family. | outer banks x oc

square groupers?

We all met up at the Chaeteu again. I found a place next to Pope on the green couch, Kie sat in a small chair across from us, Jj was pacing back and forth next to me, and John B was standing in the doorway.

Jj had began to tell Pope and Kiara about our 'crazy adventure.'

"And we were right outside like this." Jj continues. He was imitating the whole thing for them. "And all we hear is just, 'Bam! Bam! Bam!' knocking paint off the wall, G! From the inside!"

"Lana's house is probably like 300 years old. Obviously paint is gonna chip off the walls." I say.

"Shut up, I'm telling the story bro."

"Sorry!" I say, putting my hands up defensively.

"I'm just looking at them, like--" Jj continues. "Wait, first off, look at this shit."

He walks over towards us and starts brushing his hair, making 'paint' fall everywhere.

"That's dandruff, disgusting." Kie comments.

"Okay, thank you." Pope says sarcastically, pushing Jj away from him.

"Look at all that. All right?"

My eyes drift away from Jj and look towards John B. His hazel eyes meet with my brown ones. I smile at him, making sure he's okay.

He nods slightly, trying to convince me he was okay. I could tell he wasn't.

Jj continues his over dramatic story. "That's paint. At that point, I was just, like... I'm waiting for death."

My eyes roll as I sink into the couch. Jj was being so extra right now it was giving me a headache.

"Oh, okay, so you saw the guys that shot at us, right?" Pope questions. He rested his elbows on his knees and placed his head in his hands.

"Yeah." Jj nods.

"Did you get a good description of them? What did they look like?"

"Yeah, anything. Anything is helpful." Kie agrees.

"Burly." Jj sighs.

"Anything except that." I joke.

Pope looks at Jj with wide eyes. A layer of disappointment sheds onto Kiara's face.

"Burly?" Pope repeats, making sure he heard Jj correctly.

"Yeah."

You know how some people are academically smart, but have no common sense? Yeah, Jj has neither of those.

"That's not very helpful." Kie adds.

For a slight moment, I have to agree with her.

"Okay, well, no, like the type of guy at my dad's garage." Jj explains.

I nearly wince at the mention of Jj's father. He was never a good guy and was never there for him. I always felt sorry for Jj.

"I mean, you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers." Jj continues.

"Yeah. Yes, we know." Kie says, trying to get Jj's dad, Luke, off the subject.

"I can't tell you with full confidence, these boys, these killers..." Jj takes a hit of his vape before continuing, "they're square groupers."

I nearly burst out either laughter at this comment. Square groupers? C'mon, Jj needs to watch a documentary or something. Get some real facts into his head.

"They're square groupers, like narco square groupers?" Pope groans. "Like Pablo Escobar square groupers?"

"Yeah, man."

"Jj, do you even know who Pablo Escobar is?" I laugh.

"Something with drugs?"

"Oh my God-"
"You guys, not everything is a kingpin movie." Kie comments.

John B continues to stand in silence. I begin to start worrying more and more about the boy.

This is the longest he's been quiet since the night his dad went missing and he showed up in my bedroom. That night, in particular, was a bad day. I don't think today is even close to that.

"So what does a square groupers look like, specifically?" Pope questions.

"You weren't there." Jj yells, interrupting Pope.

"Because apparently you don't know what to look for."

"Dude! I wasn't taking little mental Polaroids the whole time, man. I was under duress, okay?" Jj yells. His voice cracks a bit at the end of his rant.

Pope scoffs and leans back into his chair. I start to play with the extra pieces of string on the end of my bracelet.

Pope and Jj continue their banter. I am completely ignoring the whole conversation, not having a care in the world.

Pope has a matching bracelet to mine. He only wears about one or two bracelets on his wrist, including the one I made for him.

Him wearing this bracelet is a small, yet very special thing to me. Pope doesn't really have a lot of compassion for others, or doesn't know how to share it, but he tries his best. I like that he tries a little harder for me.

The sound of John B popping open his father's compass grasps my attention. He looks at it, shortly, before closing it again.

Jj's voice flows back through my ears, "It's a heavy vibe right now, okay? I'm not liking this very much."

My attention goes back over to the brunette boy as he stares off into the distance, he obviously wasn't paying much attention to Jj's rant, either. I begin to watch John B start to pace back and forth.

"Why do they want the compass?" Kiara asks.

We're still talking about those gross men?

"It's a piece of shit." Pope states. "You could pawn it for five bucks if you wanted to." Pope looks back and forth for a moment, "No offense, John B. I know it's in your family--"

"The office." John B interrupts him.

"What?"

"The show or-" I begin.

"My dad. My dad's office." He interrupts me.

Jj, Pope, Kie, and I all look at eachother in confusion.

"He always kept the office locked because he was worried about his competitors stealing his Royal Merchant research." He starts to walk into the house, and heads for the office he was talking about. "We used to laugh at him like he was gonna find it. But now that he's gone, I've just kinda... I just left it as he kept it."

He made his way over to the office and stood infront of the door. Maybe, he was scared for what he might find. Scared that he might find the truth about his father behind this very door. I wasn't scared to find out, but he might be.

-1038 words