Now or Never ⇀ John B Routledge [1]

xxiv. if you can't hang

As the front porch of the Chateau came into view, Sarah Cameron's shoulders tensed. She knew from the moment she left her home on Figure Eight that afternoon that this 'intervention' with Kiara was going to end poorly, but the two boys' incessant begging guilted the blonde into tagging along. The last thing she wanted to do was divide the group more than it already was, but Luke and John B truly seemed to believe that they could make this work.

"Are you sure this is such a good idea?" Ashtyn nervously asked, clutching her abdomen with her left arm as they inched closer to the rundown shack. "I've got a bad feeling about this..."

She took the words right out of her best friends mouth. "Yeah, is this okay?"

Luke's grip on Sarah's hand tightened as he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but a part of him was scared to see Kiara's reaction. She'd voiced her dislike for the Cameron child numerous times to the group in the last twenty four hours, and that was without being around her... "Kie will get over it."

"She said something..." Sarah's worried brown eyes shifted from her boyfriend to where Ashtyn stood on her other side. "Didn't she?" Her question was shot down by a quick, 'no,' from both males, making the blonde even more worried than before. "Both of you are the worst liars I've ever met. What did she say, Ashtyn?"

By the time this treasure hunting shit was over, Ashtyn was sure that she'd need plastic surgery on her lips just to repair the broken skin she bit at everyday. It had become a bad habit for the girl and while she knew it was a problem, she couldn't help but do it over and over. "I'm not getting in the middle of this. Kiara and I have our own issues to deal with right now."

"We aren't lying Sarah." Luke attempted to soothe the girl, but his anxious voice convinced not one of the teens around him.

As they crossed into the back yard, the Pogue could be seen tied up at the dock while Kiara's Nissan Xterra was parked next to John's van. Everyone was there, patiently waiting for this inevitable disaster to unfold. "Look, if she's gonna get territorial..."

"Sarah, stop." Luke sighed, stepping closer to the blonde so he could hold her attention. "You're part of this too. If it wasn't for the map you gave us, we wouldn't have found the gold."

"If it wasn't for me, John B wouldn't be limping around with a cast right now." Sarah muttered back under her breath, tearing her eyes away from Luke's blue ones. "I helped, and if you still need my help in the future, I'll be there. Kie though, she's not going to be happy if you suddenly say I'm a part of this. She's going to freak out."

This time, John spoke up. "Once we get with everybody, they're going to be excited."

'No they won't.' Ashtyn kept the statement to herself, but it was the truth. The boys could act as positive as they wanted about this intervention, but the mainland girl knew their group was about to implode from it.