⋆·˚ ༘* pretend - alex g ⋆·˚ ༘*
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"...HMS, the royal merchant." Pope reads as he holds the spy class.
"Give it to the captain." JJ says grabbing it out of Pope's hands, extending it quickly and looking through the glass, "It's a spy glass." he says
"There's something inscribed on the end." You say pointing towards the hilt of the spy glass.
"right there." John B says as he passes it towards Pope, "Look at that shit." He gleams.
"What does it say?" JJ asks.
"You've come this far. Do not falter. The cross is on Freedman's altar." Pope reads aloud, "Freedman's altar. The cross is at the church!" He cheers
"What are we doing here guys?" JJ questions, "Come on!" JJ ushers everyone to move, "Give me a woogity!" He says to Pope. "Woogity-Woogity!" They both say as they move their fingers in synchrony
You quickly jump off the roof of the twinkie, Sarah giving you a hand down. You mumble a quick 'thanks' before getting into the back of the twinkie.
"Ah, crap! the tide." Pope says, as John B slows down, stopping right before the water. "Oh, this doesn't look good." Pope says,
"No shit Pope." You mumble
"How deep is that?" Kie asks, "I dunno. The road's gone." He answers, "But, she'll make it." He says with confidence.
"There's no way it over three feet so we're good." He says, "Fasten your seat belts. Hold onto something." He instructs.
"Dude, you serious?" JJ questions, "We'll be fine." John B adds quickly, "Three, Two, One." He counts down.
"imma say a quick prayer." JJ says, the rest of you holding onto the twinkie for support. John B hits the gas, the Twinkie stuck for a second before it flies off.
"Faster!" The whole group start shouting, mainly in fear of crashing.
"no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no." John B repeated as the twinkie stops, "I think we miscalculated." Pope says, Sarah holding up her fingers to signal 'a little'
"I knew i should have driven." JJ says, "As if that would've helped." You roll your eyes, JJ turns slightly to glare at you, but Pope turns him around before he can give a snarky remark.
everyone gets out of the twinkie, the water up to your knees, "Okayy, maybe we can walk from here." Pope suggests
"What? and leave the twinkie?" John B asks, "The.. the tides coming in." John B says sadly, not wanting to let the twinkie go under water and dragged out by the tide.
"Then what are we supposed to do?" Sarah asks. "Not stay here." JJ adds. Kie shakes her head, sighing slightly, "I can take my dad's truck."
"Kie are you sure?" You ask, she nods, "how much worse can it get?" she says.
"We need something to pull her out with." JJ adds. "There's the winch at the chateau. That's like 2 miles." You say
"Yeah, that's a good idea." Sarah says
"If you're gonna do it, let's go alright? Tides coming in." John B says, you nod, "Come on Kie let's go." You say wading through the water and towards the shore.
"I'm coming with." JJ says sternly, Kie quickly looks towards you, you give her a nod letting her know it was alright. "Fine." she says.
The three of you walk, JJ brushing past you to walk a head, Kie looking back at your faltered expression.
The whole 2 miles was walked in silence, Kie sometimes talking to you as she walked beside you. JJ walking ahead without turning around at all.
"Ignore him." She whispered, "He's being stubborn, and it's probably killing him not talking to you." She adds. You nod lightly, knowing that you and JJ had rarely ever fought, and had definitely never gone this long without talking purposely.
The three of you finally get to Kie's house, JJ checking her dad's truck to make sure he wasn't in it, which he wasn't. "All clear." He says as he makes his way against the fence.
The three of you duck down, "You sure you want to do this? Little dad theft auto." JJ asks. "No." Kie answers obviously.
"All right, well here we go." JJ says opening the gate for her, which she goes through still ducking.
You sit beside JJ, lent against the fence and sitting on the grass.
You hear JJ clear his throat after a while, "i'm sorry— i overreacted earlier." JJ says
You sigh, finally getting to talk to him again. "i'm sorry too, for going over to Rafe's." You chuckle awkwardly.
"Both forgiven?" He asks, as he turns to you.
"of course." You say with a smile, "Copy?" You say holding your pinkie out. He smiles widely as he remembers the tradition the two of you made, "Copy." He says intertwining his pinkie with yours.
He pulls your hand up to his lips as his kisses your knuckles, "Glad to have you back." He smiles once again
"Ditto." You smile as you hug him tightly, "Let's never fight again, please."
"Agreed. And we'll both never do stupid things again." He says, "That's harder for you, than me."
He fake gasps, pretending to be hurt by your statement, but he knew you were right. "Your philosophy is literally, stupid things have good outcomes all the time." you say quoting his philosophy
He chuckles, "I missed you, baby." He smiles, his hand reaching your cheek, quickly pulling you closer to kiss you slowly.
"Good to see you guys made up, but we gotta go." Kie whispers, startling you both as she opens the gate. "Yeah- Yeah, my bad." JJ says, grabbing your hand to help you up. The two of you make your way to the side of the cars, JJ driving with you in the front. Kie jumps in the back.
JJ drives to the chateau, "This will only take a sec." He says as he stops the truck right before the old oak, "It's on the surf shake." You inform him. "Got it. I'll be right back." He says getting out of the car. He runs quickly, tripping over something making you gasp, quickly laughing as you see him get up, "I'm okay!" He shouts as he runs towards the shack.
You and Kie start to worry that he's taking a while, You lean over to honk the horn, "JJ!" You shout. Kie shakes her head, jumping out of the car and into the drivers seat. "What's taking him so long?" Kie complains
JJ rounds the corner, with his father in front of him. "Oh hell no." Kie sighs, both of you getting out of the truck. Kie shakes her head as she leans against her dads truck. "Immediately, no." Kie says
You glare at Luke as you walk over to JJ, stopping him as his dad gets into the back of the truck, after JJ told him to.
Kie watches in confusion. "Whys he here? I thought he was in prison." You say, "Me too." JJ says, throwing the winch into the trunk.
"I'm sorry, but the twinkie is drowning right now JJ, what is this?" Kie interjects.
You both ignore Kie's obvious distress, "What's the plan JJ." You say, holding your hand to his chest to stop him— allowing him to calm down and think.
"I need to get into the marina at the island club." He says, "There's a boat there he can take. You got the sticker on your truck. Twenty minutes, thats all i need." He says
"The twinkies gonna be a submarine in twenty minutes!" Kie shouts, "Y/n, it's your van too, do you not care?!" Kie asks
"Of course i care, but JJ needs to do this— so we're doing it." You shrug at her, "I do this now, maybe i will never have to do it again." JJ tells Kie, making her sigh but agree to the plan. She jumps in the front to drive.
You and JJ make your way to the other side of the truck, JJ quickly pushing you behind him, "Not letting you sit in the back with him." He clenches his jaw, clearly not wanting to do it either— but you were more important to him, and by god he sure as hell wasn't gonna let his deadbeat father lay a hand on you.
You quickly nod, kissing his cheek quickly. He smiles lightly, before jumping in the backseat. You hear Luke laugh mockingly from the backseat, "You got yourself a lil girl huh, J?" He laughs again. "Shut up." JJ dismisses him, not wanting to talk to him at all.
Kie drives to a local convenience store, stopping so that JJ can grab some supplies for his dad. JJ leans against your window, "It'll be fine." You whisper, kissing his palm softly, before he heads off.
Once JJ enters the store, Luke starts hitting both yours and Kie's car seats. "You sure you wanna be with a loser like him, darling?" Luke chuckles, making you grimace,
"You're a terrible father, you know that?" You say. "Yeah? Preach it do me." He says, "set me straight."
"You'll never deserve him or his kindness." You say. "He's a thief that's what he is." His dad murmurs. "Well, he hasn't exactly had the best role model." You quip.
"You sound just like your mama. She always had a stark remark." He smirks. "Don't talk about my mother." You sternly say. "At least i didn't abandon my boy." Luke laughs, making you elbow him straight in the face.
"That's enough." Kie interjects
"She may have abandoned us, but she sure as hell didn't beat us to a bloody pulp." Your say, "Not that you can relate." You narrow your eyes at him.
You see luke become visibly irritated by your comment. "Leave him. He's a waste of time." Kie says, making Luke scoff, as he wipes the blood from his nose.
"Hey." JJ says quickly, whistling to get his dads attention, passing him a 4 back of beer through the window, putting the rest of the food supplies in the trunk.
JJ gets in the back beside his father, behind your seat. He places his hand against your forearm, you turn to smile lightly at him. "You got a feisty one, boy." He father chuckles, making JJ glare at him, clenching his jaw wondering what was said.
Kie turns on the engine, "Let's get this other with, yeah?" Kie says, "Yeah." she drives to the dock, stopping the car near them.
"come on," JJ says as he opens his fathers door, grabbing his supplies from the back.
"we'll be quick." JJ states as they start to walk towards the dock, "Hey luke." You call making them stop. You quickly put you middle finger up at him, which he tries to lunge forward, but JJ stops him, turning him around.
"Wait here." You tell Kie, she nods, you get out the truck to walk down the dock. You see JJ stand close to the edge as his father starts to depart.
You get closer, seeing him toss away some pill you assumed his father had stolen.
You open your eyes for him, his eyes red. He buries his head against your shoulder, his arms latching around your waist. You soothingly rub his back as you hold him tightly. "It's okay." You mumble against him, making him cry harder.
Your hand reaches his hair, stroking it carefully, "You're okay now." You tell him. He nods, "Thank you, Y/n, for everything." He says pulling away from you, wrapping his arm around your shoulder as you walk down the dock, back towards Kie's truck.
"What'd you say to him while i was in the store?" He asks, "Just that he's a deadbeat father who has and will never deserve a kindhearted son like you." You explain, he smiles, kissing your cheek.
".. and i may have elbowed him in the face after he bad-mouthed my mother." You shrug, making JJ chuckle slightly, "God, i love you." He sighs, "I love you too JJ." You say holding his hand that wrapped around your shoulder.
"You okay?" Kie asks as the two of you get back into the truck. JJ wipes his eyes, "yeah, all good." He confirms, "My hands are clean of him— i'm done." He says, Kie nods, heading back towards where the twinkie and the others were.
Kie backs into the island, parking on a higher level of land. She honks the horn to signal to the others that you guys were back.
You guys get out of the truck, "Where the hell were you guys?" Pope shouts. "Paternal complications." Kie answers. "Luke was at the chateau." JJ explained as he grabs the winch.
"Oh great! While you were having family time with your pops, John B got bit by a gator." Pope says, making the three of you look over towards John B, where he looked roughed up.
"Like for real?" You ask, "Does it look like we're joking?" Sarah says pointing to his bloodied leg.
"Shit John B." You curse, looking at his war wound in detail, seeing clear bite marks on his leg.
"What the hell happened?" Kie asks, making Pope and John B shout at her, "Bit by a gator!"
"Okay, i don't know why i'm getting yelled at, i put my ass on the line." She says pointing towards her dads truck.
"You took—" Pope starts, you block it out as you watch JJ start to stress out. There yelling being unrecognisable.
"Shut up." JJ yells making everyone go silent. "Seriously, guys, i cant take it anymore, all right? I just helped my dad leave the island, okay. Like he's never coming back. Straight up like the spanish just, 'bon voyage'" JJ explains
The group look at him confused at his lack of understanding, "That's—" You start. "Not the right language." Pope whispers
"All we got... and i know for a fact all i got is you guys, okay. You're it." He says looking over at you at the end, pausing as he watches you.
"And i've come too close to losing you, all of you. I mean shit, Y/n almost drowned. Kie and Pope were close to getting kidnapped. Sarah you've been shot. John B, you were almost dinner for a freaking gator, bro."
"Don't forget the jail sentence." You say, "Shit, yeah!" JJ says. "So, this blaming each other is some Kook-ass-bullshit, all right?" Making the group nod, "We don't do that. Okay? We're pogues."
The group smile at each other, clapping his speech, "I gotta be honest, that was the best freaking speech you have ever given." John B says, "Also you should think about like, a Rosetta Stone because your Spanish and French are flip-flopped." He adds, making JJ flip him off.
"We should bon voyage, outta here." Sarah says, making the group agree, everyone helping to set up the truck and the twinkie.
Sarah drives the twinkie, with Kie driving her dads truck. JJ instructs Sarah as Kie pulls the twinkie out of the water.
"Keep her coming, keep her coming." He repeats, "she's almost out. Easy, easy, to the right." He instructs, "whoo! the twinkie lives!" He cheers as the van reaches dry land again.
You all cheer as you can finally get going and towards the church, to try and find the cross.