Loving from afar - JJPope

Seven

"Seriously?" Pope drones out, head falling backward slightly to accentuate his boredom. "You dragged me out of bed on a sunday morning to take me shopping for new clothes?"

Kiara and Cleo pause mid step from their placement in front of the male, raising their brows and nodding. "No shit, sherlock." Mocks Cleo, holding up a shirt against Pope's front and screwing up their face. "Mm.. not your colour."

Rolling his eyes, Pope drags his hands down his face. "What's wrong with the clothes I have now, anyways?"

A cackle escapes cleo's lips, before their eyes are meeting Pope's and they purse their lips. "Oh, you're being serious."

"There's nothing wrong per say with your clothes," Kiara buts in, elbowing Cleo sharply. "We just thought you could do with shirts that didn't just have things about.. Space.. On them."

Pope's face washes over with slight offence.

"Sorry, man." Cleo says, patting his shoulder. "But you seriously need to stop with those shirts. You're a nerd, we get it."

"You're a dick, you know that?" Replies Pope, rolling his eyes, but giving in.

Cleo smiles. "You know I'm right."

After that, Pope has no idea how long he spends allowing the two to drag him around the small mall in the middle of the town, in and out of stores he had never even looked in before until, finally, Kiara requests a food break. Pope gravitates away from the couple to grab something different for lunch, humming a rhythm under his breath, only to get distracted by the sight he sees out of one of the many windows.

A familiar head of blonde locks appears from out of the library across the street, carrying a young boy on his hip and holding the girl beside him hand with his free one. They seemed like they were making their way back home, far away from the mall and far away from Pope's eyes.

He had been desperate to talk with JJ for awhile now, but every time he messaged, JJ never seemed to respond let alone actually look at the message. Had Pope done something wrong? Said something condescending or rude?

Before he can stop himself, Pope is making his way out of the main doors and towards JJ who was walking at a relatively slow pace, having half the mind to just run at him and probably scare the living shit out of him.

"JJ!" Shouts Pope, walking faster and faster with each step to not allow those blonde locks to disappear from his sight.

JJ pauses mid step, turning on his heel, and his face almost seems to pale at the sight of Pope heading towards him. "Oh, hey." he says, clearing his throat and pulling on a smile. "I didn't even see you."

"I was in the mall," pope explains, coming to a stop and smiling warmly. "How are you? I haven't heard from you all week, did my messages not send?"

"Oh." JJ's face falls, and if Pope knew any better he would have thought JJ was trying to come up with a lie. "My.. My phone broke, I must've forgotten to tell you."

Pope's mouth drops into a small 'o' shape. "Right, right. How are you anyway?"

"I'm good, yeah. Good. You?"

The conversation feels easy, but for some reason, JJ seems hesitant. He's keeping a distance between them that was not there before. Refusing to make eye contact and holding his siblings tighter to his body. It almost felt like JJ was afraid of him and Pope didn't like that. He didn't like that at all.

"Is everything okay-" Pope goes to ask when the chime of JJ's phone cuts him off.

JJ doesn't make any effort to grab the device out and respond, seems panicked almost, and looks to Pope in silent request to continue his question, when that same chiming sound appears again. Then again and again and again to the point JJ is borderline shaking, almost dropping the young boy in his arms in the process of trying to retrieve the phone from his back pocket.