★☆⋆⁎⋆✶★☆⋆⁎⋆✶

𝖍𝖔𝖜 𝖙𝖔: 𝖑𝖔𝖘𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖌𝖎𝖗𝖑

(CHAPTER SEVEN)

𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐢𝐝 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐭

★☆⋆⁎⋆✶★☆⋆⁎⋆✶

             JJ Maybank wasn't positive when exactly he fell in love with Veronica Dunweather. It wasn't immediately, though. Not like in the movies where he'd loved her ever since they were kids. He wasn't going to say some cliche shit like 'he'd-always-known'. There were definitely days when he shoved her into the dirt because she pissed him off, or times when she was just so annoying that he wished he'd never met her―but she was his best friend. As much as he hated her sometimes, he'd do absolutely anything for her, and that was in a platonic way. He loved her long before he was in love with her, which was perhaps why the timeline got messy for JJ.

Here's the timeline he did know: they were thirteen when he started to realize that she was an actual girl, you know, with boobs and a period he compared to Shark Week, plus it was a bit harder for her to piss in a bush than it was for him and John B. That might have been whenever he started flirting more with her, teasing her and constantly sneaking peeks whenever he could (respectfully) just to get an affectionate whack upside the head from Ronni.

When they were fourteen and Ronni got new boyfriend that was actually semi-serious, JJ's instinct to punch the kid was felt a little bit more in his gut than in his head. Jealousy, or whatever the fuck that meant, was something he hadn't felt over Ronni until that moment―until she was kissing Cooper Walsh right in front of him and JJ's solution was to go kiss Melanie Teagan to make himself feel better. It didn't. When they broke up two months later, JJ felt like he'd just won the lottery.

They were nearly fifteen when Harvey caught JJ in bed with Ronni―again, not a big deal from them, considering they'd been sharing one since they were nine―but that particular night had been different. JJ had just fallen asleep on her chest, clutching onto her like a child held their favorite stuffed animal after a bad nightmare, stains of tears on his bruising face. She'd been careful not to hold onto his waist too tightly, her fingertips brushing gently against the marks Luke had left on his son with resentment. She had been awake when Harvey walked in on them. With one pained look from Ronni, Harvey closed the door shut behind him just as she pressed a kiss to JJ's messy, blonde hair.

Sixteen. Sixteen was how old they'd just turned when Big John disappeared. Ronni and JJ spent a lot of time together after that. Restless nights leant up against John B's bedroom door, falling asleep on each others' shoulders as they waited for their best friend to come out. The Chateau had once been their space, but JJ found himself on the Dunweather porch more than the Chataeu's. The times when JJ would walk into her bedroom to see her sobbing on the floor, and he wouldn't say anything, just sit down next to her and hold her while she grieved. Bursts of anger where JJ would go outside and throw things until he broke down, and all Ronni could do was watch with tears in her eyes.

Ronni had always been there, so fuck if he knew when he fell for her. He just knew that he did, and he'd wasted all that time convincing himself it would never happen only to spend an entire car ride back from a graveyard thinking about how they'd just kissed―and not a simple peck, either. JJ literally had his tongue inside of his best friend's mouth. His internal panic over the situation of kissing her led to a whole blunt disappearing in a matter of minutes, and even that wasn't enough to dull the horror seeping in as the haze of sexual tension slowly faded.

Meanwhile, Veronica fucking Dunweather was acting like it was all fine-and-dandy. JJ wanted to shove her in the dirt. While he reevaluated his entire life, she walked casually into the Chateau with the others like they hadn't just made out on John B's dead aunt's mausoleum―which, sure, maybe she had done it as a distraction to keep them from getting in trouble for trespassing, but friends don't kiss friends like that...right? Right?

"When did Pope lose his pants?"

Ronni's question was asked when they finally got into the light and she realized that Pope was in a pair of tighty-whiteys. Clearly, she'd been too preoccupied on the way home to notice until the boy was scrambling to find a pair of pants in the Chateau. John B must not have heard the question, although that was to be expected given the envelope he held. He walked to the table in the make-shift 'dining room' (which was really just a table in the living room) while Ronni, JJ, and Kie followed.

"Right around the time we discovered he'll never be a professional at parkour," Kie admitted, and then she raised her eyebrows when she noticed how JJ was glaring at the side of Ronni's head. "Are you sure you two―"

Ronni cleared her throat loudly and whirled around to the kitchen. "I'm going to go get a drink."

Unfortunately, JJ followed. She felt his eyes boring holes into her skull but made no move to look at him, going straight for the fridge and opening it like it would (one) be on and (two) be stocked with food. Even though they'd had to throw everything out a few days ago since the Cut still had no power, and they were all thriving on packaged food. John B and JJ were just lucky they had three friends working around food, otherwise they'd probably starve. Or eat fish for the rest of their lives.

He came up on the opposite side and leant up against the counter. "So..."

"Do you want pizza?" she asked, cutting him off as she shut the freezer, pulling out two beers and handing him one. "I'm going to order pizza."

"Yes, I want pizza but―"

She grabbed the business card to pizza place down the street. "With pepperoni?"

"Yes with pepperoni but―"

"And―"

He plucked the card out of her hand in frustration. "Ronni! Can we talk dude?"

"Can't talk. I've gotta go get the pizza...cell towers are still down, and I think they close soon―I doubt they'll do delivery..."

Before JJ could even attempt to grab a limb to keep her from running away, Ronni rushed out of the kitchen while taking a huge swig of beer. Someone else had been quicker than JJ, and Kie swooped her arm to grab ahold of Ronni, forcing her down into the chair next to John B in one quick motion. When she tried to protest, muttering something about pizza, Kie held her shoulders down and pointed at the clock―it was one a.m....too late for pizza.

JJ was throwing a minor tantrum in the kitchen because not only was his best friend ignoring him and the fact that they'd broken the golden rule, but he was hungry―so now he didn't have Ronni or pizza. The others ignored him in the kitchen as he grumbled around with shuffled steps, going to grab items to make a PB&J. Pope was just coming out from the bathroom, a new pair of pants on his body, when he noticed JJ going to pull out two pieces of bread.

"That bread had mold on it three days ago," he told JJ, wincing as the boy lathered on some jelly slightly aggressively. Pope furrowed his brows in confusion when he noticed the mood, meeting eyes with Kie who peered down at the girl sitting below her. They weren't stupid. Something had obviously happened between them.

"Yeah, I'll just pull off the bad parts," he waved Pope off. "Plus, mold is good for you. It's just a...natural organism."

Ronni frowned at his comment. He'd be choking up the sandwich in two seconds. Instead of focusing her attention on JJ, she focused on John B. He'd not let his eyes off the envelope since she pulled it out of the mausoleum―the reminder of where she'd gotten it making her cheeks flush momentarily―but when Ronni's hand came up to grab a hold of his arm and squeeze it, he looked over at her. The small nod of encouragement from her was all he needed to pull at the envelope to open it.

She sighed heavily when she heard JJ gag, her eyes closing momentarily, before they opened again to see that he'd spit the moldy bread into his hand and was now picking at the bad parts. All of them collectively ignored JJ's antics, used to them by now, when John B pulled out a large piece of paper and started to unfold it, revealing a map. Ronni slowly stood up, going to stand behind John B's shoulder next to JJ to see a cut-out of the east coast with Big John's writing scrawled everywhere.

"Holy shit..." John B muttered, smoothing out the wrinkled map.

Pope was on the opposite side of the table, so he was reading it upside down, but the big symbol in the Outer Banks was clear enough to him. "Well, 'X' marks the spot."

"Longitude, latitude," he pointed at the coordinates that were marked while Ronni leaned forward slightly over John B's shoulder, smoothing out the portion where the 'X' was to see if she recognized the location. Underneath her arm, John B picked up the envelope. "I think there's something else in here."

Ronni inched back when John B pulled a device out, which she assumed carried the weight she felt earlier, and realized that it was a tape-recorder. JJ was not as up to speed, blinking down at the thing. "What's that?"

"It's a tape recorder, dumb-ass," Kie grated. 

"Dear Bird..."

JJ's brows set in confusion on JB. "Who's Bird?"

"That's what my Dad called me."

Whatever was going on with Ronni and JJ in that moment was forgotten. They looked away from the tape-recorder and over to one another, mirroring expressions of concern for their best friend. How long had it been since any of them had heard Big John's voice? Long enough to forget the important parts of it. Not long enough to forget him. Unconsciously, JJ shifted toward John B while Ronni laid a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it tightly when the recording of Big John began.

"I hate to say 'I told you so' but I told you so...and you doubted your old man. I suspect at this moment, you're filled with regret and self-loathing over our last fight, but don't kill yourself just yet, kid."

The gruff, familiar voice of Big John only made a strike of pain erupt in Ronni's heart, and her eyes burned. But whatever she felt didn't matter right now, and knowing John B, all that coursed through his mind was the last fight he'd had with his dad. Her other arm wrapped around him and she set her chin down on his head, glancing briefly over at Pope and JJ to see that their eyes were also on John B in concern.

"I didn't expect to find the Merchant either. You were probably right to call me out. God knows Harvey did enough times. Be sure to tell him to kiss my pale ass, by the way―" Ronni smiled softly when John B chuckled under his breath, reaching up to squeeze her arm "―and then tell him I said thank you. I wasn't exactly father of the decade, and he stepped up for you. What can I say, kid? I could smell the barn...now, hopefully we're listening to this in our brand-new sugar-shack down in Costa Rica, living off passive investments and pulling on permits..."

John B's shoulders tensed up. Ronni could feel it under the grip she had on him.

"If not, and you find this for less than optimal reasons...well, that's what the map is for. There she is―the wreck of the Merchant. If something happens to me, finish what I started. Go for the gold, kid. I love you, Bird, even if I didn't always act like it...I'll see you on the other side."

The end of the recording came with a second of static noise, and then John B was clicking the button to turn it off. Before any of them could say anything, he pushed himself off the chair so that Ronni's arms fell back at her side. Then he walked past them quickly, not a beat missing in between his quick exit and Ronni following after him. He didn't get far, and she grabbed a hold of him just as he fell into the frame of the door, sobs wracking his body.

"Holy shit, he did it!" she heard from behind them as JJ let the exclaim escape without thinking. "Big John―he found the Merchant―"

Kie quickly shut him up. "JJ, can you...please―"

Ronni ignored them, holding her ground when he turned all of a sudden and wrapped his arms around her, clutching onto her like a lost child―was that not what he was? He had always been her family, always her brother, her best friend, but she would never be able to understand the gravity of losing a father the way that he had. Not even the relationship with her mother compared. But she could be there for him.

"I've got you...okay?" she whispered. "I'm here, JB...I'm here."

That didn't matter, though, did it? Because his dad wasn't. 

★☆⋆⁎⋆✶★☆⋆⁎⋆✶

"How much was it again?"

JJ's question was muffled by the sound of Kiara playing the ukulele. None of them had slept and it was nearly three a.m., but an all-nighter was the least of their concerns. John B ended up going to the dock to sit by himself for a few minutes, and Ronni gave him his time as she talked quietly with the others, but after thirty minutes all of them slowly migrated down there with him and took a seat. No one said anything, not until JJ finally broke the noise by asking about the Royal Merchant.

"Four hundred mil," Pope muttered, looking over at Ronni when she shifted slightly.

Her and Pope were seated on the wooden bench just underneath the railing JJ was teetering on, Ronni's hair brushing against his ankle every so often and sending goosebumps up his skin, but she wasn't even aware of it. Her eyes barely left John B since he heard the tape-recording, worry setting in her features and darkening her eyes. JJ knew that it wouldn't let up, not until she saw John B smile at least once―she'd always been too overprotective, too worried, not just over JB but over JJ, too.

"Alright, let's talk the split," JJ announced, pulling his legs over so that he was sitting up, his thighs brushing up against Ronni's shoulder. "Now, before we say "evenly," may I remind you that I am the only one who can properly defend us from those groupers who were after us. Protection? Not cheap, okay?"

Ronni looked away from John B to JJ. "You're joking, right?"

"Hey, gun's put away for safe keeping―"

"Yeah, even when those groupers were trying to kill us―"

His jaw set, his eyes darkening as he met her eyes. "What, so I use the gun and you're pissed, and I don't use the gun and you're pissed? I'm sorry, Ronni, what exactly do you want from me?"

"Maybe learning how to use it instead of waving it around like it's a fucking piñata stick―"

Pope and Kie shared a look. JJ and Ronni always bickered, but there was heat behind their argument that usually wasn't there. In an effort to diffuse the growing fight between them, Pope leaned forward to look at JJ. "She's right, JJ. You've done zero training."

"Youtube, bro!" JJ defended, raising his hands in the air. "That's at least a five percent bump right there."

Ronni glared ahead at Kie's shoes. "Five percent bump in your idiocy too."

"Alright, well, besides Ronni's judgement of all my decisions, does anyone else have any objections?" he asked, barely giving anyone a second to object. Kie did raise her hand, waving it around while Pope chimed in. "Didn't think so. I don't hear any, so..."

When Kie noticed Ronni open her mouth, she quickly cleared her throat and looked at Pope. "What're you going to do with your eighty-mil, Pope?"

"Pay for college in advance..." he paused, and his answer only made Kie wince slightly that his only thought was his education "...and also textbooks. Those are expensive. What about you? What does a socialist do when she's rich?"

"I just wanna make a double album―about OBX, the Pogues―you know, the way Catch a Fire is about Kingston," she grinned, her eyes lighting up as she spoke about the dream she'd had since she was little. "Record it at Marley Studio, Peter Tosh producing..."

"Peter Tosh is dea―"

"Peter Tosh is dead. I know," Kie barely gave Pope the opportunity to burst her bubble. "Spirit of Peter Tosh will never die."

Kie and Pope's conversation slowly drifted away and left an awkward pause in the air as JJ and Ronni sat on their frustration with one another. Thankfully, JJ took the reigns on continuing their discussion, glancing down at the rocks he'd collected in his hands that he was skipping in the dark―did he have a plan for the future? Not really. All that echoed in his mind was the words Ronni told him during their last fight: I'm tired of you thinking that your life is only destined to go down the same dead-end path as the rest of your family.

"Actually, I know what I'm going to do," JJ said all of a sudden, nodding his head. "I'm gonna get a big ass house on Figure Eight and go full Kook."

Ronni's lips pursed tightly, and Pope looked at him in disbelief. "You're going to go full Kook?"

"Gonna get a marble statue of myself, and then I'm gonna get a koi pond. Put a bunch of those fish in it..." he continued, painting the picture perfectly.

"What about you, Ronni?"

Pope's question made Ronni hesitate. She glanced down at her bracelets, fiddling with them―JJ noticed. One of her bad habits was messing with them when she was anxious over something. His smile fell, all of his frustration toward her earlier disappearing when he noticed the oddness of her actions, because in the midst of his own excitement and humor, he'd forgotten that his perfect picture of an 80-mil life was what Rachel Dunweather left her family for.

"Do you know the little rundown building next to Amy's shop a couple miles away?" she asked, continuing to pull at her bracelets. "I'd like to make that into something for the kids around the Cut, y'know? Either a dance studio, or an art studio, or just something. Give them the opportunity to do something after school instead of having to go straight home...there's a lot of 'em that need a few more hours away."

JJ stilled, looking down at her. She caught his eye. Both knew in that moment she was talking about something JJ had needed when he was little. He moved his knee, connecting with her arm as he nudged her to acknowledge what she'd revealed. Thank you, was said in that contact.

"Well now I feel like a piece of shit," Kie said as she looked at Ronni in surprise. "I didn't know you wanted to do that."

"Just a dream I'd thought about since I was little. Don't think I'm some saint―I'd wanna get Dad a nice place too and probably take a nice vacation everywhere in Europe for a year, but...I'd love to do something for the kids around here too."

Pope glanced over to his right at the only one who'd stayed silent. "John B?"

There was a brief pause in the air as all four of them watched John B, waiting for his answer. Ronni was about to interject and change the topic when he turned around to face them, holding up his beer with a forced smile. "To going full Kook."

"To going full Kook!"

JJ was first to cheer on John B's answer, standing up to clank his beer with the others following in suit. Ronni was the only one who stayed seated, forcing a smile and taking a drink of her beer. Kie noticed that time and her smile dipped. She walked over to her best friend and took a seat next to her, brushing up against her side as a way of comfort.

JJ turned to them with set brows. "So...what's next?"

"We figure out where the coordinates are," John B said, moving so that he was seated in their direction now. His legs dangled off the side, mimicking JJ's pose. "See how deep it is. But that means we're going to have to find a place with working internet."

"Oh, cool, set. I got it. I can sneak us in―"

"Nope," Ronni quickly interjected JJ, shaking her head and looking at him. "You just got that job at the hotel a few months ago. You can't afford to lose it if they catch you...we can go to my mom's. She'll have her fifteen generators up by now. Logan will have complained enough about it. We'll head over there in the morning. I'm going to head home, though. I smell like death. Literally."

No one had the opportunity to say anything to Ronni about the offer she'd given because she had already finished the rest of her beer and stood up, leaving them behind as she walked up the dock to get to her jeep. An awkward pause settled in the air with one of their own gone, and John B set up straighter in concern now that he's noticed the odd mood, meeting eyes immediately with JJ. Kie and Pope, on the other hand, were slightly more confused about the sudden change in Ronni.

"Okay," Pope started, turning his body to JJ. "What'd you do? She's been weird all night."

JJ glowered at the insinuation. "Why're you always assuming I did shit?"

"Because the two of you are acting like you killed someone back at the graveyard."

"Maybe we did."

"You're still standing so I doubt it―"

"It's her mom, isn't it?" Kie asked, stopping the back-and-forth between Pope and JJ. That made John B and JJ both sit up straighter, glancing down at their beers. "What? Is she really that bad? Ronni never talks about her. I've never even met her. I mean, she never..."

When Kie looked over at JJ briefly, the insinuation wasn't lost. JJ shook his head immediately, sobering up. "Nah. Nothin' like that. She's just..."

"...a bitch," John B continued where he left off, surprising Kie. He shrugged. "JJ and I have met her a couple times. You can see straight through her act. She pretends she wants what's best for Ronni but it's just because her friends talk. She packed up her old life to Figure Eight before we got close with Ronni, though, so we didn't know what it was like before. We just saw the after."

"So, what? She just got a lot of money from her dead dad and left her whole life behind to start a new one?" Kie scoffed in disbelief. "How can you do that to your kid? I knew Ronni didn't like her but―"

"Judge said that Rachel still got visitation rights over Ronni after the divorce, so she goes over there for a couple days every few months," John B noticed the scowl on JJ's face growing. "Usually takes a few more days for V to be back to normal. Harvey's convinced her to soak up the pity gifts, like her jeep."

JJ sneered, jumping off the dock. "John B and I got lucky. We don't have to face our mommy's. V got stuck thinking she was replacable. Rich-Bitch Rachel can fuck off for all I care. We're going to the hotel―"

"JJ, just let her do it."

"What? No. You know how she gets, John B―"

"That's her decision," he dismissed, catching JJ's frustrated glare. "Not ours."

"Whatever."

In the same manner as Ronni, JJ quickly finished his beer and smashed it in his hand, leaving the other three on the dock to watch as his shadow disappeared up the dock. The fact that he walked into the Chateau and didn't start walking down the street to the Dunweather's proved that there was something more going on between JJ and Ronni than they were telling. John B had been too distracted for the last few hours to notice, so he was more confused than the others, but Kie and Pope had noticed it since the van.

"Any ideas?" Kie asked the two of them.

Pope pursed his lips in thought. "JJ looked up her skirt?"

"Both of us have seen worse," John B dismissed, furrowing his brows. "She wouldn't care."

"Maybe it was the gun comment."

"Maybe."

It wasn't the gun comment.

★☆⋆⁎⋆✶★☆⋆⁎⋆✶

The next morning, JJ and John B docked the HMS Pogue at the Dunweather's to see that Ronni and Harvey were both outside in their backyard already. They were in the process of picking up one of the limbs of the trees that had split down the middle, and the two boys could hear the bickering of the father and daughter before Ronni shrieked as her father threw a bug at her. She had gone to launch something back at him when she noticed them, her smile falling off her face momentarily. They muttered to one another for a few seconds before both of them started down the dock, Ronni grabbing a hold of her backpack on the way down.

"What're the three of you up to today?" Harvey asked with raised eyebrows, leaning on the railing of the dock.

JJ held his hand out for Ronni, letting her take it and jump in, falling into his bare chest. Like their skin was scalding, both of them separated quickly, and he cleared his throat to look up at Harvey. "Might go borrow some cash at that bank down in Figure Eight, buy some booze with the profit―oh, and get a couple crab legs too."

"Don't forget the butter," Harvey pointed at him scoldingly, and then he smiled, turning to John B momentarily. "Hey, kiddo. I've got to meet with DCS today. They're coming by in the afternoon so I'm cleaning up this place―"

"Uh, excuse me?" was heard from the side of the boat as Ronni looked at her dad with wide eyes.

"―so V spent the whole morning cleaning up the place like she does when she's stressing over something and won't tell me shit," Harvey corrected, shooting his daughter a look when she scowled at him for outing her. He glanced between the two boys, unbeknownst that one of them was the cause of it. "So, if either of you wanna grill her on that, I'll be here when you've got the answer. Bribe her with some crab legs. And butter."

Ronni sent a middle finger at her father. "Go pick up your tree, Harvey!"

"Go find you a better mood, daughter!" he replied, sending her a middle-finger back in return. Just as John B started the boat up, his smile turned softer as he looked at the three of them. "Be careful. No drinking while driving. No letting JJ do anything stupid. No killing each other. I expect three bodies back on this dock at the end of every day."

JJ shrugged, falling back against the bow. "Never made any clarification on whether or not those bodies needed to be alive―" his knee was nudged by Ronni. "Alright, alright. Scouts honor, H."

"I can stay the night tonight," John B said to Ronni's father, nodding his head. "So we can talk about DCS and stuff, if you need me to."

"I'll cook something up for you guys," Harvey said, then asked. "Pope and Kie coming over too?"

Ronni nodded, propping her legs up. "Probably. I doubt they'll stay the night."

"Alright. Be good. Love you."

Harvey was turning around and returning back to the yard work he'd been off doing for the last two days. John B turned in the direction of Heyward's to pick up Pope, while Ronni quickly threw off the large t-shirt she'd been wearing to expose a bright blue two-piece. JJ hadn't slept the whole night, his mind racing with a billion thoughts on what happened between him and Ronni at the graveyard, so to hear that she'd also been running herself crazy made him feel slightly better―but they still needed to talk.

Like, now, before he went crazy because he couldn't go a whole day being awkward around her. That was the reason the rule was set in place, and JJ would rather cut off his own hand than risk losing what he had with Ronni. He could take suffering with never kissing her again if it meant she'd fucking look at him. The worst part was that JJ knew everything about Ronni and could usually always tell what was on her mind―but when it came to her feelings about him, he was a lost cause.

By the time they'd picked up Pope and Kie, Ronni was fidgeting. A lot. Like to the point where Pope didn't even say anything when her and JJ passed a joint back and forth. They were halfway to the split between The Cut and Figure Eight when JJ whistled lowly, handing the joint off to Ronni to inspect the boat coming toward them.

"You see that, guys?" he asked, leaning forward over Ronni's outstretched legs. "That's the Malibu twenty-four-MXZ, the world's finest wakesetter. Number one in luxury, quality, and performance. Two-hundred K, easy."

Pope sighed pitifully as it came closer. "We picked the wrong parents."

"You definitely didn't," Ronni snorted, taking another hit as she pushed her sunglasses up on her head. She narrowed her eyes when the people on the boat got closer. "Isn't that..."

"Hate to break it to you guys, but that's Topper and his girlfriend," Kie confirmed her thoughts, rolling her eyes as Sarah Cameron lifted up her sunglasses to look past them like they weren't even there. "You don't have to act like you don't see us, bitch."

"Play nice," she replied before turning to John B. "You know where you're going?"

John B nodded. Sure enough, only five minutes later, he was arriving in front of a large, white brick house. Rather than having a small dock to lead off, there was a long one expansing all the way to where an expensive MasterCraft XT-25 sat comfortable in the water. Ronni faintly remembered that being Logan's birthday present for his seventeenth, since she'd been forced to attend that. Her mouth dried at the sight of the house, already beginning to pinch at her nerves. Then while the other stared in awe at the mansion, Ronni turned to her backpack to grab her clothes.

"Alright, so how're we doin' this? 'Cause everyone in that house hates us―"

JJ paused when he turned around to see that Ronni had put on a nice, blue tank top tucked into a pair of jeans. She was pulling up her hair anxiously into a high ponytail and tugging at the pieces to frame her face, not even the weed from earlier able to calm the nerves that were piling up in her gut. As she slipped on a pair of sandals JJ had never seen her ever wear, Ronni glanced up at them to see that they were all frowning at her current appearance.

"I'll go in and tell Rachel that I need to use her internet to submit a scholarship essay. There's a path around back past the trellis that leads to the back door. My room is right next to it, but it's past her office. I'll be in there as soon as I can get past her. Wait like...ten minutes, okay?" she explained, nodding her head as she went to get out of the HMS Pogue to step onto the dock.

She barely managed to set a foot down before there was a loud sound of someone's feet hitting directly next to her. She turned when she saw JJ staring at her. "Ready?"

"What are you doing? Go through the side door with the others."

"What? No. I'm going in with you," he explained like it was obvious.

"JJ, it's fine, really. I can do it alone."

"Doesn't mean you have to. I'm going."

Ronni didn't have the chance to protest, and honestly, she didn't want to. She glanced back at the others to give them a nod before she went after JJ, jogging slightly to catch up to where he'd gotten in his quick strides. The tension in her shoulders let up with JJ walking next to her, their shoulders bumping, and just for a moment everything felt alright between them. As they walked up the driveway, JJ scoffing when he noticed a marble statue with water coming out of the dude's junk, Ronni's nerves started to pick up. Just before she reached the front door, she turned quickly to JJ with wide eyes.

"I'm sorry. I've been acting really weird after what happened, and it's not what you think, I promise. I'm not ignoring you or pretending like it never happened, it's just that I'm really fucking terrified and―" the door swung open and Ronni's face changed instantly, turning to grin at her step-brother. "Logan! Hey! How's it going? Mom home?"

Ronni walked in underneath Logan's arm, lacing her hand with JJ and tugging him behind her so that Logan didn't slam the door on him. Instantly, the bad blood between the boys was noticed when Logan glowered at JJ. "Nice, Veronica. Usually Dad doesn't let criminals into the home, especially Maybanks. Might leave a little heavier than they came in."

"Did you ever get that Rolex back that Rafe Cameron stole from you to buy from his dealer?" she asked innocently, looking up at her step-brother. "Or was that just for your share of the merchandise?"

Logan scowled down at her. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"I keep my mouth shut if you keep yours. So, Mom home?"

She left Logan there and walked further into the large house, tightening her hold on JJ when she felt a bit of restraint to follow, knowing he'd throw a punch at Logan just for the hell of it. The Porter home was too clean and polished. Elijah Porter was her step-dad, technically, and Logan's father, but the amount of times that Ronni had seen him in the last few years was comparable to how often Logan had seen him since he was born. Rachel usually lingered in her study, working on her 'renovation projects' that involved deconstructing the entirety of the Outer Banks to make more profit in her pockets and take it out of the research facilities and animal habitats.

"This is..." JJ cleared his throat, speaking under his breath as she led him through the home.

She met his eye, her lips worn into a frown. "Don't think less of me for it."

"Veronica? What are you doing here?" came the voice that Ronni heard in her nightmares. She stilled instantly, her frown fixing itself into a fake smile when Rachel came out of her office wearing an ugly, mustard-yellow dress. Her mom looked past her at JJ, and her distaste was evident. "Jordi. I wasn't aware the two of you would be coming over."

"JJ and I," she put emphasis on JJ's nickname, "were just stopping by. There is still no working internet at Dad's place, and there's an important merit scholarship essay that I have to submit in order to be put through the next process. I was hoping to use your internet while I'm here if you don't mind."

"You didn't tell me you were applying to be a Merit scholar, Veronica."

"Must have slipped my mind," she clenched her teeth, only pausing when JJ squeezed her hand tightly. "I'm sorry, Mom. I'll be sure to keep you updated on the process."

Pope's process, more like it. Rachel glanced down at their connected hands, unable to hide the way her face twisted up when she saw that her daughter was holding hands with him. JJ noticed, and he instinctively felt like he should pull away, but Ronni refused, only interlacing their fingers more.

"I didn't know the two of you were..." Rachel cleared her throat. The intention in her eyes was not lost as she began to speak again. "Well, Jordi, how is Luke doing? Last I heard―"

Ronni's chest flared with anger. "I'm showing JJ my room. I'll say goodbye before I leave."

"We need to talk about this, Veronica. I wasn't finished―"

"I was."

That ended the conversation between them, and Ronni walked past her mother without another word. JJ stayed quiet as she guided him through the hallway, somewhat surprised to see that her room was on the first floor when there was a large staircase the moment you walked in―actually, no, he wasn't surprised. Ronni would've chosen the one on the first floor if she needed to sneak out to make a quick get-away. They ended up walking around a corner and he saw the back door she was talking about, but not their friends. Must not have been ten minutes yet.

Ronni opened the door right next to it and walked in. JJ followed slowly behind, blinking in surprise at what was supposed to be Ronni's bedroom. The walls were a lavender purple, her least favorite color, with white lace curtains that he knew she hated because they reminded her of a grandma. The bed was full of throw pillows, a beige comforter to match the furniture all around the room―no pictures were up, no perfume bottles were knocked over on the dressers, and it just was....sad. Whoever decorated the room knew nothing about Ronni. Ronni made no attempt to get to know this room either.

He turned around to look at her, his eyes softening when he noticed that hers were watching him. She forced a smile, shrugging slightly as she glanced down at the hardwood floors. Another difference in her room at the Dunweather's―blue, comfortable, home―and the one at Rachel's house. It was cold.

"I'm sorry about her," she apologized swiftly, clearing her throat as she looked back through the frame to see if the others were at the backdoor yet. "She's not..."

"Like you," JJ stepped forward, making her turn her head back around to look at him. Mirroring on her face was the look he'd always wore when he came back from a night with his dad. He frowned. "V―"

JJ's next words were cut off when Ronni reached out, one of her hands grabbing the back of his neck to pull him down. Then, just like the night before, she kissed him. Like a fish to water, JJ reacted instantly, inching forward so that his chest was pressed against hers. He grabbed the lower part of her cheeks to hold her mouth against his, cool metal rings burning against her hot skin. He'd just managed to get a taste of her bottom lip before there was a soft knock, and they quickly stepped away from each other just like last time.

JJ barely had the opportunity to breathe before she was slipping away from him and opening the back door, ushering their other three friends into the room and closing the door quickly afterwards. Apparently, none of them saw anything because they all darted in the direction of the Mac desktop near the window, Pope taking the designated seat in front of it while Kie and JB hovered on each shoulder.

Ronni and JJ were still stuck at the door, both of them awkwardly hovering. JJ took his hat off for a moment to run his hands through his hair before cursing under his breath and going over to the others, flinging himself down against the window sill behind Pope. John B unraveled the map off to the side of the desk, wincing slightly when he pushed a pen-holder out of the way that had the little poofs on the top. Ronni saw Kie staring at her suspiciously, and that only made her cheeks flush more as she quickly rushed over to the other side where John B was just to get as far away from Kie as possible.

"Hey, lemme check out my Insta models―" JJ said, leaning forward to take reign over the keyboard.

"We don't have time for that," Pope swatted at his hand, then looked over at Ronni. "Password?"

She cleared her throat and pushed John B back for a moment to lean over, quickly typing in the password too quickly for any of them to decipher what it was. Her behavior did make four pairs of eyes turned to look at her. "What? It's a password for a reason. Go on. I have the Earth Search app downloaded."

"What are the coordinates?"

John B stepped up again, causing Ronni to lean back.

"Thirty-four, fifty-seven, thirty―north. Seventy-five, fifty-five, forty-two―west," he read, and they all waited anxiously as the 3D map pulled up to the coordinates. "Okay, boom, continental shelf right there."

"Well, if it's off the deep-end, it's not going to be much of a treasure hunt, is it?" Pope stated sarcastically, glancing over at John B. The map continued to navigate closer and closer to the targeted area. "Come on..."

There was a brief sound of footsteps outside in the hallway, and Ronni's head shot up. Darting quickly over to her door without a word to the others, she locked it just as the door handle shook. The others shot their head up with wide eyes, and Ronni raised her finger to her lips to tell them to shut up.

"Veronica? I don't like you having your door locked with Jordi in the room―" Ronni scowled when she saw the shit-eating grin start to rise on JJ's face from across the room, but she could only throw a middle finger his way before she turned back the problem of her mother on the other side of the door. "Veronica?"

"Yeah, Mom, sorry. I just didn't want to be interrupted because I have to..." she hesitated, looking at the others for help, waving her hands around dramatically. Then Pope took his phone out of his pocket, waving it around "...call the admissions in charge of the National Merit Scholarship. There's a problem with my submission link."

Ronni pinched the bridge of her nose anxiously, glaring up at the ceiling for a moment before she looked back over at her friends. Pope and John B had returned to looking at the computer, typing quietly and muttering to one another while Kie and JJ kept their eyes close on her external panic by the bedroom.

"Veronica, open your door. I don't like you being alone with..."

Ronni's hand fell down her face, suddenly angry, and she quickly unlocked her door, cracking it open slightly so that her mother could only see her. "You don't like me being alone with who, Mom? With JJ? My best friend? Who I've known for eight years?"

"Can we talk about this in my office?" her mother muttered, flickering her eyes over Ronni's head in hopes that she'd see JJ, but no dice. Rachel did glance down at Ronni to make sure all of her clothes were on.

"No. We can talk here," she shifted around so that she was leant slightly against the door frame, her other hand holding it tightly just in case her mom tried to barge in. "JJ's editing my essay right now. Whatever you want to say, I'm perfectly fine with him hearing―what, you want to make sure we're being safe? Because you don't want your daughter to get pregnant at sixteen like you did?"

"The two of you are sleeping together? Veronica, open this door―"

Ronni felt someone come up behind her, the person's body familiar against her back, and she breathed out in relief when JJ came up but then he opened the door all the way. She widened her eyes, looking over his shoulder to see that the others were gone, and realized they were probably hiding in her bathroom. Or closet. Or under her bed. The second that the door was open, Rachel scowled at JJ and walked further into the bedroom to inspect it. She glanced over at the bed to see that the comforter was still perfectly pressed, not a pillow touched.

"We left a condom underneath the bed if you wanted to have the maid pick it up later," Ronni said bluntly, her eyes hardening at her mom.

Rachel glowered at her daughter. "Veronica. I rai―"

"―you what?" she retorted, stepping forward with her jaw set at her mother. She raised her brows expectantly, begging her to finish her sentence. "Were you going to say you raised me better than this? Because you didn't. You barely raised me at all."

"I'm not having this conversation in front of your...friend."

"Didn't want to hear you shit talk your own daughter anyway," JJ said, raising his hand to salute her sarcastically before he grabbed onto Ronni's wrist, tugging her out with him as he walked backwards out of the bedroom. "I'd say it's nice to see you again, ma'am, but you've not changed one bit. I've had better conversations with the Rottweiler that lives down the street from me."

Rachel followed after them, stomping angrily as JJ continued to tug Ronni ahead of him so that she wouldn't be tempted to turn around and say anything else to her mother she might regret. Thankfully, she was so distracted glaring at JJ and Ronni that she completely missed their best friends scrambling out of the back door. Ronni had just opened the front door and gotten past a wide-eyed Logan when Rachel said something that made JJ and Ronni both stall in their steps, halting right in front of the peeing statue.

"When you get stuck living a shit-hole of a life in The Cut, don't expect me to pull you out, Veronica!"

Ronni whirled around, and she'd only gotten two steps back toward her mother before JJ latched himself around her waist, trying to turn her back around. "The difference between me and you is I don't see The Cut as a shit-hole life like you do! You had a fucking incredible husband and you had me―and that still wasn't enough for you, was it? Not even taking all of your money from your dead dad was enough, either. You had to fuck your way into Elijah's bed so he'd give you the perfect family you never had, right? Right, Mom? And even then you still managed to fuck that up."

Ronni met eyes with Logan when she said that before letting JJ turn her around, no longer needing to push her as she left on her own accord. The sound of her mom slamming the door echoed all the way down the long driveway. Ronni fumed, her hands shaking angrily as she tried to take deep breaths to calm herself down before she got to the end of the dock. JJ stayed behind her hesitantly, never having seen her like this before―it made him wonder how often conversations like that happened. Was this why she always came home different?

The others were already in the boat, which meant that they'd been able to get back while the argument was happening between Ronni and Rachel in the middle of the front yard. They were looking anywhere but at Ronni when she finally got into the boat herself, quickly ripping off the clothes she'd worn to impress her mother and stripping down to her bikini. No one said anything as she tugged on a baggy tee. When JJ clamored into the boat, John B set off into the water quickly to get back to the Chateau.

Kie was the first one to notice that tears were coming out of Ronni's eyes as she constantly wiped them away, refusing to let them sit there for any longer than a second. "Ronni..."

"I'm fine," she dismissed, clearing her throat and glancing over at Pope. "Did you guys get the coordinates figured out? How deep is it?"

"Nine-hundred," Pope said, trying not to stare at her with too much concern but it still seeped through. He continued, trying to take her mind off it. "JJ said there's a drone that can drop a thousand feet at the salvage yard, so we're going to go get it."

Ronni looked over at JJ in confusion. "I thought your dad got fired for showing up shitfaced."

"He did," JJ confirmed as he sat down next to her, throwing his arm over her shoulder. The action was meant to be casual, but everyone knew there was a hidden meaning behind it as Ronni shifted closer to him. "Which is why we're going to go get it―and after we do that, I'm going to come back here and knock the marble statue over in Rich-Bitch's front yard. Who even needs a marble statue anyway?"

Step seven: fight with her over stupid shit (like the fact that she was ignoring the kiss between the two of you, which really wasn't stupid shit but whatever) but remember that she's your best friend, and at the end of the day―even if you might have officially kissed her twice now and have no fucking idea what that's supposed to mean for the two of you―you'd do anything for her. Even if it meant destroy the Kook-sized image of perfection you'd had planned with the eighty-mil.

JJ was still getting a Koi pond, though.

★☆⋆⁎⋆✶★☆⋆⁎⋆✶

Author's Note:

LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THOUGHT!

How do you feel about how Ronni's reacting to the kiss? (I promise when they actually talk her actions will make sense). I love her and JJ so much, but I know that it's unrealistic for the two of them to just get together right away and be like "boom! we're together now!" especially with how long they'd fought it and not wanting to ruin the friend group.  Long explanation aside, it'll all make sense soon.

I do very much not like Rachel at all. She's a good representation of someone in my life and the relationship Ronni has with her is VERY similar to the relationship I have with that person. So, it hits home for me. This won't be the first time we see something like this happen between Ronni & her mom.

As always, comment and give some love to this story! Comments are what keep the updates coming and keep me motivated. You guys have been amazing with your love and support, and its truly lit a fire under my ass to continue moving this story along rather than let it sit. Thank you!