BROKEN (jj maybank)

fourteen | square groupers, bro

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
        ↪SQUARE GROUPERS, BRO↩

⨌

THE HARPER GIRL sat with the rest of the crew on the porch of the Château. Every so often her juul met her lips and her foot was anxiously tapping against the wood.

JJ had quickly gotten to explaining and Lyssa could tell that neither Kie nor Pope truly believed his fanatical story about what actually occurred at Lana Grubbs' home. But both the Maybank boy and Harper girl were shaken up (JJ more than anything- Lyssa was trying to control her nerves) which meant to Kie and Pope that even a fraction of his story was actually true.

"And then we were right outside, like this," The blonde rushed out, acting out the sequence of events that he, Lyssa and John B secretly witnessed Lana Grubbs be beaten by the two mysterious gunman that at shot at them the previous day in the marsh. His cheeks were a burning red and his shoulders heaved by how fast he spoke to the group of gathered teenagers, talking loudly as the rooster crowed in the garden. "And all we hear is just - bam, bam, bam! Knocking paint off the wall, from inside! All right? And I'm just looking at them like - wait, first off, look at this shit," he paused his aggressive story-telling, hastily crossing over where Pope, Kie and Lyssa sat on one of the few stained couches that had somehow found their ways onto the Routledge's boy porch long summers ago and had never moved back. Lyssa and JJ were certain they had borrowed the couch from a neighbors lawn on one of John B's dares and had hauled it back to the Château -but they had definitely been too drunk to even clearly remember the nights events.

Crouching down so his head was level with the three of his friends knees, JJ ran a calloused hand through his dirty blonde locks, shaking white flakes out onto the dark wood of the porch. "That's dandruff, disgusting," Kie grimaced, her face twinges in disgust. Lyssa turned to the Carrera girl, "He doesn't have dandruff," she knowingly pointed out. JJ held a hand out towards her, gesturing that she was right, whereas the other three all gave her odd looks. "What? He likes when I braid his hair," she quickly states.

"Yeah and you make me look like an idiot," The blonde remarked. "You do that all by yourself," Lyssa taunted back, twirling the juul between her fingers.

"T-that's not the point," JJ commented, "that's paint, okay?" He corrected, turning on his heel with his hair now a mess, looking like he'd just rolled out of bed. "At that point, I was just, like... I'm waiting for death."

"Okay, so you guys saw the guys that shot at us, right?" Pope asked, trying to make sense of JJ's add induced story. The blond boy just nodded and the Heyward boy continued to press, "Did you get a good description of them? What did they look like? Anything we can report to the police?"

JJ's teeth clenched together tightly, and turned his stormy blue eyes out to the water, quite for a moment, deep in thought. He took a deep breath and snapped his fingers before saying, "Burly." Receiving 'wtf' looks from the rest of the crew.

"Burly," Pope asked in disbelief. Lyssa furrowed her brows, looking up at her best friend and wonder if she made the right choice in making a dumbass her best friend. "Burly? Out of all the words you chose that?" She asked.

"Yeah. You know, like..." JJ puffed his chest out as Kie muttered how unhelpful that was, instantly stepping forward to add to his description. "Okay, well, no, like the type of guys at my dad's garage. I mean, you guys know how he made cargo hides for drug smugglers. I can tell you guys with full confidence these boys - these killers -" JJ paused to snatch Lyssa's juul from her hand and took a long puff like it was an actual joint before continuing, " - they're square groupers."

"Square groupers." Pope said pointedly. "Like narco square groupers? Like Pablo Escobar square groupers?" Pope clarified, JJ confirmed with a nod and a puff of smoke.

Kie sighed, "You guys! Not everything is a kingpin movie!"

Quickly turning to JJ, Pope asked, "So what does this square grouper look like? Specifically?" He yelled over at the blonde, "Because apparently you don't know what to look for!"

"Dude, you weren't there, bro!" JJ suddenly exclaimed, obviously just as stressed, if not more, than any of his friends. "Dude! I wasn't taking little mental Polaroids the entire time, man! I was under duress, okay?" His voice cracked as he flew his hands around emphasizing his point. He fell back against the wall, taking another drag from the juul. "But I can tell you by the way that Miss Lana was screaming... that these guys are serious, serious hombres, man," he took a deep breath, calming himself as quietness settled over the group like a thick blanket. "It's a heavy vibe right now, okay? I'm not-I'm not liking this very much."

"J, just come and sit down," Lyssa coaxed, patting the armrest of the couch beside her. He listened and leaned his head on Lyssa's shoulder who started playing with his golden hair, something she knew that soothes him. "I'll roll you a joint later," she whispered, receiving a small smile from her best friend, which made her feel ten times better because JJ being okay was all that mattered to her.

Kie removed her gaze from the pair, leaning forward in her chair and rested her elbows on her knees. "Why would they want the compass?"

"It's the same with Scooter. What's so important about it?" Added Lyssa.

"Why do they want the compass?" Pope questioned, "it's a piece of shit! You couldn't pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted to." Lyssa smacked his knee harshly and motioned over to John B. His eyes widened as he stuttered an apology. "No offense, I know it's in your family -"

"The office," John B interrupted vaguely after being silent for the entire conversation. The four friends each looked at one another, confused on what had just came from John B's mouth. "What?" Pope voiced his and his friends thoughts.

"My dad's office."