MERCEDES, jj maybank

54.

FREEMAN

The next morning Trinity was out on a deck chair looking at the tree memorial that was made for her and John B. Hey eyes watered a bit as she cracked open a beer and drank to herself for not being dead, "To me,"

The rest of the Pogues were out watching JJ wax his surfboard out in the surf shack.

And then Trinity heard multiple honks from a vehicle that sound very very familiar with the same sound of the engine spluttering and she knew it was the Twinkie.

She took her beer and ran around the driveway to see John B pulling in.

"Are you serious?" Kiara asked, not believing her eyes.

"Am I dreaming?"

John B hopped out of the van and skipped over to them, "Guess who's out the clink, boy!

"No freaking way, man," Pope grinned.

They all sprinted over to John B and shared a long-awaited group hug, "We missed you!"

"I missed you guys too,"

"How'd you do it?" JJ asks him, "You bust out?"

But John B just shook his head, "They dropped the charges,"

"They dropped the charges?!"

"Dude, that's phenomenal!"

"You're telling me I did all the work for nothing?" JJ shook his head.

Pope turns and faces JJ, changing his tone to sarcastic, "Oh, the most elaborate escape plan of all time?"

"Yeah, foolproof," Kiara uses her fingers as quotation marks.

"Yeah, it was actually!"

Trinity ignores the bickers and gives John B another hug, "Whatever, you're out that's what matters,"

John B rubs her back with a smile and then lowers his tone, "Have you seen Sarah?"

Trinity shakes her head, "Apparently she went to go see Wheezie last night but I don't know,"

John B nods, making a mental note and then asks the rest of the group to see what they say, "Where's Sarah?"

"She went to go meet Wheezie last night. She didn't come back," Kiara says plainly.

Trinity knew something was up. First off she knew what Ward and Rose were like and wouldn't have even allowed Wheezie to be out that late. But the Pogues just seemed to think she had a change of heart.

They all went and sat together on the Pogue while it was still tied up. Trinity and JJ were close together and between them, there was some awkward tension.

"Hey," JJ says, getting Trinity's attention. The spins around and looks at him, "Thanks for coming to the rescue,"

"You should be thanking Kie,"

JJ watches her face and how she doesn't make eye contact with him anymore, "What's your issue?" He asks her.

"No issue,"

"Then why are you being so weird?"

Trinity sighed, "JJ, I'm not being weird - you're being weird and I'm worried about Sarah."

"Yeah well you were all over me at one point and now you don't even look at me," JJ points out but Trinity stays quiet for a little too long, "Exactly. Something definitely happened,"

"Just shut up, JJ." She shoots him down and changed her focus to John B's conversation.

"Dude, I just swear to God, I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch one day," John B shook his head and quickly shook off the anger that was building up. "I think somethings happened to Sarah, it wouldn't be like her to just dip,"

"I agree," Trinity raises her hand and looks down at her shorts.

"Exactly,"

Kiara just shakes her head, "It's okay guys,"

"No, Kie, it's not okay, we gotta find Sarah," John B corrects Kiara and is more confused as to why she isn't more worried.

"No, literally, it's okay. She's right there." Kiara points down ahead of her and they all spin around watching a Malibu approach them.

Trinity internally screamed when she realised that Sarah and Topper were together again and had to stop herself from laughing, "Well, at least she's okay," Trinity tries to put a positive spin on it.

Sarah stood up and saw John B was sitting there and no longer in jail, "John B? John B!"

But John B just looked down at the ground feeling nothing but resentment. "What the hell is she doing with Topper?" Kiara asked what everyone was thinking.

John B helped Sarah back in the boat and hugged her tightly, "Oh my God, I'm so glad you're okay!"

Trinity could feel the awkwardness and secretly was loving it and hating it at the same time and doing her best not to laugh, "Hey Top," She says to him.

"Hey," He says softly, waving.

John B tells Sarah about how all the charges were dropped and she was over the moon but John B was still confused why she was with Topper who was looking away each time they hugged or kissed.

"Listen, Sarah, they're going after Rafe," John B tells her.

"Good, he's completely unhinged," Sarah says quickly, "He jumped me last night,"

Trinity's eyes widened, "What?!"

Sarah nodded at her, "That's why I didn't come back last night, I went to go see Wheezie but ended up running into Rafe,"

"Yeah, man. Rafe has lost his mind. Literally almost drowned his out sister." Topper adds, "Thankfully, I got there...just in time." Topper seemed to have changed and was a lot nicer and polite.

"Yeah, he did." Sarah agrees,

"Where is Rafe now?" Trinity asks Topper. Out of the Pogues, John B was the only one that thought deeper about why Trinity asked that.

Topper shrugged his shoulders, "Probably out somewhere doing coke,"

"Well," John B looks to Topper, "I guess I owe you one, Topper, don't I?"

He scoffs, and wafts his hand, "It's all good. I mean, somebody had to rescue your girlfriend, right?"

Trinity pursed her lips and watched to see if John B would ignore the subtle diss that Topper made.

"Uh, that's funny because she's not actually my girlfriend, right?" John B gestures to Sarah and smiles but on Sarah's face, it looked like she did not want John B saying what he had just said.

"Uh, well, what is she then?" Topper asks, flickering his eyes between the pair.

"Tell him,"

Sarah opens her mouth but no noise comes out, and then she goes to speak again, "I - I'm with him,"

Trinity hides her face in her hands watching the most awkward thing she had ever seen in her life. She listened as Topper laughed and could only imagine the look on John B's face.

"Gotcha! You're with him, okay, yeah! I just need the clarity there, you guys clear on that?"

JJ fixes his hat and Trinity finally brings her head back up, "I think it's clear you gotta go now," JJ tells Topper,

Topper agrees instantly, "Yeah I think I'll head out. It's about time."

Sarah walks over to him and quickly hugs him one last time as a thank you and Topper was looking directly at John B who looked like he would rather gouge his eyes out. Trinity covered her mouth and looked in the other direction still not being able to handle what was going on.