chapter twenty six
"yucatan"
"WHAT THE FUCK."
LYNN NARROWED her blue eyes bitterly at her two best friends, JJ and John B, currently (for some reason) sneakily hiding behind a canoe. She was relieved to see John B was alive and breathing, but was generally curious where he had disappeared to for almost two days. Her eyes shifted a bit when she recognized the bruise marks that were fresh on JJ's right cheek though — almost wanting to bring it up, but not in front of John B.
"Sh!" JJ warned, raising a finger to his mouth to signal to the girl to be quiet. She let out a quick scoff, and was ready to snap about the fact JJ doesn't get to boss her around, but was interrupted as he tugged her behind the canoe alongside both of the boys.
JJ was silently studying the girls face, where she had a busted lip, and bruises scattered among her face. He knew she got hit during the fight with the Kooks, but it didn't look nearly as bad as it looked now. It was almost like she had been beaten more recently.
"God, when was the last time either of you showered?" Lynn groaned, cringing up her face disgustingly at the wave of their god awful scents hit her nose — not even JJ could pull off the sweaty dirt.
"Look! They're watching us," JJ explained, completely ignoring the girls last comment. He pointed towards a grey car sitting on top of the hill in front of the Chateau, and her lips formed an O. "Let's go sneak around to the dock."
The three teenagers then headed off towards the direction of the boat, however directly getting on the dock would give them away to whatever car was up there. So, they followed JJ into the swampy water.
Lynn scrunched her nose up, not wanting to get into the dirty water because one, she had just put on clean clothes, and two, she really didn't feel like getting bit by an alligator. Even against everything telling her not too, the boys jumped right into the water with their bags on top of their heads. And Lynn didn't want to be the only one who didn't have the balls to get across.
"You got the keys to the Pogue?" JJ glanced over his shoulder to look at John B, and Lynn was right about to complain if he had managed to actually forget them.
John B nodded simply, "Yeah."
Lynn exaggeratedly let out a massive sigh as she climbed onto the Pogue, and she just laid there on her back for a moment. Her entire body was soaked, which she usually enjoys, but not when clothing is sticking to her skin and she had to deal with it. She stared up at the sky, scattered clouds flooding the bright blue skies — and was seriously questioning what the hell she was doing with her life.
Soon, Lynn heard the rumble of the engine start up, and she glanced over to both JJ and John B trying to successfully evade whoever was watching them.
Lynn was in lockup not even two hours ago, and here she is, trying to escape somehow who's apparently stalking them. Neither of the boys asked if she was okay, if the bruises on her face were from the Kooks, the deputy, her father.
It was like it didn't even happen, like it didn't even matter.
"First, I almost got strangled to death by Kooks, and now I'm on the hook for thirty grand."
After a ten minute or so ride down the deep waters, Lynn, John B, and JJ were down the river some distance from the Chateau until they declared it was safe again. It was a nice spot to relax, since there was a crumbled building the teenagers would usually climb all over when they were drunk out of their minds — a good party spot. However, today they were just sitting on the rocks, talking about what had happened while John B was gone.
"And I'm dangling on for twenty five K," Lynn added, nibbling down on her lower pink lip nervously — her mind flooding to the way her father reacted to hearing the news, she wanted to cringe.
"We should just dip," JJ suggested, and Lynn switched from throwing rocks bouncing from the destroyed building to the ground, to the blonde boy he called her best friend. She checked if he was talking to herself, or John B — it appeared like he was staring directly at Lynn.
"Okay, where do you wanna go?" John B answered, sounding sarcastic than anything else. "Hm?"
"Yucatan."
John B chuckled, shaking his head while he glanced down to the grassy ground, muttering softly, "Yucatan."
No, I'm dead serious right now," JJ interrupted before John B could say anything else dramatic. Lynn smiled gently in JJ's direction, a little part of her wanted to place her hand on top of his. "Surf all day, and then we can just live off lobsters we catch with our bare hands."
"It does kind of sound nice," Lynn shrugged towards the boys, but John B didn't look entertained.
"You just wanna leave 'cause y'all got your ass's beat?" John B questioned, glaring sharp and harsh daggers at JJ, who was busy staring at the ground rather than anything else.
"Shut the fuck up, John B," Lynn grumbled impatiently, and the two boys were surprised to hear Lynn suddenly snap.
"You didn't see the photos," JJ trailed, and Lynn tilted her head to the side as she wondered what photos he was talking about.
Her brows furrowed, and she confusingly exhaled a quick breath, "What photos, J?"
JJ then glanced up to make eye contact with Lynn, who looked equally as confused, "Peterkin didn't you the photos of those two guys who broke into John B's?"
Lynn shook her head slowly, and then tried to understand what exactly was going on. What happened to the two assholes who tried to kill them to get that damn rusted and not-worth-a-penny compass from John B?
"Then what did you guys talk about?"
Lynn's face straightened out after hearing JJ question her, and her mind flashed to fact the sheriff and she only discussed about her shitty home life, and Lynn's vent about being abused. She swallowed quickly in an attempt at trying to come up with a valuable excuse.
"Uh, she said they already got everything they needed to know from you," Lynn shrugged as she forced the words out, but by the expression on JJ's face, he didn't believe her. She just wished he would though, because she didn't need to see the heartbroken expression of him understanding what her dad does to her.
"Think about it. They're willing to kill for the gold, then it's gotta be out there!" John B exclaimed, jumping down from sitting on the top of the crumbled building.
"They were killed?" Lynn gasped, switching between her two best friends with an indistinguishable expression.
"Have you lost your mind!?" JJ snapped loudly, his body inching closer to John B's so he could threatening hover to his face. But JJ wasn't the one who appeared pissed, it was John B who was more angry than anything. "One hundred years, man. One hundred years, people have been tryin' to find this Royal Merchant, and no one succeeded! And you think you are gonna be the one that actually finds it?"
Lynn stood up from her once comfortable seat on the piled rocks to make sure the two bickering boys weren't going to get into a physical fight. Their tension was only building by the second, she swore she could cut through it with a knife, and the absolute last thing Lynn wanted was to have to break up a fight between her two best friends.
"When will you get it in your thick skull? If you keep goin' down this road, you're gonna end up just like your dad!"
Lynn suddenly flinched as John B shoved JJ forward by placing his palms on the blondes chest and slamming him, knowing that he had stepped over the line at mentioning John B's dad. She then stepped between both boys, putting a hand on their chests while trying to push them apart so they wouldn't fight anymore — she hated seeing it.
"Calm down!" Lynn growled, switching between John B and JJ, both giving them an sharp and directed eagle eye.
"I can't give up, guys!" John B exclaimed, and he pushed Lynn's hand off his chest, making her lose her balance and shove into JJ uncontrollably. The blonde boy warmly wrapped his fingertips around Lynn before she could seriously falter. "The last time I saw that dude, we got in an argument, and then he took all of our rent money and dipped for this Royal Merchant."
"Just like how you dipped on us for two days!" Lynn retorted, his voice full of venom as she was completely done with John B's bullshit about his father. "Who the hell were you with anyway, huh?"
"You know I would've called you if there was cell service on The Cut, Lynn," John B snarled back, and Lynn's anger was only fuming more and more by the second.
"Who the hell were you with,
John B?"
Lynn got dangerously close into John B's face, and the two teenagers were ready to snap at each other. John B refused to ever lay a hand on his female blonde best friend, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't scream his pants off.
"Why are you so interested all the sudden? Is it because I kissed you!?"
Lynn's angry expression disappeared within a second as John B spoke, and as soon as the words left his mouth his face twisted with regret as he realized it. He had completely forgotten that JJ was merely a few feet away.
The Bardot girl instantly swung on her heels towards the blonde boy, who had a heartbroken expression on his face as he switched between John B and Lynn, where his piercing blue eyes didn't dare leave hers.
"You two...you kissed?" JJ questioned, and Lynn felt her own heart break into two as she noticed the way his eyes were glossing over. She wanted to do anything to fix it, to wipe away his tears and make his goody smile return.
"John B, h-he kissed me and, I-I," Lynn was struggling searching her brain to come up with a response, but for some reason it was coming up empty — she couldn't believe how bad she was stuttering
"JJ, it wasn't like that, bro," John B added, trying his best to fix the situation he brought onto his best friends. "It happened for like, a second, that's all."
"When?"
Lynn glanced down to the grass with absolute disgust with herself, and she felt disappointed. John B was the one who kissed her, not the other way around. JJ needed to understand that, he needed to know. That the kiss didn't mean anything to Lynn, that she secretly wished it was JJ who planted his lips on hers.
"Before DCS tried to take us..." Lynn stated, her voice low, knowing there were plenty of times she could've talked to JJ about it, but she just didn't.
JJ pinched his eyebrows together — and his previous sorrowful state was slowly being replaced with vexation, "Were you ever planning on telling me?"
Lynn knew the answer — that she wouldn't bring it up unless the subject was forced upon, like right now in this current situation.
"Just when the time was right," Lynn breathed out, shrugging her shoulders as she was trying to explain. "JJ, I told him—"
"—No, you know what, Eve?" JJ scoffed, and just stared at the girl with sadness in his eyes. "I was dumb to ever think that a beautiful and smart and outrageously sarcastic girl like you could ever like a guy like me."
Lynn wanted everything in that moment to just disappear, for her to just be able to rush forward to JJ and embrace him in the biggest of bear hugs, or be able to kiss those amazing pink lips, anything than what was happening now.
"J, you don't understand," Lynn murmured, her voice breaking halfway through because she couldn't stand the thought of JJ being angry with her. "JJ!"
Lynn called out countless times, but the blonde boy ignored each and every one of them as he stormed away. He wasn't even sure where he was going, but he wanted to be anywhere than there.
So, he left.