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"Oh, come on." John B rolled his eyes at his best friend's statement while his fingers tapped the
steering wheel.

"I'm just saying," JJ said. " I don't understand why you don't at least try with Kiara. She clearly likes you."

John B sighed, knowing that they were heading into the same never-ending conversation that they had many times before where JJ kept nagging him about Kiara.

"She's like," JJ put on a moaning girl voice as he continued. "Oh, John B."

The brunette tore his gaze from the road to glance over at his best friend. "Oh, really?" He said sarcastically.

"She's scratching about you diving and then she kissed you." He exclaimed the word kissed, pointing out the clear signs of attraction that Kiara felt.

"She kissed me on the cheek." John B. corrected him. "It's not like we were making out or something."

"Don't pretend that you don't notice. I see it in your eyes! You're like I kinda like that and you start blushing and shit."

"I blush?" John B chuckled.

"Yeah!"

John B shook his head with a grin. "It's not like you weren't blushing like crazy yesterday."

"What?" JJ snapped his head in his best friend's direction, with his brows furrowed.

"You know when you were putting a towel on a certain someone. It was very romantic, really."

JJ groaned. "Oh come on. I was just helping a friend."

John B raised a brow. "Oh, that was what it was? Helping a friend?" He grinned. "What about the boneyard? Or when you were watching her on the boat, with your shirt on. I swear, if eyes could have a boner, yours definitely did."

JJ groaned and leaned further down in his chair with his hands dragging over his face. "You're insane." He muttered making John B cock his head to the side.

"Am I, really?" He said sarcastically watching his friend's cheeks heat. JJ had been crushing on Annabelle since third grade and the closest he had come to making a move was holding her hand once after her breakup with Rafe. For Annabelle, the gesture was probably just a sign of comfort while JJ had taken it completely differently.

"It's probably for the better." John B looked away from JJ. "I'm pretty sure she has feelings for Rafe still." John B grinned, knowing that his words were really getting on JJ's nerves.

The blonde went quiet for a moment as he stared blankly in front of him. "Do you think?" He asked, sounding deeply concerned.

John B chuckled, seeing his friend's reaction. "I hope not!" He exclaimed. "But she might, if you don't make a move."

JJ looked out the window, pondering his words. Thoughts stormed around inside his head. Probably the most thoughts he had ever had at once.

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The pouges sat gathered on the porch of the cataue John B and JJ had gone to visit Lana Grubbs and found themselves in pure chaos.

The two of them had been on edge since they got back and were now pacing across the porch with everyone's eyes on them.

Annabelle was on the couch next to Pope while patiently waiting for the two boys to explain what happened when they were gone.

"And then they were right outside like this," JJ walked over to the wall, pressing himself against it as he spoke. "And all we hear is just BAM BAM BAM." He demonstrated his fists punishing the air in front of him. "Knocking paint off the wall, from the inside."

His voice got louder and louder revealing the panic he felt as he spoke. "And I'm just looking at him, uhm, wait, uhm." He nervously stumbled over his words before matching over to Annabelle, leaning forward as he ruffled his air letting white flakes drift into Annabelle's lap. "Look at this shit!"

"Ew!" Annabelle grimaced and moved away from the boy. "Gross."

"That's dandruff," Kiara stated.

"Okay, thank you," Pope said, pushing the boy away from him.

"Look at all that," JJ said as he stared wide-eyed at the flakes on the floor. "That's paint! At that point, I was just like waiting for death."

"Wait, so you saw the guy that shot at us?" The memory sent a shiver through Annabelle's body. JJ nodded as he continued to ruffle the paint out of his hair. "Did you get a good look at them? What they looked like? Any description? Anything that we can use for like a police report."

Pope and Kiara hummed in agreement.

"Burly." JJ turned around and watched as his friends stared at him in disbelief, rolling their eyes at him.

"Burly." Annabelle sighed and shook her head. "That's not even remotely helpful."

"No like the type of guy in my dad's garage." JJ paced back and forth, rambling fast to get an image in his friend's head. "I mean you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers."

Annabelle hummed as she nodded her head, staring at the boy with sympathetic look.

"Then I can tell you with full confidence..." he spoke as he moved back to the wall that he had been leaning against earlier. He fumbled with something in his pocket before pulling out his Juul. "...these boys. These killers." He took a drag from his Juul, letting a cloud of smoke leave his mouth. "They're square groupers."

"They're square groupers, like narco square groupers?" Pope questioned with his head in his hands trying to wrap his mind around the whole situation. "Like Pablo Escobar square groupers?"

Jj nodded as he placed the Juul back to his lips letting the smoke seep in before releasing it in a cloud from his mouth. "Yeah, man."

"You guys, not everything's a kingpin movie," Kiara spoke up, shifting her gaze between the two boys.

Annabelle sucked in a deep breath, feeling an unsettling feeling crawl up her spine. She stood up, allowing her to take steadier breaths as she stepped away from the panicked chattering and arguing. Everyone's eyes fell on her as she walked away from the couch, taking JJ's Juul as she passed him before walking over to the wall opposite him.

"So what do they want?" Annabelle asked before taking a long inhale from the Juul.

As JJ was too baffled and slightly amazed by the sight to answer, Kiara spoke up. "J, you said they went to Miss Lana's looking for the compass right?"

Annabelle gazed over to the bronze object resting in John Bs hand. She rolled her eyes at the valueless compass that they almost lost their lives for.

"Yeah." JJ breathed out.

"Why would they want that compass? And why that bad." Annabelle placed the juul back to her lips.

"That thing's a piece of shit. You could pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted to." Pope muttered. Annabelle took a last drag from the Juul before handing it back to JJ who eagerly hit it.

"It clearly has value if they're willing to go that far for it." Annabelle walked with her arms crossed over her chest as she approached John B. The boy hadn't said a word since they arrived back. All he had done was stare at the compass in his hands like it was a stack of gold.

"The office." The word spewed from his mouth like he had just come up with something revolutionary. Annabelle stopped in her steps, puzzled by the boy's words.

Everyone stared at him in silence waiting for him to elaborate. "My dad... my dad's office." John B took off, pacing out of the front porch and into the house. His friends were quick to their feet, following him in confusion.

"He always kept the office locked because he was worried about his competitors stealing his royal merchant research." John B explained as they walked through the house. "I used to laugh about it like they were actually going to find it." John B stopped in front of the door to the office and fiddled with a keychain.

"But now that he's gone I've just kinda... I just left it as he kept it." John B said and Annabelle could hear the suppressed pain in his voice.

"Yeah for when he gets back," Kiara told him.

Without saying anything, Annabelle glanced over to the girl, slightly unsure if her words were helpful. John B kept the hope up for his father to return but Annabelle couldn't help but fear that there was a possibility that he wouldn't. John B used his hope as a defense mechanism from the harsh truth that his father was dead and Annabelle understood him. She did the same after her mother's death. She told herself that it was all just a long nightmare and that she would wake up and her mother would be alright. It helped her deal with the grief for a while but soon, reality crashed over her and the pain and suffering became ten times worse. It struck her all at the same time and restricted her from moving on. Annabelle wasn't ready to tell John B that her father wasn't coming back. No child should hear that. But she just wanted to protect him from going through what she did when she realized that she had been wrong.

𝟏𝟓𝟓𝟐 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬
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𝐀/𝐍
I don't like this
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