[rosemary] .jj maybank.

chapter twenty-five

"hey, psst! hey, come on. it's the only place we haven't looked," john b whispered once all the pogues were nearby, gesturing to the basement under the house. from behind rosie, jj tripped over a couple branches after hearing a sudden noise from a bird. the freckled girl turned back around, chuckling. "are you good? or do you need a minute?"

jj put his hands on both hips, one jutted out as he rested his weight on one leg before shaking his head to get his hair out of his face. "no, yeah. i- i'm chillin'. i'm all good. lead the way." rosie nodded, smiling to herself and turning to follow kiara.

"down came mrs. crain, and cut off all our heads. up came the sun, and dried up all the blood," jj sang, entering the creepy basement after pope. the dark-skinned boy turned abruptly, aiming his flashlight at jj, causing the blonde boy's pupils to shrink at the bright light. "can you stop?"

rosie nodded as she was finally able to stand up to her full height in the room, "i second what pope said."

"see any water?" kiara asked as all the pogues scanned the place with their flashlights. rosie squinted her eyes, desperately hoping to find at least a drop of water but was only met with mosquitos flying around her head. "ugh. fucking mosquitos," she muttered, swatting them out of her eyesight.

"another dead end?" kiara asked, her tone particularly bitter. "there's not even water on the pipes." jj pointed out, dragging his hand across one of the rusty pipes. "there's no water here," pope added. "not a dropamino."

"know why we didn't find it? bad karma," kie claimed as the root of their current problem. "oh, god. here we go," john b groaned, his face giving it away that he didn't want to hear what kie had to say.

"you know, we had a good thing going. and then you decide to rope in barbie, and now the trail's gone dry. coincidence? probably not," kie persisted.

"this is exactly why i didn't wanna tell you about sarah," the brunette said as rosie shuffled closer to jj and pope. "yeah?" john b nodded, "yeah. what the hell's the deal with you two?"

kie shrugged, "nothing."

"nothing? is it because i kissed you? is that the problem?" john b asked, a loud slap echoing in the tiny cellar from kie's palm making contact with the tall brunette's face. a chorus of gasps were heard from the three pogues behind the two fighting. "oh, shit. this isn't gonna end well." rosie whispered as jj pointed out that kiara's slap had echoed.

"stop treating me like i'm some girl that's obsessed with you instead of your best friend who's actually trying to look out for you." john b turned his head slowly, "did you, uh... hit me?" kiara raised her right hand, "skeeter."

"skeeter?" kie nodded, "yeah, you see it?" john b nodded, "yeah," before slapping kiara across the face as well.

"oh, hey! alright no-" jj started to protest, both pope and rosie saying their own versions of objections. "maybe.. this is gonna end worse than i thought."

kiara's head snapped back to look at john b in disbelief, "where's your proof?" john b raised his right hand, showing off the dead mosquito as kie shone her flashlight on his hand. "yeah? there's probably one right there," she said, hitting john b again, only making him retaliate. "there's one right there." the two teens continued hitting each other, making rosie lose interest. she knew they weren't truly going to hurt each other, if she thought so then she would've done something but at the moment she couldn't be bothered.

suddenly, rosie felt a hand slap her ass. she turned around quickly, seeing jj with his head turned as if he hadn't just slapped her ass. however, the dim lights from all the flashlights still permitted her to see him side-eyeing her. "you, bitch!" rosie laughed in disbelief, hitting jj's arm, "i'm warning you now, i will get you back for that." jj shrugged, "bring it on." the freckled girl nodded with a smug expression, "oh, i will. don't worry."