All That Glitters

Being Petty

John B had shut his eyes for maybe five seconds before being interrupted by someone banging his door. He sprung back to life after not even a full minute of beauty sleep as the person who so rudely awakened him shouted from outside.

" DCS! I know you're in there! "

"God not again." John B whispered to himself. He rubbed his eyes of whatever bleariness he could.

Then a loud bang sounded from his window, causing him to jump in surprise. JJ stared at him with his lower jaw extended to imitate that of a snarling dog. As soon as they made eye contact, he burst out laughing.

"Got you, slick. You shoulda seen your face." JJ's eyes were on the verge of tears from how hard he was laughing. This had the makings of something JJ would never let him live down.

Even though John B's heart was going a million miles per minute, he rolled his eyes with relief and annoyance.

"What are you doing here, JJ?" He said just loud enough for him to hear.

"Gimme some breakfast and I'll tell you." John B rolled himself out from under the blankets he'd made a nest of to unlock and open the door.

"Spill. Also why didn't you just use the back door? I don't lock the porch, JJ." JJ stared at him as he brushed past.

"Because then I wouldn't have seen your life flash before your eyes, John Bitch." He slapped his shoulder and scurried to the kitchen. Belining it for the cupboard he knew John B kept the cereal he didn't want to share.

"Hey! JJ- JJ! Put that back."

JJ was holding a half empty box of off-brand cocoa krispies. Coco-nuts . He gave John B a cheeky smile before flipping him off and snagging a bowl from the sink that looked clean enough.

"Why are you bothering me at seven in the morning, JJ."

"Uh, it's eight, dude."

"Whatever."

"Well since you were having a little moment with the compass thing that supposedly belonged to your dad-"

"It did. It did belong to my dad." JJ squinted his eyes at him before taking a bite of John B's cereal.

"I figured that you need some JJ time to make sure you don't spiral into oblivion again. You practically disappeared for two months last time. I was really not looking forward to dealing with my thing alone again. So I'm just here to keep you grounded, sweet butter cakes ."

John B's eyes widened. "Oh shit. I did miss one, didn't I. Fuck, man. I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well, it's fine. I got through it. I just wish the promise you made to me—that you swore to me, would've been enough to at least get you to call me. But it's in the past."

"No. No, JJ I swore on my mother that I would be there every time. It's written in the Pogue membership manual we made in junior high."

JJ spoke through a rather large bite he'd taken. "It got burned in the bonfire at Chelsea's graduation party, John B."

"Yeah, and? I still remember it. We all do." John B sat down next to him. "Is that why you haven't been keeping me in the loop as much?"

He stopped chewing for a second. Glancing up from the bowl, spoon in hand. "No."

"Ah, ah, ah. Your voice raised. I heard it!" John B slapped the table and lightly punched JJ's arm.

"Okay, maybe I was being a bit petty."

"Well, stop. I'm letting you eat my god damn cereal. Just don't keep me in the dark on how you're feeling. Cause, I gotta say, after I came back, and I could see that something was up with you, and you didn't even mention anything to me about it, that really hurt my feelings."

"Your feelings?" JJ slammed the bowl down in an exaggerated fit of rage. Humor gleaming in his eyes. "You can't tell me that me not telling you how my period was going hurt your feelings." He chuckled.

John B stared at him with his eyebrows raised. "Did you just compare you transforming into a werewolf every month to a girl's normal body function?" JJ's eyes flicked up to his when he said the word " werewolf "; he visibly flinched as the syllables left John B's lips. John B pretended not to notice, silently making another mental note to not mention the W word again.

"Yeah. I mean come on. We both kinda turn into raging bloodthirsty monsters. The comparison is there."

"I'm just still stuck on the fact that you came up with that off the top of your head, honestly. I thought you failed health class."

JJ snickered and continued to eat. John B reached for the box opting to just use his hands to shovel the cereal from the box to his mouth. Like a barbarian.

"To be fair, Mr. Lucas was a douchebag and he failed me on purpose."

"Yeah. I think he didn't want to be there just as much as we wanted to be there."

"Grown adults trying to talk about sex to a bunch of minors will always be S tier comedy to me. That shit is so fucking funny. I think he just got tired of me making fun of how ridiculous some of the stuff he said to replace the stuff he had to talk about. Like oh my god, that one time when he kept referring to the vagina as an Easter basket, oh! It never gets old." JJ chuckled.

They sat there reminiscing at the times they spent together throughout the previous years. JJ kept pulling odd instances out of the dark corners of his memory where he had witnessed some cringeworthy shit. John B kept trying to steer him away from the cringe and back into the times where they'd skipped to surf or smoke back at the chateau when his dad was too busy in his office to care what his delinquent son and his borderline criminal best friend were doing on a Tuesday. JJ wasn't having it.

"I just can't believe you did that in front of Sarah Cameron when half the school knew you were crushing super hard on her."

"Would you stop dangling that in front of my face? I already had to live through it once, I don't want to again, thanks." John B set the box down on the table. His eyes drifted back to the compass. It sat there on the table. Like his father had accidentally left it there in one of his episodes of hyper fixating on his research of the Royal Merchant.

His heart grew heavy for a second. But it was cut short by JJ erupting with laughter. John B decided to join him. Mostly fueling his laughter with an image of JJ's face when he's on the verge of passing out from laughing so hard floating through his mind.

Pogues didn't keep secrets from each other. But John B was fine keeping the thought of continuing his fathers work to himself. After all, JJ did say he only stopped by to make sure his ass wasn't spiraling again.

"So what're you gonna do with the compass, bro?"

"Well... it belongs in my family so I'm not gonna pawn it off. Not that I'd get much for it anyway. I don't think it even works anymore, but I can't help but wonder why Scooter had it. And why those groupers were trying so hard to find his boat that didn't have any drugs on it from what I could tell. Cause if they were after it, then that means my father uncovered something big and didn't bother telling me."

"So you're not gonna sell it?" Disappointment rang in his voice.

"No. I think I wanna find out what's so important about it that some guys are desperate enough to kill for it. So that maybe I could put a stop to it."

"And how do you suppose we do that, Detective John B?"

"I wonder if Ms. Lana knows anything since Scooter was her husband after all."

JJ pursed his lips and nodded before leaning back in his chair. "Alrighty then."