CHAPTER TWO: IT'S A BOAT!

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john b caught a lucky break. hurricane agatha swept in and fucked the outer banks up.

i slept on john b's couch, which was nothing unusual.

"jj, elsie, you guys been outside?" i faintly heard john b's voice.

"i have polio bro, i can't walk," i heard the familiar blonde next to me mumble. it wasn't weird if we slept on the couch together; nothing was going to happen.

"what the hell is polio jj?" my half-asleep ass asked. i can be dumb at times, especially when i'm half asleep, or if we partied hard the night prior. "bro, why are you going outside, it's sleepy time," i continued saying, not in the right headspace whatsoever. he ignored my comment and walked outside, i assume to check out the damage that agatha had done.

"i'm gonna check out the damage, you coming with?" jj was suddenly awake, but i was still trying to sleep.

"nooo, jj, don't leave, stay hereee," i begged, tiredly reaching my hand out to him. he grabbed it and kissed it gently.

"okay, whatever. just go to sleep and leave me with boring ol' jb," he chuckled and went outside. i did as he advised.

the light spritz of a familiar liquid woke me up. i was met with the bright sky shining, and my four best friends surrounding me as i laid on the hms pogue.

"woah, are you abducting me or something?" i joked around, seeing them all look at me, "and what did you get on me jj?"

"finallyyy, the princess has awaken from her slumber!" jj cheered, his eyes lighting up when noticing i was awake, "and uh. i was just attempting a party trick!"

"we're going to fish!" john b smiled. i sat up and stretched. all of a sudden, the boat abruptly stopped, and jj flew into the water. my head banged against the side of the boat. i groaned in pain; perhaps i got a concussion. whatever.

"jesus pope!" kie yelled.

john b looked into the water, "you okay jj?"

"i think my heels touched the back of my head," jj responded.

"kie you good?" john b asked, "elsie?" he noticed the daze in my eyes.

"yeah, i'm fine," i insisted, standing up. my vision wasn't clear, and i stumbled and tripped like a complete fool.

"are you sure about that? cause you look, not good," pope helped me sit down.

"i'm fantastic. i need a hit of something though. i didn't exactly get to pack for the occasion," i winked at jj, who was now sitting across from me.

"cigarette?" jj offered.

"that won't do shit, but i'll take it. thanks j."

"so pope, what did you do?" jj wondered.

"sandbar, the channel changed."

"no shit."

"guys, i think there's a boat down there," pope looked into the water.

"pope, real funny," i snorted.

"no, no, guys. i'm serious. there's a boat down there," pope persisted.

"no way," john b said.

"it's a boat!" pope announced.

"holy shit, he's right. let's go," kie added.

i checked to make sure i had a bathing suit on underneath since i was just placed on the boat and i never got changed last night. luckily, i had a simple red bikini on.

"you think there's a dead body down there?" pope questioned.

"if there is, you'll know what to do pope! that's what your scholarship's for, right?" i smirked. without a response, he dived into the water and i followed him.

"come on!"

we all swam to the boat underwater.

"you guys saw that, right?" jj shook his head in disbelief after we all came back up.

"yeah, i did," kie and i replied in sync.

"that's a grady-white. a new one of those is like 500 gs, easy," jj explained as we all hopped back onto the hms pogue.

a few moments later, john b decided to go back down there to find out who's boat it was.

"well, i'm not resuscitating you. i'm just making that clear up front," jj innocently put his hands in the air.

"john b," kie looked at him.

"what?"

"diver down, fool," pope interrupted them.

"diver down."

"yeah he is," jj laughed, pushing john b back into the water.

he came back up from the surface, telling us that he had found a motel key, great.

"great, we salvaged a motel key," jj rolled his eyes.

"guys, we should report the wreck to the coast guard," kie said level-headedly, "maybe we'll get a finders fee."

"yeah, and not work all summer. thanks agatha, ya batch," jj remarked. we decided to follow through with kie's idea. pope, john b, and kie all went with the keycard to the coast guard, leaving jj and i behind.

"lookin' good princess," jj smiled sweetly from right next to me. i don't know if he was being serious, or he was just trying to make me feel good.

ever since the thing with my dad, it's hard for me to show my body. it's scary, and jj knows how i feel. sometimes he gives me compliments, and i think it's just to make me feel more settled.

not even five minutes later, the three return with faces of frustration.

"they won't give us the time of day," pope told the two.

"i know how we're gonna find the guy who owns that boat," john b waved the card.

"no, no, we don't know whose room that is. it could be anyone," pope tried to sway us, but everyone else was on board with john b's idea, so he didn't have much of a choice.

"this place is a shitshow," john b cringed as soon as we pulled up to the trashy motel. what would someone with a grady white be doing staying here? i thought.

"motel or meth lab?" kie asked.

"you be the judge," pope gestured.

"doesn't look like the type of place somebody with a grady-white would stay," john b said, practically reading into my mind.

"no, looks like a place someone with a grady-white would get killed," pope mentioned.

"facts," i nodded.

john b and jj decided to go investigate while pope, kie, and i hung out on the boat.

"and they're in," i sighed while looking up at them entering the room.

the three of us chatted a bit while also keeping lookout.

"guys, look," i noticed police looking at the room numbers. we all quickly got out of the boat, making sure the cops didn't notice us.

"okay, do something. do something," kie started rambling.

"go, go. stand back."

"okay, you got it," kie replied to pope as we backed away. he tried countless times to throw rocks at the window, but he missed every time.

"lemme do it," i grabbed a stone from the ground and aimed. it hit right in the center of the window. "bingo," i looked at them.

"i hope they heard that. who know's what they're doing up there," kie considered. fortunately, they did. they opened the window cautiously, and the two of them crawled out. the three of us ran back to the boat, acting as if we never moved.

"should we peel?" kie questioned.

"you never leave a pogue behind," pope proudly said.

jj and john b stood against the side of the building carefully. we couldn't help but just watch them. with a slight movement, a black object flew out of jj's pocket. a gun. i shuddered at the thought of jj carrying a gun.

another thing i forgot to mention is, i guess you could say i have a vulnerable side. you'll rarely ever see it, because i like to play a tough persona. but with all the shit i've gone through, of course it's gonna be hard at times. in all honesty, when i'm reminded of certain little things, i have these bad episodes. i told my aunt that they would probably go away years ago, and to be honest, they did for a while. but it was because i refused to think about it for a long time. i wasn't really ever in a situation where i was reminded of the events in my life nearly a decade ago. but now, that door was unlocked again. the pogues knew about it, they knew about it all. we haven't talked about it in ages though, they probably forgot. it'd be better if they did, their blood boiled whenever it used to be brought up.

the gun made a loud noise, causing the cops to open up the blinds.

they're gonna get caught, i though in my head secretly.

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