Summer Lovin

4

We reached the dock to see it packed with police officers, and bystanders. We tied off of the boat and walked towards the scene. We stayed just far enough as to where we could still see. It took me a sec then I saw it. It was a lifeless body being rolled across the dock on a gurney.

Seeing the corpse made me sick. I felt like I was gonna vomit, but not only because it grossed me out but because it had triggered something inside of me. When I was 14 my mom died from breast cancer. Even though it was around 2 years ago and I thought I was "over it" clearly I wasn't.

As I stare blankly at the body I can feel John b put his hand in my shoulder knowing that this would probably trigger me or something. "Who's that?" John b asks the girl we were standing by.

"It's scooter Grubbs, he was out during the storm. Check out this pic I got. Dead body" the girl said showing the group a pic of the body she had gotten

"Insane" kie says looking at the pic. "Holy shit" pope says

"What kind of boat did he have?" JJ asked the girl
"Somehow that dirtbag copped a brand new Grady white" the girl said surprising us all

"Everyones out looking for it" the girl said

I just kept looking at the body and all of the sudden it felt like all the air in the world had vanished. Trying not to cry and breathe at the same time was a lot harder that it sounds. I just couldn't do it anymore.

I stood up and started to walk away. But after a few steps I turned around trying to catch my breath, breathing heavily and fiddling with my necklace my mom had given me, I say "I just- I just need sec" and I started to walk down to the edge of the dock.

As I got further I hear the girl say "what's her deal?" But I chose to ignore it.

I stood at the edge of the dock leaning on the railing looking out to the ocean letting my silent tears fall into the water.

After a few moments I heard faint footsteps coming towards me. Not looking up to see who it is already having an idea.

"Hey, are you okay?" JJ asked

"I'm fine" I say turning around and wiping my tears
He lets out a small laugh at me.

"Clearly" he says knowing it would make me laugh which it did.

"Is it your mom?" He asked hesitantly
I stayed silent for a moment "yeah" I say quietly

"It's just, seeing that made me remember, what it was like when the cops had to come and take her body. And I though I was over it." I say not making eye contact with him

"I feel like part of you can never get over that" JJ said consoling me

I took a moment to process that before saying "Yeah" then I started to tear up again. Without saying anything he pulls me into a hug. I buried my head into his chest as he squeezed me tight.

"You know I love you right" he said to me

I smiled a little surprised that he said that to me because he usually liked to hide his emotions, and I knew he was being genuine. "I know" I say

Once I compose myself we pull apart. "Do you wanna go back, or stay here a little longer?" JJ asked being sweet JJ and not just his normal crazy.

"We can go back" I say feeling better and letting a small smile appear on my lips.

He nodded and we walked back up to where all our friends were on the dock. You would think that I might feel embarrassed facing them after running off like that. But after my mom died I practically cried nonstop. So they had seen me at my lowest.

"You good?" John b asked pulling me into a small hug.
"I'm good" I say back and actually meaning it

Kie and pope both gave me a sad smile, when kie took my hand and we started walking back towards the boat together. I remained quiet for some time but eventually when we got back to the chateau I opened back up again.

We all sat in the mud room back at the chateau I sat in a chair next to JJ as he played with his lighter. I was in a trance of my own thoughts when I hear pope burst through the door "okay, so we didn't see anything. We don't know anything" he says as I sigh.

"We need to have total and complete amnesia" he continues

"Actually popes right for once, see I agree with you sometimes. Deny deny deny" JJ speaks up as he gets out of his chair

"Guys we can't keep that money" kie adds on
"Okay not all of us can afford unlimited data plans, Kiara." JJ says making an actually good point

"We have to pass it off to Lana Grubbs, otherwise it's bad karma." Kie speaks up

"Yeah I agree with kie, we cant keep that" I say disagreeing with JJ

"Bad karma to be implicated in a felony too." Pope says "we gotta go dark"

"If that means we get to keep the money then I agree" JJ says

"I don't agree" John b says calmly
"What? Why?" JJ asked confused

"Just think about it, this is scooter Grubbs we're talking about, same guy that's buying individual cigarettes at the porthole. Shit one time I saw this dude begging for change in the save a lot parking lot because he needed gas. We're talking about a dirt bag marina rat who's never had more than 49 bucks in his pocket. And all of the sudden he's got a Grady white. Just sayin"

"That is ture" I say having John b convince me

"Okay who's side are you on??" Pope questions me.

We ended up moving down towards the dock later on. Pope and JJ fishing as I sat on the railing.

"All right so think about it pope, how does a marina rat get a Grady white?" John b asks still trying to convince pope

"Prostitution" pope shoots back
"Square groupers bro" John b says back "okay flying under the radar, no aerial surveillance, they don't do that stuff during a hurricane. What does that mean? JJ?" John b continues

"They were straight smugglin'" JJ replies back
"Smugglin'"  John b said cockily

"And I guarantee you there's a serious amount of contraband in that wreck" John b said

"Hell yeah" JJ replied as he caught a fish on his line
"Fish on!"

After a little we move locations again into John bs room

"For the record, if that is a smuggling ship with illegal contraband on the inside of it, it probably belongs to someone else." Pope says trying to prove his case

"Minor details" kie adds

"They could come looking for it taking it would be catastrophically stupid" pope says ignoring kies comment

"Right, well stupid things have good outcomes all the time." JJ says holding up all the cash we stole from the motel room earlier. "All we need to do right now is figure out a way to get into the cargo hold of that wreck." JJ says "until then we just lay low, act normal" he continues

I just sat back liking the idea of that plan.

Kie and I looked at each other and smiled "kegger?" We both asked at the same time.

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I know these chapters have been pretty boring but I swear it will get better!!! Can't wait to add more thing between JJ and Hannah. Next chapter is the kegger!!! And there is a LOT of drama between JJ and Hannah