Never the First || Outer Banks

Chapter 13

"And we were right outside like this." JJ presses himself against the Routledge home, reenacting the scene from earlier in a mildly dramatic sequence, "And all we hear is just; Bam! Bam! Bam!"

Toby cocks his head to the side in a sort of agreeance. While it might've sounded like just an epic retelling, it was also true.

"Knocking paint off the wall, G! From the inside," JJ stresses, "All right? And I'm just looking at him, like," He cuts himself off. "Wait, first off,"

Toby looks up when he feels the eyes on him, and in the next second, he's no longer leaning against the pillar with his arms crossed, but dragged in front of Pope and Kie with a hand to the back of his neck.

"Look at this shit." JJ lowers Toby's head and rakes his fingers through loose curls, despite his protests. He gives it a shake, "Look at it." 

And although the sensation isn't exactly bad, warmth and pressure against his neck, fingers through his hair, Toby doesn't appreciate the paint that falls from his head and shimmies toward the wooden floorboards. Because to anybody else, it'd look like -

"That's dandruff, disgusting." Kie leans back, her face scrunched up and eyes squinted.

"Dude," Toby winces. He whacks JJ in the stomach, making him oof and take a step back. Once he's finally released, he doesn't even bother fixing the mess of his hair.

Collecting himself, JJ explains, "That's paint." He takes another step back and leans against the wall, "At that point, I was just, like... I'm waiting for death."

Pope drops his head into his hands, exasperated. "Okay, so you saw the guys that shot at us, right?"

"Yeah."

"Did you get a good description of them? What did they look like?" He makes a gesture for more information, sitting a little forward in his seat.

JJ looks at Toby like he's waiting for help in the matter. Toby shrugs, feeling just as useless, and glances at John B instead.

Kie tucks her hair behind her ear, "Yeah, anything, anything's helpful." She supplies.

"Anything we can bring to a police report?"

Staring out into the distance, JJ finally has an answer. "Yeah. Burly."

Toby ducks his head and stifles a laugh.

"Burly?"

"Yeah." He starts to notice the mixed reactions, and tries to specify, "You know, like..."

"That's not very helpful."

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

"Yeah, yeah, we know."

"Then I can tell you with full confidence, these boys, these killers..." JJ's back hits the wall of the house, and he takes a long drag from his vape, letting it out through his nose. "They're square groupers."

Trying not to freak out, and doing a pretty good job at it, Pope frowns, "Okay, what does this square grouper look like? Specifically-"

JJ raises his voice, "You weren't there, bro!"

"They had dark hair?" Toby supplies, uselessly, in amongst their yelling.

"-because apparently you don't know what to look for!"

JJ whips around to stare at Pope, "Dude! I wasn't taking little mental Polaroids the entire time, man." He jabs a finger at his temple, his voice higher in pitch and strained, "I was under duress, okay?"