stevie | outer banks | JJxOC

17- buy a pony

"You okay?" Pope asked apprehensively after walking out to the jetty to see Stevie. She was a bit taken aback by the whole thing. She couldn't help but feel guilty that the whole time she was angry at him, he wanted to come back and fix it. And it probably meant he was dead, so they could never repair their relationship.

"Great. Why?" Stevie smiled bitterly.

"Don't do that," Pope sighed, sitting next to the girl. She looked at him as if she didn't understand making Pope elaborate, "Don't bury it down and push me away"

"I'm not," She said without even looking at him. She was 100% doing that.

"Stevie, come on." Pope hugged her. "I know how you deal with things. By ignoring it or pushing it away but you don't have to"

"Thank you, Pope," She said sincerely meaning every way, she was about to talk it through with him but she saw the other Pogues walking down the jetty so she retreated, "But I'm ok. Really I'm ok"

From a distance Stevie whistled the same two-tone whistle she had done outside the motel for John B, it was an easy nonverbal way to ask if he was okay. He whistled back with a sad smile. They sat on the jetty, all five of them together in soft silence until Kie started strumming. They had a drink and thought of the information overload they had received.

"How much was it again?" JJ asked.

"400 mil," Pope bluntly replied. It only took one second for JJ to start obsessing over the money.

"Alright let's talk about the split," he said, swinging one of his legs over the rail so he was facing the group, "Now, before we say "evenly," may I remind you I'm the only one that can properly defend us from those groupers who are after us. Protection? Not cheap, okay? that's worth a 5% bump."

"What are you gonna do with your 80 mil Pope?" Stevie asked, splitting the amount evenly between the 5 in her head, ignoring JJ's stupid ask for 5% more.

"Pay for college in advance," he replied, making Stevie smile. He could have anything he wanted but he would still go to school, "and also, textbooks. Those are expensive."

"What about you, Kie?" JJ asked going around the circle of his friends

"yeah what does a socialist do when she's rich?" Pope asked, smiling at the girl. She chuckled and thought a bit before giving her answer.

"Just wanna make a double album. About OBX, the Pogues," she looked around at her friends, "you know, the way Catch a Fire is about Kingston. Record it at Marley Studio, Peter Tosh producing"

"Peter Tosh is--"

"Peter Tosh is dead. I know. But the spirit of Peter Tosh will never die."

"I know what I'm gonna do," JJ jumped in after Kie finished, "I'm gonna get a big ass house on Figure Eight and go full Kook. I'm gonna get a marble statue of myself and then I'm gonna get a koi pond."

Stevie smiled at JJ, it was nice to just hear him talk about what he wanted even if it was silly and materialistic. "You could buy a pony" she smiled, making JJ laugh with her.

"What about you?" he asked, genuinely interested although he wouldn't let her know that.

"Get off the island," she said honestly, "Look I love the outer banks, don't get me wrong but I don't want to be one of those people who never left. There is a whole world out there to see. If I don't go now I never will, I'll live the rest of my life with what could have happened. I don't want to die in the same house I grew up in, you know." JJ listened with a smile, he too wanted to see the world and surf every wave he could see. He couldn't bare the idea of growing bitter and not leaving, like his dad. "Then maybe I'll publish my drawings. Make books about nature in the outer banks," she finished talking and saw JJ smiling but it was short-lived.