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CHAPTER TWENTY ONE Lighthouse ‿︵‿︵‿︵
(PRESENT)
Avery rolled her eyes so hard she almost convinced herself that they would get stuck.
"It's also possible that you're concocting wild theories to help, you know, deal with your sad feels" Pope frowned a little, staring at the compass hanging from his finger.
"Bro, you know how I process my sad feels–"
"Dank mugs and the stickiest of ickies" Avery and JJ spoke in unison. The boy sent her a smile which she happily returned, sending him a wink before looking back at John B.
From the moment she returned, JJ let himself accept that maybe he didn't have platonic feelings for his best friend anymore. A part of him always knew that he never truly did. But he easily shook it off, distracting himself with other girls and not thinking too deeply about it. He played it off with shameless flirting and bantering, which she simply returned and never suspected anything.
Yet recently, for some reason, he was finding it a lot hard to disguise. Whenever he acted his usual way towards her, he felt like he meant it a lot more than he used to. Admittedly, he was terrified to shift anything between them. He had only just got her back and the very last thing he wanted to do with ruin that, to ruin their friendship. So, his conclusion was simple. Push every feeling away like always and they will disappear within no time.
"I'm not concocting, okay?" The Routledge boy snapped. "My dads trying to give me a message"
"If it helps you believe, John B" Kiara tried to console, although it sounded slightly patronising.
"Look, I-I don't need a therapy session, okay? Look, I'm not trippin' out" His tone was strained, desperate for them to just listen and believe with him.
"It's okay to trip, bro, but—" JJ hissed at the pain radiating in his shin. His blue eyes flickered up to meet his best friend's, Avery gave him a pointed look that made him zip it.
"Look, my- my dad is missing, okay? Missing. You don't know what it's like to have the person closest to you vanish and then have no idea what happened. Just wake up every morning wondering–"
"That's enough John B" Avery's brittle voice snapped. Her eyes were glossing over, avoiding everyone's gaze that fell onto her.
The drop in her stomach made her want to release the tears that burned the back of her eyes. Avery knew that he didn't mean what he said, that it was the overload of emotions that rippled through him at chasing every possibility of his father being found. She knew the feeling too well, and sympathised with it. That didn't mean that his words didn't hurt.
