𝗗𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗨𝗟𝗦𝗘𝗦 | 𝖮𝖡𝖷

𝟬𝟲, rip lenny

Since she had nowhere else to go, she figured she would pick up her surfboard from the chateau and swim for a little while. At least then she wouldn't run into anything, or anyone from her past, and she could simply feel swallowed by the comfortingly silent water — alone. Her exhausted feet ( from lack of sleep and constant aimless wandering ) carried her to the familiar wooded area, eventually reaching the rickety wood of the front porch where she, to her misfortune, stumbled upon the entire group discussing something. JJ looked frantic, desperately breathing in the smoke of a vape and hyperventilating. She felt like she had walked into an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. The only thing missing was somebody eating a salad.

"Where the hell were you?" John B turned to the girl, exasperated tone like a concerned father catching their daughter sneaking back into the house at 3am.

Furrowing her brows, she scoffed at his question. "What's stuck up your ass today?" He sighed and pressed his lips together as Kiara muffled a laugh under her breath. "What's going on, anyway? JJ looks like a bride with cold feet on her wedding day." A deadpan look was shot in her direction, which she kindly returned with a sarcastic smile before taking a seat next to Pope.

"We went to see if Ms Lana knew anything about the compass." John B leaned back against a pillar of the front porch, looking completely done with AJ's shit. "And when we got there, the same guys that shot at us in the marsh were asking her questions too."

"Wait — so you went to go interrogate a grieving widow about a rusty old compass?"

"That's what you take from this information? Not the two violent dudes that tried to kill us?" John B shrugged in frustrated suggestion, deadpanning a glare in AJ's direction as she rolled her eyes. He tended to act like a sassy little girl when he was pissed off — but AJ was used to it by now.

"Mm," JJ hummed through another inhale of smoke, swiftly blowing out the scented air and waving his finger in emphasis. "These killers, they're square groupers, bro." He informed, causing AJ to pull a face in confusion.

"They're square groupers," Pope questioned for confirmation, sitting up in his place. "Like narco square grouper? Like Pablo Escobar square grouper?" JJ nodded along, providing zero help to AJ who wondered what the hell they were talking about. After Kiara commented something about a kingpin movie, she managed to piece together what the blonde was inferring about the two men. "What does a square grouper look like specifically? Because apparently you don't know what to look for!" He yelled at JJ's lack of useful information.

"Dude! I wasn't taking little mental Polaroids the entire time! Man, I was under duress, okay?" Seeing his panicked state and high pitched voice almost caused a laugh to escape AJ's lips. But she kept it to herself, knowing now wasn't exactly an appropriate time to make fun of JJ. Though she'd certainly make up for the missed opportunity sometime later. "But I can tell you... I can tell you from the way that Ms Lana was screaming... that these guys are serious, serious hombres, man." The idea that this simple curiosity had become akin to an action movie entirely driven by John B's delusions regarding his father started to seep into AJ's thought process. She wondered if these 'killers' were after something valuable, and she wondered if that something could be theirs instead.

"Why would they want the compass?" Pope questioned. "That thing's a piece of shit. You couldn't pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted to." He continued, still lingering in the disappointment of finding a compass in comparison to a few stacks of money like AJ had swiped from the motel room. "No offence, John B, I know it's in your family —" Pope was swiftly ignored by the bruised brunette as he held the ancient, rusted compass in his hand. AJ watched as he began to walk inside the chateau.