Torn ~ JJ Maybank

Chapter 16

Once we had left Lana's, we all drove in silence in the Twinkie back to the chateau - JJ and John B in the front, me sat in the back on my own yet again. When we arrived, as if they could read our minds, Pope and Kiara were sat on the front porch to the chateau. 

"Hey, you guys okay?" Pope looked between us all, sensing the tension between us after our run-in with the men tormenting Lana Grubbs. Pope was sat on the couch, with Kiara sat on the chair opposite - I went and slumped down in the seat next to Kiara's, not making eye contact with the rest of the group. 

"Yeah." John B nodded unconvincingly as him and JJ stood in front of us. Kie and Pope looked at each other in confusion, before glancing at my worked-up state. 

"No." JJ contradicts John B, "We just had a run in."

"JJ-" John B tried to the stop the boy, but it was pointless. 

JJ began to tell the story of what we had just experienced - I zoned out for the beginning of the story, but when he began to move around to emphasise his descriptions, I was drawn out of my day dream and snapped back into reality.

"And we were right outside like this. And all we hear is just, bam! Bam! Bam!"JJ presses himself up against the wall and gestures to objects flying around above us before he continued, "Knocking paint off the wall, G! From the inside. All right? And I'm just looking at these two, like." JJ continues dramatically but then interrupts himself and walks over to Pope and Kie and shows them the paint in his hair, "Wait, first off, look at this shit. Look at it. The house."

"That's dandruff, disgusting." Kie turned her nose up as JJ continued to shake the paint out of his hair.

"Okay, thank you." Pope remarked, pushing JJ's head away from him. 

"Look at all that. All right? That's paint. At that point, I was just, like... I'm waiting for death." JJ breathes out heavily, causing John B and I to raise our eyebrows at each other at how JJ is delivering the story.

"Oh, okay, so you saw the guys that shot at us, right?" Pope places his head in his hands, before looking up to the blonde-haired boy, and then back at John B and I.

"Yeah." JJ nods. 

"Did you get a good description of them?" Pope asked, a hopeful tone to his voice. 

"What did they look like? Anything." Kie adds. 

"Anything we can bring to a police report maybe?" Pope suggested. 

"Yeah." Kie agreed.  

"Burly." JJ said with confidence at his description, as Pope and Kie looked at him in shock. John B and I smirked at each other, trying to suppress our laughs at JJ's serious attempt at a good description of the men.

"Burly?" Pope repeated, his eyebrows raised. 

"Yeah." JJ nodded. "You know, like-"  

"That's not very helpful." Kiara sighed, looking down at the ground.

"Okay, well, no, like the type of guy at my dad's garage. I mean, you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers." JJ explained.

"Yeah. Yes. No, we know." Kie nodded in sympathy at the mention of JJ's dad. Just the thought of Luke Maybank - JJ's dad - was enough to make my blood run cold. I hated that man, for all the shit he has put JJ through: JJ deserved so much better than him for a father in life. 

"I can tell you with full confidence, these boys, these killers..." JJ hesitated, leaning back against the wall and pulling out his cigarette. He puts the object into his mouth and takes a long drag out of it before continuing. "they're square groupers."