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"Look, I'm callin' it off. All right?"
Grace was sitting with the Pogues in John B's backyard near the garage on a makeshift seat next to Kie, watching her play the bongos. She had driven over to the Château earlier that morning, wanting to check up on all of them after last night. She had felt slightly guilty about the whole fiasco, wishing she had just kept her mouth shut when she saw Topper, even if it had felt good to tell him off.
"Peterkin said, if I stay out of the marsh, she'll help me with DCS," John B explained, urging them to reconsider checking out the wreck again.
"And you believed her?" JJ said in disbelief from where he was sitting on a table throwing rocks into the water.
"Yes, I believe her, JJ," John B answered.
"An actual cop, John B. You believed a cop," JJ aggressively thew another stone, Grace could feel his temper rising.
"All I gotta do is stay out of the marsh for a couple of days, and she'll help me out." John B retorted hotly. "And it doesn't help that your ass was the one shooting a gun."
"You know what I should have done? Just let Topper drown your ass," JJ bit back. Grace's guilt flared up again, wishing she hadn't harrassed Topper last night and caused everyone to end up mad at each other.
"Topper was gonna drown me?" John B said dryly.
"Sure looked like it," JJ stood up and walked over to the garage.
"Funny."
"Have you looked in the mirror?" JJ referred to John B's face as he got closer. Grace stood up to try and stop things from getting out of hand again.
"Guys, just stop."
"Tell me some more. Come on," John B instigated as they both ignored Grace.
"They always win, don't they, man? Kooks versus Pogues. They always, always win! Goddamnit!" Grace flinched as JJ hit the buoy, her guilt keeping her from saying anything. Guilt for last night and from her embarrassing Kook days.
"Look its okay," Kie attempted to calm the boy, only making his fury grow.
"No, it's not okay! It is not," He rebutted furiously. "They don't want us to go down into the marsh. That means there's something valuable down there, and you know it. I know you do."
JJ pointed at John B before turning around towards the other three. "And I understand why you don't wanna go. You're the golden boy. And you- I mean, you're already rich as fuck anyway." JJ then faced Grace who was staring intensely at the ground. "And then we got the fucking Kook queen over here who already has everything under the sun, why would you even bother?"
Shame flooded through Grace's body as she continued her intense stare at her shoes. He was right she didn't belong there, even though she had lost her mom she was still incredibly lucky and needed to get over herself. But him angrily pointing it out didn't make it any easier.
