NICKNAMES [1], jj maybank

CHAPTER 12

THE WHOLE WEEKEND Kie was radio silent. Which scares us all by the way. It's now Monday and I'm still dealing from Friday nights events and then Diana and Simon pissing me off. Sarah and I texted more though, I agreed to hang out with her sometime this week.

JJ is being JJ and almost completely ignoring his bruised lip or scratched face. At this point I feel like he forgot but I know he was just hiding how scared he was at the time.

The van pulls up and a smile forms on my face. I hopped in the sliding door of the van to see JJ with the biggest smile on his face. Pope was there too and of course John B but Kie—

"She said she'll meet us at school." JJ seems to have read my mind but the answer to my question makes me sulk a bit,"Well, hi boys."

"Hi Sam!" Pope turns in his seat to send me a wave. I move in between the two seats and look between the two boys. "My handsome, handsome boys." I squeeze each of their cheeks. "Are you my grandma? Get your hands off me, woman." John B pushes me away making me giggle. I turn back around to see JJ pouting. "What's wrong?"

"Does something look wrong, sunshine?" He grabs my forearm and pulls me closer to him, making me gasp at his actions. "You're an ass." I tell him.

"I have a good ass actually." That makes everyone in the van laugh.

"You do not have any sort of ass JJ." John B comments as he pulls into the school parking lot. "He's as flat as a pancake." Pope says in between giggles. That just makes everyone except JJ laugh even harder. John B pulls into a parking spot and we all pile out. "So where is Kie exactly?"

"El lockers." JJ does a little skip into the school that makes us all collectively cringe. We make our way to the spot and there Kie is but there was also—Bailey?

"Hi, girls." I awkwardly strut over with the boys. "Sam!" I haven't seen Bailey since the party.

I thought of the party and JJ getting beat up and guns to our chests. My heart seemed to skip a beat and my eyes automatically went to JJ for comfort but he seems to be distracted by something else down the hall.

Right before Bailey pulls me in for a hug I see Lily—talking to Amelia? The smell of strawberries makes me remind myself to hug Bailey back. "Hi, Bailey," She lets go and smiles at me. I look around her shoulder at Kie,"Hi, Kie." She smiles at me but the looming feeling of Amelia to the right of me is distracting me.

My eyes go back to JJ who is trying to carry a conversation with Pope and John B but his eyes keep going back to Lily.

Here's the thing with Lily—I explained it before but Lily and JJ barely even dated. JJ lost his virginity to her last year but Lily didn't lose her virginity to him. JJ got attached and Lily didn't. To be fair she broke it off quite harshly.

By harshly I mean she sent a snap saying,'Please stop texting and calling' with a photo of her making out with a guy in the background. JJ was devastated. He fucked girls on girls to cope. It was sad to watch but he never once lost his jokes—because jokes are how we both cope.

"So why were you so quiet all weekend?" I ask Kie. She pushes herself off the locker and looks at Bailey almost for an answer but Bailey is now talking to Pope and John B. "We were out all weekend together, Bailey knows this Kook—Lance. He's got a big ass house—"

"You went partying and didn't invite us?" This is odd behavior from Kie. She wants us to be involve with everything and most of the time we happily go with her. "I don't have to invite you to everything y'know." Kie shrugs it off which irritates me more,"Kie? You don't think that's kind of fucked up?"