Sink or Swim || Outer Banks || JJ Maybank

Chapter 12

"You are not going to believe what just happened to me, guys," JJ jogged down the dock towards the boat as Madison had just finished wiping the blood from Pope's face. The teen put his hat back on and kept his gaze forwards. "Whoo! That was the best one hundred bucks I've ever made! When I say count me in on all these grocery deliveries, I mean it. No wonder you're always offering to help Heyward," he turned his attention to Madison for a brief second.

She offered him a tight smile knowing his good mood was going to come to an abrupt end. "Guess you're buying lunch."

"What's up with you two?" JJ's eyes went between Madison and the back of Pope's head. When his best friend didn't answer he stepped forward to look him in the face and stopped short, "Yo, what happened to your face, dude?" Pope still remained quiet and JJ removed the hat from his head to get a better look. "Jesus! What happened?"

Pope took the hat back and tried to hide the obvious beating on the side of his face, "Rafe and Topper jumped me. They said no Pogues on their side of the island."

JJ's attention immediately went to Madison, an uncontrollable anger surging through him as he scanned every inch of her body, his eyes landing on her upper arms where fingerprints were clear as day.

"I'm okay," Madison promised him, needing to stop him from getting off the boat and finding the Kooks themselves. "Pope was the one they targeted. This is just from Topper holding me back."

JJ wanted to believe her and he ran a soft thumb over the red handprint that would be sure to leave a bruise. Pope cleared his throat as he pulled away from the dock. "She's telling the truth."

"What are you gonna do?"

X-X-X

JJ, Pope, and Madison followed Kiara through the lawn to find a place to sit for movie night. Why they couldn't just sit off to the side was beyond Madison but nevertheless they followed Kiara closer to the screen and further into the sea of people.

"I'm so glad that they're still doing this. Keep calm. Carry on. Back to OBX life. You know?" She looked over her shoulder with a genuine smile on her face as the other three lagged behind her. "Aren't you glad I made you come?"

"Ecstatic," Pope mumbled, regripping the lawn chair he was carrying as if he would have to use it as a weapon at any second.

JJ followed behind with his backpack over one shoulder and a blanket tucked under his arm, "My couch was pretty comfy, I'll be honest."

"His lap was pretty comfy too," Madison said under her breath, only JJ being able to hear her as he sent her a wink. Their makeout session had been interrupted by Kiara's incessant beeping outside of JJ's house as she picked them up for the summer movie series. "I still don't understand how Sarah and JB got out of this."

Kiara picked a spot on the lawn and put her chair down. She wasn't sure if JJ and Pope were aware but John B and Sarah were actually staying behind to use the Cameron's internet. He wanted to surprise Madison by plugging in the coordinates their father had left behind to pinpoint where the Royal Merchant was and see if it was in a spot that they would actually be able to access it. Kiara wasn't sure how she felt about it. It almost felt wrong lying to Madison, no secrets amongst Pogues, but she could understand where John B was coming from. She had just gotten back into somewhat of a normal routine again and the last thing he wanted was for her to spiral.

Which is why she ignored the statement all together, "I'm going to go get us drinks."

"Lemonade," Madison called after her as she laid out the blanket JJ had been carrying. "This would be so much better if this was a drive-in movie."