𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 ━ 𝐣𝐣 𝐨𝐛𝐱

part thirty two

riley began to stir as she came into consciousness and slowly blinked open her eyes. the bed was cold and empty next to her as she rolled over onto her side, and she wondered where jj had gone.

to answer her thoughts, the blonde boy came tip toeing into the room, closing the door softly behind him. he let his gaze fall onto the bed where riley was looking at him with a small smile on her face.

"well good morning sleeping beauty," he smirked, slipping underneath the covers so he could lie next to her. riley rolled her eyes at the boy's comment, a grin playing on her lips.

"where'd you go?" she asked.

"so you're the clingy type?" jj teased, sarcastically. she scoffed and shoved at his shoulder. he gasped at the playful action and quickly flipped himself over and into a plank position on top of riley, holding down her wrists.

"see i think this would we considered clingy," she remarked, giggling. jj leaned down so their lips were only centimeters apart but riley quickly wiggled her wrist out of his grasp and placed her hand over his mouth. "morning breath j!"

"don't care," he mumbled, pinning down her wrist once again and connecting his lips with hers.

after a short but passionate kiss riley lightly pressed her hands on jj's chest, pushing him away softly. "well i care," she smiled.

"are you saying i have bad morning breath?" jj scoffed, pretending to be offended. he placed a hand to his chest as he rolled over off of the girl.

"maybe i am," riley teased.

"well for your information i already brushed my teeth this morning so that would be impossible," he said.

"how long have you been awake?"

"like 30 minutes," he shrugged. "was staring at you for the first 10 of them though."

"you were watching me sleep?" riley questioned sarcastically, "creep."

jj deflected the question, biting the inside of his cheek to suppress the smile growing on his lips. "i talked to kiara and pope too. you know, you are the only person who hasn't looked at me like i'm some kind of mental case this morning."

the smile on riley's face immediately dropped at his words. the thought of last night saddened her but also brought her content; she felt relieved, almost free even, after their talk last night. and she even felt stronger in some odd way.

"hey," jj said, bringing her out of her train of thought. "you okay?"

"yeah," she said, genuinely meaning her words.

"good," he said. "you want to go sit out in the hot tub and drink beer?"

"beer for breakfast?" she questioned.

"its almost noon," jj laughed.

riley groaned as she climbed out of bed and followed him out of the room. they walked through the back doors, out to where kiara and pope were visible building the pulley system.

"jj!" kiara called out to the boy once she saw them appear. "can you come here for a sec."

the blonde nodded his head before handing a beer to riley, "i'll be right back."

she watched as kiara led jj around the side of the house where the two were out of view. the girl stayed in the backyard with pope, watching as he fiddled with a part on the pulley.

"where the hell did you learn how to do this?" riley questioned. pope just shrugged in response, modestly ignoring riley's fascination. "i really hope you get that scholarship you've been working for," she said quietly to him.

he snapped his head up at her comment, his eyebrows knitting together. "i know you're applying too. kiara told me."

"yeah, well..." riley trailed off, "you don't have to worry about me. i'm no competition to you, thats for sure."

pope shook his head side to side with a small smile on his face, not believing the girls words; she was a kook after all. "would you mind going to get that wench for me? it should be by the car."

riley nodded and began to make her way over to the car, squatting down to where the tool box sat on the ground. she couldn't exactly remember which one the wench was so she just began to pick each tool up and inspect them.

"can we not talk about this right now?" riley suddenly heard jj's voice appear on the other side of the car.

"it's not a hard question jj. i just want to know what's going on between you two," kiara's voice trailed behind jj's. riley hated to eavesdrop but she knew that kiara was talking about jj and her so she remained in her spot, crouched down so she wasn't visible to them.

"so what are you?" kiara asked again.

"i- we're- nothing," jj stuttered over his words.

"what?" kiara asked.

"we're nothing. okay?" jj repeated himself. "just stop asking about it."

nothing.

"jj come on. i don't believe you. you have some feelings for her, right?" she pressed.

"no kiara," jj snapped, "just drop it."

riley watched as jj came into view, his back turned to her as he stormed off towards pope. kiara trailed slowly behind him, but neither of them noticed the girl behind the car. the girl who couldn't help but feel a little heart broken.