assured, but amelia shook her head as she dabbed rubbing alcohol over the wounds on her knees.

"i swear, it's something new every day." the older woman mumbled, wrapping the while bandage around mara's leg. "there's another one of these in the bathroom, grab it on your way out. you'll need a new one if this one gets wet."

"thanks, amelia." mara said, smiling for the first time since they left the pawn shop. amelia went back to her pasta, and after letting each of the kids try a noodle to ensure it was cooked right, started to put it into a pan to be taken to the chateau that night. she had learned that her dishes never made it home when she sent them, so she had a pile of disposable aluminum pans and lids specifically to send food to the chateau with.

"we can take my truck." levi offered, emery nodding.

"i'm gonna go grab something, i'll be right out." she said, running up the stairs as levi and mara went out to the garage. emery pulled open her closet, grabbing a gray oversized sweatshirt and laying it on her bed. she yanked open her shirt drawer, grabbing the small box. tonight was the night. she wrapped the box up in the sweatshirt in a way it appeared to be folded and ran back down the stairs, grabbing the pan of pasta off the table and jogging out to levi's truck.

they drove around for a few hours, listening to taylor swift and one direction. they'd cross the bridge to the mainland just to turn around and drive across it again, the three of them remembering how life was a few years prior, before rafe had attacked emery, before the treasure hunt.

ten o'clock rolled around, emery was beginning to get cold in her dainty tank top and jean shorts, but she couldn't unwrap the box. kiara and pope had arrived before them, the two standing behind heyward's truck with the tailgate down as they began to pull the assorted items out of the back.

"run that inside." emery told levi, pointing to the pasta. levi grabbed the pan and ran to the back door, mainly because it was closest to the kitchen. emery was about to say something to pope and kie, but a whirring sound followed by a flash of brightly colored christmas and fairy lights coming on stopped her.

"what the shit?" mara muttered behind her.

"did you guys do all this?" emery asked kie and pope, but the two looked just as confused as her.

"jj?" levi yelled from further across the yard.

"shit." emery whispered, she and mara shoving past kie and pope to follow her brother's voice. jj was sitting in an elaborate hot tub in the middle of the yard. he was surrounded by a sea of floating pink flamingos holding plastic champagne glasses, a bottle of the expensive drink clenched tightly in his hand. a new pair of aviators was perched on his nose, as well as a gold necklace that was wrapped around his neck.

"what did you do, jj?" pope asked as he and kie rounded the corner. emery and mara were too stunned to speak, levi looked around as though he was in a fever dream, which was, in all truth, what the yard looked like at the moment.

"i got a jet going straight in my butt right now." jj slurred. "y'all should get in immediately, you hear me? salud!"

"how much did this cost?" pope asked angrily, jj looking around.

"uh. well, with the generator, the petrol, and- oh, hey! express delivery... pretty much all of it." those words made everyone's eyes widen, the thought of jj spending twenty five grand in the span of a couple hours.

"all of it?" pope confirmed. "you spent all the money in one day?"

"yeah, burned a hole right through my pocket." jj confirmed nonchalantly. "but i mean, come on, guys, look at this! finest in jet based massage therapy, that's what they told me."

"j..." emery trailed off, but the boy snapped his head towards her impatiently.

"what, emery?" he called. "can't a man have a little luxury in life, i mean, all this... scrimpin' and scraping- i mean, guys- we- you only live once, right?" he said, pulling his sunglasses off his face. his eyes were slightly bloodshot, and emery was sure it wasn't just the lights giving them that look. "enough of this emotional shit, get in the cat's ass, come on!"

"in the what?" kiara whispered.

"the cat's ass." jj repeated proudly. "that's what i named her. oh wait, i almost forgot- disco mode! that's right, baby!" jj exclaimed, clicking a button of the side of the hot tub, making a disco ball begin spinning above him and the jets come on on the sides of the tub, splashing water just above his eye level.

"are you kidding me?" pope yelled. "you could've paid for restitution."

"or literally given it to any charity." kiara added.

"guys-" emery tried, but pope yelled over her again.

"or better yet, you could've helped us buy supplies to get the rest of the gold out of the well!" he shouted, jj pinching the bridge of his nose, clearly upset.

"pope, shut up!" mara yelled, but jj had had enough.

"okay, well, y'know what? i didn't do that!" he shouted as he stood up. emery's jaw dropped and her blood ran cold. jj's torso was painted in a mixture of red, purple, and yellow hues, the bruises covering his torso making both her and mara nauseous at the sight of. "i got a hot tub! for my friends, i got a hot tub for my friends. y'know what, no, y'know what, screw friends, i got a hot tub for my family!" he yelled, his voice beginning to crack as the tears welled up in his eyes threatened to spill.

"jj..." mara trailed off, but the boy looked up at her.

"no, mara, look what i did for you guys, okay, look at this!" he shouted. "look at this."

"jj!" emery said loudly, the boy turning back to her, shaking his head.

"no, you guys stop being emotional, it's fine!" he yelled, but the crack in his voice and the tears running down his face betrayed him. "i mean, it's sweet, right? everything. just get in-"

but he was cut off, mara had stepped into the hot tub, ignoring the bandages on her knees and pulling jj into a hug, trying to be mindful of the bruises on his torso as she pulled him close. the boy held himself completely rigid for a moment, flinching at the sudden closeness, but he melted into the embrace after a moment, burying his face into the crook of her neck and sobbing.

"i just couldn't do it." he mumbled, pulling mara impossibly closer to him. "i can't take him anymore!" he screamed into the girl's shoulder, whole body racking with sobs. "i was gonna kill him."

"you're okay now, you're okay." she soothed softly, looking back at emery for some sort of help. the melville girl got in the hot tub after this, wrapping her arms around jj, who put one arm around her and burying his face in the crook between their shoulders.

"i just wanna do the right thing." he sobbed, emery nodding.

"we know, we know." she assured. "we're not mad at you, i promise." she assured. another set of arms wrapped around them, and emery glanced up to see levi, eyes squeezed shut to avoid tears spilling. and that was how they stood until the early hours of the morning.

kens speaks 🪐

i'm not sorry

mara being jj's best gf ever