🌊Pick A Side || Outer Banks🌊

💡Redfield Lighthouse💡

"JJ, can I ask you something?" Prissy asked. JJ nodded. "How do you know if you like somebody?" She asked.

He looked a little bit shocked. "I dunno, I guess you just feel different around them. Like you might get nervous talking to them!" He told her.

"But I get nervous talking to everybody!" Prissy complained. JJ laughed a little.

"It's not Rafe Cameron, is it?" JJ asked. Prissy violently shook her head. "Or that Tyler kid?" He asked. She shook her head again.

She knew exactly who she thought she liked, she just didn't know if she liked him or not. She thought she might even be in love with him, but she didn't really know what that felt like.

"And it's not Topper?" He asked. Prissy couldn't contain her laughter.

"What is this Alabama?" She asked him. He joined her in laughing. It felt nice in the middle of all this chaos.

"Okay fine, I give up. Who is it?" He asked.

"I'm not gonna tell you, that's totally against the rules!" She said, laughing.

"What rules?" JJ asked, seeming extremely confused.

"The rules of life, JJ. Common exchange of knowledge!" She informed him. He still looked confused. "You know the whole, I tell you, you tell me?" She asked. He nodded.

"How about this rule for you? I don't tell you my crush and you don't tell me your crush!" He stated.

"Sounds good to me." She told him. He almost looked defeated. Prissy shook it off, pretending it never happened. JJ knew who he had a crush on and Prissy happened to know that person very well. Extremely well. "Thank for always being there for me JJ, I know I'm a real pain most of the time!" She added, after a minute or two of silence.

"You're welcome, I feel like we can really trust each other now. It's nice you know, being able to talk to somebody who won't make fun of me or anything!" He responded.

"Yeah, it's not just that though. You look out for me when I'm being stupid, which is most of the time. I'm really stupid!" She said, laughing a little.

"You're not stupid, you just make mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. I pulled a gun on your brother, that was a pretty big mistake!" He said. They both laughed.

They heard footsteps approaching the bathroom. It was Kiara. "Come on guys, we're leaving!" Kie told them. They got up and followed her, barely even knowing where they were going. They got in the Twinkie.

"I mean, it's obvious right? A family heirloom, I mean what better place to hide a message? He had to know it was gonna get back to me, right?" John B asked, driving.

"Yeah, it's possible!" Kie told him.

"It could also be possible that you're concocting wild theories to help, you know deal with your sad feels?" Pope suggested. Prissy rolled her eyes, she had a feeling she knew where this was headed.

"Bro, you know how I process my sad feels? Dank nugs and the stickiest of ickies, that's how I do it!" JJ said. Prissy elbowed him in the side and glared at him. She hadn't lost anybody super close to her, but she had lost a few grandparents. Including her grandfather who she felt was more of a dad to her than her actual dad. All in all, she knew this wouldn't help John B.

"I'm not, I'm not concocting okay? My dad is trying to give me a message!" John B told them, harshly.

"If it helps you believe, John B!" Kie started.

"Look, I don't need a therapy session, okay? I'm not tripping out!" John B interrupted Kie.

"It's okay to trip bro!" JJ told him, Prissy once again elbowed him in the side.

"My dad is missing, okay? Missing. You don't know what it's like to have the person closest to you vanish and then have no idea what happened!" John B scolded them. "You just wake up every morning wondering!" He added. Prissy wondered if that was how Topper felt when she took of with the Pogues.

"It's been almost a year!" Kie reminded him, with a soft tone of voice.

"Hey, he could have been kidnapped, that's definitely a possibility!" JJ suggested.

"Yeah, he could be in a soviet sub getting interrogated by the KGB somewhere." Pope added to JJ's theory.

"Absolutely or Atlantis?" JJ suggested, only to get slapped by Prissy. He gave her a sharp glare, but then realised she had been extremely quiet and gave up.

"JJ!" Kie scolded. "Look, what do you think the message is?" Kie asked, still with a very soft tone of voice.

"Redfield." John B started, just as they drove past a sign for Redfield Lighthouse. "Redfield Lighthouse!" He repeated. "My dad's favourite place!" He added. He pulled up to the lighthouse, which was closed due to the hurricane. The teens all got out of the van.

They walked over to look at the lighthouse. "All right, here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna post up and look out for bogeys okay?" John B asked JJ.

"Wait, why me?" JJ asked, Prissy had to hold back a laugh.

"Because you're not coming!" Pope told him.

"Why?" JJ asked the group, once again.

"Look JJ, there are independent and there are dependent variables. You're an independent variable, we don't know what you're gonna do!" Pope told him, all the while JJ was telling him to shut up.

"Just listen to me for a second, just listen. Pope, Prissy, you stay look out with JJ. Okay? If we get split up we meet back at JJ's house!" Johnb B proposed. Prissy nodded.

"Great!" Kie said, nodding her head. Her bad John B walked off to the lighthouse.

"I'm gonna work on my merit scholarship essay and I'm trying to keep felonies down to a minimum!" Pope said.

"Alright, would you just shut up already?" JJ asked. JJ and Pope started throwing a hacky sack between them. Prissy leaned against a tree. "You okay Prissy?" JJ asked. She looked over to him, with a confused expression. "You've been really quiet!" He informed her.

"I'm fine, just thinking!" She reassured him.

"You sure?" JJ asked. She nodded. He went back to throwing the hacky sack with Pope. After a few minutes they heard a police siren approaching. "Oh shit!" JJ whisper yelled. The three teens rushed back to the Twinkie and drove off. They drove towards JJ's house, then changed their minds and went to Heyward's.

They hung out there for a while wondering what happened to John B and Kiara, meanwhile Prissy was worried about what would happen when she went home. She spent a lot of time staring off into the distance and every couple of minutes, JJ would either wrap his arm around her or tap her on the shoulder to ensure she was okay.

A/N: Thanks so much for the insane amount of reads this book has gotten since my last update. It's over 800 now which I never would have imagined. I also went back and edited every chapter so I'm sorry if you got tons of notifications when I did that. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, the next one should be up pretty soon!

Xx Ems