{Grady White & Gunshots}
I wake up the next morning, the rooster being the reason for it as the sun blazes through my blinds. I get up and go for a quick shower while John B is still fast asleep, JJ must have gone home earlier. As I stand in the shower and turn it to cold and lift my head as the water droplets fall onto my body.
It was the first time in two days I could finally get a moment to be by myself and think this through properly. Over the past 24 hours, we've found a boat that belongs to a dead man. A man who was close friends with my father and my father also happened to disappear and die at sea. It's confusing and I am trying to get my head around it all but I can't, there's just too much we don't know about.
After a few minutes, I hop out of the shower and let my wavy hair dangle below my shoulders as I apply my morning skin routine and wrap a towel around my body. I walk out of the bathroom into my room and scavenge my closet looking for an outfit for the day. 'Get decent, sweetie. We need to talk.' A familiar voice speaks up from the door making me jump. Officer Peterkins looks at me before leaving the room to wake my brother as well.
After five minutes, my brother and I joined her in the living room. 'Sorry to break in like this but DCS called. They wanted me to check on you, see how you're doing.' Officer Peterkin states and my brother and I both sigh as we look at each other. ''So, how are you, besides the—' she trials on motioning to John's black eye. 'Oh no, I'm great. Yeah, fantastic. Thanks for coming by.' He assures her and she rolls her eyes. 'I'm so glad to hear that, John B. How about you Jackie? How are you?' She asks looking at me. 'Perfect.' I shrug and she hmms.
'You see I've heard a couple of things that worried me. Let me see if I can remember. Oh yeah, one of the things I heard was about your Uncle Teddy, your guardian, who hasn't been in the state for the last three months.' She says looking at the two of us, I furrow my eyebrows in confusion hoping she falls for it. 'That's false' John B lies. 'You don't have to say anything. I know it's true. I called the school. They said you two used to be good students, but now you're failing your classes.' She sighs walking over to the dining tables.
She picks up a used joint and brings it to her nose. 'No, no, I'm only failing one, and it's history.' My brother says and I nod. 'Yeah, and I'm doing great in English and maths.' I confirm. 'I heard there was a fight on the beach yesterday, and a gun involved.' She states walking closer to John B and I. 'Okay. Gun? No. Did I get in a dustup? Yes, but was there a gun? No. No way.' My brother says tapping Peterkin on the shoulder. 'That's okay. I know who it was. I'll get to him.' She says and I gulp thinking of JJ, was she talking about JJ?
'All I'm worried about right now is making sure you're in a safe home.' She states and John B scoffs. 'Yeah, super safe.' He confirms. 'Super sound, sturdy, you know?.' John B adds and Peterkin sighs. 'And Uncle T is coming back, so.' John b points outs. 'That what he told you?' She asks us. 'Yep.' We agree in unison. 'If he is coming home, I think you should be allowed to stay.' She tells us and we nod in agreement.
'Thank you.' I say with a smile. 'But if I stick my neck out for the two of you, I need some help in return. Tit for tat.' She says and I look at my brother furrowing my eyebrows in confusion. 'What-what does that mean?' I ask nervously scratching my head. 'Let me see, how can you help me? Oh, I know. So, a body was found in the marsh yesterday. Were you in the marsh yesterday?! She asks walking closer to John B. 'Yeah, we were fishing for some drum.' John B answers. 'Catch anything?' She asks. 'Nah, we were skunked.' My brother shrugs. 'Strange. Fishing is usually good after a storm. All sorts of things get stirred up.' She states and I sigh. 'You come across a wreck yesterday?' She asks and my brother shakes his head, she leans in closer to him.
'You're skimming just about the surface, John B.' She says holding her hand under her chin. 'Now down here, is foster care, juvie. Pretty big drop for a smart kid like you.' She continues swirling her finger in the air. 'And up here is you and your little friends doing whatever you want. Outer Banks or Foster care on the mainlands, if you don't do it for you, do it for Jackie. You're all she's got. Do you want to be separated from her and never see each other again? Is that what you want?' She asks my brother as he sighs and clenches his fist in anger before he goes to sit on the couch.
'You're one inch above the surface, John B. If I were you, I'd start flapping my wings.' She says and I sigh. 'Now, you sure you didn't come across a wreck yesterday?' She asks him once again. 'Yeah, yeah I'm sure.' He says looking up at her. 'It's better if you didn't, you understand? I'm gonna look the other way as long as you both stay out of the marsh.' She states walking to the front door. 'I got dogs living better than this, John B. You two might want to think about cleaning up.' She says before leaving.
Once Peterkin started the car and drove away I immediately ran over to the couch and pulled John B into a hug. 'We're gonna be fine. We're gonna be fine.' I kept repeating as I buried my head into the crook of his neck and he sighed. 'No one is going to split us up.' I whisper to him and he nods. 'I can't lose you too.' I say softly. 'I love you, Jackie.' He whispers pulling me closer into the hug. 'I love you too, Johnny.' I whisper as a tear falls from my eyes.
***
'Look, I'm calling it off. All right?' My brother announces to the group. 'Peterkin said, if Jackie and I stay out of the marsh, she'll help us with DCS.' He states. 'And you believed her?' JJ asks and my brother nods in agreement. 'Yes, I believe her, JJ.' My answers glancing at me. 'An actual cop, John B. You believe a cop?' He asks. 'I have no other choice, JJ. I have to do what's best for Jackie and me, and believing Peterkin is that.' John B argues. 'It doesn't help that your ass was the one shooting a gun.' He states pointing at JJ.
'You know what I should have done? Just let Topper drown your ass' JJ argues throwing a stone at the ground and I gasp at what he just did. 'Yeah because Topper was gonna drown me.' John B says. 'Sure looked like it.' JJ states continues throwing stones across the yard. 'Funny.' My brother scoffs. 'Have you looked in the mirror?' JJ questions walking closer to my brother. 'Come on tell me some more, come on.' John B encourages him.
'They always win, don't they, man? Kooks versus Pogues. They always, always win!' JJ shouts punching a bogey that was hanging from the ceiling. 'It's okay.' Kie tries to calm JJ. 'No, it's not okay. It is not! They don't want us to go down into the marsh. That means there's something valuable down there, and you know it. JJ states pointing at John B. 'I know you do. And I understand you wanna go, you're the golden boy. You got way too much to risk.' JJ says looking at Pope then turns to Kie. 'And you, I mean, you're already rich as fuck anyways. Why would you bother? But us man, we got nothing to lose! We don't, all right?' JJ says pointing at John B and me.
'JJ' my brother tries to speak but JJ cuts him off. 'And I know it didn't use to be that way for you. But think about it, do rich kids get split up?' JJ asks and my brother sighs. 'I don't want to talk about this. I don't want to all about it.' My brother says walking past JJ. 'Get out of my way, bro.' He demands looking at JJ blocking his way. 'John b listen to me, I have a plan.' He says following after him. 'You got the key to Cameron's big boat, right?' He asks John B. 'No.' My brother sighs. 'There's scuba gear inside, man. We borrow that, and then we go down the wreck this afternoon. And that is what's going to save you and Jackie man.' JJ explains John B looks at me with a pleading face to talk JJ out of this but I shake my head. 'He's right. This is how we stay together.' I tell him and a faint smile appears on his face.
***
You know, John B and I should have learned a long time ago to never listen to JJ. He's full of bad ideas, like stealing from my brother's rich boss. But this time, he was right. We had nothing to lose. My dad said the island was America on steroids. The haves and have-nots are like any place but magnified and multiplied. The way I see it, the game's rigged. Maybe it always has been. No parents, money, and no one looking out for my brother and me, We've got no chance.
John B and I decided to go to Cameron's boat and borrow the scuba gear ourselves since JJ would probably mess it up. 'You want to do this?' I ask tying our boat to the dock. 'Yeah, be back in a second.' My brother says climbing onto the Cameron's boat. I duck down in our boat so no one could see me. I kept a close eye on my watch to track the time, it's been five minutes since John B. went to get the scuba gear and he still hasn't come back.
This was a bad idea. Why did we listen to JJ? My heartbeat starts to escalate as I start to panic until John B pokes his head back through the door. 'Oh! Hey. Are you stalking us?' Sarah speaks up as she comes out of nowhere and I freeze in my spot. 'Plotting your revenge?' She adds and I roll my eyes. 'Yeah, why don't you tell your daddy I blew the bilge on the druthers?' John B suggests walking closer to our boat and handing the tanks to me.
'Everything's good to go. Just dropping off these air tanks.' He says. 'Hey, are you okay?' Sarah asks my brother following behind him. 'Cause that eye of yours look gnarly.' She points out and my brother rolls his eyes. 'You know what? You can tell Topper he won the first round. I'll get him next time.' John B says sliding onto our boat. 'So there's just gonna be a reign of terror on this island now?' She asks. 'Open your eyes, princess. There's always been terror on this island since Kooks always seem to make us Pogues out to be the bad guys.' I explain untying our boat from the dock.
'Okay. Can we drop the whole Pogues versus Kooks thing? It is really stupid.' She asks and I scoff. 'Oh, you know it's easy to say when you're a Kook.' John B says pushing the boat away from the dock. She rolls her eyes and brings two fingers to salute us then flips us off. I roll my eyes and flip her off back as John B takes the wheel and drives away to pick up the crew.
***
'This is empty. You took empty tanks!' Kie announces looking at the levels in the tanks John B and I stole. 'He was too busy drooling over Sarah Cameron.' I tease as my brother sends me a look, throwing a towel at me. 'I wasn't!' he quickly denies and JJ, Pope and I burst out laughing. 'Okay, this one's a quarter full. It's enough for one of us.' Kie explains drawing our attention back to the mission. 'Love it when a plan comes together.' Pope groans and I nod.
'Does anybody know how to dive?' Kie asks. When no one says anything she groans. 'Anybody?' She asks again. 'It's kind of a Kook sport.' JJ points out and Pope agrees. 'I read about it.' Pope says and I sigh. 'Great, Pope read about it, so someone's gonna die.' Kie says sarcastically. 'Look, you put the thing in your mouth and breath. How hard could it be?' JJ asks. 'If you come up too fast nitrogen gets into your blood and you get the bends.' Pope explains and JJ furrows his eyebrows in confusion before angling his ass towards us and pointing at it. 'Like bend over and..?' He asks and I burst out laughing. 'The bends kill you.' Pope states rolling his eyes and JJ raises his eyebrows. 'You kill me when you bend over.' He flirts with me and I blush. 'Seriously? JJ?' Kie and Pope say in unison. 'Bro, stop flirting with my sister.' John B argues and JJ puts his hands up in surrender.
'I can dive.' John B announces. 'You can dive. I'm cool with that.' JJ says. 'Since when can you dive?' Kie asks. 'I'll do it. It's fine.' John B reassures her. 'Let me do some calculations real quick.' Pope says sitting up in his chair. 'Really?' JJ groans. 'You serious?' Kie asks John B and he nods. Kie rolls her eyes, comes over and sits down beside me.
'Why do you let him go through with stuff like this?' She asks me as she pulls off her shirt. 'Hell just do it anyways.' I answer as she dives into the water. I pull off my top and shorts and dive in after her. Swimming down beside Kie I help her tie our shirts around the rope that connects to the anchor.
A moment later we resurface. 'Hey! We tied our shirts to the anchor chain about ten feet down.' Kie informs John B. 'Let me give you dad's watch so you can track your time.' I say taking off my watch as he jumps in beside me. 'Please don't lose it, it's the only thing I got that was left from dad.' I say and he nods. 'See you in a bit, sis.' He says giving me a quick kiss on the forehead before saluting the others and diving down.
'If we get caught in the marsh, we're screwed.' Pope says anxiously as I hop back onto the boat walk over to him and rest my head on his shoulder. 'We won't, I promise. Nothing bad is going to happen.' I assure Pope and he smiles wrapping his hand around my shoulder, I could see JJ glaring at Pope and me from the side of the boat but I just ignored it.
After a moment of silence, a siren echoes making my heart stop. 'Shit, JJ.' Pope says getting his attention. 'Guys, that's the police.' JJ says sitting down by the wheel. 'If they see me here, I'm going straight to DCS.' I state and JJ quickly looks at me and notices how nervous I am. 'Get in the water and stay quiet, kie pop sit over here and block her.' JJ says grabbing my wrist and leading me to the edge of the boat. 'It's going to be okay.' He whispers in my ear before I jump into the water. 'Just act freaking normal.' Kie says flipping her hair to the side as the police pull up right beside our boat.
'How you kids doing? You know the marsh is closed?' Deputy Shoupe asks taking off his glasses.' I pushed my body further under the water until my mouth was just above the surface. 'No.' JJ says trying to act confused. 'I didn't know that.' Pope shrugs. 'Why-why is it closed?' Pope asks nervously and I sigh, praying he won't blow our cover. 'We're searching out here, boat went down.' Shoupe answers looking around. 'Oh' the three of them say in unison. 'Seen anything?' Shoupe asks and JJ shakes his head. 'Where are your friends you always hang with? The twins? Are they here?' Shoupe asks and my heart starts to race as I anxiously wait patiently.
'They're working.' Kie lies. 'I'm gonna check your little boat out.' Shoupe says stepping aboard. 'Yeah,! Yeah, hop on board.' Pope says. 'Thank you.' He replies. Kie and Pope move to the opposite side of the boat as JJ moves over to the edge where I am, he puts his hand behind his back and I reach up and our fingers interlock, I couldn't help but smile and blush as he squeezes my hand reassuring me. 'You got another one of these?' Shoupe asks holding up a life jacket. 'Of course, it's Uh, in the hold.' JJ informs him. 'Show him, JJ.' Kie says but JJ hesitates for a moment not wanting to let go of my hand but I give it a gentle squeeze, he then gets up and he and Kie switch positions.
'Yeah, here we go.' JJ says opening the hold and pulling out the life jacket. 'All right.' Shoupe says. 'Uh, be careful. You don't want to slip.' Pope says as Shoupe walks over to where Kie is, I panic and dive into the water gently and swim down to where he can't see me. I prayed and prayed that he would go away soon because I didn't know how much longer I could hold my breath and John B was probably out of oxygen too.
After a moment I could hear the engine start up and the boat drove away, JJ quickly jumped in and pulled me to the surface. 'You okay?' He asks holding my face and I gasp for air laying my head on his chest. 'I-I thought he'd never leave..' I pant as JJ stokes his hand through my hair. JJ wraps his hand around my waist and pulls me up onto the boat. 'He's definitely out of air.' Pope states as I quickly look over the edge of the boat to see if I could see my brother, my heartbeat started to escalate and I started to panic when I couldn't see him but then he popped above the water.
'Oh, god! Jesus Christ!' Pope says and I smile. 'Don't scare us like that!' Kie and I say in unison and my brother laughs. 'How'd it go down there?' JJ asks as John B holds his thumb up, JJ reaches his hand out and pulls him back onto the boat.
'Did you find anything?' JJ asks. 'Did I find anything?' My brother says with a laugh as he throws a black duffel bag onto the boat. He takes off Dad's watch and hands it back to me and I quickly put it back on. 'Yeah, there we go! That's my boy!' JJ praises causing all of us to laugh. ''You okay?' Kie asks my brother and he nods. 'Yeah, I ran out of air.' My brother pants. 'You scared the shit out of me.' Kie says. 'Yeah, the cops were up here. But, uh.. took care of them.' Pope explains. 'You're all good.' Pope says tapping my brother on the shoulder.
'Yeah, you kinda missed the show, brother.' JJ smiles. 'You guys, there's a bogey, two o'clock.' Kie announces and I turn around to see it come full speed at us. 'Do you recognise that boat?' Pope ask us and we all shake our heads. 'I've never seen it.' I shrug. 'What are they doing out here? The marsh is closed.' Kie says and I sigh. 'I don't know, but let's not stick around to find out.' JJ says and I nod in agreement. 'JJ get the bowline?' John B asks and JJ immediately starts to pull the rope up. 'Go get the stern' I tell Pope and he does as I ask. 'Hurry up, guys.' Kie starts to panic. 'Guys, don't wait for me. Go!' JJ insists on still pulling the rope, so I go over and give him a hand. 'Let's go.' Kie says and my brother starts the boat up.' 'Go into the marsh.' I suggest. 'I'm going, act natural.' John B reassures us.
'Hey, guys. They're following us.' Kie says anxiously and I stand beside JJ. 'This can't be good.' Pope mumbles and I sigh. 'Dude, you gotta go faster!' JJ urges. 'I'm going!' My brother says. 'Gun it!' JJ yells as I look at the boat following us, my eyes widen as I notice what the man is taking out of the compartment. Before I could say anything a gunshot goes off as JJ quickly pushes my body down to the ground. 'What the..' JJ yells as my hands begin to shake. 'Holy shit!' Kie cries. 'Johnny, get down.' I say pushing his head lower.
I flinch when I hear another gunshot. 'Oh my god, we're gonna die!' Pope starts to panic. Looking around trying to think of a plan to get out of this, I notice the fishing net and I wriggle myself from underneath JJ but he tries to hold me down. 'JACKIE!' He yells but I get up and walk over to the net. 'What are you doing?' Kie cries and I take a deep breath trying to pull the net but it is stuck. 'Shit.' I mutter. A gunshot goes off again and I flinch back bringing the net with me. I walk over to the edge of the boat and throw the net into the water away from our propellers.
The man takes another shot aiming at me and before the bullet can hit me, JJ pulls me down beside him. He cups my face in his hands as he analyses my body for any blood. 'Y-You're bleeding!' Pope panics and JJ notices the graze on my hand and quickly takes his shirt off and tightens it around my wound. 'Shit.' I groan in pain. John B, Kie and all of us looked up and saw the net had wrapped around their propellers and stopped the engine. JJ pulls me into a hug while the others laugh.
'You okay?' JJ asks me anxiously and I nod.' It's just a graze' I say resting my head on his shoulder as John B drove the Chateau. 'That was so stupid of you.' Pope says to me and I sigh. 'Pogue style.' I say and JJ smiles at me pulling me closer into our hug. 'Pogue style, baby.' He whispers in my ear, I couldn't help but blush even after the situation we were just put through. I never felt so much adrenaline or alive before only when I was with JJ, did he bring out a side of me I thought I lost after my father's death. A happy side...
To Be Continued...