𝚋𝚘𝚛𝚗 𝚒𝚗𝚗𝚘𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚝 {𝚓𝚓 𝚖𝚊𝚢𝚋𝚊𝚗𝚔}

𝚜.𝟷 𝚎𝚙.𝟷𝟶 -𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚎𝚎-

"so hold your applause until the end, and wait for the sadness to set in / because that's the only feeling that's worth a damn."

~

When at last, JJ stirred and turned to walk back, Tate followed him. She looked over her shoulder to see if Kiara and Pope were following, but they were standing side by side, a sort of companionable silence between them. Tate shrugged and turned back to follow JJ. "Are you okay?" she asked, taking JJ's hand and turning him around to look at her. "Like- with everything."

JJ shrugged. "I don't know, man, I- yeah... I don't know."

"I know." Tate nodded and reached out to pull JJ into her arms. "I know."

"This sucks," he muttered into the crook of her neck.

It was the understatement of the century. Tate couldn't help laughing a little just out of pure irony but she hugged JJ even tighter at the same time. When at last she let him go, they both turned to check on Pope and Kiara. They were wrapped up in each other's arms, entangled in an intense lip-lock. "Jesus," Tate snorted, leaning back into JJ's chest and rubbing her eyes, so tired she thought she might fall over on the spot.

"Hey guys, I'm sorry to ruin the party, but, uh, we gotta go right now," said JJ, wrapping an arm around Tate's stomach from behind and pulling her closer to him. They stood like that until Kiara and Pope caught up to them, then Tate turned to lead the way to a place that would be less suspicious.

They didn't get far. Tate made it about three steps back the way they came before a siren whooped and a cop car appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Kiara, Pope, and Tate froze and JJ took a step forward so he was standing in front of Tate, shielding her. Shoupe and a few other officers stepped out of the cop car, looking angry, and Tate instinctively put her hands in the air in surrender. "Move. Hands up! Hands up!" a man Tate had never seen before said, pointing a gun at the four teenagers.

"We're too late," said Shoupe. "He's gone. Goddammit! Have your men stand down! Let me talk to these kids." Shoupe turned to address JJ directly. "Alright, where the hell is he?" JJ stayed silent. "JJ? I see you're livin' up to your name." Tate's temper snapped and she stepped forward in anger, ready to take on the Deputy Sheriff without a second thought, but before she could get there, JJ put out an arm and pushed her back.

"Stop, stop, stop," he murmured. "It's fine, let it go."

Shoupe watched them with raised eyebrows, not seeing Tate as much of a threat. This only made her angrier. "You too, Johnson," said Shoupe. "Your dad never could handle his anger- must've got him in jail at least a half a dozen times. Seems like you're living up to the name." Tate's eyes blazed with fire and she gritted her teeth, but she stood down at one look from JJ. It wasn't worth it to fight this. Shoupe raised his eyebrows at her, then moved on. "Pope, how about you? This isn't a fucking game! You can do the right thing now! Where'd he go?" Pope didn't answer. All four remaining Pogues stood in seething silence, waiting for the storm to blow over. "Alright then," said Shoupe, "If nobody's willing to give me an answer, I'll just take you all in for individual questioning. Let's go."