chapter twenty four
"bullshit plan"

"HEY! GUYS, DON'T TIE up!

      With a stuffed backpack of simple groceries hooked under one arm, where Evelynn's other hand was interlocked with JJ's — tugging her forward with each and every step towards the bogey.

      They had stayed up all night, not a single one of the teenagers had gotten a blink of sleep due to the scare that Rafe and Barry would return, this time for blood. If those two knew that John B and Sarah were alive, it would only be a matter of time before every other person on both Figure Eight and The Cut would know it.

      The two couples consisting of JJ and Lynn, and then John B and Sarah, were tracing down the old wooden dock that led up to the Chateau. Both of them were carrying bags of clothing items, whereas Lynn had decided to pad her backpack entirely full of she and her boyfriends favorite snacks.

      "What?" Questioned Kie, who had halted in her movements of tying off the rope to the dock, Pope had also ceased with his tethering.

      "We're dipping," JJ directed, his index finger swinging in a little circle as he tossed his worn bag onto the boat.

      John B, with a single arm wrapped strongly around Sarah's waist, and then the other had intertwined his fingers with her own palm that was over John B's shoulder for support — her gunshot wound, "Where'd you guys go? What happened last night?"

       Lynn hopped onto the boat with ease, a few blonde strands falling into her face as she did so. JJ's eyes drifted towards his girl unknowingly, staring at her carefully, and his mind drifted back to the previous night.

      How Rafe wasn't the vicious Sheriff Killer they had all believed him to be — how Lynn believed him, more specifically. No matter whether Rafe was the one to pull the trigger or not, he was still the one responsible for Peterkin's death. Why didn't she see that? He didn't understand in the slightest bit — how the brick wall she had built up for Kooks so long ago was cracking.

      "We slept on the break, what's up?"

      Snapping out of distracted thoughts, JJ collided his palm with Pope's shoulder, "Slept, right, yeah. We were up all night."

      "We gotta get the hell outta here," John B had explained, coming to a stop in front of the boat so that he could better help Sarah, adjusting his hands.

      "Rafe knows we're here, so we have to leave — like, now," Sarah swiftly explained, and Lynn let out her hand for the girl to interlock with so she could safely get onto the boat. Sarah smiled warmly at her friend, and she didn't part with her soft hand for a second.

     Lynn whistled, pointing a sharp index finger towards the boat's motor, amusingly perking her eyebrows, "Time to skedaddle, kiddo's."

"Shouldn't she be back by now?"

Anxiously, Lynn kept tapping her left foot up and down and up and down — not stopping for a single second. Her arms were crossed around her legs, pulling them closer to her chest as she rested her cheek against her cold skin. Her back was resting against a wooden trunk from a tree that had fallen years ago.

Her eyes drifted towards where the sand meets the bright blue ocean water, Kiara and Pope were resting by the very beginning of the sands — having a simple conversation. Awkward, not casual in the slightest bit, but it was their usual conversation. JJ had parted from supportively rubbing Lynn's shoulders just a second ago, quite a few yards away down the beach — perhaps, checking all possible entrances for Sarah.

The blonde girl had explained to the Pogue crew that she would go back home to Figure Eight, that she would convince her father to turn himself in before anyone else got in trouble, or worse — dead. Lynn was weary, but Sarah had assured her that her father would never, in a million years, harm her.

"She'll be fine," a warm voice convinced, and Lynn tugged into the smallest of small smiles when she recognized her best friends voice — John B. He sounded anchored and firm, not a single second of hesitation could be scratched in his tone of voice, even though the thoughts in his head were the exact opposite.

"I feel like this was a bullshit plan," Lynn stated coldly, huffing out an annoying breath as her light blue eyes scanned the waters once again, nothing. "We need to talk to Rafe, if there's any chance of putting Ward away, it's getting him to testify."

There was an awkward silence crawling over the two best friends as they sat beside each other with not a single word escaping their systems. No one was as convinced that Rafe was one of the good guys than Lynn, and it was driving her insane.

If they could get Rafe Cameron to testify about the fact it was his father that shot and killed Peterkin, then John B would be in the clear. Sure, it wasn't the original plan of tricking Rafe into admitting aloud to being the murderer, but he was still an essential part of this plan.

"I get why you did it," Lynn mumbled softly, the deafening silence was slowly driving her into a type of madness, and she was begging for it to end so her mind would settle with anxiety. "Saying it was Rafe, I get it."

John B's eyes drifted down to his blonde best friend, a bit of a wash of relief splashed in them, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously twitched, "Really?"

"You wanted to hurt the man who killed your father, John, I understand," Lynn bobbed her head softly, and she reached forward to intertwine her fingertips around his palm, giving it a tight, reassuring squeeze. "But I don't think Rafe is the enemy."

"I won't ever understand your capacity to forgive, Evelynn Bardot," John B dryly chuckled under his breath, his thumb hooked around Lynn's to rub it soothly, platonically. "I envy it."

"You know, I missed you, dummy," Lynn laughed faintly, the sketch of a grin crossed her pink cheeks.

"Don't worry, I missed you too, well — sort of," John B teased, and Lynn gasped dramatically while covering her slack jaw with two hands, a fake hurt expression stretched across her face. "Yes I missed you!"

Lynn leaned towards the Pogue boy, resting her head warmly on his shoulders as both of their sets of eyes were on the echoing waves of water. JJ off in the distance hadn't lost his gaze on Evelynn, and even though there were tiny needles pricking at his heart seeing the way they touched, he knew that all potential feelings that his girlfriend and best friend had at one point had long gone faded.

She was all his, and they all knew it.

JJ clenched his jaw tightly as he didn't want to dare leave Lynn, her effortlessly beautiful body or her soft skin or her gentle blue eyes. He couldn't imagine losing her.

"Wait, guys! She's back!"

Lynn let a wild and deep breath of relief escape her lungs that she hadn't even realized she had been sucking in this entire time, and both Pogues jumped up from their previous close positions. All parts of the scooby gang darted their way down to the sandy beach that met the waves as Sarah pulled the bogey to a draw — and both Pope and JJ secured the boat in place and Lynn helped the blonde off.

John B was the first one to speak up, just as Lynn had peeled back her lips, "So, how'd it go?"

Lynn curiously switched over towards the blonde girl as she sniffled, and Lynn's eyes furrowed with sympathy, "That good, huh?"

"You guys were right, it didn't work," Sarah softly murmured, and Lynn had hoped that her little sarcastic comment would've brightened the mood, but it hadn't seemed like it. "Sorry."

"It's okay, Sar," Lynn confirmed, reaching forward to grasp onto the girls palm, and their slender fingers intertwined with ease. "Look, I can always talk to Rafe, okay? I"m sure there's—"

"—Or maybe we just cut the whole Rafe plan out," interrupted JJ, and almost every single teenager snapped their heads in the blonde boy's direction, and Lynn shockingly widened her eyes. His sudden outburst was much of a surprise, not to mention the amount of venom that was traced in his voice.

"Rafe's the best way to clearing John B's name at this point, J," Lynn argued, but not so much with anger but more of a pure statement. "Isn't this what you guys wanted me to do? This whole stupid plan? It was to clear JB's name, so are we gonna do that or not?"

"But why do you have to do it with Rafe!" Echoed out JJ, and unknowingly Lynn flinched backwards from her boyfriends booming and threatening words, and most of the Pogue crew were also taken off guard.

"This is awkward," Kie whispered under her breath, her lips pulled into a tight, awkward frown.

"This is bullshit," Lynn growled back, trying her best to straighten out her back and stand her ground. She didn't push her buttons and warningly get in JJ's face, but the two had a steady staring contest. "If you're insecure you can just say so."

"OH, shit," John B gasped as the words escaped Lynn's mouth, and at first she couldn't even believe she had actually spoken her thoughts out loud — and was blaming the lack of sleep for any relevant information.

Kie's eyes widened with astonishment, Sarah had actually and physically gasped aloud, Pope had sworn that his jaw hit that sandy beach, and John B sat there with vast and loose parted lips.

But the reaction of JJ was different, he wasn't astounded or taken aback — he was just void of emotion. Lynn actually couldn't even read the expression that crossed his face, and anyone could see the flash of regret in her eyes. The words had tumbled out her mouth faster than what she could stop, but seemingly now, she couldn't find a single one.

"Uh, guys, we should save the couples quell for another time."

Both Lynn and JJ snapped from their distracted and harsh staring with each other, to follow Kie's eyes down the beach to the south. There were three police identified boats heading straight for them, the waves from the motors roaring in the distance.

"You think they're here for the couples counseling?" Lynn chimed sarcastically, but it was extremely dry — more so just clarified annoyance rather than anything else.

"They followed you here?" John B questioned, his head swinging towards an astonished Sarah, her mouth gaping. "Must've been your father."

"We gotta find another way outta here," Pope explained, swaying on his hips to turn towards the few trees in the distance, like a small forest that grew thicker as it went on. He glanced acknowledgingly towards Lynn, who bobbed her head up and down.

John B hooked a supportive arm under Sarah's arms, and within a second the Pogue crew darted down the sandy beach and towards those same trees. Pope and Kie were in the forefront, blocking some low hanging tree branches as the rest were following closely.

Sarah and John B were in the middle, where Sarah's feet were dragging across the sand that had now shifted into pure dirt and grass, appearing like it was mostly just John B tugging her onward. Lynn was second to last, but that was because the blonde boy had purposely placed himself at her tail.

JJ's head swung over his shoulders for a split second to get a glance at where the police boats were originally, but by this point — they had already hit the shore and were slushing their way through the waves. Carrying extremely sizable guns in their hands, JJ gulped, "Go, go!"

Even with being in an argument no more than two minutes ago, JJ was not letting a single one of those men near Evelynn. Where as Lynn felt the exact same, repeatedly checking over her left shoulder to make sure that her boyfriend was keeping up with the rest of the group.

"We gotta outrun them!"

Rapid, breathless pants were escaping Lynn's lungs as the group had been splashing though some thin waters to cross over to a safer, more thicker side of the forest. But to their surprise, the water deepened within a minor, forcing them to actually swim the rest of the water.

It didn't give any of the Pogues a chance to catch their breath, in fact it had seemed to suck even more energy from their bones. But they weren't giving up without a fight, not a chance.

Once they made it to the other side of the miniature island, Kiara had pointed to a nearby and ginormous oak tree that rested near the shore, with a slight wheeze she spoke, "Behind the tree, let's go!"

Once they had successfully hidden behind the tree, Lynn's harsh blue eyes switched over to John B, who appeared equally as stressed, if not more. She pressed her back against a thin tree truck, her eyes fluttering towards her friends. Then she saw it in a flash, John B wasn't going to get out of this one and he knew it — they all knew it.

Once hearing even more police sirens in the distance, then spotting the same officers that had followed them from the previous shore, their fate was fully sealed, "We're trapped, they surrounded us. What do we do?"

"There's no getting out of this," JJ explained faster than what Lynn could comprehend at first, but then it hit her like a semi-truck, her eyes switching over to her boy. "We gotta make a stand."

The blonde boy had fished out the black handgun he had had for months now, and Lynn furrowed her eyebrows because she hadn't even realized he had taken it from the Chateau in the first place. JJ snatched the bandana from around his neck that had managed to escape being soaked, and he started rubbing the fabric around the gun in various spots.

He wouldn't, would he?

No, he most definitely would.

Feeling like she should be the most responsible, Lynn launched forward to wrap both hands around JJ's shifting ones — forcing him to come to a stop before he could manage to clean the wet bullets off. Her eyes yanked at his, his attention fully hovering towards her.

"Don't," Lynn whispered, her fingertips softly caressing his own palms, and at first he appeared undaunted and unfazed. Lynn murmured the rest under her breath, feeling self-conscious of her words since her best friends could most definitely hear. "I can't lose you, J. I won't lose you."

"John B, step out into the clearing!"

And there it was, JJ had dropped the handgun in a split second. But before the police officers could come any further, he had kicked a mix of crumbled leaves, dirt, and mud on top of the object. If you had walked up upon the tree, you wouldn't even be able to tell the difference.

"You're not gonna lose me, princess," JJ confirmed gently, his blue eyes only meeting Lynn's for a second before jerking towards his best friend, who had slowly stepped out in the clearing.

Several police cars had come to a halt near that clearing, most of them having their guns drawn and aimed straight for the teenagers. Immediately and as a swift instinct, they all swung their arms willingly into the air.

"I'm surrendering!" Hollered John B, who was inching closer and closer to the police officers, and Lynn recognized two of them — obviously the Sheriff, and then Mr. Big Head, the one that had originally been the one to help with both her and John B's child services cases.

"Rest of you stay right where you are," Shoupe had directed, his eyes drifting towards the children hovering by the tree trunk, then back at John B. "Hands where we can see them."

"Hey, listen, Shoupe, I wanna testify," John B shouted, his voice had a crack in it though — Lynn didn't blame him, he was about to finally be arrested for the murder of Peterkin, a murder he didn't commit.

"It's about time, get down — do not move a muscle," the Sheriff instructed, and John B tucked his arms behind his head while he kneeled down onto the ground, obeying without hesitation. "Everybody else, don't move."

Lynn's attention was jerked to beside her, to the left, was Sarah. The blonde girl had covered her mouth in a mix of fear and shock, and there were several tears straining down her face. Lynn, her eyes full of pity, reached forward to intertwine her fingers with the girl's.

"Hey!" A woman had yelled towards Lynn's direction, and she swung over towards the female police officer, who had short brunette hair and eyes full of hatred. She slammed forward, pushing Lynn a foot or so backwards.

The girl fell to the ground, trying to use her palms to help offset her lack of balance but it still hurt like a son of a bitch. She glanced wildly up towards the woman, being completely taken off guard that she had just used such force with her for no apparent reason.

Seemingly at the same time the female police officer had assaulted Lynn, Mr. Big Head, actually known as Thomas, had lurched at John B. The brunette boy was rammed into the dirty ground, and the man had wrapped a strong arm around his neck, stealing any breath from entering this lungs.

"The fuck was that!?" Screamed JJ, who launched towards his girlfriend, but he was quickly interrupted from moving adjacent when a different, this time male, police officer had shoved a gun in his face. He returned to his arms in the air in defense, but his concerned riddled eyes never left Lynn. "Sheriff, what is this? You're just gonna let this happen!?"

"No, stop, let him go!"

"Fucking cops!" Lynn growled with a booming voice, and she dug her heels into the dirt to tow herself back up.

However, the girl couldn't even mutter anymore of the disgusting and threatening words on her tongue as she was shoved forward, that same female police officer had gripped tightly ahold of her wrists. She slammed Lynn against the nearby tree trunk, forcing her arms tightly behind her back.

"What the hell!" Lynn howled, struggling a bit in the woman's grasp, and she couldn't believe what was happening. "Are you fucking arresting me!? What the hell for?"

"Let her go!" Sarah had lowly shrieked from beside, but she wasn't daring to move an inch due to the scare that her would end up right where Lynn was — silver and cold handcuffs wrapped around her wrists. "Hey!"

"This is bullshit!"

a/n: extremely long chapter that i hope you guys enjoyed bc it took me forever and the voices in my head tell me that no one actually enjoys this book so <</3333