OUTER BANKS
episode 3: THE FORBIDDEN ZONE
part 2

"go!" was all john b replied before leaving the building.

the pogues got in the van, kiara and john b in the front. john b driving.

ren sat in the back with jj and pope, leaning against jj's chest.

the plan was for kiara and ren to flirt with the guard to distract him while jj, pope and john b get the drone.

"pope, we're not stealing the drone, we're borrowing it," john b said

"exactly, we'll give it back," ren smiled.

"'humans are the only animal that can't tell fantasy from reality'" pope quoted

"what?" ren gave him a confused face,

"did you come up with that?" john b asked

"no, albert bernstein came up with it, but it applies to this whole treasure-hunting thing,"

"oh," john b simply said

"so? which is it? fantasy or reality?" pope asked everybody,

"why you so weird pope?" jj asked rolling a blunt which made ren chuckle,

"it's fantasy but possible reality," kiara said,

"reality," john b said

"virtual reality," jj said about to light the blunt when pope snatched it off him,

"keep the signal clear," pope reminded him,

"oh man, i wanted that," ren pouted

"bastard," jj joked under his breath,

once they had arrived, ren and kiara got out of the van and waited for the boys to stop talking,

"you know what your problem is?" jj asked

"you?" pope snapped back,

"no! it's that you need to relax man, you're always so tense," jj said

kiara and ren made their way around the car to john b's window,

"hey don't worry, you got this," he reminded

"it's not us that i'm worried about, let's just say, jj is a very jealous person," ren tapped the van and walked to the car with kiara who smirked,

they walked up to the booth and ren whispered to kiara,

"show time!"

"hello!" kiara yelled and waved

"excuse me!" ren copied her.

he got out of the booth and came to the fence the girls were stood at,

"can i help you ladies?" he asked

"hi! um we have a flat tire, could you uh help us please?" she asked nicely,

"if it's not too much trouble," ren added.

"yeah," he went back to the booth to get what their assuming tools.

"too easy," kiara whispered to ren who gave her a fist pump.

but back at where the boys were jj was asking questions about kiara,

"how's it going with kiara?" he asked john b,

"it's not awkward or anything or weird," john b said sarcastically which made jj snort but pope was getting a little fed up with the conversation,

"honestly i did not think you were actually gonna listen to me," jj admitted, "i was one hundred percent sure that she was into you, pope would agree" jj said which made john b sigh,

"eeeehh...." pope denied

"so like, kie, she like definitely gave you the heisman?" jj asked

"oh, no question. yup," john b straight up said.

"maybe she's just into somebody else," pope said which made the boys look at him,

"anyway, how's things with you and ren?" john b asked turning back to jj,

"aw man it's great, cause like yesterday we had this like amazing talk and when i'm with her it just makes me so much happier than any other time," jj said which made the boys look at him in awe,

"have you told her you love her yet?" pope asked

"no, not yet, i'm gonna do it on our first date, i want it to be really special," jj said

back at where the girls were the man came back out with tools and walked to the car with kiara and ren,

"it's just this back one right here," kiara said,

"it must've been a slow leak or something," ren said,

"probably just been sitting in the yard too long?" the guard said,

"probably," kiara agreed

"yeah no worries i got this," he agreed

"thank you!" kiara fake smiled,

the guard looked ren up and down and smirked, let's just say ren wasn't very happy,

"got it?" she said through a fake smile, to which the guard looked back down and said 'yeah'

in the distance a dog barking could be heard which made the guard look up,

"do you hear that?" he asked

"hear what?" kiara played dumb.

"oh, tebow's got something," he said

"probably just raccoons!" kiara lied

"yeah, you know i heard there's a lot around here," ren backed kiara up,

"yeah probably," the man said and went back to the tire,

kiara went around the side to deflate another tire to buy the boys more time,

"hey, uh where'd your friend go?" he looked up and stood up,

"she went to check the other tires i think," ren tried to get him to stay over here, "where are you going?" she asked him

"what are you doing?" he asked her

"this one looks a little flat too," she lied but the guard had already ran

"shit! let's go!" ren said and got in the car before kie got in and kiara drove them away back to the chateau,

soon after the boys came back,

"what happened, have you got it?"  ren asked and hugged jj,

"yeah but the mans dog caught us and jj came up with some lie that got him out of there," pope said.

later on the pogues drove to the wreck, kie's family restaurant.

"wow, stealing drones makes you hungry," kiara said,

"damn right," ren coughed.

"what i would do to a beer and shrimp and grits right now," jj said

"it would not be pretty," pope pointed out,

"try dating him," ren laughed which made jj scoff.

they walked in and jj and ren's eyes fell on all of the food.

"oh, oh. they are so lucky," she said, while kiara went to talk to her dad about getting food.

a little later kie came back and said, "sit down," which made the whole group grin and sit at a table, jj and ren sat next to eachother with pope next to jj, while kiara and john b sat next to eachother.

the group was laughing along when a really good song came on, kiara got up and started dancing which made ren giggle a little.

she pointed towards john b to get him up and to dance with her, he kept refusing but she kept insisting, and in the end kiara and john b were dancing together.

ren looked over at jj who simply refused so she looked over at pope who had sadness in his eyes while he watched john b and kiara.

she nudged jj which made him look at pope and motioned for her to get him, she walked up to him and hit him,

"get up and dance with me, please?" she took out her hand which pope took and led her to jj,

"threesome?" jj asked taking ren and popes hand.

they all ended up dancing together anyway, this was the type of stuff the pogues did.

it was later on in the night and ren thought it would be a good idea to go home and get some more clothes, hoping her dad wasn't there,

when she arrived home she took a deep breath and went inside, but unfortunately her dad was
there,

"oh uh hey dad," she fake smiled

"where the hell have you been?" he yelled

"i was uh, i was staying at john b's," she said

"don't you lie to me," he pointed at her

"i swear! i'm not lying!" ren yelled

"go to your room! now!" he followed up the stairs until she got to her room,

she grabbed a few clothes of hers and grabbed jj's swim trunks that he had left and went to the chateau for the night instead.

the next morning ren woke up alone, jj wasn't next to her and his side of the bed was empty.

she walked out of the room and smelt breakfast, she smelt toast with eggs and bacon and pancakes.

"hey, j. whatcha doing?" she asked him,

"no! go back to bed i'll be in there in a second!" he closed the door in her face which made her shrug and walk back to her room.

"okay well i think i'm gonna finish my book that i haven't even started," she got back in bed and started reading the book.

about five minutes later the door opened a little and then a lot, and in walked an extremely happy but nervous jj with the breakfast she smelt.

she smiled at the boy as he got in bed with her.

"awe babe you didn't have to!" she kissed his cheek and took the plate of pancakes off him so he didn't drop it.

"i did! your my girlfriend and i want to make you breakfast in bed," he patted her head and started eating so, so did she.

"uh, ren?" jj tapped her on the shoulder and put his plate on the side table,

"yes?" she looked at him.

"i think i'm in love with you, like i'm so so so in love with you i just i - i love you ren, i love you ren james," he smiled

she put her plate on the table before kissing him passionately on the lips, it was like their first kiss but more passionate, she pulled away before looking him in the eye, "i love you to jj, i love you jj maybank!" she smiled before pulling him into a hug.

he hugged back and didn't want to let go, he was happy, happy, and emotion jj didn't feel a lot.

she felt safe, safe, an emotion ren didn't feel a lot.

jj and ren, were the reason eachother were happy.

later on in the day they were testing the drone and they had john b and kiara in the water in front of the camera while ren, jj and pope were making sure everything was okay.

"what's this?" jj messed with something before pope warned him,

"don't touch that!" he yelled, "i'm trying to work out this thing,"

"god bless geeks pope. truly man," jj said making ren put a hand to her heart. "yeah i mean what would we do without you to control the drones?" ren asked

"technically it's not a drone, it's an ROV," he stated

"don't start," ren warned while jj continuously told him to shut up,

"it's too early for that right now," jj said

"hey! once we get footage of the wreck,  we'll bring it to a lawyer in town and file a formal claim," john b piped up from the water

"it's such bullshit. why do we have to do that?" jj asked

"i don't know dude, i don't know," ren patted him on the back before getting another beer.

"well, there is maritime salvage law. you can't just go to the ocean and scoop up a bunch of stuff," pope stated.

"oh," ren said taking a sip of her beer.

"i know! i know. it's just lawyers ain't  cheep bro," jj said

"well as soon as they see the footage they'll work for a comp," john b spoke,

"how do you know all of that?" kiara asked

"cause my dad said it, like, a million times," he reminded

"yeah, that's fair," kiara climbed up the ladder and onto the dock either the help of ren,

"the tether is like, really long. in the wrong weather, it could get pushed around," pope pointed out.

"then we'll go at dead calm," john b decided,

"slack tide," kiara agreed.

"so now, we just gotta wait around for the right weather," pope said making ren look up to the sky.

"and today is not that day," she said watching everybody's faces look up to the sky and see a storm forming.

so instead they went back to the chateau and waited for a while.

A//N

hey yall! sorry for the long wait but i had a lot and i mean a lot of homework to do, hope you enjoyed the chapter today!
see you in the next one!

— aaliyah