𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬 [𝐣𝐣 𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤]

𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞

We woogitied and walked in the house to celebrate our win for the night. The happiness we felt lingered in the air as we all cracked open a beer together. John B and Sarah dipped off to John B's room while everyone else hung out in the living room.

I sat next to Kiara as she strummed on the ukulele. Everyone was joking around and having a good time while I was sitting thinking about the conversation I had with my mother earlier. In the morning she was coming to take me back to South Carolina with her and there was absolutely nothing I could say or do to stop it from happening.

There was no way she would take 'I have to help save Big John' as a valid reason to not go to Charleston. I leaned back into the couch as I thought everything over. JJ had moved to the couch opposite of me and Kie while Pope and Cleo walked into the kitchen. He and Kiara were talking about something, I wasn't sure what but tuned into when I spotted something outside the kitchen window.

"What's that?" Kiara asked before I could. JJ moved to look where we were and we all realized it was a fire.

"That's a fire! Tell 'em!" JJ yelled and I ran toward John B's room, interrupting something but I didn't care. We needed to get out of the house.

I could hear JJ yelling throughout the house, "Guys! There's a fire!"

"The house is on fire?" Pope asked as he came out of the bathroom. When it clicked everyone was trying to find some way to get out of the house that was safe. Sarah hurt herself trying the front door before we managed to get out through the back porch.

Once we all were out, we stood far enough away from the house as it burned. We couldn't do anything but watch it burn. It was no use to call the fire department, by the time they would've got here it would've been gone anyway.

I looked over to John B who had the saddest look on his face. First his dad was taken, now his home too? He was losing everything he cared about and none of us could stop it.

"We can crash at my house for the night?" I offered, trying to make things a tad bit better as the house we grew up in continued to burn. We stood and watched for a bit longer before we went down to my house. Dylan didn't protest as we all made blanket beds on the floor of the living room.

They were everywhere and we had lost the ability to walk through the living room without stepping on a bed. "Well, this feels like old times." I heard John B say as I watched everyone get situated on the floor. I watched JJ smile as he repeated, "Just like old times."

"Well then, lets make the best of this and make it feel like old times." I giggled as I turned on my heel to go grab my stuff from my room. I didn't plan on sleeping in the living room, mainly because there wasn't a lot of room, but I just wanted to be with my friends one last night before everything happened.

I gathered my pillows and blankets on my bed before moving to my dresser to grab a hoodie for the night. When I turned back to my door, John B was standing with his hand over his eyes. "Yeah, shitbird?" I asked and he dropped his hand.

"Was just seeing if you needed any help?" I motioned to the pile on my bed before throwing a pillow at him. "Everything okay, Lou?" This was the first time in weeks John B and I had the chance to sit and just be best friends.

"I'm okay." and I didn't want to have any kind of conversation about my feelings.

He walked in my room and sat on my bed, patting the spot next to him for me to sit down. "Now, let's try this again without lying. What's wrong?"

I looked to the hallway as I thought about what exactly I should say to him. Do I talk about JJ? Or do I talk about Charleston?

"Is it about what JJ said yesterday?"

"JB, if you knew then why even ask?" he shrugged.

"Maybe I thought you'd actually tell me. Guess I thought wrong." I giggled, "He didn't mean it like that Lou."

I raised a brow, "How do you know that? He sounded like he meant it to me."

John B rolled his eyes at me, "You are so stubborn," he picked up the same pillow I hit him with and hit me on my head with it, "I know because it's JJ. And you two are like, in love." Now it was my turn to roll my eyes.

"Gee, thanks for that amazing insight Mr. Routledge."

"Any time." he said as he hit me on the head again and jogged out of my room. He popped his head back in, "What's the bag for?" I looked at the duffle on the ground and then back to him.

"Charleston." He moved to stand in the doorway.

"When were you supposed to leave?"

"Sometime tomorrow."

He laughed, "Good thing we'll be long gone by then." He made a goofy face before jogging down to the living room.

I laughed quietly as I carried everything down to the living room and pulled up the open spot next to JJ. It was a bit awkward laying down and looking at him without saying anything. Only 2 days ago we were laying in bed together talking about any and everything we could think of. Now, it was just silence as we shared a quick glance.

"Are we watching a movie or not?" Kiara asked as she looked through the dvds that were stored under the tv. Most of them were old and hadn't been watched in ages. It would be nice to have a movie night considering we hadn't done one in months.

"It's gonna be an early morning. I think we should get some sleep." Sarah suggested as I snuggled into my blankets. There mumbles of agreement were heard as Kiara closed the door and went to turn the light off.

When the sun came up, we were awake and heading back to the chateau to assess the damage. It was still smoking when we got there. No one was surprised to see it was burned down to the foundation. We all sat by John B's memorial tree and watched it continue to smoke.

"Seriously though, how did it just start burning?" I asked as we all stared at it.

"Could've been a faulty wire." Pope suggested.

"And with the house being all wood, there's definitely a chance that it just allowed it to keep burning." Kiara added. We all sat in silence for a little bit longer, just watching the house continue smoldering.

JJ started talking, "Verdicts in bro. Whoever's up there," We all looked over at him, "Does not like you."