𝐈𝐕𝐘 | 𝐣𝐣 𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤

10. | 𝐠𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐡

"i call you out on your contrarian shit
and the coastal town...

we wandered 'round had never
seen a love as pure as it."

-gold rush by: taylor swift

───── ❝ CHAPTER 4 PART 1 ❞ ─────

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my light green dress was laid out on my bed, a pair of strappy gold heels on the ground in front of it. it was the night of midsummers, a huge rich kook party where everyone dressed up and had shallow conversations about their shallow lives. as much as i didn't want to go, i was basically being forced by my family to. mom said showing up as a family would be 'good for our image'. i was meeting rafe there, he was my date tonight. as much as pushing the night at the park aside would be good for us, i was still hurt by him and his actions. i took a deep breath, letting it go as i sat at my vanity, applying a little bit of makeup, brushing sparkly highlighter on my cheekbones and the tip of my nose. i curled my hair and sat back, looking at myself for a moment. as much as i despised midsummers, damn did i look good. i changed into my dress and put on my heels. grabbing a white clutch where i put my stuff that i was bringing with me.

i headed down the long staircase to my living room. my family entirely overdressed waiting for me. i looked in the mirror that was hanging in the hallway and fixed my hair. if even a strand was out of place, my mom would probably be embarrassed being seen with me. she wanted us to be the picture perfect image of upper-class suburbia. it was absolute bullshit.

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we had arrived to the huge party, everyone dressed like it was the oscars or something. i grit my teeth. it disgusted me to know the kooks could go on partying like this when a few minutes away on the cut, people were struggling to even have power. the money going into this party could've been put to way better use.

"smile, honey." my mom demanded.

she was such a pretentious bitch. all she cared about was everyone else's opinions. not a bone in her body cared about anyone in my family's happiness.

i plastered on a wide smile as we walked in together, topper and i in front of our mother, it was more her entrance than ours. she walked in after us, smiling with her chin up high acting like she owned the place, i rolled my eyes slightly looking in the other direction as my eyes locked on rafe; who was dressed up in a baby blue suit, his hair slicked back as it almost always was. he made his way through the crowd of socializing kooks to me. he rested a hand on my waist and looked down, his blue-green eyes piercing through my soul.

"you look gorgeous tonight, babe." he smiled down at me and kissed my forehead.

as much as i was mad at him, i couldn't help but smile, "you don't look too awful yourself." i spoke nonchalantly while i adjusted his crooked bow tie and pointed to the dance floor, "i'm gonna go look for kie, i'll talk to you soon." i kissed his cheek as he went over to topper, starting a conversation with my airheaded brother.

i bumped into a six foot tall, muscular boy who was carrying a tray of drinks. i looked up to meet the eyes of jj.

"nice outfit." i giggled at him as he stabilized the drinks that almost lost their balance.

"could say the same to you, lucy." he grinned and looked at me, his gaze lingering for a moment as we both stayed quiet.

"what even brings you here, maybank?" i raised a brow and folded my arms.

"this may be a foreign word to you but i'm working." he dumbsplained and smirked at me, seemingly proud of his lie working out, he was actually here undercover for john b, recruiting sarah for him with a note, "thanks for paying off my restitution by the way, it means a lot." he cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck, obviously not used to being so nice to me.

"it's all good, i'm not gonna have you responsible for cleaning my brother's messes up. you have too much on your plate already." i chuckled and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

jj eyed sarah who was on the dance floor with her little sister. he turned to her and back at me, he leaned down and whispered in my ear,
"we're back in the g game, princess." he looked around and handed me the tray of the drinks as he approached sarah, dancing with her for a moment as he slipped her a small folded up piece of paper.

"what the hell is the 'g game'?" i thought for a while as i set the tray down on a table of desserts and leaned against it.

then it clicked, we were gonna find the gold.

887 words
started 2/16/21
published 2/16/21

a/n: making midsummers a multiple part chapter because there's a LOT in this episode :)

-L

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@-STARSH0PPING- 🪐