[ON HOLD UNTIL 11/23] Always Have, Always Will~Topper Thornton /OC/ Pope Heyward

5.

a/n: hate how long I took to update this 😭

tw: slight mentions of harassment

One day had passed.

One day since Topper and Rafe jumped Pope at the golf course. One day since JJ told Pope that Jorja had confronted those kooks, and they had slapped her for it. One day since Pope and JJ finally decided to get even with those pieces of shits, and went out and sunk Topper's new speed boat that cost thousands and thousands of dollars.

Yesterday had been...a busy day. Busy, hectic, and exhausting.

But it was now quiet.

Too quiet.

Pope and Jorja were both in the back of Heyward's Seafood Restaurant, working their shifts. Normally, they loved being sent to the back together. They'd talk and laugh so much, they'd forget they were even at work. But Jorja was keeping to herself that day, wrapping silverware into napkins. It odd hearing her so quiet, when normally she'd be chatting his ear off. He liked when she did that, because she always kept things interesting. Now? He didn't know what was going on inside her head.

"You're being kind of quiet today," Pope pointed out. 

As she wrapped up the silverware, she kept her eyes on the task at hand, not even looking over at him. She just shrugged, barely. "Just focused."

"You don't have to be too focused," he tried to say. "I mean, we can talk. We can have fun."

She just replied, "I'm not supposed to have fun, I'm grounded."

Pope hesitated. But he turned away, going back to his own task. But he couldn't stand the silence. He shook his head, cursing beneath his breath, and turned back to face her. Pope blurted out what he'd been trying so hard not to, "JJ told me what happened."

Jorja stiffened. Briefly, her mind fell back to the day before. It wasn't even the slap in the face that bothered her the most, it was the humiliation of JJ knowing those kooks one-upped her. God, now Pope knew too?

She was supposed to be the tough one, wasn't she? Her and JJ were the bolder ones, supposed to look out for the others. And now both the boys knew she couldn't look out for everyone, because she couldn't even look out for herself.

Jorja knew she wasn't smart. She wasn't creative. She had no real talents anymore. She was so embarrassed because if she wasn't able to be her friend's defender...than what the hell was the point of her?

A frown formed on her face. She grumbled out, "JJ...can't keep shit to himself, can he?" Jorja turned to Pope. "What did he say?"

Pope admitted to her, "That you confronted Topper and Rafe."

"And?" she pressed.

"...That Topper slapped you."

Jorja bit her lip. She looked away. "He shouldn't have told you that."