Nothing Lasts Forever - JJ Maybank

EP 8: Crushin' and Kissin'

I got out of my mom's car that she let me borrow for the night since she was doing nothing. I locked the door and started to walk toward the crowd that surrounded the front of the screen.

JJ had invited me to come with his friends and him to some outdoor movie night thing. Honestly, I was starting to feel like I was intruding at this point but I didn't want to say no because I didn't want him to think that I didn't want to hang out with his friends and especially him.

I walk past Kiara who's talking to some guy before looking and seeing JJ and Pope sitting with one another. I walked over and JJ glanced over, giving me a smile. He put his hand on my hip as I walked over.

"Hey, cutie." JJ teasingly says and I just roll my eyes in embarrassment as Pope looks at us.

"Hey." I shyly say. "Uh, where should I sit?" I ask and Pope is about to let me sit next to him on the blanket on the ground but JJ interferes, pulling me into his lap where he sat. I tense up as Pope looks at us and I look down at my lap. JJ's hands go around my waist and simply rest on my stomach, acting like this is totally normal. As he always did.

Kiara comes over, "I'm not even gonna ask." She says, referring to JJ and I, before handing everyone a drink except obviously me but I didn't mind. "Just saw Rafe, and he said, and I quote, 'Tell your boy that we know what he did'." She says.

Pope looks up at JJ, shaking a little.

"Um, where is he?" JJ asks.

"Right there." She looks back and so do we all. I could see the guy she was talking to earlier standing with two other guys.

"Great, the whole death squad." Pope says, still staring after everyone looked away and JJ forces his head to look forward.

"Just warning you, bro. If they corner me, I'm coming out swinging, okay? Slice and dicin'. I'm on edge right now." JJ tells Pope. "If that doesn't work, I got this right here." JJ motions to his bag that's on the ground by his feet.

"Yeah, yeah. So we just gotta stay in the group." Pope agrees.

"Like a school of fish." JJ says.

"Stay in the school. Can't leave the school." Pope adds.

"Uh, what's in your bag?" I ask, glancing back at JJ.

"Please tell me that you did not bring a gun here." Kiara adds. "JJ, there are kids." She says.

"You brought that gun?" I respond.

"I didn't bring the gun. Alright, everything's fine. Okay? It's fine, Lucia. I didn't bring the gun." JJ insists but it isn't that convincing.

"Founding principle, you guys, no secrets amongst Pogues." Kiara tells them. "Though, Lucia probably knows and she isn't even a Pogue." She responds, a little backhandedly, and I'm confused. I thought we'd been totally chill. I didn't know her that well but I didn't think we had a problem.

"Kiara, stop." JJ sighs. "She doesn't know. Don't bring her into this. This is... it doesn't matter what we did." JJ says.

"It might go down tonight." Pope says.

"What did y'all do?" Kiara asks.

"Deny, deny, deny." JJ simply tells Pope and I could tell that Kiara just gives up on asking.

It grows dark out and I'm still in JJ's lap, one hand holding a can of soda, the other on my thigh as I watch the old-timey movie on the screen. I could hear Pope whispering something to JJ in the middle of the field but I don't pay much mind to it.

JJ lets out a groan before patting my thigh, "We're gonna go to the bathroom."

I glance back before nodding and getting up from his lap. He gets up and slides past me, his body sliding against mine from behind, before he starts to walk off with Pope.

"Hey, where are y'all going?" Kiara whispers and they look back.

"We gotta wring it out." JJ says, making me furrow my eyebrows.

"You gonna hold it for each other?" Kiara comments as they walk off.

We sit there for a bit before Kiara and I notice shadows behind the screen. There was obviously a fight going on. She glances at me and we both get up and rush back there, Kiara grabbing JJ's bag on the way. What we were going to do against a bunch of basically grown men? I didn't know. It didn't matter though.

Kiara and I run over and she starts yelling and hitting one of them with the bag. He grabs the bag from her and she stumbles back into me and I stabilize her. She gets on his back and I'm freaking. I don't know what I could do. Rafe grabs Kiara and pulls her off of the guy before throwing her on the ground and I rush over.

"You okay?" I ask.

"The gun.. the gun." She says and I rush over to the bag and pull JJ's gun out. I hesitate as I look at the boys beating JJ and Pope up. I put the gun back in the bag before grabbing a lighter. Kiara looks at me before taking it. I watch as she goes over to the projector screen and lights it on fire with the lighter.

That catches everyone's attention, including the guys beating JJ and Pope up and they go running. I go over to JJ as Kiara goes over to Pope and I put my hands on his biceps.

"Are you okay?" I ask as he catches his breath after being choked.

"I'm good. I'm good." He assures me, though obviously he wasn't. "Let's go. We gotta go." JJ tells me after looking at the fire. He grabs his bag before putting his arm over my shoulder and walking with me.

"Who were those guys?" I ask as we walk.

"Rafe, Topper, and Kelce. Some rich-ass kooks." JJ says.

"What'd- what'd you guys do that made them so mad anyway?" I ask as I glance up at him. We walk through the parking lot towards my car.

JJ's silent for a few moments. "Got back at them. That's what." He simply says. "It don't matter what we did. It'll be fine." JJ reassures me.

"Are you sure?" I ask.

"I'm sure." He says as we arrive in front of my mom's car.

I stand there and neither of us say a thing for a moment, "How do you always manage to get into trouble?" I lightly say as I look up at him.

"It's in my nature, I guess." He says as he looks down. "I don't mean to. Not when you're around." JJ says.

I don't know what to say as I look up at him. He looks down into my eyes for a few moments before the both of us are simultaneously leaning in and kissing one another. His hands rest on my hips as he bends a bit down to kiss me. The kiss isn't exactly a peck but it's nothing too much. We kiss for a few moments before pulling away.

"Get home safe, sweets." JJ says before ruffling my hair and stepping back.

"Bye." I say, my heart beating out of my chest due to the fact that my crush and I had just kissed.

"Bye, Lucia." He says before heading off.

What even was tonight? I couldn't tell if it'd gone good or bad. Probably bad but for me, it ended off on a high note.