𝚋𝚘𝚛𝚗 𝚒𝚗𝚗𝚘𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚝 {𝚓𝚓 𝚖𝚊𝚢𝚋𝚊𝚗𝚔}

𝚜.𝟷 𝚎𝚙.𝟽 -𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚏𝚘𝚞𝚛-

"I will love you til the end of time."

~

That night, Tate sat in the back of Pope's truck as he steered them into the driveway of John B's old house. She was having a hard time focusing on Pope ramble about his scholarship essay and college plans through her nerves. She hadn't seen JJ all day. She'd looked everywhere for him, but nobody'd caught sight of him since his freak-out at Barry's house. She was starting to think something might seriously be wrong. If he got hurt or did something stupid while they were broken up... she'd never forgive herself.

When Pope parked the truck in John B's old driveway, Tate was the first to hop out. She immediately lit up a cigarette as Kiara and Pope went around to the bed of the truck to unload the last of the supplies for their heist to get the rest of the gold. Tate was just taking the first drag of the cigarette when suddenly fairy lights turned on all over the yard. She looked up, confused. "What the hell?" she heard Pope mutter from behind the truck. She turned around to see that the entire backyard was lit up in colorful strings of light all surrounding a clearing with a hot tub in the middle, a lanky figure sitting in the bubbling water.

"Who the hell is that?" said Kiara. Tate squinted, then followed Pope and Kiara closer to the clearing to see what was going on.

It was JJ. "What did you do, JJ?" Pope asked in horror, voicing Tate's first thought upon seeing him sitting there in the water, shirtless, a pair of sunglasses dangling from his face and a bottle of champagne in one hand.

"I got a jet going straight in my butt right now," said JJ, and Tate knew that if she wasn't so shocked, she would've rolled her eyes. "Ya'll should get in immediately, you hear me?" He clumsily refilled his glass of champagne. "Salut!"

Tate, who hadn't realized that her jaw had dropped, closed her mouth and swallowed hard. "How much have you had to drink?"

"Enough."

"How much did this cost?" asked Pope.

"Uh... Well, with the generator, the petrol, and oh- hey, express delivery... pretty much all of it, yeah."

Pope's eyes bugged from his face. "All of it?"

JJ didn't seem affected. "Yeah, all of it."

"You spent all the money in one day?"

"Yeah," said JJ, fixing his sunglasses and sinking further into the bubbles, "-burned a hole right through my pocket. But, I mean, like, come on, guys, like, look at this!" His voice cracked as he gestured grandly at his setup. Tate felt a lump rise in her throat but she couldn't place exactly why. "Finest jet-based massage therapy, that's what they told me." He surveyed the three of them, all looking different forms of shocked and disappointed. "Kie, what? Can't a man have a little luxury in life? Come on, all this scrimpin' and scrapin', I mean, like... guys, we- you only live once, right? Right, Tate? You get it, don't you?" Tate swallowed hard and didn't answer. There were tears in JJ's eyes as he looked at her and he was breathing hard. "Enough of this emotional shit. Get in the Cat's Ass. Come on."