promise?

10.

i walk up to the pogues house. kiara and john b on the dock, sarah and pope playing some weird hand game, and jj and bella on the hammock. i'm so happy that jj's finally happy. sure he moved on fast but i'm the one who cheated.

"y/n!" sarah shouts.

everyone looks at me and starts to walk towards me. sarah hugs me along with the rest of the group. except kie. she gives me this stank eyed face. idk.

"so glad that you're back." pope says.

i'm always happy to see pope. we've always had a kind of weird relationship. we became friends when we were like 9. i don't really remember what happened but now he's one of my closest friends. not quite as close as jj but very close.

i look over to bella.

"hi." i say with a smile on my face, "we never actually got to meet for real."

i hold out my hand and instead of her shaking it, she hugs me. i hug her back for the slightest moment until we let go of eachother.

this girl is so fucking pretty.

"i'm glad you rethought. i would love to be friends with you!" she says.

why tf is she being so nice? doesn't she know i cheated on her boyfriend?

"anyways.." sarah starts, grabbing my arm and pulling me away from the group.

"what's happened with you? you've been gone for like ever." she says.

"wow where do i start?" i ask, awkwardly laughing.

how do you tell someone you fucked their brother the day you broke up with your boyfriend, fucked around for a few weeks, got into a situationship, got my heart lowkey crushed when i found out he didn't mean what i thought and now i'm here? idk.

"oh you know.." i'm trying to think of what to say.

"i know you messed around with rafe." she says.

"what.." i ask her.

"he texted me and asked what your favorite flowers were last night." she said.

OMG. OMG. OMG.

"oh.. he did huh?"

who buys their "sneaky link" flowers- ig he's never done this. well, to be fair i've never done this but still.

"well other than that, nothing. i mean, he did just scream in my face about how he could never be with a pogue and told me to go back to living with you guys." i say.

"what?! god he's such a spoiled brat!" sarah says.

ik sarah isn't talking rn.

———————————————————————————

the rest of the day was spent hanging with eachother. the pogues were family to me so not being with them for a month was lowkey painful. kie had kept her distance. pope disappeared for like three hours. bella and jj would wonder off every now and then, but i'm glad to be back.

we were sitting in the hot tub, drinking having a good time. pope started to get out and walk away.

"what's wrong with him?" i ask.

"he's done that ever since you left. he goes and sits on the dock for hours to think." jj says.

was he doing that because of me? why?

after that conversation we just continued to be ourselves. bella and i talked about our favorite bands, our favorite movies, favorite everything; we had a lot in common.

———————————————————————————

as everyone started to walk in, i look at the dock, pope still sitting there.

"i think you better go talk to him." sarah whispers in my ear.

i nod and start to walk over to pope.

"hey stranger." i say to him.

"oh hi." he says.

i sit next to him.

"bella chugged six beers in a row, you should've seen it. she's so wasted." i say, trying to lighten up his mood.

a small chuckle leaves his mouth.

"what's wrong pope?" i ask him.

"nothing." he replies, looking out to the water.

"you can talk to me if you need to, what's on your mind?" i say.

he looks at me with a sympathetic look.

"i missed you bean." he says.

bean. pope hasn't called me bean in a long time.

when we first started hanging out, i was at pope's place. his dad was trying some new recipes and asked me to try it. it was a spinach and bean casserole. when i went to take a spoonful to my mouth i spilled a bunch of beans on myself.

———————————————————————————

"beans!" pope yells as a joke.

i laugh along with him.

while i clean my shirt off, pope hands me another paper towel and says , "here you go bean."

"bean. i like that name."

———————————————————————————

ever since, he started to call me that, but he hasn't in months. i knew he was upset when he said bean.

"im so sorry pope. i thought you wanted me gone like the rest." i say.

"i didn't. i never did." he says, "y/n you mean so much to me. why would i ever want that?" he asks.

"i- i don't know." i say.

pope starts to look into my eyes until he crashes his lips into mine. no no no. i pull away.

"pope, i-"

i'm interrupted by another kiss. i pull away again.

"pope, i don't feel that way about you." i say.

he nods.

"i don't either but cmon, you've been gone for a month. let's have some fun for real."

i kiss him back. i don't know what it is but it sounds like a break. i don't want to worry about jj or rafe right now. i just want to have fun.

———————————————————————————

pope and i had made out for hours. we didn't have sex because we just weren't ready for that. he was super sweet and asked for consent every time he touched me.

"goodnight bean." he says.

"goodnight pope." i say with a smile.

———————————————————————————

hii so im sorry if you guys didn't want pope like that but i had a few requests on tiktok.
- next chapter is gonna be more focused on rafe.
- i wanna hear your guys' thoughts on everything that's happened so far!!
- go ahead and put any suggestions—>