Away From You | Jiara

Chapter 13

We head back to the party after I've cooled off and notice Pope and Cleo talking. I head in their direction and Cleo notices me first, making Pope turn to see who she's looking at. "Are you going to introduce me Pope?" I ask with a smile on my face.

    "Cleo, meet Kiara. Kiara, this is Cleo."

    "I've heard a lot about you Kiara, but it's nice to meet you."

    "I'm JJ." JJ pipes in behind me.

    "Hi JJ." Cleo smiles

    "Are you enjoying the party?" I ask.

    "Yeah, it's cool. There's way more people here than I expected." 

    "You'll get used to it. This the only neutral area on the entire island."

    "Me and Cleo are going to dance, if you'll excuse us." Pope says taking her hand.

    Pope leads her to dance floor and I turn to JJ. "What do you think, do we like her?"

    "She seems nice enough. I don't see her doing anything shady." 

    "Yeah, I'm hoping for the best." 

    "Kie! JJ!" I look around and see John B headed our direction with Sarah in tow.

    "We heard you got into a fight with some girl." Sarah says observing me.

    "That bitch got what she deserved. I don't want to talk about it though."

    "Have you guys met Cleo yet?" JJ intervenes

    "No, how is she?" John B asks curiously. 

    "She seems nice enough. I didn't get any red flags from her." JJ concludes

    "I would like to meet her. If she keeps hanging around him, we'll be spending more and more time with her." Sarah exclaims watching them on the dance floor. "C'mon John B, it's time to introduce ourselves." They walk over to the pair hand in hand.

    "You want to get out of here?" JJ asks suddenly.

    "Yes, but I don't want to go home. I lied and told my mom I was staying at Sarah's tonight."

    "You want to head to my place?"

    "Yeah, let's go."

    He grabs my hand and leads me toward his dirt bike. I haven't been to JJ's house since before his dad left. He never let us go to his place but I went in one day anyway. I guess he was ashamed with how he was living. Due to his dad being a drug addict and an alcoholic, the place was never clean. There were always empty beer bottles and trash on the floor, not to mention all the drugs in plain sight just sitting on the table. Thankfully, he doesn't have to live like that anymore. Once we pull up, I get off the bike and wait for him to do the same. The house looks so abandoned, like no one lives here anymore. I guess that is partly true since JJ is basically staying at John B's now. There's no reason for him to be at home and who would want to be home alone every night?

    As we walk in the house, I notice that it's not messy like it was the last time I was here. JJ must have dropped by at some point to straighten up a bit. "I would offer you a beer, but there's nothing in this shithole. I'm hardly ever here anymore." J says to me.

    "It's okay, I'm not really thirsty anyway."

    I walk into his room and hear him close behind me. I sit down on his bed and take my button down off and take my hair down. "What are you doing Kie?" he asks eyeing me.