COMFORT CROWD [3] , jj maybank

22. boomerang

~.🐚.''.🥥.''~❀˖ °⋆

                ALMOST A DECADE OF JJ SCREWING UP plans and yet—he hasn't gotten it through to him yet.

                   There's a tension settled over us. Not by Pope's angry words we agree with but with what JJ just did and what just happened down at the beach.

                    I stare at my slightly bruised fist. Purple blends with blue across my knuckles. My wrist stings. Been awhile since I punched someone. I'm almost disappointed in myself for doing it but it was Rafe Cameron.

                    JJ still has dirt and sand all over his tanned skin. Despite his injuries, I'm livid at him. So livid I can feel the anger burning in my chest. He used the last of our gold and he would've had it without Rafe but even taking the risk was moronic.

                     "I said it again and again," Pope paces the middle of downed heads we've formed, "I said don't touch the last of our gold. That was it! That was the last of our savings! Do you not care?!" Pope yells at the blonde boy I love deeply. Sand still litters my skin, my hair and clothes. My expression is stoic, too pissed and tired to even expose my internal feelings at the moment.

                JJ stands over his bike, waiting, inching to yell back at Pope. "Pope, you saw what happened, man!" JJ finally snaps, "He stole it, okay?" His eyes shift to me sitting behind Pope. My glare attaches itself to him, following his every move. "He cheated and he stole it. That's not my fault, Pope!" JJ continues. He's right like I said before but—that goddamn risk he took.

                        "Do you know how selfish you sound?" Pope roars back at him. "I sound selfish? I was trying to help us!" JJ counters. "You helped us? You just cost us everything! Thank you!" Pope yells in his face. JJ's gaze keeps finding mine. Silently asking for help but I'm not getting him out of this. This was his own doing and now we're fucked.

                          "JJ, why are you making it sound like you had nothing to do with it?" Kie sneers, arms crossed while he stands against the Twinkie. JJ throws his hands in the air, once again turning to me but I finally speak with a shrug. "Kie's right," I simply tell him. His face drops, a look of betrayal finding its way across his skin.

                         "She's right?!" JJ raises his voice but doesn't yell at me, "You know me, okay? I was gonna bet it all. That's who I am!"

                         "That's who you were before the gold, JJ! You can't be like that when we have a business, a home—a—a family to take care of!" I stutter out my words, biting back the venom my brain wants me to spit out. JJ rests his arms by his sides, scoffing at me. Guilt tries to slither into my chest. I swallow it whole. He needs to realize how fucking bad this is.