𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐨𝐲

XXI. Your Girlfriend.

     

     AS POPE looked through some stuff about the key, with JJ helping him, well, by helping him, as in having a beer and bugging him, Sarah and John B were off at the hammock, just relaxing together while Kie asked Jake if they could talk, so there they were, sitting at the dock, staring at the water.

"So, what was it? That you wanted to talk about?" Jake looked over at her and she just looked over at him. "My mom sort of kicked me out." She said and he just stared at her. "Do... do you wanna stay at my place?" He asks quietly and she quickly shook her head. "No, you already have so much going on, that's okay." She smiled at him.

He nods, glancing away. It probably wouldn't be good anyway, what if Olivia came around again and was spewing more of that love nonsense she kind of unloaded onto Jake just yesterday. "Jake?" She says and he looks over at her, nodding. "Yeah?" He says.

"Am... I your girlfriend, like officially?" She asked suddenly, staring at him as he just looked away, unsure of what to say. "Oh, my God, I knew it. I was in over my head about us." The girl said as she looked away, shaking her head softly as Jake looked at her right away, reaching over to take her hand in his. "Kie... I never wanted you to feel pressured about us. About any of it, about us being boyfriend and girlfriend, because I didn't wanna scare you away." He explains.

She looked at their hands then looked up at him, frowning slightly. "I'd never be scared away." She says and he just nods. "I just didn't want you to feel pressured about Evie either." He says and she just smiled. "I love Evie, Jake. I'd never run screaming for the hills just because you have a daughter." She said and he nods, glancing down at their hands.

Kie is softly rubbing the back of his hand with her thumb. "I mean it when I said I like you. Like... I really like you. And that's not really something I normally feel about just anyone... you know?" She said and he glanced away, towards where the Chateau is. Yeah, she's turned down John B, Pope, even JJ, multiple times before the other two.

Why is he doubting himself? He looks back at Kie to see her staring at him with that same look in her eyes that she always has. "Olivia... was there. When I went to my grandma's." He feels a bit bad, seeing the way the light in Kie's eyes falter, the girl looking away.

"Oh." She said, now she was expecting something even worse to come next, like maybe that they hooked up last night, or decided to get back together, or something, looking at him with a questioning gaze. "She agreed to shared custody." He says and she smiles. "Really?" She asked and he nodded. "That's great, Jay... is there anything else that happened?" She then asked, curiously.

Because I love you. "No. Nothing else." Jake says, smiling and she nods, glancing down. "So... are you-- I mean, are we--" "boyfriend and girlfriend?" Jake cut her off and she chuckled, squeezing his hand in hers. "Can't believe I let you go all the way with me before you even asked." He teased, making her look up at him with a slight blush on her face, then he nods his head with a grin on his face.

She scrunched up her nose, "yeah, my bad." She laughs, the  she leaned in, closing the space between them with a small kiss. She leaned away, staring into his eyes with a small smile, "your eyes look nice." She says and he just chuckled, feeling his face get warm. He's not really used to compliments.

Olivia used to do that all the time, call his eyes beautiful, play with his hair and say it was really soft, or even touch his arms and say he's really muscular. Woah, why the hell is he thinking about her right now? "Thanks... you have really cute eyes." He tells Kie, smiling and she just giggled, leaning in again.

She kissed him, she kisses him in a way that's different from how he's been kissed before, like she can't get enough of it. And she couldn't, her hand softly cupping his face as she kept deepening their kiss. "Yo, lovebirds!" JJ shouted towards them, the two parting quickly to look over at him. "We gotta go!"

As the group loaded up into the van, JJ explains the phone call he got about Pope's dad to John B, Sarah, Kie and Jake, so now they were on their way to there as fast as they could. Once they arrived, Sarah immediately offers to help Pope's dad when the group of teens saw the state of the man.

"Let me know if I'm hurting you." Sarah tells the man as she's attaching a bandaid to his wound. "You're doing just fine." Heyward says, groaning softly. "Thank you, darling." He says as she pats his shoulder gently. "Pop, what happened?" Pope asked his father worriedly.

"Oh, I should've known better. He came in just as I was about to lock up. Caught me by surprise. Once he had me down, he put his knee in my chest, and he asked me about that--that key from that... that drawing you showed me." The man explains to his son, who looked away. "And in case you were wondering, I ain't tell him nothing." He then clarified.

He glanced around at the other teens before looking at his son again. "Now, did you track it down?" He asked the boy, who just reached into his pocket and held out the key. "I found it in Mee-maw's old apartment above the pharmacy just like you said." Pope tells his father who just stared at the key. "Shit, boy, you should've gave this to me. I wouldn't have had to take a beating." He looks at Pope.

"What's the big deal? It ain't worth anything. Why they want it so bad?" The man now asked, glancing at the two girls sitting on the table. "I don't know. First, I get this letter telling me that I need to go to Charleston. And then I meet a rich lady who wants me to give her a key that I didn't even know was in my family." Pope explains to the man. "None of it makes any sense." Kie spoke up, staring at the key and the Heyward looked over at him.

"Well, don't ya'll just sit here whining about it. Figure it out!" He says, looking over at Pope. "No. I'm just gonna give the key to that lady. It's not worth--" "no, no, no. Did I raise you to back down from a fight, boy?" Heyward cut off his son right away, raising a hand.

"No, sir." The younger of the Heyward men says. "Alright." Pope's father nods before looking down. "Now, I--I didn't think about it before. I admit that. But now..." He says then he pointed towards the bandaid on his forehead that Sarah put on him. "Now?" He glanced at the girls. "I'm interested." He says, looking back at his son. "Well, did they say why they want it?" He asked the teenager.

"Something about an old cross. I think it might be some kind of lost treasure." Pope explains and the man leans forward. "You know who you should talk to?" He asked, holding up the key. "Your great-grandmother, Mee-maw." He says as Pope just looked at him. He glanced at the key then looked at his father.

 

authors note
i've prewritten so much for this fic. lol

+ nearly 2 hours behind. but here's an update and i will try and update on time tmrw like at 7, i'll even do reminders 👍