CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN:
men and their fragile egos
JJ and I don't get there fast enough. John B is pushing Topper back, while spitting at his face how much he hates him. It's when I notice Sarah grabbing his arm that I stop JJ in his tracks, pulling him back.
"What?" He frowns.
"Maybe she'll knock some sense into him." I shrug.
"For once in your life," We hear Sarah say as he grab's John B's arm and forces him to turn around, "would you please just turn around and walk away? Please."
John B stops. He just stands there, staring at Sarah, eyes full of rage and sadness. He says nothing, but at least he's not hitting anyone either.
"Oh, wow." JJ mutters. "She really did something."
"Good for us," I say, pointing with my chin at Mike Carrera, slowly pacing towards my brother, "We have to get out of here."
But just as JJ and I were going to call for my brother to come, just when I thought we had dodged a bullet, Topper spoke.
"Hey, no hard feelings, bro." He laughs. "We good?"
I can pinpoint the exact second my brother's eyes shifted from tenderness towards Sarah, to just blind rage towards Topper. The second John B turned around, biting the side of his mouth, I knew it wasn't going to end good.
It didn't matter how loud Sarah wanted to scream JB's name, his fist had already flown through the air and had sent a punch to the side of Topper's face, sending him to the ground.
"Oh, fuck." I mumbled, tripping on my own feet running to get to my brother.
"You like that shit, Top?" I hear him say while he shakes his fist, pacing towards Topper who lays on the ground. "You ready for this?"
As John B stands over Topper, punching his face repeatedly, all I can't think about is how it doesn't matter how hard Sarah tries, she's not gonna get through him. She doesn't have that power anymore.
I break into a run, trying to get to my brother as fast as I can.
"John B, stop!"
I grab his arm, trying to stop him from punching Topper again. Instead, he shakes me off, elbowing me on my mouth. Two seconds later I feel the salty and metallic taste on my mouth, and I have to take a deep breath to not kill JB right there and then.
I throw myself at him again, this time being a little more lucky. I struggle trying to keep him still. Mr Carrera gets to us, and he grabs me by my waist lifting me in the air, throwing me out of the way before grabbing John B and pushing him off Topper. But JB doesn't care about anything now, he's too blind with emotions.
John threatens to charge towards Mr Carrera, but luckily I'm there, and I act as a shield just in time as JJ gets to us, both of us getting in front of him, pushing him back. JJ takes it upon himself to defend us when Mr Carrera starts shouting at us, and his back visibly tenses as he protects my brother.
John B keeps trying to fight me as I push him back and out of the crowd. He hits me accidentally with his elbow in my cheek when he tries to get past me to get to Topper.
"You happy, Sarah?!" My brother screams.
I widen my eyes when I feel the hit on my cheekbone, and I slap JB across the face with my open hand, making him turn his face with widened eyes full of surprise.
"Hey!" I yell at him while he grabs his reddened face. I point my finger at him aggressively, "You keep your shit together, you hear me?"
Finally, JJ comes to aid me, both of us pushing John B to walk in front of us, making sure he doesn't go back.
We walk through the dock, both JJ and I pissed at the stunt John B just pulled. I take my hand to my lip, checking if blood is still coming out of it. When I pull my hand off, it is stained with red.
"She's a cheater. That's who she is. I should've known."
"Shut the fuck up, John." I sigh, spitting out to the side the blood in my mouth.
"Yeah, any idea what you just did?" JJ looks at me through the corner of his eye with worry, I shake my head and I give him a thumbs up.
John B just stays silent. When he turns around, he briefly glances at my lip and I guess at my cheek too. It hurts. I don't have a mirror on my right now, but I bet it's starting to get swollen.
"You okay?" My brother mutters, fighting to keep lookin at me in the eye although he's dying to look down at the floor.
"What do you think, shithead?"
John B purses his lips, nodding his head slowly. "Yeah, I deserve that."
"Yeah, you do."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hit you."
"I know."
"But you did mean to hit me."
"You deserved it."
"I-" John B closes his mouth as soon as I whip my head at him, my eyebrows shooting up challenging him, "Yeah, I deserved that, too."
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The three of us spent the night at the Chateau. I didn't feel like dealing with JB. As soon as we got home, I went to my room and slammed the door close behind me.
When I woke up this morning, I took a shower and cleaned the wounds on my face. My cheekbone hurts less, but it is bruised and a little bit swollen. Same as my lip, that has a dark cut on its side.
I put on cargo shorts, a loose tank top and my combat boots. I prepared a bag with things we would probably need if we were really going to South America, and I left it in our living room, next to the kitchen counter.
I walk outside, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear. JJ is laying on the couch, while John B tolls our bell with his eyes fixed on the horizon. It's the fifth time he's rang that bell just this morning.
"Do that again," I say, raising my voice, "and I'll kill you and throw your body in the marsh."
"Is that a threat?" John B teases me, even though he knows he's in no place to play right now.
"Did it sound like a compliment?" I squint my eyes at him.
JJ stirs in his sleep next to me. I sit down on the floor, next to the couch. When he opens his eyes he notices me there first, and he smiles tirelessly, leaning forward to peck my lips. He then lays down again, noticing John B still with the damn bell.
"Why does he keep doing that?" He groans.
"I'm guessing he hopes it'll magically bring our dad back home."
"I wish it was that easy."
"Yeah, me too." I sigh.
"How's your face?" He then asks, looking concerned at my split lip.
"It's fine. It's gonna be bruised for a few days, nothing new." I shrug off.
"I hate seeing your face like that." JJ makes a face of disgust, sitting straight on the couch. He pats the now empty seat next to him.
I stand up and sit beside him. He leans back lazily, placing his arm on the couch's back. I let myself enjoy these peaceful seconds, and I lay my weight on him, with my head resting on his shoulder and my back on his chest. JJ's arm drops around me, hanging lazily around my next with his hand hanging above my chest. I take it in mine, and I start playing with his fingers.
"Did you sleep well?" John B then asks, finally walking in on the porch.
"Can't complain." I shrug.
I see my brother grab his skateboard, full of dust, from the corner of the room. He checks the wheels are still working before placing it on the floor and stepping on it. I scowl, watching him skate back and forth with a blank face. No thoughts behind those empty eyes.
"Have you taken a moment already to think about the shit move you pulled last night?" I ask, tilting my head to the side while slightly squinting my eyes.
"I did what I had to do." John B kicks his foot against the floor to gain speed.
"Oh, really? You really think that?" I raise my eyebrows, "Oh, come on, John B, you can't seriously be that stupid." I snort.
"It's Topper, Bee. He beat you up once, remember?"
"I do, yeah." I nod my head. "And we took care of that. JJ owes restitution for that one. Remember that, JB?"
"That's not gonna happen this time."
"How can you know that?" I laugh dryly, watching my brother go back and forth on his stupid skateboard. "Topper follows his mom around like a little bitch. What if he presses charges? You kept beating him while he was knocked out, for fuck's sake, John B!"
"Topper's not pressing charges." JJ sighs, my body moves up and down as he releases the breath from his chest.
"You can't be sure, J."
"Topper is a tiny whiny little bitch. He's not gonna do shit. He doesn't have the balls to actually do something." JJ states confidently.
"God, you two are so stupid." I drop JJ's hand to rub my eyes with the heels of my hands. "And how come I didn't lay a finger on that asshole, yet I'm the one with the whole face mess up?" I point out, gesturing with my hands towards my face.
"That is another reason Topper deserved it." JB says, and I'm not entirely sure if he's being serious or not.
"Seriously? You're still going?" I groan.
"It's something about the dude's face, you know?" John B finally stops, and kicks the skateboard aside. "Like the whole, no hard feelings, bro. You know what I'm saying?"
"No hard feelings." JJ mocks, "It's kinda hard not to have hard feeling about that."
"It's just that... that look. That Kook look, you know?"
"It was clear provucation."
"Provocation." I cut in to correct JJ's words.
"Provocation, and, uh, I mean, you had to do what you had to do. No choice about it."
My mouth opens on a wide o, as I lean forward, shifting on my seat to face JJ. He tilts his head back, watching me through slightly squinted eyes, alert as if he knew he had done something wrong.
"You're seriously encouraging him?" I point behind me at my brother.
"What?" JJ shrugs, looking lost, "I would've done the same thing if a guy hooked up with you!"
"Oh, no, you don't get to say that after almost breaking up with me not even a week ago, dude." I snort, shaking my head and standing up from the couch.
"Wait, what?" JB cuts in, making us both JJ and I whip our head to him. "He did what?," John B asks, looking me in the eye, "You did what?" His eyes snap to JJ with a glare.
"No, bro, you see, it was a misunderstanding-"
"Did you make my sister cry?" John B asks with a very low voice, glaring at JJ.
It's when I see his nostrils flare that I understand my brother is about to commit murder against his best friend and I need to stop it immediately. I jump between both boys, before JB can get to JJ on the couch.
My hands are flat on my brother's chest, trying to push him further away, "No, John, listen, it's okay now. We're fine. Calm down."
John B isn't even looking at me. His eyes are fixed way behind me at JJ, who's currently praying to every God he knows to not get his balls chopped off in the next five minutes.
"Hey, John B! Stop!" I say, as he keeps trying to get past me, "We need a plan, remember? We need to get to South America, like, yesterday!"
That seems to do the trick. John B drops his gaze down to me, and he blinks twice as if he had just been pulled out of a trance. He takes a step back and then runs an anxious hand through his hair.
"This is not over, JJ. But Brizo's right," He makes his way inside our house, with me and JJ following behind. "They've got our dad."
"You have any food real quick, though?" JJ asks timidly, not sure if he's crossing the line.
"So I was thinking passports. We don't have those. Therefore, we can't fly commercial. We need other ideas."
"What about sneaking in some cargo aircraft or something like that?" I suggest jumping on our kitchen table.
"Yeah, there's not many of those around here that go straight to Venezuela."
John B goes straight to the fridge, opening it and grabbing some lunchmeat that I'm sure has been there since before we got stranded on the island.
"Okay, well, don't you got the money that you took from Portis?"
"I gave that to my dad." John B says as he sniffs the food. He gags and coughs, putting it back on the fridge.
"If it's expired, throw it in the trash, man." I scrunch up my nose in disgust.
"So then what about a boat? If we got a boat maybe we could get down there 'cause the HMS..."
John B walks towards our cabinets, and looks through them for anything to eat. JJ then takes his place opening the fridge again, and grabs whatever it was that made my brother gag and takes a bite off it without blinking.
"That's disgusting, JJ." I shake my head slowly, covering my mouth with my hand.
"It's not that bad... Oh, Limbrey! Limbrey has a boat! What if we took that one down?"
"Yeah. She took that back."
"And our little HMS is not gonna make it down to the Port of Spain..." I purse my lips, voicing out loud what I'm sure John B was already thinking.
"So out on the boats."
"So what you guys are saying is, we don't got any money and we also don't have a boat that can make it to South America."
"Yup. That's our situation right now, yeah." I roll my lips, nodding my head.
"Actually, I might know a guy. I'm onto something!"
I jump off the table, I can't take it anymore. I grab the expired food from JJ's hand and I hit him with it on his forehead before I toss it in the trash can we keep next to our fridge.
John B is looking out of our window when he widens his eyes and stretches his hand back to repeatedly pat JJ's back, "Uh-oh!"
"You don't start with uh-oh, dude. You're so negative!"
I take a look outside from above my brother's shoulder, standing on my tiptoes. I can only catch a glimpse of Shoupe stepping out of his car before my brother tackles me down to the floor with him.
"Get down!" He whispers, grabbing JJ and pulling him down. "Shoupe is out front right now!"
The three of us fall silent, waiting for anything to happen. All I can think about is that Shoupe is probably here because of Topper. That's the only motive he can have right now. And, ugh! how badly I want to punch my brother's face right now.
"All right, Routleges!" Shoupe yells from outside.
"Shit, shit, shit." I mutter with wide eyes.
The three of us crawl towards the small kitchen table, fighting each other to find a spot underneath it while we keep hearing Shoupe outside. I'm the first one under the table, after kicking John B's hand and making him flinch out of the way. Next thing I know, the three of us are squeezed together and there's almost no room for me to breathe as they have crushed me against the wall.
"All right, kids, I know you're in there." Shoupe knocks on our door.
"If he sees you, that's game over." JJ whispers, looking between me and my brother.
"Yeah, we know, JJ."
"We know, okay, JJ?"
"Don't get that."
"Do you really think we were going to get that?"
"I know you can hear me in there," Shoupe knocks on the door again, "Brizo, I thought you were supposed to be the smart one. Open the door!"
"He makes an extremely good point." I whisper with a chuckle.
"Shut up."
"You need to come out and talk to me. It'll be a whole lot worse if you don't." Shoupe keeps trying.
There's a few seconds of silence in which we try and concentrate as much as we can to try and hear if he's already gone.
"Okey doke, have it your way!" We hear from further away. "You know where you can find me."
When we hear the truck driving away, that's when we fight our way out of the small space we managed to fit us into. When JJ and John B crawl off, I throw myself to the floor with a gasp, taking in the deepest breath I've ever taken in my entire life.
"Come in, Bee. Let's peel!"
"You two smell like fucking horse shit."
"All right, there's no time for that." JJ says, stretching out his hand for me to hold onto. He pulls, helping me stand up. "I've got a plan."
"You do?" I question.
"It's a little sketchy. You might not like it, but I think it will work."
John B stops JJ before he can walk out of the house, "No, no, no, no. Wait, wait, wait, wait. What plan?"
"If I tell you now when the plan is half-baked, you're gonna get all negative."
"Look, I'd settle for a quarter-baked plan."
"That's not true," I scoff looking at my brother.
JJ makes a high-pitched sound, mocking my brother's voice as he uses his hand to gesture, "Come on!"
"Don't you dare make that noise at me." My brother says, actually offended by the noise that just came out of his friend's mouth.