Adore You ☼ JJ Maybank

4

[ FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! ]

"who's that?" john b asked as a few of the pogue's teens sat at the docks, seeing a dead body being wheeled off a boat.

"it's scooter grubs. he was out during the storm." a girl said, "check out this pic i got. dead body.. insane."

"holy shit." maya said, leaning on jj to see the photo since she was on the other side of him.

"what kind of boat did he have?" jj asked, switching hands he was holding onto the pole with to put the arm around maya.

"somehow, that dirtbag copped a brand-new grady-white." the girl said, "everyone is out looking for it."

☀︎

maya sat in one of the chairs on john b's porch, jj sitting next to her as she rested her feet in his lap. she looked out upon the water as she heard the familiar sound of jj playing with his lighter.

"okay.. so, um, we didn't see anything, we don't know anything." pope said, pulling open the screen door and coming onto the porch. "we need to have total and complete amnesia."

"actually, pope's right.. for once." jj said, moving maya's feet out of his lap so he could stand up causing her to send him a glare. "see, i agree with you sometimes. deny, deny, deny."

"guys, we can't keep that money." kei said.

"not all of us can afford unlimited data plans, kiara." jj retorted.

"or even food most of the time." maya muttered, even though they could all hear her.

"we have to pass that off to lana grubbs, otherwise it's bad karma." kei explained.

"bad karma if we were to be implicated in a felony, too." pope added. "we gotta go dark."

"if that means we get to keep the money, then i agree." jj said.

"i don't agree." john b said.

"what? why?" jj asked.

"just think about it. this is scooter grubbs we're talking about. same dude that's buying individual cigarettes at the porthole." john b said, "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 dirtbag marina rat who's never had more than 40 bucks in his pockets, and all of a sudden he's got enough money for a grady-white. just sayin'."

☀︎

"alright, so think about it, pope." john b says, the crew now on the small pier, boat dock outside of john b's house. pope and jj were fishing as john b was trying to talk. "how does a marina rat get a grady-white?"

"prostitution." pope said the first thing that came to his mind.

"square groupers, bro." john b says, "okay. flying under the radar, no ariel surveillance. they don't do that stuff during a hurricane. what does that mean?" the boy pointed to jj, "jj?"

"they were straight smugglin'." jj said.

"smugglin'." john b clarified again, "and i guarantee there's a serious amount of contraband in that wreck."