I'm here // JJ Maybank

6

I wake up to my bed being empty and chatter coming from the kitchen. I slowly get myself out of bed and make my way into the main room where I see Connor and JJ talking up a storm.
"Good morning sunshine" JJ says way too chipper.
"Morning" I groan. "Nice to see your still alive." I say giving Connor a side hug.
"Didn't miss me too much right?" He jokes.
"Didn't even realize you were gone" I say pouring myself a cup of orange juice.
"So what have you guys been up to?" Connor asks looking between me and JJ. JJs eyes go wide like an idiot.
"Not much. Took the HMS onto the marsh a few times. Hit the break. The usual" I say joining JJ at the table.
"Good. JJ hope you have been keeping yourself and her out of trouble." He says giving JJ a look.
"Always am" he replies smiling at me.
"Ok well i have to go to work. You guys have fun." Connor says grabbing his keys and heads out.
"Your had a lying" I say laughing at JJ.
"I am not. Im a professional lier." He scoffs
"You are not. The second Connor asked us your eyes were so telling."
"They were not." He said crossing his arms
"Oh they were" I said mimicking his actions.
"Ok ok whatever. What's the plan today?" He asks getting up.
"No clue. But we should probably start by checking on John B." I say also getting
Up and heading to my room to change. I throw on a blue bikini, a flowy white skirt, and a t shirt that ended right before the skirt, showing a little bit of my stomach. I let my curly brown hair fall down naturally and head out into the living room where JJ sits playing with his lighter.
"Who you dressing up for?" JJ asks eying my outfit of choice.
"You of course." I say grabbing my bag and walking out the door.
"I'm honored." I hear him say as he follows me out.
Apparently we are late to the team meeting because pope and kie are already sitting in then the small hut that is on the line of both me and John Bs properties.
"Nice of you guys to join us" Kie says. Looking at us suspiciously.
"Didn't realize we were having a mandatory meeting." I say sitting down next to her. John B walks over with purpose.
"Ok look I'm calling it off. All right?" He starts. I roll my eyes. John B always thinks that he's the executive decision maker.
"Peterson said if I stay out of the marsh, she'll help me with DCS"
"And you believed her?" I said. As a kid who had to go through DCS and all that bullshit, i know she's full of shit.
"Yes I believed her Mel." John B snaps.
"An actual cop John b, you believed a cop" JJ backs me up.
"All I gotta do is stay out of the marsh for a couple days, and she'll help me out"
"Sure" I mumble.
"It doesn't help that your ass was the one shooting a gun" John B says starting to get a little heated. I look down knowing that this is still a sore subject for all.
"You know what I should have done? Just let Topper drown your ass" kie rolls her eyes and looks over at JJ. I keep quite not wanting to make anyone more tense than they already are.
"Topper was gonna drown me?"
"Yeah sure looked like it"
"Funny"
"I mean have you looked in the mirror" JJ gets up and starts walking over to where John B is standing
"Tell me some more. Come on." John B says. The issue with these two is that they bickering like true brothers. All harmless, but annoying none the less.
"They always win, don't they man?" JJ adds. "Kooks vs. pogues. They always, always win!" JJ punches the buoy that hangs from the shack.
"Look, it's okay!" Kie joins in.
"No it's not okay" JJ turns around and says.
"It's not! They don't want us to go down into the marsh. That means there's something valuable down there, and you know it. I know you do." He says pointing at John B
"And I understand why you don't want to go. You're the golden boy. You got way too much to risk. And you- I mean your already rich as fuck anyways." He says looking between pope and kie. I drop my head.
"But you, Mel's and me, man. We got nothing to lose! Right Mel. Come on!" He says now fully turned towards me. John B looks at me, waiting for me to speak up.
"I don't know. It would be nice to help Connor out a little bit more. And who knows this could be the start of some epic hunt." I say standing up looking at John B. "Pretty awesome way to spend our summer." I say shrugging.
"I know it didn't use to be that way for you John B" JJ finishes his speech.
"I don't want to talk about this. I don't want to talk about this." John B says completely shutting us down. He starts to walk away but JJ stands in his way.
"So that's it?" jj asks
"Just get out of my way bro" John B says pushing JJ shoulder
"John B listen to me. I have a plan" JJ and John B walk a little bit away leaving me kie and pope in the shack. I look over at them to see they have very unamused looked. I sit back down next to kie and sigh.
"So JJ stayed over last night." Kie questions, making pope turn his attention to us.
"Mhmm" I say letting my head fall back and close my eyes.
"Interesting" kie mumbles. I ignore her comment and try to listen in to what JJ is saying to John B. Something about the Cameron's boat. Whatever he said though worked because John B came back and said he was heading out to go get scuba gear from the Cameron's boat. I looked at JJ who just had a smug grin.
"Hmm. Okay" I shrugged and closed my eyes again.
—
After about an hour John B returned with a couple tanks and we headed out to where we found the boat in the marsh. I took my skirt off and laid back as I watched kie look at the tanks deeming them all practically empty.
"This is empty, you took empty tanks?" She said frustrated.
"Good going B" I said throwing him a thumbs up.
"This one's a quarter full. It's enough for one of us." She said sighing.
"Love it when the plan comes together." Pope said
"Does anyone know how to dive?" Kie asked looking around.
"Can't say that I do" I said shaking my head.
"Anybody?" Kie asked again.
"It's kinda of a kook sport." JJ said.
"I read about it." Pope chimes in
"Great popes read about it. So someone's gonna die." Kie said, I couldn't help but to laugh at the situation making John B glare at me. Look, you put the thing in your mouth and breathe. How hard could it be?" JJ says
"If you come up too fast, nitrogen gets into your blood and you get the bends." Pope goes on. Weird kid.
"Bends like, bend over and..." JJ says sticking up butt out making me laugh. I reach over and smack his ass causing him to straighten out and gasp at me.
"The bends kill you" pope said snapping me and JJ out of giggly state.
"I can, I can dive" John B says making us all look at him like he is stupid.
"You can dive. I'm cool with that." jj says
"Since when can you dive?" Kie says. I'm
Very suspicious about letting John B be the one to go. Not gonna lie him dying would really be a bummer and kinda ruin the summer.
"I'll do it. It's fine." He says.
"It's a little dumb" I add causing him to roll his eyes.
"Let me do some calculations real quick." Pope says
"You serious?" Kie says rolling her eyes and moving to the other side of the boat. What's up her ass today.
Pope starts listing off some numbers and I hear him say that John B needs to make a safety stop 10 feet down. I stand up and pull off my shirt so that I can mark it for him. Might as well be a little helpful. I jump off the side of the boat and swim to a point that I think it's about 10 feet. I tie it around and then swim back up.
*JJs POV*
I see Amelia out of the corner of my eye pull off her shirt and walk over to the ledge of the boat. My attention is immediately grabbed from that god damn bikini she wore today, don't tell her but it's my absolute favorite. Mel jumps in the water causing everyone else to look that way too.
"Uh" John B says looking my way.
"What was that all about?" Pope asks. Kie shrugs
"I don't know, but I liked it. A lot" I say staring at the spot she just jumped in, waiting for her to resurface.
"JJ shut it" John B says angrily. I looked at him and hold my hands up in surrender. I look at kie and she just rolls her eyes at me. Kie is just a ball of joy today.
*mels POV*
I come back up from the water and start swimming back to the boat.
"Hey I tied my shirt about 10 feet down on the anchor chain. That's where you need to do your safety stop okay?" I said to John B, hoping he has enough brain cells to do this.
"Cool thanks Mel" he says has he gets on the scuba gear.
"Anytime bro" I say swimming back to the side of the boat. Luckily JJ is waiting for me and helps pull me back onto the boat. He grabs me a towel and wraps it around my shoulders. I bid him a thanks and he just nods and rubs my arms up and down for some added warmth.
"Youre so smart" he said patting the top of my head. I roll my eyes and smile at him. We walk over to where pope is giving John B some basic rules to follow.
"Zen. Think zen, you know?" JJ says to JB.
"Hey if we get caught out here in the marsh we're basically screwed so..." pope says. Kie walks her way towards John B and plants a kiss on his cheek. Me pope and JJ all share a similar confused look. Kie hopes back down and stands next to me. I just awkwardly smile at her not really knowing what that was. John B jumps into the water and starts going down. A minute after he goes we hear a police siren go off behind us, causing us to snap our heads back.
"Shit JJ" pope says.
"Guys that's the police" JJ says walking over towards me.
"Great. Fucking fantastic." I say becoming extremely stressed and nervous.
"Just act frickin normal" kie says adjusting herself in an extremely unnatural position. Shoupe and another police officer pull their boat up next to the HMS.
"Evening officers." Pope says kindly.
"Evening." Shoupe says.
"JJ tie this off" pope says handing the line from the cops boat to him.
"How you kids doing? You know the marsh is closed?" Shoupe says.
We all act stupid.
"Oh"
"Didn't know that."
"Oh wow"
"Why— why is it closed?" JJ asks.
"Well we're conducting a search out here. Boat went down." He says.
"Oh that's awful." I say looking at JJ.
"See anything?" Shoupe asks.
"No nothing" I say. The others also deny.
"Where's your friend your always hanging with? He here?" Shoupe asks. Everyone is silent for a little too long so i pipe in.
"He's at work." I say. And Shoupe just nods. I'm not sure if he fully believes it so I continue.
"And we uh, are on a double date. He's you know... single." I say intertwining my fingers with JJ and rest my head on his shoulder smiling at Shoupe. JJ plants a kiss to the top of my head to really seal the deal. Shoupe looks away from us obviously uncomfortable.
"I'm gonna check your little boat out" Shoupe says making his way onto the boat.
"Yeah please do" I say
"Yeah hop aboard. Come check her out." Pope says standing up. Shoupe looks around and grabs a life vest.
"Uh.. you got another one?"
"Yeah" JJ confirms. "Of course. It's uh.. it's in the hold." He says.
"Show him." I say letting go of JJs hand and moving out of the way so that he can open the hold.
"Yeah here we go." JJ says holding up another life best.
"All right" Shoupe says nodding. I smile at Shoupe starting to become very concerned with how much time John B has left. Shoupe stands on the edge of the boat and looks into the water. Pope looks at all of us very anxiously and JJ tells him to stop.
Shoupe looks into the water for a few more seconds before calling it.
"All right. Beautiful day isn't it." He says walking back to his boat.
"Sure is" jj says
"Yep" I add.
"Let us know if you see anything on your way out" he says untying the line.
"Will do" pope and Jj say.
"We'll be fine soon sir" Jj says.
"Yes you will. Okay you kids enjoy your date" he says and then drives away. I nod and give JJs shoulder a squeeze of relief. Once the boat is far enough away we all rush over and look into the water for any sign of John B.
"He's definitely out of hair" pope says. I shake my head. Cmon John b.
Seconds later John B pops up and takes a deep breath.
"Oh thank god". I say sitting back.
"There he is!" JJ says grabbing my shoulders and shaking them.
"Don't scare us like that!" Pope says
"How'd it go down there?" jJ asks
"Did you find anything" I say going over to the ladder to help him get back into the boat. John B starts throwing all the gear onto the boat. He then launches a black duffel bag onto the boat with the biggest smile.
"Yeah there we go! That's my boy!" JJ says grabbing the bag.
"You okay?"kie asks
"Yeah, ran out of air" he says grabbing my hand as I help pull him up.
"You scared the shit out of me" kie says.
"Yeah the cops were here, but uh we took care of 'em" pope says.
"My bad" John B says
"Your all good."
"You kinda missed the show brother." JJ said patting JBs back.
"You guys? Guys bogey, two o'clock." Kie said. We all snap our head in that direction, seeing a white boat heading our way.
"What are they doing out here? Marsh is closed" I say looking at John B.
"I don't know, but let's not stick around to find out."
"JJ get the bowline" John B says. JJ goes over and starts pulling it up.
"Do you recognize that boat?" Pope asks. I shake my head and kie and John B say no.
"Should we wait on em?" Pope asks.
"No, we're not waiting on them." I said sassily
"Go get the stern. Go!" John B ushers pope.
"Are you joking? JJ hurry up" kie said getting stressed. I join JJ in pulling up the line hoping to get us out of here quicker.
"Guys don't wait for us. Don't wait go." JJ says stressed which makes me become nervous. We get the anchor up and John B starts driving away from the approaching boat.
"I don't like this."
"Are they coming for us?"
"Dude this is freaking me out." I said going over to John B.
"Go go go" JJ says as pope tells him to go into the marsh.
"I'm going. Act natural." John B says. I am zero percent capable of acting natural right now. I can feel my heart beating so hard it may explode.
"Guys their following us" I say looking back as they are right on our tail.
"This can't be good." Pope says.
"Shit" John B says. I look between him and JJ to get a read on how nervous I should be. By the looks, very.
"Dude you gotta go faster. Gun it" JJ says.
"I'm going". John B replies. I grab onto JJs are for stability and because I am freaking out. He pulls me into his side but still keeps his eyes on the guys following us. We take a turn and then head a gun shot. All of us except John B drop to the floor shielding ourselves. JJ curls his body on top of mine protecting me.
"John B get down" I say trying to reach for him but JJ is making it hard for me to move. More shots go off as we continue speeding in the marsh.
"Shit" I say as I get an idea. "JJ move" I say pushing him off of me. I wiggle out so I'm able to stand up and walk to the front of the boat.
"Amelia get down!" JJ and John B shout at me.
I grab the fishing net and throw it into the water causing it to get tangled in their motor and stopping them. One last shot rings off and then we all stand up no longer being able to see them.
JJ rushes over to me and starts inspecting my entire body.
"Mel are you crazy" he said but by his facial expression I can tell he's proud.
"That was insane!" Kie said hugging me.
"Pogue life! Woo!" JJ cheers.