Azlia

"Maybe we just didn't look hard enough." I say sitting down on my couch next to Ki. "I don't know, maybe." She sighs. I sigh too. "Come on, let's get dressed." I say tapping her thigh.

I put on a rainbow color cropped tank and some dark blue shorts. Then I put on my favorite pair of white converse.

"I'm so glad they're still doing this." Ki says as we walk towards the park. They're showing a movie so Ki decided we should go watch it. We tried to call John B but he wouldn't answer.

"Aren't you guys glad that I made you come." Ki smiles. "Ehh." I shrug. "Ecstatic." Pope says sarcastically. "My couch was petty comfy, Ill be honest." JJ sighs. We set up the chairs and blankets at an empty spot. Ki goes to get snacks and I stay back ignoring whatever the boys were talking about.

"Just saw Rafe, and he said, and I quote, "tell your boy that we know what he did." What is that?" She says handing us drinks. I look at JJ and Pope with a confused look. "Umm, where is he?" JJ ask. "Right there." Ki says pointing. We all turn around and see Topper, Rafe and Kelce eyeing us. "Great the whole death squad." Pope's voice cracks. "Don't stare, bro." JJ turns his head around. "Just to warn you bro, if they corner me I'm coming out swinging, okay. Slice and dicin I'm on edge right now." JJ Tells Pope. "Wh-what why, what did you guys do?" I ask.

"If that doesn't work, I got this right here." JJ says picking up his bag. "Yeah, yeah, so we just gotta stay in the group." Pope says. Ki and I give each other confused looks before looking back at the boys. "I'm sorry, JJ please tell me you did not bring a gun here, JJ there are kids." Ki ask annoyed. "No Ki, I didn't bring the gun everything's fine, okay." He says.

"Founding principle, you guys. No secrets amongst Pogues. What is Rafe talking about?" I ask a little harsh. "Azi, it might go down tonight." Pope says with his hand on my shoulder. Ki lets out an annoyed scoff and I cover my face with my hands. "What does that mean? Might go down tonight, what did y'all do?" She ask. They look at each other and ignore her.

It was starting to get dark and we were halfway into the movie. Pope and JJ suddenly get up. "Hey, where are y'all going?" Ki ask. "We gotta wring it out." JJ says. "Ok ok, just go." I say showing them away.

I turn around to see that Topper and his friends were no longer in their chairs. "Ki." I say getting her attention. I point to the Kooks spot and she turns around. "Shit." She says and we both take off behind the movie screen. When we turn the corner we see JJ and Pope getting their ass beat by the Kooks. Ki and I run towards them. "Let go of him Topper, Fascist asshole." Ki says hitting Topper with JJ's bag.

"Guys seriously, stop!" I yell trying to break Rafe, JJ and Kelce apart but, they ignore me. Ki jumps on Toppers back and Rafe picks her up and throws her to the ground. "Ki." I run over to her. "Ki, are you okay." I ask her holding her head. She just groans. I look around for JJ's bag. I see it and crawl towards it. I was about to take out his gun but instead I take out his lighter. "I'll be right." I say to key who's still laying on the floor. I crawl over to the movie screen and light the corner of it on fire. I few seconds later it lights up in flames and I quickly back away. I hear people from the other side screaming hoping that none of them got hurt.

"Guys, fire!" Rafe yells. "Get off of him!" Ki yells at Topper. "Kelce let go of JJ!" I yell. Ki helps Pope up and JJ and I walk over to them. "You're a freakin idiot." Pope points at me. I laugh and give him a hug. "We saved your asses, come on." Ki says and we all walk away from the fire.

It was the next day and the four of us were getting something to eat. "Don't let it get in your head bro, three of them and two of us." JJ says. "What was your thought processes, using your head?" He ask. "I don't know man, I just kind of acted off instinct. I was a cornered animal." Pope laughs.

"Hey Pope, someone here to see you." Popes dad says walking in. Behind him was an officer.

"Evening, officer." Pope says. "I have an arrest warrant for a felony destruction of property. Hands where I can see them." The officer says. He makes Pope turn around and puts the hand cuffs on him. "Woah, Shoupe, what'd he do!" Heyward ask. "Take a look at the warrant." He says. "I'm sorry, you're arresting him?" I asked confused. "You're just arresting my boy?" Heyward ask. He aggressively locks the handcuffs around Pope's wrist. "Be carful!" Ki yells. He escorts Pope outside and we all follow arguing behind him.

"It want him! It was me." JJ says. We all stop walking and look back at him. "He tried to talk me out of it, but I was mad because he'd just been beaten up. I was so sick of those assholes from Figure Eight that I lost my shit. I can't let you take the blame for something I did. You got too much to lose." He lies walking up to Pope. "JJ, what are you doing?" Pope ask. "I'm telling the truth. For once in my god damn life I'm gonna tell the truth. " JJ chuckle.

"JJ come on." Pope tries convincing him. "Just shut up, Pope!" He yells. I stand their, holding Ki's hand fighting back the little tears trying to come down. "He's a good kid. You know where I'm from." JJ says to the cop. "Yeah." The cop agrees. "This was all me." JJ says facing Pope. The cop looks at Pope. "That's the whole truth?" He ask. Pope hesitates for a moment. "Yeah that about covers it." He says.

The cop takes the handcuffs off of Pope and puts them on JJ. He pushes him into the truck and they both drive off.

~

I just got out the shower and put on black nike pro shorts and an oversized tshirt. I was just about to fix my hair when I hear a slight knock on my room door.

I open the door to see a beat up, puffy eyed JJ. "JJ what ha-." I was cut off my JJ tackling me in a hug. He started crying and wrapped his arms around my small waist and pulled me closer to him. I could feel his tears soaking through my shirt.

"I hate him so much, Azi." He cries, his voice cracking. "Sh, it's okay, it's okay." I whisper resting my hand on his head and my other hand snakes around his neck. "I don't wanna let you go." He says softly. "You don't have to." I say back. I feel him tighten his grip around me.

"Come on, let's go get you cleaned up." I say taking his hand and leading him to the bathroom. He sits on the counter and I take out the first aid kit from the closet. I take out a cotton ball and run some alcohol on it.

"Why doesn't he love me?" JJ ask looking up at me. His eyes start to water again. "I try so hard to please him, but I'm just not good enough to him, and I never was for my mom. I'm not good enough for anyone. I'm certainly not worth anybody's time." He cries. I feel tears forming in my eyes and my heart starts to hurt for him. He looks down and little tear droplets fall on his hand. I cuff his face with my hands and make him look at me. "You can't say that about yourself okay, I never wanna hear you say that again. You are worth so much to this world, okay. You might not think so but, you know so. Your dad might not tell you he loves you or shows you that her loves you, but he does. He loves you so, so, so much. He just doesn't know how to say it." I say as I let a few tears fall down my face.

JJ brings his hand to my face and whipped away with his thumb. He puts his other hand around my waist and pulls me in between his legs. He looks me deep in my eyes and gently presses his lips against mine. He has both of his arms around me and I have one hand on his cheek and the other around his neck. I can taste to tiniest of blood due to his busted lip but it doesn't bother me. I slowly pull away from him and smile. "No Pogue on Pogue macking." I say. He looks me in the eyes then down at my lips. "Fuck it." He says bring my lips back to his.

JJ and I were both laying in my bed. He had his arms wrapped around and he was laying on my chest. "Can I stay with you for a while?" He ask softly. "You can stay with me for forever." I say rubbing my hands through his hair. "You're definitely a keeper." He says coming face to face with me. I smile and rub his jawline with my index finger and give him a kiss on the nose "I'm never letting you go." He whispers. "Promise?" I whisper back. "Promise." He whispers.

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