𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠

015. For Bird.

JOSIE FORBES now watched as Kie now looked at JJ, sighing. "Uh, Josie, hold my flashlight?" She then held out the flashlight which Josie takes with a blank stare. "Thanks," the girl whispered and JJ clasped his hands together again when Kie turns to him.

"Alright, so put your hands right there."

"Yep."

"Your foot..."

JJ then boosted up Kie into the hole and she held out her hand, "okay, flashlight, Jo?" She called out and Josie stepped closer, "here." She says and Kie takes the flashlight.

"You alive? You got, like a-a heartbeat and everything?" John B then asked as Josie looks at him with a confused look. "So far." Kie called out back to them. "That's good. That's good." The boy stammered slightly. "Yep. Uh, I need some more light." She said to him.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I gotcha."

As John B was holding his latern inside the opening in the crypt's door, Josie stepped closer, trying to look inside as she raised her hand and grabbed JJ's upperarm making him look at her immediately. "Did you find something, Kie?" She asked, furrowing her brows.

"Is there gold?"

"Oh, my God."

Kie then took out the envelope, walking over to the opening where she passed it to John B. "That's not gold." Pope sounds disappointed when he saw the FedEx package with "For Bird" written on it in Sharpie. Josie walked over and helped Kie out who was getting out of the crypt, grabbing onto Josie's arms. "Holy shit. This is from my dad." John B said, looking at Kie and Josie. One of which were smiling as Josie stared with a surprised look.

"Code red. Code red. Square groupers! Square groupers!" JJ calls out to them when he saw cars coming and they all rush off, "go, go." Kie tells them, grabbing onto Josie's hand. "It's the guys that robbed your house." JJ said as they all get down to hide. "Lights!" Kie said and Josie groans when she saw JJ too busy trying to take out his cigarette so she reached up and turned the light off wrapped around his head. "John B? Your light!" Kie tells the boy.

"Do you think it's them?"

JJ peers out from the side of the mausoleum with Pope and Josie. "Homie's got a gun." JJ said and Josie gasped softly. "Screw this." Kie got up and began running. "Come on," JJ whispered to Josie who grabbed his hand and ran alongsides him, following after Kie, John B and Pope. They get to the gate and fence where they all climb up to jump over.

"Hurry up!"

"Guys! Guys, I'm stuck." Pope calls out to them before they could run. "Shit!" Kie says, looking over. "Pope, come on, man!" JJ ran over to the boy, letting go of Josie. "Alright, I got you." Kie runs over to the gate. "Pope, don't move, okay?" JJ had raised the gun and Josie quickly pushed it down. "Are you crazy?!" She says. "You're gonna rip me. Wait. Hold on, you're gonna rip me!" Pope shouted at John B and Kiara who were both pulling him down.

It just rips off his shorts completely, "Pope, come on!" John B runs to the van. "Nice! Come on, dude. It's a little Tootsie Roll." JJ said and Josie smacks his arm as they run to the van and Kiara is laughing. "Don't be mean to Pope!" Josie says as she jumps into the van.

As they drove off though, Josie couldn't help but laugh, quietly though. At the Chateau, Josie followed JJ into the kitchen, "I'm craving a peanut butter sandwich right now." JJ said and Josie sighed. "I want, like... a huge buffet with endless selection of anything I want." Josie said and the blond boy begin laughing at that.

"That's the munchies talking." JJ said when he set out the bread and the peanut butter as John B sat down at the table, with the envelope before him. He takes out the bread as Josie watched. "JJ... are you seriously gonna eat bread with mold on it?" She asked him.

"I'll just pull off the bad parts." He said, glancing down at the bread he's spreading peanut butter on. "Plus, mold is good for you. It's just a natural organism." He added and Josie scrunched up her face, in disgust and also in confusion as the boy glanced up with a small smile. "Josie, JJ?" Kie called out to them.

"Yup, yup, yup." JJ said, smushing the two bread slices together. "Come on," he put his arm around Josie's shoulder and lead her over to where John B and the others were. "Hot damn! Let's do it." He says and then when he takes a bite into his sandwich, Josie isn't so surprised when he hums and gags.

"Told you," she mumbled and took a sip of her soda. But when JJ spits it out to throw it away, he then takes her soda to take a sip making her roll her eyes, but nevertheless, didn't say anything, because she was watching John B open the package up and take out whatever was inside of it. He unfolds the paper to reveal a map. "Holy shit." He said outloud.

"Oh. X marks the spot." Pope said as he pointed. "Longitude, latitude." John B says, pointing on the map as well. "Wait, maybe there's sometthing else in there." John B reached in and took out a tape recorder, he just stared at it. "What's that?" JJ asked.

"It's a tape recorder, dumbass." Kie says, sounding a bit harsh. "You're not a dumbass." Josie whispered, patting JJ's back gently before looking back down at the tape recorder in John B's hand. He pressed play. "Dear Bird..." A voice says through the tape.

"Who's Bird?" Josie asked this time, looking at John B. "That's what my dad called me." He said and she frowned sadly. "I hate to say, "I told you so," but I told you so. And you doubted your old man." It was him. Big John. "I suspect at this moment, you're filled with guilt and self-loathing over our last fight, but don't kill yourself just yet, kid. I didn't expect to find the Merchant either." Some clattering noise plays over the tape as there's a short pause and John B looked up at Josie and JJ to his right.

"You were probably right to call me out. Wasn't exactly Father of the Decade. What can I say, kid? I could smell the barn. And hopefully, we're listening to this in our brand new sugar-shack down in Costa Rica, living off passive investments and pulling on permits. If not, and you find this for less than optimal reasons, well, that's what the map is for. There she is, the wreck of the Merchant. If something happens to me, finish what I started. Go for the gold, kid. I love you, bird, even if I didn't always act like it. I'll see you on the other side." And that was it. The tape ended right there.

John B got up, walking away. He's sobbing and it's faint as JJ looked at the map. "Holy shit, he did it! Big John-- He found the Merchant..." JJ said and Josie looks at him, "JJ..." She whispered when she heard John B's sobs, his cries of pain, heartbreak. She felt for him, "sorry." JJ whispers as Kie walks over to John B, patting him at first before her and Josie pull the boy into a hug to comfort him.

AUTHORS NOTE
jj not knowing what to do when a friend is crying in front of him is literally me. saw a friend of mine full on sobbing in front of me, and my first thought was "is this... even him? did we just pick up some other random guy?" 😭