broken | jj maybank

xii, play pretend

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"Excuse me?" I ask, the security guard looks up and quickly gets out of he small building. "Can I help you?" he asks, Kiara widely smiles at him and says, "Hi! Um, we actually have a flat tire".

"We were wondering if maybe you could help us out?" I continue smiling just as wide, it stays silent for a few seconds before the guard agrees.

"It's too easy" Kiara mumbles to me, I nod in agreement and we wait until guard comes back. "It's just this back one right here. I mean it must've been a slow leak or something" Kiara explains.

"Probably been sitting in the yard for too long" the guard says, "Yeah" Kiara and I say at the same time.

"Yeah, I- I got this" he says, "Thank you" I smile, he nods his head and starts to work on the tire. Kiara looks back a few times to make sure the guys are gone, and then nods at me once she is sure.

I feel anxiety bubbling in my chest once the guard suspiciously looks at us, "Got it?" Kiara asks with a nervous smile. Suddenly we hear a dog barking loudly in the distance, "Do you hear that?" the man asks.

"Hmh?" I ask pretending not to hear anything, "Oh, Tebow's got somethin'." the man tells us. "It's probably a just a raccoon" I quickly say. He agrees with me and continues to work on the tire.

Kiara lets the air out of other tire as well, "What are you doing?" the man asks. shit.

"This one looks a little low too" Kiara lies, the guard runs away. "Wait!" Kie yells, "Wait here" I tell her, running after the man.

"Sir, wait please!" I yell, the man stops next to the dog. "Whoever's up there better come on out! I mean it! Don't make me go up there and get your ass!" the guard yells looking up at a ship.

"Wait, Bobby!" I hear someone call out, jj. "Don't shoot!" he tells the guard 'Bobby'. "It's me, jj. Luke's kid" he says slowly standing up with both his hands in the air. "What are you doin'?" Bobby scolds.

"I swear, okay? I didn't want to, okay? My dad made me" jj whimpers, I frown at the state of the sad boy.

"Don't you lie!" Bobby yells, "He told me that Captain Leo kept his cutting torch. You know, after he got fired." there is a short pause before jj continues.

"He said if I didn't get it for him, he was gonna... he was gonna hit me again" jj cries, I stumble back a bit. My hands start shaking slightly, I hope this isn't true.

Bobby scoffs, "Son of a bitch" he scolds. "I'm sorry" he says directly to Bobby, but then shifts his eyes to me. "And I'm sorry for involving you" he tells me, "It's okay" I croak out.

Bobby looks at me, "I'm sorry for lying, I just couldn't let anything happen to him" I tell him. Bobby nods and looks back at jj, "Come on down" he says.

jj climbs back down and stands next to me, "I almost killed you" Bobby tells jj, "I know" jj replies. I see that tears are still spilling on jj's cheeks, so I slowly slide my hand in his and give it a reassuring squeeze.

"I'll just come up with somethin'. Tell him I couldn't find it" jj says, his broken state breaks my heart.

Both jj and I apologize once more before walking off, hand in hand. I look at jj, who is now smiling and wiping away his tears. He let's go of my hand and walks towards the van, I hold back the unspilled tears that still stung in my eyes and let my emotions disappear.

Well, they're not gone. I'm just good at playing pretend. But maybe jj is too.

I sit down in the van, avoiding eye contact with everyone and look out of the window. I don't know if what jj said was true or not, but abuse isn't something to joke about so if he lied I would be mad. If what he said was true I would be sad.

We arrive at the Carrera family restaurant and go inside, "Hey, dad!" Kiara exclaims. "Hey, Mr. C" I smile, "Hey, Belle! Long time no see, how are you doing?" He exclaims.

"I'm doing great, how is everything here?" I ask, "Good" he softly smiles at me. Pope taps my shoulder and leads me to a table, John B, jj and Pope stare at the food as if they haven't eaten in days.

Pope and John B start waving at Kiara and her father, jj holds up a peace sign and I smile. "Sit down!" Kiara tells us, we all take a seat at the table and wait for our food to arrive. Once the food is placed on the table, everybody quickly digs in.

Kiara turns the music up and pulls me out of my seat, she twirls me around and sways her hips to the music. She then points at John B and starts dancing with him, I laugh at the sight. Pope on the other hand doesn't look too happy.

"Jealous are we?" I ask sitting down next to him, he looks at me and shakes his head. "Don't worry, I won't tell her" I grin.

"Don't you like, tell her everything?" Pope asks me, "About my life, yes. About others, not so much" I explain. "She doesn't like him though" I assure him, a flash of relief washes over Pope's face and a little smile breaks out on his lips. But the smile is gone as soon as it came.

In silence we watch John B and Kiara dancing to the music, an idea pops up in my head. "Come on, why don't you dance with me?" I ask offering him my hand, he hesitates for a second before he grabs it and we start dancing much like John B and Kiara.

Pope lets out a laugh, "Are you ready?" I ask. "Ready for what?" he exclaims, instead of answering him I quickly switch with Kiara, so that she is dancing with Pope and I'm dancing with John B.

Pope looks at me with wide eyes and I just send him a wink, a bit later jj starts dancing as well. Let's just say the rest of the night is filled with laughter and music.