𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 / 𝐣𝐣 𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤

𝐏𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐭 | 𝟎𝟒

"You're such a perv," I tell him as I slap his arm.

"I know you want to. And you know what else I know?"

"What?" I roll my eyes, a smile tugging at my lips as I await his response.

"I know you fantasize about me. About what I could do to you," JJ whispers in a raspy and flirtatious voice.

"You wish!" I exclaim before shoving his chest. I try to fight the heat that rises to my cheeks, but I don't think it's working.

"You know I do," he responds before laughing lowly, almost wickedly.

"Oh my gosh," I sigh. "You're too much sometimes. You know that, JJ?"

"Oh, come on. You know you love me," he whines, a frown on his face as he looks up at me with puppy dog eyes.

"Unfortunately," I sigh before getting off of JJ's lap. "Come on," I say to the rest of the group. Let's go fishing."

☼☼☼

"All right, so think about it, Pope. How does a marina rat get a Grady-White?" John B asks on the deck, where we've all moved to.

"Prostitution," Pope guesses as John B jumps up to sit on the rail, where Kie and I are.

"Square groupers, bro," I correct, swinging my legs back and forth.

"Right. Okay, flying under the radar, no aerial surveillance. They don't do that stuff during a hurricane. What does that mean? JJ?" John B continues before pointing to JJ, who's currently trying to catch a fish.

"They were straight smugglin'," he answers, his eyes never leaving the water.

"Smugglin'. And I guarantee you there's a serious amount of contraband in that wreck."

"Hell, yeah. Fish on!" JJ exclaims as his line tugs, signalling he's caught something.

☼☼☼

"For the record, if that is a smuggling ship with illegal contraband on the inside of it..." Pope begins as he sits down on the bed in my room, where we've moved again.

"Mm-hm?"John B mumbles as he plays with my electric guitar, which I was too lazy to actually learn.

"...it probably belongs to someone else," he continues.

"Minor details," Kiara says sarcastically as she strums her ukulele absentmindedly.

"They could come looking for it. Taking it would be catastrophically stupid," I add, sitting down next to JJ on the little dresser that's by the window, the stack of money in my hand.

"Right. Well, stupid things have good outcomes all the time," JJ tells me, snatching the money out of my hand and holding it up in front of his face like a fan, his eyebrows wiggling. I roll my eyes at him, but I can't help the smile that comes to my lips. "All we need to do is figure out a way to get into the cargo hold of that wreck. Until then, we just lay low. Just act normal."

"Right. And how exactly do we do that?" Pope asks.

"Kegger?" I suggest, leaning my head on JJ's shoulder.

☼☼☼

Okay, so you can't understand the Outer Banks without understanding the boneyard. It's kinda like a three-layer burrito.

There's us and our friends, the working-class derelicts.

Then, there are the Kooks, the rich second-homers.