CHAPTER SIX
rid me of my tears
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     "IM NOT DOING IT." dakota stubbornly shook her head at the blonde boy who was sitting across from her on her bed.

     "like hell you aren't." jj seethed at the girl, fed up with her excuses.

     dakota groaned, rubbing her face in frustration. "i'm not taking my shirt off, jj." she sighed not wanting to deal with this so early in the morning.

     "please," he whispered out, reaching over to place his hand on top of hers, his eyes slightly watering, "just let me see them."

     dropping her head in defeat, she finally gave in. "fine." she muttered. pulling the t shirt off of her body and now only left in her sports bra. once her shirt was removed, jj received a front row seat to seeing the blue and purple bruises that littered around the girls abdomen.

     looking at the girl in this state made a tear fall down the fragile boys face. wiping it away quickly, he reached out to slowly graze his fingers over her stomach. "what'd he do this time?" he gritted out, not being able to make eye contact with the girl fearing that he'd truly break down seeing his favorite girl in pain.

     "just some punches and kicks, nothing i couldn't handle." she responded softly looking down while picking at her nails.

     angrily, his hands formed a fist and he let his anger out on the girls mattress with a swift punch to it. "that's the thing!" he belted out suddenly, pushing his body off the bed he started pacing around the girls room. "you shouldn't have to 'handle' this!" he ran his hands through his hair in frustration.

     "he was just drunk jj, it's okay." she sighed, getting up from her position on the bed to reach for his arm to stop his pacing.

     "no it's not okay! stop defending him." he demanded starting to get riled up once again. however, he didn't when dakota forcefully pulled him into her body to hug him tightly holding the back of his head as it rested against the crook of her neck.

     pulling his head out from her shoulder both hands on the sides of his face, she wiped off the single tear under his eye with her thumb. "let's head to john b's, yeah?" she let out softly.

     nodding slightly, jj reached for the girls hand and started walking with her out her bedroom, out the front door, and to his bike which was loft out on her grass.

     jj hopped onto his bike, dakota following in suit rapping her arms around his torso, they were off on their way to john b's, previous conversation pushed to the far back of their minds.

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arriving around john b's, both jj and dakota hopped off the bike and made their way to his front door taking notice of the summons notice for child services hung up on it. looking at each other, they had one of their telepathic communications both having an idea on how to prank john b.

     dakota reaches her hand out, to pound on the door three times as jj shouted, "dcs! i know you're in there!"

     jj ran over to jump near the window, successfully scaring the crap out of john b. dakota noticed how hard jj was laughing, so she ran over to the window and upon taking notice of the expression on john b's face, she couldn't help but laugh either.

"gotcha slick!" jj teased, laughing even more. "you should have seen your face. your face was like..." he mimicked the facial expression that john b previously had.

falling back onto the couch john b let out a loud sigh, over his friends jokes already and it was only the beginning of the day. hastily getting up from his spot on the couch he grabbed his keys and made his way out the door to see his idiot friends and go on their adventure for the day.

"i hate you guys. a lot." he pointed at them both making sure to put emphasis on 'lot' before walking by them to the volkswagen.

"no. you love us, a lot." dakota deadpanned running up to john b and jumping on his back, ripping off his hat and giving him a noogie.

john b staggered with the sudden weight added onto his back and started trying to pry the girls hands off the top of his head.

jj walked up behind the two and grabbed the girls hips and pulled her off of him. "come on you psychotic ape, you're gonna kill him." he gave her a pointed look before jogging over to hop into the passenger seat.

dakota looked up to see john b smiling at her cheekily, "i win." he boasted before turning around and hopping into the drivers seat.

scoffing, she pulled open the door to the back but she wasn't quite able to get in due to the fact that john b decided to start driving. not too fast of course but not too slow to make it easy for the girl.

     "you asshole." she muttered before jogging trying to catch up to the moving vehicle, however she wasn't going fast enough. she could hear them laughing and she couldn't wait to smack it off their faces.

     finally she was able to run fast enough to catch up to the van and launched her body into the back. "okay, i think i've used all my energy for the day." she grunted out of breath.

     "it's literally ten in the morning." john b spoke turning his head to look at her.

     "hey! eyes on the road!" she yelled at him, reaching her hand out to turn his head back to face the road.

     "okay. now let's get to the topic at hand." jj stated.

      john b looked at his friend in curiosity, dakota as well. "and what would that topic happen to be?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. jj gave him a look. "kiara, duh."

     "and what about kiara?" john b asked tested.

     "i'm just saying," jj defended, "i don't understand why you don't at least try with her. she clearly likes you. she's like, 'oh, john b.'" he moaned out.

"is that what she does?" john b rhetorically questioned, done with jj's bullshit.

"she's sketching about you diving, and then she kissed you bro." he ranted.

"she kissed me on the cheek." john b corrected. "it's not like we're making out."

dakota watched their banter with careful eyes, making sure they say nothing offensive about kie, because she won't hesitate to slap them upside the head.

"low hanging fruit bro." jj said. "don't pretend you don't notice. i see it in your eyes." he pointed to his eyes. "you're like, 'i kinda like that,' and you start blushing."

"i blush?" john b asked.

"yeah." jj confirmed.

"everyone blushes, idiots." dakota pushed her head through the middle of the two boys.

she watched as jj reached up towards the dashboard and grabbed the compass. she flinched as john b's hand flew by her face trying to grab the compass out of the boys hands only for jj to slap his hand.

"dude, chill. i'm just looking at it." he said as he turned the compass in his hand examining it. "i gotta admit, your father's compass in scooter's boat, that's freaky."

"yeah, i agree with barney rubble over here." she joked, receiving a slap to the back of her head from none other than jj.

john b looked at the two shaking his head at their bickering, "yeah. that's why we're going to talk to ms. lana, figure this whole thing out."

"i'm sure she would just love to talk to us." jj leaned back in his seat, continuing to mess around with the compass. "it's not like her husband just drowned or anything."

dakota leaned back and laid down in silence staring up at the roof of the car, waiting till they finally pulled up to where lana grubbs lives.

pulling up, john b parked, as they all got out of the car and started walking closer to the house.

"you know what this house looks like?" jj asked as he inspected the outside of the house. "whoever lives here smokes too much weed."

looking up at jj, dakota smiled at him, "then i'm sure you'd be great friends with whoever lives here."

as the three teens got even closer to the house, the heard the sounds of class shattering and things being thrown.

the sound of a man yelling sounded out from the house, "bullshit!"

not liking the sound of things jj interfered. "maybe we should come back." he suggested.

"but what if she's hurt?" dakota asked in disbelief, now worried for what's going on in ms. lana's house.

"no, no, shut up. shut up, guys." john b held a hand out to them, signaling for them to be quiet.

once again the three were interrupted by the man yelling again, "tell me where it is, or i'll fuck you up!"

dakota started to get worried, knowing that whenever she's in that situation— the same situation that lana's in right at this moment is never a good sign.

"i'll sink you in the fucking—" came the mans voice again, followed by lana screaming, "you're hurting me."

     all three of the flinched from all the yelling and noises coming from the house.

     "i—"

     "shut up," john b demanded, "come on." he waved both jj and dakota to follow him as he rushed over to the side of lana's house.

     "where the fuck is it you bitch?!" came another mans voice once again yelling. dakota was starting to feel really bad for lana not wanting her to get hurt.

     "i don't know!" yelled lana before the sound of a slap rang through the air.

     "is it here in the house?" the man yelled again, "or is it somewhere else!?"

     john b and dakota ended up next to the window when jj came rushing over to push them down so they were now crouching underneath it.

     "still think we should stay." jj asked looking at the two.

     dakota looked at him in disbelief, "if i was in her place right now, i'd want someone to help me."

     they were both once again shushed by john b.

     "the compass wasn't in the boat!" the man yelled out again. "where is it lana?!"

     "i don't know!" lana cried out once again.

     something was heard to have smashed against the wall, which made chips of paint fall down into the three's hair.

     "is that paint?" jj questioned looking up at the window running his hands through his hair, shaking out the paint.

     "yes it's paint." john b confirmed.

     "let's get the hell outta here, man." one of the two men said to the other.

     john b headed closer to the edge of the house, as jj was protesting stating that they should leave. dakota however, thought they should stay.

     as the men exited the house, dakota peeked over from her spot behind jj, immediately recognizing them as the got into the bow familiar boat.

     "oh, god," dakota gulped, "those were the guys that shot at us."

     after they watched the two men drive away on their boat, the three teens rushed over to check on lana.

     "ms. lana?" john b called out as they entered. dakota took notice on the chairs and tables that were flipped— the sight all too familiar. she calmed down when she felt jj's comforting hand on her shoulder.

     "ms. lana." john b called out again, the noticed her crouched on the floor against the wall, crying.

     "hey, are you okay?" john b reached his hand out to touch her shoulder, and she jumped slightly in fright.

     "dude, she's tweaking."

     "do you need a doctor?" john b asked her, but all she did was continue to cry.

     john b turned his attention to dakota, "let's call the sheriffs department." he advised but was interrupted by lana, "no cops, please." she begged. dakota's face fell even more upon seeing her face, the thought of calling the cops made her even more scared.

     "that's not good." jj shook his head, reaching down to pat john b, "come on, dude. let's just go."

     "you shouldn't be here." she croaked out.

     "ms lana. we want't to help you." dakota spoke gently, lowering herself to crouch down next to john b.

     "what do you know about these guys?" john b asked her.

     "they were looking for something."

     john b started reaching into his pocket, pulling out the compass. "does it have anything to do with this?" he questioned her.

     dakota didn't fail to notice how lana's face fell when she saw the compass.

     "do you know anything about this? this is my fathers, and scooter had it. why?"

     "scooter didn't have it, okay?" she denied. "don't tell anyone you have it." he voice slowly raised.

     "why?" dakota asked only to be ignored.

     "they can't know!" lana yelled. "you've gotta get out of here!"

     jj reached down pulling dakota up so she'd stand. "come on." he said. he tried to reach down to john b too but he wouldn't give up.

     "what do you know about the compass?"

     "go get out!" she demanded.

     "we gotta go. let's go." jj pulled john b and dakota rushing them out of the house as lana continued to hell at them to go away.