riptide- outer banks

sixty-nine | liar, liar

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Before Kori could so much as set foot on the front lawn, she was being picked up, and thrown over his shoulder. "John B!" She yelled, lifting her head as he let out a laugh and continued running with her. All she could do was drop her head and accept it, heinous snickers falling from his lips. He was almost an entire foot taller than her, which meant she was not getting out of this.

Logan had to chuckle as he watched, head shaking at the pair. He loved this— the feeling that he had right now. These were his people now. Everyone was thrilled, more than excited to see John B's dad. After all this time, he was alive and he was back in Kildare. Nothing really felt real.

"Look at you, big man! Look at you!" Pope exclaimed, clasping Big John in an embrace as John B finally put Kori down.

She lightly shoved his shoulder back before forcing him into a hug, holding tightly to her big brother. "I missed you, you idiot."

"Aw, we missed you, too, Kor." He responded, pulling away just as JJ jumped atop Big John's back, roughing up his hair with his fist.

Kori straightened out her overall shorts before turning to them, nothing but contentment filling her bones. He was back. Big John was really, really back. She couldn't have asked for anything better. As if on cue, the man suddenly noticed her—JJ had already jumped onto the ground—his eyes widening as a result.

"Is that you, Kare-Bear?" He asked.

The blonde simply shook her head and slammed into him in a hug. "I'm really glad you're alive." She breathed out, pulling away to look up at him.

"Well, hell, I am too. And my goodness, Kori, I almost didn't recognize you." He remarked, straightening his glasses with one hand.

Her eyes rolled into the back of her head at that. "Well, it has been a year since you last saw any of us. We all kind of grew up."

"That you did. That you did, my dear." Big John smiled, gaze flickering to his son as the younger Cameron boy clasped his palm, pulling him into an embrace. He immediately turned back to the girls, not bothering to direct his statement at the Cameron girl. He didn't trust them— either of them. "So who's ready to talk?"

Kori and Pope shared a look, brows raising as their hands followed. It wasn't just them though. It was everyone. They all wanted to know where he and John B had been the past few days and how Big John had survived any of what he'd been through. Especially the fact that he'd been presumed dead for an entire year now. That was what they didn't understand. At all.

So between him and John B, they began explaining everything. How Big John had survived his injury on the boat and made it to the deserted island. How Ward Cameron had betrayed him because of his greed for the gold. How John B had found him in Barbados and how they'd been in Charleston to look for clues leading to a bigger treasure.

How they'd seemingly found nothing.

"Yeah, so we, um...we went to the archives in Charleston, and, uh..." John B paused, gaze flickering to the ground as they sat around him. "It was...it was a dead end."

JJ hadn't taken his eyes off of his best friend until that particular statement. It was at that moment his attention discreetly shifted to his sister. Upon locking onto her narrowed green eyes, he knew she knew it, too. John B was lying.

"A dry hole. So..." He trailed off.

Pope slowly nodded. "So that's the gold, the cross, and now El Dorado." He let out a half of a scoff. "We're three for three, guys. The streak continues." He seethed, chucking a rock in the other direction as he stalked off.