✓ 𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐑𝐒, 𝘫. 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘬 ²

THIRTY THREE.

chapter thirty three
"mee-maw"

"LET ME KNOW IF I'M hurting you, Mr. Heyward."

Evelynn gently finished disinfecting the head wound that would belong to none other than Mr. Heyward, her face had sympathetically pinched up as the man winced underneath her grasp the entire time that she had cleaned the cut on his forehead. She carefully and warmly placed a bandage on the side of his forehead, perfectly covering the open wound so it wouldn't possibly get infected.

"You're doing just fine," Mr. Heyward dryly smiled through whatever echoing pain he must've been feeling since Lynn could feel him twitch underneath her touch once again. "Thank you, darlin'."

Lynn flashed a small and kind smile in the mans direction, giving the older Pogue a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder as she shifted past him — making room for his son to shuffle through the crowd.

While pitching a spot in between Sarah and Kie on the old, wooden picnic table that Mr. Heyward had out when he typically began to split up the food items into the separate grocery bags — Lynn had been here much too often for those grocery runs. Her eyes couldn't help but gaze over towards her boy, but the mere second the two blue eyes met the other, they jerked away.

Pope gripped his father by both shoulders, gaining his attention even though he was still tentatively paying attention to holding onto his head wound, "Pop, what happened?"

"Oh, I should've known better. He came in just as I was just about to lock up — caught me by surprise," Mr. Heyward explained, and Lynn tried to appear as if she were absolutely interested in the conversation — but her mind drifted elsewhere. Her eyes were distracted as she stared off in the distance rather than pulling down towards Mr. Heyward as he told the herring story of how a man came to his work, the man who caused this. "Once he had me down, he put his knee in my chest. He asked me about th-that key...from that drawing you showed me. And in case you're wondering, I ain't tell him nothing. Now, did you track it down?

"I found it, in Mee-maws old apartment right above the pharmacy just like you said it was," Pope replied, digging the object from his front left pocket — it was the first time Lynn had actually landed her eyes on it. It was like any other old metal key, with an old-fashioned pattern as the holder, and a bright red string was knotted around the metal.

"Shit, boy, you should've gave this to me. I wouldn't have had to take a beating," snarkily commented Mr. Heyward, and even unconsciously, Lynn had cracked the weakest smile, only just one corner of her lips tugged upward. "What's the big deal? It ain't worth anything, why they want it so bad?"

"I don't know. First, I get this letter telling me that I need to go to Charleston," Pope shrugged his shoulders aimlessly, and for a second Lynn had wondered if the boy had actually begun to fume with anger. Hell, if she had a father figure she genuinely cared about, she would surely would've been pissed as well if he had been harmed. If, key word. "And then I meet this rich lady who wants me to give her a key that I didn't even know was in my family."

Muttering under her breath softly, Kiara had leaned backwards to rest against Lynn's shoulder, "None of it makes any sense."

Kie wrapped an arm around Lynn's waist comfortably, and when the blonde curiously glanced to see what ever could be the occasion — Kiara squeezed her thigh tightly. The enjoyable and warm feeling of her best friend holding her made her instantly forget about all the worries of the previous hours, even the past few days.

It felt normal, even if it was just for five seconds.

"Well, don't y'all just sit here whining about it," Mr. Heyward threw his arms up in the arm randomly, glancing towards the thick in thought children. "Figure it out!"

Pope shook his head fiercely and strongly, switching to his father with the slightest bit of disbelief written on his face, "No, I'm just gonna give the key to that lady. It's not worth—"

"—No, no. Did I raise you to back down from a fight, boy?"

Pope popped his jaw off to the side as he met the eye contact with his father, and it was like they were waiting for the other to make the first move. Pope caved first, apparently, "No, sir."

"Well, alright. Now, I-I didn't think about it before, I admit that. But now...now?" Mr. Heyward stated repeatedly, his index finger pointing sharply toward his bandaged forehead, his bloodied shirt — the image reminded Lynn of something she'd rather not remember now. "I'm interested. Well, did they say why they wanted it?"

Another glance at JJ was required, and Lynn wasn't much surprised when she had found out that the blonde boy she called her boyfriend was already gazing at her — she could feel his eyes staring right into her for the past minute. Her sorrowful blue eyes didn't seem to affect JJ, however, because the Pogue just continued staring right back at her, not hovering this time.

"Something about an old cross — I think it might be some kind of lost treasure," Pope described, taking the key back from his fathers grasp — he stared at it for a second, before pouncing it back in that same front pocket.

"You know who you should talk to? Your grandmother, Mee-maw."

a/n: kinda really short chapter but 1.) i wanted to double update since i had been gone for a few days and 2.) i wanna make this book a bit longer so there's gonna be a few more filler eps, sorryyyzzzie <33