Did you mean it?

Waking Nightmare

Call it a lesson when I feel you slide away
And I'm missing out on half my life
-5 Seconds of summer

"Oh shit," Sarah says as JJ sprints off in the direction she told him Kiara went. She watched him disappear into the crowd as the rest of them sat around the fire.

Tension was starting to form as Pope and John B gave knowing glances and appeared to be in a silent conversation before John B vocalized the resolution.

"Fuck," John B said, "we should probably go get him. If Kie's with someone--"

"She's not," Sarah blurts. Sarah was only joking when she asked JJ if he would be mad if Kiara was with another guy. She thought that he would smirk, flip her off, roll his eyes. She knew he liked Kiara, she had a suspicion it could be more. Sarah did not expect the absolute panic that she saw in his face. "I was just kidding," Sarah said.

"Thank God," Pope said leaning against the log.

"Crisis averted," John B laughed, immediately relieved.

Sarah had a sinking feeling in her gut. She had good intuition and right now it was not feeling the relief that John B and Pope shared.

Sure enough, her gut was never wrong. She watched JJ walk back to the Boneyard from the main road. He didn't join the rest of the Pogues and Kiara wasn't with him. Sarah's eyes tracked him heading to the keg and filling a drink. He quickly downed it, not caring that some spilt out the sides as he forced the nearly full cup to be emptied in one swig.

Another Pogue they were familiar with looked JJ up and down as he watched JJ finish another drink. He must have recognized something in JJ's face that Sarah couldn't see from the distance she was at. The Pogue, Connor, turned to the cooler he was standing next to and pulled out a bottle of liquor. He extended the bottle to JJ and he grabbed it immediately, untwisting the cap and taking a long drink.

Sarah's eyes bulged. Crap. Whatever happened it was clear it didn't go well. Sarah checked her phone and looked for Kie's contact. Kie always took care of JJ when he got wasted. She knew how to get him to slow down or stop completely. Was always able to lead him back to the chateau or Twinkie. There weren't many people that JJ listened to and the night was very much still young. If he kept going at this pace Sarah knew it wouldn't be good.

Sarah bit her lip as her thumb hovered over the call button. She hesitated, realizing that the one person that could reign in this situation could very well be the reason that he was acting this way. Not that JJ's behaviors were Kiara's fault, he made his own decisions and that was on him. But if JJ was this upset then Kiara was also probably on the brink and she wouldn't be able to manage him this time.

Sarah moved to the send message button and texted Kiara.

Sarah: Hey, just checking to make sure you got home okay.
Kie: I made it, thanks for checking in.

Sarah resists the urge to ask about JJ. Not a text conversation and she really didn't have time for it. She spotted JJ doing a keg stand. This is going to be a long night. Sarah groaned. Babysitting JJ was not on her bucket list.

Sarah turned to John B, "What do we do?"

"About what?"

"About JJ, he's going pretty hard," Sarah said nodding her head in JJ's direction but not looking away from John B.

John B looked over her shoulder and saw JJ coming down from a keg stand.

"Ahhhhhh to be honest, I'm not sure we can do much," he said regretfully.