"WHAT IF I'M DOWN, WHAT IF I'M OUT,
WHAT IF I'M SOMEONE YOU WON'T TALK ABOUT?"
- harry styles, falling

Avery had calmed down significantly since her phone call with Lennon, and was even more nonchalant now that she was able to walk next to JJ across the open lawn of the park where a large projector was set up to view some old movie she had probably never heard of.

"Aren't you guys glad I made you come?" Kiara asked the boys chipperly- she and Avery were the only ones who actually wanted to be at the movies.

"Ecstatic." Pope replied sarcastically.

"Avery's couch was pretty comfortable." JJ added, but still tossed his arm that wasn't carrying his and Avery's lawn chairs around the brunette girl's shoulders to pull her closer to him as they approached where Kiara had decided they would sit. The Carrera girl stepped away to purchase drinks for her friends, and as soon as she was out of earshot, Pope leaned in towards JJ and Avery.

"We're out of the green zone, guys." Pope reminded the two cautiously. JJ gritted his teeth and spoke through them, clearly not wanting to be reminded that the Kooks who were probably ready to kill the trio ASAP were most definitely going to be there tonight.

"Dude, tranquilo, okay?" He reminded his friend.

"You took Spanish with me last year and that's all you can come up with?" Avery fired at her boyfriend, who gently knocked her on the shoulder.

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

"Shut up, Pope." JJ told him annoyedly, the Heyward boy apparently forgetting that Kiara was present and could hear most of their conversation as the Maybank boy worked to set up his and Avery's lawn chairs. Avery turned to see the Carrera girl standing by the concession stand, talking to none other than Rafe Cameron himself as she grabbed drinks off the counter for the trio that had already sat down in the chosen spot.

"Just saw Rafe." Kiara quipped in a sarcastically enthusiastic tone as she strolled back over to where the boys and Avery were sitting. "And he said, and I quote, 'Tell your boy we know what he did.' What is that?"

"Um..." JJ mumbled- of all the times for him to struggle to come up with a lie, why was he picking right now? "Where is he?"

"Right there." Kie told the trio bluntly, Pope practically flinging himself into a position to look behind him, eyes wide at the sight of Rafe, Topper, and Kelce standing in a row behind the rest of the audience. The Thornton boy smirked at the Pogues as Rafe maintained steady eye contact with Avery, motioning towards his own collarbones with a sickening expression somewhere between confidence and enjoyment on his tanned face.

"Great, the whole death squad." Pope mumbled shakily as JJ grabbed his friend by the head, turning him around so he would tear his eyes off the three boys.

"Don't stare, bro." JJ gritted, glancing down at the Heyward boy who was sitting closer to the ground than him. "Just warning you, bro, if they corner me, I'm coming out swinging, okay? Slice and dicin', I'm on edge right now."

"JJ!" Avery scolded quietly, nodding her head toward Kiara, who the two boys had clearly forgotten about, but the blonde dismissed her concern. He grabbed his brown backpack from where it was sitting in front of his chair, holding it up for Pope to see. "If that doesn't work, I got this right here."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we just stay in the group." Pope mumbled as Avery put her face into her hands, knowing just how pissed Kiara would be at the thought of JJ not only bringing a gun to her movie event, but also that Pope and JJ had done something the rest of the Pogues didn't know about. "They can't get us in the group."

"Like a school of fish." JJ agreed.

"Stay in the school, can't leave the school." Pope added, he and JJ opening their cans of Pepsi at the same time, only to find Kiara staring holes through them.

"I'm sorry, JJ, please tell me that you did not bring a gun here- JJ, there are kids here!" Kiara exclaimed, teeth gritted in anger at her friend's reckless behavior.

"No!" JJ exclaimed, putting a fake smile on his face as he turned to his friend. "Kie, I didn't bring the gun. Everything's fine, okay?"

"Wow, thank you. That's really convincing. I love that, JJ." Kiara replied sarcastically. The Maybank boy immediately clenched his jaw, biting his bottom lip. "Founding principle, you guys. No secrets amongst Pogues. What is Rafe talking about?"

"Kie, it might go down tonight." Pope explained unhelpfully.

"What does that mean?" The curly haired girl asked, but Pope wasn't replying. "'Might go down tonight.' What did y'all do?"

"Deny, deny, deny." JJ whispered to Pope. Kiara glanced at Avery in amazement.

"Do you know what's going on?" She fired, but Avery shook her head.

"No clue."

The movie had gotten exceptionally boring, and Avery's head had taken rest on JJ's shoulder as the black-and-white film very cheaply projected across the white canvas bored her into a lull of tiredness. She was kept awake, however, by the constant shaking of JJ's body caused by the bouncing of his left leg. Avery had noticed how on edge he had been all night, and couldn't help but feel bad for him.

"JJ." Pope whispered suddenly, catching Avery's attention.

"What?" JJ asked quietly, clearly under the impression that Avery had managed to fall asleep on his shoulder and not wanting to disturb her.

"I gotta take a piss." Pope hissed back.

"Hold it." JJ told his friend firmly through teeth gritted once more.

"I can't hold it, I drank too much soda." Pope told his friend insistently.

"I told you you didn't need to drink those other Pepsi's." Avery quipped from JJ's opposite side, stretching back in her lawn chair as she did.

"It's too exposed. They'll totally see us." JJ explained.

"JJ. I gotta go." Pope whispered, anxiety heightened in his voice. Avery almost found the boy's childish behavior to be laughable, but she didn't want to make his condition any worse.

"They're blocking the bathrooms." Pope breathed as he turned to see that Rafe and the groupies had managed to put their chairs directly in front of the bathrooms, wether or not it was on purpose was beyond Avery's mind, but she was leaning towards purposefully over accidental.

"Looks like you're gonna have to wait it out." The Decker said bluntly, Pope turning to his friend with eyes wider than ever before as she returned to the mind-bendingly boring movie. JJ, however, began looking around the park. Avery had laced her fingers through his and given his hand a tight squeeze. She was half-anticipating a text from John B about her brunette friend's whereabouts as no one had heard from him since their failed attempt at finding the Royal Merchant gold, but her phone had yet to go off.

"Come here. I know where." JJ whispered to Pope, glancing to make sure Kiara wasn't looking before he quickly planted a kiss on the side of Avery's head, standing up and ushering Pope to follow him.

"Hey, where y'all going?" Kiara asked, Avery turning to her friend.

"Pope has to piss and that somehow involves JJ." She explained shortly.

"You gonna hold it for each other?" Kiara continued to question her friends, but the two boys kept walking away from the girls. "I swear, you're the gayest person I know, and they give you a run for your money." The Carrera girl continued to Avery, the brunette sucking on her teeth and nodding. She turned to where JJ and Pope were ducking through the crowd of people who were sitting around on the lawn of the yard before the two boys disappeared behind a tree next to the screen.

She then glanced over to JJ's empty chair, her eyes widening as they fell on the brown canvas bag hung across the back of the chair. She immediately grabbed it, looking inside- surely JJ had taken it with him.

The manicured fingertips of the Decker girl found the cold metal of JJ's gun, her breath hitching in her throat as she spun around towards where Rafe, Topper, and Kelce had been sitting minutes before, only to find that their seats were now empty. Her heart sank to her stomach as the watched the pastel yellow polo Rafe Cameron was wearing that day disappear behind the tree where JJ and Pope had just retreated to.

"Shit." The girl whispered, tossing the Maybank boy's bag over her shoulder, Kiara looking at her in confusion.

"What's going on?" The curly-haired Carrera questioned.

"It's most definitely going down tonight, come on." Avery spat quietly, she and Kiara immediately climbing out of their chairs and ducking and dodging around the people sitting on the ground before they were able to duck behind the tree where the five boys had disappeared to.

She was struck with horror at the sight of Rafe Cameron with a grip on JJ under the arms so the Maybank couldn't fight him as Kelce laid merciless punches into the blonde.

Kiara seemed to be more focused on where Topper was laying into Pope, the Thornton clearly with the upper hand as the dark-haired boy was doubled over in pain.

"Kick his ass, Top!" Rafe egged on his friend as he hit JJ so hard the boy's entire upper body swung to the side.

"Rafe- you classist man-whore!" Avery shouted, wedging her body between the Cameron boy and JJ, who appeared to be about to pass out. She tossed JJ's bag off to the side, Rafe storming back towards her, but Avery simply backed closer to the Maybank, who was still hanging limply in Kelce's grasp.

"Stay out of this, Avery." Rafe warned. The Decker shook her head, but was taken slightly by surprise when the Cameron boy grabbed her by the waist and shoved her onto the ground before continuing to punch JJ again.

Avery stumbled to her feet, trying to go around where Rafe and Kelce were still pummeling JJ like a punching bag, but she was once again caught by surprise when the follow through of one of Rafe's hard right hooks came around and smacked her in the nose. The brunette stumbled again as she reached up to touch her nose, a light, yet steady stream of scarlet seeping from her face.

She wiped the blood into her thigh, scrambling towards JJ's bag once more. She reached inside, the gun now at the top. Her hand closed around the handle, but she shook her head. Keeping the gun in her grasp in case it was needed, Avery continued to rifle through the bag until her hand closed around the small shape of JJ's Zippo lighter.

The girl turned to see that JJ's legs had almost entirely buckled and Rafe and Kelce weren't letting off him anytime soon. She crawled closer to the canvas screen, clicking the lighter a couple of times before the flame lit, touching the blue-and-orange glow to the fabric and watching as it immediately caught, the fire spreading across the screen.

Avery immediately shut the lighter and jumped back from the screen. Rafe had finally slowed the punches he was laying into JJ, but Kelce still had a firm grip on the blonde.

"Guys! Fire!" Rafe was yelling to his posse, Topper finally releasing Pope as the Heyward fell to the ground and began to cough and wheeze for air.

"Kelce, let go of him!" Avery yelled at the boy, who immediately let JJ go, shoving him towards the Decker. He was also coughing, leaning on Avery for support as the girl ran a hand up and down his back.

"Rafe- Rafe hit you." JJ choked out through coughs, looking up at Avery, a steady flow of crimson now beginning to dry as the liquid ran down her neck.

"Yeah, he hit you too." Avery told her boyfriend bluntly, reaching into the ground to grab the red cap that had fallen off of JJ's head at some point.

"I'll kill him." JJ breathed. "I'll fucking kill him."

"Slow down, Smokey." Avery told the boy firmly. "Get your breath back first."

JJ grabbed his hat from Avery's hands, shoving it back onto his head, turning towards the screen that was still smoldering behind them. He grabbed his backpack from the ground and tossed it over his shoulder, shaking his head in amusement and laughing quietly.

"You're a damn idiot, y'know?" He teased, Avery shrugging.

"Next time, I'll let Rafe kill you." The Decker retorted, looking up to where Pope was leaning on Kiara as the two walked towards the girl's car. "I'm parked just over there. We're going to my house tonight."

"Fine by me." JJ told the girl bluntly, keeping his arm wound tightly around his waist as the Maybank glanced around him, apparently looking for the trio of Kooks in case they had stuck around and waited for the Pogues to split up again.

"Chill out, we're okay." Avery assured as she reached into the pocket of her shorts and pulled her keys out to unlock the door, opening the passenger side for JJ and letting the boy slip inside the black car.

"Thanks." He breathed, rubbing his shoulder with the palm of his hand where Kelce had restrained him from moving and evidently caused him a considerable amount of pain.

The car ride back to the Decker house was mostly silent, the only thing breaking it being the occasional cough from JJ as he still struggled to get his breath back. Meanwhile, Avery's blood was boiling as she struggled to keep her entire focus on the road in front of her.

Rafe Cameron had gotten to herself, Pope, and now JJ. The Kook seemed to get away with everything he did, there was never any punishment for any of his actions. And the brunette girl had always had a feeling there was something off about him, something about the way he had always talked to her like he saw her as a possession, a trophy he was actively dreaming of having on his shelf, another notch he hoped to be able to put on his belt. But Avery had never given him that satisfaction. She had never been a possession, a trophy, or a notch.

"You okay?" JJ asked, breaking Avery's train of thought as the girl gave him a stiff nod, biting her bottom lip as she turned into her driveway, parking her car and shutting off the ignition, giving JJ and thin-lipped smile.

"I'm fine." She mumbled, climbing out of the car and walking up the side-staircase of the house with JJ right behind her. "You know the drill, go sit on the kitchen counter."

"No." JJ said in disbelief. "Ave, you have a literal river of blood on your face- It's all over your shirt." The Maybank pointed out. Avery looked down, the large pale yellow long-sleeved shirt she had taken from John B months before was now stained with scarlet around her collarbones and occasionally splotched across her chest.

"I'll take a shower, I'll be okay." She assured, but JJ shook his head.

"Let someone take care of you for once, Avery. I'll get the first aid kit. Sit on the counter." He said firmly, walking off towards the bathroom before the brunette could protest. Despite how well she was hiding it, her nose was throbbing and in a considerable amount of pain. Her hands found their way in the drawer next to the sink where Avery pulled out a small bottle of Ibuprofen, taking one of the pills dry before twisting the lid back onto the white container and putting it back into the drawer. Avery hoisted herself onto the counters with the palms of her hands as JJ re-entered the kitchen, the small white box clutched in his hand.

"JJ, you don't have to-" Avery started, but JJ had already opened to box and opened one of the alcohol wipes.

"Yes, I do." He mumbled, tracing over the trail of blood on Avery's collarbone, grimacing at the large bruise still positioned right below her neck. "After all, it is my fault."

"Don't say that." Avery mumbled as JJ trailed up her neck with the alcohol wipe, the cold feeling on her neck defining exactly where she had bled as the boy carefully attempted to wipe all the blood away. "It's Rafe's fault."

"You should've just stayed out of it. I would've been fine." JJ told Avery, tossing the alcohol wipe in the trash can before grabbing another one to start cleaning her face with. "I'm not a damsel, Avery. You don't have to save me."

"What're you talking about?" Avery asked, a small laugh adding to the end her question, but her eyes and the rest of her face was serious as JJ began to clean her chin.

"You have a brighter future than I ever will. You're gonna get out of here, go to college, settle down somewhere and have a couple of kids, and I'll be stuck here washing yachts for Kooks and maintaining landscapes." JJ said simply. "I'm not worth your time."

"JJ, you're my boyfriend." Avery reminded the blonde as he gently tipped her head up to better be able to access her upper lip without making her uncomfortable. "I wanna be with you, I wanna go places with you, I want to see the world with you, I want to spend nights sleeping under the stars on a hammock with you- JJ, I want you."

JJ laughed breathily, clearly not taking anything the Decker had said too seriously as he continued to clean her face off.

"You're just sayin' that." JJ muttered.

"JJ, what're you talking about?" Avery questioned. "What's going on?"

"Look at you!" JJ exclaimed suddenly. "The giant ass bruise on your collarbone, the blood I just cleaned off your face- Avery, I can't keep you safe."

"You think this is your fault?" Avery questioned, eyebrows raised. The blonde's jaw clenched as he nodded stiffly.

"Sure as hell isn't yours." He mumbled, turning his gaze away from the girl and fisting his hat in his hand.

"JJ, it's not yours either." Avery said bluntly. "It's Rafe's."

JJ turned back to Avery, looking down at the Decker with eyes drowning in guilt. Like he knew he had done something wrong, deep down inside. That she was just covering for him by blaming everything on Rafe. That she secretly despised him for everything that had happened to her in the last week.

"It's not your fault, JJ." Avery assured, pushing a bit of the boy's hair out of his face with her index finger. "I promise."

JJ simply pulled Avery closer to him, burying his head into her shoulder and wrapping his arms tightly around her torso, taking a deep breath as he pushed his head into the crook of her neck.

"Want me to clean your face up?" Avery asked quietly from where her head was practically buried into JJ's chest, the blonde shaking his head.

"I'm tired." He mumbled. "I just wanna go forget today even happened."

"I think we can do that." Avery mumbled, leaving her arms wrapped around JJ's neck as the boy pulled her towards her room. It wouldn't be the first time she had slept in her day clothes, but Avery didn't care right now as JJ sprawled across the bed next to her and moved his head to her chest. The Decker moved her leg to a rather unnatural angle as she untied her shoes and peeled her socks off, the girl refusing to sleep with socks on no matter the circumstances.

"Good night." JJ mumbled, Avery smiling at the boy as her hand found its way to his head, tangling her fingers into the mop of blonde hair and massaging his scalp.

"Good night, JJ."

The Pogues had regrouped at Heyward's the next day to help Pope with his shift. John B was still M.I.A, causing minor anxiety from Avery, but she kept telling herself that if the boy was in some sort of trouble that he would've reached out to them.

"Don't let it get in your head, bro. There's three of them and two of us." JJ was telling Pope as the four Pogues reminisced on the events of the previous night. "That's some typical Kook shit right there."

"Hell yeah." Kiara agreed.

"What was your thought process, using your head?" JJ questioned mockingly as he stocked shelves near the counter with Avery as Pope and Kiara helped customers at the counter.

"I don't know, man. I just kind of acted off instinct." Pope explained. "I was a cornered animal."

"You give Yorkish terrier vibes." Avery added, moving her hand in a circular motion in Pope's direction. "Very much an 'all bark, no bite' type of person- don't even try to argue with me, you thought you were hot stuff when you stole my issue of Sports Illustrated just to look at the bikini lady poster."

"Hey, Pope!" Heyward called as he walked in the back door, all four of the teens looking up in the man's direction as none other than deputy Shoupe followed him into the store. "Someone here to see you."

"Evening, officer." Pope said nervously, Avery noticing the stern look on Shoupe's face.

"I have an arrest warrant for felony destruction of property." Shoupe told the Heyward boy bluntly before beginning to read off his Miranda rights. Avery spun around the counter with JJ and Kiara as the three teens, as well as Heyward, yelled assorted protests.

"Shoupe, you can't arrest him! He's sixteen!" Avery exclaimed as the brown ponytail perched on the back of her head bobbed with every fast-paced step she took, following behind the man who had now put handcuffs around the boy's wrists and began to lead him out of the shop.

Avery could practically see how Pope's world had slowed down within seconds. Everything, his scholarship, his college, every chance the dark haired boy had to get off the island. Gone.

"It wasn't him!"

The words left Avery's mouth before she could stop them. But she wasn't the only one who had yelled. The girl snapped her head over to JJ, who was staring at her with wide eyes. Everyone else, however, was looking between the two teens.

"It was me." JJ called, turning back to Avery from where he had turned to look at Shoupe and admit his fake innocence. "Tell 'em, Ave. You were gonna rat me out, weren't you?"

Avery stared at her boyfriend, jaw slightly agape as she looked at the Maybank.

JJ couldn't go to jail.

If there was one person who couldn't get in trouble more than Pope, it was JJ Maybank. The blonde came from drugs, gambling, smuggling, and assault charges- for a year, Avery had known him as someone who was constantly fighting to prove that where he came from didn't define who he was as a person. That he wasn't his dad. That he could actually amount to something.

But as blue eyes met brown ones, Avery could practically see JJ begging her not to take the fall for this. To let him be the one who messed up. JJ would simply be living up to his reputation, while Avery would lose hers. Sinking Topper Thornton's boat in broad daylight would lose the status the girl had earned in the last year as island sweetheart and a lovable girl who everyone enjoyed being around due to her kindhearted nature and even temper.

Avery reluctantly nodded stiffly. "It was him. I was there."

"They both tried to talk me out of it." JJ explained to Shoupe. "But I was mad that they had just been jumped. I was so sick of those assholes from Figure Eight that I lost my shit." JJ turned to Pope, a smirk on his face as though he didn't even seem phased by what he was doing. "I can't let you take the blame for somethin' I did. You've got too much to lose."

"JJ, what are you doing?" Pope asked, voice shaking. He evidently didn't get the memo that JJ had sent Avery telling her to lie through her teeth to basically assure him a death sentence.

"I'm tellin' the truth." JJ gritted. "For once in my goddamn life, I'm gonna tell the truth."

Avery stared at JJ, the boy suddenly turning towards Heyward.

"I took his old man's boat too." JJ added bluntly.

"What the hell?" Heyward questioned, sounding more disappointed in JJ than anything.

"JJ, come on-" Pope told the boy, but JJ cut him off.

"Just shut up, Pope!" The blonde exclaimed. "Just shut up. He's a good kid, you know where I'm from."

"Yeah." Shoupe replied bluntly, Avery furrowing her brows in confusion as she began to simmer with anger at the thought that the only reason Shoupe wasn't denying any involvement in the situation at all was because of his father's bad reputation.

"This was all me." JJ told Shoupe, but his eyes were fixed on Pope. "Isn't it, Ave?" JJ called to the brunette behind him, but still stared at Pope as he did.

"Sure is." Avery replied after a moment, folding her arms across her chest as she realized just how badly this was going to end for JJ. There would be bail money. There would be restitution. There would be trials with lawyers that costed more per hour than the boy made in a month, and she could guarantee his dad wouldn't be helping him.

"That's the whole truth?" Shoupe confirmed with Pope.

"Whole truth, swear to God." JJ told the deputy.

"I know what you think, damn it, I'm asking Pope." The gray-haired man snapped. Pope turned to JJ, swallowing thickly as the Maybank nodded slowly, a smirk still plastered across his face.

"Yeah, that about covers it." Pope mumbled. Avery watched as Shoupe removed the handcuffs from Pope's wrists before putting them on JJ. The blonde turned to her as he was loaded into the back of the sheriff's department truck, mouthing an 'I'll be okay' before Shoupe slammed the door shut and rounded the truck to drive away. The younger of two Heyward's slammed his cap onto the ground, his dad picking it up and following after his son who had stormed off. Kiara had put a reassuring hand on Avery's shoulder, rubbing it gently.

"They'll have to call Luke, won't they?" Avery asked the Carrera girl, despite already knowing the answer, and it wasn't one she wanted.

"Yeah. It has to be a parent or guardian." She explained, Avery nodding. She pulled her phone out, glancing at the time. With a little rough math, Avery figured three hours JJ would spend in holding before his dad would be called to the station to bail him out, and then there would be hell to pay for the blonde.

"We'll catch up with you guys tonight." Avery told her friend shortly, not answering her friend when Kiara called after her asking who she meant by 'we' as the Decker got into the driver's seat of her car, resting her elbows on the steering wheel and raking her fingers through her hair as she did.

She would be seeing JJ in three hours time, and not under any good circumstances, she was sure .

kens speaks 🪐

no one is ready for next chapter but hey we're on the midsummers ep so that's fun

reminder that i have a tiktok @/mvybanksss_wp where i post about mainly this book atp. there will be spoilers though, so don't say you haven't been warned