family. | outer banks x oc

square groupers, bro

My friends and I headed back to the chaeteu. Pope was taking a little longer than the rest of us until he sprinted into the chaeteu.

"Okay. So, um... we didn't see anything. We don't know anything. We need to have total and complete amnesia. " Pope says, out of breath. My eyes follow him as he takes a seat next to Kiara.

"Actually, Pope's right for once." Jj says from next to me.

"Jj, you don't even know what amnesia means." I joke.  John B snickers from the doorway.

"Shut up." Jj replies. "I agree with you sometimes, Pope. Deny, deny, deny."

"Guys, we can't keep that money." Kiara sighs.

"Okay. Not all of us can afford unlimited data plans, Kiara." Jj informs her.

I point my finger in the air towards Jj, making a signal that I agreed.

"We have to pass that off to Lana Grubbs. Otherwise, It's bad karma."

Honestly, I agreed that we shouldn't keep the money. But, there is no way we were going to give it to Lana. She would spill, and we would all be arrested. There was no way around it now.

"Bad karma to be imitated in a felony, too." Pope agrees. "We gotta go dark."

"If that means we get to keep the money, then I agree." Jj states.

Jj was pacing around the room, letting the floorboards creak underneath him. I swear, this kid has ADHD. He can't keep any bone in his body still.

"I don't agree." John B states. He hadn't talked the whole time we were here.

"What, why?" Jj asks.

"Just think about it. This is Scooter Grubbs we're talking about. Same dude that's buying individual cigarettes at the Porthole. Shit, one time I saw this dude begging for change in the Save-A-Lot parking lot because he needed gas. We're talking about a dirtbag marina rat who's never had more than 40 bucks in his pocket, and all of a sudden he's got a Grady- White? Just sayin'." John B rambles.

He's got a point, for once. My dad barely makes enough money to support him and I because he spares his extra cash to this guy. The amount of fishing trips Scooter has joined him on, just to get a few more dollars..

Something isn't adding up.

We all moved to the dock outside the chaeteu. Pope and Jj were fishing, Kiara was leaning against a pole, paying attention to John B, and I was sitting on the ground fiddling with my worn out shoe laces.

John was still going on and on about Scooter Grubbs... boring!

"All right, so think about it, Pope. How does a marina rat get a Grady-White?"

Pope inhales sharply, "Prostitustion."

I look up at him, my eyebrows were pushed together in confusion. "What-"

"Square groupers, bro. Okay, flying under the radar, no aerial surveillance. They don't do that stuff during a hurricane. What does that mean? Jj?" John B continues, pointing to Jj.

"They were straight smugglin'." Jj says.

"Smugglin'." John B repeats.

Kie and I look at eachother, unconvinced.

"And I guarantee there's a serious amount of contraband in the wreck." John B says.

"Hell yeah." Jj mumbles. His fishing line starts making a loud sound as he reels it in, this catches our attention. Jj isn't the best fisherman. So, this was a surprise. "Fish on!"

We had now moved to John B's bedroom with Pope on the bed, and Jj, Kie, John B, and I sitting in chairs surrounding the bed.

"For the record, if that is a smuggling ship with illegal contraband on the inside of it... it'd probably belong to someone else." Pope explains.

"Minor details." Kie comments.

"They could be looking for it. Taking it would he catastrophically stupid." Pope continues.

"I agree, why would Scooter need to partner up with pouges and beg for money if he already was knee-deep in cash?" I say. "taking it would be idiotic."

"Right. Well, stupid things have good outcomes all the time. All we need to do is figure out w way to get into the cargo hold of that wreck. Until then, we just lay low. Just act normal." Jj says.

Pope sighs, "Right. And how exactly do we do that?"

"Kegger?" Kie and I suggest at the same time.

Kiara and I may have our differences but, we constantly say the same things. It feels like I have a twin sister sometimes.

a/n: this has nothing to do w/ the story but im extremely jealous of those people who got to meet mgg in charleston last week.

-766 words