𝑺𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 // 𝑱𝑱 𝑴𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒂𝒏𝒌 \\

Chapter Thirty One

It was a few weeks since the pogues found out about John B and Sarah. They gathered at the Château. This was the first time they were all together for a few days. Pope was chopping pieces of wood off of the big tree in the back. He formed a heart. JJ used a blowtorch and a crowbar to write inside the heart. He wrote John B's name, the year he was born, the year he died, and P4L. JJ walked back next to Valerie who looked at the tree in silence. "To John B." JJ mumbled, his voice hoarse. He held up his flask to the tree. "And to Sarah." Kiara weakly added. Pope and JJ drank from their flasks while Kiara put a box of John B's stuff in the ground in front of the tree that Valerie helped her dig. Valerie's eyes watered as she suddenly felt the realization of everything from seeing the little memorial. Valerie knelt down beside Kiara, placing white flowers on top of the box. JJ and Pope joined the two on the ground as they covered up the box.

Without any more words, Pope and Kiara moved to the hammock while JJ and Valerie sat on one of the tree trunks. The pogues looked tried to enjoy the only sounds they could hear which were the sounds of the waves slapping each other and the occasional sniff from one of them.

Here's a fun fact. You ready? Here we go. Everyone you know... will die. And by everyone, I mean everyone. Your mother, brother, sister, father. All your friends. And all your enemies. Everyone. I mean, of course, there's another way of looking at it. Since it's all so short and over so quickly...that makes everything meaningful. Everything's just one time.

A few days later, Peterkin's funeral was held. None of the pogues bothered to attend since everyone's eyes would be on them. Valerie made an effort to have a better relationship with her parents for the rest of the summer. They even started to like the pogues a little more. They gained respect for them, but Valerie knew it was only a matter of time until that all disappeared. She hadn't seen JJ, Kiara, or Pope for three days. She locked herself in her room for a lot of the summer. Or what was left of it. School started tomorrow and Valerie already knew what would happen. Everyone would ignore them even more than they did when John B was still alive.

Valerie decided to spend the day with JJ while he worked on Figure Eight. She could't help, but hear the whispers of another table talking about John B. "You heard about what happened?" A girl asked. "I heard he kidnapped her." A man answered. Valerie assumed they were talking about Sarah. Valerie turned to see JJ trying to keep his anger down. She sat alone at a two-seater table, scrolling on her phone. JJ brought her a cup of water like she asked. Before putting it on the table, he made sure no other workers looked before taking a sip out of it. "They keep talking about John B." JJ groaned, sitting opposite of his girlfriend.

"And Sarah." Valerie added, not looking up. "I just want everything to go back to normal. Maybe if we didn't send John B back down to that Grady-White, we wouldn't be caught up in all of this." JJ sighed. Valerie finally looked up, nodding in agreement. "But then Kiara would've never made up with Sarah. You can't lie, doing all of that was something fun and interesting for the summer. It just sucks that it turned out that way." JJ nodded at the girl's words. He opened his mouth to speak, but a different worker beat him to it. "JJ! Get up and start working."

JJ rolled his eyes causing Valerie to laugh. He stood up and walked back over to the bar area after he kissed Valerie. JJ grabbed a pitcher and walked over to Topper's table. Valerie had gone back on her phone not watching the interaction until it was too late. "Can I have everybody's attention, please? I have a little announcement to make!" JJ shouted. Valerie looked up to see everyone's eyes now on JJ. She looked around before sighing and rubbing her eyes getting ready to listen to what JJ had to say. "My best friend, John B, did not kill Sheriff Peterkin! Rafe Cameron killed and shot the sheriff in cold blood!" JJ waved a fork around that he had grabbed off the table. "That's what happened! Is that so hard for you to believe, Kelce?" JJ turned to Kelce who scoffed.