ix. eyes like sinking ships

"Ricky! Ricky! Hey! Bro! Ricky! Ricky! Hey, Ricky!"

She had to bite her tongue to keep from asking who the fuck Ricky is. 

The storm door shook under the weight of the pounding fists. The name Ricky was shouted so much it barely sounded like a word anymore. And the weight of Pope held her down as she stood beneath his shoulder, John B, on the other side of him, carrying most of the weight. 

He looked over at her, his gaze asking if she was okay. Nova nodded. It didn't matter if she was alright or not, at least not until Pope's breathing had gone back to normal. 

Nova didn't know why they weren't at a hospital right now. Something about bills and too many questions being asked. But Nova had the money for whatever it might have cost to help Pope. And by now, they were all well versed enough in lying to evade any incriminating questions. But the arguing about where to go was no use. Ricky's place was closer than the hospital, and JJ said he wouldn't ask any questions. 

"Not today!"

A man with dark hair and a curly beard appeared shirtless before the storm door. Nova looked him over, not recognizing him, but knowing he couldn't be too much older than them. 

"Ricky, hey, I got a problem, bro!" JJ yelled at him before he could slam the door in their faces. "I know you're mad at me!"

Ricky glared at JJ, seeming more than just mad at him, "Remember that time you stole my ambulance?"

"You stole an ambulance?!" Nova hadn't been made privy to such information. 

JJ looked back at her for a second before turning back to the storm door that stood in the way of them and getting Pope help. "Yeah, I know. I know you're mad—"

Ricky raised his middle finger at JJ and slammed the door in their faces without another word.

Nova eye's widened, "Is he serious?" she asked, starting to panic, as Pope's breathing became more and more irregular and slow and the seconds ticked by. "We need to get him help!"

"I know! I know!" JJ yelled as Kiara and Sarah continued to beat down the door with their aching fists, screaming and pleading for Ricky to help them. "I'll get him. Just give me a sec..."

He ran around to the side of the house, pounding on the first window that gave him a view inside the house. 

"Hey can't breathe, Ricky!" JJ yelled at him through the glass of the window. 

Nova looked over at Pope, completely slumped between John B. and herself now, "He's not conscious! Please, we need help!"

"Ricky, c'mon man!" John B. yelled while taking more of Pope's weight off Nova's shoulder.

"He's right here, please!"

"Help please!"

Kiara and Sarah kept up the banging on the door until once again it swung open. 

"Who can't breathe?"

John B. moved to the front of the door, forcing Nova to go with him as she held onto the side of Pope, "Look at him!" he yelled through the glass door. "Help our friend, please!"

And Ricky took a look at Pope who could no longer even hold his head up, his shoulders dropped and he ran a hand through his curly hair. Nova knew he was seeing what they were now. Pope needed help. Now.

But he still didn't move, not until Kiara kicked the door one more time, screaming at him, "Help us!"

"All right!" he jumped to unlock the door. "Jesus Christ!"

Sarah pushed through him and the door as soon as they heard the lock click back. Her shoulder hit his knocking him sideways where he stood, watching her wipe everything off his dining room table as the others walked in behind her, John B. and Nova carrying a barely living Pope with them. 

"You know I wouldn't have come to you if it wasn't an emergency," JJ told him as he took Nova's spot beside Pope to help John B. lift and lay him onto the cheaply made wooden table.

"What's wrong with him?" Ricky asked, moving to the other side of the table so that he could get a better look at Pope, whose eyelids were completely swollen shut. 

"Wasps," said Nova out of breath and on the verge of a heart attack. "He was stung. Like a lot."

Ricky looked up at Nova, "Is he allergic to wasps?"

"I don't—" she looked around at the others as she realized that apart from Sarah, she didn't know much of anything about them. "I don't know... Probably, right?"

"Probably?" Ricky yelled at her. 

"I don't know, okay?" 

"Yes! Yes, he's allergic to wasps!" John B. yelled at the two of them. 

"Okay! Thank you!" Ricky yelled over everyone scurrying around Pope. 

Nova rolled up a dish towel, putting it under his neck, while JJ and Kiara propped his legs up. Sarah was beside him, promising him everything was going to be okay and he was going to get better. 

"What's your friend's name?" Ricky asked. 

"It's Pope," Sarah told him.

Ricky nodded and bent down beside Pope's head, and for a moment, it looked like he was only sleeping, "Hey Pope?"

He waited a moment for a response, but nothing came, he was out cold. 

"All right, you guys just hang tight," Ricky said, standing back up. "I gotta get my kit."

"Hang tight?" JJ yelled after him. "Ricky! Help us!"

"He's looking for a medical kit," said Nova, trying to sound assuring as she looked at JJ, who looked like he was seconds from passing out too. "Go help."

JJ hesitated, looking down at Pope, and Nova knew he didn't want to leave him lying to her. But she also knew he'd be no use standing here in a panic, he'd work himself up and it wouldn't be good for anyone.

"Please, JJ, go help," she said again. 

This time he nodded, turning around, and heading in the direction to where Ricky had disappeared. 

"Please just breathe, Pope. Like just a bit..." Kiara took his head into her hands, turning him to look up where she hovered over him. "I need you to focus," she told him, her voice shaky and scared. "Focus on breathing, okay?"

"What does it look like?!"

Ricky ran into the living room, JJ screaming at him from down the hall. There was no kit in his hands. 

"Like a duffel bag..." Ricky panted. 

Nova's eyes widened, "You lost your medical kit?"

He shook his head, throwing things out of drawers and shelves in the living room, "It isn't lost."

"Then where's the kit, Ricky?" Kiara turned her head back to scream at him. 

"If I knew I wouldn't be looking for it," he said, walking past them. 

"So you lost it!" Nova yelled at him. 

He ignored her and the others yelling and screaming at him, calling him stupid and telling him to hurry. But it wasn't like they had time to just wait on him to check every nook and cranny of his house. Pope was barely breathing anymore and when he did manage a breath, it was slow and sounded almost painful. As if his chest was collapsing onto him. 

"He's checking the garage," John B. tried to sound optimistic. 

Nova nodded as he looked at her. He was still able to help slow her world down. To ease her into remembering how to breathe amid the chaos. 

"Okay..." they heard Ricky before they saw him. "I got it!" he ran out of his garage, a navy blue medical tote in his hands. "I got it."

He practically pushed Kiara out of his way so he could take her place standing over Pope. And for a second he just stood there, looking down at Pope...

"What do we do now?" JJ asked, running back into the living room from where he likely tore every room down the hall apart. 

Ricky shook his head, "You don't do anything because you're not a paramedic," he said simply, blocking JJ from getting to Pope or the medical kit. 

"Smart." Nova nodded.

JJ looked up at her, seeming slightly offended by her response, to which she could only shrug in response before turning her attention back to Pope. 

"Okay..." Ricky sighed, as he filled a syringe full of medicine that Nova didn't know. "Hey, Pope. How you doing, man? You look like shit."

"Here's the thing," Ricky said, looking up quickly at the others, showing them the syringe and needle in his hand. "This is a pediatric dose of epinephrine."

Nova furrowed her eyebrows. Why would he only give Pope a pediatric dose? "Like an EpiPen?" she asked, judgment showing through her tone. "I think we might be past that."

"Yeah, will that even be enough?" Kiara asked him. 

"It is ten times the normal dose..." Said Ricky. He was over being grilled by no-nothing kids who had stormed into his house. "So, if — if it doesn't stop his heart, it'll help him. But I gotta use the whole thing or it won't work." He turned to look back at JJ as everyone's jaws fell to the floor. "And I'm not going down if he dies!"

"Why would a pediatric dose be ten times the normal dosage?!" Nova yelled at him, her tone accusing. 

"I don't know! Just trust the medicine!"

"I don't trust you! Who even are you?"

"Okay!" JJ yelled, his voice breaking from the force of which he yelled at them. Nova shut her mouth and turned to look at him, her eyes wide. "Just do it, okay?" he looked at Ricky. "Just give him the medicine."

Ricky nodded and Nova took Pope's limp hand into her shaking one, "All right, Pope, hang in there, buddy," He talked to him as he inserted the small needle into the vein in his arm. Holding her breath, Nova watched as he pressed down on the syringe, letting the liquids flow through Pope and to his heart. 

"I really hate needles..." 

She heard JJ whispering behind her and she could feel him pacing. The fear radiated off him and wrapped around Nova. 

The needle came out of Pope's arm, and there wasn't even a drop of blood to show it'd been there. Their gazes all turned to Ricky, expecting something... anything. 

"That's it," he said. 

"What do we do now?" Sarah asked him.

Ricky zipped up his medical kit, "Now we wait."

Nova looked down at Pope. Her hand still holding his, squeezing tighter with each passing second that nothing happened. She was shaking, biting down on the inside of her lip, filling her mouth with that familiar taste of metal. She could hear Steve Harvey talking from the television in the other room but she hadn't been able to make out any of the words as they all seemed to jumble together. 

They waited.

And they waited. 

And waited. 

Nothing happened.

"You killed him."

Kiara looked up at Ricky, her cheeks stained with tears and panic seizing the look in her eye.

"I didn't," Ricky shook his head.

"Yes, you did!" she was screaming. 

"I didn't do shit."

"What did you do?" Her entire body was shaking. 

Ricky took a step toward Kiara, "I did exactly what you asked me to do!"

Nova didn't move. Not even to look at the scene happening around her. Her eyes couldn't look away from her hand wrapped around Pope. So tight that it shook and her knuckles turned white. She willed him to wake up. Screaming at him, but only in her head. No noise coming out of her mouth. It was like she was stuck. As everyone screamed and cried around her, as they willed Pope to wake up with shouts of panic, she stood silently, stuck as the world moved around her. 

She remained still. Holding his hand. Just as she had done when it was her mom. She waited for that next breath to come. 

 With her mom, it never had come. She lay still and quiet as Nova held her cold, hard hand in hers.

But Pope was different. 

He gasped. 

The hand Nova held tightened around hers, and he gasped. His chest rises high before falling back down deep in his chest. 

"Pope? Pope?" she could hear Kiara calling to him. 

He was coughing and thrashing as he tried to move to sit up. Nova let go of his hand and stepped back, her hands covering her mouth despite having no words for the shock she was feeling right now. For the shock and the relief. 

"It's hot," he said, sitting up. "I'm real hot, guys."

In seconds the jacket he'd been wearing was torn off and thrown carelessly aside as he moved to stand from the table they'd lifted him onto. JJ stood beside him, pleading with him to slow down and to take it easy right now, but he wasn't listening to a word anyone was saying to him as he jumped down off the table. 

"I gotta go outside," Pope mumbled as he pushed past them in his journey to the front door that he practically ripped through. "It's so hot!"

Nova still couldn't move. As the others moved to follow Pope out the door, Nova still stood in that place she had while she held his limp hand in hers. 

"Hey, are there any side effects we should be concerned about?" Sarah asked, stopping at the door and turning back to Ricky.

Ricky shrugged, "He'll have a rocket up his ass for about half an hour, then he'll be fine."

Sarah nodded, her gaze snagging on Nova, who had been the only one not to move for the door. She took her hand, pulling her slightly. Nova turned, looking at her. 

"You all right?" concern filled Sarah's expression.

Nova nodded, "Yeah," she whispered. "Except I think I might have to throw up."

Nova hadn't thrown up. But she might throw up.

"Uh, Pope, you're driving pretty fast..." Sarah's voice was soft — careful, with a hint of fear. 

Four of them crowded into the backseat. Their backs pressed firmly to the seats as the road sped by them. 

"Pope, last to judge..." said JJ, sounding unsure as he sat squished between the door and Nova. "But I think you should slow down just a little,"

The fear of imminent death helped keep Nova from thinking about the fact that they were so crowded in the backseat that she'd practically been sitting on JJ's lap this entire time. 

Pope shook his head, "That would definitely delay our arrival to the cross," he told them, nodding at his own words. "We gotta get there."

"Well we won't be getting anywhere if we're wrapped around a tree," said Nova, as she imagined how her life might be ending tonight. "Please, Pope, just slow down."

He didn't listen. And they were easily going over a hundred.

"Why did we let him drive again?" asked Kiara, the entire side of her body pressed against the passenger side door and her hand clinging onto the grab handle for dear life.

"Oh, because I said I'd rip your ears off—"

"He said he'd rip your ears off..."

Pope and Sarah reminded her at the same time.

And when he said it, it didn't sound as funny as it should have. It actually sounded and felt very real.

"I was joking about that by the way," Pope said, turning to look at Kiara. 

But that wasn't how she'd remembered it. She remembered the threat it sounded like. 

Kiara giggled, fear in her tone, "That's a really funny joke..."

"You sure you're feeling okay, buddy?" John B. asked, sounding worried. 

He too was stuck, squished up in the backseat. Sarah had been squeezed to sit between Nova and him, and his other side was pressed against the door, where he, like Kiara, held tightly onto the grab bar. 

"Uh, I'm fantastic," Pope told him. "I don't know what JJ's cousin gave me, but I am moving!"

Nova could barely understand his words because he was talking so fast. He was so hyperactive that she was afraid he'd go into cardiac arrest or something. She didn't know what JJ's cousin gave him either, but she was starting to wonder if it was crack.

"We couldn't tell..." Kiara said, nervous.

"Okay, well, um, you're going really fast right now..." John B. told Pope as if he wasn't the one with his foot on the gas pedal. 

"Yeah, really fast."

He turned, the back of his head to the road. 

"Turn around, Pope!"

Nova couldn't hear her own screams over those of everyone else. Chaos erupted in the swerving sardine can of a truck as everyone screamed and waved for Pope to turn back around, reminding him there was a road ahead of him that he needed to be watching. 

The truck glided to either side of the road, swerving over the solid yellow line painted in the middle. 

"Pope, I don't know if you noticed but there's these giant oak trees all along the side of the road. They're like six inches off the road!" John B. yelled his tone clipped and panicked. 

They'd come up to the rear of another car, Nova screaming at him to watch out as they came centimeters away from slamming into the other vehicle. 

Then the clicking started.

"Pope, what are you doing?" Nova's tone was slow as if talking to a child, as she listened to the constant ticking of the blinker. "This is a no-passing zone. You can't pass them."

Kiara shook her head, looking at him with genuine fear in her eyes, "You don't need to pass them..." she tried to tell him, but his gaze was once again fixed on the road, the light from the headlights of an on-coming car reflecting off his glossy eyes. "You don't need to pass them! Pope!"

"Pope! No—"

But Nova's plea had been cut short when the truck took a sharp right, making her head hit against JJ's shoulder, and her body to be more thrown on top of him than she already had been. He remained stoic, screaming like everyone else, as the truck only continued to speed up as they thrashed to either side of the road again and again. The screeching of tires blended with their screams as the other car ran off the road, making sure to blare their horn at the truck that very nearly took them out. 

Pope scoffed, shaking his head, "What an asshole, right?"

He looked at Kiara, whose back was now fully against the passenger side door, "He's going the speed limit!"

"We're not gonna get to the cross if we're dead, Pope," John B. yelled as the truck only continued to speed and weave down the road.

Nova couldn't see a thing because of how fast Pope was driving. It didn't matter that street lights sat on the side of the road to help vehicles in the dark. With their speed, the lights were only a blur in the night. 

But Pope shook his head, "We're not going to die," he said, looking over his shoulder again at John B, talking like the suggestion of them dying was absurd. But no one really listened to the nonsensical words coming out of his mouth as they again began pleading with him to look at the road. "It's our diving right to get that cross."

"Hey! Pope! Pope, the road!" 

Nova yelled at him, staring wide-eyed out the windshield as she watched the truck swerve over the solid yellow line in the road and into the other lane.

Kiara tugged on Pope's jacket, screaming at him, "Pope! Look at the road!" 

The truck glided almost smoothly across the road, spinning and turning, the wheels barely touching the concrete below them. Nova was thrown back against the seat, sliding left to right. She heard John B's head slam against the window he had been pressed up against this entire car ride, and the screaming from them all echoed as Pope tugged the steering wheel in all different directions to try and gain control of the truck again. 

The screeching tires fueled their screams and the breaks squealed as loudly as them. The streetlights blended with the truck's headlights and spun around and around. 

She hadn't felt the impact at all. But she had felt the cold, shattered glass falling over her like rain on a stormy night. She did smell the smoke that billowed from the hood of the truck seep in through the now open windows. And she could feel a body covering her own as she bent down, head laying on her knees and arms wrapped around her.  

Nova opened her eyes. Tiny shards of glass lay on her lap around her head and coating the floor around her feet. The smell of freshly mowed grass and mint gum enveloped her. And she knew it had been JJ's arms wrapped around her. 

She felt the weight of him ease slowly off her as she began to turn her body, checking on the others. The sounds of the world slowly came back to her as his body moved off hers.

"Is everyone okay?" John B. rubbed the side of his head as he moved it from side to side, checking to make sure everyone was conscious and breathing. 

JJ grunted, rolling his neck, "Never better," he pushed on the dented door beside him, shouldering it two or three times before it squeaked open. "That is the last time you drive, Pope."

Nova followed him outside of the truck, scooting slowly over the tiny pieces of glass that had rained over them only moments ago. 

When her feet landed on the grassy ground she felt like she weighed a thousand pounds. The bruises that had been left on her from her run-in with Rafe ached as they were once again made anew, and she held her screaming ribcage as she stood up straight. 

"Are you okay?"

JJ's hand held onto the arm that had wrapped around her torso as she held her ribs into place, it felt like. His eyes raked her up and down, looking for any sign of injury. But Nova nodded as she breathed out a long sigh. 

"Just sore, that's all," she told him. 

"You sure?"

His eyes met hers and he stared at her like there was nothing or no else he cared about, making her heart nearly rip itself out of her chest. 

Nova nodded again, "I'm sure."

He nodded too but didn't move or turn his eyes away from her. Nova couldn't look away either. It was like she was stuck there with him, her body refusing to be away from his.

"Are you hurt?" Nova swallowed.

JJ shook his head, "Nah," he said easily. "Like I said, never better."

His hand was still wrapped lightly around her arm and his thumb glided softly over her skin, lighting her aflame. 

"My dad's truck! No!"

Nova's head turned to the high-pitched scream as she was reminded that the world around her and other people existed beyond her and JJ. 

Her gaze snagged on the truck. Dented, shattered, and beyond repair. It was a wonder they had come out unscathed

"Kie," JJ walked past Nova, though his hand stayed, holding her arm for as long as it could, his outstretched arm reaching back to touch her for as long as it could before he stepped too far away. "I got one word for you..." he rounded the car, looking it over before coming to a stop beside Kiara. "Totaled."

Kiara's head fell back and she cried, "My parents are going to kill me."

Nova walked around the front of the car. There was no part of the exterior that wasn't shattered, dented, or scratched. Every window had shattered and the windshield had a long winding crack down it. She grimaced when she came to a stop beside Kiara, reaching up to squeeze her shoulder.

"Weren't they going to do that anyway?" she asked, not helping. "Y'know, since you stole it in the first place?"

Kiara sighed, her head falling onto Nova's shoulder, letting her place an arm around her as they looked at the beat-up truck, "Yeah..." she said. "But for real this time."

Nova rubbed Kiara's arm trying to offer her some comfort knowing that she was right and her parents might actually kill her for this one.

"We're gonna have to walk the rest of the way," Pope had turned away from them, looking down the dark, empty road ahead.

Sarah scoffed, rolling her eyes, "Dude, c'mon..."

"I'm going to get my cross."

John B. stepped in front of Pope, keeping him from storming off alone in the dark, "Hey, just relax for a second."

Pope looked up, "Get off me."

His tone had a warning to it. 

"No." John B. said, unaffected. "I'm trying to help."

"I'm getting my cross!"

"Pope, we just crashed the car."

But that didn't matter. Not to him. 

Pope pushed past John B, making his way down the middle of the road, just as Nova caught the glimmer of two faraway headlights, facing their direction. 

John B. limped after Pope and the headlights began getting closer.

"I'm trying to watch out for you!" he yelled, catching the sleeve of Pope's jacket to make him turn around. 

To hopefully make him listen.

"Uh, hey guys..."

Nova could now see the outline of the car moving towards them. It was a truck. A much bigger truck than the one they had just totaled. And it was only getting closer by the second. 

"Pope! Hey, Pope, c'mon!" Kiara yelled, trying to get through to him before the truck had the chance to take down him and John B.

"Get off me!" Pope threw himself back and out of John B's grasp once again, refusing to hear his pleas to slow down and to take a second to think things through. 

He didn't want to think things through. He didn't want to take a second to calm down. He wanted his cross.

"Pope, you're going to get hit by a car!" John B. finally managed to push him to the side and out of the road.

The truck slowed as it approached the wreckage before it. Its lights nearly blinded Nova as it slowed to a near stop beside Pope and John B, who stared back at it, their eyes wide. 

It wasn't until the wheels rolled slowly past her that she caught a glimpse of the short blonde hair in the driver's seat. Rafe Cameron stared at them. No smile or any kind of expression on his face as he did. He just drove, so slow as if to taunt them. 

"We gotta get back to the church!"

And this time when Pope ran no one tried to yell at or stop him from going. 

"It's gone."

Kiara's voice rang through their ears. 

It's gone. It's gone. It's gone...

The cross was gone.

Silence fell over them. Only the crickets went on chirping as if laughing at them... The cross is gone. The cross is gone. You lost. They sang to them, over and over, they sang and laughed at the defeated group of dirty teenagers who sat wordlessly in an abandoned church, wondering exactly what all this was for anyway.

Nova fell against the back wall of the church with a tired sigh. With aching ribs and burning lungs she slid down the dirty floor, sitting, shivering, and waiting for some kind of silver lining in all this defeat. 

"Damn it!"

She looked up just as JJ's frustrations boiled over and he couldn't be silent anymore. The wooden pew cracked down the side when he kicked it, the split echoing throughout the cold, dark church. 

"I knew I didn't hide it well enough," he cursed, blaming himself for the sea of defeat they were all drowning in right now. JJ paced the floor back and forth, running his hands through his hair, wondering aloud how he could've done better for his friends. For himself. "Dammit!"

Sarah came and sat down beside Nova, resting her head on her best friend's shoulder. None of them said anything or tried to stop JJ's rampage, only watching as he kicked the pews and the pillows and cushions he'd used to hide the cross. 

There was nothing more he could have done. The cross had weighed thousands of pounds. He'd done the only thing he could've done, and they all would've done the same thing. Nova just wished someone, even herself, would tell him that.

"We need a plan... we need a plan," Pope had walked to the front of the church, staring out of the one stained glass window that hadn't been shattered. "What's the plan?"

He wasn't asking anyone. And he wasn't expecting any of his friends to have an answer for him. Pope was waiting. Waiting for some kind of divine intervention that would tell them what they needed to do.

"All right, here's what we do," And suddenly, with everything somehow figured out, JJ reappeared before all of them. "We'll grab some kerosine tanks from the shack, then we... we go to my dad's shop and grab some dynamite. And then we drive down to Charleston and tell this lady who she's messing with!"

His voice raised with every other word as he walked up and down the isles, weirdly resembling the preachers that Nova would see on tv when flipping through the channels on Sunday morning. 

"This is some bullshit, ya'll!" He screamed, turning to point his finger at every one of them.

Sarah sat up, crossing her arms, "That's not gonna help."

Her nonchalant voice set JJ off and walked over to where she'd sat down beside Nova.

"Well, what is, Sarah?" he yelled down at her, though she remained unfazed, too tired and worn down to care.

"I'm thinking, okay, JJ?" John B. hadn't said much since they'd gotten here, staying quiet and to himself while letting the others around him freak out. "We can't just go blow shit up."

JJ nodded guilty, listening to John B, really the only person he'd ever listen to. Nova watched his posture soften and his shoulders drop guilty. 

"Pope, I'm sorry," he said, turning around. 

Pope didn't say anything as he sat at the front of the church, still waiting for someone or something to come to him to tell him what he should do. 

He looked up at JJ, "Denmark would've stood right here, preaching to everyone he set free. A slave, the sole survivor of the Royal Merchant..." Pope stood up behind the podium, becoming the preacher himself, taking the title Nova had just given to JJ. "He got the gold and the cross, and he brought them both to shore and used it to free every person who walked through those doors...

"He made a church, a family, a congregation... a home." he said, walking out from behind the podium, looking at all his friends sitting before him in silence and awe. "And the Limbreys took everything from him. They sicced dogs on his wife and kids, and when he tried to get her remains they hung him," he only shrugged. "Well, I'm done. I'm tired of that shit. That is not how this is gonna end."

Nova nodded, biting the inside of her lip. And she stood up off the ground, still wincing at the slight ache in her ribs. 

"We need a freaking win guys," Pope walked down the rows of podiums, he stopped at the doors, glancing only for a moment at Nova, then the rest of his friends. "I'm getting my family's cross."

The heavy doors sighed, creaked, and cracked when he swung them open, and the cold wind rushed past them, making goosebumps rise all down Nova's arms. 

"You guys coming?" Pope asked. 

Nova scoffed, "I was beginning to think we weren't invited."

"And when you put it that way..." John B. joked, tilting his head from side to side as if weighing his options. 

JJ shrugged, "Maybe we should think about it, you know?"

"Pros and cons?" John B. suggested.

JJ nodded, "Pros and cons list."

Pope rolled his eyes, turning away from them and finally walking out of the church doors. But before he disappeared, Nova caught the faintest glimpse of a smile on his face. 

"Hell yeah, we're coming, Pope!"

"Oh shit."

Blue lights lit up the sky and sirens wailed loudly into the night. 

Kiara ran a hand through her tangled hair and fell back into her seat, "They found the truck."

John B. slowed the dry-rotted, sludge-filled the twinkie to a near stop as they approached the police-ridden scene before them. 

"Chill, chill, chill, chill..." Pope repeated to himself over and over, sounding anything but chill. 

JJ, slid down the passenger seat, lowering his hat to cover his face as Officer Shoupe shined the flashlight right into the windshield, knowing exactly who was behind the wheel of the van. 

He walked toward them, making JJ curse and Pope fidget in his seat, John B. looked between the two, "Just relax, okay? Just be chill."

Shoupe stopped at the driver-side window, "Well, look who we have here," 

"Good evening, Officer," John B. greeted him with squinted eyes as he aimed the flashlight at his face.

"Sherriff."

"Yeah. Sherriff, that's right," he played nice with the cops. 

Shoupe shined his flashlight throughout the car, counting the heads of everyone he saw, and not surprised by any of them. 

Nova shielded her eyes when the flashlight landed on her face and forced a smile to her lips, "Congratulations on the promotion."

One thing she learned being an heiress to an empire, never hurts to kiss a little ass. 

"Speed kills, huh, Sherriff?" John B. decided to play clueless with Shoupe. 

Shoupe looked at him knowingly, not bothering to fall for the act, "I pulled the tags, and I know whose truck that is," His flashlight shined in the back again as he reached past John B, "Hey Kie," he spotted her trying to keep herself from his line of sight, pressing herself to the corner of the van. "You drop your weed pen back there?"

The corner of Nova's lips curved up as a laugh threatened to escape her. But she pushed it down, knowing now was not the time for giggling. 

Kiara sat up, giving him a fake smile and a sarcastic thumbs up, "Found it."

"Sherriff," Pope sat up, talking like he was in some spy movie. "I just wanna say that this is all my fault. She had nothing to do with this. I take 100% responsibility."

Nova scoffed, whispering under her breath so that Shoupe couldn't hear her, "She's the one who insisted on stealing it..."

But Kiara heard, and she turned to her, giving her a sickeningly sweet smile and the middle finger. Nova only shrugged, mouthing the words, 'it's true' because it was. And Pope taking a hundred percent responsibility was crazy. More like seventy-five percent.

Shoupe nodded, "Nothing to do with it? Uh-huh... You wanna try that again?" His gaze went back to Kiara as he brushed off Pope's attempt at a confession. "Your parents reported the truck missing four hours ago, and the keys were missing from the house..."

"It's only been four hours?" 

Nova furrowed her eyebrows, feeling as if a whole day had passed her since they'd stolen the truck.

But she quickly shut her mouth when the others turned to face her, their expressions telling her now wasn't the time. 

"I'm taking you home," and he was serious as he looked at Kiara through the window.

Yeah. Her parents were going to kill her for real this time.

"Or," and it sounded like he was going to give them an out, "I can pull you all in for leaving the scene of an accident."

Nevermind. No out. Nova sighed, disappointed.

Kiara gave in, showing Shoupe her hands, "Okay. I'll come."

"Good," Shoupe sounded relieved that he wouldn't have to fight them on this.

His second in command or his, deputy, whatever the police jargon was, Nova didn't know, slid open the back door, just behind where Kiara was sitting, where she'd attempted to hide. Officer Plumb stepped off to the side without saying a word, but her actions were enough to let them know she was waiting for Kiara to get out of the van. 

"Nova," 

The light was back on her face again. 

Nova looked at Shoupe, eyes squinting as he threatened to blind her, "Took the liberty to call your brother," he glanced behind him, and sure enough, just slightly hidden behind the police cars was her brother's jeep, and he stood there, leaning against the hood of it. 

She sighed, rolling her eyes. 

"You sure you don't just want to arrest me?" she asked Shoupe, almost serious too, knowing a lecture was in her very near future. 

"Ha-ha," Shoupe pretended to laugh. "Let's go."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Nova grumbled, gathering herself and her things, and also Sarah who she gave no choice in the matter of sleeping at her house tonight. 

Nova saluted Shoupe when she passed him, laughing when she heard him mumble something about her and smartass in the same sentence. 

Her smile faded though as she got closer to her brother's jeep and she was able to read the expression on his face. 

"So you just weren't going to tell me about this?"

"I mean, yeah, I was," she stopped in front of him, her arms folded across her chest, "But like, tomorrow, or something."

Nolan ran and a hand through his hair, letting out a dry, humorless laugh, "Nova look at that truck!" he yelled, pointing to the truck wrapped around the tree. She didn't look she already knew what it looked like. "You could have been killed!"

"But I wasn't, okay? I'm not dead. I'm fine. I'm alive. We all are."

"You're lucky I'm not calling Dad right now, because if he knew—"

"No need to call him when you're trying to be mine, right now!"

Nolan stopped. 

"I'm not trying to be your dad," he told her. 

Nova shrugged, "Could've fooled me."

Sighed, Nolan turned away from her, pressing the palms of his hands into his eyes to try and ease away the migraine he could feel coming on. He took a minute to himself, breathing, before turning back to face his little sister. 

"I'm your big brother, Nova, I'm going to be worried when the police call me to tell me there's been some kind of wreck, and you might have been involved. Of fucking course I'm going to be freaking out. That doesn't mean I'm trying to be dad," he explained to her. "And I'm pissed off, because why did I have to hear it from fuckass Shoupe, and not my sister. Why aren't you telling me what's going on?"

Nova chewed on her lip, guilt eating away at her insides, "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm sorry I didn't call or text. Everything just happened so fast, I wasn't even really thinking."

Nolan nodded, "Just let me know things, okay?"

"Sarah's spending the night tonight," she said, being a smartass, as she nodded back at her friend, who waited beside the jeep while watching the siblings argue. "Since you want to know things."

Nolan nodded quickly, not looking back at Sarah, "Yeah — yeah that's fine," he told her. "Of course that's fine."

"Good."

"Glad we worked that out."

"Can you drive me home now? I smell like swamp water?" Nova asked. 

Nolan laughed, "I mean, I wasn't going to say anything."

Nova rolled her eyes, "You're such an ass."

It was quiet. Steam stuck to the wooden floors and the wind blew past the curtains and into the room. The sound of waves crashing against the shore traveled through the open windows and to the girl who lay in the king-sized bed, tucked tight beneath her covers, her freshly showered hair, leaving water marks on the pillow she lay her head upon.

It was a fight to keep her eyes open. She couldn't remember the last time she slept — really slept. Every night felt sleepless. And she was beginning to fear that her body no longer recognized it. Like she forgot how to sleep. 

She scrolled through her phone. Liking pictures on Instagram with a pit of envy in her stomach. Seeing her classmates living normal teenage lives — going to parties, studying with friends, being on dates, it left her feeling unfulfilled, jealous, and with a sour taste in her mouth. 

Nova had always longed for adventure. But perhaps she had taken normalcy for granted. 

A quiet knock on the other side of her closed bedroom door lifted her from her pillow and pulled her longing, jealous gaze away from her phone. Nolan opened the door slowly, stepping in when he saw all was safe and good for him to do so. 

"Where's Sarah?" he asked, his eyebrows pulling together as he looked around the room. 

"Her room," said Nova, nodding her head in the direction of the spare room that had become reserved for Sarah. "Asleep."

Nolan nodded, moving inside the room, closing the door carefully behind him, "I just wanted to check up on you, make sure you're okay."

He moved to sit at the end of the bed, his gaze moving around the room as if taking in every piece of it. 

"Why didn't you call me?" 

Nolan sounded exasperated. Like he'd for some reason been holding that question in all night. 

"I wanted to," Nova confessed. "I wanted to call you, but Kiara — she suggested that we take the truck. Something about having more room for everyone, I don't know. We all ended up crowding in the truck anyway, so it didn't matter in the end."

"Wait..." he held up a finger, a confused look on his face. "It was Kiara's idea to take her dad's truck?"

Nova nodded.

He scoffed, standing up from his sister's bed to pace her floors.

"Pretty insistent on it, actually," she said, becoming confused as she watched her brother turn back to face her. "Especially when I had brought up the idea of calling you."

"I can't believe she'd do all that just to avoid me," Nolan shook his head. 

Nova furrowed her eyebrows, "Avoid you?" she asked. "Why would Kiara be avoiding you?"

Nolan's mouth closed and he didn't say another thing. Barely able to hold eye contact with his sister. 

"Nolan..." Nova said slowly. "What did you do?"

He stared at her silently, his legs thumb tapping against the dresser a million miles a minute before he pushed himself off it, pacing his sister's room, and running a shaky hand through his hair. He was mumbling to himself, words that Nova couldn't make out. 

Nothing. 

Nova stood up from her bed, walking before her brother, arms crossed over her chest. She was serious. 

"What did you do, Nolan?"

"I kissed her, okay?!"

Even though Nolan had shouted his confession out, loud enough for it to echo through her room, it was as if Nova hadn't heard him.

"What?"

Nolan sighed, "Technically I just kissed her back, but still."

Nova blinked, "You what?"

"I kissed Kiara," Nolan said again, throwing his hands up in defeat. "Well, she kissed me but I kissed her back... like a lot... there was a lot of kissing."

Nova stared at her brother, unable and unwilling to process this new information.

"How—" she huffed, trying to remember how to say words. "How.... just how?"

Nolan shrugged, "Ask her!" he yelled, frustrated. "I was just being a gentleman. I was walking her home after the party since she'd gotten into an argument with Pope, we talked... it was nice, then suddenly her lips were on mine, and I —" he scratched the back of his head with a guilty expression. "I mean, I didn't pull away."

Her face scrunched in disgust and she shook her head, "No, no, stop. I actually don't want to know."

And he listened, closing his lips tightly. 

"What about Sarah?"

"What about her?" 

Nova rolled her eyes, "I thought you two had like — like a thing going?"

She nearly gagged thinking about her best friend and brother having a thing. But she also wasn't blind and knew what she saw when the two of them had been nearly inseparable. 

"Okay, well first, try not to look so disgusted," said Nolan, clearly offended by his sister's attitude toward him having feelings, or something along those lines, for Sarah. "And yeah, I thought so too, but she's been kind of distant lately and I don't want to smother her, she's been through a lot of shit lately," he shrugged, his shoulders falling with his expression. "Maybe she just needs time."

She wanted to punch him. Kissing Kiara while having a thing, or something, with Sarah, Nova could kill him for that. But she didn't. And she wouldn't. Things were confusing. Sarah was grieving and pulling away and Nolan was confused. Kiara kissed him and he kissed her back and he didn't know what that meant. Neither did Nova. She was the last person to be telling him what to do right now. 

She wasn't without guilt herself.

Far from it.

"Sooo..." Nolan drew out after silence had fallen over them. "Are you going to kill me?"

Nova let out a laugh, "Not yet," she said, and the smile fell from her lips. "Just figure your shit out. Sort out your feelings, do whatever you need to do so that no one has to get hurt here, okay?"

"Yeah," he agreed. "I will. I promise."

And Nova believed her brother. Because luckily, he was nothing like her.  

Sleep had nearly taken her. Warm in her bed and bundled tight in her covers, Nova had started to drift to sleep. 

Until the blue light of her phone lit up the room from the nightstand beside her. The ding that echoed through the silent room made her fluttering eyes snap open. But for a second she didn't move. Didn't reach for the phone as the screen began to go dark again. Her eyes began to flutter again, sleep once again in her grasp when the room went dark.

Ding!

The room lit up again. 

Nova groaned, burying her face deep into the mountain of pillows, and kicked her feet like a toddler having a tantrum, tangling her sheets around her in the process. And she had been having a tantrum as she attempted to smother herself for a moment of sleep.

When she sat up the covers that had held her in a cacoon fell to her lap and the phone lit up in her hands: two unanswered texts... both from JJ. 

I'm outside. Check your balcony.

Shit that probably sounded like I was here to murder you or something. My bad.

Nove scoffed, rolling her eyes.

If this were a horror movie, she'd be about to enter her death scene. 

Her doors were unlocked, he could've just walked in if he hadn't been so dramatic about it. A cool breeze blew past her and into her room as she pulled the glass door open, the salty scent of the sea being carried with the wind into her room. Nova could see the outline of him, leaning back against the iron railing, and when she flipped the small switch on her bedroom wall, the outside lit up in dozen of twinkling lights, shining a golden hue around him, as if he was some kind of Greek God or something.

She crossed her arms, "You could've just called."

He didn't move or say anything at first. Just continued to lean back against the railing, his arms folded across his chest as he took in the sight of her in her matching polka-dot pajama set. Nova didn't know what to do or say while he stood there, looking at her, suddenly feeling nervous she began to toy with the loose threads at the hem of her silk pajama shorts. 

"Cute jammies," was all he said.

JJ was smirking when his gaze met Nova's again. Her heart raced and her mouth dried as she searched for words to say to him.

"Why are you here, JJ?" Nova asked, doing her best to mask the nerves coursing through her body with an annoying sigh. 

He pushed himself off the cold rails and took a step toward her, "Needed to talk to you."

She huffed, "Well, that's vague."

"I didn't just walk out on you the other night," JJ confessed, stealing Nova's next breath. "I mean, I did leave, but not because I wanted to. I didn't want to leave, Nova."

He started pacing the length of the balcony while talking, running a hand through his already wind-touselled hair. And while watching him, pain coursed through Nova as her teeth bit down on the inside of her lip, threatening to draw blood. But before it could, JJ stopped right in front of her, making her lips part ever so slightly as it became harder for her to breathe. 

She didn't want to hear his apology or the rest of the speech that she knew he was going to give her. 

Nova sighed, "JJ, stop," she said, knowing what was coming next. It's a speech she's heard a million different iterations of. It's not you, it's me. That phrase, or some version, has been overplayed in her heartbreak playlist. She didn't need, or want, to hear it again. "It's fine. You don't have to—"

"Okay, just stop talking for like two minutes, please," JJ stopped her before she had the chance to end something that hadn't even started. "Just let me talk for two minutes, can you do that?"

She felt like a child being scolded, and she didn't like it. But she nodded, not offering him another word. 

"Thank you," he said, relieved. 

Nova raised her eyebrows, waiting for him to get on with the speech she could recite for him at this point.

"I know that I left you in the middle of the night like some kind of shitbag," and she rolled her eyes at JJ's choice of insult. "But it's not what you think. I swear."

"You already said that."

"Oh my god, stop talking!" JJ groaned, running his hands over his tired, sleep-deprived face. "Why are you so annoying?"

"You're literally in my house right now! You can't just ban me from talking in my own house!"

"Please," JJ released a long breath. "Please just let me explain!"

"I already know what you're going to say. I could probably recite it word for word at this point, JJ," Nova ran a hand through her hair before crossing her arms back over her chest and raising her eyebrows at the boy across from her. "But go ahead and explain so we can just be done with this."

JJ's lips had pressed into a tight line while looking at Nova. He shook his head, biting his tongue so he didn't snap at her again. But she made him so mad. And she did it so easily. How could she know what he was going to say to her? She had no idea.

"It was John B,"

Nova furrowed her eyebrows, "What?"

Her stomach fell. Had John B. found out about them? How could he have known? But Nova pushed those worries to the back of her mind for now, looking back up at JJ who hadn't taken his eyes off her since he started talking. 

"Pope called me after John B. and Kelce beat the shit out of each other," he told her, his tone even and calm, nothing like what it had been just a minute ago. "Told me we needed to meet. To talk some shit out..." JJ shrugged, "I didn't want to leave in the middle of the night like some kind of asshole, but I also couldn't stay."

He sighed, "Not without it being suspicious."

Nova threw her head back, her eyes closed and a tired groan escaped her lips. She felt as if a weight had been lifted off her as if the worry of this minuscule act of JJ leaving in the middle of the night had been weighing that heavily on her. And she felt silly. Silly and stupid. She'd just assumed this was like every other time that had happened to her. She aligned JJ with all the other boys who had hurt her. 

But she wasn't about to admit all that to him. 

"Why didn't you just tell me that?"

JJ's mouth fell open, his eyes went wide, and his cheeks red, "Are you — that's what I've been trying to do all day!"

"Well, how was I supposed to know that?" Nova yelled at him, a little embarrassed by the amount of stress this has had on her. 

A brief quiet fell over them and Nova fell back against the window that looked into her room, shielded by sheer curtains. She scuffed her heel against the floor, biting down on the inside of her cheek, not knowing what else to say.

"Do you regret it?"

She looked up to find JJ staring at her, his head tilted slightly as he waited for her to answer.

Nova opened her mouth to say something, but it was like she couldn't remember how to say words as nothing would sound out of her mouth. 

With furrowed eyebrows, she looked at him, "Huh?"

"Last night," JJ told her and he took a step forward, making her breath hitch in her throat and her teeth bite down even harder on the skin inside her lip. "Do you regret that it happened?"

She hesitated.

She remembered feeling bad that it happened. Feeling guilty that she had wanted it to happen. But she didn't regret it. Despite the guilt that consumed her, she didn't regret it.

So Nova shook her head. 

No. She didn't regret it. 

She looked back up at him, "Do you?"

Nova's mouth was dry and it was suddenly hard to breathe as she waited for him to say something. 

He took another step toward her and god, he was so close now. He smelt like salt water and cigarettes. And JJ shook his head.

"No." 

His voice was a rasp whisper.

Nova ached all over. As she defied the urge to touch him. Her hands twitched at her sides, needing to reach out to him. But she didn't move. Not even an inch. And her body ached for it.

"That's good,"

And she blinked, forcing herself back to reality as she cleared her throat, hoping to find the voice that had left her. "I'm glad we were able to clear all this up," she nodded. Nova knew she needed to move away from him but she couldn't find her escape as he stood so close, and she didn't even know if she wanted to escape him. "We can move past it now. Go back to normal..."

"Is that what you want?"

Something about the way JJ asked her that question sent rage through Nova, and something inside her snapped as anger took over the lust that had once been pouring through her. 

Her shoulder hit his arm as she pushed past him. She stopped herself at the railing, gripping the cold iron until her knuckles turned white. Closing her eyes she let out a tired sigh and listened to the crashing of the ocean waves. Nova could feel herself shaking and it felt like her heart was going to rip out of her chest with the way it was raging inside her. 

"I don't know—" She shook her head. "I don't know what I want."

How could she know? The world around her was moving in fast-forward. Everything happening too fast for her to keep up with. It was like she was stuck on pause while everything and everyone moved around her. And it was always so loud. There was so much noise. How would she ever be able to know what she wanted?

She spun around, though her fists stayed closed around the iron, locking herself there. Unmoving.

"I'm just stuck. I can't think, I can't sleep, I can't breathe..."

"Hey! Hey, Nova, hey!" JJ had somehow moved across the balcony without her noticing. His hands were on either side of her face, forcing her to look at him as his calloused thumbs stroked her cheeks, pulling her out of the panic that threatened to drown her in the scream that lived inside her head. She breathed heavily, looking at him, her heart pounding against her chest. "Look at me, okay..." he breathed, the smell of mint gum and cigarettes dancing along her face. "You don't need to know, okay? I'm sorry I asked you that. It was a stupid question anyway."

Nova nodded, looking at him, her mouth dry and heart pounding. 

"You okay?" he asked, his eyes stuck on hers as if she was the only thing in the world that mattered to him right now. Like she was his entire world. 

She couldn't breathe. Her chest rose and fell unevenly as her heart punched into her chest. The noise was so loud, ringing in her ears. She couldn't focus. Panic threatened to consume her as all the unanswered questions taunted her. Nova's eyes darted from side to side, looking for something, anything, to pull her out of this. To give her some sense of peace in this panic. To help keep her sane. 

And she looked at JJ. Studies every feature of his face. His eyes, they could sink ships. An ocean of blue that pulled you in and never let you free. The few freckles that danced across the bridge of his nose, usually only noticeable in the sun, but now Nova could see them, she could see everything about him. The way his lips quirked up and the one piece of hair that stood upright on his head no matter how many times he would smooth it down.

His lips. 

Turned down as he frowned at her. 

Nova remembered exactly what his lips felt like. Soft and consuming — demanding. She remembered the electricity that danced across every piece of her they brushed over. 

Her eyes met his again. She didn't say anything. She couldn't even catch her breath. The inside of her lip burned as her teeth dug into it, thoughts swirling through her brain. 

Nova knew what she wanted. 

It wasn't what she should want. 

She eased away from the rail. Her hands fell away from the iron. She was burning from the inside out. 

And before Nova had the time to think, she closed the small space that had been left between her and JJ. Her lips crashed onto his as her arms intertwined around his neck, pulling him down to her. 

Relief poured through her the moment she touched him, and a longing sigh had escaped her lips the moment they met his.

Electricity passed between her fingertips as they pressed into the back of JJ's neck. His hands gripped her waist, his fingers digging into her skin as he moved them under the silk shirt and up her waist, setting her ablaze. 

JJ broke the kiss, having fallen back against the bench on the other side of the balcony. Nova looked around, confused, as she didn't even realize they'd been moving. She quickly found JJ's gaze again, and he looked up at her, his eyes shined like glass. Her heart was racing again like it was trying to claw its way outside of her. And her skin prickled with a heat she had never felt before as she found him looking at her with hunger in his stare.

She took a breath. She knew she should stop this. That right now would be the best time to stop and just go inside and go back to bed, as if none of this had ever happened.

But it did happen.

And Nova wasn't ready for it to end.

So she shoved all the sense she had away and leaned into the want she had for him, which was stronger than anything she'd known before. 

It was like a bolt of lightning. Kissing him was like being electrocuted. You just held on tighter, not able to let go. 

JJ guided her onto his lip, so her legs were on either side of his. He ran his hand through her hair and down her neck, and she leaned back into his touch. He leaned into her again, his lips brushing right up against the tender spot just behind her ear that he knew so well.

"You know you could've just woken me up last night, right?"

Her voice came out as a breathy moan.

JJ pulled away to look at her, and she wished that hadn't. Hr looked at her, his eyes glassy and face flushed, "We're still on that?"

Nova shrugged, a sickeningly sweet grin playing on her lips.

"Smartass."

JJ kissed her deeply. He kissed like he might die if he didn't. As if this might be the last time he ever got to do it, so he was relishing in the feel of her. And he'd only want it more when he'd feel her moan against his mouth and move her hips to be closer to him.

"Do you hear that?"

Nova pulled away.

JJ's eyebrows furrowed, "What?"

She pressed her finger to his swollen lips, shushing him. 

Nova cursed as she heard the familiar chime again and cursed as she climbed off JJ's lap and ran back into her room where the phone lit up on her nightstand again. Messages poured in on her lock screen.

"You're really checking your phone right now?" he asked, a slight, but still playful, annoyance to his tone.

Nova waved him off as she she scrolled through the hundreds of messages pouring into their shared group chat. 

Her stomach twisted as she read through them, and a horrible, awful feeling of dread washed over her. 

"Sarah's gone."

She turned to JJ who had followed her into her bedroom, "She's what?" he asked moving to stand beside her so he could look at her phone. "What do you mean she's gone? Where'd she go?"

"She said she's getting the cross..."

"Alone?" asked JJ, shaking his head. "She's insane. No way Rafe is just going to hand over the cross to her," he ran a hand through his touselled hair. "What is she thinking?"

"She thinks because Rafe is her brother it's her responsibility to get it back from him," Nova knew the way her best friend thought, and she knew that Sarah was blaming herself for her brother's actions.

Blood rushed through the open wound in Nova's lip and replaced the taste that JJ had put there. 

Sarah knew that Rafe would never hand the cross over to her. Nova knew that she knew that. She went into this knowing she'd lose.

"We have to go and get her," Nova stormed into her closet, not looking as she pulled clothes from hangers and shelves, putting on whatever she could find that wasn't her polka-dotted pajamas. "Rafe's crazy. He'll hurt Sarah if given reason."

He'd already shot her and nearly drowned her. He could do worse than hurt her. But Nova couldn't go there right now. She wouldn't let herself. Sarah was strong. She was smart. And they'd get to her in time.

Nova came back into her room. She stopped, facing the door and her back to JJ. Her eyes squeezed shut as her hand rested on the cold golden doorknob.

"You okay?"

She heard JJ take a step toward her.

Fear was consuming her as she thought about her best friend being in danger. She'd left them. Doing this on her own while Nova was making out with some guy on her terrace. She should've been better for her friend. She should've been there for Sara

Taking a deep breath she opened her door, turning back to look at JJ from over her shoulder, "You coming, or what?"

"Where is she?" 

Her gaze scanned the property hidden beyond the stone wall. She had run down the sidewalk, heart beating out of her chest and each breath burning every time she tried to suck in air. There'd been no sign of Sarah, she hadn't answered the hundreds of calls and texts Nova had sent while speeding down the road, JJ clutching the grab handle and cringing every time she took a turn.

Everything was loud again. The screaming in her head was no longer a dull pain she could ignore. She couldn't think or care about anything else except Sarah. Tunnel vision had taken her over.

Pope shook his head, hands deep in his pockets, "I told her it was too dangerous for her to go in there."

Nova turned to Pope who had already been there, standing beside John B, "Wait what?" she asked, shaking her head, refusing to believe that they'd just let Sarah go inside that house. "She's inside? Insane that house?"

She looked at them with panic-filled eyes and pointed back to the lit house behind the wall.

No. No. She couldn't be in there. Sarah wouldn't do something that careless. Would she?

"We tried to stop her," said John B. "She said she'd be careful."

He could barely meet her eyes. Whether it be the guilt he felt about losing track of Sarah or the burning anger he felt inside when he watched JJ step out of the car with her. They'd been together. That much, John B. did know.

But Nova didn't have the time to care.

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure she will try to be so careful." Nova nodded, anger, fear, and sarcasm all pouring through the sour tone she threw at John B. "And I'm sure the brother who shot her will be so careful too, right?"

It wasn't as if she wanted to turn all her anger toward John B, but she wasn't thinking, and he was just there. She needed to get Sarah back; that's all she could think about.

"I'm going to look for her."

It wasn't a question or an invitation.

But as she turned to go, a body moved in front of her, standing about a foot away, but fully prepared to stop her if they had to. "You're insane if you think I'm letting you walk into that house."

"Sarah is in there alone!" Nova cried out. 

She ran her hands back through her hair, her feet moving but taking her nowhere as she paced in a nervous circle. 

Grabbing her shoulders, JJ turned her back around to face him, looking down at her with one of the most intense looks in his eyes she'd ever seen him wear. "I know that. We all know that," he told her, his voice solid and stern. "And we are going to get her back to you, I promise. But I'm not having you walk into that place with no plan."

Nova bit down on the inside of her lip. She hated all of them right now. She didn't give a shit about a plan. She didn't give a shit about anything except Sarah. And they've never cared about a plan before. All three of the boys standing with her right now were the most reckless she'd ever met, and they'd never had a plan for anything. Yet now they preach to her?

It wasn't fair. 

She pushed away from JJ, knowing he was right, and hating him for it.

"So we make a plan. Now."

JJ nodded, John B. and Pope murmuring their quiet agreements.

"A plan for what, exactly?"

A sudden stream of light fell on their back as if they'd been spot-lighted, except if the spotlight was really small. 

Nova turned around, her hand shielding her eyes to protect her corneas, only to find herself staring down the barrel of a shotgun.

Goddamn neighborhood watch.

"This isn't what it looks like, sir," said JJ, stepping forward with his hands raised over his head in surrender.

The old man looked between them, "You boys are on the wrong side of the island," he said, gun roaming side to side as his gaze moved. "I think I'm going to call the police."

Boys? Did he just not see her or something?

JJ shook his head, "You don't have to do that sir."

The sound of him cocking his shotgun echoed through the night air, and Nova gulped. 

How was it she was finding herself standing on the other side of a gun way more than she ever thought she would ever be?

"I'll decide for myself what I need to do," he said, clearly not liking the sound of JJ telling him what to do.

Damn, these old men that need to find new ways to get their rocks off.

"Sir..."

The old man looked up, seeming surprised that she'd been hiding there 

Nova stepped ahead of the other guys with a sweet smile and fluttering eyelashes, "Could I talk to you for just a minute?"

He furrowed his eyebrows, looking at Nova, seeing a girl who did not belong on the other side of the island, yet she stood with the boys who did. The boys who he had his shotgun ready to unload on.

"Are these boys bothering you, young lady?"

She scoffed, "Well, honestly, they bother me all the time," but the attempt to joke didn't land with the old man, and so she shook her head getting back to the point. "No, no they aren't bothering me. These guys are my friends. And I know you they're just some derelict kids from the Cut, but... but um—"

"But Mr. Cameron didn't think of us like that."

JJ stepped to stand beside Nova, saving her ass and taking control of the narrative.

"Our friend here," he motioned to Nova beside him. "She introduced us to Mr. Cameron and convinced him to hire us as yard workers, sir," JJ stared at the gun nervously, but Nova watched as the older man's hold on it waivered. "We were just waiting for our years associate..."

"Tommy."

"Yes. Tommy," JJ looked at Nova, thanking her quickly. "We were just waiting for Tommy to return from planting a row of flowers for Mr. Cameron's memorial."

The old man looked between them, "So, why's the girl here?"

JJ took another step in front of Nova when he noticed the barrel of the gun hand moved to land on Nova when the old man's attention fell back onto her. 

"I helped with organizing the memorial," said Nova, trying to fake some grief in her expression as she talked about Ward. "I'm here to make sure everything looks the way it's supposed to."

"Keep talking," said the old man, unconvinced.

Nova looked at JJ, motioning for him to go on with it. He's the one who liked making up all the stories and scenarios.

Luckily, he got the hint.

"The Knight of the Rhododendron lives on!" JJ declared loudly.

He stepped up to the old man, unaffected by the gun in his hands, and pointed a finger into his chest, "In here..." he whispered. "That's why we planted these flowers."

"So true," 

"He's right,"

Pope and John B. chorused, nodding their heads in a nervous agreement. And Nova gulped, waiting to see if they'd all be shot because of JJ's outlandish lies.

"You smell that, right?" asked JJ, moving to stand beside the old man, slinging a careless arm around his shoulder. 

"What is it?" the old man sniffed. "Is that night-blooming jasmine?"

Nova doubted JJ even knew what night-blooming Jasmine was. 

"No," he shook his head. "It's more like um..." JJ hesitated as if thinking about the next line of the script he was making up in his head. "It's more like a natural Viagra."

Jesus Christ. They were dead for sure. Or they'd at least find themselves in the back of Shoupe's cruiser tonight.

"That's what it is," nodded JJ, a confident grin pulling at his lips. 

"Really?"

And the old man's eyes lit up as he looked at JJ, then to John B. and Pope, and they all nodded. Nova hadn't been included, though, it was pretty obvious why not.

"One sniff, and BAM!" JJ clapped his hands together in emphasis as he screamed beside the old man's ear. "It's hammer time," he chuckled. "You know what I'm saying?"

The old man was very interested. So interested that as JJ kept talking the gun slowly began to lower back down to his side, making the nerves inside Nova ease just a little bit.

But they had to shut JJ up before he went too far with things, which he would absolutely do. So, Pope, deciding now was the safest time as ever, stepped to join JJ, nodding and agreeing as he seamlessly slid into their conversation, while at the same time, pulling JJ back away from it.

"Our associate Tommy should be back here any minute now," he said, trying to end this conversation without sounding suspicious.

JJ agreed, shaking himself out of Pope's hold on him and clasping the old man on the shoulder, turning him around, "We'll be quiet and we'll finish up out here," he promised. "I'm sorry we bothered you."

Nova watched the old man nod his head, as he began to follow JJ as he led him away from them.

JJ stood and watched as he climbed back into his neighborhood watch gold cart, gun on the seat beside him, and he stopped for a second, looking at JJ, "I've gotta get me some of those flowers."

And the golf cart shook to life again and began to move slowly down the street, away from them. JJ waved, a smile on his face, until the small cart disappeared behind the next turn, leading to the next street.

Nova furrowed her eyebrows.

How the hell did that just work?

JJ clapped, "Alright, let's go."

Without any warning, JJ pulled himself up and over the stone wall that was made to keep unwanted guests out. Pope and John B. followed his lead, both of them going over the wall. John B., having a bit of trouble with the alligator bite and all. 

Nova was last to go over the wall, and just as she stepped up to it, three pairs of hands appeared from behind it, all of them offering to help her over. She shook her head, trying to be annoyed, but a smile pulled at her lips. But with ease she pulled herself on top of the wall, swinging her legs over, and she shrugged.

"Eight years of gymnastics and dance lessons..." she told them.

And she pushed herself off the wall and down onto the overgrown grass below. 

Pope rolled his eyes, "Show off..."

But there was hardly any time to be impressed by Nova's leap over the wall as the back patio door swung open and Rafe stormed outside, crossing the yard. They all quickly fell to their hands and knees, crawling to get a better look, but determined to stay hidden in the bushes and shadows.

"There's Rafe," Nova pointed out, watching as he walked through the yard and got into the large truck that had somehow been parked in the backyard.

The truck that likely held the cross.

"What do we do?" asked John B., "What's the plan?"

"Get Sarah."

Nova didn't care about a plan. She didn't care if Rafe was there or not. She didn't care if she was seen or not. Sarah was inside that house, and all Nova knew she had to do was get inside, and she was sure she could make it.

But she had damn near been tackled as John B. and JJ took ahold of different parts of her body, stopping her from carelessly running across the yard and into the house. If she had even managed to make it inside the house.

"He might have the gun, so attacking or running up to him isn't in our favor right now," said JJ, trying to get through to Nova, but she wasn't listening, and she didn't care as she kicked at him so he'd let go of the ankle he'd managed to catch before she was able to stand up and take off.

She rolled her eyes, "So, what exactly is in our favor right now?"

Nova hated him right now. She hated him for keeping her from getting to her best friend. For being suddenly rational about everything.

"We gotta be sneaky about it," he said.

John B. shook his head, "If he's got a gun the element of surprise might now be in our favor either."

He had taken Nova's wrist. Knowing that she'd been about to push herself off the ground, he'd taken her wrist before she could, tying her to him, so she couldn't run off. And he'd yet to let go.

But Nova didn't care about the gun or the element of surprise or anything. She didn't care about how much danger she was putting herself in, she just needed to get Sarah. She had to get to Sarah.

"He has my cross."

Pope hadn't taken his eyes off Rafe, who'd started the truck, and his eyes were wide, with a little bit of crazy sprinkled in there.

"He has my best friend."

And that was more important than any cross.

"What if we threw something in front?" John B. suggested.

"Threw what, where? In the tree?" JJ asked him

JJ nodded, "Slingshot, yeah."

Neither of them was paying attention to Pope. And they've finally loosened their hold on Nova, or let her go altogether as they began tossing useless ideas back and forth.

When the truck began to move through the muddy grass, ruining it in its wake, Pope stood up from the bush he'd hidden behind, watching it as it neared the side of the house, where it pulled out into the road. 

 "Hey, Pope, what're you doing?" asked Nova. 

But he didn't answer. He didn't even stick around long enough to hear the entire question. Because before the truck could disappear into the road, Pope took off after, his arms swinging back and forth as she rushed after it, determined to get his cross from Rafe. 

"Yo! Pope!" JJ stood up, running after him. 

But it was no use. Pope was too far ahead, reaching out for the truck, trying to grab onto the handle of the wooden doors that locked away his cross. 

"He's insane," Nova shook her head. 

She watched as he managed to pull himself up onto the back of the truck, holding tightly onto the handles. 

"What was that shit?" John B. asked, standing beside Nova. 

She shrugged because she didn't know. It was like Pope had turned into Superman for a moment there for a second.

"Okay, well, Rafe's gone, lets just storm the fort," JJ said, sounding slightly disappointed that there'd be no fight to walk in on. 

Nova nodded, agreeing with JJ. 

Finally, they could go and get Sarah.

Or not.

The patio doors opened again, more people stumbling out, moving like they couldn't walk right. 

"Who is that?" asked JJ, squinting to try and see through the dark.

"It's Rose," said Nova, recognizing the voice instantly. 

And Wheezie was with her.

"Is that Sarah?" John B. asked, watching as they were practically dragging her into the car. 

She wasn't moving. 

Something wasn't right. Why wasn't she moving, or saying anything? Why were they having to put her inside the car?

"Rose!" Nova stood up from behind the bush, moving before John B. or JJ could think about stopping her. "Rose, what's wrong with Sarah? Why isn't she able to walk?"

Stunned Rose turned around, her eyes wide, "Oh, Nova, sweetie, she's just exhausted. I gave her some medicine to help with her anxiety," she explained in short sentences while walking backward to the driver's side of the car. "She'll be just fine in an hour or two."

"Where are you taking her?"

"Nova, I think it's best you just go home," she said, "This is a family matter. We're going to get Sarah the help she needs."

But Nova shook her head, "No, Sarah doesn't want your help," she moved toward the car. "What did you give her Rose? You drugged her!"

Rose looked at Wheezie, afraid, "Get in the car Wheeze."

Nova took another step toward them, "Wheezie, please."

"It's just Nova, Mom," Wheezie turned, pleading, also afraid, but for different reasons. "We've known her forever."

"Wheezie, get in the car, now!"

"You know something's wrong, Wheezie," Nova tried to get through to the girl who she had once considered her little sister. The girl she had watched grow up. "I just want to see her..." she was practically begging them. "Just let me see Sarah, please!"

But Wheezie got in the car, shutting the door, and Rose slammed on the gas. 

Nova then knew what Pope had felt. Why he had taken off after that truck and Rafe. 

Because Nova did the same thing. Running after Rose as she turned onto the road. She begged, screaming and pleading for them to let her see Sarah. She tried yelling for her, to get her attention, but it was no use, whatever Rose had given her had her passed out in the back seat. 

"Wheezie, unlock the door!" 

And Nova could see her arguing with her mom. She knew Wheezie wanted to unlock the door, to let Nova inside to see her best friend. She knew Sarah would want to be with Nova, and not passed out in the back of their car, being taken to a place neither of them knew.

But Rose wouldn't budge. Despite the fear and tears in her eyes, she kept them forward, and she kept driving, insisting that Wheezie turn around and sit still.

"Wheezie, please!"

Unfortunately, the car was faster than Nova, and she could only keep up for so long.

"Fuck!"

She watched the car disappear down the road and the weight of defeat fell on her. She'd let her best friend down. She wasn't able to save her.

"The Twinkie!" John B, ran up to her, grabbing Nova's shoulders, turning her to force her to look at him. "We can still get to her, c'mon."

Nova nodded, following him back down the street, where JJ was already sitting in the driver's seat of the van. 

The inside was still wet from the sinking, but if it ran, Nova didn't care. 

She just had to get to Sarah. 

She had to.

The sky was burnt orange with scatterings of blue as the morning sun began to rise of the endless waters. Dew coated the ground and people began to gather as the doors of the local shops started to unlock. It was quiet... peaceful. 

But the screams in Nova's head only grew louder. 

They'd driven into dawn, following Rose Cameron's car. John B. navigated while JJ drove. Sometimes they'd take a different turn or drive down a back road to make sure Rose didn't realize they'd been following her through the night. 

The inside of Nova's mouth had been chewed raw. A permanent taste of blood remained pungent on her tongue and still felt as if it was coating her throat. She hadn't said much throughout the night. She didn't know what to say other than they needed to get to Sarah. And the more time that passed without her was torture to Nova. 

Rose had led them to some kind of off-the-path shipyard. Not somewhere she'd be parking her yacht. These were cargo ships docked along the pier. Shipping containers littered the ground, creating a maze-like shape. She watched as Rose drove easily through the security gate, ni questions asked, and she knew that wouldn't be the case for them. 

And it couldn't be. 

Because the Twinkie had given out. After offering them all she had left, she'd finally stopped. Her smoke filled the air, making it stink even more than it already did.

"We have to get in there," Nova looked at the gate, there was just one security guard, and from the looks of it, the three of them could take him. 

But they'd risk a commotion, and they couldn't be found before they got to Sarah. 

JJ nodded, walking up beside her, "I have an idea."

John B. and Nova followed him, both of them too tired to ask what JJ had planned. 

He'd led them behind a slow-moving truck, carrying a shipping crate. And since it wasn't moving fast, they were able to keep up with it, staying behind it, until it passed the guard beside the gate. They moved quickly and quietly to the other side of the truck where they waited for it to stop to be inspected before taking off in the other direction. 

They ran through trucks, machines, crates, and tools Nova had never seen before in life, and it was like everything in this shipping yard was made to be ten times bigger than it should be. Which helped provide cover when they needed it.

Peering over the flatbed of a truck, they three of them took in their surroundings, realizing none of them really knew where they were, or where they were going. 

"Shit..." 

John B. looked straight on, at the name boldly painted on the side of one of the ships. 

"The Coastal Venture," said JJ, before Nova could ask what the name meant, or why John B. looked slightly more panicked than he had a second ago. "I know that ship. My dad did legs on her last summer. It's a total tramp steamer. I worked on her in port."

"Do you think that's where they're keeping Sarah?" asked Nova, not caring about anything else JJ had just said. 

"Well, it's where they're keeping g the cross," John B. told her, and she turned again, to see how he could know that. "Look. Right there."

A wooden box was being lifted high into the air right beside the ship. And when it rose into the air it revealed Rafe Cameron standing there, arms crossed over his chest, his gaze never leaving that wooden box.

JJ shook his head, his jaw clenched, "God, I hate that guy."

Nova felt similar. 

"There's Sarah!"

She didn't know if it was possible, but Nova felt her heart soar and crash at the same time when she'd finally caught sight of her best friend again.

A man was leading her along the ship. Rose and Wheezie followed close behind. She was awake and aware now, at least. Nova could see the scowl on her lips even being so far away. But there was no shot of her getting away. Men walked in front and behind all of them, acting as bodyguards. Or, maybe prison guards would be a better term. At least when it came to Sarah.

"We've gotta get to her, guys," Nova said, but she didn't turn away, she couldn't stop watching Sarah, making sure she was okay.

"I know, I'm working on a plan," said JJ. "If we go over to that barge, we go over. We'll have to get into the water, though."

Nova shrugged, "I can swim."

JJ moved his head from side to side as if weighing their options, as if they had any, "But then we're just gonna be sitting ducks, so..."

"Howdy."

They all three shot around at the sound of a voice. All of them have their hands raised, ready to defend themselves. Though, there wasn't much they could've done. 

Kiara's eyebrows raised in surprise as she looked between the three of them. Pope, mimicking her expression just a foot away. Nova furrowed her eyebrows, having not expected to see them here. 

"I was about to stab your eyes out," said JJ, jabbing two fingers toward Kiara's face, but his tone sounded relieved. 

Kiara laughed, "You looked scared as shit."

"How'd you guys find us?" asked Nova, wondering if they too had been followed all night. Except then she'd seen Pope's face and knew that couldn't have been the case. "And what the hell happened to Pope?"

"Geo-located JJ's phone," Kiara shrugged as if that was something normal to do. 

Nova nodded, "And Pope?" she asked. "Why does he look like Chucky in Chucky's Bride?"

Minus being ginger... and a doll.

His face had been smeared with dried blood. Places were swollen and bruised. His lip was cut pretty deep, and his close all muddied up.

Pope sighed, "Rafe round three."

"Are you freaking kidding me?" JJ sounded like a protective father. "Again?"

"This was a tie," Pope defended himself.

But Nova scoffed. Didn't look like a tie. Especially because she'd just seen Rafe, and he hadn't had a mark on his face.

"Is that the cross?" he asked, nodding to the crate, now being lowered into the ship.

JJ nodded, "Yep."

"They have Sarah too," Nova told them. "They're holding her hostage."

"We have to get on that boat," said Kiara.

"Seconded," Nova agreed.

"Yeah, well, first we have to get past the goon squad," JJ told them.

"Guys," said Pope, stopping them before they could go along with JJ's plan. "I have an idea." He looked at all of them and nodded. "Just trust me."

"You're not coming with us?" Kiara asked, her eyebrows drawn together in worry. 

"I'll meet up with you guys," he said, though mostly to Kiara. "Just go."

Pope took off in the opposite direction of them. No one moved. They didn't know whether to do what he said and go on without him or if they should go with him. With Sarah, the cross, and now Pope in three different places, they had to come up with a different plan to make sure they left with all three.

But before any of them could offer anything, the ground shook, and Nova had gone temporarily deaf as fire lit up the sky. 

An explosion. 

Everyone around them raced toward the blaze, cursing and calling out to call the fire department. The space around them was clearing out. 

"Was that Pope?" Nova asked, watching as the fire took the attention of everyone they needed to get past to get to the ship. 

Kiara nodded, "I think so," she breathed. "And it's working."

"Pope!" John B. shouted, knowing he wouldn't be heard over the commotion, and Pope came rushing back over to the spot where they hadn't moved from, where they'd waited for him. "Pope, what was that?"

He took John B's shoulder and pointed across the loading yard, "Look," he said, and they all followed the direction of his finger. "The containers going on the ship. We can get in that way. Are you guys with me."

John B, nodded, "You're a genius," he looked back at everyone else, as they waited for instruction. "Lets go guys, this way."

John B. led the way, and Pope stood, waiting for everyone to pass, but Nova stopped, and pulled him into a hug. 

"I would kiss you, but... y'know..." she waved her hand around his face, which had been beaten and bruised. And Pope smiled. "You're amazing."

And she followed the others, Pope right behind her.

They stopped at the crate, Pope climbed in first, reaching down a hand to offer help to whoever stepped in after him, but they stopped behind JJ who'd suddenly halted.

"You think this through Pope?" he asked, looking over the crate. 

Pope nodded, "Yes, this is the plan."

"That's a trap right there," JJ pointed out, an uncomfortable, panicky edge to his tone. "There's no getting out once we get in."

"I know that!"

It was clear JJ didn't like the idea of going inside the crate. Maybe it was the tight space, or the idea of being locked in, maybe it made him too vulnerable, but he was on the verge of freaking out.

"You don't have to come," said Nova. 

She was sitting beside Pope in the crate. She'd already made up her mind. She was getting her best friend back.

And she wouldn't hate the others if they didn't get inside the crate. Nova knew fear and she knew how overwhelming it could be. And she knew that Sarah wasn't their best friend. 

"She's right," said Pope. "This is our fight."

Nova looked at JJ and she nodded, telling him it was okay. 

But he shook his head, "Nothing to lose."

John B. patted his shoulder, "Nothing to lose he agreed."

"Let's do this then," Kiara was the next one inside to get inside the crate, taking the hand that Pope had been holding out to them. "At least it's better than boarding school."

The crate they'd climbed into was stacked high with boxes and other cargo. And while that didn't help the feeling of being trapped and closed, it did provide them space to go unseen by the person who'd be closing them inside of here. 

They ran to the back, pressing their backs against the cold metal walls, using the netting and cargo to shield their bodies from view. Nova's knees were tucked under her chin as she sat behind two nets full of what looked like large rubber hoses. And she began to fear that the pounding of her heart might be what got them found, because there was no way, it couldn't be heard.

"Okay, she's good to go," Nova felt her body relax at those words. They hadn't been found. "Let's lock her up."

But once those doors closed and the light of the outside went away a new kind of terror settled inside.

The sound of screeching metal filled the small space. There was clunking and clanking, and suddenly the crate they'd all run inside was being lifted through the air. Nova hung on to the ropes and netting around her, but it was no use, as they were airbound, her legs didn't seem to work, not against the swinging of the container as it moved through the air. She was tossed from side to side. Thrown to the floor. 

JJ had tried to grab ahold of her, to shield her from being slammed into anything else, but it only led to both of them being thrown around and into each other. 

Nova had been on plenty of flights, and none of them, not even the worst turbulence she'd experienced, was like this. 

All she could think about right now was the water below them and what would happen if they were dropped. And that made her want to puke. 

Even more than all the tossing around had.

They finally were dropped with a loud thud, and Nova fell forward, catching herself with her hands. She looked up, breathing heavily. 

Pope and JJ helped her off the ground, and back into a seat, well, a crate she could use as a seat. As long as she was upright. 

"I think that was it," said JJ. 

Everyone shushed him, telling him to shut up as his voice echoed and bounced off the metal walls around them.

Silently they all waited. Waiting to hear if they'd been found out. 

Nova reached out, swatting John B's arm and pointing toward a small vent just above him. He nodded, understanding what she was telling him. Slowly, he raised himself high enough to look through the small creases, just before, not even a second later. he dropped back down below it, motioning for them all to get down and away from the window.

"What?" JJ whispered. "What was it?"

But no one said anything. Not as a shadow appeared on the other side of the wall and they watched as fingers peeking through the small slits in the vent. Someone was looking inside. 

And Nova's heart betrayed her again, banging against her chest. She swallowed, holding her breath, not even wanting to breathe.

"Nah," she heard someone outside the crate say. "It was probably just my imagination."

The shadow disappeared, and slowly they all sat back up. They looked at each other, sitting in complete silence, all thinking the same thing. 

They were definitely going to die.

· ☼ ·

𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆:

This took longer than I wanted it to. But hey, look how long it is.

I will admit, that I'm super happy with the chapter. I think I did pretty well, changing some of the canon timeline. But with the way this show is going, please expect some more of changing the canon. And finally, some drama that isn't Nova's! Nolan is finding himself tangled up in some messy situations. Any theories about all that? We're also seeing more of just how vital Sarah is to Nova, and just how much love they have for one another. I know I say they're other halves, but in times like this, you'll see it.

I also think I have finally pinned down who everyone's endgame will be, or what their endgame will be (like where they'll end up at the end). Granted this is always subject to change, as my mind changes all the time while writing. But I am curious to know if you guys have thoughts or predictions. Also, how do you think season 2 of this story is going to end, or what state is Nova going to? be in by the end of this adventure of season 2.

And, as always, tell me your thoughts. Did you notice anything in this chapter? Did anything stand out to you? I want to know everything. All of your thoughts and opinions while reading this chapter. What do you guys think of the direction the story is going in so far? What do you think is in the making with this little love triangle? What about Kiara, what secrets is she keeping? Comment, comment, comment!

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