𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 𝐖𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐒; jj maybank ² [𝐎𝐍 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐃]

XIV. no woman no cry

— ⚓︎ ⚓︎ ⚓︎ —

   OAKLEY'S HEAD SWIVELS AROUND like a criminal's would if they were to be caught red-handed. Her hands immediately fist the bag and her eyes wish to be deceived. The voice had been familiar, a little too familiar for a girl's personal liking, and the golden-haired teen proves to be right when she once swore that she would always recognize JJ's voice even if it was from miles away. This time, she wished she would've gotten it mistaken for once, she wished that she was wrong for the first time in her life. But she's not, and when the ocean of his eyes meets the sky of hers, they both feel their hearts fall to their stomachs.

He fears that the only relation to his girlfriend walking away from his father's drug dealer's house with a pill bottle in hand and a black bag hanging from her finger is the very obvious one.

   Kie, Pope and JJ suddenly pile out of the truck, looking at the girl in confusion, "What are you doing here?" JJ asks as they walk towards her.

   The girl is notoriously nervous, eyes bouncing between their gazes and hands shakily clenching around the bag, futilely trying to hide it, "I, uh. . . I was on my way to the Château," she says, which is partly true, and they'd believe her if it wasn't for the evident erratic tremble in her raspy voice.

   "We were just coming back from there," Pope says, his gaze glancing up and down from her eyes to the bag gripped in her fist, "What was that right now? Did you take a pill?" He asks, finger pointing unsurely.

With a shake of her head, she releases a breath and rubs her eyes, looking down and stuttering over her own words. She looks at the bag and sniffles, eyes blinking tightly and looking unfocused.

   "Oh, no. No, this isn't, like, LSD or anything," she chuckles emptily, but her laughter dies into a gulp.

   "What is it then?" Kie raises her eyebrows expectantly.

   "Uh, meprobamate. . ."

"Oak, what the fuck?" Kie's eyebrows furrow.

   "No, these are my anxiety pills. Look," she shows them the bottle, hand trembling so intensely Pope has to grab it steady to read the labeling, only for his eyes to widen at the dosage.

   "You stopped taking these a year ago. Plus, this shit is double your dosage," he looks up at her and she scratches her neck anxiously.

   "I- I don't know. They- they increased it, I think," she shrugs and she hears JJ suddenly huff.

Before she can look up at him, he's taking the black bag from her hands, prying it open to find the other two pill bottles and taking them out. Oakley's stomach somersaults at the way his face falls and his eyes so slowly rise to meet her guilty face. As soon as his gaze locks with hers she's incapable of maintaining eye contact and looks down, fingers fiddling with each other.