Dreamer | Outer Banks

18 - Figure Eight

JJ and I stood in front of the drone's monitor and watched John B tap the camera while Pope sat in between us trying to work on the drone.

"What's this right here?" JJ questioned, pointing to a random button next to the screen.

"Don't touch that." Pope smacked JJ's hand away and went back to pressing different buttons that I had no idea what they did. "I'm trying to work out this thing."

From the screen we could see John B and Kie push up and began to start making their way up to the surface. "You lost me at turning it on." I said, still confused.

"God bless geeks, Pope. Truly, man." JJ patted Pope on the back as John B and Kie's head popped up from the water. "What would we do without you to control the drones."

"It's not a drone. It's an ROV." Pope corrected him, not taking his eyes off the monitor.

"Shut up, shut up. It's too early for this right now." JJ groaned. I walked over to him and ruffled his hair before he looked down to smile at me and wrap an arm around my shoulder.

"Hey, once we get the footage of the wreck, we'll bring it to a lawyer in town and file a formal claim." John B explained while floating around in the water.

"It's bullshit. Why do we have to do that?" JJ argued, moving his arm off my shoulder to lean over the edge of the docks.

"Well Mr. Know It All, there is a maritime salvage law. You can't just go to the ocean floor and scoop a bunch of stuff up." I explained and was met to see JJ staring at me like I had just told him the cure for cancer. "What? I know things."

"I didn't say anything." JJ raised his hands up in surrender and I gave him a suspicious look before shrugging it off. "It's just that lawyers aren't cheap, Kenz."

"Well, as soon as they see the footage, they'll work for a comp." John B tried to assure us but nobody seemed to believe him.

"How do you know all of that?" Kie questioned.

"Cause my dad said it, like, a million times." John B shrugged and I nodded in agreement, dad would always be able to cut a deal with anyone.

"Yeah, that's fair." Kie replied as she began swimming towards the ladder.

"This tether is, like, really long. In the wrong weather, it could get pushed around." Pope explained to us while I helped Kie up from the ladder.

"Then we'll go at dead calm." John B suggested before thunder rumbled in the distance.

"At slack tide?" Kie questioned, looking back at where the thunder was coming from.

"So now, we just gotta wait around for the right weather?" Pope questioned looking up at the sky. "And today is not that day."

~~~

"You guys get these groceries over Figure Eight." Heyward explained handing over grocery bags to us from the docks. "Get straight back here when you're done. No fishing. I promised delivery by this afternoon."

Part of Heyward's job is delivering goods to people in the Outer Banks and will pay us to deliver it for him. "Rich folks don't wanna wait for you lazy sons of..."

Heyward veered off when JJ held out his hands to grab a handful of grocery bags from him. "Oh, JJ, thank you...sons of bitches, not you Kennedy."

"Don't worry, I'll keep them in check." I assured him as Pope started the engine to the boat and we began making our way towards Figure Eight.

"Doesn't even look like the storm hit here." Pope said as we passed several different houses throughout the Figure Eight, they looked practically untouched.

"That's because they got generators, bro. Get used to it." JJ explained, clearly frustrated.  "And then they say the juice will be out all summer at the cut."

"It's nice to be a Kook." Pope mumbled under his breath.

"Lucky bastards." JJ added while chewing at the ends of his sunglasses and resting his back on the side of the boat.

"You can say that again." I replied, reclining back in my seat and resting one of JJ's hats on top of my face to block out the sun.

~~~

I waved to Pope and JJ as they drove away to their next deliveries. I turned away once they were out of sight and made my way up the docks to the Rivera residents. The Rivera's moved to the Outer Banks a few years back who I've grown very close to.

Their son, Marco, works at the Wreck with me and has become one of my closest friends, besides Kie of course. While he may be a Kook, you would have no idea by the way he acts. He's friends with practically everyone but Marco's not known to have very many close friends. In fact, he's known to a bit of a loner by choice.

For the last month Marco has been visiting his family in Costa Rica. This was the first time his parents had let him visit so it was a bit of a bummer at first when he told me he was going to be gone for a while but I'm happy he was able to see his family.

"Kennedy?" I pulled myself out of my trance and looked behind me to see a familiar face sitting under a nearby tree, Marco. What was he doing back so soon?

"Marco? What are you doing here?" I set the grocery bags down on the pathway to the house as Marco got up from under the tree and we practically jumped into each other's arms. "Why didn't you tell me that you were back?"

"I just got home today and was gonna surprise you." Marco explained, letting go after a few seconds and motioned toward the bags. "Here let me help you with that."

"No it's fine, I got it." I argued, beating him to the grocery bags and picking them up from the pavement. "This is what I'm getting paid for anyways."

"Come on Kenn, my mom would kill me if she saw you carrying all of this by yourself." Marco pleaded and I sighed before giving in and handed him a handful of the bags.

"So how was Costa Rica?" I asked him as we started making our way up the path.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Marco smile to himself. "Amazing, I almost forgot how nice it felt to be around family. It was...different."

How come you came back so early? I thought you weren't supposed to be back for another few weeks?" I questioned, nudging him with my shoulder.

"After the hurricane hit I didn't want my mom to have to deal with all the damage alone." Marco explained before nudging me back and shining me one of his so called lady killer grins. Let's just say girls are always all over him.

I huffed as we got closer to the house and glared at him. "Can you stop being perfect for like one minute, it's blinding me."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Marco laughed as he opened up the patio doors for us and we entered the house. "So what's been going on here?"

"Well, you missed quite a bit." I admitted, this past week was crazy enough as it was. "And luckily, you have me to catch you up to speed."

"What would I do without you?" Marco replied, setting the grocery bags onto the counter and I followed setting mine down next to his.

"Easy, you wouldn't survive without me." I joked, punching his shoulder. "Now I have twenty minutes before Pope comes back to pick me up, where do you want to start?"

~~~

As you probably noticed I decided to add an OC last minute and I'm sorry if it seems a little rushed. I just wanted to introduce him before I really involved him in the story.

But what do you all think about Marco? Do you think he can be trusted? Will he will get in the way of Kennedy and JJ's relationship?