family. | outer banks x oc

rare outburst of emotion

I continue to watch my leg bounce but soon get distracted by a familiar sound.

"Shit. Jj." Pope says.

"Guys, that's the police." Jj tells us.

When I hear those words, I start to panic. For some reason, breaking into a motel didn't bother me. Now, hanging out in the marsh does? I don't understand it.

"Hey, its okay." Kie whispers to me.

I know, I talk badly about Kie often but sometimes she can be a good person. I really appreciated her small gesture in this moment.

"Just act frickin' normal." Kiara tells us.

"Evening, officers." Pope says nervously.

I avoid eye contact, knowing these exact officers have shoved my brother in a cop car more than once-- for things he didn't do.

They pull up to our boat and hand the rope of to Jj for him to tie off.

"Jj, tie this off."

"How you kids doing? You know the marsh is closed?" An officer by the name of Shoupe asks.

"No."

"No. Wow."

"I didn't know that."

"Why-- why is it closed?"

I sit in silence. I wanted the least amount of attention drawn to me.

"Well, we're conducting a search out here. Boat went down."

"Oh."

"See anything?"

"Nope. No boats."

"Where's your friend you always hang with? He here?" Shoupe asks. He really needs to stop asking questions.

I nearly forgot about John B. His air has to be running low by now.

"He's working." Kiara lies.

"I'm gonna check your little boat out." Shoupe says as he climbs on to our boat.

"Hop aboard."

"You got another one of these?" He asks, holding up a life jacket.

"Yeah." Jj states. I honestly couldn't tell if he was lying or not. I've never used any of the life jackets.

"It's uh.. it's in the hold."

"Show him." I say as I stand up while pointing towards the hold.

I genuinely surprised when Jj pulls out another life jacket. The amount of times John B and I have slept on this boat on long summer nights, not using safety vests, is too many to count.

"All right." Shoupe nods.

I would say JB has about 40 seconds to get back up here alive.

Shoupe walks to the nose of our boat and puts some glasses on. I assume, they are the type of sun glasses my dad wears when he's fishing. It makes it easier to see underwater.

Anxiety flows through my vains as I wait for him to either notice the boat, John B, or both.

10 seconds. I think to myself.

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"Shit." I mumble.

"Mhm?" Shoupe replies.

"Huh? Uh I didn't say anything." I lie. Jj looks at me with a certain level of anger on his face. He was probably mad I even said anything in the first place. Damn, I hate that.