"it's not there." John B sighed, "look, just- just pull the drone up. shit" everyone's smile faded as they looked at each other.
"look, we can do another pass. recharge the battery. we can— we can go back down." Pope said not wanting to give up.
"we've done it three times. there's nothing there." JJ yelled.
"JJ!" Ace looked at him.
"shut up!" Kiara yelled.
"what? it's true!" he yelled back.
"the gold could be buried. we don't know." Kiara says.
Ace sighed looking at everyone feeling bad for John B. they went through all this just for him and found nothing, but she knows he's not gonna give up that easily.
"if it was there, it would've been found on the metal detector, okay? somebody beat us to it." John B yelled.
"or it was never there." JJ said, Ace slapped his arm shaking her head at him.
"JJ, stop it" she whispered.
—
JJ and Ace were at JJ's so they could go to the the woods by his house so he can shoot a stuffed bear, luckily his father wasn't home so Ace snuck into JJ's room grabbing one of his many fishing shirts slipping it on. the door to his room opened making her look over, JJ shut the door locking it walking over to his window opening it up.
"is that my shirt?" he asked, she nodded and smiled sitting on his bed, "yes it is"
"looks better on you anyways" he grabbed his hat slipping it on tossing one to her.
"seriously? you wanna match" she giggled. he smiled and nodding walking over to her kneeling down in front of her.
"hey so what exactly happened with Rafe and Topper?" he asked laying his hands on her thighs.
"Pope and i were just heading to the clubhouse taking the groceries over and Rafe wanted the beers and wouldn't leave us alone" she looked at him, "he broke the bags we had and Pope got pissed trying to fight them off but Topper joined and Pope got hit with a rock when he fell, Rafe literally grabbed me by the neck and wouldn't let me go, he would've if i went to the Midsummers with him, so i spit in his face and said no but he kinda threw me to the ground after and hit both Pope and i with his golf club" she played with the hat in her hands.
"at least you spit in his face" he said making her laugh, "yeah at least i did that" she slipped the hat on looking at him.
"i'm gonna beat Rafe's ass one day, nobody lays a hand on my girl" he tells her as she nods smiling.
"you're gorgeous" he smiled admiring her, Ace is like the female version of JJ except only a little more responsible than JJ.
"shut up" she felt her cheeks get red looking at him, "hey, you are baby" he held her hands kissing them then kissed her cheek.
JJ laid her down moving his lips to her neck slowly kissing her neck, Ace shut her eyes laying her hand behind his head, he left a small hickey behind her ear. he moved back to her neck leaving small kisses all over it leaving another hickey on her collar bone kissing up to her jaw slowly as he was about to kiss her lips the front door slammed causing the two to jump up quickly and jump out the window rushing out.
the two walked to the woods in silence, Ace smiled to herself running her fingers over her neck. this is the second time they were about to kiss but got interrupted. JJ handed Ace a pair of noise canceling headphones once they got to the part of the woods where JJ set the bear up. Ace put them on opening JJ's backpack grabbing her markers to draw on herself, JJ shot the bear a few times mumbling to himself.
"JJ!" Pope sped over to the blonde who didn't hear him.
"what was that?" JJ mumbled shooting the bear again.
"JJ!" Pope yelled again.
"that's what i thought, man."
"JJ!" Pope yelled louder causing the two to look over, Ace removed her headphones standing up looking at her friend walking over. "they know."
"what?" JJ took off his headphones.
"they know" Pope repeated.
"all right, chill, bro. all right? they don't know shit." JJ walked over setting his things down.
"Topper knows i sunk his boat." Pope looked at the two covering his eyes pacing around.
"how do you know they know?" Ace asked handing JJ the headphones sitting down beside the blonde.
"because Rafe and Topper posted outside of Heyward's and mad dogged me." Pope turned to his two friends.
"will you calm down and get a grip, man? they don't know shit." JJ told Pope who kept pacing in front of them.
"they have cameras. they could've seen me." Pope said.
"there was no power. how could they have seen you?" JJ responded.
"Pope not all places have generators over there, some people don't have anything yet" Ace looked at him.
"it's Figure Eight. they got generators." Pope yelled. "they don't give scholarships to kids who vengefully sink boats. it's not a good look on my transcript!"
"enough with the regret, bro!" JJ yelled standing up. "they caved your face in, and beat the shit outta you and Ace! they hit us, we hit them. it's the law of the jungle. now, if any Kooks come up to you and ask if you had anything to do with it, you walk up to 'em, look 'em right in the eye, and.."
"deny the living shit out of it." Pope responded.
"that's right. deny, deny, deny. but just for safety, we don't go anywhere without protection." JJ pointed at the gun, Ace looked at it then at Pope nervously who had the same look on his face.
—
"i'm so glad that they're still doing this." Kie says as the four walk to the park where the movie festival is being held. "keep calm. carry on. the summer movie series."
"back to OBX life" Ace says holding a blanket and chair.
"you know? aren't you guys glad i made you come?" Kie smiled.
"ecstatic" Pope sarcastically said.
"my couch was pretty comfy, i'll be honest." JJ cleared his throat.
Ace helped Kie set everything down while the boys whispered to each other, tagging along with Kie to get some soda's and snacks. "hey, uh.. can i get three pepsi's, please and some of those chips right there?" Kiara asked the vendor, Ace handed her the money so she can pay for her things.
"hey, Kie. hey, Caroline. hey, what's up?" Rafe asked the teo walking over to them. "how are you?" Ace rolled her eyes grabbing the drinks and snacks.
"we're fine." Kie replied.
"good, good. um.. tell your boy that we know what he did." he said quietly looking at the two.
"sorry, what boy are you talking about?" Kie asked, "uh, he'll know." Kie walked away followed by Ace.
"bye." he said quickly grabbing Caroline's arm pulling her to him.
"wanna try thinking again about being my date?" he looked at her, Ace pushed him away, "fuck off, Rafe" she says catching up with Kiara, "douche"
the girls got back to their spot handing out the drinks, JJ pulled Ace onto his lap wrapping his arm around her waist.
"just saw Rafe, and he said, and i quote, "tell your boy that we know what he did." what is that?" Kie asked the boys who looked at each other in panic as Ace stayed quiet.
"um.. where is he?" JJ asked.
"right there" Ace turned her head looking at Rafe, Topper and Kelce. Pope turned himself quickly staring at the three boys.
"great, the whole death squad. ah!" JJ turned Pope's head back to the screen. "don't stare, bro."
"just warning you, bro. if they corner me, i'm coming out swinging, okay? slice and dicin' i'm on edge right now." JJ looks at Pope. "yeah, yeah."
"if that doesn't work, i got this right here." JJ lifted up his bag, Ace shook her head not wanting to believe he brought the gun to the movie. "yeah, yeah. so, we just gotta stay in the group. they can't get us in the group." Pope says. "like a school of fish."
"i'm sorry, JJ... please tell me that you did not bring a gun here. JJ, there are kids." Kiara scolded.
"no! Kie, i didn't bring the gun. everything's fine, okay?" JJ told her gripping Ace's waist tightly.
"wow, thank you. that's really convincing. i love that, JJ" Kie replied not believing a word JJ said.
"founding principle, you guys. no secrets amongst Pogues. what is Rafe talking about?" Kiara scolded.
"Kie, it might go down tonight." Pope looked at her patting her back.
"what does that mean?" Kiara said blankly. "might go down tonight. what did y'all do?"
"deny, deny, deny" JJ whispered.
Ace turned her head looking back at the three boy's who kept their eyes on the four. Rafe smirked at the brunette winking at her, she stuck her middle finger out at him fixing JJ's hat that she had on looking back at the screen, the blonde looked at her leaning his head on her chest hugging her waist tighter.