Ocean and Alcohol ✘JJ Maybank✘

Safe

TW: There are some mentions of blood and some self inflicted wounds, but nothing too descriptive! Please, be cautious all the same. 

You sat on a small plastic chair, nearly unmoving. Hiding out in a junkyard wasn't exactly how you intended on spending your day, but then again, there was little that had gone on in the past few weeks that had been intended at all. You were all waiting for something, for some kind of sign that John B and Sarah were alright.

At the sound of a plane flying overhead, you snapped your head up, pushing yourself out of your chair. Your heart plummeted as you watched the plane pass over you. It was Ward Cameron's plane, no doubt about it. And there it was going with all your gold.

"There goes the gold," Pope said, his voice tight.

"Shit!" JJ turned and kicked a plastic chair into a wooden beam. It shattered into pieces. Both you and Kie flinched.

"Fuck!" Pope picked something off the ground and threw it into a pile of junk. Kie called out for him, hoping to calm him down before things got too bad. But Pope was inconsolable. You turned back to watch the plan disappear into the sky as Pope beat the shit out of half the junk with a baseball bat.

You brought your hands up to your face, covering your nose with shaking hands. The gold was gone, but you could only imagine what that meant for John B and Sarah.

Pope eventually crashed, flopping himself onto a moldy couch as he struggled to breathe. You walked over, sitting on the ground beside the couch.

"Pope?" Kie looked at him, eyebrows knit together. She breathed heavily, as if exhausted from just watching Pope's breakdown.

"Yeah, dude," JJ said finally. "I was wondering when this was gonna happen."

He pulled a blunt from his pocket and offered it to Pope. You cringed, but said nothing.

"Here you go, chief." JJ extended his arm fully toward Pope. "A little weed never hurt anyone."

"JJ." Kie gave him a look. "You know he doesn't smoke."

Pope seemed to take that as a direct challenge. He took the blunt from his friend, who then sat beside him and offered him a lighter. You sighed, dropping your head into your arms.

"Yeah, what's that gonna help?" Kie asked, still trying to keep control of the situation.

"I lost my scholarship," Pope said. His voice broke as he spoke. "Walked right out of my interview. It's gone. It's not gonna happen."

So, it wasn't just you who had lost everything. There was at least some kind of comfort in that.

"You did that for us?" Kie asked, looking down at him.

"No, not for us." Pope stood. You could feel the anger radiating off of him even from the other side of JJ. "For nothing."

JJ stood and put his arms around Pope's shoulders.

"I'm here for you, alright Pope?" He said, tapping Pope's arm. "Welcome to my world."

"JJ-"

"What, Kie? He's right." Kie glared at JJ as Pope walked away. "It doesn't matter anymore."

"At least we helped Sarah, right?" You tried, lifting your head. JJ and Kie looked down at you, so you pushed yourself out of the dirt. "Maybe we didn't get the gold, but Sarah's not going who knows where with her psycho dad. That's gotta count for something."

Pope put the blunt to his lips and breathed in, his eyes closing.

"You don't have to do that," Kie said, turning back to look at him. He let the smoke out through his nose. You didn't really believe that it wasn't his first time smoking. He did it so flawlessly. You coughed up half your lungs the first joint you smoked.