𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥 ━ 𝐣𝐣 𝐨𝐛𝐱

part thirty two

hannah's pov

the blonde girl and brunette boy in front of me gave each other the same shocked and worried glance as they had multiple times before when i managed to stutter out a sentence.

"jj," john b repeated my words, "what are you- how do you.."

"can we... can we go somewhere more uh," sarah glanced around the kitchen, "more private to talk."

i nodded my head as i closed my mouth and tried to swallow, the saliva harshly scratching at my dry throat.

i walked them over to one of the offices in the house and closed the door behind me. anger immediately began to replace the shock i was feeling as my thoughts began to collect. my mind went straight to the pain jj had been through, all because of the two teens standing in front of me.

"how could you-," i breathed out, "how could you not tell them you're alive? how are you alive? do you know how worried they are about you? do you know how broken he is? i- i-" i began to gasp for air, panicking as my thoughts focused on jj.

"woah woah woah," the boy began, blinking rapidly, "i don't- how do-"

"how do you know jj?" sarah squeaked out, cutting off the stuttering boy next to her.

i took a deep breath as i reeled in my anger, realizing they were probably just as shocked and confused as i was in this moment.

"m-my dad sent me to the outer banks this summer. did he not tell you that?" i shakily said.

"so you met jj? and do you know who ki and pope are too?" the boy blurted.

"and they told you everything?" the girl asked.

"were you like friends with them?"
"how much do you know?"
"are they okay?"
"did they-"

"please," i breathed out, "stop." i closed my eyes as i tried to control my short and shallow breaths.

the two immediately clamped both of their mouths shut as they awaited for me to explain myself. i swallowed the knot in my throat as i tried to think of how to possibly start this inevitably hard conversation i was about to get myself into.

"yes i know pope and ki, and um.. and jj," i stammered. "i-i know about you both, and what happened to you two l-last summer, most of it anyways."

"i don't understand," john b mumbled, "how did you-"

"i'll-i'll answer all of your questions but can you please explain to me how you ended up here and how you aren't dead," i said.

they both gave each other a glance before returning their eyes to look at me.

"well um, i'm assuming that you know about how we escaped on a boat in the middle of a storm," the girl began. "and i guess if you heard this from jj then you must've thought we were dead but uh.. surprise!"

i scoffed at the blonde's words, not sure how they could joke about something like that. they must not realize how much distress their friends are in back home.

"we survived the storm after our boat flipped and we were picked up by a cargo ship. we told them to drop us off at whatever port they were going to and so we ended up in nassau," she continued.

"so how did you end up with my dad?" i asked.

"well we tried to live in hiding for a while," john b began to explain, "but we're 17, we realized we had our whole future ahead of us and we were just so.. lost."

"we had nothing. we were sleeping in a stolen tent, living off of stolen food," the girl explained. "we never wanted to go to the police because of what happened at home but at a point living like that... it just.. it just becomes scary."

my stomach lurched as i thought about the two scavenging for food and living in the streets. even though this was the first time i had met the two, it was like i already knew them from the amount of stories that kiara, pope and jj had told me.

"so we went to the police," john b muttered. "we looked an absolute mess, like we had come right out of a swamp. they asked a lot of questions that we didn't answer so they brought in a specialist from foster care who happened to be your father."

"he brought us to a building that holds kids temporarily, and questioned us for a week without getting any answers out of us," sarah continued, for the boy. "we hadn't really thought out that if we went to get help they would need to know about our past.

"after a lot of digging your dad found john b's case in the foster care system in outer banks. he did some more research to find his criminal record in the town, and basically uncovered everything we were trying to hide," she said.

"and at the point we were like, the gig is up, you know," john b shrugged as he glanced over at the girl. sarah sighed as her eyes met his and the look they shared gave me butterflies in my stomach. i could tell they were in love just by that, because it reminded me of the way i used to look at jj.

"we stayed at that temporary home for months as we began to trust your dad more and fill him in on the gaps in our past," the boy continued. "your dad is like some kind of god in the field of foster care, nothing like anyone i ever had to deal with back home.

"he worked on our cases and began to try and find ways to clear our names with the authorities in our hometown," john b went on to explain. "and he did just that, he cleared all of the charges i still had against me."

"but that doesn't make sense, your file in the sheriff's office said you were presumed dead," i blurted out, not realizing how it would sound to the two. they both widened their eyes at my words, giving me confused glances.

"how did you read his police file?" sarah pressed.

"definitely jj's idea," john b mumbled under his breath, the corners of his mouth turning upward slightly.

"uh i'll explain that.." i trailed off. "but finish your story first."

"your dad cleared my name while managing to convince the sheriff's department to leave no traces of my current situation," he clarified. "so then your dad helped us decide what our next move would be. we ultimately came to the conclusion that we would live in the foster house until we were 18 which would let us be free from the foster program and live as adults."

"but just as we thought everything had settled.. you came into the mix," sarah said.

"wha-," i faltered, "me?"

"you found our gold," john b said as he crossed his arms in front of his chest and smiled.