Pogue on Pogue- JJ Maybank

Chapter 8

" Well, that was fun, could have warned us a little sooner." JJ says while chuckling.

      " We would have, except Pope was on the math team." Kie explains.

" You were on the math team?" JJ and I ask in unison, then we high-five. Pope ignores JJ and I.

       " The cops took everything like it was a crime scene. Did you guys find anything?" Pope asks.

" Did we find anything? No, I don't think so." JJ asks sarcastically, then pulls out the gun and a stack of cash. "Oh yeah, we did" JJ says smiling.

    " You only took 1? I grabbed 2 stacks." I brag, taking the 2 stacks out of my bag.

"Nice." He says proudly, then fist bumps me. I put the stacks away.

      " Dude, what the  hell?" Pope asks shocked

" Dude, what?" Kie asks, while looking at us like we are crazy.

      " Dude chill." JJ tells them.

" Why would you take that from a crime scene?" Pope asks in disbelief.

      " Better than the cops having it." JJ defends himself.

" I'm gonna lose my merit scholarship." Pope says, panicking.

     " No you're not." I tell Pope, hoping it will calm him down.

" Hey, hey, sh, sh, sh, sh, at least you have us right?"  JJ tells him, while putting his arm around Pope's shoulder.

       " I'm living a nightmare." Pope says while pulling away from JJ.

" So why did you steal money?" Kie asks me, and to be honest it sounds like she's judging so I get defensive.

        " I was going to buy us groceries for John B's house so we can eat because I don't know about you, but the last time I ate was when I was at the Wreck, working, which was almost 2 days ago." I say angrily, putting my sun glass up laying down across the bow, using my bag as a pillow.

(Time skip to after they find scooters body because I don't feel like writing that tiny scene.)

We get back to the Chateau and JJ, John B, Kie, and I are on the porch when Pope comes in.

     " Okay so um, we didn't see anything, We don't know anything. We need to have total and complete amnesia." Pope says, panicked, while sitting on the couch next to Kie.

    " Actually, Pope's right. For once," JJ says, then stands up. " See, I agree with you sometimes." JJ continues while looking at Pope. " Deny, deny, deny." JJ says, walking over to John B.

     "Guys, we can't keep that money." Kie says.

" Yes we can." I retort.

      " Yeah, not all of us can afford unlimited data plans, Kiara." JJ adds.

" We have to pass that off to Lana Grubbs. Otherwise it's bad karma." Kie explains.

      " We already have bad Karma." I say.

" Bad karma to be implicated in a felony too, we gotta go dark." Pope tells us.

      " If that means we get to keep the money, then I agree." JJ says.

" I'm with JJ on that one." I add.

       " I don't agree." John B says.

" What?" JJ asks.

    " Why?" I add.

" Just think about it. This is Scooter Grubbs we're talking about. Same dude that's buying individual cigarettes at the Porthole. Shit, one time I saw this dude begging for change in the Save-A-Lot parking lot because he needed gas." JB says, walking around the porch.

     " We're talking about a dirtbag, marina rat, who's never had more than 40 bucks in his pocket, and all of a sudden he's got a Grady White? Just sayin." John B says, putting his hands up.

     We go to the dock and Pope is fishing while John B talks to him. JJ and I are standing next to each other, his arm wrapped around my shoulder. Then there's Kiara by herself, closer to Pope and JB then JJ and I are, then there's Pope fishing and JB talking. I ignore JB and Pope and start talking to JJ.

      " Hey" I say to JJ, focusing on his side profile and how I can see the light reflecting in his blue eyes.

" Yeah?" JJ replies.

       " Wanna smoke?" I ask, taking my bag off my shoulder and grabbing a joint from my baggie.

" Hell yeah." He replies, grabbing a lighter from his pocket, lighting it.

We light up and pass it back and forth before JB brings us into the conversation.

     " Square groupers ,bro." JB tells Pope. " Flying under the radar, no aerial surveillance. They don't do that stuff during a hurricane." John B says while gesturing toward the sky. " What does that mean? JJ." John B says, gesturing for JJ to answer.

     " They were straight smugglin'." JJ answers, passing the joint back to me.

" Smugglin'." John B repeats to Pope.

      " And I guarantee there's a serious amount of contraband in that wreck." John tells all of us.

" Hell yeah." JJ says.

  We somehow make it into JB's bedroom. John B sitting on one window sill, JJ in another, Pope on John B's bed, Kie on a chair, and me on the desk between JJ and Kie.

     " For the record, if that is a smuggling ship, with illegal contraband on the inside of it, it probably belongs to someone else." Pope explains.

     " Minor details." Kie says.

" They could come looking for it. Taking it would be catastrophically stupid." Pope tells us, waving the stack of cash JJ stole, around. Then JJ takes the cash back.

       " Right. Well, stupid things have good outcome all the time." JJ says, opening up the cash as an example of a good outcome from a stupid thing.

       " All we need to do right now is just figure out a way to get into the cargo hold of that wreck. Until then, we just lay low, act normal." JJ says smiling, then putting the cash away.

      " Right, and how exactly do we do that?" Pope asks.

" Kegger?" Kie suggests.

       " Hell yeah." I say jumping up.

I decide to take a shower and get changed before we leave. I put on a baby blue Tee-shirt crop top on, with high waisted white jean shorts, and my baby blue low rise vans.

I also do my hair so that my brown waves flow down to the middle of my back. I curl my lashes and put waterproof mascara on, just in case we somehow end up in the water, a slightly red tinted chapstick. I don't worry about my eye because it's been a few days and you can barely tell what happened.

I grab my small backpack and put some essentials in it like; Sunglasses, Chap stick, portable charger, weed, extra shirt and shorts, and a switchblade just in case. I also make sure to put on a bikini underneath my clothes, because as I said before, you never know what can happen at a kegger.