Against the world/OBX

Chapter 27.

I went for a surf by myself, well I sat on my board in the water just thinking about the last few weeks and hours. What has happened, we went from 5 kids who just surfed and hung out to having about 5 near death experiences in the last few days, I was hoping JJ would show up and join me but he never did. I realised I had been here for a few hours when I saw the sun setting so I headed back in and started walking home. It was dark by the time I got back to the Chateau but I saw Kie and Pope standing by his dad's truck unloading supplies for tomorrow when we would go to get the gold.

"Hey guys" I said going up to them and leaning my surfboard against the truck

"Sav, oh I'm so glad you are okay. Where's JJ?" Kie asked, expecting us to be together.

"Long story" I said, sighing, not really wanting to relive it just yet, then a whole bunch of lights turned on in my front yard, which is weird because our power is still down from the hurricane.

"What the hell, who the hell is that?" Kie asked as we heard a voice, we walked over and saw a whole bunch of fairy lights and JJ sitting in a hot tub with a bottle of champagne.

"What did you do, JJ" Pope asks

"I got a jet going straight in my butt right now" JJ laughed, clearly wasted "Y'all should get in immediately, you hear me?" JJ said, pouring more champagne into his glass. JJ always drinks after his fights with his dad but I have never seen him like this. Looking at the blonde boy in the hot tub I don't even see JJ, I just see a broken teenage kid.

"How much did this cost?" Pope asked JJ

"Well, with the generator, the petrol and oh express delivery, pretty much all of it" JJ said pointing out all the stuff he brought, making us all shocked.

"You spent all the money in one day?" Pope asked, annoyed, I looked over at him shaking my head. Now wasn't the time to be getting annoyed at him.

"Yeah,it burned a hole right through my pocket. I mean look at this! Finest in jet-based massage therapy, that's what they told me" JJ said slurring his words, Kie raised an eyebrow shaking her head at the boy.

"Kie, what? Can't a man have a little luxury in life? Come on, all this scrimping and scraping" JJ took off his sunglasses and I finally saw just how broken he was, his whole face was red and puffy. He must have been crying since I left his house.

"I mean, like guys, you only live once, right?" JJ said before wiping away his tears "Enough of this emotional shit. Get in the cat's ass. Come on" JJ said motioning us to the hot tub

"The cat's ass?" I asked and he looked up, I don't think he even realised I was there until I spoke

"Sav" He looked at me with sad eyes before turning back to Kie and Pope

"Oh hey, I almost forgot!" He said pushing a button beside him making even more water spray up and more lights appear "That's right, disco mode. That's right baby" He said leaning back against the hot tub.

"Are you kidding me?" Pope yelled "You could have paid for restitution"

"Or literally given it to any charity" Kie yelled

"You could have helped us buy supplies to get the rest of the gold out of the well" Pope yelled again

"Guys seriously, not now" I yelled to my friends after seeing JJ getting more upset at what they were saying, are they right? Yeah probably but now isn't the time to make him feel worse.

"Okay well, you know what? I didn't do that" JJ yelled standing up, revealing all of his bruises from earlier. Not even I expected to see that many bruises over his body and I saw what his dad was doing.