𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐨𝐲

VII. The North Drain.

    

     JAKE AND Kie walk side by side behind JJ who turns towards them. "I told you guys this would happen." He tells the pair. "Like, you're the one who had to kick Pope in the face." JJ puts the blame on Jake who looks at him. "It was your fault! You stepped on his hand!" Kie is quick to defend Jake before he could even defend himself to the blond boy.

"Oh, that was my fault?"

"Yeah, yours and Pope's!" Kie says and Pope turns towards them. "Why do you always take his side?" He said suddenly, raising his voice and Jake glanced around at them. "Yeah, Kie! Why do you never take ours?" JJ titled his head to the side and Kie looks away. "Shut up." She says and Jake looks at Pope.

He feels the guilt coming back again. The hatred for himself came back. He's such a bad friend. "Guys, stop." He tells them so they stopped and looked at him. "We--we can still go get the gun." He said and looked towards the storm drain so Pope slowly turned around, also looking at the storm drain that said it drains to the ocean above the opening.

Kie drove JJ home first, then Pope and then she drove in silence with Jake. "You don't have to do that." He looks at her and she's confused for a moment. "Do what?" She asked and he just glanced away. "Taking my side... it was my fault, my hand didn't hurt that bad but my other hand slipped so I accidentally kicked Pope. I--I already feel like shit for... what I did." He said and Kie slowed down the car.

She parks in front of his house, looking at him. "What?" She says, confused and he sighs. "I knew he liked you. I always knew, him, and JJ, and John B would talk about you a lot... and I--I went for it with you anyway." He said and she just furrowed her brows, shaking her head. "It's not something you should feel bad about, Jake. He can't be mad at you or me for something out of my control." She shrugged.

"By the way, what was Shoupe talking about? With the art?" He asked and she looks away, sighing. "I got high hanging out with JJ and Pope while you were busy at work... so I just went to spraypaint their wall." She shrugs softly, looking down and he stared at her in thought. "Oh..." He says and she just sighed.

"I'm sorry I've been impulsive lately... but, like, it's not over, you know?" She looks at him and he nods. "Yeah..." He says and looked down between them. "I'm glad to have you by my side throughout it all." He whispers and she looks at him, smiling faintly. "Me too." She whispers back and Jake leaned over, kissing her as his hand raised to the side of her face.

"I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" He says when he pulls back and she nods right away, smiling faintly at him. "Yeah... I'll text you." She says and he hops out of the car, smiling at her. "Goodnight." He says, closing the door and she giggles. "Goodnight, loverboy."

Jake sighs when he saw his mom was sleeping with Evie in her arms, the one year old sleeping peacefully on her chest. "Mom," he whispered quietly, reaching out for his daughter and his mom quickly looked up, "hm, sorry... I was pretty tired and fell asleep holding her." She explains and Jake nods, smiling. "That's fine... but I'm home now, you should go get some rest. I'm sorry for staying out so late." He says as he looked down at Evie in his arms.

"It's fine, honey... you should go get some rest too. Goodnight." She said as she walks into her room, yawning and he smiles. "Goodnight, mom." He said as he walked into his room as well, setting Evie gently into her crib before getting into his own bed, sighing.

In the morning, Jake got picked up by Kie and they headed off to meet JJ and Pope, the boys telling them all about the plan about the drains and they figured out where the gun could have washed out to. They walk up to the drain together now, "this is the north drain. It should've gotten washed into the gully. So, if it got flushed out from this drain, it would've been pushed out to, like--" "somewhere in this trash." Pope says and JJ looks at him.

"Correct." He says and Kie sighs. "Oh, my god. People who use plastic should be shot." She says and JJ looks at her. "Okay, personally, I love plastic. Use it every day. Love the stuff." JJ said and Jake rolls his eyes. "Hopefully, you recycle it and don't let it flush into the ocean." He says as he digs into his backpack.

"I got trash bags." He said now as he took out the roll of bags. Kie looks at him, smiling, "did you just proactively protect the environment?" She asked and he looks at her. "Of course, I did..." He says and she just smiled wider. "You want us to leave you two alone? Or what's going on?" JJ now asked the couple making Jake look over at them right away.

"Just clean up the plastic." He tossed the garbage bags to him and the three boys had one each as Kie helped Jake before they realized there was no gun in all of the trash, tossing the bags over to the side. "Well, that was fun." JJ says as Pope hands him the last one he sets onto the other garbage bags.

"If it's not in the trash, then it's gotta be in the storm drain." Pope said as he gestured to it. "It's the... it's in the drain." JJ nods and Jake sighs. "Damn it." Pope says. "Of course it is." Kie nods and JJ looks at them. "Good thing I brought the crow." He says, turning away to dig through his backpack where he took out a crowbar. "So, are we gonna do, like, rock, paper, scissors?" Kie looked at the three boys.

"No." JJ replied. "Or alphabetically?" She suggested next. "Nah. On three, Pope. One, two, three." They grunt as they open it up. "Or, like, the oldest goes?" Kie asked and Jake was the oldest out of all four. "In the sewer, there's this worm that you get when you're down there. It gets in your blood, and then it has to come out your pecker." JJ explains.

Jake grimaced, looking at them. "So, uh... that would be a hard pass for me." The blond boy added. "Yeah, that's gonna be a no for me." Pope looks at Jake and Kie. "Oh, come on..." Jake scoffs and then walked over to the drain. "What? The pecker thing is true!" JJ stopped Jake who turns to them.

"Okay? But I'm not just gonna let Kie go in all by herself which you two seem to be fine with doing." He says before turning back around but Kie stops him. "I can do it." She says and he looks back at her. "How about... we both go in together? We'll find it faster." He suggested and she just stared at him blankly.

"Sure." She nodded right away and he heads in first. "Okay, just, you know, be careful, guys." Pope tells them as Kie follows after Jake. "We'll be so careful." Kie says sarcastically. "Just, uh, holler if you guys need anything, okay?" JJ said as Jake got further and further. "We'll uh, holler back." He tells the couple.

"Very helpful, thank you, JJ."

A.N.
me: instead of kie being alone in the two fics i have for her, her lovers will be with her instead, struggling and about to drown with her because yk, shared trauma i guess 😀
+ i remembered to update on time today