010 !! GUN

"Ow, easy", John B hisses as the disinfectant dipped cotton touches the side of his jaw eliciting a small burn over the affected area.

"Sorry", Georgie murmurs leaning in close to carefully rub the edges of the cotton over his jaw.

"Well, what else was I supposed to do? He could've killed him", JJ comes walking out on the porch with Kiara jabbing an accusing finger at him.

"Still, you ratted us out. Now, Topper's gonna go blabbering to the whole town about us having a gun", she crosses her arms glowering at him.

JJ sighs turning his attention to his sister cleaning up John B's wound whilst Pope sits on the porch steps with his head in his hands.

"Is it bad?", JJ stands next to Georgie earning a small shake of head from her.

"He'll be fine in a few days time".

"Good, 'cause we can't afford to get him to a hospital. They'll ask questions", he plops down on the chair opposite to John B's.

At his words, Pope's head perks up and he turns around to face him.

"Questions we don't have an answer to. Questions which wouldn't be nearly as terrifying if you had been a little more careful. Lie low, remember?".

Now Pope's the one glaring at the blond boy which immediately makes him groan and drag a hand over his face.

"For the last time, I saved his life!".

"Maybe but you also fucked up. Like big time", Kie sits down by the door pulling her knees up to her chest.

"Georgie, what do you think?", JJ waves his hands hoping for her to back him up.

Exhaling a breath, she momentarily pulls away from John B's side and considers him for a minute.

"It was stupid but you did the right thing".

"See".

"What? Georgie, no. He did not do the right thing, everyone's gonna know now!", Kiara frowns.

Georgie bites her lip and shrugs.

"So what? At least John B's alive, Topper really would have killed him had JJ not pulled the gun".

"Thank you", JJ gestures towards both Pope and Kiara expecting them to see 'sense'.

"That's—No. He wouldn't have, there were other options", Kiara shakes her head.

Georgie's brow raises, "Oh, yeah? And what are those?".

"Like—agh. I don't know! But anything is better than letting Kooks know that we have a gun".

"Like what, Kiara?".

The blonde practically glowers at the brunette and it's safe to say that all of the pent up rage directed towards her friend is not entirely because of Kiara's constant insistence of pining all the blame on JJ.

Kiara knits her brows as she is taken aback by the rather annoyed tone of Georgie's voice.

"Guys, seriously. It's not a big deal, I'm fine and that's all that matters", John B intervenes hoping to diffuse the tension, thereby, preventing any possible escalation of the situation.

Georgie says nothing and turns back to him, gently dabbing the rest of the soaked up disinfectant on the corner of his jaw.

"Thank you".

Her eyes meet his and she has to physically suck in a deep breath to keep herself from melting right then and there.

John B's eyes search hers curiously looking for some kind of a reaction but Georgie quickly turns away from him, nodding slightly and swallowing down the lump in her throat.

She can't help but think of the 'what ifs' every time something goes wrong in her life.

And right now, with her mind swirling in its place drowning out her friends' voices for the second time today, she does exactly that.

She ponders over each and every decision they've made since the day began — everything that led up to this very moment; with John B hurt and the rest of the group quarreling with each other.

If only they'd listened to her and not hosted that party at the Boneyard, maybe John B wouldn't be hurt right now.

Maybe she wouldn't be so unbelievably pissed at Kie.

Maybe no one would be trying to guilt trip JJ for doing what he thought was best — which ultimately did, at that time, seem like the best choice.

"Hey".

The soft touch of a hand on her arm and the slight raspy voice speaking low for her ears to be the only audience for whatever they have to say, catches her attention.

She glances at John B as he stays laid back on the rusty lounge chair Pope and JJ dragged out from the shed to help him up outside on the porch under the summer moonlight.

He assesses her reaction which is a mixture of a light tint dancing on the corners of her features and a surprised gaze which expectantly waits for him to speak.

She tries to steady her breath but with his nimble fingers oh so delicately resting on her arm, the skin feels on fire.

His gaze very slowly drops down to her lips which struggle to bite back any attention grabbing sounds.

She takes her bottom lip between her teeth and looks on.

Seeing his Adam's apple move up and down as he gulps while carefully eyeing her lips spreads a sense of breathlessness through her body.

Georgie stays affixed as a statue, John B's own palm glued to her skin pining her in place.

At one point, she even finds herself considering her own posture as she's half leaned over the arm of his chair and half standing with her right hand clutching the ratty old porch table.

"Hey, you two".

Georgie jumps back instinctively pulling her arm out of his grasp and turns to face JJ looking at them with a scowl.

She clears her throat intentionally fidgeting with the first aid kit to avoid looking at either of them.

"Yeah?", her eyes stay firmly fixed on the first aid supplies.

"We're saying, tomorrow will all go figure out what all of this", JJ throws his arms around, "means".

Finally, she looks into his eyes slowly wandering her gaze to both Pope and Kiara looking up at her and John B with an urgent expectancy in their gaze.

Georgie nods.

"Yeah, okay".

"John B?", Pope turns to the boy lying in the chair with a rather distant look in his eyes.

He nods too, carefully moving to sit up.

"Tomorrow, it is".

***
stop i wanna update all my books so bad but i literally CANNOT FIND THE TIME TO omf how'd i get so busy this is so unfair i just want a day for spending all my time on wattpad 😭