𝚋𝚘𝚛𝚗 𝚒𝚗𝚗𝚘𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚝 {𝚓𝚓 𝚖𝚊𝚢𝚋𝚊𝚗𝚔}

𝚜.𝟷 𝚎𝚙.𝟻 -𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚘𝚗𝚎-

"so sweet / with a mean streak / nearly brought me to my knees."

~

Midsummers

When Tate woke next, her first thought was of JJ. She'd passed out as soon as she'd gotten home, not leaving much time to really consider anything that had happened. She rolled over in bed and set a hand on her own forehead. It really had been a bug after all. She breathed a sigh of relief, but it was short lived. She still had too much to worry about, although it helped to not feel like she was going to vomit every other second. She used both arms to push herself out of bed a cross the room to look out the window at the clear, sunny sky. It was the perfect day for surfing, but Tate didn't feel like it at all. Not without JJ or John B, who she still hadn't seen since yesterday. Still a bit shaky on her feet from the after-affects of being sick and having not eaten in two days, she pulled her Converse on and headed towards the door. She stopped at every room in the house before leaving to double check that John B wasn't there. Everything was exactly the way they'd left it the last time they were together in the house. Tate let out a sigh before pushing the screen door open and heading out into the hot beach air.

Business at The Wreck was in full swing when Tate got there, but before she could go inside, Kiara flew out of the back door and grabbed Tate's arm, pulling her behind the building. "Hey!" she said, still holding Tate's arm. "How are you feeling?"

"Uh-" Tate stammered, caught off guard, "-fine. Yeah- I feel better. Um- what's up?"

"JJ's getting out of jail with restitution," she said, all in a rush. "Did you find John B?" Tate shook her head. Kiara nodded. "Okay. It's okay, we'll find him. Listen, you know Midsummers?"

Tate internally groaned. She hated the Midsummers celebration, when all of the rich people got together and danced around and partied like there was no suffering in the world. It didn't make sense to Tate to celebrate the middle of summer. That just meant there was one and half hot months left before school started- and that was the time Tate really hated. "Yeah, I know Midsummers," she said.

"My parents are making me go with them," Kiara said, completing the statement with an exasperated eye-roll. "But listen- I was talking to my dad and he said I could bring a friend with me, you following?" Tate nodded. "I want you to go with me." This wasn't true. To be completely honest, Kiara was just barely tolerating Tate because she was dating one of her best friends. She didn't like Tate's aggressive energy or how negative she was about everything and she would much rather bring Pope with her or JJ or John B if they were around, but right now she knew Tate was the only option. Kiara had a sneaking suspicion that John B's disappearance had something to do with the DCS, so she wanted to keep Tate as far from the Routledge house as possible. The whole situation gave Kiara bad vibes and she knew that if Tate was caught anywhere near it, she'd instantly be in trouble. She was already walking on thin ice with the local law enforcement- all of them were, really. "Look, I know it's not your thing at all," Kiara said quickly, noticing Tate's grimace. "But things have been really tense lately and until we get more information about JJ and John B, there's not much we can do for either of them. So, I was thinking maybe you could stay at my place tonight and I can swipe some drinks from the restaurant and we can just, like, unwind..."