Adore You ☼ JJ Maybank

9

[ TOOTSIE ROLL ]

"maya?" jj said, walking around her backyard to see the girl sitting on the half-broken porch swing on her back porch with a vape in her mouth. "what're you doing?" then, the loud shouting of her older sister on the phone fighting with her boyfriend was heard from inside the house. "oh."

"yeah." maya laughed. "i guess there goes another one of her boyfriends."

"john b has a plan, so let's go."

☀︎

"do you mind if i just relax on this one?" jj said from the very back of the van, "it's been a long day, and a lot of weird stuff's gone down. i'm just gonna lay low. oh, did you want a hit of this?" jj basically shoved the blunt in pope's face.

"i keep the signal clear." pope says.

"dude, do you understand that your problem is that you don't get creative? if you got creative, then—"

"look, i-i know i was wrong about the lighthouse, alright? and pretty much wrong about everything else going on, but i was right about one thing. okay? my dad is trying to tell me something."

"come on, come on."

"i'm coming. this place is scary." kei says.

"john b, what are we doing here?"

"do you know how you're trying to remember a song but can't remember who sings it?"

"yeah?"

"so, redfield. this whole time, i thought it was a place, right? but it's not a place." john b held up his latern to show a name on an old tomb, "it's a person."

"voi-effing-la." jj said.

"it's my great-great-grandmother, olivia redfield. that was her maiden name." john b says. "okay, help me with the door. come on."

"alright." pope says before the three boys tried to move the door. "the things like 700 pounds, it's not gonna budge."

"we didn't come this far to get this far, alright?" jj says before a snake came out of the vines, the boys shuffling away from the door with a few curse words slipping out. "that's a moccasin, alright? ye olde dr. cottonmouth. death in tall grass." jj started barking at the snake.

"jj, jj, jj, shut up." maya said, grabbing his bicep, "shut up."

"you're gonna wake the dead, man." pope says.

"they're afraid of dogs. everyone knows that." jj says, "wait, hold on. if there's one, there's probably dozens all around."

"what?"

"can you stop? you're scaring me." kei says.

"jj, stop barking at the snakes." maya muttered.

"just making sure it's clear."

"shut up. shut up." pope says, "john, look, we're not getting in there, alright? it's not budging. we should probably just go."

"i can get through." maya says.

"what?" pope says.

"no, no, no, no. you think you're gonna get through that hole?" john b says.

"i'm basically the size of a fifth grader that went through puberty too early." maya deadpanned. "i'll do it, come on."

"i'll get those..." jj says, the boys helping maya with the vines in the way.

"give her a boost." john b says.

"i'm gonna boost you, okay?" jj says, "i've seen it in movies several times. ready?"

"remind me what i'm looking for?" maya asked.

"you'll know when you see it." john b says.

"wow, that's... helpful." maya muttered. "hold my flashlight."

"just put your foot—"

"alright, alright." maya said.

"on three." jj said, "okay, alright.. never mind, just forget about three."

"i got it." maya said and a few seconds later she was on the other side of the wall. "okay, flashlight?"

"yeah, here." pope said, handing it over the wall."

"you alive?" john b said after she took the flashlight and didn't say anything. "you got, like, a heartbeat and everything?"

"yeah?" maya said.

"that's good."

"uh, i need more light." maya says.

"yeah, yeah, here. i got you." john b says, handing his lantern over.

it got silent again, "you find something?" jj asked, "is there gold?"

"uh.." maya said, grabbing what she saw. she walked back over to the hole, sticking it through to john b.

"that's not gold..." pope says.

"holy shit." john b said once he saw the writing on it, "this is from my dad."

jj helped maya over the wall, her stumbling a little too close to him as he had to do everything to hold back from doing something he can't in front of the others.

"code red. code red." jj said, looking past her. "square groupers. square groupers!"

"go, go."

"it's the guys who robbed your house." kei said as they went to hide behind the tomb. "john b. john b, your light."

"do you think it's them?" maya asked as jj's head peaked around the corner.

"oh, he's got a gun."

"screw this." kei said, the teens beginning to run in the opposite direction.

they hopped over the fence, "guys, i'm stuck."

"come on!"

"wait, pope, don't move." jj said, taking out the gun maya didn't know he took from her house.

"whoa, whoa." maya said, "no."

"you're gonna rip them!"

"come on, dude." john b said as they laughed, pope now in his boxers.

"it's a little tootsie roll."