Remember When {JJ Maybank}

5

“Look, I’m callin’ it off. All right?” John B said, his friends giving him a questioning look. “Peterkin said, if I stay out of the marsh, she’ll help me with DCS.” 

“And you believed her?” JJ asked, throwing a rock into the air as he scoffed at his words. “Yes, I believe her, JJ.”  “An actual cop, John B. You believed a cop.”

“All I gotta do is stay out of the marsh for a couple of days, and she’ll help me out.”  He explained, “It doesn’t help that your ass was the one shooting a gun.” Maggie held her head in her hands, feeling like last night was just a really bad fever dream.

“You know what I should have done? I should’ve just let Topper drown your ass.” Maggie squinted her eyes at him, “what the fuck JJ?” She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Yeah because Topper was gonna drown me?” John B argued with him. “Sure looked like it.”

“God I hate them sometimes.” Maggie mumbled to Kie, resting her head on her shoulder while they listened to the boys argue.

“They always win, don’t they, man? Kooks versus Pogues. They always, always win!” JJ emphasized, releasing some anger as he slammed his fist down on a punching ball. “Look, it’s okay!” Kie tried to reason with him.

“No, it’s not okay! It's not!  They don’t want us to go down into the marsh. That means there’s something valuable down there, and you know it. I know you do. And I understand why you don’t wanna go. You’re the golden boy. You got way too much to risk." JJ pointed at Pope, who slumped in his position.

And you-” he pointed to Kie, "I mean, you’re already rich as fuck anyway. Why would you bother? And Mags- honestly I don’t even know where you stand in this.” The group looked at her.

“I’ve got nothing.” She admitted, playing with her fingers as she realized she had nothing going for her. “There we go. You, me and Mags, we got nothin to lose! We really don’t, alright? And I know it didn’t used to be that way for you. ” JJ said to John B who walked away from the group, only to be followed by the blonde best friend.

“Mags you don’t have ‘nothing’-” Kie tried to talk to her, only to immediately get cut off, “Kie, I can’t afford college, my mom is-my mom. The only thing I have to lose is you guys, unless we do this together.” 

JJ convinced John B to go and ‘borrow’ oxygen tanks from the Cameron's ship so they could dive down where the boat was. The group was on the HMS Pogue, Kie checking the levels of the tanks he took.

“This is empty. You took empty tanks?” She asked, clearly frustrated with him. “This one’s a quarter full. It’s enough for one of us.”

“Love it when a plan comes together.” Pope sarcastically smiled.
“Anyone know how to dive?” 

The group went completely silent as they stared at each other. “Cool.”  Maggie sighed, rubbing the palms of her hands on her thighs. JJ’s hand comfortably splayed around her waist. “It’s kind of a Kook sport.” She mumbled, running her hand through her hair. 

“I… read about it.” Pope said, shrugging her shoulders. “Great, Pope read about it, so someone’s gonna die.” Kie rolled her eyes. “Look, y-you put the thing in your mouth and breathe. How hard could it be?” JJ asked, not understanding what was so bad about it. “If you come up too fast, nitrogen gets into your blood, and you get the bends.” Pope explained to him.