Chapter Five:
Illegal Sharpies
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"Could have warned us a little sooner." JJ said, glancing over at Fallon as she avoided his eyes.
"We would have, except pope was on the math team." Kie joked, causing Pope to shift nervously under his gaze.
"You were on the math team?"
"The cops took everything like it was a crime scene." John B said, changing the subject.
"Did you guys find anything?" Pope asked.
"Did we find anything?" JJ said, sitting up and pulling something from his back pocket. "No, I don't think so. Oh, yeah, we did."
"Holy shit!" Fallon exclaimed, reaching over and pulling the gun from his hands. "Your prints are all over this now!"
"So are yours, Fal." JJ snickered, pulling the gun from her hands. "Careful with this, it's real."
Fallon pursed her lips, nodding her head, "Will do."
"What the hell?" Pope hissed, his eyes widening in shock.
"Dude, what?" Kie said, leaning forward and shaking her head.
"Dude, chill, come on." JJ said as he stood up. Fallon followed him with her eyes as Pope began to panic.
"Why would you take that from a crime scene?" He said, his voice quiet but stern as he watched JJ.
"It's better than the cops having it!" JJ argued.
"I mean... Is it?" Fallon trailed off, looking away when JJ turned to look at her. "Isn't it their job to do stuff like this?"
"I'm gonna lose my merit scholarship!" Pope shook his head again.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey.." JJ cooed, placing his hand on the back of Pope's neck. "Sh, sh, sh, sh. At least you have us, right?"
"I'm living the nightmare." Pope scoffed, sitting down next to John B. Fallon blushed and her heart skipped a beat as JJ sat next to her and tossed an arm around her shoulders loosely.
"He-Hey, did, uh, did you guys know that dolphins get high off of fuckin' slamming their faces into pufferfish? No? Okay.."
"No, we did not." JJ shook his head as he turned his head to look at her, a goofy grin spreading across his face as she smiled nervously. "But we do now. Thanks, Fal."
~~
Fallon grimaced as the woman sobbed over her husband's dead body. John B followed her gaze, knitting his eyebrows together when he saw it. "Who's that?"
"It's Scooter Grubbs." A blonde girl answered as she pulled out her phone, "He was out during the storm. Check out this pic I got. Dead body."
"Damn." Fallon muttered, glancing up at JJ as he leaned over her to look at the girl's phone.
"Insane."
"Holy shit." Kie gasped, scrunching her nose up at the sight.
"What kind of boat did he have?" JJ asked, reaching down and messing with the bun Fallon had her hair in. Fallon looked up at him, jokingly glaring at him as he stuck his tongue out at her. Secretly, Fallon liked when he played with her hair. It was comforting.
"Somehow that dirtbag copped a brand-new Grady-White." She answered, not noticing the look that crossed Fallon's face. "Everyone's out looking for it."
"Ha!" Fallon laughed, covering her mouth and clearing her throat awkwardly when Kie and John B shot her a look. "Uh, sorry."
~~
"Okay. So, um, we didn't see anything." Pope panted, letting the screen door slam shut behind him. "We don't know anything. We need to have complete and total amnesia.
Fallon hummed, raising her eyebrows as she sat down in the seat beside JJ, turning her body and resting her feet on his leg. "Except we did see something."
"Actually, Pope's right. For once." Fallon pulled her feet back as JJ stood, "See, I agree with you sometimes. "Deny, deny, deny, deny."
"Guys, we can't keep that money." Kie spoke up, looking over at Fallon for reassurance. The girl stayed silent, knowing that her parents would need that money after Agatha uprooted her favorite tree and tossed her through the roof.
"Okay, not all of us can afford unlimited data plans Kiara."
Fallon nodded in agreement, shifting uncomfortably in the chair as Kie continued. "We have to pass that off to Lana Grubbs, otherwise that's bad karma."
"My life is bad karma." Fallon joked, shrugging when JJ turned and gave her a questioning look.
"Bad karma to be implicated in a felony too." Pope shook his head, clearly beginning to panic again. "We gotta go dark."
"If that means we get to keep the money, then I agree." JJ said, pulling his eyes from Fallon's freckled face to look out the window.
"I don't agree." John B said, patting JJ on the shoulder.
"What? Why?" JJ looked over at John B as he walked away.
"Just think about it, this is Scooter Grubbs we're talking about." John B started, "Right? This is the same guy that's buying individual cigarettes at the Porthole. Shit, one time I saw him begging for change in the Save-A-Lot parking lot because he needed gas. We're talking about a dirtbag marina rat who's never had more than forty bucks in his pocket, and all of a sudden he's got a Grady-White? Just sayin'."
Fallon nodded in agreement as she inhaled. "I smell thievery."
~~.
"All right, so think about it, Pope. How does a marina rat get a Grady-White?"
"Prostitution." Pope answered, inhaling sharply as he glanced over at him.
John B shook his head, "Square groupers, bro. Okay, flying under the radar. No aerial surveillance. They don't do that stuff during a hurricane. What does that mean? Fallon? JJ?"
"Oh, shit. Illegal stuff." Fallon nodded, reaching up and pulling JJ's hand from her hair and sending him a playful glare, "Speaking of which, did you guys know that it's illegal in some states to carry a sharpie under eighteen?"
"Cool." JJ grinned, watching as Fallon blushed and sheepishly looked down at her sandals. "You know what else is illegal? Smuggling."
"Smuggling!" John B repeated, turning back to Pope. "And I guarantee there's a serious amount of contraband in that wreck."
"Hell yeah!" JJ agreed, letting out a whoa when his fishing line tugged, "That's a big one! Fish on!"
"Hey, Fal." JJ spoke, looking up from the fishing line and over to her. His breath hitched in his throat as the sun shined on her face, providing a warm glow that complimented her ever-so perfect features.
God, how pretty she was.
Fallon hummed in acknowledgment as she turned to look at him, "Yeah?"
"Can I come over later?" He asked, a flash of hurt shining in his eyes that was gone in a blink. Fallon frowned at the sight of this, she hated seeing him hurt. She hated it so much. She wanted more than anything for him to be okay.
Fallon paused, not sure what to say. She didn't want to worry him with the state of her house, but she didn't want him to have to go home. "S-Sure."
~~
"For the record, if that is a smuggling ship with illegal contraband inside of it, it probably belongs to someone else-"
"Minor details." Kie said, cutting Pope's sentence off short.
"They could come looking for it!" Pope continued, not batting an eye as he tossed the stack of money in the air, catching it with his other hand. "Taking it would be catastrophically stupid!"
"Catastrophically smart, you mean." Fallon corrected, the corner of her lips turning up in a grin when JJ pointed at her and nodded.
"Right, well." JJ started, reaching forward and pulling the money from Pope's hand. "Stupid things have good outcomes all the time. All we need to do is figure out a way to get into the cargo hold on the wreck. Until then, we just lay low. Act normal."
"Right, and how exactly do we do that?" Pope asked, crossing his arms as he looked around at his friends.
Fallon grinned as she shared a look with Kie, both girls clearly having the same idea. "Kegger."
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
{ A/n: love them }
{ Edited: No }