soul ties - jiara

Chapter 14

JJ's POV

I rush into my house panicking. I feel my heart thundering inside of my chest, heavy breathing. I don't know how I was so stupid to the point of letting the bag fall off my pocket. And out of all the people that could find out, it had to be Kie. All of them have been through this once. She hasn't any idea about what happened and now she has to deal with all of this information, all at once. I knew I didn't want her to find out because of the terrible side effects, this information would have on her. But seeing it unraveling in front of me was heart-wrenching. The tears, the shaky hands, the wariness. I wouldn't say she felt disappointed but she was distraught. And she was devastated about me not coming up to her. My heart starts to hurt when I think about her teary eyes. I try to breathe deeply, in and out. Slowly. I begin to grab the little bag out of my pocket. This will definitely help. I am not able to finish my action since I hear someone knocking on my front door. Hard.

"You better open up, JJ!" Pope shouts. "Or I call the cops on you and I guess you do not want to explain to Shoupe why you have drugs on you!" he threatens me, not stopping the loud thundering on my door. If there's something about Pope is that he won't give up until I finally open up the door. So I do. I don't let him in, though.

"Go away!" I yell. " I want to be alone!" I tell him scratching my head nervously.

"Too bad I don't want you to be alone." he says while pushing his way into the entrance. His attitude captivates distressing behavior. I eventually gulp and accept he's not going away until he has a serious conversation with me.

"I don't want to hear about your disappointment. I don't need this." I rip the bandaid off just to finish this confrontation as soon as possible.

"You really think I'm disappointed? For fucks sake I'm worried about you, dude!" he throws his hands into the air. "We all are" he said looking straight into my soul. at least that's what it feels like.

"There's no need for that." I add swiftly, giving another try to put an end to this conversation.

"Am I thrilled? Of course, I am not!" he comes closer to me. "But I'm not disappointed." he puts his hands on my shoulders. I avoid eye contact. "Hey eyes on me, champion." he gets me to look at him. "We all have been through our fair amount of shit. But you? You have gone through hell back and forth." he tells me keeping his hands on my shoulders.

"Thanks, dude." I add sarcastically.

"And I know how it feels seeing someone you care about with someone else," he adds laughing.

"C'mon dude get over it!" I tell him joking whenever I remember that he almost caught me and Kie kissing on the boat coming back to Outer Banks. But, most important he gets me to laugh. To actually smile when I just had the shittiest day ever.

"All I am saying is that I get it. Seeing Kie with David, shitty occurrence after shitty occurrence, and having a terrible life. I get how easy it is to resort to those types of coping mechanisms. So I am never going to be the one to to make you feel ashamed for doing it." I look at the ground avoiding his eyes, once again. Tears form in my eyes. "But I never want you to feel so alone that you actually turn to them instead of turning to us, man." he stares at me, worried. his grip tightens on my shoulders. "Look, we have been through this once. I want you to know that I am willing to go through this for how many times are necessary." he eventually drops his hands from my shoulders. He takes a step back and looks at me carefully. "But I also want you to remember that Kie is here now and she knows. I could sit here and tell you a million things but I know for a fact that a simple word from her is enough for you to actually pay attention. And I know how much easier is for you to open up about your shit to her." the tears drip down my face. I remind myself of her facial expressions. The guilt.

"Is she okay?" I whisper.

"There you go. You could be dying but if there's any sort of negative thing happening in that girl's life you're the first to drop everything to rescue her." he laughs at me, grabbing my cheek and s making fun of me. I shrug his hands off me.

"You're so funny, Pope." I add sarcastically. "Not but seriously is she okay?" I question again, dying to know the answer. He stops in his tracks.

"She's worried, JJ. She is deadly worried." he tells me softly because he knows how hard is going to be for me to hear I was the one to provoke this in her. "But, to be honest I think you should be the one checking in on her." he adds.

"No, I can't. I can't." I stutter.

"C'mon man she has called you an endless amount of times. You owe her at least a simple conversation." he explains to me. I know he's telling me that I immediately need to check on her because she is indeed devasted. "Go make this right," he adds while grabbing his car keys. "I'll make sure you get there, though."

"What?" I inquire panicking.

"We're driving to Kiara's house, right now, and you'll talk to her," he explains touching my shoulder. "I won't take no for an answer." he pulls me in for a hug. "We're all here for you, dude. Remember that." I grip tight onto my best friend and let out a few tears.

Then he starts to walk in direction of his car. We get in and he adds

"Oh, you're crashing at mines today, by the way. You're in asshole watch." I guess the "asshole watch" thing just stuck as an inside joke when I need to be supervised so I don't do dangerous things. We are fast to reach Kie's parent's house. When we pull up I see her smoking a joint on the balcony. the light glows on her and even though I can notice her devasted look and swollen eyes she still is the most precious thing I have ever laid my eyes on.