I'm here // JJ Maybank

3

We make it to the motel and boy is it bad. Maybe it's just because of the storm but this place looks like a crime scene.
"I thought the chateau looked bad." JJ whistles. I look over at him with a concerned face and he just shrugs. I guess we are really doing this.
"Motel or meth lab?" Kie asks.
"You be the judge" pope replies.
"Doesn't look like a place somebody with a Gradey-white stays" John B notes.
"No. It looks like a place someone with e Gradeh White would get killed." I add shaking my head. I do stupid shit all the time but this one may be the real winner.
"This is your captain speaking. HMS pogue comin in for landing." JJ hops off the boat and keeps it from fully coming out of the water.
"Cmon Mel's I need my buddy." JJ says holding his hand out for me. I grab his hand and roll my eyes.
"Thank you sir." I say in a posh voice John B is about to hop off before kie says,
"Hey."
"Yeah?" John B turns around. Kie looks at John B and then randomly kisses his cheek. I furrow my eyebrows and look over at JJ to see if he saw what I saw. He gives me the same look back and shrugs his shoulders. Kie would have told me if she liked John B, right?
"Don't let them do anything stupid" kie says pointing at me and JJ. I dramatically gasp.
"I would never." I say at the same time JJ says
"Oh we will." JJ grabs my hand and pulls me towards the motel.
"You saw that too" he whispers to me.
"Yeah. The hell was that?" I whisper back.
"I dunno. Should I interrogate?" He says. At this point John B probably can hear us as he's walking a foot behind us. I nod my head and JJ drops back to walk beside John B.
"Why are all these mattresses out?" John B asks.
"After a hurricane, they ditch 'em  cause they're moldy" JJ says.
"So smart JJ" I say turning so that I'm walking backwards.
"Just be so careful, John B" JJ says grabbing John Bs shoulders. I turn back around so that I can see where I'm going, now focusing on trying to find the right room.
"God you're so weird."
"What was that about" JJ presses.
"I don't know. Maybe she wanted to be careful." John B shrugs
"She didn't give me a kiss" I add.
"Since she heard you're being threaten with exile, she's just been like 'oh! Be so careful, John B. Oh give me that John D already'". I can't help but to laugh, I just know John B is glaring at the back of my head.
"When are you gonna swoop on that, man?" JJ continues.
"Bro you know the rule. No pogue on pogue macking" John B says. It's a stupid rule. John B created it in middle school when JJ apparently had the hots for me.
"You're the one always hitting on her" John B says. (John B extends his arm out pointing at Amelia) Does JJ always hit on Kie? Not that it would matter but I never noticed that. I feel like pit in my stomach form at the idea of JJ flirting with Kie, obviously he's allowed to flirt with whoever he wants but that just makes me feel uneasy.
"Bro no I'm not. Shut up." JJ says kind of quietly.
"Ok both of you shut up. We are here" I say stopping the two idiots. JJ walks up to the door and knocks.
"Housekeeping" he says in a high pitched voice. I try to hold in my laughter and JJ just smiles at me. Obviously proud that I found him funny.
"Should we try it?" John B asks. I look between them and pull out the motel key from my pocket.
"No power, no security cameras. No one's gonna know." JJ says. Here goes nothing. I use the key to unlock the door and we all hurry inside shutting the door behind us.
"Check the bag. See if there's a name on there somewhere." I open the bag and search around for anything. Just some random clothes.
"No name. Definitely over 50. He's got new balances" I say throwing the bag back on the bed and looking at the shoes on the ground.
"Yo dude come here. Maybe this is where they were fishing" JJ says pointing at a map with an sticky note on it. John B walks over and looks with him.
"No, that's off the continental shelf. That's big swell. Nobody fishes there." John B says.
"Coffee?" I say shinning my flashlight onto the coffee pot. John B crouches down looking at the safe while I follow JJ towards the bathroom.
"Standard. Tissues for when you get lonely." JJ says turning and shinning his flashlight in my face.
"Your disgusting" I say smacking his light away.
"Did you guys find anything?"
"A really awesome Dopp Kit you won't let me steal." JJ rummages through the bag, taking out the deodorant and putting it in his pocket. He turns to me and holds a finger up to his lips. I zipper mine shut so that he knows I won't tell on him. I can't shame anyone for stealing. I look over at John B and see that he's punching in random numbers into the safe. I roll my eyes and walk back over to the map. There's gotta be something else here.
"Punching shit at random. That will definitely work." JJ says watching John B.
"Hey B try this." I find a random piece of paper with a code on it. I pick it up and bring it John B, crouching down next to him. He punches in the numbers and boom, the safe opens. I'm a genius. JJ examines the map again saying random shit about his cousin. I don't know what he's going on about because in front of me are giant wads of cash and a gun.
"Uh JJ" John B starts. "You're gonna wanna see this" I finish. I take out a thing of cash and hold it up to him. JJ looks in the safe and immediately grabs the gun.
"Dude, dude, dude! You grabbed the gun" John B says trying to take the gun away from him.
"This is a SIG saucer" JJ says walking away from John B to look at the gun.
"Put the gun back JJ." I say now standing to also get the gun away from the man child.
"This is a ducking spendy gatt, man. Just.. bam! Bam!" JJ plays with the gun and I look at him in horror. This kid really is a dumbass.
"We are not stealing anything" John B says still trying to take the gun away.
"Mel's take a pic of me. Right here." JJ says posing.
"You want me to take a picture?" I say looking at him dumbfounded. Me and JJ keep bickering back and forth about his stupid gun. John B looks at the window.
"Wait. Guys what was that?" He asks going over to the window. John B pulls back the curtain and down on the ground is kie and pope mouthing "cops cops cops" and pointing towards the door. We all looked panicked at each other. John B quickly opens the window and I rush back to clean up any thing that would make it look like we were there.
"Mel come on" JJ whisper shouts at me. I quickly climb out the window and follow JJ to the side of the building. My back is pressed against the building while JJ is firmly pressed against me. His head falls into the crook of my neck and I feel his breath on my skin causing my cheeks to heat up. His arms hug the side of mine, trying to keep his body out of the cops view as much as possible. He lifts his head up, and his eyes meet mine. Our noses are millimeters away from touching. In any other occasion I would be panicked by how close we are, but getting caught by the cops is the only thing on my mind. JJ tries to shuffle to the side a bit, causing something to fall out of his pocket and make a loud bang. I pull JJ closer to be and close my eyes. I just know that they are going to look out the window because of the noise.
"Sorry" JJ whispers in my ear.
"Sh" I hush him. My arms are wrapped around his back and I pull him in a little closer. Please don't let them see us.
"Please tell me that wasn't the gun" I say looking at him. He doesn't respond which basically answers my question.
I rest my forehead on JJs shoulder and try to control my breathing, the adrenaline making my heart rate go crazy. Seconds later Kie and Pope signal to us that we are all good and we all climb back into the room.
"Shit that was close" I say looking at John B and JJ who look somewhat in shock.

"Well, that was fun" JJ says now that we reached Kie and Pope.
"Could've warned us a bit sooner no?" I say chuckling.
"We would have except pope was on the math team" kie says rolling her eyes. I pat Pope on the shoulder and give him a sympathetic look.
"You we're on the math team?" JJ says.
"The cops took everything like it was a crime scene" John B says getting us back on track.
"Did you guys find anything?" Pope asks. I nod my head about to explain what we saw but JJ beats me to it.
"Did we find anything? No, I don't think so. Oh yeah we did." JJ proudly holds up the gun and cash. I laugh at how stupid he is and kie glares at me shutting me up.
"What the hell?" Pope says panicking.
"Better than the cops having it." JJ says.
"I don't know about that J" I say shaking my head at him, slightly amused by the situation.
"I'm gonna lose my merit scholarship." Pope still panicking.
"Hey hey hey. Shhh" JJ holds the gun up to popes lips shushing him.
"At least you have us right?" Pope pushes JJ away.
"I'm living the nightmare" pope says.
"Aren't we all." I add laying back.