𝐇𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 | 𝐣𝐣 𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤

- 7 -

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"what? no... why would he be jealous? there's no reason for him to be..." i conclude from thinking in silence for a couple of seconds after john b said that.

john b shrugged before walking to the screen door. "if you really wanna know, ask him yourself. but remember, what you don't know can't hurt you." he replied before walking outside.

what? what was that supposed to mean? 'what you don't know can't hurt you.' what was he talking about?

a big part of me wanted to know what it was, but there was also the other part of me yelling 'don't ask! if you were supposed to know, you would! just let things play out!'

hmm. maybe i would ask him on friday, before i had to go to the party with rafe? i didn't have any other things going on that day, so it would be perfect timing. since today was wednesday, there were only two more days to go until the party.

yes, i dramaticized that heavily, but i still would like to know why rafe decided to ask me to a party - he doesn't like any of my pogue friends at all. so, why invite me? why not invite one of his kook girls that are crazy about him?

i turned around to look at the time on the microwave. 1:18. i have no idea what everyone is doing outside, nor do i really care. i was extremely tired, so i laid down on the sofa, not bothering to go find a comfy bed to sleep on and drifted off.

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i woke up to the sound of music blasting nearby. what the hell? i rubbed my eyes, moving my head around to look where the sounds were coming from. the sunlight spread through the windows, blinding me for a few seconds and then i got my vision back.

i looked around and saw pope and john b, adjusting the boombox's volume, seeing the canoe right by it. ohh... so they decided to build it outside? good thinking.

or they didn't want to wake me up. but, it's still better to just build it outside because of the mess that we (i) would have to clean up after they were done for the day. i shot my mom a quick text saying that i would be back at home tomorrow, and then got up from my incredibly comfortable place on the couch to go join the boys outside.

i imagined that kiara would have probably gone home late last night, which is why she isn't here right now, but jj was nowhere to be found. that's kind of weird, considering the fact that he lived here with john b. i quickly put the thought out of my head when john b yelled to me.

"good morning! can you go grab the screwdriver from inside one of the kitchen drawers?" he shot me a charming smile as his way of saying 'please...'

i nodded, and walked into the kitchen to find the screwdriver. i wish he would've been much more specific on where it was, because it took me opening and going through at least 6 drawers until i found the tool.

i walked out back there, up to them, and handed the screwdriver to john b. i squinted, with the sun in my eyes.

"isn't jj supposed to be out here helping you two? where is he?" i asked, looking around, as if he would be somewhere out here.

"i have no clue. i guess he just went off somewhere last night and didn't come back?" pope suggested, shrugging his shoulders while holding a board for john b to put a nail in.

what? there were only a handful of places that jj could sleep over at and none of them were ideal. unless he went off to go buy a hotel room for a single night, but that didn't seem likely.

i nodded. he would probably turn up sooner or later today, so i didn't have to worry right now. "let me know if you guys need any help with... your project..." i say. i still have no idea why they decided to build a canoe, out of everything they could possibly do, including repairs to the chateau. like i said before, it was really random and out of the blue.

"by the way, kie says that she wants to come by later today and do something with you." pope yelled, as i walked towards the screen door.

i nodded, holding my thumb up and walked back inside to go back to my warm and comfy couch. i slipped my phone out of my pocket, and quickly checked any new texts that i had got since i had fallen asleep last night.

two from an unknown number. hm.. who? i tapped on the message, unlocking my phone and quickly seeing the greeting "it's rafe." that put quickly put an end to the mystery of who was the unknown number. it turned out that he was just reminding me of the details for the party tomorrow which consisted of:

-he would pick me up from my house at 8

-where the party was at (topper's house)

- some of his friends who were going (kelce, topper, his sister sarah)

i sent him a quick thank you, since i appreciated the thoughtfulness that he had to text me all the details and such. not many guys would think to do that, and i smiled. he wasn't so bad.

my mind suddenly went to the thought of jj. yes, i have a set in stone plan and thought of all of the different possibilities to this:

- hopefully jj would be back home by tomorrow, before i had to leave the chateau to get ready for the party. if not, i guess i could just text or call him, but it would really be better if this happened in person.

- if he was with the group, i would try and get him alone to talk to him (hopefully he wasn't still in the shitty mood he was in with me last night - or jealous, as john b and kie think)

- once i got him alone and in private, i would tell him everything i knew and what people had told me and ask him what all of this meant. if he refused to answer, or just plain ignored me, i could ask john b or someone who might know.

what could go wrong?