𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 ━ 𝐣𝐣 𝐨𝐛𝐱

part twelve

"hey riley!"

riley was walking in town, about to head into the market to pick up a few things when she heard someone call her name.

"oh hey," she turned around to see rafe and topper walking towards her.

"i wanted to talk about yesterday," rafe said.

"listen if you're gonna apologize it shouldn't be to me," the girl began. "it should be to pope." 

"you refer to those pogues by their names now?" rafe asked with a disgusted look on his face. "see this is what i'm talking about man," he turned to look at topper.

"what?" riley questioned the boy.

"i didn't come talk to you to apologize riley," rafe said.

"then why-"

"what is up with you defending that pogue yesterday?" rafe questioned.

"defending him?" riley looked between her friends,  bewildered. "rafe you were literally beating him with a golf club."

"yeah cause he deserved it," rafe scoffed.

"he didn't even do anyth-"

"riley, that's bad for our rep," the boy motioned between himself and topper.

"your rep?" riley repeated, raising her eye brows.

"yeah. our rep," rafe continued. "and top even says he thought he saw that stupid pogue van come to pick you up from the party the other night. that true?"

"so what if it's true?" the girl scoffed.

"you can't be associating with them," rafe stated.

"are you serious?" riley furrowed her brows. "top are you gonna let him talk to me like th-"

the girl was cut off suddenly by rafe grabbing onto her wrist and stepping closer, their faces were now only inches apart. riley's breath immediately hitched at his harsh touch.

"what the hell," riley muttered trying to shake off the boy's grip on her. "are you high right now?!"

"listen if you want to go off and be a dirty little pogue like your sister than by all means go ahead. but you can't hang out with us if-"

"hey! get off her man," a voice suddenly shouted behind the three and they all turned their heads to see where it was coming from.

low and behold jj was running up to the group, concern spread over his face.

"dude what are you-" jj began.

"back off pogue," rafe seethed. "this ain't your business."

"sure as hell is," jj retorted. "you can't be holding a girl like that."

"you know what man-" rafe said, stepping towards jj and shoving at his shouldera.

"stop," riley said, standing in between the two and facing rafe, similar to the situation that she had been in yesterday.

"you're seriously gonna defend him?" rafe asked the girl.

"defend him? i'm stopping you from getting in another fight," riley said.

"see that's the problem-"

"topper," riley looked at her best friend in hopes that he would help her out.

"come on man let's just go," topper put a hand onto rafe's shoulder, trying to turn him around. rafe just scoffed before giving in and turning his back to the girl and the boy that was behind her.

"i meant what i said, riles," rafe warned the girl before beginning to walk away.

topper walked beside him but turned around to the brunette to mouth i'm sorry, in which riley just rolled her eyes and shook her head. she watched the two walk off until she was startled by someone awkwardly coughing behind her.

"are you okay?" jj asked once riley had turned around to face him.

"oh um yeah," she stammered. "yeah i'm fine. uh thank you."

"no problem," the blonde said. his eyes flickered to the two boys walking away that were still in view. "do you uh... do you want me to walk you home? you know, incase they follow you."

"i don't know if that's a go-"

"listen, it doesn't have to be awkward between us if we don't make it awkward," jj sighed. "so i really don't mind walking with you home. unless of course, you still hate me."

"i don't hate you," riley smiled a bit as she looked down at the ground.

"alright then it's settled," the blonde said. "you're not too far anyway."

the pair began walking in a silence through town and through the nice neighbor hoods in figure eight. riley couldn't help but glance over to see jj's wide eyes as he stared at the houses. she found amusement out of his facial expressions, but didn't want to linger her stare in fear of getting caught.

"so uh," riley coughed, breaking the silence, "how are you?"

"see now that's what i call awkward," jj joked.

"actually that's what i call being polite," riley smiled, rolling her eyes. "that's just how i was raised."

"raised?" jj questioned the girl, "i don't think i've ever heard kiara ask me how i was." the brunette's smile dropped from her face the instant those words came out of his mouth. jj noticed it immediately and wasn't sure what he had said to upset her.

riley scoffed, "yeah well i guess you could say we were raised different." jj just nodded without questioning what she had meant by that.

"you two don't seem to get along."

"nice catch sherlock," riley deadpanned, making jj chuckle.

"hey i forgot to mention, thanks for helping pope out yesterday," jj said.

"oh he told you about that?"

"yeah. told me he had a golf club," jj whistled. "could've done a lot more damage so it was uh, cool of you to help him out there."

riley just nodded her head, a small smile on her face. she didn't know what had gotten into rafe recently but she didn't regret stepping in to help the pogue.

"here ya are," jj said as they approached the end of the driveway that led up to the carrera household. "i suppose we'll just go back to never speaking to each other again and you'll pretend to hate me even though you just admitted that you don't."

riley let a small huff of air out her nose and just shook her head, sheepishly grinning as she looked down at the ground. "i suppose so," she said, not whole heartedly meaning it. she was unsure of how she felt by the boy acting so friendly with her. she'd always acted cold towards the pogues, and especially avoided jj after what happened between them.

she didn't know why jj had offered to walk her home or why she excepted the offer. and she especially didn't know why she had been smiling so much during that short duration, however she didn't seem to mind, or overthink it too much for that matter.