Violent Delights | OBX

Chapter 8 - "You're literally 19 minutes older - I'm not so little!"

Scarlett and Anne-Marie followed Pope into John B's place, and Scarlett's back was still aching, but the pain had almost vanished completely - which she was thankful for. "That bread had mould on it three days ago." Pope said from in front of Scarlett, who looked over and saw JJ spreading some peanut butter on some bread.

"I'll just pull off the bad parts!" JJ replied, making Scarlett let out a small shiver at his words, as Anne-Marie scrunched her face up in disgust. "Plus, mould is good for you. It's just a natural organism."

"That's disgusting!" Anne-Marie told him, before he joined them at the table with John B. Once JJ had joined them, John B ripped open the package, and Scarlett spied JJ take a bite out of his mould sandwich beside her. As he did JJ gagged and Scarlett was quick to move away from him, before he went off to the side to spit out the food in his mouth.

"Do not puke on me, JJ!" Scarlett told the boy adamantly, and once he joined them all again, he gave her an apologetic look as he still held the mould sandwich in his hands. Scarlett's gaze then landed on the map that John B had just unfolded - she wasn't any good with maps, so she had no idea what it was saying.

"Holy shit!"

"Oh, X marks the spot!" Pope said as he pointed to a small black cross that was on the map next to a bunch of lines Scarlett didn't understand.

John B ran his finger along the map slowly. "Longitude, latitude." He signalled to them, and Scarlett tilted her head to the side slightly, as she tried to read at least some of the map. But she frowned upon knowing she understood none of it. "Wait, there's something else in there!"

John B then pulled out a tape recorder, and he stared at it, knowing that it was probably from his father. "What's that?" JJ asked.

"Are you serious?" Anne-Marie asked him.

"It's a tape recorder, dumbass!" Kiara told him, just as John B pressed the button on the side of the tape recorder, and a voice filled the room.

"Dear Bird!" The unfamiliar voice of John B's father spoke.

"Who's Bird?"

"That's what my dad called me." John B revealed to his best friend.

"I hate to tell you 'I told you so,' but I told you so." John B's father continued to say. "And you doubted your old man. I suspect at this moment, you're filled with guilt and self-loathing over our last fight, but don't kill yourself just yet, kid. I didn't expect to find the Merchant either. You were probably right to call me out. I wasn't exactly Father of the Decade. What can I say, kid? I could smell the barn. And hopefully, we're listening to this in our brand new sugar-shack down in Costa Rica, living off passive investments and pulling on permits. But if not, and you find this for less than optimal reasons, well, that's what the map is for. There she is, the wreck of the Merchant. If something happens to me, finish what I started. Go for the gold, kid. I love you, Bird, even if I didn't always act like it. I'll see you on the other side."

The tape stopped, and John B moved to stand from the table, and he leant against the door frame. Scarlett was pretty sure he was crying, but knew that she wasn't supposed to be the one to deal with that. "Holy shit." JJ spoke. "He did it! Big John - he...he found the Merchant-"

"Can you...can you please?" Kiara asked him, and JJ then seemed to realise that his best friend was upset, and he shut up. Kiara then moved over to where John B was stood, leant against the doorway as he sobbed, and began to comfort him.

Scarlett took this as an opportunity to see if she could understand the map, despite knowing that she didn't. Scarlett knew that being a boat owner meant that she should be able to read a map such as this - but she couldn't. Since whenever she went on her boat, it was always local, and if it wasn't, she had Lucas, or Rafe, or her dad with her to read the map for her. "Why do you look so confused?" JJ whispered softly in her ear from beside her, making her jump slightly. "Can you not read maps?"