WHEN CARSON WALKED INTO KIARA'S BEDROOM, she found her sitting annoyed in a purple dress with her hair full of flowers.

"Wow. Look at you, Kook," Carson joked.

"Shut up," Kiara grumbled. "I still can't believe my parents are making me go to this stupid thing."

"And I can't believe you're making me go with you," Carson reminded her.

"I know. I'm sorry, but I just can't do this on my own," she said.

"It's okay, I get it. I'm willing to sacrifice myself for you," Carson said. As she started getting ready, she found herself distracted by the thought of JJ. The sudden realization that she was thinking about him more than a friend was driving her crazy. In fact, she had started to realize it the night of the kegger, but she allowed herself to push it to the side and blame it on her vulnerability that night. Now, it was blatantly clear to her that there was something going on. She was just going to have to try to get over it. Kiara must have noticed there was something on her mind because she cleared her throat.

"So, what's going on?" she asked. "Is it what happened with JJ?" Carson made eye contact with her in the mirror as she was in the middle of doing her makeup.

"Am I that obvious?" she said. Kiara laughed and shrugged, continuing to braid Carson's hair to help her get ready. Carson felt a little nervous talking about it out loud, but she knew Kiara would never judge her.

"No," Kiara said. "I just know what it feels like when you kiss your best friend." She was referring to John B. "Did you talk to him about it?"

"Yeah. He said it was just the heat of the moment," Carson told her. Kiara picked up on the very faint hint of disappointment in her voice though.

"Was it?"

"I mean, yeah," Carson said. "But also no... I don't know." Kiara stayed silent, letting her continue without interruption. "Like, it's JJ! We've been friends since we were 8. He's reckless and aggressive and he smokes way too much weed, but he's also the most loyal person I know. He would take a bullet for any of us. I just, I don't know I feel."

"I think you do," Kiara said. "I just think you're scared to admit it." And maybe that was the truth and that was the harder part to accept. Because what if she did like him and he didn't feel the same?

✰

"Look at all these people. They're busy getting drunk on $100 bottles of champagne and gossiping about whose yacht is bigger, while the people on the cut don't even have frickin' power yet," Carson said.

"Yeah, and to get here, all my mom needed to do was hand over an absurd amount of money and waste 12 years of her life grovelling," Kiara grumbled.

"That's the price to sell your soul to the Devil," Carson said.

"Oh, look, Pope's here," Kiara pointed out. The two guys made their way over to him and Kiara put on a British accent. "Excuse me, sir. Do we have to shuck these ourselves?" He turned with a completely annoyed look on his face, like he was expecting some rich middle-aged woman. "'Cause it might mess up my costume." He started laughing when he realized it was just Kiara and Carson.

"We wouldn't want that now, would we?" he replied back. They did their Pogue handshake before turning to look at the crowd. "That accent was bad."

"Yeah, it was. I was gonna let it go," Kiara said. "You ever seen this many Kooks in one place?"

"Yeah. Last year," Pope said.

"We're in the lion's den," Kiara said.

"Hey, have you heard from JJ?" Pope then asked.

"No. He'll be all right. He's got the survival instincts of a cockroach," Kiara said before glancing over at Carson. She could tell Carson didn't want to talk about it so she didn't bring up what she had told her.

"It's all my fault," Pope said.

"You didn't do this, Pope," Kiara insisted. "Topper almost killed you. Remember?" Before Pope could respond, everyone started clapping. The three turned to see Ward Cameron and his family walking out, dressed like they were way better than everyone else. "Here comes Lord Capital and the Exploiters."

"She's definitely going to poke somebody's eye out with that," Pope commented, referring to Rose's headpiece.

"I need a drink," Carson mumbled. She walked over to where the bar was. "Give me the most expensive drink you have." If she was going to be stuck at this awful place with these awful people, she was going to take advantage of the free food and drinks.

"Uh, are you even old enough to drink?" the bartender asked.

"Am I old enough to drink? That's funny. Do you even know who I am? If my father finds out about this, I promise you will be out of a job tomorrow," she said, playing the role of the bratty Kook to a tee. Normally she would hate to treat a worker like that, but she was just not in the mood. She also knew that there was no real danger behind her threat because she would never actually get him fired. 

"She's okay, Dave." The sound of Ward's voice made Carson tense up. When she threatened to bring her father into this, she didn't think it would actually happen.

"Right away, Mr. Cameron," the bartender said as he began making her a drink.

"Nice to see you again, Carson," he said. She glared over at him. He was pretending like she was just some girl that knew his daughter, not like she was his daughter too.

"I would say the same but I never liked you," she said bluntly. "And now I don't like you even more because of what I found out." He looked down at her, trying to keep his composure but she could see past his facade. He was shocked. "Yeah, that's right. I know."

"Come on," he said, grabbing Carson by the arm to pull her away from the crowd.

"Don't touch me," she snapped, yanking her arm out of his grip.

"Did your mother tell you?" he asked, lowering his voice even though they were now separated from any prying ears.

"She didn't have to. I found your pathetic excuse of a cover-up on the counter," she said, referring to the check that he had written. "Which, you shouldn't even bother have doing, by the way. I don't want your dirty money. I'm not a charity case that you can just throw some cash at to clear your guilty conscience so you can just go on pretending like I don't exist."

"That's not what that check was for," he tried saying. "I want to help you, Carson." Though, she wasn't going to fall for that. She knew better to believe that he actually cared about her.

"That's bullshit and you and I both know it," she said. "But it doesn't matter, Ward, because I don't care. It's just been me and my mom for my entire life. Nothing you can say or do is going to suddenly make you part of that life, so just forget it. Just forget about me because I've already forgotten about you." She didn't wait for him to say anything because she needed to have the last word. She deserved that much.

She stormed back to the party, needing to get away from him. Her hair kept getting caught and pulled by her stupid flower crown, so she was just even more annoyed. She went to rip it out of her hair when she realized she was standing behind Pope and JJ. Her hand dropped from her hair as a new problem filled her mind. Well, really, it was an old problem. 

"JJ?" He turned around at the sound of her calling his name. His eyes widened at the sight of her. She looked frustrated and a bit distraught, but she looked amazing. He wasn't sure he had even seen her so dressed up before. Usually she just threw on a t-shirt and jean shorts with Converse, her classic Pogue look. Now she was in a long, black dress that accentuated all of her curves while still making her look classy.

"Wow, you look..." he started to say, feeling extremely nervous in front of the girl for some reason. JJ never got nervous because of a girl, but Carson was different.

"Ridiculous?"

"I was gonna to say beautiful," he finished. Her cheeks burned up at the compliment and she smiled.

"Okay, um, I'm gonna leave you two to it," Pope said awkwardly. They just stared at each for a moment before Carson cleared her throat.

"So, what're you doing here?" she asked. He snapped out of whatever he was thinking about and suddenly remembered why he was there again.

"We're back in the gold game. John B and I have a plan," he said excitedly.

"What do you mean?"

"We'll explain later, but right now I have to give this to Sarah," he said, holding up a note.

"To Sarah? What does she have to do with it?" she said.

"Like I said, we'll explain later," he said with a nod before walking past her to complete his mission. As Carson watched him walk away, she felt like she had to do it. She had to say something before it was too late and she lost her chance. If she didn't say something now then she never would. Even if he rejected her then at least she would know and maybe it would be easier to move on.

"JJ, wait!" she said. He turned around to find her looking nervous as she walked after him.

"What's up?" It was now or never. She was scared as shit but she had to get it off her chest or she was sure it would become the only thing she would think about.

"There's something I need to tell you," she said. She closed her eyes for a second to gain the courage then just spit it out. "That kiss meant more to me than just the heat of the moment, okay? I understand if that's all it meant to you, but I just needed you to know. 'Cause then maybe I can stop thinking about you all the goddamn time and I can just accept the fact that we will only ever be just friends." She looked up at him and found that he was just staring back down at her with a blank look on his face. He was completely unreadable and it made her even more nervous. "Can you please say something?"

A sudden smile broke out onto his lips before he placed his hands on her face and pressed his lips onto hers. Her heart jumped at the action, not having expected that to be what would come out of her confession. She was fully prepared for a rejection. This was far from that.

After a few seconds, he pulled back but kept his face close to hers. "I don't want to just be friends. It's always been you, Car. Always."

They had wild smiles on their face as they acted like they weren't just two Pogues in the middle of a Kook party. But neither of them cared in that moment.

"We're gonna be breaking the no Pogue-on-Pogue macking rule," she reminded him.

"When have we ever abided by rules?" he pointed out. She laughed and nodded her head. He kissed her once more before letting her go. "Okay, John B is going to kill me if I don't get this message to Sarah, but I promise I'll find you later." And just like that, Carson's life had gotten a whole lot more interesting.