𝚋𝚘𝚛𝚗 𝚒𝚗𝚗𝚘𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚝 {𝚓𝚓 𝚖𝚊𝚢𝚋𝚊𝚗𝚔}

𝚜.𝟷 𝚎𝚙.𝟺 -𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚏𝚘𝚞𝚛-

"please tell me why / I'm so afraid of dying alone / so scared and so stoned / but I don't know what I need / so just tell me what you need / you're all I need."

~

"Pope." Tate's voice was deadly calm. "What. Happened?"

Pope set his head in his hands and adjusted his hat over again. His fingernails dug into his hair and his eyes were squeezed shut. "I told you, Tate. We sunk the boat-"

"How did you get caught?"

"That's not what matters," Kiara said, cutting Tate off. "Just- we have to get JJ out of this."

Tate nodded, but she felt irrationally annoyed with Kiara. Of course if mattered how they got caught. She kept asking Pope for details because she knew something had to be missing. There had to be some way to prove that JJ was innocent. She tugged at the ends of her hair and rested her head on her knees. Her whole body felt too heavy and all she wanted to do was sleep. She couldn't tell if the feeling of wanting to throw up was from what she'd just witnessed or from the fever, but either way she was having a hard time staying completely in-touch with what was happening between the deep breaths she had to keep taking. The next time she looked up, Heyward was standing over her, two white pills in his outstretched hand. "It's Advil. Take it," he said in a more gentle voice than usual. "Take it and then head home. Kiara, your dad's outside. You all need some time away from each other."

"But JJ-" Tate started to argue.

"JJ will be fine," Heyward cut her off. "You need to take care of yourself right now. You look like you're going to pass out. Go home, all of you."

Tate sighed and struggled to her feet. Pope stood up too and put an arm out to steady Tate. "I'm sorry, okay?" he said, and when Tate looked at him, she could tell he blamed himself for the whole situation. She didn't have it in her to say anything, but she gave Pope a firm nod before heading outside into the blistering heat.

The walk back to John B's house was painful to say the least. Every step made Tate feel like she'd rather lay down in the middle of the road and die than take another. She needed to find John B, though. That's what JJ said to do. John B would know what to do- he always did. She kept her head cast towards the ground as she turned right at the street her mom used to live and walked away from her old house. Just as she was passing the street that led to her dad's trailer and was on the home-stretch to John B's house, she spotted a figure out of the corner of her eye who started to jog towards her. She stopped and turned, but immediately regretted it. "Hey, Tate," Rafe said, catching up to her and stuffing something into his back pocket. "Are you okay? You look terrible."

"Wish people would stop saying that," Tate muttered.

"Well, you look sick. Anyway, I've actually been looking around for you."

"Why?"

"Well, after what happened last night at the movie and with Top's boat and everything, I think you should reconsider what you said about the Pogues earlier. They're bad news, Tate, especially that JJ kid."

Tate looked up at him, the last bit of her energy wasting away on her anger towards Rafe. "What the fuck, man?" she said quietly. "You were a part of this, weren't you?" She brushed her hair away from her face with one sweep of her hand, anger blazing in her eyes. "You were part of this and now JJ's in trouble and I can't find John B anywhere and- and you know JJ's gonna have to pay for that shit?"

Rafe shrugged. "He sunk the boat, of course he'll have to pay for it. But it was the other one anyway. That Pope kid-"

"Topper's family has the money to buy five of those stupid Wakesetters if they wanted!" Tate exploded. "JJ can't afford that shit- he can't even afford-"

"Well, he shouldn't have sunk it," Rafe shot back, taking a step towards Tate. Tate drew back and glared at Rafe. "Tate, I'm telling you, you need to stop hanging out with them. JJ's nothing but trouble, okay? The kid's a maniac- he could hurt you-"

"Take that back!" Tate exploded, not caring about how loud her voice was getting. "You fucking take that back! You think JJ- JJ, who would take a fucking bullet for any one of his friends- would ever hurt me? You think you could do any better than JJ?"

"Well, yeah-"

"You're a fucking pig, Rafe! Stop acting like your life is so hard when you sit up in your stupid mansion and play around with the people under you like pawns in a fucking chess game. We're done- and I'm with JJ... I love JJ, so get the fuck over it and stop talking to me." With that, Tate turned and left Rafe standing slack-jawed, staring after her.

Finally, when she was yards away, Rafe shouted back his retort. "He's a dirty Pogue, Tate! He's a dirty Pogue."

Without turning back, Tate flipped him off as her yell rang through the crisp summer evening. "Well, so am I!"