𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐚𝐯𝐞 || jj 𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤

016

THE SIGHT OF JOHN B PARKING THE Twinkie in front of the Chateau makes a huge smile spread across my face. I have no idea how or why the boy is roaming free, but I don't care. All I care about is the fact that JB is back— free and not being executed.

JJ takes a step forward, his hand on my shoulder as we both stare at the van and the boy inside of the van. "Hold on..." The blonde breathes out, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

"No way!" Pope exclaims with a smile, practically shining at the sight of one of his best friend's swinging open The Twinkie's door.

"Are you serious!?" My sister grins, shocked.

Rubbing my eyes out of pure disbelief, I smile from ear to ear. "Are they— are my eyes joking with me?" Obviously, I know that my eyes aren't deceiving me, but I would've never expected for John B to come home so suddenly, especially in The Twinkie out of all places, since the cops took it away without a second thought.

"Guess who's out the click, boy!" John B skips over to us, twirling his keys around with a gigantic grin. He's basically radiating happiness and joy, which I'm happy to see. I feel like I haven't seen the boy this carefree in months. Well, I haven't, actually— not since before the tarmac situation.

"No fricken way, man!" Pope opens his arms, engulfing JB in an air-tight hug.

"Bro, my boy is outta the can!" JJ squeaks as we all squeeze into a group hug, relieved and thrilled grins on all of our faces.

"Holy shit!" I exclaim, my voice muffled by the sleeve of JJ's button down.

Kiara sighs, "We missed you!"

"I missed you guys, too." John B says, pulling away from the hug and glancing around, almost as if he's taking in the sight of his home. I don't blame him, he probably thought he would never step foot out of a jail cell again, let alone return to his beloved home.

"How'd you do it?" JJ looks John B up and down, kind of like he's trying to convince himself that this really is John B. "You bust out?"

"Uh... they dropped the charges." John B blinks, shaking his head as shock and relief seeps from his words.

"They dropped the charges?" Pope echoes, surprised.

"Dude, that's phenomenal!" Kie chimes.

JJ smiles big, looking at JB with a fake-offended expression. "So, you're telling me I did all that work for nothing?" He rhetorically questions, causing me to furrow my brows. I know that JJ clearly did something in an attempt to get John B out of jail last night— I'm not stupid— but I seriously have no idea what it was that he tried doing. He didn't say anything about it last night, having left to sleep on the pull-out with Pope at around five or six in the morning after we talked about nonsense shit for a couple of hours.

"Oh, the most elaborate escape plan of all time?" Pope sarcastically muses, turning to look at JJ with a look of entertainment.

Kie does air quotes, matching Pope's tone, "Oh, full proof!"

"What are you guys talking about?" I urge for an explanation, feeling completely out of the loop. It's my own fault, though, I immediately went to bed after leaving my parent's house. Well, they aren't actually my parents, I guess. They lied about that, along with countless other things that I don't even want to ask about. I'm still in shock and denial, not wanting to believe what happened yesterday, instead wishing to block it all out and forget about it.

"Okay, so JJ basically tried to be an EMT to get John B out, but it—" Pope begins to explain with a big grin but JB soon interrupts.

"Wait, where's Sarah?" We all reduce to silence, having had not seen the blonde girl since she left the chateau yesterday. Our silence frightens the Routledge boy, "No, no, no. Where's... where's Sarah?"