‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ REMEMBER ME LIKE THIS — KEGGER?  ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙
EPISODE ONE

⚘

     "Well, that was fun."

     The trio had made it back to their boat safely, JJ obviously a little less agitated than Esme, who wasn't quite cracking chuckles yet.  "Sure," she said quietly, ignoring the stares she was receiving from Claire, who frankly, was worried about her friend.  Esme was acting as if she'd just seen a dead body.

     "Could have warned us sooner."

     "We would have, except Pope was on the math team," Kiara retorted, smiling sarcastically towards Pope.

     "You were on the math team?" JJ asked.  It pretty much went unanswered.

     "The cops took everything like it was a crime scene," John B noted.

     "Did you guys find anything?" — there it was, the question she had been fearing.  She hadn't exactly known JJ like the back of her smooth hand, but she knew how reckless he was, and there was nothing safe about what he himself had taken from the motel room.

     "Did we find anything?" JJ rephrased their question.  "No, I don't think so.  Oh, yeah, we did," he held up both hands, one clutching a wad of bills and the other, his new proud possession.

     "What the hell?" Pope asked frantically.

     "Dude, what?"

     "Dude, chill," JJ smiled.  "Come on."

     "Why take that from a crime scene?"

     "I tried to tell him," Esme squinted as she faced the sun — but anything was better than JJ's wrath.

     Just as she said that JJ deadpanned towards her.     "Better than the cops having it."

     She turned to him and cocked her head to the side.  "Whatever helps you sleep at night."  JJ shrugged her words off.

     "You serious?" Kiara said, worried.

     "I'm gonna lose my merit scholarship," Pope paced around.

     "Hey, hey, hey," JJ stood up and placed a hand over Pope's shoulder.  "Sh, sh, sh," the blonde shushed his friend by placing the gun in between them as he pulled him closer.  "At least you have us, right?"

     "I'm living the nightmare."

⚘

     "Who's that?" John B asked, the group of six now back to their homeland, watching as a body has been pulled from someone's boat.  Claire stands right next to Pope, throwing a hand over her mouth in shock.

     "It's Scooter Grubbs," this girl sitting next to Esme says.  "He was out during the storm.  Check out this pic I got," before Esme could reject it, the girl was pushing her phone in front of her face.  "Dead body.  Insane."

     "Oh my God," Claire breathed out heavily.  Kiara brought a hand to her back carefully.

     "Maybe ask next time if someone actually wants to see the dead body," Esme gave the girl a quick tight-lipped smile before dropping it as quickly as it came.

     "Holy shit," John B whispered.

     "What kind of boat did he have?" JJ stood directly behind Esme, an uneasy look on his face.  Suddenly, everyone was piecing together the puzzles better.

     "Somehow, that dirtbag copped a brand-new Grady-White.  Everyone's out looking for it."

⚘

     "Okay.  So, um... we didn't see anything.  We don't know anything.  We need to have total and complete amnesia," Pope said while panting.  They were now back at the Chateau and trying to discuss their plans, but it was mostly just them panicking.

     "Actually, Pope's right for once," JJ said, surprising Esme slightly.  She turned to him, cocking her eyebrow as JJ walked closer to the group, having previously been standing with his back against the wall.  "See, I agree with you sometimes," JJ motioned towards Pope.  "Deny, deny, deny."

     "Guys, we can't keep that money," Kiara insisted.

     "Okay, not all of us can afford unlimited data plans, Kiara," JJ retorted.

     Esme nodded with a sigh.  "This sucks," she whispered to herself.

     "We have to pass that off to Lana Grubbs.  Otherwise, it's bad karma," Kiara shrugged, looking to everyone else.

     "Bad karma to be implicated in a felony, too."

     Claire scratched the back of her neck as she watched JJ and John B standing before her.  She sat closely next to Pope on the bench.  "We need to disappear for a minute."

     "I agree. We gotta go dark."

     "If that means we get to keep the money, then I agree," JJ said, looking out towards the waves.

     Slowly, John B raised his eyebrows.  "I don't agree."

     "What?  Why?"

     "Just think about it.  This is Scooter Grubbs we're talking about.  Same dude that's buying individual cigarettes at the Porthole.  Shit, one time I saw this dude begging for change in the Save-A-Lot parking lot because he needed gas.  We're talking about a dirtbag marina rat who's never had more than forty bucks in his pocket, and all of a sudden, he's got a Grady-White?" John B looked to his friends for their reactions to his proposal.  "Just sayin'."

     It took a little more than a hot minute to get Pope to come around.  And honestly, Kiara wasn't too excited about it either, but Esme knew it was because she didn't believe that Big John was still alive.  Kiara was a realist, she accepted her friends' fathers fate long ago.

     Esme didn't quite know where she stood.  Honestly, she didn't think her opinion was even valid when it came to the argument.

     "All right, so think about it, Pope," John B said as they stood on the docks, Pope with a fishing pole in hand.  "How does a marina rat get a Grady-White?"

     JJ inhaled sharply.  "Prostitution."

     "Square groupers, bro."

     The group went back and forth with their ideas for a while, Esme mostly staying quiet and offering agreements when she was asked.  They determined Scooter must've been part of a smuggling operation during the hurricane, that there must be contraband in the wreck, but stupid things have good outcomes all the time and for the most part — everyone was dying to get a piece of the action.

     "All we need to do is figure out a way to get into the cargo hold of that wreck," JJ decided.  "Until then, we just lay low.  Just act normal."

     "Right.  And how exactly do we do that?"

     There was a quick pause followed by, "Kegger?"

⚘

     Esme hated keggers for the most part, but they were good for drumming up business, so she didn't skip out on them often.

     She was in with all of the young Pogues.  Those who went to her for a casual joint here or there, saw her working at The Wreck for the occasional morning shift, and saw her brother around town.  Pogues were her favorite, they never tried to bullshit her unlike the Kooks, who were constantly late on payments or looking for some type of credit.

     For the most part, she wasn't really up to date in Kook drama since she didn't live on that side of the island (thankfully), so she'd be in and out quickly.  But she noticed how much they liked to party.  CBD and weed she usually sold to the Pogues for a good time were hardly a thought to the Kooks.  They drove drunk in their daddy's fast cars and cared less whether they totalled it, or had their friends in the passenger seat at risk too.  She'd been to their parties, seen how they gathered around their mother's expensive coffee tables now scattered with cocaine, seen how they bent over to inhale the lines like a pack of wild dogs.

     Then there were the tourists, whom she made the least amount of money off (it's not really like you could walk up to someone you don't know and let them know you're a drug dealer).  Even though they were likely there for less than two weeks on vacation with their families, they were a good time. 

     Esme made her way around, a red cup in her grasp as she scanned the crowd.  So far, she had already made nearly one hundred dollars and she wasn't even trying.  She paused as she saw Pope with his back turned to her, talking to a girl.  She smiled softly.  "It's kinda weird when on TV, we see people die, and they just kinda sit there, but in actuality, they would be shitting and farting up a storm."

     Esme blinked, her eyebrows furrowed closely together.  Did he really just say that?

     She kept wandering, trying to find Claire or anyone familiar to sit with while she sparked up her own blunt as she'd had such a long week already and was planning to relax the rest of the night.  She was happy to see John B (always able to identify him from any angle mostly thanks to the bandana), 'cause for the most part, he'd always welcome the girl to his side.  As she walked toward him, she missed how distraught Kiara was.

     "What is she doing here?" the curly-haired girl asked, her gaze stuck across the way at the top of a belltower where Kook princess Sarah Cameron was sitting and overlooking the party.

     Esme shrugged.  She'd never had a problem with Sarah, even though she knew what happened between her and Kiara.  By Pogue law, Esme was obligated to take Kiara's side in the divorce.  But still, Sarah was nice to her whenever she saw her around, and Sarah's boyfriend and brother both bought from her before.

     There was also a time when Rafe and Topper had tried to pay Esme for the different services she offered, even though she definitely wasn't offering, but that was a secret she'd take with her to the grave.

     "I am not high enough for this," the raven-haired beauty decided.

     The rest of the night went by pretty much as Esme expected it would, but she was proud of the boys for letting loose after being so tightly wound around the treasure hunt.  Kiara and Claire were off in the corner discussing microplastics and turtles and whatever they shared in common for most of the night.

     Then came JJ.  Esme was wrong to think she could have just one night off with JJ around.  She wasn't sure why, but he had walked up to Sarah Cameron, offered her a drink for some reason, and that had offended Sarah Cameron's boyfriend, the aforementioned Topper.  Obviously.

     Esme could see the two boys getting into a pretty heated argument from where she sat talking to a boy she knew from Figure Eight, breaking up their conversation quickly as she realized John B and Sarah were lingering closely and that the fight was escalating before her eyes.  "Carter, uh, I'm so sorry but can you hold that thought?" she said, the boy in front of her quickly nodding as he also was noticing the boys fighting nearby.

     "Babe, babe, babe, babe," Sarah desperately tried to grab her boyfriend's attention, but Topper wasn't having any of it.

     "Not worth it, not worth it," Esme repeated over and over to JJ, placing a firm hand against his chest as the tiny girl along with John B tried their best to push him away and calm him down.  "Not worth it."

     "Hey, John B, don't make me drown you like your old man, all right?" Topper yelled out, instantly turning on the switch to his anger.

     A crowd started forming, chanting and encouraging them to fight more and more, and what started as spats between JJ and Topper turned into Topper kicking John B's ass.  And hard too.

     "Give it to him!" a guy said.

     "John B, let it go!" Pope shouted.

     "Stop, you guys!" Kiara cried out.

     "Topper!  Stop!" Sarah tried grabbing Topper.

     "Hey, hey, hey!" Esme pulled on Topper's shoulder, leading him to turn and backhand her.  She stumbled backwards slightly, not expecting the burning feeling on her cheek so fast.

     It escalated, the boys dragging themselves farther and farther until they were in the way of the ocean, waves hitting the shore as if they themselves were telling them to knock it off.  Esme wasn't sure how Topper had quickly gotten the upper hand, John B was a muscle machine and had nearly suffocated the girl multiple times when she was roughhousing with him at the chateau.  Then again, she was pretty small.

     "Topper stop!"

     "That's what I'm talking about!  Come on!"

     "Come on, John B!" Claire said, hoping the boy would regain some of his strength to fight back.

      "No!  He's drowning him," Pope said as he stood with Kiara, Claire and Esme, the four watching as Topper held John B's head underwater.  Claire clutched Sarah's hand with both of hers tightly.

     Then came JJ.  Again.  Esme felt she should've expected it, it all made sense.  John B was in trouble, and when all hope is lost, JJ always turns to the rashest decision in the heat of the moment.  She should have expected to see him with the gun in his hand, yet still, she gasped.  And she didn't even know why.

     JJ clicked the gun safely.  "Yeah, you know what that is.  Your move, broksi.  Come on."

     "Chill, dude!" of course now Topper was stunned, raising his hands from John B's neck and backing away.

     "JJ!" Kiara shrieked.

     "Chill!" from Pope.

     "Stop JJ!" Sarah pleaded.  "Put the gun down."

     "Let's just go!" Esme finally interrupted, not sure why she was still there.

     "Did you say something, princess?" JJ asked, but Esme wasn't quite sure who he was addressing.  Perhaps both of them, since Sarah and Esme both practically ruled their sides of the island.

     "We're good, we're good," Topper repeated.

     "Kie!  Can you check your psycho friend, please?" Sarah yelled towards their group.

     Esme was more than happy to answer for Kiara.  "If you could check your psycho boy toy first!"

     "Okay, everyone, listen up!" JJ yelled, removing the gun from Topper's head and firing it in the air.  Everyone scattered, leaving the group of six, plus a flustered Sarah and Topper alone.  "Get the hell off our side of the island!" 

     Esme sighed, shutting her eyes closed.  So much for a peaceful night off.

⚘

#JJ— drug dealer esme supremacy