Deep Water [OuterBanks]

10: hard knock life

Rationally, the Pogue's went their separate ways after returning to the shore. John B needed some time to himself, Pope had to clean bass for the seafood market, and Kiara went home to nap. Therefore, having nothing better to do, Alana found herself on the back porch steps of JJ Maybank's single story bungalow. The storm had yet to extend beyond the lines of the ocean, but still the humidity was relentless.

JJ stood a few feet away in the tall and overgrown grass. A pair of headphones covered his ears and his shoulders jerked back tenuously as he fired clear-cut shots at an old teddy bear; the same bear Alana and John B would tease him for sleeping with in the fifth grade. The Kessler girl sat casually on the creaky staircase, picking at her nail polish and stealing brief instinctive glances at JJ. She had been thanking her lucky stars the entire day that she wasn't like majority of love-struck teenagers. Her palms didn't sweat, and she didn't suddenly lose the ability to form a cohesive sentence. She simply felt calm. At home even. Though intermittently, Alana would slip from her tranquil state of mind and begin thinking more rationally. Obviously, the blonde Pogue made it clear that she was easy on the eyes, but she wondered if that was all he liked. She thought that if he just went ahead and kissed her, like John B did Kiara, that it would make things easier, but she still wasn't sure she even wanted to kiss the Maybank boy.

"You know I don't like it when you hang around here for too long." JJ took off the pair of headphones, dropping his gun onto the tree stump beside him for the time being.

"Yeah, I know. But I don't like leaving you here by yourself." Alana shrugged, looking up from her fingernails. "Or at all for that matter."

"What if my dad shows up from work early?" JJ asked rhetorically, removing his backwards red cap and ruffling his blonde locks.

"With all disrespect, your dad can fuck off." Alana acknowledged while nodding. "But if you want, we can go to my house and you can give Jenny a car wash because—"

"JJ!" Pope Heyward came rushing into the backyard, wearing a faded striped button down and a panic-stricken expression. "They know."

"What?" JJ replied, confusion swirling in his frosty irises.

"They know." Pope enunciated, only this time much more slowly.

JJ just shook his head, making a few strides towards the boy. "All right, chill, bro. They don't know shit." He assured nonchalantly.

"Topper knows I sunk his boat." Pope ran a stressful hand down his face as he paced the backyard in a full out panic.

"How do you know they know?" Alana inquired from her spot on the back porch.

"Because Rafe and Topper posted outside of Heyward's and mad dogged me."

"Will you calm down and get a grip, man?" JJ sat down on a stack of chopped logs. "They don't know shit."