MONEY, MONEY, MONEY! jj maybank

006. chicken dinner

SOME WOULD SAY THAT NICOLA AND JJ WERE LIKE TWO PEAS IN A POD. Always getting along, always backing each other's stupid ideas up, and almost always having the same ideas in mind. But there was a fine line that separates the two of them: that being their abilities to handle stressful situations. While JJ had a shorter fuse— Cola could hold on to her levelheadedness for a long time. Sure, it wasn't comparable to Pope's patience, but for a girl like her, the logical side of her brain worked a hell of a good job.

And unfortunately, today wasn't one of those days— she wasn't calm Cola. She wasn't the girl who could help her friends chill while they waited for Pope to figure out a plan. No, she was a girl who was really fucking stressed and humiliated after being harassed at her job— she was already down after the events at the Country Club, and seeing the square groupers come made her spiral into a bunch of emotions.

"We're gonna die. We're gonna fucking die."

"John B, I told you!" JJ paced around the tight room, threading his hands through his blonde hair. "Why does it always—"

"JJ! Hey, look at me." John B interrupted, silently pushing a panicked JJ against the wall. "Where's the gun?"

"Gun?" JJ looked like he was high. He was slurring on his words, struggling to think properly. "I, uh, I can't..."

"Now you don't have the gun, the one time we need the gun?" Kie whisper-yelled, bringing her hands to her face as if she was praying. Cola stood, feet feeling as though they're welded to the floor.

"It was in my backpack, and then I... Backpack..." JJ struggled to think until the answer suddenly popped up in his head. "On the porch. It's on the porch."

Almost instantly, JJ got out of his friend's grip and headed for the porch, only to come back as fast as he left when the voice of a man came screaming John B's full name, accompanied by the slamming of the front door.

As JJ came back inside, he closed the door tightly right behind him. He leaned against the door, eyes wide as the men continued to scream. "Where's the compass!"

John B looked JJ dead in the eyes, his face filled with panic. "Where's the gun?"

"They're on the front porch, guys." JJ breathed out, guilt washing over his face. Eyes trailing over to Nicola's, the guilt got multiplied a lot when he sees her frozen.

Literally. She wasn't moving, her eyes only trailing around the room. She could hear the men trashing the house, throwing a bunch of things all around them. With a particular sound of glass shattering, she was brought back into reality and out of her frozen state. "Guys, the window. W-we need to exit through the window."

JJ and Pope rushed towards it, using up all their strength to pull the window upwards. Despite the obvious effort, they were putting into it, it wasn't budging at all.

"Whats... what's happening?" Kie whispered, her voice cracking at the end of the sentence. "Why is it taking so long?"

"It's painted shut, okay?" JJ snapped, returning to the task of opening it up with Pope.

Nicola looks down at the desk behind her, spotting a letter opener on one of the drawers. It was sharp, surely it could slice through the paint or something.

"Move," she harshly whispered, running over towards the window. Her hands instantly hold on to the side while she sliced through the white paint. Her painted fingers were slightly trembling, but she managed to slice through the whole thing in a rush.

Just like that, with one final pull from JJ, the window snapped open. At this point, the men outside figured out that they were hiding in the room as they started to kick the fucking door open, so time wasn't their friend.