CHAPTER SIXTEENTHE LOUVRE — LORDE
Blow all my friendships
To sit in hell with youAT TWO O'CLOCK in the morning, Emma Marx found herself wide awake, waiting for her daughter to return home. She was usually very lenient when it came to Stella's curfew during the the summer months, but tonight, her motherly instincts were setting in.
The urgency in Stella's voice and the way JJ demanded an emergency meeting told her that they were hiding something. While she trusted her daughter and the fact that she helped raised her friends to have a good sense of judgement, she knew there was something different about tonight.
The older woman expected to give her daughter an interrogation and a lecture about maintaining their image as soon as she walked through the door, but what she didn't expect was four dejected teens drudging through her door with tear stained cheeks.
"Stella?" Emma questioned with furrowed brows as the girl entered the foyer.
In front of her stood her daughter, JJ, Pope, and Kiara. She got a better look at their sad expressions and rushed over to them, placing a hand on Stella and JJ's cheeks. "What happened?"
"John B's in the hospital," Stella sniffled. "He, uh... Topper pushed him off of Hawk's Nest."
"What?" Emma gasped, her eyes darting over the quartet. "What were you kids even doing at Hawk's Nest? It's the middle of the night! Oh my god, is he gonna be alright?"
"We don't know," JJ said quietly, placing his hand on the small of Stella's back.
"Uh, I think— Um," Stella stammered, obviously shaken up by the night's events. "I think he might've broken his arm, it was all swollen... And I-I tried to help, but—" Her words caught in her throat and her eyes glossed over. "It was a bad fall, Mom. It was a really bad fall."
Though Emma was proud of her daughter for stepping in to help her honorary brother, her maternal instincts were overpowering her doctoral ones. Before the first tear could fall, Stella was already pulled into a hug. "Sh..." she soothed, rubbing her back. "It's okay. You did what you could and that's what matters."
Emma looked at the other teens over Stella's shoulder. Pope was staring at the ground, Kiara was wiping her tears away, and JJ was staring longingly at Stella. Without a word, Emma opened her arms back up and like a magnet attracting small bits of metal, the others gravitated to her and joined the hug.
After the group pulled away, they were ushered to the stairs. "Go get some rest. You've had a long night," Emma said as she lead them to the base of the staircase. "You can all sleep in Stella's room if you want, but if not, you can take your usual guest rooms. I'm pretty sure you left some clothes here last time you guys stayed over." The four teenagers started heading up the stairs, quietly giving thanks to the woman.
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𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐍 | jj maybank
Fanfiction𝙄 𝙆𝙉𝙊𝙒 𝙔𝙊𝙐 𝙒𝙀𝙍𝙀 𝙒𝘼𝙔 𝙏𝙊𝙊 𝘽𝙍𝙄𝙂𝙃𝙏 𝙁𝙊𝙍 𝙈𝙀. If Stella and her friends knew what they were getting into when they stumbled upon a sunken shipwreck, they probably would've brushed up on their treasure hunting skills. season 1...