𝐑𝐈𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐃𝐄 , 𝐣. 𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤 ⁽¹⁾

𝟏𝟎. 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐊𝐘 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐒

Elle quickly ran onto the Chateau porch where the rest of her friends sat quietly.

"Sorry i'm late." She apologized sincerely. "Got caught up in something."

The blonde boy stood quickly as if he was about to give the performance of a lifetime. Elle took his note to sit down.

"So, we were just outside like this." He started, standing against the brick wall. "And all we hear is just 'Bam! Bam! Bam!'" The thrusted his fists.

Elle's eyes went wide as she chuckled lightly at his gestures. Unfortunately, Pope's glares shut her up.

The blonde continued, still speaking with his hands. "Knocking paint off the wall, G!" From the inside! Alright? And i'm just looking at him, like-"

He cut off his own sentence by strutting over to where Pope, Kie, and Elle all sat. "Wait, first off, look st this shit. Look at it." He said, flipping his head upside down and running his hands through his hair.

Kie looked at him, disgusted. "That's..dandruff."

"Look at all that!" JJ said, pointing towards the white flakes on the ground. "Alright? That's paint. At that point, I was just, like...i'm waiting for death."

Elle chuckled quietly at his dramatics as he leaned back against the wall. Pope looked up, still confused about what happened at the Grubb's residence.

"Oh, okay, so you saw the guys that shot at us, right?" Pope asked, leaning his hand on his forehead.

JJ nodded and moved his hand around. "Yeah."

"Did you get a good description of them? What did they look like? Anything we can bring to a police report, maybe?"

The curly haired girl nodded in agreement. "Yeah."

Elle glanced at JJ, who was looking out the window. "Size? Hair color? Face shape? Anything?"

"Burly." JJ said, pointing at Pope.

The boy's eyes went wide in disbelief. "Burly?"

"Yeah. You know, like-"

Kie cut him off, obviously fed up with his unhelpful answers. "Thats not very helpful."

"Okay, well, no, like the type of guy at my dad's garage. I mean, you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers."

She nodded dramatically. "Yeah. Yes. No, we know."

"So I can tell you with full confidence, these boys, these killers..." JJ said, pulling a e-cig out of his mouth, blowing the smoke into the air. "They're square groupers."

Pope flipped his hat. "They're square groupers, like narco square grouper? Like Pablo Escobar square grouper?"

The blonde nodded as he blew more smoke. "Yeah, man."

"You guys," Kie said, rolling her eyes. "not everything is a kingpin movie."

The two boys continued to argue as John B and Elle exchanged annoyed glances.

Suddenly, JJ's voice raised as he held his hand up to his head. "I wasn't taking little mental polaroids the entire time, man! I was under duress, okay?"

Elle raised an eyebrow and glanced back at John B. "Did he just say 'under dress?'" She mumbled, holding back a laugh.

"I'm pretty sure he said 'distress'" The brunette replied, exchanging the same confused glance.

Pope raised his hand. "Duress, guys. Duress."

The two looked back at Pope and laughed quietly.

"I can tell you by the way that Ms. Lana was screaming.. that these guys are serious, serious hombres, man." JJ said, slightly out of breath.