Jiara: My Mistakes Were Made For You

Part 10: Ask Me To Stay

When they woke up the other morning, Kie was acting like nothing had happened. After Kie told him to go after his mom, JJ hadn't been able to answer. They hadn't said anything else and had just fallen asleep. In the morning, JJ was waiting for an opportunity to talk about the subject again, but Kie was almost avoiding him.

While Kie was standing next to Leo, who was making eggs with a cigarette in his mouth, learning the secrets of making the perfect omelet from him, JJ was staring at the TV and constantly checking Kie out of the corner of his eye. She saw Leo touch Kie's waist, noticing that they were both chuckling. He was waiting for any sign of Kie's discomfort, because that was all he needed to come between the two of them. But Kie seemed more amused than annoyed. In fact, she was relieved that she was able to avoid talking to JJ. Leo was very talkative, and listening to the things he said about the omelet without getting bored helped Kie a little to clear her mind.

"The table is ready!" ' Val shouted from outside.

"Omelet is ready too!" ' Leo shouted back. He politely touched Kie's back and they walked outside together. JJ followed them biting his lips. 

"This is seriously amazing." Kie said turning to Leo, with her mouth full.

"It's just eggs." JJ sighed. Kie found it weird, but didn't really care.

"Do you think it's a good time to go back to château, JJ?" she asked.

"Not sure." JJ thought to himself. "Your folks probably put up a big price money for you, right?" he asked. "And Shoupe is probably seeing this as an oppurtunity to get rich, so he might not let this go too easily."

"Wow, price money, huh?" Leo said turning to Kie. He seemed impressed.

"So what?" Kie asked to JJ, ignoring Leo. "Am I never going back?"

"Well... They'll eventually think of checking here too. So maybe being a moving target is better." said Val.

"Yeah, good point." JJ agreed with her. "We should go back, but we should be ready to run away anytime."

They agreed to return. Kie didn't want to be a burden to stay here any longer, and as she stayed away from pogues, she was falling behind on the plan they had to implement in a very short time. JJ had no intention of keeping her here, of letting Leo get close to her. Besides, wherever they were, he would never let the cops take her. They had almost finished breakfast when they saw Mr. Diaz dock with his boat. 

"You having fun at your brunch while your old man's working his ass off?" he shouted from the boat.

"Hey pops!" Leo shouted, he got up and walked to him. "Let me help you with those." 

Leo and Mr. Diaz landed the brimful bags on the boat. JJ got up and helped them move everything to the front of the house.

"Why don't you boys do me a favor and take those to figure 8? I'm beat." Mr. Diaz said sitting down and picking up an olive from the table. JJ turned to Kie.

"You mind waiting 'till we get back?" he asked.

"I can come with you," Kie said. "We can go back from there."

"Oh, no." JJ said. "They'll recognize you in figure 8. You ain't invisible like us, princess."

"I can drop you off, if you don't want to wait." Val suggested.

"No, it's fine." Kie responded. "I'll wait and help you clean up." She turned to JJ smiling, JJ thanked her with his eyes for actually trying to get along with Val.

"Let's go deliver those kooks their shrimp cocktails then." JJ said picking up bags. Leo joined him.

"Don't get yourselves into trouble." Mr. Diaz yelled after them. JJ put his thumb up as they walked away.