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— • — • — • — ꧁꧂ — • — • — • —
𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐧 — 𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑
AFTER CATCHING THEIR breaths, the Pogues piled into the Twinkie on their next adventure. Leilani had grabbed a bandaid from her car and was sitting beside JJ in the Twinkie, wrapping it around her bleeding finger. John B was driving with Kie in the front seat, Pope across from JJ and Leilani. "I mean, it's obvious, right? A family heirloom? What better place to hide a message? He had to know it was gonna get back to me, right?" John B ranted, driving the Twinkie through the Cut.
Pope let the compass hang in front of his face as Kie spoke. "Yeah. It's possible." she said, trying not to discourage John B's thoughts.
"It could also be possible that you're concocting wild theories to help, you know, deal with your sad feels." Pope said bluntly and Leilani sighed. Once her finger was bandaged she took to her hair, braiding it over her shoulder.
Kie and Leilani gave Pope the same look, annoyed that he was doing this. "Bro, you know how I process my sad feels. Dank nugs and the stickiest of ickies, that's how I do it." JJ said and Leilani grimaced.
"That's disgusting, JJ." she said as John B's words grew more passionate.
"I'm not concocting, okay? My dad's trying to give me a message. the brunette pressed.
"John B, the optomist in me wants to help you believe, but the realist needs you to understand that this could all be nothing, and this path leads to a dead end." Leilani said. She didn't want it to come as a shock to her best friend if they came up empty-handed.
"Look, I-I don't need a therapy session, okay? Look, I'm not trippin' out." John B said firmly and Leilani sighed, sitting back against her seat.
JJ shrugged. "It's okay to trip, bro—" he tried, but John B shot him down.
"Look, my—my dad is missing, okay? Missing. You don't know what it's like to have the person closest to you vanish and then have no idea what happened. Just wake up every morning wondering." John B said, disregarding the fact that Leilani did understand what it felt like, to a certain extent.
She crossed one of her legs beneath her. "You know I do, JB." Leilani said softly, eyes boring into the back of John B's head.
"No, you don't, Leila. Your mom left you, but you never knew her. There's no one for you to miss." John B said, and Leilani frowned, shifting her gaze away from him.
JJ opened his mouth to say something to John B, but Leilani nudged him with her foot, shaking her head. He was right, but it still hurt from time to time. When Leila was a kid, every time she would see a child with their mother, she would feel so left out. She never got to go visit her mother's workplace with her, or bring her to school to meet her teachers, or make her a card for Mother's Day. She missed all of it. Even now that she was older, she couldn't help but wonder what her life would've been like if her mother stayed. If she never left, if she wanted her, even just a little bit.
