{ LIVING THE POGUE LIFE }

{12}

Brie couldn't sleep. She lay on the sofa for hours until she realised that sleep was never going to find her. She walked out onto the porch and stared up at the sky; the night was cool and clear so you could see the hundreds of stars glittering against the deep blue.

She had always been amazed by the stars. She used to lay and watch them for hours from the roof of her old house. She had an attic room, with a window that lead right out onto the roof. She'd lost count of how many times her parents had told her not to mess around on the roof. Of course, she never listened.

She stepped onto the grass, the grass tickling her bare feet, but she welcomed the feeling with a small smile on her face. She walked a few minutes away from the house and slowly lay down, blades of grass prodding her uncovered arms and legs.

Goosebumps covered her skin from the icy chill of the night as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, reminiscing on all that had happened the past few days. Everything had been so crazy. And now the compass?

There was something big going on here. A missing dude's compass that people had tried to kill them to get a hold of on the submerged wreck that belonged to a broke, dead guy who mysteriously had thousands of dollars and a loaded gun in the safe of a motel room? No way there wasn't a connection. She just couldn't figure out what that connection could possibly be.

She tried to clear her head from all of that for just a few minutes, willing herself to just forget about the rest of the world. She watched the stars and eventually let her mind drift to JJ as it always seemed to. The ghost of a smile appeared on her lips.

The night they spent together was...unforgettable. No one had ever kissed her like that before. The way that she felt when he held her in his arms was indescribable. She so badly wanted it to happen again.

But she knew that she'd found an amazing group of friends here. A family. She couldn't compromise that. No matter how much she wanted to have something more with JJ, she also didn't want anything to change.

Her eyes drifted across the sky, picking out all of the constellations she could remember until she was took tired to keep her eyes open any longer. She focused instead on the sounds around her; the crickets, an owl, the soft breeze rustling the trees. It was so peaceful.

At some point she must have been able to finally fall asleep because she woke up, still laying on the grass, with the morning sun shining down on her. She smiled to herself and sighed deeply, stretching her arms above her head as a shiver ran through her.

"Brie!"

It was John B yelling for her from the house, probably wondering where they hell she had gone in the middle of the night. She laughed to herself quietly. He was such a big brother to her, and she loved that.

She blinked to try and wake herself, but it was proving difficult in the sleepy warmth of the sunshine. She stretched out on the grass and sighed, her face warming in the light shining down onto her.

She looked down at her pathetic outfit of grey shorts and a small white vest top. Her legs were damp with the early morning dew that covered the grass, covering her skin in goosebumps.

"Brie! Where the fuck are you?"

Her heart jumped a beat before she let out a smile as she recognised the voice. JJ's voice.

"She might have just gone to the store, man," John B reasoned, "Or had a shift at the restaurant. I think I remember her saying she had one today."

Oh shit. She'd forgotten about that, although it wasn't until this afternoon. She preferred the later shifts. They were quiet and had less stupid teenage boys that tried to flirt with her and stare at her as she worked. Sometimes even old men. Gross.