┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓
❝ highly doubt they're fucking fishing ❞
┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛

𝘚𝘺𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘦'𝘴 𝘗𝘖𝘝

I take a seat on the edge of the boat and JJ stands in front of me.

"Are you mad at me?" He asks with a frown.

"Why would I be mad at you?" I ask, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Look, I'm sorry" He sighs "I don't know why I got so angry. I just don't wanna see you get hurt, okay?"

"Okay" I nod.

"Are we good now?" He smiles and I roll my eyes.

"We're good" I assure him and he grins widely.

I hear the familiar sound of sirens and my eyes widen as my head snaps up to see the cops.

"Shit. JJ" Pope worries.

"Guys, that's the police" JJ declares.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me" Pope groans.

"Not Shoupe" I groan in annoyance, making JJ shoot me an amused grin.

"Just act frickin normal" Kiara demands, flipping her hair.

"Evening, officers" Pope greets the cops as they pull their boat to the side of ours.

"Evening" Shoupe replies as his partner hands Pope a rope to tie to our boat.

"JJ, tie this off" Pope tells the blonde and he nods, doing just that.

"How you kids doing? You know the marsh is closed?" Shoupe speaks.

"No" JJ shrugs.

"No, wow" Pope acts shocked.

"We had no idea" I say in confusion.

"Why- Why is it closed?" Pope stutters.

"Well, we're conducting a search out here. Boat went down" Shoupe tells us.

"Oh" We all say in unison.

"Seen anything?" The Deputy asks us.

"No" JJ answers.

"No boats" Pope adds.

"Where's your friend you always hang with? He here?" Shoupe asks about John B and I bite my lip anxiously.

"He's working" Kiara tells the man.

"Hm. I'm gonna check your little boat out" Shoupe states.

"Yeah, hop aboard. You wanna check- Uh, check her out" Pope chirps.

"Thank you" Shoupe nods as he starts looking around the boat.

"Uh...You got another one of these?" He ask, holding up a life jacket.

"Yeah. Of course. It's, uh...it's in the hold" JJ tells him.

"Show him" Pope states.

"I'll get it" I assure the blonde, walking over to Kiara who stands up.

I open the hold and pull out the spare life jacket, showing it to Deputy Shoupe.

"That good?" I ask curiously.

"All good" Shoupe nods.

I put the jacket away again and make my way over to stand in between Kiara and JJ. Shoupe starts walking towards the front of the boat and I gulp quietly.

"Be careful" JJ warns him.

"Yeah, be careful. You don't wanna slip" Pope reasons with the man.

Kiara sits back down and I sit on her lap, her arms wrapping around my waist. I start twiddling my thumbs and the girl grabs my hands to stop me, knowing it means I'm nervous.

Shoupe stares down into the water silently for what feels like hours and anxiety nibbles at me at the off chance he spots John B in the water.

"All right" The man finally says, turning back to us.

"All right" JJ and Pope chirp in unison.

"Beautiful day" Shoupe comments as he makes his way back to his boat.

"Sure is" JJ nods.

"Very beautiful" Pope agrees.

"Let us know if you see anything on your way out" Shoupe states as the rope between the two boats is untied.

"Of course, sir" I nod.

"We'll be gone soon, sir" JJ assures the officer.

"Yes, you will" The man replies.

The police boat drives away and we all hang over the side of the boat to look for John B.

"He's definitely out of air" Pope says negatively.

Suddenly my favourite freckle faced Pogue emerges from the water and I let a relieved sigh slip past my lips.

"There he is!" JJ hollers.

"Oh, God! Jesus Christ, don't scare us like that!" Pope scolds him as we all laugh happily in relief.

"How'd it go down there? Did you find anything?" JJ asks the boy as he swims to the ladder.

"Did I find anything?" John B scoffs, throwing a black bag at JJ.

"Yeah, there we go! That's my boy!" JJ cheers, grabbing the bag.

"Jeez, dude" Pope laughs.

"You okay?" Kiara asks.

"Yeah, I ran out of air" John B replies.

"You scared the shit out of me" I tell the Routledge boy, slapping his arm playfully and he chuckles.

"Yeah, the cops were here, but, uh...took care of em" Pope explains.

"My bad" John B says.

"You're all good" Pope waves him off.

"Yeah, you kinda missed the show, brother" JJ declares.

"Hey, guys? Guys, bogey, two o'clock" Kiara announces.

"What?" JJ snaps and I spin around to see a boat heading towards us with two men inside.

"Do you recognise that boat?" Pope asks us.

"I don't think so" I answer him.

"What are they doing here? The marsh is closed" Kiara asks, worry laced in her voice.

"Probably the same reason we're here" I mumble in response.

"I don't know. Let's not stick around and find out" JJ states.

"JJ, get the bowline" John B orders.

"Yeah" JJ nods, doing as he's told.

"Should we wait on 'em?" Pope asks.

"Where you dropped on your head as a child?" I ask in disbelief.

"No, we're not gonna wait on em. Go get the stern. Go!" John B huffs.

"Are you joking?" Kiara spits.

"JJ, hurry up" I snap.

"I'm going as fast as I can, angel" The blonde replies snappily.

"Guys, don't wait for me. Go" JJ demands.

"Let's go!" Kiara hurries.

"I don't like the look of that" John B mutters.

"Me neither" I add in agreement.

"Are they coming for us?" JJ asks.

"Maybe they're fishing" Pope suggests.

"I highly doubt they're fucking fishing, Pope" I retort.

"Go, go, go, go!" JJ rushes out as he finishes pulling up the anchor.

"Go into the marsh" Pope tells John B.

"Let's go!" Kiara snaps.

"I'm going! Act natural" John B snaps back.

"Act natural?" I scoff in disbelief "This isn't your middle school crush, it's two grown men following us"

"Hey, guys, they're following us!" Kiara worries.

"That's what I said" I reply.

"This can't be good" Pope groans.

"For fuck sake" I curse.

"Dude, you gotta go faster!" JJ shouts.

"I'm going! I'm going!" John B replies.

"Gun it!" JJ retorts.

Suddenly the sound of a gunshot rings through the air and I scream as I'm tackled to the floor by JJ.

"Holy shit!" Kiara shrieks.

"John B, get down!" JJ hollers, hovering above me.

Another gunshot goes off and I squeak in fear, burying my face in the crook of JJ's neck.

"Oh, my God. We're gonna die" Pope states.

Multiple more gunshots go off before I hear Kiara moving. I look up to see her desperately trying to untangle a fishing net and figure out what she's trying to do. Crawling out from under JJ, I head towards the girl to try and help her.

"Sylvie, get back here!" JJ demands but I ignore him, helping Kiara untangle the netting.

A gunshot echoes through the air and I flinch, grabbing Kiara at the same time she reaches out to grab me.

"Girls, get down!" John B barks.

"We got this, Vie" Kiara assures me as I untie the last knot.

"Of course we do" I retort confidently, climbing over JJ to get to the back of the boat.

Another gunshot goes off as Kiara grabs the other end of the netting and we launch it into the water. I watch with a smirk as the netting gets caught in their engine and their boat comes to a stop.

"That's what I'm talkin' about!" I cheer, giving Kiara a high five.

We turn the corner as one last shot goes off, missing us completely and I smugly stick up my middle finger.

"Oh, my God! Whoo!" JJ whoops.

"Whew!" Kiara sighs in relief.

"Booyeah! Pogue legends, man!" JJ hollers, grabbing me by the waist.

"That was amazing!" I laugh, wrapping my arms around the Maybank boy.

"That was insane!" Kiara counters.

✯¸.•'*¨'*•༻❁༺•*'¨*'•.¸✯

We reach the dock and I hop out first with Kiara. The boys rush onto the dock too and John B drops to the ground with the bag.

"What do you guys think it is?" Kiara asks us.

"Gotta be money or something, right?" John B answers.

"That or a couple keys with street value to the low- to mid-mils" JJ grins excitedly.

"Can we please just open the bag?!" Pope snaps.

All of our eyes widen and we turn to Pope in surprise.

"Wow, Pope. That's a rare outburst of emotion" John B coos and I grin in amusement.

"Okay. You guys are literally killing me with anticipation. So open the bag" Pope huffs.

"Jeez" JJ chuckles, throwing his arm around my shoulders lazily.

"We almost died over this" Pope states as John B opens the bag.

He pulls a smaller black bag out and opens that to reveal a silver metal canister. John B twists open the canister and tips the contents into his hand. A compass falls out and my smile falls into a frown.

"Oh, wow. Yup. That's about right. Good job, everybody. We found a compass" Pope snaps sarcastically.

John B stares at the compass intensely and I cock my head to the side in confusion.

"Johnny, what's the big deal?" I ask curiously.

"Yeah, it's not worth anything" JJ adds.

"This was my father's" The brunette replies with a small smile on his face.