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//chapter fifteen • picking up your pieces
WHEN YOU SUBTRACT JJ from the equation that is the Pogues, quiet and somber is the result. There's no dumb jokes, they're no teasing, there's not 'pointless' excitement. It felt empty and painfully so. And Andrew Cameron wasn't one to worry about other people. Arguably, he'd known Kelce longer but if Kelce dropped off the face of the earth, Andrew wouldn't think twice about it. Andrew hadn't realized how much of a minute to minute effect JJ had on him until he was gone.
"He'll come back. He's just doing a JJ thing," John B assures, although it sounds like he's talking to himself more than anyone else in The Wreck.
"You think he'll go home?" Kiara asked, she looked down but her posture was stiff and very clearly stressed out.
Pope shook his head in answer, "There's about a zero percent chance that JJ goes home," he states.
Sarah was sat on a garden chair, knees to her chest, a worried and spaced-out look painted across her face. But her gaze flicked up to her brother who was more spaced out than she was. He was holding one of his studies books, 'reading', although he hadn't turn the page in at least twenty minutes. It was just open so he had something to stare at. Sarah could quiz him on the page and he'd know nothing.
"Andy, you okay?" Sarah mumbles, eyes scanning over his face, trying to read him. Only Sarah could've noticed the change in his expression. She saw the flinch, and his hickory brown eyes flashed a bronzy-amber in the golden afternoon light.
But Andrew couldn't even decipher what he was feeling. Perhaps a mix of regret that he hadn't called his dad back, though that was about the last thing on his mind. Maybe shock from what had happened with Barry, or the post traumatic stress of being shot at and threatened with a gun aimed square in the face.
John B had told his friends about his fishing trip with Ward in the morning, spoiling Pope's plan but they could do it the next night instead. They'd agreed that John B would go fishing with Ward and they'd wait to see if JJ washed up by mid day the next day. John B and Sarah had disappeared sometime with in the day for some alone time which left the other three to finish supply collecting and setting up Pope's pulley contraption.
"So we gotta be done before my scholarship interview tomorrow morning." Pope told the other two as they pulled up to the far side of the chateau. They were in Andrew's white jeep and the Cameron parked as the other two got out.
"Okay, well, we gotta focus." Kiara stated, knowing they had a lot to get done before Pope was out of commission for his scholarship.
"I know, it's gonna be fine." Pope insisted at they walked around to the trunk to pull what was in there out. "We got John B and JJ in the well, me and Andrew up top. And, you and Sarah will be outside transporting." Pope stated his plan and they nodded. "Uh, I got a winch and that tin can hold over like, 200, 300 pounds." He said as Andrew reached forward to pull stuff out of the back of his jeep.
