chapter six
"flirting queen"

      "IT WAS LIKE, REALLY CONVINCING."

      A sigh escaped Lynn's lips without her even meaning to, but it still occurred. The fake break up with JJ had worked, or at least phase one did, because the next thing the two blondes knew was that gossip of their breakup was spreading like a wild fire. Mostly other Pogues were the ones going crazy about it, and she'd received several DM's since the fiasco in town.

     Is it true? U and JJ broke up??? I thought y'all were soulmates.

     i can't believe it, who broke up with who

      U have a crush on a kook???

      I thought you two were forever, you know?

      Every single time she heard the familiar ding of her instagram notifications, she would either grumble under her breath, or a sad little sigh would come out. Seeing the different reactions from people she could've considered friends were like a dozen little daggers were digging into her heart. Someone asked if it was because she heard JJ was cheating, another questioned if it was Rafe who she liked — good, she guessed, that some people got the purpose, someone even asked if Lynn could pass the girl's phone number off to JJ now that they weren't together anymore.

      When they had wrote this plan down in stone, she never even thought of the feedback that could come from the people she liked most. Pogues lost a little bit of faith in their once known Pogue princess, and Lynn didn't know how to recover from it.

      "Are we sure this is gonna be worth it?" Lynn pondered, gazing her head upwards to face the rest of her best friends. They all seemed to be a bit surprised, not that Lynn noticed, because they had been having a conversation for at least an hour before she had finally joined in. "I mean, how do I even get Rafe to admit to killing Peterkin?"

      "That's phase four," Pope explained, his head bobbing up and down for a moment. "We still got time to figure all this out, alright?"

      A numb expression had taken over Lynn's face as she leaned backwards in the chair she was resting in, not really sure how to pick up on the topic. She was already regretting this, and her eyes floated over towards where JJ was lingering. The crew had started a small bonfire in the backyard of the Chateau, but JJ had silently made his way down to the old wooden dock. Kie and Pope seemed to being distracted with figuring out the rest of the plan, but Lynn couldn't focus in on the words.

      He didn't think I meant any of the words I said earlier, right?

      "You know, he's not mad at you," Kie spoke up through the silence, and Lynn jerked her head to look back at the girl. She was wearing a cute crochet crop top, and a pair of dark blue shorts that Lynn swore actually belonged to her, but it was nothing new that the girls shared clothes. She no longer saw Pope, and wondered if he had run inside for something. "He's mad at us, at Rafe, hell — I bet he's even mad at JB for having to do this stupid plan in the first place, but not you."

      The words comforted Lynn, even if it was the slightest bit, but she would take what she could, "Thanks, Kie, how'd you know that was exactly what I was thinking?"

       "I know you, Evelynn," Kie smiled a sweet smile in her direction, and in turn, it made Lynn grow one of her own. "And I know how you love blaming yourself for things, you self-centered bitch."

      A wild chuckle escaped Lynn's lungs for the first time all day, which almost felt a bit odd, and it was so incredibly loud that even JJ out on the docks could hear the beautiful laughter of Evelynn Bardot.

      After the booming laughter of the girls began to slowly fade, more serious expressions had taken over their faces, and Lynn had been the first to talk, "So, if phase one is complete, then what's phase two?"

      "You really weren't listening to our conversation whatsoever, were you?" Kie questioned, and a warm blush had scattered across Lynn's cheeks, and she was thankful that it was now beyond nightfall and darkness had taken over the sky. "Phase two is you flirt like your life depends on it."

      "Oh, that would be because my life does depend on it," snickered, and slightly seethed, Lynn, but Kie seemed to take it as sarcasm, so she laughed a bit. Lynn could hardly tell whether it was sarcasm or seriousness herself, her tone of voice didn't vary much between the two, to be honest. "Okay, but that doesn't seem, well, too incredibly hard."

      "You're a flirting queen, Lynn, you totally got this."

      "Yeah, I was a flirting queen before JJ, I mean, how the hell am I supposed to flirt if I have a boyfriend?" Lynn questioned, furrowing her thick brunette eyebrows together.

     "Because you're not supposed to have a boyfriend, Lynn, that's the whole point of the public breakup," Kie pointed out, and Lynn didn't want to admit that she was right. The fake breakup appeared to be the easiest phase of this entire plan, and that's what scared the hell out of her.

      "Look, me and Pope figured out another plan that we can possibly do too," Kie spoke up through the defeaning silence. "Someone had to have flown the plane, right? We saw it fly over our own heads, so, we're gonna figure out who it was, and get them to confess to witnessing Rafe murder Peterkin."

      "Aw, look at us and our amazing plans," Lynn grinned playfully in Kie's direction, reaching forward to place a soft hand on Kie's thigh, giving it a tight squeeze. "Where do we start?"

      "We don't start anywhere," Kie responded, and Lynn confusingly pulled her eyebrows together. "You have Rafe to worry about, we got this plan."

      Lynn didn't like the idea of splitting up, having two completely different plans without the backup of each other. But, she was hopeful that this plan B could possibly solve their issue of clearing John B's name so that Lynn wouldn't have to continue any longer with the Rafe plan.

      "Fine, I'm too high to argue with you anyway."

a/n: short chapter!! do you guys prefer more frequent updates with smaller chapters, or less updates with longer chapters? lemme know!!! <33