apricity || JJ (outer banks)

one

  "Mar, I like the effort, but it's not working," JJ laughed, still above the water and spinning around to pull Marlee closer to him, splashing her.

    "Guys!" Pope yelled, catching their attention. JJ instantly lets go of Marlee, the pair looking up at him as if they were in trouble. "I think there's a boat down there," he says lowly, JJ and Marlee spinning around to look.

     "Shut up," John B scolds, thinking Pope was just trying to startle them.

    "No way," whispered Kiara, glancing over the edge in Marlee's direction.

    "I don't.." Marlee trailed off, unable to see much being in the water. JJ looks at her with a shrug, not thinking much of it.

Pope points, eyes a little more urgent. "No, no, guys. I'm serious, there's a boat down there!" Marlee's eyes follow his hand, and suddenly she's hitting JJ's arm and pointing the white block in the water a few feet away from them, urging him to come with her to look.

   "Holy shit he's right!" She hears Kiara, and a splash following. "Let's go!" Kiara calls again, another splash. John B and Kiara meet JJ and Marlee, not wanting to dive down without Pope.

They all look back, waiting. "You guys think there's a dead body down there?" He called, slipping off his shoes.

Marlee's face pinches at the thought. "I will never understand him," she whispers, John B meeting her gaze and simply shrugging at her. They had all embraced Pope's weird interests, but dead bodies is one she will never understand.

   "Don't look at me, nobody gets it," John B laughed as Pope jumps in not-so-gracefully. "Let's go team!" he joked in a high-pitched voice, only earning odd looks from the rest of them, before they dive down.

Marlee didn't mind being underwater for long periods of time, being able to hold her breath for a while. The water no longer stings her eyes, and when she gets there she grabs a pole on the boat to keep herself steady. A gasp almost escapes Marlee when she realizes what kind of boat it is, a Grady White. She glances beside her at John B, shock written across her face. With a little luck, this rich boat could have rich belongings on it. Which she certainly could use to get her grandma proper care. Unable to hold her breath any longer, Marlee kicks up to the surface.

   "You guys saw that?" JJ asks, and once she catches the look on his face, it practically mirrors all of theirs. Shock and utter excitement.

   "Yeah, yeah I did," Pop said in disbelief, Kiara and John B agreeing.

     "That boat is rich rich," muttered Marlee, hardly able to process it. How someone with that kind of boat was dumb enough to go into a storm, she didn't know. She just hoped it was only the boat that went down. "Full kook."

   "That's a Grady White. A new one of those is like 500 G's easy," JJ explained as they swim back towards the boat. Kiara and Marlee move towards the back, unable to pull themselves up from the higher parts in the front.

    "That's the boat I saw when I surfed the surge," muttered John B, confusion crossing his face. "Maybe it hit the jetty or something."

Marlee instantly lights up, wishing she had went with. She spent the surge prepping the house, apparently to no avail. "You mean when you tried to surf the surge. I doubt those waves were surfable, liar," teased Marlee, John B chucking a towel over her head in response.

   "You surfed the surge?" Kiara asked, concern crossing her face. At the tone of her voice, Marlee pulls the towel off her head and turns to JJ with eyebrows raised, getting the same look back. Lately, they had been getting vibes from Kie that she was into John B.

John B nods as if it were nothing, JJ, however, grins. "That's my boy, Pogue style," he congratulates.

   "Wait, wait," Pope interjects, "Do we know whose boat that is?" He asks, moving to look at it again.

Marlee helps John B open the cabinet that holds the anchor. "No, but we're about to find out," he said, pulling the anchor out.

   "Okay, I'm not resuscitating you, I'm just making it clear upfront," JJ said upon seeing the anchor, Marlee scoffing.

She pats John B on the back, before moving out of his way. "Don't worry, I will. Just please don't because it doesn't look like you use lip balm," she points out, grinning.

John B gasps in shock. "Marlee!" he scolds, a hand brushing over his lips. "My lips are very soft thank you very much," he confirms, narrowing his eyes at her.

   "John B," Kie breaks up the bickering, her voice sullen.

    "What?" He asks, unsure why she seemed so concerned. Marlee isn't either, knowing the anchor would just get him down faster. It wasn't that far, and she knows John B wouldn't push himself too much.

Pope salutes him. "Diver down fool."

   "Diver down," John B solutes back, Marlee giving a stupid thumbs up in his direction, before Pope puts her hand down for her, embarrassed.

   "Yeah he is," JJ muttered before pushing John B back off the boat, a light yell coming from him before a splash sounds and the rest is up to him.

Marlee turns to JJ. "Seriously? What is it with you and pushing and or pulling people?" she rolled her eyes, moving to sit down in the driver's chair.

    "It's a hobby," JJ said simply, grabbing a new beer out of the cooler.

They wait for John B, some more patient than others, wondering what he'd pull up. Looking back on it, Marlee just wished the room key came with a warning of what was about to come.

*⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

a.n
yay i like this chap a lot better than the last
also i had about 3k words in this chap bcuz for some reason i decided to write when they were all getting picked up. then i realized it was kind of stupid so now we're at a reasonable 1.5k 😚

also john B and Marlee are one of my literal favorites, you haven't seen much so far but they have the BEST brother-sister sort of relationship. i love marlee with everyone tbh, but i'm most excited for that friendship i think. kiara and marlee adorable, like marlee adores her and would probably date her. and marlee and POPE DONT EVEN GET ME STARYED THATS A PRECIOUS DUO

anyways i hope you're enjoying <3