Heated Lies (Jiara)

Double Down

"Why are her shoes in you room?"

Kiara froze. It wasn't until now that she realized the facility did room checks. A security guard had pulled her out of group to address the pair of sneakers laying near her bed.

"Uh..." She wasn't good at lying on the spot. "No clue... I probably dropped them off in the wrong one... saw them on the floor... in the common area... last night."

It was bullshit, and they both knew it. She kept to her story, nodding to prove a point that didn't exist. It was a bit of a shock to see him roll his eyes and brush it off. She was glad he didn't seem angry.

But as she walked back to group, she noticed him locking eyes with Nora. He was beginning to approach her, and Kiara nearly tripped on her mad dash over to block him.

"You left your shoes in the common area yesterday!" She quickly spoke, and walked off again.

Nora gave a look. It was a confused, what-the-hell-are-you-on kind of look. She kept it after Kie was out of sight, but it dropped as soon as she noticed the officer.

Then something clicked, and she chuckled nervously.

***

"So you know where the place is?" JJ joined Pope as he searched the camp on his computer. "How soon can we get there?"

"It's about a twenty minute drive from here."

He nearly choked. "Are you serious?! Let's fucking go!"

Pope grinned at his enthusiasm. "So, I'd say yes, but we need a way in. A game plan must be established. We won't even be allowed in the gate without a key card or some kind of verification that we're supposed to be there."

"Flag a guard down, lemme do the rest."

He sounded so sure, packing his bag in a fast motion. John B looked to Sarah, who was laying on his lap.

"Um... you sure you wanna do this so fast, J?"

The nickname is what caught him off guard. It brought him back to the last night he saw her. He remembered her touch down to her heartbeat.

"I'm absolutely sure. I've been sure." He made a move to leave the hotel, but JB sprang up.

He practically yanked him back by his shirt, making the blonde boy go wide eyed.

"We're not going in blind, sit down."

His mind wanted to protest, and he opened his mouth to do so.

"Weren't you just in jail, JJ?"

Then he thought. They had a point. The last thing he wanted to do was get caught. Shoupe would be disappointed, and for some reason, he didn't want to see a frown on that man's face.

"Alright, start spitballing." He sat back down, throwing his bag to his feet.

Pope looked back to his computer. "We need a key card to get in."

"Your previous idea wasn't horrible. We have four people. One of us could distract a guy long enough for someone else to grab the key card." Sarah said.

"We get the other two for lookout and backup while person A goes in to find her." John B added.

"And who is person A?"

It was unanimous when everyone stared at him. He started to smile, trying his best not to and failing.

"Go save your girlfriend."

"Oh my god, shut up!" He shoved John B in a brotherly manner.

The laughter that filled the room made his shoulders relax. He'd gotten too used to being on edge. He was with his friends now, and there wasn't a whole lot that could go wrong.

***

"Why were your shoes in her room?"

It had seemed like an easy thing to remember, but Nora was blanking. She'd began to sweat, eyes darting from one place to the other to try to calm down.

"I don't remember." She finally said. "We weren't like... in the same room, though."

The guard actually laughed at her. "Well, you better get your story straight, missy."

It was the missy that pissed her off. She would've let it go. She would've walked away. But he was abusing his authority.

"Actually, I have a question for you." She growled back, taking a step forward. "You're trying to catch me lying when you've been doing that very thing to me for three months straight. What's that about, missy?"

He was laughing again. "Don't start a fight you can't finish. You'd do best to show me some respect."

"Really? After you've done the exact opposite. How long have you know my parents were dead..." She stared at his name tag. "James?"

There was a flicker of realization in his eyes. Her lips pressed into a thin line, anger behind her own.

"You don't know what you're talking about." He said firmly. Then he was trying to leave her room.

"Oh, yeah, leave! Real pussy move! I should've been out of here ages ago!" She raised her voice, and he turned just in time to pin her against the wall.

He'd kicked the door shut, hand over her mouth and an unamused smile. "I said you should shut up. Now you're going to the warden for misconduct."

"How the fu-"

The next thing she knew, there were cuffs on her hands, and he was dragging her to the dreadful padded room. Kiara had been eavesdropping, and immediately followed his footsteps.

"Wait!" Her screams didn't faze him. "It's not her fault!"

No matter how much she wanted to yell at Nora for blurting all of that out, she couldn't help but understand. With the amount of shit her friend had been through, a bit of confronted accountability was the very least of what she should've done.

Except the doors slammed, and Kiara had a feeling the Warden wouldn't be so nice to her. She felt guilty, running to her room to throw the shoes out in the hallway.

***

Luke had since lost most of his sanity. DCFS had come over twice per Shoupe's request. Neither of them came up with anything besides alcoholism. JJ wasn't at the house for them to take.

You can't penalize a grown man with a drinking license if his kid isn't even there to be abused. It pissed the Sherrif off to no extent. He was sure he knew where JJ was, but it didn't do him any good.

Luke had laughed in his face. It took everything in the man not to punch him back twice as hard. He didn't know they were much closer to revenge than he thought.