"𝙷𝙴𝚁𝙴'𝚂 𝚃𝙾 𝙶𝙾𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙵𝚄𝙻𝙻 𝙺𝙾𝙾𝙺"
"Man, we really can't catch a break," JJ murmured, resting a hand on Tate's leg and blowing her smoke away from him.
Tate laughed softly. "Yeah, ever since I started hanging out with you guys."
"So t...
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"our strange divide / we're pulled in two directions / I'm not that guy / I'm barely keeping it together."
~
"Well, that was fun," JJ said, wiping sweat from his forehead as he tossed the last of the trash bags the Pogues had been going through to the side. They'd spent the entirety of that day looking for the gun. "If it's not in the trash, then it's gotta be in the storm drain."
"Great," Tate said sarcastically. "First we dug through garbage, now we get to dig through shit. I am loving this day more and more."
Kiara shot her a look of annoyance. The two had been on edge with each other since the night before. "Then go surfing or something, Tate, you don't have to be here."
"Hey, hey," said Pope, trying his hardest to avoid any tension. The Pogues had had enough fights in the last week to last them a long time. "We're all doing everything we can to help John B. Of course we all have to be here."
"So, are we gonna do, like, rock, paper, scissors?" asked Kiara.
"No," said JJ.
"Or alphabetically?"
JJ shook his head and bent down to the storm grate, the crowbar he'd swiped from his dad's garage in his hand. "Nah. On three, Pope. One, two, three." The two boys wrenched the grate open together.
"Or, like, the oldest goes?" Kiara kept going.
JJ ignored her. "In the sewer, there's this worm that you get when you're down there," he explained. "It gets into your blood, and then it has to come out your pecker. So, uh... that would be a hard pass for me."
"I second that," said Tate with a wry smile.
"It's gonna be a no for me too," said Pope.
Tate put her cigarette out on the concrete wall and crouched down to peer into the sewer. "I'll go," she said. She could tell she was small enough to fit inside, and she wanted to help somehow.
"No, I'll go," said Kiara.
Tate looked up at her with mingled annoyance and confusion. "No, really, I got it."
"It's all good," said Kiara with a forced nonchalant shrug. "I can do it."
JJ and Pope looked back and forth between the girls uncertainly. "Ahhh, maybe we should do the rock, paper, scissors thing," Pope said at last.
Tate stood up straight and brushed her hair off of her shoulders. "Sure."
"Fine by me," said Kiara.
The girls squared off, both holding up their hands. "Rock, paper, scissors... shoot," said Tate, holding her hand out flat for paper. Kiara held up scissors. Tate took a relenting step back. "All yours."
