Pope stood looking out at the water, his emotions conflicting inside of him. For the longest time he was devoid of them, but this great adventure had awakened terribly frightening feelings in him that he didn't even know existed. One of them being jealousy. Another one being untenable regret. His biggest regret at the moment...telling June March what he saw.
He knew how much JJ loved June, but the pain of seeing his friend practically betray him, going after a girl he knew he had feelings for, a girl who actively led him on...all while having a girlfriend. He wanted him to hurt for it. He had told June irrationally because of emotion, and now he felt like the traitor. He didn't even know if what he saw was what he actually had seen. But he had already set the wheels in motion, and June was not one to sit around and wait for the other shoe to drop. It was an admirable trait to have and he did actively appreciate that about her, but in this situation he wasn't entirely sure if it was necessarily a good thing.
They were coming up on St. Kitts, JJ coming up the stairs to where Pope was standing. He had been pacing around for awhile now, trying to figure out what exactly had come over him with Kiara, why he had almost kissed her, why he wasn't so terribly upset about it, and how afraid he was that Pope had seen it. Afraid of hurting his friend, afraid of his friend telling his girlfriend what he saw. He turned his head and saw Sarah, Cleo, and Kie all sitting together, his eyes then darting to Tyler and June who were barely in sight, serious looks on their faces and tense conversation between them. JJ let out a breath as he looked back at Pope, ready for damage control.
"Almost to port bro. Want to fill her up?" JJ could tell Pope didn't want to talk, the boy looking out at the water with a face of indifference. Pope was thinking in his head, how he didn't have that much of a reason to be angry but June did, and he was coming to terms with how he had told her more and more by the second. JJ was here to apologize or to vie for his silence. It was too late, he had already spilled. "We need to get some food too."
Pope continued to stare out at the water, JJ running a hand over his face and starting.
"Hey Pope. Pope, look man." JJ got in front of him so he couldn't not look at him, his eyes wide. "Look, I know you think you saw something up there. Or maybe you did see something. I don't know, but straight up, nothing actually happened."
"You ain't gotta lie to me."
"I'm not lying to you Pope. Okay? That's what I'm trying to tell you. We do not lie to each other." JJ said, Pope giving him an outrageous look.
"Is that what you're going to tell your girlfriend? That it was nothing because Pogues don't lie to each other?" Pope watched as panic and disbelief crossed JJs face, the blonde reaching out and grabbing his shoulder. He blinked a few times, shaking his head slightly as he spoke.
"My girlfriend—dude, you didn't tell her did you?" Pope followed his question with silence, JJ feeling his heart drop. His eyes widened and he looked at Pope like he had done something criminal. But JJs reaction seemed to tell Pope everything he needed to know, that it wasn't nothing because if it was nothing he wouldn't be so worried and upset. If it was nothing then his reaction would be nothing. Popes mind changed on his stance, his defense flying to June, who was going to remain in the dark if he wouldn't have told her.
"Listen JJ, let me tell you something okay? What you do in your relationship is not my business...but if you're gonna go after Kie, don't go behind Junes back. It's your choice. Don't be a piece of shit." JJ looked at Pope with glazed over eyes, his mind calculating a plan to fix things. He didn't know what was wrong with him. He didn't know why he was feeling like this. "What are you doing man?"
