Gap Year • JIARA •

chapter 6

JJ's POV:

Kie and I got in a huge fight and she was right. I walked away and went to the ticket counter to buy a plane ticket. I honestly was just going to by one for myself and just go back to traveling alone. But I looked back and bought one for Kie too.

I walked back over to her and she had tears in her eyes. I handed the plane ticket and she looked at me confused and she asked, "You bought me a plane ticket?"

"Of course, I did" I said hugging her which was weird did us

We went through security and walked to our gate. We sat down and waited as we were early.

"So I thought we could hit our fourth continent together" I said as I bought two tickets to Vietnam

"Thank you, I'm so excited!" She said half asleep

"You seem exhausted"

"I am, I slept awful last night. I'll sleep on the plane"

Kie and I boarded the plane and after takeoff, Kie fell asleep. She slept most of the way there. She woke up just before we landed and she seemed much happier

She found a bunch of cool things to do here. She also found a cheep airbnb with the most beautiful view. Thankfully, we had made up and were friends again. I have to admit, I really liked not traveling all alone.

We spent five days in Vietnam and from there we went to China, India, Japan, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland. Kie bought two tickets to South Africa and she was so excited.

She's always wanted to go and we were on our fifth continent. We went on a safari and Kie was having the time of her life.

We ran into Carl, the guy from the hostel in Spain. He hung out with us and he was flirting with Kie nonstop. It was fucking annoying.

Carl started to get touchy with Kie and she didn't seem to return it.

"Dude, just keep your hands to yourself" I said annoyed

"How about you mind your damn business" Carl yelled back and he grabbed Kie by her waist and he kissed her. She didn't kiss him back and she pulled away and he tried to go in for another kiss

His face met my fist as I threw a punch at him. I got two hits in and I said, "She's not interested in you like that. So leave her alone"

Carl hit me and soon it was a pretty intense fight. There was blood, swearing, and fists flying back and forth. I got Carl on the ground and I said, "Don't ever fucking talk to her again"

I expected Kie to be pissed at me. She looked at me and asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's go back"

We went back and I went into the bathroom and cleaned myself up from the fight. She thanked me for protecting her. We both agreed that Carl was a total creep.

"So, what ever happened to Rafe?" She casually asked later that night

"No clue"

"Bullshit"

"Fine, let's just say that he was the one who murdered the sheriff and he got into some legal trouble and Ward is protecting him so God only knows where they are hiding"

Kie's face went blank. She almost turned ghost white.

"He murdered someone?"

"Yeah, he shot Sheriff Peterkin and framed John B for it"

"Okay, so my deep dark secret is Rafe and I had a relationship for a while. It honestly wasn't mutual, it was more just me keeping him happy so he didn't tell Sarah about us."

I was suddenly super pissed off at Rafe. Kie said, "I got drunk at a party and I had been hanging out with Rafe and some other kooks. I was wasted and Rafe kissed me. The party was at his house and he brought me up to his bedroom. We were just making out and that's all I've ever done with a guy. I was sixteen and he was seventeen."

I listened and she asked, "How old were you when you lost your virginity?"

I knew she was going to ask this. I looked at her and said, "Fourteen...It was to some older pogue. It was so fucking embarrassing. I didn't last long at all. After that, girls just kinda came into me and I started hooking up with all of them. I got a reputation and that's that."

Kie stayed quiet and I asked, "So what happened with Rafe?"

"We were making out and he started taking off my clothes. I was fine with it at first but then he got super rough and aggressive and it wasn't fun. It started to hurt and I asked him to stop and he didn't. He apologized after and that was that.

Next week, he asked me to come over and hook up with him. I said no and he threatened to tell Sarah that I kissed him. Sarah had this rule, no dating her brother. I didn't want to lose her as a friend so I did it. Rafe and I snuck around for about a month and I couldn't take it anymore and I was going to tell Sarah, but then Rafe started going crazy and he left me alone."

Kie was now crying and I hugged me and said, "I promise, Rafe will never touch you again."

I suck at comforting people. I hate when people cry and get emotional and shit. I never know what to do because I've never had anyone take care of me before.

I just had the instinct on how to comfort Kie, so I went with it. We talked and I played with her hair. She told me about how her parents were pissed at her for taking a gap year.

Then I wondered if that's why she didn't want us together on her social media. She didn't want her parents to know she was with me, a pogue. Was she that embarrassed to be hanging out with me?

We went to bed pretty early and the next day, Kie said she had a surprise for me. We headed to the airport and she went to buy the plane tickets.

I wondered where on earth she was taking me.