( 𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙏𝙒𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙔 𝙁𝙊𝙐𝙍. )
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"YOU'RE FUCKING WITH ME, RIGHT?" John B. blurted out after a couple seconds of silence. It almost sounded like he wanted to laugh which only frustrated Jaylene as she rolled her eyes at him before placing everything back into the drawer and shutting it.

The Rosewood girl shoved right past him and walked out of the room, bumping right into JJ the minute she took a turn. Her frustration immediately turned into confusion when she spotted the bag that he held in his grasp. And it only took her a few seconds to come across the cash located inside of it. "Are you a fucking moron?" She shouted at him.

JJ ignored her as he made his way past her and into the living area, but before he could get any further than the kitchen, John B. followed after him, grabbing onto his shoulders to keep him from exiting the house. "Hey, look at me. If you keep going down this road, you're gonna end up just like you're dad, do-"

Before John B. could finish his sentence, JJ angrily gripped onto the collar of his friends shirt and harshly shoved him forward. "You watch your mouth, man."

Jaylene knew that JJ was acting out of rage, but she knew that robbing a drug dealer would lead to trouble in the future, so she parted her lips to speak as she looked towards the blonde-haired boy. "Take a minute to think about what you're doing right now, JJ. That money isn't worth it."

"You know, Jaylene, it's real easy to talk about money like that when you're a kook." JJ retorted before looking back at John B. "And you! Aren't you tired of being messed with?

"That's not the point, JJ." John B. gave his bestfriend a harsh look, earning an even harsher look in return.

"'Cause I am." JJ replied to his own question, releasing John B. from his grasp before heading towards the front door to exit the house.

"Wow. Feels like I just talked to a brick wall." John B. scoffed in disbelief as he ran a hand through his hair.

Jaylene stifled back a laugh, walking towards the boy before patting him on the back. "You're one to talk." She shot him a cold look before following in JJ's steps and exiting the house with the confused boy trailing behind her.

When she made it outside, she could sense that everyone was confused by the looks on their faces as they stared at JJ. Jaylene assumed that he'd immediately told them about the cash that he'd just stolen from Barry.

"So that's what we're doing now? We're robbing drug dealers?" Kiara shot JJ a disappointed look as she briefly looked down at the bag of cash in JJ's grasp, clearly not liking the idea of this. 

"How'd you guys like having a gun pulled out on you?" JJ loudly questioned all of them as they sent him judgmental looks.

"You can still stop yourself from making a horrible mistake, JJ. Put the money back." Jaylene interjected as she and John B. joined the rest of the crew. "If Barry finds out, he'll go after you. And he's got nothing to lose, so who the hell knows what he's capable of—"

"I've got nothing left to lose, Jaylene! How many times do I gotta say it until it finally clicks in that brain of yours? Not all of us grew up getting everything handed to us!" He shouted at her, causing her to scoff in response.

"Why is that always your only argument? You want money, JJ? I'll get you money, but don't be a fucking idiot!" Jaylene shouted at him with the same amount of rage in her tone. "I understand that I'm not worthy of your friendship, but you can't throw your life down the drain just because of some inconveniences that have occurred every now and then. We're not just talking about stealing a couple dollars from Barry. We're talking about stealing twenty-five grand."

"I appreciate the pity, but I'm not some charity case." JJ shook his head at her before stepping into the back of the van to take a seat. When no one else joined him, he stared at everyone with a cold look lingering in his eyes. "You guys getting in or what?"

Everyone stayed silent, unsure what to say as they all shared concerned glances. Watching JJ spiral out of control was heartbreaking for Jaylene because he had always been so good at keeping his emotions bottled up. And even though they weren't friends, her heart still ached for him.

After a couple seconds, JJ scoffed before stepping out of the van. "What?" He questioned no one in particular as he placed his hands on his hips, demanding answers from the five teenagers.

"We're sick of your shit." John B. coldly replied as he stepped towards the angered blonde-haired boy.

"Oh, my shit?" JJ sarcastically laughed.

"Yeah. Your pulling guns on people shit." Kiara spat, allowing her anger to control her as she rudely spoke to JJ.

"You acting like a maniac—" Pope began to speak before being interrupted by the blonde.

"Okay, Pope, I took the fall for you, man!" JJ reminded the Heyward boy, clearly upset that all his friends were turning against him. "You now how much money I owe because of you?"

"I'm going to pay you back, and I didn't ask you to do that!" Pope defended himself as he shouted at JJ.

"I just did! Pay it back." JJ shouted through gritted teeth, stepping towards Pope which caused the boy to back up. "Right here, right now, by myself." A satisfied look formed on his face as he broke eye contact with one of his best friends. "You know what? That's exactly what I'm gonna do. Go off by myself." He spoke in a defeated tone before walking away from them, completely ignoring Pope as he called out his name.

"Don't you guys think that you were a bit harsh on him?" Jaylene was the first to speak after a minute of complete silence as they watched the blonde-haired boy walk off.

"Didn't you compare him to his dad the night of the kegger?" John B. reminded her, causing Jaylene to squeeze her eyes shut in regret due to how hurtful her words had been that night.

She sighed before opening her eyes again. "Don't act like you didn't just do the same exact thing back there." She crossed her arms over her chest as she motioned towards the run down home stood in front of them. "I mean, at least I actually gave a shit about him stealing that money. Unlike you guys, I didn't bring up any mistakes that he may've made in the past." She dryly chuckled as she leaned her body against the van. "So much for friendship, huh?"

Sarah bit down on her bottom lip as she nodded in agreement. "She's not wrong. This could've been handled so much better."

Kiara scoffed, shaking her head in disagreement as she walked in the direction of the van. "Let's just get out of here."

｡･:*:ˑ༄ؘ ۪۪۫۫ ▹

JAYLENE ALLOWED A SIGH TO ESCAPE FROM HER LIPS as she looked upwards towards the sky. Her eyes followed the seagulls as they soared through the sky before disappearing into the distance, never to be seen again. It only caused a frown to form on her lips which caused her to turn her head towards John B.

After everything that went down at Barry's house, everyone decided that it'd be best if they just just took the rest of the day off. Things were far too tense between everyone, so they all went their separate ways. Well, aside from Jaylene and John B., who were now laid together on the hammock outside of John b's home. Although she was still annoyed with him, she didn't wanna go home. Not after all the arguing that had occurred that morning at the Rosewood household.

"I'm sorry." John B. was the first to speak.

"I don't wanna talk about it." Jaylene mumbled as she tore her gaze away from his before laying her head back onto his chest. "God, look at us, we're not even together yet and we're already arguing."

"We aren't together?" John B. questioned in confusion, looking down at her as she shook her head.

"Obviously not. You haven't even asked me out yet and I'm getting kinda tired of waiting around." Jaylene playfully scoffed, looking back up at him with a scowl formed on her face. "Dumbass." She quietly added, but it was loud enough for him to hear.

"Hey, I thought you kooks were supposed to be well-mannered." He jokingly scoffed.

"C'mon, John B., you should know by now that we aren't." Jaylene spoke in a teasing manner as a quiet laugh left her lips. "You know, we've got nothing else to do today, and the sun is starting to set..." She trailed off, hoping that he'd catch a hint, but he remained confused, causing her to quickly sit up, which nearly resulted in the two losing their balance. "Take me out on a date or something, you idiot!" She shoved his arm off of her.

"Okay." He nodded, earning a surprised look from her as a smile grows on her face. "We gotta walk there, though."

"You're making me walk? Talk about a lack of courtesy, John with the unnecessary B." She jokingly gasped as she stood to her full height, placing her arms behing her back as she quietly stretched. "Let me go freshen up real quick. I'll be right back." Jaylene waved him off before heading in the direction of the home stood in front of them.

     About five minutes, the Rosewood girl stepped out of the home, feeling refreshed due to the water she'd splashed on her face to get rid of the patches of dirt that had been adorning her face. Once she shut the door behind her, she joined John B's side and the Routledge boy immediately swung his arm around her shoulder before leading the way.

They remained quiet for most of the way there. Jaylene would occasionally complain about how much she despised walking which would earn her a quiet chuckle from John B., but that's all the communication that there was between the two until they finally arrived to a part of the beach that looked abandoned compared to all the other spots.

There were very few pieces of trash littering the ground, making it the cleanest part of the island that Jaylene had ever seen. The sun was perfectly visible from there, making it an incredibly perfect spot to take a small getaway from everything which made Jaylene question how she'd never seen it before even though she'd lived her whole life on the island. But it was probably because it wasn't on kook territory.

"Holy shit. How'd you even find this place? It's fucking beautiful." Jaylene stared in awe, stopping for a quick second to remove her shoes from her feet to allow her to walk better on the sand beneath them. "It's like your own little private beach."

"It's one of my many secret spots." John B. explained, placing his arm on her back to allow her to continue moving forward, closer to the waves as they calmly crashed against one another.

"Oh, so there's more secret spots that I don't know of?" Jaylene let out a laugh as she turned to look at him, her face tilted to the side with her eyebrows raised.

"Of course." He spoke in a duh tone, grabbing a hold of the blanket that he'd been carrying on his arm the whole time which earned him a surprised look from Jaylene. She hadn't even noticed it. "I can show those to you some other time, but I hope that this one satisfies you for now."

"Consider me satisfied." She shot him a wide smile as she watched him take four small candles out of his pockets before lighting them and placing them on all four corners of the blanket.

Once he was finished setting that up, the two sixteen year olds took a seat in the middle of the blanket, Jaylene's head rested on his shoulder with his rested on top of hers. They were silent for a few minutes, staring at the beautiful sunset like they had zero worries in their lives. It brought a sense of happiness to Jaylene, allowing her to finally get a taste of the overwhelming emotion that she so badly craved.

"I wish we would've started talking sooner." She spoke up as the two turned to face each other. "I know it may sound crazy because we've only just gotten to somewhat know each other, but I like the person that I am when I'm around you. I mean, I truly wish that I could say that I've always been this version of myself, but I'd just be lying."

"You mean you haven't always been this overly-sarcastic girl that I'm head over heels for?" He pretended to be shocked, earning a light shove from her as she shook her head.

"No. And I think that you probably know that by now because you didn't always like me the way you like me now, right? You thought I was some brat who held no source of empathy towards others. I was a spoiled bitch in your eyes, wasn't I?" Jaylene bit the inside of her cheek, very well-aware that several people saw her as the spoiled-brat who received everything she desired. "And you know what? It's okay. Because that's exactly who I was at some point. Am I proud of it? No. But what can I do about it?"

"Well...I wouldn't necessarily put it like that." John B. trailed off, knowing damn well that it was a pretty accurate description.

"Beginning of sophomore year, I destroyed a hotel suite with a group of friends while we were all high on drugs and I faced zero consequences because our parents paid all the damages off." Jaylene's face twisted in disgust as she remembered one of the many crimes she'd gotten away with. "And instead of punishing me for it, my dad just added more zeros to my bank account."

"Wait, that was you? No way." A shocked look planted itself on John B's face, but was quickly replaced by a confused look instead. "Why are you telling me this?"

She took in a deep breath, shrugging her shoulders. "I fuck up...a lot. So it's completely fine if you wanna bail before this turns into something." Jaylene tapped her fingers against her thighs as she looked towards him. "I just don't wanna pull you into my chaotic life and then have you regret it—"

John B. cut her off, pressing his lips against her soft ones as she placed her hand on the side of his cheek. It felt like she was kissing him for the first time, but it was more special this time. They weren't surrounded by a bunch of kooks who would have negative opinions on their relationship. Matter of fact, they weren't surrounded by anyone at the moment. Which made it even more special for Jaylene as a smile planted itself on her lips once they pulled away.

"I'm all in if you are." He spoke softly as he kept his forehead pressed against hers, gently drawing circles around her cheek.

"Are you like officially asking me to be more than friends right now, John B.?" Jaylene questioned.

"Could I be anymore obvious?" A laugh left his lips as he pulled his forehead away from hers.

"You gotta ask the question." She couldn't help but laugh because of how flustered he looked, but she enjoyed teasing him.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, a playful scowl placed on his face as he tangled their fingers together. "Will you, Jaylene Rosewood, do me the honor of officially being my girlfriend? No more bullshitting around it."

Biting down on her lip to try and hide the uncontrollable smile that was threatening to plant itself on her lips, she nodded. "It would be my pleasure."

authors note. Hiii!! Hope you all have a great day today and remember to vote & comment! I love reading comments lol :).