——

It started off small.

Emelina hadn't known what she had done, but she found it odd when JJ started to touch her less. No handholding, no hand on her thigh, no arm around her shoulders. She noticed right away.

It started getting progressively worse in a short matter of time. Because now, he wasn't kissing her the way he used to... until it led to no kisses.

Her window at night received zero knocks, no matter how long she stayed up to hear it. He was John B's and seemed to have a valid reason every time.

"It's getting late. I think I'm gonna head on out." Emelina announced, growing tired of researching where the island room might be. Her eyes landed on JJ, silently pleading he would offer to join her. He didn't look her way.

"Okay. I'll be there later." Kiara told her, taking a sip of her soda can while nonchalantly tapping JJ with her foot as she passed him. He looked at her weirdly before glancing at Emelina, "Uh, night, Em."

Her lips turned flat. "Night."

She turned around and left abruptly. Her car keys were tightly wrapped around her hand as she made her way over to her car. If she wasn't unexpectedly crying, maybe she could've heard the porch door open and shut and had enough time to stop the tears from flowing.

"Hey, Em, you good?" She heard his voice and stopped dead in her tracks. "Yeah, JJ. I'm just going home," she replied, opening the front door of her car and was internally thankful for her back facing him.

His hand grasped onto her shoulder and spun her around before she could enter the vehicle. She looked down, trying to hide her tears but he saw them and wiped them away. She backed away from his touch. "Goodnight, JJ."

"What's wrong?" he asked, dropping his hands down to his sides. She squinted her eyes at him, "Like you don't know."

There was a look in his eyes—as if he was aware of his actions. His upcoming words, however, revealed the opposite. "I don't, actually. All I said was night."

"That's right. That's all you did."

"What are you talking about?" He ran his tongue on his bottom lip, fixating her red cap as she rolled her eyes at the question. "I'm talking about you becoming so distant. I mean, you haven't stopped by my house since my birthday... and now? You barely look at me."

JJ looked away for a moment. "I've got my head wrapped around this island room shit, Em. What do you want me to do? Go home with you?"

"No," Emelina answered, "I don't want anything to do with you right now. Just go back inside."

He took a step back and scoffed. "You kiddin' me? That's it?"

She was ready to go in her car and cry the night away until he begged for her forgiveness in the morning, but she had to ask. "Are you all in or not?"

"What?"

"Are you?"

It was quiet—too quiet. It shouldn't take this long to answer, but it did. "I'm not so sure anymore," he replied shortly after. If she looked long enough, she would see the hurt flashed in his eyes but he was quick to mask it.

It was her turn to be quiet. Her whole body froze, eyes starting to become glassy as she stared at him and she felt like if she would move, a breakdown would occur.

Emelina could only do one thing and that was to reach behind her neck and unclasp the necklace he had given her. Her voice broke as she spoke, "This was your way of showing me how important I am to you, but lately I don't feel that way anymore."

Her arm extended to hand back the necklace. It dangled in the air as he stared at it. He had his own tears falling at the sight of it. "You promised you wouldn't take it off."

"Yeah, well, I guess we both made promises we couldn't keep," Emelina said, the necklace still hanging. She was bluffing. She hoped he would catch on. He normally would. He always won that game, but this time he fed right into it.

He took it. Turned around and went inside the house without another word.

§

All she could do was sit on the bench next to her window and stare outside. For three days she sat there. Replaying that night over and over again. Overanalyzing every moment that led up to that. Her mind grew blank at any possible reason.

Her bedroom door was locked. Kiara knocked and knocked for answers. Emelina gave her nothing because she wasn't sure what to say.

Her mother was gone all week. Said something along the lines of being with Charles on the mainland and will be home soon.

Emelina was glad she could be alone to dwell in her own thoughts.

And here she was, alone with nothing but a wine bottle she stole from the basement strictly used for parties. Some of the slots were empty now, but she didn't care. The consequences were for another day.

She knew it was wrong but she needed to feel the numbness. To get rid of the thought of him. And while she avoided thinking about him, she started to think of her friends and how she abandoned them without an explanation.

Then guilt consumed her. Guilt was better than hurt. Emelina stared at the car keys on her nightstand, then decided against it and instead left her bedroom with the bottle in hand in preparation for walking to her new destination.

Figure 8 to The Cut would take a while to walk by foot, but she was determined. It gave her more time to take sips of the red wine. She was lucky it was nighttime.

More than halfway to John B's house, she stumbled on her feet and fell to the ground. The glass bottle shattered and her palm pressed down on it, cutting her flesh and she hissed at the sight of it. "Fuck..." she muttered, frowning at the red liquid that flowed out of the broken bottle.

Emelina left the bottle there and continued her mission to the house. Eventually, she did. Yellow light emitted from the windows of the Chateau when it came to view. She wasn't sure how she got there in one piece.

Through her blurry teary vision, she noticed a certain bike was nowhere to be found and it brought her enough courage to walk to the porch. She was in no way shape or form ready to speak to him yet.

She held her breath when wiping away her tears, fearing taking another wave of air would trigger the waterworks. Her face felt puffy against her fingertips and her throat felt rough and scratchy from all the crying.

Nevertheless, she spoke as she entered the home. "Pope, I came to say I am sorry."

All three heads quit their card game to pay attention to the intruder. They sat on the floor, cards displayed on the coffee table that was moved to the middle of the room to make room for their seating. Kiara widened her eyes, "Emelina! How'd you get here? I didn't hear a car."

"I walked," she replied. Pope stood up and quirked an eyebrow at the brunette. "Why are you apologizing to me?"

"'Cause I'm being selfish?" Her voice cracked, so she took a sharp breath in, "Your key... the key. We need it back and find the cross before they do..." Panic filled her eyes upon realization, "Oh, what if they found it because of the delay? What if—"

Pope put his hands on her shoulders and shook her gently. "Are you alright?! What are you talking about?"

"What? The key..." Emelina said, noticing John B getting up as well to examine her. "Lina, have you been drinking?" he asked her.

She turned her body quickly, feeling Pope's touch discard her skin. "Who cares? We have to find the cross. Is there anything you found in the past few days? The island room?"

Kiara was in front of her in seconds and Emelina saw the look in her eyes. "Don't," she warned her, but Kiara refused to listen and pulled her in for an embrace. A simple hug could break her.

Emelina stood there motionless, forcing the numb feeling to continue to surround her body. It was until Kiara whispered, "You're okay. Everything's gonna be okay," that made her break down into tears again.

She cried into her shoulder, holding onto her friend for dear life like she would be left alone. "I just don't know what I did, Kie." she sobbed, suddenly feeling a pair of arms wrap around her body from behind. John B went on the opposite side and hugged Kiara to join in on the group hug.

They stood there for a few minutes. In complete silence beside the sounds of choked sobs. John B pulled away first, then grabbed Emelina's hand that rested on Kiara's back. "You're bleeding."

"Yeah," Emelina sniffled and retracted her red hand from him, "I fell on the way here. It doesn't hurt."

It wasn't enough to soothe their concerns when all three of them drag her into the kitchen to sort it out. John B shoved her hand under the sink water. "It's cold!"

"It takes a second to warm up," he explained. Emelina was quiet until she looked at him, "It's been a second. It's still cold."

He glared at her, pulling her hand back near his face to look at it. Kiara asked, "What did you cut it on? There was a lot of blood."

"Glass."

"Glass? Really?" Kiara deadpanned and used the flashlight of her phone to shine it on her skin. "Pope, go check if there are glass particles and maybe take them out."

"Why me?" he asked while pointing to himself in question. Kiara tapped her foot impatiently, "Don't you want to do this as a career?"

"Uh, I want to be a coroner. As in dead bodies. She looks pretty much alive to me." Pope said to her and Emelina was quick to insert herself, "I feel dead inside."

All eyes snap toward her direction with sympathetic looks. "Dude, we gotta sober you up," John B breathed out and opened his refrigerator and started to dig through it. "I got, uh, bread?"

Kiara poked around the cut on her palm, watching for any reaction on Emelina's face but none came. "Does it hurt?"

"No."

"Jesus, E." Kiara sighed. Pope and her patch up her hand, grateful that the cut was not deep enough for stitches and no glass remained inside. Emelina only giggled. John B worked making her some coffee and putting the plain bread slices on a plate.

They managed to keep a small conversation going in the small kitchen, but Emelina remained quiet and stared out the window while she sat on the countertop. If she focused on one thing, she wouldn't have to think about him.

Where was he? No... Emelina switched her gaze to focus on another thing and shut him out completely. But his bike was not parked outside. Where else could he be?

He always occupied her head.

"...I mean, nothing is working out nowadays. No relationships," Pope rambled on and John B peaked his head over the cabinet door to glare at him. Kiara swallowed thickly, continuing to keep her attention focused on aiding her friend's hand. "You gotta work it out, at least. You guys are like the moral center of the universe. You're JJ and Emelina."

"Some things just aren't meant to be, Pope," she said to him nonchalantly.

John B was able to snap her out of her racing mind by shoving the plate on her lap. He offered a crooked smile, "We only have peanut butter, so eat up."

"No, thanks." She pushed the plate back, ignoring his frown and furrowed eyebrows. Being sober was not on her agenda tonight. She hated feeling.

Kiara finished wrapping the white bandage on her hand and glanced up at her with a disapproving look. "Eat it. Don't make me shove it down your throat."

"Please," Emelina begged, "I don't want to think about him."

The three of them shared a look, knowing something she didn't. She quickly noticed, "What?"

John B disregarded her question, pushing the plate back over to her and eventually the hot coffee in a mug. "C'mon, Lina. Just eat."

"No. Not until you tell me what's going on," she said and hopped off of the counter. She stumbled into the wall on her way back into the living room. Pope was quick to help guide her to the couch. "Just sit there and don't move, okay?"

Emelina leaned into the cushion, watching Pope walk back into the kitchen to have a small talk with the others. Her ears couldn't pick up their hushed words, so her eyes moved around the house.

They landed on a vase. More specifically the vase that once held the beautiful flowers JJ got her at school. Now they laid lifelessly in there. Once standing up straight soaking up the sunlight now hang off the corners of the vase. She tore her eyesight away, feeling a deep connection with the dead flowers.

John B came back and sat in front of her, using the coffee table as a seat. He placed the warm mug in her cold hands and urged her to drink it. Kiara placed herself next to her and Pope stood next to the couch, staring.

"Look, uh, I'm not really sure how to say this, but..." John B looked at both Kiara and Pope for approval and they nodded.

"What?" Emelina was now eager and put the coffee on the table. Too many thoughts and possibilities of JJ's departure ran in her mind. Even the worst of the worst. "John B, what?"

"He was... uh, bribed with five thousand dollars on a check to end it with you... by your mom," he answered. It felt as if the wind was knocked out of her. It was beginning to feel like it was hard to breathe the second she heard the explanation. It couldn't be true.

"What?" A gasp broke free from her lips, unable to process a single thought. "He didn't take it, did he?" Tears were forming once again and she couldn't hold them in. "He wouldn't..." she cried.

"No," he replied then shook his head, "...I-I don't know. He didn't say. He sort of left and I haven't seen him in three days. But he always comes back. Typical JJ shit."

She held her stomach, "I think I'm going to be sick."

Her hand rested on the side of the porch when she ran outside to throw up everything she had that day. Kiara held her hair and patted her back, soothing her with her voice to the best of her ability, but she wasn't listening.

She finished, leaning her back against the house and sitting on the grass. Pope handed her a water bottle, where she swished it around her mouth and spat out any residue. "I hate her. I hate him," she said after calming down her breathing.

"We don't know if he took it." Pope reminded her and sat next to her. The moon shined and the stars sprinkled above and that was where her eyes landed on to contain herself.

She turned her head to look at him, "Why else would he..." She couldn't speak anymore, so she brought her knees to her chest and rested her head on it.

"JJ always runs off when he's upset. Usually comes back brand new like nothing happened." John B informed her. She shook her head, "But I can't pretend like nothing happened, John B."

"You don't think he took it, do you?" Pope then asked her, handing her another water bottle. She accepted it and shrugged, "No... but I wouldn't put it past my mother to scare him off. God, I need to go home."

Emelina stood up abruptly, feeling dizzy, and with her uninjured hand, she placed it on her head to soothe the sudden pain. Kiara held her arm, scolding her quickly, "You're staying right here, E. I can't have you drowning in your vomit."

"I'll sleep on my side," Emelina waved her off but each of them pulled her back into the house without saying another word. Pope and John B work on pulling out the couch to a bed and Kiara dragged her into John B's room to change.

Kiara tossed her a t-shirt and assured her it did not belong to the blonde. Standing in the bedroom with a shirt in hand reminded her too much of a certain moment she shared with him. It felt claustrophobic.

She moved to the bathroom before the feeling could catch up again. The shirt replaced her old one and she brushed her teeth with the spare toothbrush she brought weeks ago. Then, she splashed the cold water on her face.

When back in the living room, Kiara was snuggled under the sheets. A small trash bin sat next to the bed along with some water and pain reliever pills on the table nearby. Emelina joined in, muttering a quick thank you before falling asleep with relative ease.

§

a/n: heyyyy i hope y'all don't hate me but i missed their angst scenes whoops...