duchess → outer banks

EPISODE XXXI.

[the realization]

The Pogues were sat at a table in The Wreck, minus JJ. None of her friends had said a word to Duchess about the situation, about the last thing JJ said for taking off on his own. They had no idea what to say.

Duchess wasn't up for talking either, she just kept replaying his apology over and over in her head. You were too good for me, he had said, as if their friendship was over. As is he felt that she would never forgive him. Little did he know, she already had.

After what seemed like a decade of silence, John B finally spoke up. "Look, he'll come around, all right? It's... He's doing a JJ thing."

"You'll think he'll go home," Kie asked the question that was at the forefront of everyone's mind. Duchess' hoped that he didn't, but she also knew that The Pogues haven't given him anywhere to go instead.

"There's about a zero percent chance that JJ goes home," Pope responded, looking through the window he was leaning against. His statement gave Duchess just a bit of relief.

"You okay," John B asked Sarah.

"Yeah," she responded," Are you?"

"I mean, I'm in one piece so..."

"Duchess," Kie said to the brunette girl sitting across the table.

"Yeah," she responded, voice low.

"You haven't said a word since it happened, do you want to maybe-"

"I don't want to fucking talk about it Kie," Duchess said. Eyes wide, appalled by the way she snapped at her friend she tried again."I'm sorry, just- maybe we can talk about something else? My brain's a whole mess of well, you know..."

"A whole mess of JJ," Pope finished for her. Then graciously, he changed the subject. "It's too dangerous to pawn this thing off piecemeal. So, our best bet is to go down and get the rest of it. Bring it all up at once. Put it in a safe or a vault or something. I don't know. Just until we can find someone who won't rip us off. I can figure it out tonight, get it done and we can be out there tomorrow morning."

"All right," John B said," Let's do it."

"What about that thing with my dad," Sarah questioned.

"Shit," John B whispered.

"What thing," Pope asked.

"I have to go fishing with Ward," he responded.

"You can't get five hundred mill because you're gonna go kill fish," Kie asked.

"More gold for me then," Duchess joked.

"Look, I have to go," John B told them.

"Blow it off!" Pope exclaimed," It's five hundred million in gold!"

"Make something up!" Kie suggested.

"Yeah," Duchess added," Like you're sick or something. You've done it plenty of times in school when you wanted so surf."

John B refused to listen to his friends pleas. "Look, I have to. He saved me, all right? And if it weren't for Ward, I'd be in foster care. So, I have to go. Plus, it'll be better to do it at night. Right?"

Not a single Pogue was happy with that outcome. But they knew John B was not going to have his mind changed. "Fine," Pope said," Fine, go fishing."

"And at least JJ will probably have washed up by then," Kie said looking at Duchess as she spoke.

She hoped he would turn up sooner than that.

❁

Later that night, after Pope had come up with the perfect plan, the Pogues met at John B's. Jumping out of the driver's seat of her Jeep, Duchess hoped that when she walked into the house, she would see JJ.