𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐨𝐲

XIII. Wrong Crowd.

AT THE autoshop, the boys stood with the man by the truck but then Jake noticed Kie was sitting at the back of a truck, on the tailgate so he walked over to her, "middle of nowhere." He sighed, sitting next to her.

"Pope's in heaven right now. Gotta know the calibration point before you do anything with intake valve, Jake." He copied the way Pope had said it to him and Kie just smiled the faintest at him, looking away. He looks at her and then glanced down, softly patting her leg. "Kie... you alright?" He asked the Carrera.

"My mom is so worried that I'm gonna be a Pogue that she's willing to send me to boarding school." She says and he nods. "Well, I guess that's what you get for hanging out with the wrong crowd." He said, mostly as a joke as she glanced up at him. "Isn't so bad..." She says, smiling softly at him and he smiles back at her, just staring into her eyes.

"I mean, I'm not gonna go." She said, looking away, over at JJ and Pope, the two were talking with the mechanic. "It's too late anyway. I already am who I am." She says and Jake nods. "I mean... look at those two. They'd do anything for us. They're Pogues. Just like you and me." He says, looking at her and she smiled at him. "Yeah." She says quietly.

She leaned in, kissing his cheek gently as JJ and Pope head into the shop now. After seeing how much they had to pay, JJ walked out and waved the two over so Jake followed the Carrera girl, holding her hand the whole way. "Three-seventy? Are you serious?" Jake asked then looked at Pope who then turned towards Kiara between the two boys.

"Well, yeah, man." The worker says to Jake. "Kie, are you sure your parents are okay with letting you pay for this? 'Cause--" "no. Hell no. But I'm already a day late, and they can only kill me once, right?" Kie said before she set down the credit card onto the counter.

Later that night, Kie grabs the flask in JJ's hands which she now closed. "Night, everyone." Pope says to the rest, just staring at the nightsky as Kie now lays down next to Jake, smiling at the boy who instantly set down his arm for her to rest on. She scooted closer and he put an arm over her waist.

JJ looks over at them then, "goodnight." Kie says to the other two and Jake smiled at her, closing his eyes to go to sleep. "Night Kie." He murmured to the girl who closed her eyes as well. JJ put his cap down over his eyes before flipping over to face the other way.

In the morning, Jake was the first to wake up, seeing the sun was rising so he slowly pulled his arm out from under Kie's head, resting her onto the makeshift pillow she had made earlier which was a random blanket. He looked at the sunrise, just staring for a moment before looking down to see Kie waking up, rubbing her eyes. "Morning." He says with a small smile.

"Good morning." She says, smiling back at him before he looked at the other two. "I guess we should wake them up... and head to Charleston." He says quietly and she nods, reaching over and shaking JJ's arm. "Huh? Oh." He said and then he reached over, hitting Pope's arm gently. "Wake up." He says.

Their seats in the truck were the same, Pope being the driver, JJ in the passenger seat while Jake and Kie sat in the back. It's quiet, mostly music played from the radio until Jake yawned and rubbed his eyes. Kie turned her head to look at him, smiling faintly, "still tired?" She asked and he looks over.

"Just a little sleepy." He shrugs and she just chuckles. "You can rest your head on my shoulder, if you want." She offers and he smiles before leaning over and resting his head onto her shoulder. JJ watched them for a moment then turned back around to look ahead as the group now drive onto the bridge that's entering into Charleston. "Wonder where John B and Sarah are right now." JJ looks out the window as Kie looks over at him, then glanced down at her lap, where Jake was holding one of her hands.

As they near the location, Jake had sat up and was now holding an arm around Kie. "Yeah, they're a bunch of fancy people. They've had, like, three governors in the family. They've run Charleston for, like, 300 years." The Carrera says. "These Kooks make our Kooks look like Pogues." JJ says, looking out the window as they arrive to the destination.

"You sure this is the place, Pope?" Jake asked as they all stare at the house. "Pretty sure." Pope replied with. "Alright." JJ got out, Jake, Kie and Pope all following his actions. "Fat City, for sure." JJ says, glancing at Kie and Jake who walk over to him. "27 King Street." Pope said, holding up the letter now.

"Talk about home security." JJ says as Jake made a sour face at all the spikes on the top of the fence. "Are those spikes to keep people out?" The blond now asked. "No." Kie shook her head, staring up at the gate. "The slave quarters are over there." Pope nods his head and Jake looks over at him.

"These spikes were to keep people in."

The four now walk up to the front door, which Pope now uses the door knocker on, which made the knocks echo through the house. "You think that was too much?" He now asked JJ to his left who looks over at him. "It echoed the entire house. That's for sure. So they definitely heard it." He looked away.

"Maybe nobody's home." Kie says, glancing at Jake who just shrugged and looked over at Pope and JJ. The Heyward uses the door knocker again, right as a man opened up the door now, stepping out with his arms crossed. He looked at Jake and Kie, then over at JJ, then at Pope. "You must be Pope." He pointed at the Heyward boy. "Um..." Pope says, glancing over at JJ pretty quickly.

"Are you Mr. Limbrey?" He asked when he looked back at the man. "Ms. Limbrey was expecting you yesterday." He corrects the teen. "Oh. I'm--I'm sorry. My car broke down on the way up here." Pope explains himself, glancing at JJ. "Carburetor blew up in the middle of Nowheresville." The Maybank steps in. "Sorry about that." He adds when the man glanced over at him, staring for a moment.

"Yeah, she was, uh, real upset when you didn't show up." The man says as he looks back at Pope again who just glanced at JJ once more. "We tried to call, but there's no number on the invitation." Kie spoke up. "We got here as fast as we could." Jake added on right after as the girl just nods. "She also expected you to come alone." The man says, glancing from the couple to the Heyward boy.

"I mean, these are my friends. They helped find the Royal Merchant too. I--" "yeah. The instructions were explicit. Your friends can stay outside." The man cut him off right away as Kie scrunched up her face and Jake furrows his brows, staring intently. "Well, we're kind of a package deal, man." JJ began and Pope quickly looked over at him now.

"JJ. It's okay. I got this." He tells the boy, nodding softly and then they just stared at each other. "I'll be good." He said, then glanced back at Kie and Jake behind them. "Yeah. We'll be right here." The Carrera says as the Lennox boy nods, glancing at the man waiting in the doorway. "We'll keep the car running." He tells Pope who just nods, holding out the keys towards him which he took.

 

 

 

 

  

 

  

  

  

authors note
i'm still brainstorming so much for this fic and i can't wait to get to the s3 part 🫣

+ i almost forgot to update lolz