Brother's Best Friend || JJ Maybank

Episode 7. Dead Calm | 28

Julianne Booker Routledge

I didn't realize that I was shaking until Kie put a hand over my bouncing leg, her eyes holding concern. Everything that had happened the past few days had caught up to me, anxiety filling my every thought.

I could tell by the man's voice that he intended to follow up on his words and now that we were pulling up his house, I had a feeling that he would do a lot worse to us than he did today. And I didn't know if I would be able to handle much more of this.

New things scared me. Hell, practically everything scared me. Yet, new things were all I seemed to know nowadays.

"Welcome to crackhead wasteland." Sarah stated, looking around. This place was 10 times more run down than the Chateau was. I felt hollow on the inside. When I get overwhelmed or over worked, I just blank.

I hadn't been like this since awhile after dad disappeared. For months after his absence, I sat in my room all day. Not even John B could pull me out of my depressive state. I wouldn't eat for days and I couldn't sleep at all.

That was how I was feeling right now. And I absolutely despised it.

"I don't know about this, man." Pope spoke, his voice wavering. JJ stopped in front of the house and Pope shook his head, "Dude, why are we at Barry's?"

JJ opened the door, climbing out, "This'll only take a second."

I didn't like this. Everything in me was telling me to make a run for it into the woods; Away from all of this.

"Where you going?" John B called after him.

"Yo soy justicia." Was JJ's only response, none of us actually knowing what he was saying.

"Did you glean anything from that?" Pope questioned.

Kie sighed, "You know somebody should probably-"

"Yeah, I got it." John said, leaving the car and following JJ into the house.

Sarah turned to me, her face matching Kie's from earlier, "Yo, you good, Jules? You look pale."

I couldn't find any words to speak, only nodding my head and leaning against the window.

"You sure? You're, like, shaking. Really bad." Pope pointed out.

I took in a deep, shaky, breath, "I'm totally fine. Please, stop." They didn't question anymore, hopefully understanding that I didn't want to talk about it. When I was like this, it was hard to shake me out of it. It's just something that happened naturally.

I was sitting on the edge of the car while the others were standing around the yard when JJ finally came out, brandishing wads of cash, "All right, so we're looking at five grand each for reparations for putting us through that bullshit. Sorry about that, y'all."

Kie had a look of disgust, "So that's what we're doing now? We're robbing drug dealers?"

"This Barry guy's gonna find out. And he's gonna come after us." Sarah continued. I truly felt like I was going to throw up, but lucky for me and everyone else here, I hadn't eaten anything, so we were all clear. However, that didn't diminish the sickly feeling in my stomach.

Pope agreed, "Yes, he will. This is not the time to start wilin' out."

"How'd you guys like havin' a gun pulled on you?" JJ argued.

John B stepped into his face, "Relax."

"He had it right here on you, bro."

"Look. We've gotta go get the gold, okay? Just give me that shit." JJ slammed John B against the van, making me jump. John B scoffed, "You feel like a tough guy? Huh? What are you gonna do when he comes for us?"