𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 40.

"𝐖𝐇𝐘 𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐈 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 go ahead and see them hands up in the air, right now." The man said.

I choked on my own air, causing me to reach up for my throat as the van fell quiet. The terror in my eyes accelerated when I laid them on the gun, held tight by the man wearing the mask, seconds away from possibly shooting a bullet right through John B's head. My gaze wouldn't tear away from it. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't look at the man, or John B, only the gun.

I had thought about Jj's gun a few times after that night at the beach party when he had pulled it out on Topper, but as I got to know the Pogues, I knew Jj would never use it to hurt me. But this— this man in the jumpsuit— was different, I didn't know him. And he was about to shoot my boyfriend.

"All y'alls hands up in the air, right now!" He shouted, with something higher than aggression. I winced at the volume of his loud voice.

I felt like I could no longer breathe, my throat closing up until there was no more room for air to circulate. No one said a word as hands slowly rose up.

"Oh my god," I winced, letting go of my throat and raising my own hands beside my head. I could barely get the words out, it simply sounded like a muffled voice, with an inaudible outlining of 'god'.

"You, out of the car, let's go." He ordered John B, the gun shifting back over to him.

I tore my eyes away from the weapon to look at John B, as he reached for the door handle. No one said anything at all. It seemed like we were all holding out breath as he slowly stepped out of the van, eyes carefully staring at the man in the mask.

"Out of the car, let's go, hurry!" The man demanded with a forceful tone of voice, which made me flinch, again.

I didn't want to look back at Jj, Pope or Kiara, afraid that a simple movement was going to get me killed, but I knew we were all thinking the same thing.

"Let them out," The man shouted, taking one hand off the gun for a moment to motion towards the rest of us still sitting in our seats. John B shut the door. "What you waitin' on? What you waitin' on! Let them out!" He yelled, jerking his head towards us.

My hands were shaking beside my head uncontrollably, my fingers trembling as he followed John B around the front of the van, the gun never loosing it's target on the back of his head. John B slid the back door open.

"Go on! Go on! Let's get out the car, let's go!" He was shouting mercilessly, his voice booming through the trees around us.

I pushed open the passenger door, more than reluctantly. A small whimper fell past my lips when my feet landed on the dirt, the door slowly closing shut behind me.

"There you go, pretty girl!" He shouted, as I stared at the gun. "Here we go! Get out the car, lets go, hurry up!"

With my hands shaking, I took the smallest of steps backwards, moving to stand behind John B. He barely looked down as I breathed out unsteadily, my body cowering behind his. Pope stepped out of the van next, then Kiara, the gun pointed at them at their turns.

Jj's mouth was mumbling as he ducked out of the back, "Look, we're broke—"

"Shut the hell up!" The gunman screamed, cutting him off.

"All right, okay! Just relax—" I'd never heard Jj scream so loud.

The man aggressively charged for the blonde, the gun nearly hitting his chin, "Shut the hell up! Shut up!"

"Dude just relax!" Jj tried to yell again.

"Chill!" Pope warned Jj with a fearful tone.

"Blow your damn head off!" Another yell, but this time the gun inched forward dangerously.

I nearly shrieked from the volume and vile tone of the voice, my hand covering over my mouth— even though I was told to keep both up beside my head. John B nudged his shoulder into mine, not speaking.

"Lay down in the ditch! Lay down in the fucking ditch!" He screamed.

With the gun pointed at every one of us, I bit down on my tongue and practically threw myself to the floor, thinking he was going to shoot.

The man inched closer. "On your goddamn hands and knees! Down!"

Kiara slowly fell to her knees beside me, Pope laying next to her, and John B on my other side at the end of the line. Jj wouldn't fully lie down.

"Put your face on the ground!" The guy hit the top of Jj's head to force him on the grass. "Stay here just like that!" He yelled into his ear, "Put your heads down!"

Kiara placed her hands on the back of her neck, her eyes looking down at the dirty grass, and I slowly followed her actions, my hands trembling.

"Don't let me see you look up! All right!" I couldn't see, but by the way his voice wavered, I could tell he was stepping towards the van. "That's all y'all gotta do."

I felt tears prickle at my eyes.

Other than items being thrown around in the van at a small distance, we could only hear our heavy breathing, and Jj's quick, and impatient huffs.

"It's a setup guys," Kiara said lowly, to everyone. Her voice cracked.

"That old bat shanked us," Jj seethed with a more-than-angry tone, referring to the pawnbroker. He aggressively punched the ground beside him, "Fuck! Goddamn it!"

"Jj, shut up!" I cried, my volume cautious. A small tear fell from my eye, landing in the dirt below me.

Kiara grabbed my trembling hand. As I reached over for John B's to hold as well, it wasn't there. He was slowly standing up, eyes carefully pinned on the van, to make sure the gunman wouldn't see him.

"Wait, no, no, no, no," I whimpered, once realized that he was getting up. I tried to reach for his hand, which was there to support himself while crouching, but he pulled it away. "John B," I whispered, "No,"

Pope turned his head towards us, "John B." He whispered with an angered tone of voice, "Don't be a hero man,"

"Sh." Was all John B said, a finger rising up to meet his lips.

Jj's breathing trembled. Kiara gripped tighter around my hand.

Then, a gasp was heard coming from inside of the van, along with a small thud of something dropping. John B was running over to the "cop car", ripping the backseat door open forcefully, before throwing himself in. Jj groaned with impatience. Another tear fell from my cheek.

"All right, y'all stay just like that!" The man yelled, after a while of silence. I jumped at his loud voice. "Unless you want your brains blown out all over this road!"

My face scrunched up, and my heart was beating out of my chest.

"Don't move your goddamn heads, okay?" He pointed at us with a rough jerk of his arm, and that's when I shifted my eyes up to see the blue cloth in his opposite hand. He had the gold.

If he didn't have the gun, Jj probably would have jumped up from the ground to attack the man, to get our gold back. But all he did was punch the ground again, and groan with anger, clutching his hat tighter.

When the man in the jumpsuit began to walk away from us, skipping over to his blue car, we were all thinking the same thing. John B was going to die. No one said anything. Everyone held their breath.

But as we watched him settle in front of the wheel, placing the gun and the gold nugget in the passenger seat, John B rose from the back. His arms roughly gripped on the man's neck, yanking him back against the seat with an audible thud, and multiple groans. My breathing hitched.

"Oh my— oh my god," I couldn't barely process what was happening, as the man's head slammed into the wheel. Everyone looked to where I was staring.

Jj was the first to stand up after me, wasting no time in running for the car once we realized John B had taken the gold back. The rest of us stood up, eyes wider than ever.

"Guys! Get the gun!" John B struggled to yell out, as the man punched him, the two falling out of the car.

Kiara let go of my hand as she ran with Pope, following Jj. I was shoving my hair behind my ears, rushing towards them, trying to catch up. Everything was happening so fast, my brain couldn't process it all at once. Jj punched the man in the stomach. Kiara swung, but missed. She fell into me when the man shoved her away.

"I got the gold!" Pope shouted.

John B slammed the gun down onto the man's back, sending him flying to the floor. Being right at the car's door, I gripped my hands around the top rim and let it collide with his body, hard. He groaned and winced every time the door hit his body, and I screamed with every forceful pull. Kiara kicked his stomach. Pope kicked him away.

"Son of a bitch!" I spat, my chest heaving in and out at an unsteady rate. John B glanced up to me with a look equally filled with disbelief and proudness. I wiped the hair out of my face.

When Pope ripped the mask off of the man's mouth, Jj lunged forward, "I know this piece of shit!" He yelled. "He's a basehead!"

I wanted to ask what a basehead was, but I stopped myself.

"He sells coke to my dad," Jj spat with a tone of hatred, which undeniably caused my eyebrows to narrow. I'd never heard anything about his father.

The man panted, "Hey, listen," he barely chuckled, "I could've hurt any single one of y'all but—"

Jj punched the gun into his face. John B pulled him back.

"Jj!" Kiara shouted.

The man laid on the ground, panting and trying to grasp for air.

"Dude, chill man, come on," Pope warned.

My wide eyes watched Jj as he reached down for something on the man's jumpsuit, pulling. He came back up with a card in his hand. He looked down at it, biting onto his lip, before shoving John B away from him, and reeling past us.

"We've got one last stop." He was saying, "Let's go see where this son of a bitch lives."

With dried tears on my face, I watched John B throw the car key somewhere in the trees, before he grabbed my hand and pulled me to the van, all while the man yelled at us from his spot on the ground.

___

"Jesus fucking Christ," I gawked, "this place is a shit show."

We pulled up to a rickety trailer shack, driving on the grass engraved with tire marks. When we had gotten back in the van, everyone was too tired to deny Jj' next actions. Without a word of explanation, he had driven all of us up to this "house", where apparently, the gunman lived. Now, we were driving around back.

"I don't know about this, man." Pope complained from the front seat.

I was sitting in the back of the van next to John B, who didn't let go of my hand the whole ride. I held back from asking him if he was okay. He had wiped the tears off of my face.

"Dude, why the hell are we here." Kiara asked, more as a demand for answers, rather than a question.

Jj glanced back to everyone, while pushing his door open, "This'll only take a second," he simply said, before slamming the door shut.

Pope slid open the back door.

"Where you going?" John B groaned, shouting for Jj.

"Yo soy justicia." Jj called back, with a humorous tone.

"Oh my fuck," I breathed out, while pushing myself off the backseat. No one seemed to be going with him, and so I decided to hop out of the van. "Is no one gonna talk about what the fuck just happened," I said, loudly, as I trotted away from the van, hoping Jj would hear me.

John B was quickly following behind after Kiara told him to. I walked into the trailer first, to see Jj throwing items around carelessly, searching for something.

"Yeah, so whats your plan, slick?" John B said, sounding annoyed, as the two of us stopped in the doorway. The place smelled like shit, and looked terrible.

"Well," Jj exclaimed, "As thou hath stealeth from us," he said with an accent, throwing pillows around, "We shall stealeth from ye."

"Cut the bullshit, Jj," I crossed my arms hard over my chest. "What the hell are we doing here."

"An eye for an eye, my friends." Jj said, while drifting past us.

"Yeah— yeah, thats great Jj," John B swivelled in front of him, "But what happens after you rob a drug dealer, huh? He knows who we are."

"No way in hell you're going to rob this guy, Jj," I claimed, in disbelief.

He scoffed, "Relax guys, Im not scared of him." He started walking away.

"Oh my god." I rubbed my hands over my head stressfully, as he waltzed into another room by himself. John B stopped me from following Jj.

"What are you doing?" John B called, after a moment of hearing shuffling noises.

Jj groaned, "Getting even!"

I scoffed loudly, "I swear to fuck—"

"All right, took care of business." Jj cut me off when he paraded into the room, with a gym bag newly resting in his hand.

"Hey— look at me, look at me," John B grabbed both of his shoulders before he could pass us again, speaking hush, "If you keep going down this road you're gonna end up just like your dad—"

Jj aggressively grabbed a hold on John B's shirt, cutting off his words. "You watch your mouth, man."

I immediately figured Jj's escapade and robbing had something to do with his father. Jj had mentioned that the drug dealer— who nearly killed us— sold coke to his dad.

"Okay, thats enough." I tried to step between the both of them.

"Aren't you guys tired of being messed with?" Jj seethed lowly.

John B stared at him. "That's not the damn point, Jj."

"Cause I am." Jj whispered.

"Let's just go, please," I said to both of them. Then, Jj looked down to me for a split second, and then trudged off through the door we came in by.

"All right," he announced loudly, stepping outside, "so we're looking at about five grand each, in reparations for putting us through that bullshit."

"Are you shitting me?" My jaw fell open when I looked down at the stacks of money in his hands, quickly catching up to him, "You stole twenty-five thousand?"

"Sorry about that y'all." Jj slightly chuckled.

"Stop— wait." I lunged forward and grabbed Jj's shoulder, spinning him around. "You're actually going to steal from this motherfucker? The motherfucker who literally almost just killed all of us?"

"What does it look like, Charlie." He lowered his eyes at me, glancing down at the money in his hands.

"You can't steal from drug dealers, Jj!" I shouted, "I've seen way too many damn movies to know this shit never ends well. You realize what he could've done to us, right."

"So, thats what we're doing now? We're robbing drug dealers?" Kiara interjected, sadly.

"This is not the time to start wilin' out!" Pope shouted.

"How'd you guys like havin' a gun pulled on you?" Jj bit down on his lip. His voice was loud.

"Put the damn money back, Jj," I crossed my arms.

"Or what," He suddenly took a step towards me, speaking dangerously, "Or what, Charlotte."

I swallowed, as everything went quiet for a moment. The look in his eyes told enough, and everyone could see it.

He was going to say something about my parents if I didn't stop.

John B stepped in front of me, "Relax, bro," he tried to calm Jj.

"I'm not putting this shit back." Jj glared at John B, then me, before turning away.

"This is ridiculous!" Kiara yelled.

"I swear to god Jj, if you don't put the money back—"

He hopped into the van, looking at me, "You'll what, Charlie. You gonna blackmail me? Cause we both know I got way too much shit on you, for that to ever happen." His eyes were shooting daggers. I felt my stomach tighten.

"What the hell is he talking about," John B grabbed my arm when he noticed my body tensing up.

"Have you lost your mind!" I complete broke loose, my hands rubbing over my head. "We nearly just got fucking killed on the side of the goddamn road by that son of a bitch, and now you're stealing his money? Fuck off with this dumb shit, Jj, he's a drug dealer—"

"Charlie calm down," Pope warned me.

I shoved my foot on the ground. "No— no! Are you joking?" I yelled with an angry tone, louder than I've ever yelled to them before, "This is absurd, all of this shit, all of your shit, Jj— this is, this is just straight ludicrous!"

John B pulled on my arm. No one spoke after my outburst.

"Put the fucking money back before that guy comes after us, and we're all dead." I breathed out.

"No." Jj simply replied with a shrug, after all of my yelling.

"God, Jj what the hell is wrong with you right now, what are you not telling us! We don't need that money, like, is this about your dad, or—"

"Oh, so you wanna talk about lying now, huh?" Jj stepped out of the van again, coming right for me. "Okay, Charlie, let's talk about lying."

I felt my throat close up.

"Guys that's enough." Kiara said, her voice worried.

"No, let's let Charlie tell us more about herself, since she wants to bring up lying." Jj stared down at me with anger in his eyes. "What about your parents, huh? You ever wanna talk about them?" He mocked, "Tell everyone about your fucking parents, Charlie, about all your damn lies."

I felt like crying. I should have stopped while I could, now all eyes were on me.

"Maybe then it'll take the damn blow off of me for once." He spat, before turning away.

"What the fuck is he talking about, Charlie," John B stepped in front of me. I didn't look at him.

"Drive me home." I simply ordered to John B, my eyes pinned on Jj while he stared at me from inside of the van.

"What?" John B narrowed his eyebrows.

"Drive me home, right now." My vision became blurry, but I kept a hard face, my eyes never leaving Jj's.

I only looked away when I ripped open the passenger door, and threw myself onto the seat without another word.

✰༄✰

𝐨𝐡 𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐓 🤭

𝐢 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫

𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐛𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 😎

— also, do we actually like long chapters?

𝐢 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬𝐧𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐞𝐬

𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐟𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢 𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭

𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭

𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 !!