✓ 𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐑𝐒, 𝘫. 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘬 ²

FIFTEEN.

chapter fifteen
"you know the way to my heart, pope heyward"

      "I AM SO SICK OF this shit!

      Lynn pinched her face into a mix of embarrassment and sympathy as she heard the threatening screams and scoldings of Kiara's parents echoing throughout the air, both Mr. and Mrs. C glaring at Kie as she started storming off the porch of their house.

      She actually offered to go up with Kie when discussing leaving for Charleston today, meaning they would be gone from school tomorrow, because they all knew Kie's parents would be heavily against it. Ever since John B's 'death', they had seemingly been harder on Kie than usual, which made sense in Lynn's eyes.

      John B and Sarah had apparently died that day — teenagers, having barely even started their adventure of life. They were worried if Kiara kept going down this road, she would end up exactly like them.

      "Y'all think it's going good, then?" Lynn popped her jaw off to the side, poking her tongue into her cheek as she thought. "Seems like it's going good, y'know."

      Currently, Lynn was squeezed between Pope, who was the driver for tonight's adventure, and JJ to the left of her, who had called shotgun before either of the two girls had even thought of it. They were in Pope's fathers truck, which technically — legally, had room for only three people. But, the Pogues were going to have to make it work, not a single one of them would willingly stay.

      "Yeah, I agree, they're taking it really well," JJ sarcastically chimed in, his eyes floating to his girl snugly embraced closer to his thigh, practically on his lap. Accidentally, the rumble of a groan was stuck in the back of his throat, but he swiftly covered it by clearing his throat awkwardly, desperate for a change of subject. "How'd you get this rig? 'Cause I know your old man didn't let you have it."

      "I undid the intake valves on the carburetor, made it start pinging," Pope explained, and Lynn dramatically yawned, and then her face straightened out with complete boredom scowling it.

      "And now you're just gonna take it to your cousin Jeff's house, just gonna get it fixed," finished JJ, nodding alongside Pope as he began to understand the plan, but surely they would have to cover it again later tonight. "Crash overnight."

      "We bring snacks?" Lynn blurted, having quite the lack of patience for anymore discussion of cars, or car parts, or anything other than food, frankly. "We missed lunch, and I'm hungry, and willing to murder."

      Without a single word, Pope shifted to turn as best he could to slide open the window that would lead to the truck's bed, and he tugged out a bag of groceries. The plastic bag itself had Heyward's scribbled onto it, and there were quite a few food items inside it.

      She was only partly joking when she brought up food, but she slightly chuckled when Pope collapsed the bag onto her lap, and she genuinely smiled in her best friend's direction.

      "Thanks, Pope," Lynn leaned forward to drop her head on his shoulder, comfortably nestling into it, and then transferred her attention back over towards the bag of food. She pulled out a bag of potato chips, popping it open with ease. "You know the way to my heart, Pope Heyward, I love you."

      Pope tried to not let Lynn's sweet words affect him too much, but the corners of his lips twitched upwards into a grin, "Just don't tell my dad."

      "I think I'm rubbing off on you, Pope. Lying to your old man, stealing his truck, kinda sounds familiar," JJ announced, perking his eyebrows up, but once Pope's previous smile shifted back into a neutral position, JJ rose his arms in defeat. "Alright, that was a sore subject — my bad."

      "I'd say we have about eighteen hours before he absolutely loses his shit," Pope explained, and Lynn quickly dug out her years old phone from her deep back pocket, checking the time. "So, as long as we get it back before then, I think we're good."

      The three Pogues were interrupted from furthering their conversation as they heard Kie, along with her parents — voices seem to boom even louder than before. They shifted their attention over towards the impending Kie, who was yelling something about boarding school.

      JJ hopped out of the truck as Kie impatiently stood outside the door, the scowl scribbled on her expression was desperate to get away from her parents. JJ waved towards them with an awkward smile, "It's good to see y'all, Mr. and Mrs. Carrera."

      "Hi, uh, ma'am, sir — I promise to have her back at a reasonable hour and safe," Pope stuck his head out of the window, and Lynn's lips departed in a mix of shock and laughter.

      "What are you doing?" Kie questioned, a slight scoff flooding her lips, and she aimlessly tossed her backpack into the truck, nearly hitting Lynn, but she narrowly escaped it.

      "Kiara, listen to me. You wanna go, then you can go," Mrs. C shouted, and Lynn just glanced down towards her twiddling tiny hands, never one to deal with parents scoldings very well. "But if you don't come back at the proper time, then don't come back at all!"

      JJ popped his jaw off, "She's bluffin'." Kie then scrambled to get into the truck as quickly as possible now that she got the official thumbs up from her parents, if that even counted. "Y'all have a good day!"

      Kie crawled over Lynn's lap, with not much balance and softness she'd like to comment, to where the brunette would now be beside Pope, who rumbled the engine of the rusted truck to life again.

      "This shit would be so much easier without parents."

      Any amusement that had covered Lynn's face disappeared, and she knitted her dark blonde eyebrows in the girls direction. "Did you really just say that, Kie?" Lynn scoffed, and for a moment, her eyes fluttered over towards JJ — who had an equally, almost offended, expression now replacing his high spirits of the jokes from before. But he covered it better than she did.

      "What? It's true," Kie shrugged, and Lynn shook her head with utter displeasure and vexation, and she had to take a second to understand if Kie had actually said those words, in front of her and JJ. "What's your problem, Lynn?"

      "Kiara, I think I would actually kill someone to have parents like yours," Lynn answered almost immediately, and she couldn't believe the words fell just so easy from her lips, but that didn't mean they weren't true. "So, don't say some stupid shit like that again."

      Kie remained silent.

      "Well, this won't be an awkward eight hour drive."

a/n: i can't wait until i get through these next few episodes. i effing loved the like last four or five episodes more than the beginning fs