𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬 [𝐣𝐣 𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤]

𝐮𝐧𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐩𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞 𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞

But even being with Miles didn't always stop the sadness. I found myself at the chateau the second he left to go back to Charleston that Sunday. I ended up only going back home to get some dinner before deciding that I needed to stay at the chateau. Being there made me feel okay, like my friends were just out and that they'd be back in a little while.

Staying for one night turned into two, then three until eventually my dad and brother thought I was just going to move in. Of course, my dad only knew that they were gone, and I was holding it down until they got back but Dylan started getting worried when I wasn't home. He'd call and check on me or send a text to tell me he missed me. Miles didn't come back down the following weekend, which was fine. I didn't expect him to. I didn't want him to drop whatever he had going on to be with me while I was just a sad mess.

Things were a bit rough when I stopped hearing from him altogether. There was a few texts here and there but then complete silence after a while and I ended up going back to the routine of school, home, chateau, repeat.

"Hey Laney." Heyward said as I walked in the door to his shop. Dylan had texted and asked if I could pick up dad's order on my way home from school so he didn't have to stop on his way home from work and risk not getting there in time.

"Hey." I placed the money on the counter as Mrs. Heyward came from the back as Pope's dad walked away to get the order. I could tell she had been crying from how puffy around her eyes were. I knew she missed Pope a lot and I couldn't help but feel like I could be doing more to ease her sadness.

"Hey Laney, how's school been?" The last time I saw her, she had asked me to take good notes for Pope so when he came back he had something good to study from.

"It's been school," I laughed lightly, "We had like 2 tests yesterday that I feel pretty good about and I think I'm catching up on my homework. I think I'm only 2 classes behind from when I was out."

"Good. Did you do anything fun for Halloween?" I thought back to hanging out with Miles and the shit show that ended up being the boneyard.

I shrugged, "Just handed out candy with my dad." Heyward came back out and handed me the bag with a small smile. "Thank you."

I turned to leave before anything else could be said. As bad as it sounded, I just wanted to be left alone. I wanted to drop the order off to my dad and go to the chateau to chill out for the night.

When I made it home, my dad was asleep in the recliner and my brother was in the kitchen trying to cook some kind of dinner. "Here." I put the bag on the counter and moved to go get a bag of clothes for the night. By the time I was done, so was dinner and I took it to go.

Confusion washed over me when my headlights flashed over another vehicle in the yard. It was the first time someone else had been at the chateau when I pulled up. I continued down the driveway and parked in the grass behind the twinkie. I sat in the car for a second as the person got out of the truck, the headlights lighting up Liam's sad expression.

"What are you doing here?" I asked as I got out of my car. I had my bookbag on one shoulder and my overnight bag on the other. He held a hand out to help, but I waved him off.

"You've been avoiding me at school." He followed me around to the back porch.

"I didn't know you were back at Kildare." Half true. Miles had told me he was coming back and I'd been dodging his attempts to talk to me every day. I made him stay on the screened-in porch while I took my stuff in the house. An unwritten Pogue rule was that the chateau was off limits to Kooks.

I was half hoping that when I came back out he would be gone, instead he had made himself comfortable on one of the couches, "You're still here."

"I'm sorry Laney. I don't know what else to say to make this okay." Make everything he has done to us in the last 2 months okay?

"I'm still trying to process losing my friends. It's only been a month. I don't think I'm over the fact that you allowed something like that happen." He held up a hand, "What?"

"I can tell you where the ship they got on was heading to." A feeling arose in my stomach. Excitement? Anxiety? Hope? For the first time in a month I was going to have some idea of where they were at. I watched as Liam scrolled through his phone and then turned it to me. It was messages between him and Rafe confirming that they were getting on the Coastal Venture and heading toward the Cameron's private island in Guadeloupe.

"So, they can be anywhere from here to Guadeloupe?" I asked him, letting every negative feeling I had reserved for him fly out of my brain as the hope for my friends to be okay took over. He nodded, "Great. That leaves every island in that area for them to be on. Amazing." I fell back into the chair and huffed out a breath.

The new information was great, but I still had no idea if they were okay. Maybe what I was feeling was more anxiety than anything else. What if they didn't make it to where they were supposed to? Even if they did, they would have been on an island with Rafe. How safe is that really?

Neither of us said anything else for a while. I was waiting for him to leave so I could go in the quiet house and be alone, but it was starting to seem like he wasn't going to.

Out of the silence he asked, "Did you eat?" He had been scrolling on his phone while I had just been soaking in the silence and thinking about the homework that was waiting for me when I went in the house. I threw him a look as I checked the time.

"It's almost 10."

"You didn't answer my question." I remembered the small dinner I grabbed from the house and how it was probably cold now.

I sighed, "No. I haven't." He stood up and held a hand out for me. I didn't take it and stood up on my own. He motioned for me to follow and I did after locking the back door. "Where are we going?"

"You need to eat." He was standing next to his truck with a goofy smile. I didn't smile back, or at least I tried not to. It was just like the longer I looked at him, the more I saw the boy he used to be and I ended up giving and returning the smile.

"Where are we going?" I asked again as I made my way over to the passenger's side. He hopped in as I did.

"Oh you know..." He didn't finish what he was saying as he maneuvered his way out of the yard. We drove for a bit until we made it to Sunny's. It was a tourist place, which meant it was open until midnight. It also happened to have the best burgers on the island.

We went to get out and my stomach growled so loud I'm pretty sure Liam heard it too. "Was that your stomach?" So he did hear it, "I knew you were hungry."

"Let's just order."