SMOKE SIGNALS     /     OUTERBANKS
ੈ✩‧₊˚ written by catie . . . © vqnillascented
chapter forty two  ━━ ' change of plans '

"IT'S SOMETHING ABOUT THE DUDE'S FACE, YOU KNOW?"

Back at the Chateau, John B was pacing around the screened-in porch, JJ and Alex watching him nervously from the couch.

"Like the whole, 'No hard feelings, bro.' You know what I'm saying?" John B stopped pacing, looking for validation in his friends.

"It's kinda hard not to have hard feelings about that." JJ offered him some solidarity.

"Topper's an ass, yeah." Alex nodded. She couldn't argue with that. "But you went too far, John B, sorry."

John B huffed, returning to his anxious pacing. "It's just that look. That Kook look, you know?"

Alex's stomach twisted. "Kook look." She murmured.

"Sorry." John B said quickly. "But you're not really a Kook. You're not an entitled rich kid who thinks they should get everything they want handed to them."

"Yeah, you're a Poguey now, baby." JJ squeezed her shoulders. "Feel free to talk as much crap about the Kooks as you'd like."

The heaviness in her chest lifted slightly. She did enjoy talking crap.

"Anyway, we gotta figure out a plan to get to South America, like, yesterday." John B said. "I mean, they've got my dad." He slips inside, leaving JJ and Alex to scramble after him as he keeps talking.

"So, I was thinking passports. We don't have those." He went on.

"I do." Alex piped up.

"Kook." JJ bumped his shoulder into hers.

She shoved him back. "You just said ━"

John B ignored them. "No passports means we can't fly commercial. We'll need another way." He headed for the kitchen, stopping in front of the refrigerator.

"Don't you got the money that you stole from Portis?" JJ asked.

"I gave that to my dad." John B admitted, searching for anything to eat amongst the mostly empty fridge.

"What about a boat?" JJ suggested. "Limbrey has a boat! What if we took that one down?"

"Yeah, no, she took that back." John B said. "And the HMS is not gonna make it down to the Port of Spain, so out on the boats."

"I could steal Rafe's boat again." Alex suggested casually.

"Alex, no." John B didn't even consider it.

JJ took John B's place in front of the fridge. "So what you're saying is, we don't got any money, and we also don't have a boat that can make it to South America." He took a bite out of a sausage that John B had already deemed was expired, unphased.

"You're disgusting." John B said, before shooting Alex a look. "You like this guy?"

She shrugged. "I go back and forth."

"Actually, I might know a guy." JJ was saying.

Movement from outside the window caught John B's eye. "Uh oh." He said, face going white when he looked to see what it was.

"Don't start with 'uh oh,' dude." JJ scoffed. "You're so negative."

"Shoupe is outside right now." John B whispered, dropping to the ground.

JJ and Alex wasted no time hitting the floor as well, holding their breath to keep quiet.

"Alright, John B!" Shoupe's voice floated into the kitchen through the cracked window. "Anybody home?"

"Shit." JJ hissed, before beginning to crawl on all fours across the floor, away from the front door.

Alex screwed up her nose. "Not liking him so much right now."

"Come on." John B whispered, following JJ on his great escape. Alex hesitated for a moment, but succumbed to her humiliation and crawled after the boys.

They made it to the living room before Shoupe knocked. The boys panicked, cramming themselves under a small table, their feet and arms sticking out as the tried to hide. Alex opted to shove herself into a cabinet, only able to hide most of herself, folded over uncomfortably.

"I know you're in there." Shoupe knocked again.

"If he sees you, that's game over." JJ whispered.

"Shut up." John B hissed.

"You need to come out and talk to me. It'll be a lot worse if you don't." Shoupe warned.

Alex squeezed her legs closer to her chest, willing herself to become much, much smaller.

After a long, tense, back-aching pause, Shoupe descended the stairs, heading back for his truck. "Okey doke. Have it your way."

The three teens waiting until the sound of truck tires couldn't be heard anymore before moving.

"Okay, let's peel." John B let out a breath, wiggling out from under the table.

"I got a plan, alright?" JJ got to his feet first, while Alex and John B took an extra second to stretch their cramping muscles.

"It's a little sketchy." He explained. "Might not like it, but I think it'll work."

He tried to head right out the door, ready to get into action, but John B stopped him. "Wait, wait, wait. What's the plan?"

"If I tell you right now when the plan is half-baked, you'll get all negative." JJ urged.

"I would settle for a quarter-baked plan right now." John B protested.

"I'm not sure it's even there yet." JJ pulled free of his grasp, pushing onwards towards the door. "Let's get out of here!"

John B and Alex exchanged a glance, but they knew they had no choice but to follow.

"Oh, perfect!" John B said, sarcasm oozing from his voice, as JJ parked the Twinkie outside of a bar. "Rockfish. The place you go to bash beer bottles on people's heads. Love that for us."

JJ waved his hand in the air. "There's a guy that's always here that moves a lot of weight. My dad worked for him."

"Oh, goody." Alex rolled her eyes at the mention of Luke.

JJ opened the door and hopped down onto the pavement. "Come on, y'all."

"No, no, wait." John B argued. "Please don't say Barracuda Mike."

JJ stopped by the passenger window. "Okay, I won't."

"Oh God." John B dropped his head inti his hands.

Alex yanked the sliding door open, grabbing onto JJ's shoulder to hoist herself out. "Who's Barracuda Mike?"

"I'll introduce you." JJ smiled at her.

She shot a look to John B, who was still staying put. "Why am I getting the feeling that's maybe something I don't want?"

"Let's go." John B grumbled, getting out of the van reluctantly.

The three of them made their way inside, the hum from a radio and the sound of bottles clinking the soundtrack to the place.

"There's has to be a better plan." John B whispered.

"Except there's not." JJ said. "Just go along with me, please? We don't have a lot of time."

They approached the outdoor area, where some men were huddled around dressing some fresh fish.

"Let me do the talking, okay?" JJ took a deep inhale.

"Great." John B got out one last complaint before he and Alex stepped up next to JJ, plastering smiles onto their faces.

"Hey, Mike! You remember me?" JJ waved to one of the guys, who came over still holding his large boning knife. "It's on the tip of your tongue. J ━"

"Luke's son." Mike cut him off, jamming his knife down on a nearby cutting board.

JJ gave a nervous chuckle. "Also go by JJ. But this here is my good friend, John B."

"Hey." John B gave an awkward half-wave.

"Routledge!" Mike recognized him too.

"In the flesh." John B said.

"Heard stories about you two." Mike said, squinting at them before shifting his eyes to Alex. "And who are you?"

"This is my girlfriend." JJ smiled proudly, dimples showing as he put an arm around Alex.

Mike just continued to stare at her. "Why?"

She ignored the question, instead moving away from JJ's embrace to offer up a friendly smile. "Alex Thornbury, good to meet you."

"Alexandria. George's daughter." Mike nodded slowly, as if remembering. "He was good man. I was sorry when I heard what happened."

Alex's confidence was instantly zapped out of her, and she slunk back. "Thanks." She murmured, not pulling away when JJ tugged her closer this time.

"Mike, I'm gonna be honest about why we're here." JJ said. "We're in a little patch of trouble, and we're trying to get down to South America if that's━"

"I'm sorry, slick, but I done sold the travel agency." Mike's voice was rich with sarcasm.

JJ forced a laugh. "Well, I mean, we're not looking for some free handout here. We understand it's a two way road. Symbiotic relationship, yeah? We just need to 'parlee'━"

"Parlay." John B interrupted.

"Parlay..." JJ corrected himself. "In um, in private if that's cool with you."

Mike just stared at him before starting to nod slowly.

"Stay here." JJ whispered to the others.

"You're not doing this alone." John B protested, but JJ was already out the door, following Mike down the pier for a moment alone.

"Who is Barracuda Mike?" Alex repeated her earlier question, this time in a whisper to John B.

He sighed. "He's a drug mule."

She nearly choked on her spit. "JJ's trying to hitch us a ride with a drug mule?"

"Yup."

"Jesus."

John B nodded. "And who knows what he's trading for the flight right now. Probably bargaining away our freedom."

"Jesus."

"Yeah." John B coughed to cover up the word as he turned back to the other men slicing the fish. "What kinda stuff do you guys catch out here?"

Only one of them glanced up. "Money."

"Oh." Alex said, nodding politely as she and John B put just a little more space between them and the guys.

Thankfully, JJ was returning. "5:30 tonight! We'll be there. Yes, sir!" He locked eyes with his friends and gave a quick nod towards the exit. "Let's go."

"Nice to meet you fellas." John B attempted a proper goodbye but Alex grabbed his arm and dragged him away.

The second that they were outside, walking back to the Twinkie, John B asked quickly, "What do we gotta do?"

JJ put his hands in his pockets, trying to look busy. "Just a little something."

"Whenever you say 'a little something' it's never a little something."

"You're getting negative again, bro." JJ stopped in front of the van. "It's literally the easiest job in the world. We just unload it. You know what they do on planes? You know Delta and United when they take the bags off of the...? That's what we're doing."

"But with drugs?" Alex crossed her arms.

"You told her?" JJ shot John B a look.

Alex shook her head. "You weren't going to?"

JJ smiled awkwardly. "I was hoping that you wouldn't ask."

Alex glared at him. "Have you met me?"

"It's just weed anyway." JJ shrugged. "Once we do that, we punch our tickets, go on to South America, then we're sipping on piña coladas, all right?" He rounded the van, hopping in behind the wheel. "It's gonna be a piece of cake."

Alex swallowed back her scoff. When has anything ever been a piece of cake for them?

After parking the Twinkie a few miles up the road as instructed by Barracuda Mike, John B, JJ, and Alex made their way to their ━ fingers-crossed ━ great escape.

"I just really don't feel good about this." John B voiced his concerns as they approached the plane.

"You worry too much." JJ said. "It's just farmers who brought organic seeds from South America that we are gonna unload."

"That making you feel better, huh?" Alex gave JJ a patronizing pat to his back.

"Just call it what it is." John B threw his hands in the air. "It's a drug-smuggling operation."

JJ whirled on him, getting a firm grip on his shoulders. "Do you wanna get your Dad or not?"

"Yes, I do! This has to work out, okay?!" John B urged.

Silence fell over them the rest of the walk over, the seriousness of their situation hitting them now. When they got a little closer to the plane, they noticed that there were guys already unloading the precious cargo.

JJ jogged ahead, giving Barracuda Mike a nervous chuckle. "We aren't late, are we?"

Mike was wiping his hands off on a towel. "Nope. There was a chance of plans."

Alex stopped walking, hanging back as Mike approached JJ, holding out a set of keys to him.

"You three are gonna drive the truck up to Elizabeth City to make the drop."

She held her breath as JJ snuck a glance back at her, concern flashing in his eyes.

Mike continued, "The address is in the truck. There'll be a dummy car for you to come back."

"Okay..." JJ tried to grapple with the one-eighty. "You just want us to drive the truck?"

"Correct." Mike responded, unwavering.

JJ went to take the keys, but John B stepped forward and grabbed his shoulders to steer him away. "Actually, can I borrow him for a second?"

The three teens huddled up, panic oozing from them. "This is not what we talked about." John B whispered. "This is way more dangerous."

"It don't matter what we talked about!" Mike called, not even trying to hide the fact that he had been eavesdropping. "In for a penny, in for a pound. You do this, you get your ride."

"Yeah, it's just that -" JJ attempted to protest, but Mike interrupted yet again.

"If not." He lowered his voice. "You know how this works, right?"

Suddenly, the men unloading the truck didn't seem so inconspicuous, their gazes burning holes into the teens, knuckles white around the boxes.

Alex screwed up her nose at the attempt to scare them.

"Now," Mike said. "Highway patrol is changing shifts as we speak. This is the window. Take it to the drop house on Prospect. Directions are in the truck. Any luck, we'll have you back before sundown." He gave a wry, humorless chuckle.

JJ took the keys with a plastered-on confident grin. "No problem." He turned to the others. "Alex, ride in the back, okay?"

"What? Why?" She hissed, even as JJ guided her and John B towards the U-Haul, putting some distance between them and Mike.

"Because if we get pulled over, they'll see us first." JJ said, face serious.

"When they open the trunk, they'll see me all the same." She crossed her arms.

"I know this is gonna sound crazy," JJ said, speaking slowly and carefully. "But...please don't argue right now, Alex. We don't have time."

She blinked at him. "Don't argue." She scoffed. "That is crazy." But, she climbed in with the sacks of marijuana anyways, knowing that he was right.

JJ and John B climbed in the front seats, and moments later, the engine roared to life.

The bags were scratchy under Alex's limbs, but she tried not to move too much. She figured she would smell bad enough after this anyways.

She could hear the boys talking, but their voices were muffled by the wall between them. She huffed, slumping further down into the bags. She should've argued more.

She sat in the smell of weed and silence until John B said something that sounded a lot like, "There's a cop."

Her back straightened. There were no windows in the back, nothing that could give her any clues to what was going on. She pressed her ear against the wall closest to the boys, using all of her effort to listen in.

"Play it cool." John B said.

JJ scoffed. "I'm super cool."

Next thing Alex knew, she was being flung towards the roll-up door, toppling over as the truck swerved. Her shoulder slammed into the metal and she collapsed back into the sacks with a groan.

"Don't wave at cops!" John B's cry could be heard even through the wall. "Number one rule of driving a U-Haul!"

The sound of a siren wailing filled the air.

"Fucking Christ." Alex groaned again, getting onto her knees, rolling out her aching arm. She should've sat in the front.

"Hang on, guys!" JJ yelled, loud enough for her to hear. "I got this!"

They swerved again, and by the texture under the tires, Alex knew they had gone off-road. A few bumps and turns later, the truck came to a stop and the front doors opened. She had to shield her eyes from the sudden sunlight as JJ yanked open the back for her.

"We gotta run! Come on!" He urged, and she grabbed his hands to help hoist herself out.

The three teens started to run like hell through the woods, branches and ivy scratching up their legs.

"Shit, JJ, you waved at the cops!?" Alex called back at him.

"I thought it was a good idea, okay?" He yelled back.

"If we survive this, I'm gonna kill you!" John B gritted out.

JJ practically laughed. "You probably won't have to because Barracuda Mike will first!"

They ran for what felt like hours, but finally, they ended up on the road where they had parked the Twinkie. They hadn't really made it that far in the U-Haul to begin with.

Finally able to stop and catch their breath, the next moments were filled with gasping and panting. John B had his hands on his knees, JJ leaned against the van, while Alex took to fully laying out in the grass to try and calm her burning muscles.

"My dad is somewhere in South America right now," John B rose back to his full height, his breathing slowing. "Probably with a knife to his throat, and what are we doing? Moving weight?"

JJ pushed off of the van. "How many times will you complain about me trying to help save your dad?"

"Help is the exact opposite of what you're doing right now!" John B yelled.

Slowly, Alex sat up, glancing between them as tensions rose.

"You know what? You're right." JJ shrugged. "But you know whose fault that is?" He stepped closer to John B. "You and your treasure-obsessed father."

Roughly, John B shoved JJ back, and Alex didn't sit around anymore. She staggered to her feet, getting between them, holding out her arms like a physical barrier.

"Oh my God, stop! She gave them both a disdainful glance. "We're all on the same team here, come on. Fighting with each other is just wasting even more time. Time that we do not have." She sucked down a breath at her own words, realizing they might apply to more than one friend-feud.

John B lowered his fists, and even JJ's defensively high shoulders deflating a little. The pressure in the air was just starting to release when police sirens whooped, and the three turned to see that Shoupe had been watching them the whole time.

"Howdy." Shoupe approached them. "Everything okay?"

"You know, just...um, we're good." John B stammered, trying to act normal.

Shoupe nodded, bending down to reach underneath the bumper of the Twinkie. He returned with an active tracker in hand. "This lil thing makes it a whole lot easier to keep an eye on your hoodlums."

His walkie crackled to life. "All units, evidence team is en route to the abandoned U-Haul. Over."

Alex kept her arms crossed over her chest, kept the friendly yet hesitant smile on her face, even though her pulse was racing.

"Sounds like duty calls." JJ said casually, heading for the van. "We'll get out of your hair."

Shoupe stopped them with a raised hand. "Hold on now. We just found a U-Haul full of drugs out near 158. Y'all wouldn't happen to be involved in that, would you?"

JJ wagged a finger at him. "That's profiling. And I really don't appreciate it. Like, just cause we're Pogues, you think we're drug dealers?"

"You been too busy beating people up and breaking up parties." Shoupe didn't say it like a question.

John B averted his gaze.

"I hate to break it to you, kid." Shoupe sighed. "But I've got a warrant."

All three of them froze.

"A w-warrant?" John B stammered, taking a step back as Shoupe stepped closed, hand going for his cuffs.

"Topper's pressing charges."

Alex let her chin hit her chest.

"He started it!" John B protested, even as Shoupe walked him over to the van to pat him down. "This time, I didn't even do anything, okay?"

"Do you know what Topper did?" JJ raised his voice.

"No." Shoupe said simply. "But I know what your boy here did. He beat him in front of the whole town."

"He deserved it." Alex grumbled.

Shoupe gave her a side-long glance. "Not you too. You had such a good future before you started hanging out with these boys, Alex."

She lifted her chin. "No. I didn't." And she meant every breath.

Shoupe finished getting the cuffs on John B and started to walk him to the squad truck.

"He was messing with John B's girl." JJ walked alongside them, still arguing. "You'd do the same."

"I get it, okay?" John B said, speaking quietly and earnestly. "But I can't be locked up right now."

"Well, you should've thought of that beforehand." Shoupe opened up the backseat, guiding John B inside.

JJ scoffed, stepping up to the window as Shoupe got in and started up the engine. "John B, we're gonna fix this. We're gonne get down to South America and save your dad."

Alex nodded, feigning confidence. "We'll figure something out. We always do."

Shoupe pulled out into the road, making JJ and Alex jump back to avoid getting rid. They stood and watched John B get driven away, having no idea where to even start with the whole 'fixing it' thing.

catie speaks!

wait, what's that? an update ACTUALLY posted at a reasonable time after the last one? holy moly, who knew i could do it?

anyways lol...the plot thickens. how are they gonna get out of this one? stayed tuned...for it to get EVEN WORSE 😊

any thoughts? theories?

thank you so much for reading! i hope you liked it!! please vote and comment if you enjoyed, and follow to be notified when i update! love you alllll 🫶

virtual hugs,
catie!