chapter thirty four
"bermuda and area 51"

"GUYS, THE THING THAT LIMBREY said — I don't think she meant to let it slip."

Peeking a single eye open, Lynn viewed from that cracked left eye as the group of teenagers began talking again, for most of the previous few minutes of the ride they had stayed quiet as they drove over towards Shady's Acres, the home as to where Pope's Mee-maw was living in.

JJ and John B had returned to their original position in the front two seats, Pope's back was against John B's, where Kie was in the exact same place except with the back of JJ's seat. Sarah and Lynn were on the couch bench in the back, where they could both sneak not so secret glances at their arguing boyfriends.

And girls were supposed to be the complicated ones?

John B and Sarah had apparently gotten into it when the fluffy brunette boy found out that Sarah had recently been hanging around with ex boyfriend Topper — an early breakfast, walk down to the beach for a quick swim, apparently. Sarah had insisted that it was pure friendship, that she hadn't felt that way about Topper in a long time and John B knew that.

So, the two couples were in that same awkward arguing state. It was weird, it was tense, and neither of the two girls knew what to say to the unbelievable jealousy that belonged to their boyfriends.

Snapping out of her thoughts, Pope's voice seemingly continued on from his first sentence, "She said the key leads to the Cross of Santo Domingo."

Pope had fished out that key, the one that had apparently been in his family for years upon years. Lynn reached forward for it, a curious expression riddling her face as Pope lent it into her palms. The metal was cold at first, but she quickly readjusted to it. It was a beautiful key, to be frank, the designs were incredibly detailed and sharp.

"Wait, can I see that?" JJ asked, but he hadn't quite switched over his shoulder to find out Lynn had actually been the one currently holding it — the interest sparkling in his eyes faded just as quickly as it appeared. "Oh, nevermind."

"Ugh," Kiara groaned, snatching the key from Lynn's still softly stunned fingers and then tossing it — gently, of course, onto JJ's lap. The blonde boy reluctantly lifted it up in his delicate fingertips, eyes narrowly avoiding Lynn. "Anyway, are we supposed to know what that is?"

"I'm guessing it's some sort of historical artifact of great importance," Pope replied, shortly clearing his throat as JJ handed him the key back after a steady minute of carefully examining the old object.

"Well, according to the interwebs," Kiara announced, and Lynn almost wanted to question how the girl had been able to search up what the artifact supposedly was in a solid fifteen seconds max, but glued her lips together instead. "It was a gift from New Spain to the Spanish king.

JJ hummed, pursing out his lips in thought, "New Spain? Is there an Old Spain?"

A swift laugh escaped Lynn's system before she even had control to stop it, but once she saw the way JJ jerked his head in her direction with the slightest bit of distain — she quickly silenced up. Her eyes fell as she could quite literally feel the embarrassment rubbing up her cheeks in a bright red, and she leaned her back against the soft fabric as nonchalantly as possible. "Sorry."

"Shit, talk about overgifting," Kie scoffed the comment, lifting her phone so that most of the crew could get a quick glance at it — excluding John B, his eyes were focused on the road. She sure was right, the cross appeared huge compared to the puny human standing next to it, it was littered with many different jewels and crystals. "Look at that thing, looks like there's a person standing next to it."

"So, it's a big ass cross."

"It was widely considered at the time to be the most extravagant tribute ever from the provinces," Kie repeated from one of the very beginning sentences of the article, and Lynn scoffed softly — not disagreeing one bit. "It was lost off the coast of Bermuda in 1829."

"Did you just say Bermuda?" JJ perked up at the mention of the very word, making both John B and Lynn roll their eyes playfully. John B had muttered something under his breath, but she hadn't been able to quite catch it being so far behind him. "It always leads back to the triangle, dude. Like every single time somethings weird, it's Bermuda."

"Yeah, well, J, you also believe the government's conducting secret studies on aliens in Area 51, so," Lynn pursed her lips out amusingly, managing quite a few laughs from each of her best friends — even JJ, for a split second had forgotten any such things about a fiesty argument between the two. "You're not a reliable source, babe."

And then it was gone.

The nickname had so easily slipped from Lynn's lips before she could stop it — she had grown so used to it, and both blondes faces straightened out as they realized for a second, they were okay. But it disappeared quickly into the past as silence crept upon the group, silence that remained all the way until they had made it to Pope's Mee-maw's living home.

Pope had swung open the door of the van first, climbing out with ease as he had done so many times before. Kiara had been next, but Pope raised his hand up into the air and she hushed into a halt.

"Hey, um, actually — I think I'm gonna do this one by myself," Pope directed, and Lynn confusingly furrowed her eyebrows in the direction of her best friend.

She popped her head from behind the seat so Pope could actually see her, and perked her brows at him, "Pope, really?"

"Yeah," Kiara chimed in, switching from the blonde girl over towards the brunette boy. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I can handle it, I don't really need you so..."

Lynn's eyes went wide with a bit of surprise at not expecting such a harsh sentence, let alone that harsh sentence slipping from the tongue of Pope. Sarah and Lynn exchanged the exact same expressions — slightly parted lips and difficult, pinched brows.

"Oh, we're just all one big happy family today, aren't we?" JJ sneered playfully, although the words had almost annoyed Lynn more than wanting her to churn with laughter. "Guess we'll pick you up in a bit, Pope."

"Of course I know what it looks like, but shouldn't he trust me?"

Lynn rolled her eyes with pure annoyance crossing her face, raising the plastic container of a mix between the red and blue slushy machine from which they just got from inside the quick stop to the gas station, she had sipped it loudly.

She didn't mind the brain freeze, instead switching over towards her two female best friends. Lynn was much pleased to find out they would be separating from the boys for a few minutes while they awaited Pope's text for them to go back and pick him up. She needed girl time, more specifcally, girl talk.

"I'm his girlfriend, and just the fact that he actually believes I could ever...cheat on him, fucking breaks my heart," Lynn mumbled out the last few words, practically chomping on her tongue so that she could instead focus on the blood rising in the back of her mouth so no emotional tears could escape. "Isn't it unfair? It seems unfair."

"We know, baby," Sarah cooed softy, shifting the slushy in her hand to the opposite so that she could envelope the blonde girl in a tight bear hug from the side — Kie joined within a second. "It's just like things with John B. Don't they know we love them?"

"Maybe it's not enough," Lynn softly whispered, but it was more a declaration to herself than anything. Neither of the two females seemed to hear the bare words Lynn had muttered, which she was thankful for. Much louder than before, Lynn spoke the next words. "Rafe saved me last night, whether or not JJ understands that. I literally almost died, and he makes an argument about a trend on twitter.?"

"You'd think that that is the crime of the century," snickered Sarah, taking another sip of the red slushy in her hand. Lynn perked a single eyebrow in her direction, bumping shoulders with the girl.

"Tell me about it," Kie exhaled an annoyed, strong breath. "All of this crazy shit's happening, and Pope's giving me the silent treatment for not being in love with him."

A few chuckles left the girls systems as they all came to the conclusion of one thing — boys are the complicated ones, not them. How was it they were all simultaneously going through boy problems at the same time?

Lynn hummed, the ghost of a smile crossing her face, "Hey, y'all think we can sync up our boy problems like we do with our periods too?"

"Evelynn!"

a/n: we're finally getting to the good bits & im excited yeehaw. anyway thank you guys for 100k already, i really don't deserve it😩😩😩your comments and voted make me so incredibly happy, and i truly have no idea how to express my love and gratitude properly. but just know i love and appreciate every single one of you <333