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"JOHN BOOKER ROUTLEDGE, PURSUANT TO North Carolina statute section fourteen, you are charged with murder in the first degree with aggravated circumstances."
This is hell, isn't it? Some cruel, ferocious, malevolent hell. There was no way that currently Lynn and the rest of the Pogue crew were in the middle of a courthouse, there was no way that John B several yards in front of them was covered in a bright and ugly orange bodysuit. And there was no way that the next words that had fell from the female judges mouth were real.
"If convicted, the maximum sentence would be the death penalty."
A silent gasp escaped Lynn's pink lips, and it was more a wild breath of air. Her eyelids fluttered for a moment while a surge of water flooded them, but she swallowed some anxious spit and forced them back down.
There were news anchors and fans of the case and cameras everywhere, pointed in every direction — and she had made it her mission to identify the ones that were seemingly aimed for her and her friends reactions. She didn't want to feed the media, nor did she want to give Ward any type of satisfaction.
Sniffling the slightest bit and trying her best to keep quiet, her boyfriend sitting right beside her knew better. JJ swore he could quite literally feel Lynn's emotions — knew when she was unhappy and needed a tissue, when she was hungry and would grab her favorite snack, when she was angry and just needed something to let off some steam. He knew his girlfriend like the back of his palm, hell, he probably knew her better than she knew herself.
JJ hooked his soft fingertips around one of Lynn's palms that had been resting on her lap, giving it a tight, reassuring squeeze with a just as reassuring bob of his head. He could feel the tension and vexation bubbling in his veins, but he was much more focused on Evelynn and could shove all those rising emotions down.
"He's seventeen..." Lynn drifted, trying to take back control of her shaking voice, but there was an unwilling crack of her low voice. She couldn't even power herself to glance at John B, just knowing the sight of his defeated face would quite literally kill her.
"Your honor, he's seventeen!"
Lynn jerked her head in JJ's direction, who had repeated her previous statement but had actually pronounced it ten times louder. He had gained a good portion of the courtrooms attention, the nearby ones for the most part. The rest of the courtroom had been buzzing with words and comments and conversations ever since the judge's reveal of John B potentially getting the death penalty.
So much for keeping it in check for Evelynn, JJ...
"He's seventeen! Are you kidding me!?" JJ continued onwards, by this time he had stood up from his previous seated position, and Lynn missed their lack of touch. "Hey, John B, we're gonna figure it out."
