𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 ━ 𝐣𝐣 𝐨𝐛𝐱

part thirty three

"john b pullin' a houdini," jj said as he approached pope and looked around for riley. just as he was about to ask where the girl had gone, something else caught his eye. "speak of the devil - hey!" jj called and everyone followed his gaze to where john b was heading into the chateau with his head hung low.

"hey, john b-" kie called out after realizing that he wasn't stopping his fast strides towards the house. the three pogues walked quickly inside the chateau to follow their friend.

riley was considering leaving before she heard loud sounds radiate from inside the house. waiting only another minute or so in the backyard, riley heard yelling from the front and quickly ran over to see what was going on.

"ward knows about the gold," john b screamed, his voice hoarse. "and he killed my dad." the boy sped off quickly after that and riley snapped her head towards the direction of the others. jj was already looking at her, his brows knitted together and his lips in a tight line. she could see him swallow hard as they all stood their motionless, unsure of what their next move should be.

riley was extremely quiet the entire way that the pogues travelled to the cameron's house. she didn't even having the courage to glance over at jj; having a tightness in her chest while replaying his words over and over in her head. riley didn't know if she was only overthinking, but she couldn't stop herself from continuing to do so. riley had wanted to leave but considering everything going on with john b, she didn't want to cause anymore trouble.

it was dark by the time the group had parked the boat outside of the cameron's. "what now?" jj asked. "we just go up to the front door and ask, hey have you seen john b?"

"look he lives at tannyhill now. it's plausible," kiara shrugged, her hair blowing over her face due to the summer wind. "we can play dumb?"

"it's pretty late," pope said. riley knew he was anxious about the scholarship interview tomorrow; meanwhile she wished she could just forget about it all together.

suddenly pope gasped, peering threw the binoculars he held up to his eyes. "i see ward."

"let me see," kiara demanded, grabbing at the binoculars and pressing them to her face.

"doesn't look dead to me. let's go home," pope tried to reason with the teens.

"wait?"

"what?"

"uh.. okay. obviously mr cameron is fine, and even if john b was here, he isn't now," pope explained, growing increasingly frustrated. "plus, i have the biggest most important moment of my life in six hours. and so does she!" pope pointed at riley who sat on the bow picking at the skin around her nails, not even bothering to lift her her head up at his comment.

"okay, so that's it?" kiara snapped. "our friend is in trouble. in a time of need, you're just gonna bail? you're just gonna walk away?"

"okay, yo, guys, can we not do this right now?" jj huffed in distress, taking his hat off to run a hand through his hair.