Faded Heart

XIX. Home Again

The next stop for the HMS Pogue was my family's mansion. Unlike Tanneyhill, it didn't sport a cool name or a crazy story about treasure surrounding it. At least I hope it didn't... The Royal Merchant treasure hunt was enough for one lifetime.

Sometime in between coming back from the Crain House and hanging out at the Chateau, JJ and I thought that it was a good idea to break into my room and take a bunch of my stuff so that I didn't have to steal Kiara's clothes for the remainder of my self-exile from my family. Eventually, she was going to run out of clothes she could share between Ashtyn and I.

Although, at the time it seemed like a good idea, the closer we got to my house, the more nervous I was getting. It felt like I was just constantly running towards two threats that could end my life... Mrs. Crain and my parents.

The idea of being on my family's property again made me even more anxious. If it wasn't for JJ and Pope, I probably would've turned around and ran off again...

"Why exactly am I here again? Third wheeling on your dates is not exactly my idea of fun anymore." Pope jokes, stepping off the boat and onto the dock leading to my backyard. We didn't exactly tell Pope why he was coming because JJ didn't think he would agree with the whole breaking and entering thing.

"Well, dude..." JJ began while helping me up on the dock from the boat. "You are the distraction. They key to this entire operation."
"Dude, don't tell me this is some sort of crime." Pope sighed, running his hand over the top of his head. His voice was beginning to grow into a much higher pitch, "I told you before, enough of this already. Wasn't getting arrested enough for you once? Almost getting arrested was enough for me."

"Relax, we aren't committing a crime. I technically still live here." I say, trying to calm
Pope down. "I just want to get some things from my room. My phone is in there with the pictures that implicate my parent's of numerous crimes. JJ and I need to get it back. Without out, we have no evidence against them."

"Thanks for the reminder that your parents hired two hitmen that shot at us... Very calming." Pope rolls his eyes, looking at the house in the distance. He was familiar with the house because he's been bringing groceries here, with his dad, for as long as I could remember.

It wasn't a surprise to me that my parent's cars were still in the driveway. They were probably on high alert right now since I was running around the island with their secrets. Everything was probably under tight lock and key right now. If my parents hid things before, they surely were hiding them now.

JJ places his hand on his friend's upper arm, trying to calm him down and convince him that this plan is not as bad as he thinks it is. "Chill out, the actually breaking and entering is on our side of the plan. Your part is distracting her parents."

"How exactly do you want me to do that?" He asks, raising his dark eyebrows at the two of us. I could tell he still wasn't entirely convinced with the plan, but Pope was the best option right now. In fact, he was the only one that could get away with distracting my parents without being suspicious.

"I don't know..." I say, thinking about what exactly Pope could do to distract them. "Pretend to take their grocery order or talk about your dad. You're supposed to be the smart one, figure it out."

"Off you go, dude." JJ pushes his friend in the direction of the house. Pope hesitated for a moment before beginning to make his way towards the back door. He continued to look between us and the house.

"I hate you guys." He shouted, before trudging towards the house once again. This time we could only see the back of his head once he finally agreed to go along with this.

"Do you think this is a good idea? He looks too nervous to convince them." I question, pulling JJ behind a tree so that whoever opens the back door can't see him and I. I wasn't entirely convinced that Pope was going to pull this off. He looked way too nervous to be convincing. My parents would surely see that something was up with him.