Outer Banks (JJ Maybank x Reader) Book 4

The Gold

~~~~~~~~~ 3 DAYS AFTER THE WEDDING ~~~~~~~~~~~

"Fuck," I groan, wiping my mouth off with the back of my hand. I push myself to my feet, stumbling over to the cooler and grabbing a water bottle. I rinse out my mouth and chug the rest of the bottle, falling onto the sand. I prop myself up on my elbows and take a few deep breaths before shoveling sand over the puke. JJ runs up the sandbank with a wide grin on his face. 

"I caught another one!" He grins. I smile at his happy face, leaning back to let the sun shine on my face. "Dinner?" He asks as he spears the big fish over the fire. I wrinkle my nose at him. He flops down on the sand next to me, crawling up to my face to kiss me. "As much as I love being here with you... we have to go back to Poguelandia soon," I tell him with a frown. He makes an angry face. "Who's gonna run the shop without us?" I grin at him. Poguelandia.

You might be wondering what happens after you find the lost city of El Dorado, get blown up, your dad dies, and you're stranded in South America with a sack full of gold. Well, let me catch you up. 

First, you catch a ride back home. And you sleep for, like, three weeks. And when you finally get back... you make peace with the fam... or not. Pope's parents couldn't be happier to see him. Kie on the other hand... her parents won't even talk to her. Sarah got in a couple big fights with Rose or Rafe about Ward and his death. And as for John B and I, we spent a few days sitting out back just staring at the old tree with our dad's name carved into it.

And after all the loose ends are tied up, the gold.

~~~~~~~~~~~~ 9 MONTHS EARLIER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We all hold our breath as the man places the block of gold onto the scale. "20 pounds," He reads, eyes widening a little bit. JJ nods at me with a smirk as the man holds up some sort of scanner to the gold. "98.5%... gold," He whispers, his tone lifting in surprise. We all smile at John B, who sits in the chair directly in front of the businessmen. "And that translates too....?" He asks, quirking an eyebrow. 

"This is money," He nods. "A whole lot of money". We all cheer, jumping around and hugging each other. John B shakes the hands of the gentlemen and grabs me, squeezing me tightly. "We did it," He whispers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Moment of truth," John B says, holding his breath as he looks at the ATM. "Pin is 0-0-0-0 enter," He mutters. "You're kidding," Sarah says. "What?" He asks, looking up at her. "Tell me that's a temporary pin," Kie says, eyes wide. "Uh, well, I just thought nobody could guess that," John B stammers. "You need to change that immediately," Pope gasps. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry," John B sighs as the ATM starts to print the receipt. "Here it comes," JJ exhales, squeezing my hand.

"That's me, that's me!" JJ shouts, snatching it up the second it's out. "Hey, hey!" Sarah shouts, trying to grab it. "Let me read it, let me read it," John B grunts as he tries to wrestle it from JJ. "Hey! Hey!" I shout at them as they pull the piece of paper back and forth. "It's not even the money it's just the receipt!" Pope rolls his eyes as John B wins victory over the paper.

"Our joint account balance..." He reads, "After paying JJ's restitution at 10:04 am on Tuesday...," He smiles as he reads it slowly. "Oh come on get on with it!" Cleo groans. "Our joint account balance is... one point one million, seventy two thousand, five hundred and forty two dollars," John B finishes with a gasp. "You said mil?" JJ asks. "Million?" I ask skeptically. "Um..." John B stammers. "With an M?" Pope asks. 

"That'll do it!" Pope shouts. We all scream in excitement, laughing and hugging each other as we think about the gold. I see JJ walk over to the fridge in the gas station, grabbing a can of beer and starting to chug it as everyone else celebrates. I walk over to him, leaning against the glass door of the fridge. "You can smile you know," I grin at him. He looks at me, expression unmoving.

"Look, this doesn't mean we're kooks... just means we have a little money now," I say, playfully hitting his stomach. JJ cocks his head at me, a slow smile starting to form. "A real wedding," I grin, putting the emphasis on real.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Ok, ok, hear me out!" JJ shouts as we all sit in a circle. "Rally Truck with yellow LED's to replace the Twinkie," JJ grins as we list our ideas for what to do with the money. "No, no, I'm not getting rid of the Twinkie," John B purses his lips, shaking his head. "But... with solar panels maybe?" Kie grins. "If it's in the budget?" I smile. "And a bigger boat!" Cleo laughs. "Guys, guys, hold on.." Pope says, standing up.

"It's not like we can all go off and buy houses or anything," He says. "I mean, split between all of us, that's about... $211,000," He tells us. "Minus what we owe Barracuda Mike," I remind him. "Yea, let him come and try to take us, I'll mess him up," JJ shakes his head. "Umm.. I'm just gonna say it, I don't wanna piss off the drug dealer," John B shakes his head. 

"Listen, if we divide this up, we're all gonna blow it," Pope continues. I turn and look at JJ, grinning. So does everyone else. "Wow, okay! Why are you looking at me like that?" He says, offended. "But maybe if we pool our money together..." Pope continues. "We can create something with actual economies of scale!" He says. 

"Like what?" Kie shrugs. "You remember the island?" Pope grins. "Duh," I say. "Of course," Sarah grins. "I mean, it was our own island, and we built everything from basically nothing, right?" Pope smiles. "It was perfect," I nod, grinning at JJ. "The best life," Cleo smiles. "The whole island just to ourselves," Sarah grins as she leans back. "All of us together," Kie nods. "I think we can have that again, right here!" Pope says. We all look around at each other, smiling. 

"JJ's property's going up for auction right? So let's buy it back!" Pope says, gesturing to the house we sit in front of. "I mean look around, a lot of land, deepwater access," Pope smiles, turning to the water. "Unless any of you are planning on going back to school, we're gonna need a place to work, and a place to stay and live," Pope nods. 

"I think we can have both of those things here," He continues. "First things first, we get the land, right? And then, over there, we could build like... a surf shop!" He says, pointing. "And then maybe we can make our own dock!" He shouts, pointing to the marsh. "This place needs a dock," Kie grins, nodding. "Ooh, what about, like, a bait and tackle shop," John B shrugs. "Exactly! And who knows these waters better than us? JJ you can get a new boat and run a fishing charter..." Pope continues. "We can all live and sleep in the house..." 

Pope was the mastermind. He saw not what it was, but what it could be. A place where we could work and live together. A shop, a marina, a place to chill. So long story short, we bought JJ's land back from the bank... and because of JJ's bidding skills, it ended up costing us around 75% of the money. We made the old piece of shit our home. Poguelandia 2.0.

We found all the materials we needed from places around the island, pogue style. We bought a new boat, The Snapper, and we even got buffy to help us build a dock in exchange for a lifetime supply of weed. We should've waited until after he built it to give it to him though..

We built the bait shop and hung up a big plastic shark right out front. JJ even re-made our Poguelandia flag from the island and hung it up. It was perfect. And we did it all together.