𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬 [𝐣𝐣 𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤]

𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐲

Instead of waking up refreshed, I was woken up by a bit of clamoring outside my room and then the door busting open like someone had just invaded. I quickly pulled up my blankets to cover me in my bra as I realized who was standing at the foot of my bed.

Dylan came jogging behind him and popping his head in, "Laney, JJ's here." I sent him a sarcastic smile as I sat up in bed.

"Yup. Got it." Dylan closed the door slightly before leaving us alone. I waited for JJ to speak as he paced around my room. "You're going to wear the floor out, what's wrong?" I was trying to push past what he said to me yesterday and just focus on whatever was happening right now.

"They got John B." He still didn't stop pacing.

"Who?" I was still a little groggy from my long nap. I didn't even know what time it was. I was going to need a little more context to understand what he was talking about.

"Shoupe. They picked him up off of 12."

"12- What were you guys doing off of 12?"

He shook his head, "Doesn't matter, alright? They got John B and we need to figure out a way to get him out of there so we can go to South America and find Big John." I nodded as I watched him finally stop pacing.

"Hand me my shirt?" I asked considering he was standing right next to where I left it. He handed it to me and turned around so I could put it on. "How long has it been since Shoupe picked him up?" I asked once I was out of my bed.

"Happened around 2." I checked my phone and saw it was nearly 6.

"You waited 4 hours to come and tell me?" He swatted me off, "So, what do you think we should do?"

"I think you should find Topper, talk to him-"

"You want me to talk to Topper? JJ, he doesn't even acknowledge my presence when I'm with Sarah. He's not going to listen to me."

Before he could spit out another dumb idea, my phone started to ring. "Who's that?"

I looked at the name as it came across my screen, "It's Sarah." I answered the phone and was simply told to be at the chateau by 6:30 before she hung up. No further instructions.

JJ eagerly waited for me to tell him what she said, "We have to be at the chateau in a half hour." He sat down on the edge of my bed and took a breath.

"I hope it's good news." He said quietly to himself as I stood by my door looking at him. He looked so tired.

"Have you ate today?" I asked him as my hand rested on the door knob.

"I had something from John B's, but I'm pretty sure it was bad because my stomach is killing me."

I chuckled, "I thought we knew not to eat things from John B's?" He shrugged, "I can make you something while we wait." He nodded and I was on my way to find something from the freezer. There was enough chicken nuggets left for us to split so I tossed them in the oven and waited.

While I sat in the kitchen waiting for the oven to go off, I heard the tv in my room turn on. I could only imagine what he had on. When I walked in 10 minutes later, JJ had kicked off his shoes and stretched out on my bed. The volume was on low and his hat was over his face to block out the light. I could hear faint snores coming from him as I closed the door quietly.

"Jay." I shook him gently but he still woke up like a crazy person, "It's okay. You're okay." I reassured him as I sat the plate on the table next to him before going to sit at my desk with my plate. He readjusted to what was happening and dug into his plate.

We ate in silence until I reached my second to last nugget and wasn't hungry anymore. "Do you want these?" I extended the plate out to him and he ate them before taking both empty plates to the kitchen. While he was gone I tossed on a hoodie and waited for him.

"Ready to go?" I asked him and he nodded. We walked out to my car and got in. The short drive was silent and so was the walk to the yard.

When we walked into the yard Kiara, Pope, and Cleo were already there. Pope was the first one to hug me when I saw him. "There she is!" I had missed him a lot.

"How's school?" I asked, sitting down next to him. I hadn't shown up like I said I was going to, "You taking good notes for the rest of us?" He laughed and nodded.

"Do we know why we're here?" Pope asked, earning shrugs from everyone.

Before we knew it, Sarah was running through the house and out to us. She held a smile on her face as she looked at us, "Look who decided to come home." She looked behind her to where John B was walking out of the porch and over to us.

"Woah, welcome back." Pope said as John B moved closer to us.

I looked at JJ for his reaction. His once tired eyes held a glimmer of hope, "You've gotta be kidding me." I looked to my feet as JJ caught my gaze. It felt weird to look at him longer than I should. It was like what he had said to me just pressed the reset button on everything between us. Suddenly I was mentally back in May when I figured out my feelings for him and I was trying to hide it cause I didn't want him to know.

"So, I have something I want to talk to you guys about." Sarah spoke getting everyone's attention, "I can get us down to the Orinoco."

"Okay. And how's that gonna happen?" Cleo sounded unsure as she posed her question.

"My dad's gonna let us use the plane.."

The look on Pope's face said it all as he said, "Your dad?" I'm sure we all were just as skeptical about her father's sudden generosity as Pope was.

Sarah nodded, "We lay low tonight, then wheels up in the morning."

"Wow, your dad's actually helping us? That's a lot to process." Although it sounded like an easy enough gig, I was still unsure about it. Ward's always been sneaky and had his own ulterior motive. So, what was the one for letting us use the plane?

I looked at the group who seemed to just accept the whole thing, "Wait, just so I can completely wrap my head around this, we're just trusting Ward now?" I looked to JJ specifically, he had to be with me on this. He looked like he was questioning it too, but he didn't speak up.

Everyone shrugged, "It could work." Pope was getting excited, something was about to work out. Maybe I should just drop the concern and allow myself to feel the feeling of a win for once.

"But, I do have something else to say." Sarah looked between me and Kiara and I knew what she was going to say, "Since we've gotten back from the island, I've done some things that I regret. A lot."

"Yeah, I feel like we've all done a thing or two that we regret." This time I didn't look at JJ. I didn't need the confirmation that he regretted what we had done. I could live the rest of my life not knowing he felt like that.

"And I don't," Sarah took a breath, "Poguelandia guys. It's all I've been able to think about. We were all together on that island and it was a good thing, and I don't want to ruin a good thing. I just wanna know, are we all still in? Are we still altogether? Because I am."

Kiara was the first to reply 'yes' and hug Sarah. I stayed back next to John B as everyone huddled together.

"What do you say there, shitbird?" JJ asked, causing me to smile at John B's nickname.

"I think," Pope interjected, "This deserves a woogity." Pope questioned as he looked over to me as I had yet to join them, "How long are you gonna pretend like you aren't coming over here?" John B looked down at me with his goofy half smile.

"You guys in?" JJ asked making me finally look at him. His eyes were still as hopeful as they were when he saw John B earlier.

John B threw his arm over my shoulder, grabbing my attention once more. "Well Lou, what do you think?"

I looked up to my oldest friend in the world, knowing I'd follow him anywhere if he asked me to. "I don't know..." We took a few steps toward our friends. "Maybe we should make a pros and cons list?" I joked as Kiara pulled me into the hug.

"Now we woogity." Pope said with the biggest smile on his face. I looked around my friends as everyone held the biggest smile on their face. A true Pogue adventure awaiting us in the morning.

"We're really doing this?" JJ asked, already knowing the answer.

"Oh, we're doing it." Pope encouraged as a woogity followed.