Outer Banks ~ JJ Maybank

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"What the hell are you doing here?" I asked as we began to dance normally. "I thought you were locked up?" "Yeah, my dad bailed me out." "Is that why you have this?" I said pointing to the slightly swollen corner of his mouth. "Yeah. It's fine though." He said. "Look, John B sent me up here to give Sarah something and to tell you to go meet him on the beach." "I'm not worried about John B right now JJ." "Okay, well, he needs to talk to you so, you should go." "Okay. Where on the beach." "Over there," he said incorporating his pointing into a very bad dance move. "Okay." I said breaking away from the dance and starting to walk away. I turned back around and grabbed his hand. "I'm glad you are okay." I said with a smile, kissing his hand, and running off.

"John B?" I called as I walked closer to where JJ pointed. "John B?" I said looking around. "Hey." He said running up from behind me. "Oh thank God you are okay." "Thank god you are okay! I was so worried.How are you? Were are you staying?" "I'm good. I stayed in the van one night and I spent last night at Kie's house." "Why did you sleep in the van?" "I don't know. I wanted to. How about you? Are you okay. Why didn't you come meet up with us somewhere?" "That's what the 'team meeting' as you call them is about." "Okay, so why did you take me away from free booze? Just to give me an ominous message about The Royal Merchant?" "No. Well, a little. But I also wanted to say that I'm sorry." "For what?" "For being a shitty older brother." "You already apologized for that." "I know but I really mean it. I know I dropped the ball after Dad went missing." "You could say that..." "And I regret it. Instead of trying to help you with everything, I just shut you out. And that was so stupid of me." "Okay." "That's it? Just okay?" "Well, yeah. I don't really have anything more to say about it. I got everything I was thinking off my chest already. I mean, you know I'm gonna love you no matter what right? It's in the sibling rules baby. It might seem like I fucking hate your guts, but deep down, I'll always love you." "Thanks Gabbie. I love you too." He said hugging me. "Can I go back to the party now, it's actually kind of fun." "Yeah, sure. I guess JJ got caught up in something so he hasn't gotten to Kie and Pope yet." "I hope it's not Rafe and Topper." "I don't know, after what JJ told me about the movie night, I don't think Topper will ever wanna fuck with us again." I smiled at the floor and started walking back to the party, "You look beautiful Gabbie!" "Thank you!" I called running back to the party.

I had meet back up with Kie and she told me she had seen JJ run off followed by a bunch of guys. "Fuck. Are you serious right now." "Hey man! Look, I can walk my own self out, I got legs." I heard JJ's voice say. I turned around and saw a security guard escorting him through the crowd. "I appreciate the subtlety there pal." JJ said, dusting off his shirt. "It's okay everyone! I'm fine." "Get out of here man." The guard said. "You can't treat him like that!" I said. "Gabbie!" Kie's mom said. "I'm a member of this club, I invited him." Kie said. "Kie, Gabbie, hey, mandatory meeting. Let's go. Come on! Workers of the world untie! Break off the chains!" He exclaimed. I looked at Kie and we both dashed down the stairs of the patio area and over to him and Pope joined us. We all ran down to the beach where we saw John B. "Captain." Colonel." "The mission is complete." "I see that." He said pointing to all of us. "Let's go!" He said hopping on the boat and helping us all in. As I walked past JJ he quickly whispered in my ear, "You look so good in that dress." I smiled and climbed into the boat.

"So, the gold is in Parcel Nine near the water!" "You are truly a genius." I said, half joking, half serious. "Okay, new question, how are we gonna find out where parcel nine is?" "Well, for that we need a plat map. And lucky enough, Sarah Cameron is meeting us at the Hawks Nest tonight to bring us one." "Sarah Cameron!" Kie exclaimed, suddenly very angry. None of us really knew why Kie hated Sarah, they were best friends one day, and then mortal enemies the next. Kie never told us why. Her and John B started to get into a fight about Sarah Cameron and it was kind of exhausting, but 10 minutes later, we were on our way to the Hawks Nest.

"It's fine ya know. We'll just sit here in the hot car. Like abandoned babies in a parking lot." "Glad you aren't being dramatic about it. I'll be back." John B said, jogging off. "He is so dumb." I said standing up and walking out of the van. "Where are you going?" JJ asked. "I don't know. Not far. I just don't want to be in this hot ass fucking car." "I'll come with you." He said, getting out too. "You guys aren't going off to..." "No Pope. Get your mind out of the gutter." I said walking away. 

"So, how are you?" I asked as we sat down next to a tree. "I'm good. How about you?" "Relieved to see that you and my brother are okay. I'm sorry about getting you thrown in prison." "You didn't do anything. You told the truth. It was my idea." "I know." I said, with a sigh. "I think the hardest part was looking out the window and watching you just fall apart." "You saw that!" "Yeah." "Shit! Oh my god!" "Why are you embarrassed? I think it was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me." "What?" "Yeah. It took a lot of effort to not get out of the car and run over to you." "For real. You didn't think it was stupid?" "No. I thought it was sweet." I blushed and he put his arm around me and kissed the top of my head. "Promise me you'll never out me in a position like that ever again." "I can only promise so much." "Oh shut up." I said rolling my eyes. Suddenly, we were pulled out of our calming moment by the sound of someone screaming. "Help!" "Ohs hit. That's not good. That's not good at all." JJ said running over to the van as Kie and Pope hopped out.

We all ran to where the voice was coming from. When we got there we all froze. We saw Sarah Cameron sitting next to John B, who was unconscious. Everyone but me ran over to see what had happened. I stood there, unable to move. I watched as Pope ran off to call for help and JJ came up to me. He looked down and wiped a tear from my cheek. "He's gonna be okay." He said, hugging me. "He's gonna be okay." He repeated. "I hope."