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"Shit," Annabelle cursed watching the boat get closer.

"Guys, that's the police," JJ said, his voice was surprisingly calm. He was the one swinging a gun around the night before and if Annabelle knew the kooks right, they wouldn't hesitate to throw him under the bus and tell the cops about it.

"What a great observation, J."  Annabelle said with sarcasm.

"Just act friciking normal," Kiara fixated her hair.

Annabelle sucked in a deep breath watching the boat stop next to theirs, worrying about John B who wouldn't be able to make it up from the water until they had left, and judging off the look on Officer Shoupe's face he wasn't planning on doing that in a while.

"Evening officers." She smiled, trying to sound as innocent as possible while staring at them with puppy eyes. She earned a greeting nod from Shoupe. As her eyes shifted to the second officer she noticed the judgmental look on her face making her swallow hard.

"How you kids doing?" Shoupe asked, pulling his black glasses off his face to get a better look at the teens. "You know the marsh is closed?"

The four friends raised their eyebrows shrugging in a fake shock.
"No." They shook their heads.

"Wow, I didn't know." Annabelle tried to act stunned by the 'new' information. "Why- why is it closed?"

"Well miss James," Shoupe began. The two had encountered multiple times over the years and most of them ended with the girl fleeing from the scene with him right after her. "we're conducting a search out here. A boat went down."

"Oh, that's horrible." She said.

"Seen anything?" The female officer asked, her eyes trailing over the girl with a judgy look.

"No," JJ said shook his head.

"No boats, no. I saw this huge seagull a while back though. It was enormous I'm talking dinasou-" Annabelle rambled hoping to change the subject so that the two officers could leave as fast as possible to avoid John B drowning. However, she was cut off by Kiara gently nudging her side seeing the annoyed look on the female officer's face.

"Where's your friend you always hang with?" Shoupe asked, referring to John B. "He here?"

The group exchanged quick glances before Kiara answered. "He's working."

The two officers hummed and nodded before Shoupe grabbed hold of the metal pole to pull himself into their boat. "I'm gonna check your little boat out."

Annabelle watched as the man climbed in. Anger crept up her spine and she stepped forward but soon regretted it. She was just so tired of being treated like she was a criminal. If they were kooks, the man would have never jumped into their boat to search it, even though the average kook teen most definitely had some drugs on them (them being the only one who could actually afford it)

"Why? Just because we're pouges doesn't mean we're criminals, you know." She muttered and the female officer snapped her head to her.

"Don't worry young lady. If you've got nothing to hide, I suggest you back away."

Annabelle remained in her spot with her eyes plastered on the two cops. It wasn't until JJ grabbed hold of her wrist to pull her back that she looked away from them.

She rolled her eyes, turning her back against the scene as she anxiously bit her nails. She watched the surface hoping to seem discrete as she searched for her best friend in the water. She wasn't sure how much time he had left of the oxygen tank but she knew that it wasn't much.

"You got another one of these?" Shoupe's question made Annabelle turn back to face him. She saw him standing next to Kiara with a life jacket in his hands.

"Yeah, of course. It's in the hold." JJ said as walked over to where Kiara had just been sitting before lifting the latch to present the orange life jacket to the cop.

"Alright." Shoupe nodded and JJ placed it back in the storage  area.

Annabelle held her breath as she watched the cop make his way over to the edge of the boat, his eyes trailing over the water surface. Her heart hammered in her chest and her nailbiting got even more anxious. JJ glanced over to her noticing the worried girl who was giving off a very suspicious vibe. He sucked in a deep breath as he gently wrapped his fingers around her wrist, bringing it down with his to avoid them getting caught. His hand lingered around her wrist for several moments even after she had stopped her nervous tick. It wasn't until Shoupe turned around that he let go. Annabelle send him a grateful smile before looking back at the cop that stepped down from the edge.

"Beautiful day is it." He sighed.

"Sure is." JJ nodded along.

"Indeed," Annabelle said feeling the relief slowly wash over her as she watched him walk over to his boat.

"Let us know if you see anything on your way out." He told the teens who replied with scattered hums and nods.

The four of them stood rigid in their spots as they watched the boat sail away until it was out of eyesight. Once they finally couldn't see it anymore they launched themselves to the edge, nervously tugging onto it. The surface remained still without any sign of the boy.

"He's definitely out of air," Pope stated.

"Come on, JB." Annabelle mumbled, her eyes darting over the surface.

A loud relieved whale escaped her parted lips as she spotted the top of John B's head. His entrance instantly made them all breathe out and exclaim random words of relief.

"There he is!" JJ whooped.

"Jesus Christ, John B!" Annabelle chuckled as the nerves steadied along with the swift beating of her heart.

"Don't scare us like that," Pope exclaimed.

"How'd it go down there?" JJ asked, leaning over the edge of the boat before hurrying over to the ladder to assist John B. "Did you find anything?"

"Did I find anything?" John chuckled confidently as he tossed the black bag into the boat earning an eager response from his friends who threw themselves over it. JJ dragged the bag to move it out of the way for John B to get up and both Kiara and Pope followed him with hopeful eyes. Annabelle remained in her spot while watching John B pant as he made his way into the boat.

"You okay?" She asked earning a giggling 'yeah'. "Don't do that again. You nearly gave me a heart attack."

John B smiled as he climbed into the boat.

"Yeah the cops were up here but, ehm, we took care of 'em." Pope flashed him a triumphant nod.

"Yeah, thanks to Bell's amazing acting skills." Jj placed his hands on the girl's shoulders. "You missed the show. You should've seen her. Rambling about seagulls. Not to mention stepping in the way of old Shoupe. It was-"

"Guys." Kiara put JJ's rambling to an end. Finally. Her friends turned around at her worried voice to see her on the edge of the boat, staring suspiciously at something in the distance. "Bowgey, two o'clock. "

Annabelle shifted her gaze away from Jj. She frowned upon seeing the unfamiliar white boat that slowed down at the sight of the five teenagers staring at them. The girl stepped forward with her eyes suspiciously narrowed at the boat. "The fuck?"

𝟏𝟐𝟒𝟐 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬
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𝐀/𝐍
meh.
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