JJ and a Routledge

Holding Me

I walked next to Sarah, leaving JJ behind me. "All right, Vlad." Sarah begins. "It's time to play the truth game." 

"Again?" he groans. 

"Why the hell are we here?" Sarah looks between me and John B. 

"We already told you, we can't tell you." John B replies. 

"Okay, well intel on the mission is the price of the ticket, and I'm the only way you three are getting in." She smirks. I'll give it to her, she's persistent. "It's your choice." 

"Okay." JB sighs, I notice JJ come up next to him, he stares right at me, confused. I just look away. "On pain of death? We're on a treasure hunt." We stop in front of the desk, but at a good distance. Sarah bursts out laughing until she realizes the three of us have straight faces. 

"Oh shit, you guys are serious." She straightens her mouth. 

"Look, we have reason to believe that Denmark Tanny was the sole survivor of the Royal Merchant wreck," I whisper. She looks at me, so in shock. 

"I know this sounds crazy, okay, but we're pretty sure he got away with 400 million, in gold." John B tells her. "Which is how he would have been able to buy Tannyhill. And I think that the location of that treasure is in his papers. That's why we're here." 

Sarah opens her mouth, closes it then opens it again. "You said 400 mil?" 

"That's a lot of Bubble Wrap." John B nods. Whatever that means. 

"I'll talk to the librarian." Sarah nods walking to the desk. 

John B then tells us he's going to the bathroom, leaving me and JJ alone. "Coral..." JJ gets closer to me. "Did I do something? Or say something? I'm sorry if I did, you can tell me." He stands right in front of me. 

"No." I roll my eyes. 

"Are you sure? Because you seem really pissed. Wait- is this about the girl I like?" JJ asks. 

"No- no- no of course not." I shake my head and quickly come up with an excuse. "Why would I be upset about that? Also, I like someone so..." 

"Oh." I don't look up to see his reaction but I hear the restrained sadness in his voice. 

"Is something wrong?" I ask. 

"No- well I just thought we had something- never mind." He runs his hand through his hair. 

"JJ, you just told me you liked another girl and now you're saying we had a thing?" I shake my head. "I can't believe you." 

"No- Coral- the girl was-" Sarah and John B save the day, for a second. 

"Good and bad news, which one?" John B asks. 

"Good," I say. 

"Well, we can go in." Sarah smiles. 

"But.. only two of us can, so you and JJ have to wait out here." John B grimaces. 

"Whatever." I go to sit down at a table. 

"What'd you do to her, JJ?" I hear JB scold him. 

"I fucked up..." He groans. 

"Well fix it." they walk off and JJ comes to sit next to me. 

"Coral." JJ sighs. 

"What?" 

"The girl I like- she's like me, she got abused by her parents. She hit her nose on the HMS Pogue." That's when my breath hitched. "She held my hand when I killed the rooster. She let's me open up to her. She makes me feel special. She's John B's sister. For God's sake, she's, she's you." I finally look up to meet his eyes, which are looking at me adoringly. "And I know you like someone else, I get it, but..." 

"JJ." I smile, but he continued to rant. 

"He'd probably treat you better than I ever could, and probably doesn't steal, or carry a gun around the place-" 

"JJ!" I laugh. 

"What? What's funny?" 

"I only said I liked someone because I thought you liked someone else. But I like you." His face immediately brightens up which makes me giggle. "But, I don't want to mess up your friendship with JB, or mine with him already. And no Pogue on Pogue macking. So let's keep it casual?" 

He nods in agreement. "Of course, but eventually we can do things right? Like I really want to kiss you right now." 

"Eventually." I smile. 

We ended up sleeping on park benches, super uncomfortable but we had to wait till morning to get on a ferry. We got tickets this time, luckily. 

"My dad is going to kill me for being out all night." Sarah sighs as we look out at the water. "But at least we completed the mission." She nudges John B. 

"Yeah, yeah." John B smiles. 

JJ and I exchange a glance, not them flirting again. "Speaking of the mission," I roll my eyes. "You're not at bad as I thought you'd be." I glance at Sarah. 

"Agreed," JB added. 

"Well, what'd you guys suspect?" She looks at us. 

"Do you really want us to answer that?" JJ mutters. 

"I have an idea. Maybe a Kook princess?" She smirks. "Bubble wrap queen?" What's with the bubble wrap?

"Something like that." John B nods. "Rude to waiters at a minimum kinda thing." 

"Ow, that hurts! Yikes." 

"Just saying." JB shrugs. 

"You know, you guys aren't what I expected either." Sarah smiles. 

"You're way weirder." She points at JB. "You're way cooler." She glances my way. "And JJ, you're not as psycho as people put you out to be." 

"Tell me more." I hear JB whisper to her, I roll my eyes once more and start talking to JJ again. 

"Truth game." I smile at him. 

"Alright." He nods, "But I go first." 

"Okay, go ahead." I smile. 

"Have you ever had a boyfriend?" 

"No." I shake my head. "My turn. How long did you like Kiara." 

"Only since she joined us, officially so probably a little over 6 months, maybe like 8-9?" He squints. "My turn. 3rd base?" 

A little embarrassed at the question, I look down to the ground and shake my head. "No," I whisper, he barely heard me. 

"Really? No one's fingered you yet?" JJ laughs. I slap his arm, smiling now. 

"Okay, um... why do you think Kiara hates me?" I ask. 

"Well... she's been the only girl-Pogue in the group for a while now, and she did not have a good experience at all with girls. She uh, probably feels like you are in her territory and doesn't want you to 'take' The Pogues from her." I sigh at this. "Okay, my turn."  "2nd base?" My heart beats a little faster at this question, it was already thumping but now it was much worse. I feel the water in my eyes as I think of the many times a wished I could scrub off the places he touched me."Hey, hey, hey." JJ pulls me away from John B and Sarah, so they don't notice. "I'm sorry if the questions are too personal... we can stop if you want." 

"No, no it's not that." I try to push the tears back, but they spill out instead. "Shit," I mumble. JJ pulls me into his chest and rubs my back, slowly. 

"You don't have to tell me." He whispers. "But I'd like it if you did." 

"Okay," I gulp. "I have been to second, but-- but." I pause, I focus on JJ rubbing my back for a couple of seconds and then begin again. "It- it didn't count. If you know what I mean." I stuff my face in his chest, not wanting to look at him. 

I hear his voice gasp, but he doesn't say anything. He just holds me there, he holds me there for a really, really long time. And I didn't mind it at all.