An Outer Banks story // JJ Maybank x OC

Pt 8 - A little argument

The cooing of the rooster awoke Emma the next day, the sunlight blinded her as she opened her eyes. She noticed John B asleep next to her. Upon seeing his black eye,s the memories of last night come flooding back into her mind, the fight between her brother and topper, topper punching her, her fight with Sarah, JJ shooting a gun...

"Get decent sweeties, we need to talk" the footsteps of sheriff Peterkin took Emma out of her thoughts as John B shot awake. The sheriff stood at the door of the twins room, looking down at the teens who had just woken up on the bed. John B and Emma looked at each other, nervous as to what was about to happen. Emma got up first. Pulling one of JJ's shirts over her, then throwing a shirt at John B. Once they were dressed, they both made their way out to the kitchen, where the sheriff was looking around the château in disgust.

"Sorry to break in like this, but DCS called" peterkin said, seeing the two teens appear from their room. "They wanted me to check on you. See how you're doin'" she said, looking closely at the twins. "So, how are you, besides the.." she trailed off, motioning towards John B's black eye and Emma's bruised jaw.

"Oh, oh no, we're... we're great" John B said, smiling at the sheriff

"Yeah, fantastic" Emma carried on, sitting on the kitchen counter, trying to act relaxed.

"Thanks for comin' by" John B said, moving towards the door, as though expecting the sheriff to leave. However, she had different plans.

"I'm so glad to hear you two say that, but I heard a few things that worried me. Let me see if I can remember. Oh, yeah. One of the things I heard was that your Uncle Teddy, your guardian, hasn't been in the state for three months." She said, raising her eyebrows and looking straight at the twins.

Without hesitation, John B answered "that's false" but was quickly cut off by the sheriff again,

"You don't have to say anything. I know it's true. I called the school. They said you two used to be good students, especially you Emma, they said you had a bright future, but now you're both failin' all your classes." She said, a hint of sympathy flashing in her eyes as she looked at the beaten up girl.

"No, no. I'm only failin' one" John B said quickly

"And I'm not failin' any" Emma said, a smug look on her face as she turned towards her brother.

"It's history" he said, ignoring his sisters comment. "He's a dick, he's out for me" he continued, trying to find an excuse to his failure.

"I heard there was a fight on the beach yesterday, and a gun was involved." The sheriff said, passing by the twins competitive stares. This caused Emma to raise her eyebrows in mock surprise.

"Okay. Gun? No." Emma said, telling a convincing lie, only if the sheriff didn't already know the truth.

"Did we get in a dustup? Yes, but was there a gun?" John B said, pointing at the two twins' injuries, then looking over at his sister as though asking her the question

Emma scoffed "No. No way" she lied, answering her brother

"That's okay. I know who it was. I'll get to him." She said, as Emma and John B send each other a nervous look. "All I'm worried about right now is makin' sure you're in a safe home." She continued. John B walked over to the wall and knocked on it,

"Yep, super safe" Emma said, jumping down from the kitchen counter and starting to pick up some of the rubbish on the floor.

"Super sound. Sturdy, you know?" John B said. Walking over to his sister and leaning on the table next to her.

"Uncle T's coming, so.." Emma trailed off, seeing the look on Peterkin's face.

"Is that what he told you?" She said, starting to become fed up with the twins lies.