𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐅𝐓𝐎𝐏
[JJ Maybank x fem!oc]
"how badly is this gonna hurt?"
he looked up at her, his hair blowing in
the breeze, hesitating for only a second.
"how badly do you care?"
- or in which jj always won...
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Athena's funeral was held back in San Clemente. Her mother had to pay to have her body shipped back. It arrived on the day of in the smallest coffin she'd ever seen. Her mother always thought it was a rule: you die before your own children. Apparently, she was wrong. Also, apparently you don't even get to say goodbye to your kid's when they die either.
The hardest part of it was knowing that her death was not fast and was not painless. Athena's mother had spent hours after she'd received the news researching drowning, what it felt like, and how long it typically took. None of it was pleasant and none of it seemed slow. With every different article came a new urge to lose her lunch.
JJ adjusted his tie in the mirror of his hotel room. Pope and Kiara sat on the same bed; both dressed in black from head to toe and both of them with the same depressed look of pity plastered across their faces. Kiara was staring at the stained carpet, but Pope kept his eyes fixed on JJ's in the mirror.
"She's in a better place," Pope offered.
JJ told him to shut up.
So, Pope did.
Kiara's flight and hotel room had been paid for in full by Athena's grandmother. She knew they were friends and was one of the only people that Athena actually allowed her grandmother to interact with before her passing. Plus, her grandmother had the money and the love for her baby to pay for the trip out. JJ had his flight paid for by Kiara. He promised her up, down, left, and right that he'd be giving her the money back the second he could. She would never accept it though, feeling overly guilty for the death of his girlfriend. Pope and his parents split the cost of his ticket, but his dad secretly wanted nothing more than to give him the money for the entire thing. It just wasn't rational. He didn't have the funding for that kind of thing. Pope knew it, and he appreciated the thought anyway.
It had been a week and a day since the incident. The accident. The drowning.
JJ had barely said two words.
He hadn't showered, eaten, slept, drank anything- to Kiara's knowledge, he hadn't even gone to the bathroom. JJ seemed to do one thing and one thing only; lay in bed, on his back, with the covers up to his stomach, staring at the ceiling. Kie wasn't even sure if he had blinked.
The flight was the worst.
Kiara came to pick Pope and JJ up about two hours before their specified departure. JJ and Pope had been kicking it at John B's; neither of them wanting to be alone, and JJ not wanting to be with his dad. When she knocked on the door, Pope was ready but JJ was sitting on the bed just zoned out. Pope and Kie had to pack his suitcase and basically carry him to the car. He cried the entire way through the airport. Then when they got on the plane, he put his earbuds in and pretty much pretended like he didn't exist. When the stewardess came over asking if he wanted a snack or beverage, he just looked at her funny. Kiara told the lady that he didn't speak english. That did not help.
