𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 [𝐣𝐣 𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤]

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐡

I was lost.

Everything in my life had been completely turned around in the span of one day. My father was slowly dying. My best friend is somebody that I really don't recognize. And I was starting to put everything between me and JJ together, which made me start to think he was feeling the same way I was. So, life had really thrown me for a loop.

After taking off and staying away, I needed to go home to talk to my father. We needed to sit down and see what his options were. There was no way I was going to just let him go. But when I got home, he was asleep and I didn't have the chance to talk to him like I wanted to. Resulting in me making my way to my room to sleep too.

Only I never reached a deep sleep. Every time my eyes closed all I saw was the boat exploding and the look on John B's face. I did manage to doze off in little increments so I took the win where I can get it.

Around 9 was when I started hearing movement throughout the house. The patter of Cooper making his way to the back door followed by it opening and closing followed by a knock on my door.

"Yup." Slowly it creeped open to reveal my brother on the other side.

"Didn't think you'd be home." I sat myself against the wall and shrugged, "I heard Ward Cameron blew himself up yesterday." Dylan said as he stood in the doorway. As he spoke the image flashed in front of my eyes once more.

"Yeah, not as cool as it sounds."

"Wait, were you there yesterday?" I nodded, "Are you okay? Is Sarah okay?" I guess he realized his joking tone wasn't exactly the best option to ask the question in.

"Well, aside from probably being traumatized for the rest of my life, I'm wonderful. Sarah on the other hand is probably having one of the worst days of her life."

"Understandable," Dylan looked down the hall to where our dad's room was, "You know he's really sorry for not telling you, right?"

"I know. After yesterday, I knew I needed to be here. I can't imagine losing him."

"Are you going to the bonfire tomorrow? One last hoorah before school consumes your life." I chuckled but I was grateful for him changing the subject. I guess neither of us liked talking about our father dying. "You never know, you might be able to tell JJ how you feel."

"Doubtful." I said and shooed him out of my room so I could get dressed for the day. I definitely needed to take a shower not only to wash myself but to also attempt to wash off the negativity of the last couple days. Once I was out and dressed, I grabbed a light hoodie for over top because it had gotten a little chillier.

"Where you off to now?" My dad asked as I walked into the kitchen.

"I was going to head over to Sarah's to see if she was there." Was my car here? Or at John B's? I moved quickly to check out the window and was upset it wasn't there before going back to the conversation with my father.

"Anything else? You going to that bonfire tomorrow?"

"Dad, you're not supposed to know about that."

He laughed, "I'm not? Who do you think started that thing like 20 some years ago? Believe it or not, before there was John B and JJ, there was me and Luke." I knew my dad and Big John were friends, but I didn't know he was friends with Luke. I guess he never mentioned it because of how much he had changed since high school.

"And there will be no Luke 2.0 if I have anything to say about it." I said as I grabbed a bandana off the counter before saying goodbye. I tied the bandana onto my hair like a headband before I left the yard. During the walk to John B's I swung my lanyard and keys like a crazy lady. Some swings made me feel like a ninja with nunchucks, I even added a few sound effects.

By the time I got to the house, everyone was out on the pier. From the yard I could see John B was laying on the HMS, JJ was fishing with Kie next to him, and Pope was standing on the ramp to the floating dock. I decided to make my way down there just to see what their plans for the day were.

"Well, isn't this a happy bunch." I said sarcastically as I made my way to them. The vibe was off, so I dialed myself back a few notches. "You guys eat yet?" Pope shook his head no and continued on with his determined stare across the marsh. "Okay... JB, can we talk for a second?" He looked at me and a small smile came through his sad broody mood. He got up and came over to me. "Walk with me?" He nodded and I wrapped my arm around his as we walked off toward the house.

We laid on opposite ends of the hammock so we could face each other. We hadn't just sat and talked in a while. "So, JB about yesterday..."

"I don't even want to talk about it." Maybe he realized how he acted was wrong.

"Well, I'm gonna because looking at you and seeing how you reacted when that boat blew up scared me. You watched Topper comfort Sarah and did nothing. I'm gonna have to be honest with you and say I barely recognized you in that moment."

"I'll admit, it definitely wasn't my finest moment." He admitted, "But you have to understand-"

"I do understand everything that man has put you through and I know it was nice to see him fall. But you have to understand that he was your girlfriend's dad and she watched him blow himself up. John B, that girl loves you to death and you did nothing to help her yesterday." He nodded and let me continue, "Well, I'm going to let that marinate. I have somewhere to be." I struggled to get out of the hammock before going over to my car only for it to not start. I didn't have time to figure out what was wrong with it, so I walked back over to where he still was on the hammock.

"What's wrong?" He didn't open his eyes to look at me.

"My car won't start, and I don't have time to figure out what's wrong with it. Can I take the twinkie?"

"Of course. But, uh, take JJ with you. Sometimes the clutch gets stuck, and he knows how to drive it better than anyone." John B held a mischievous smile as he finished up his instructions.

"Geez John B, you're really smooth." I hit the hammock and almost flipped him out of it as I walked to the pier. I listened to the conversation they were having, apparently JJ knew about me and John B kissing a few months ago and thought something was going to happen between us now that he and Sarah weren't on the best of terms. But Pope and Kie both shot down that idea, real quick.

"JJ!" he sat the rod in one of the holders and turned to me, "Come with me?" I watched him reel the line in before running up to me.

"Where we going?"

"Tannehill." He raised a brow but asked no questions as he grabbed the keys before meeting meat the van.