good outcomes, all the time

"The Lucky Compass"; pt. 1

"'Oh you love me,' he grinned and just kept laughing."

I woke up the next morning, again before my cousin which, wasn't out of the ordinary. I realized he had moved to the couch so I guessed he had returned the gear early that morning and decided to let him sleep. Especially after last night. When we found that compass, John B was above ecstatic at the fact that his dad's lucky compass had found its way back to him. And though I understood his excitement on the matter, I just didn't understand how it was possible. How did our family's, really his father's, compass find its way back to us? Very frankly, my dad didn't want it, and neither did I. Every relative that had it died a very untimely death. But when I brought that up to John B after everyone had gone home, he brushed me off like it didn't matter.

I was worried about my cousin. I really didn't want him to go chasing something that didn't exist, no matter how much I wanted it to be true. His dad had become something of a father figure to me as well, even before, but especially after my parents had left. And, don't get me wrong, I would do close to anything to have them back, I just, I was skeptical.

But every time I brought it up last night, he ignored me because, now that he had his father's compass, nothing else mattered.

I decided to drop it after getting nowhere and thought it over in the shower. By the time I had a solid argument, all the hot water was gone and when I exited the bathroom, John B had fallen asleep. He was very clearly exhausted so instead of waking him I just went to bed in the guest room, aka my room that JJ treats like his room, and slept in that bed instead.

After completing my morning routine, I exited the bathroom and poured myself a cup of coffee. We still had no food, so I didn't eat anything but knew I could just eat later at Kies house.

I sat down at our small, circular, table and propped my feet up on another chair. I picked my book, which wasn't really mine since I borrowed it from Pope who had borrowed it from a library on the mainland, up off the table and continued reading.

I didn't get far before there was violent knocking at our door. At the sound of the knocking, I put my book down and stared at my cousin who had woken up to the loud knocks.

"DCS! I know you're in there."

We shared an 'oh shit' look and I began to contemplate the easiest way to get out of the situation.

I began to move, slowly and quietly, that is, until JJ jumped onto our back window, startling both my cousin and me enough to make us both jump.

"Goddammit JJ!" I yelled loud enough that I'm sure he could hear through the thin walls.

"Oh man," John B said, taking a deep breath and placing a hand over his heart which, I'm sure, was beating just as fast as mine.

"Aha gotcha slick!" JJ laughed. "You should have seen your face-," He could barely contain his laughter as he made his way into our house, "your face was like-" he just kept laughing at his not so hilarious stunt.

"Fuck you, Maybank" I spat, flipping him off.

"Oh you love me," he grinned and just kept laughing.

After seriously debating not to, John B had somehow convinced me to go with him and JJ to 'follow up on a lead' as he put it. To make matters worse, JJ had called shotgun, sticking me in the back of the van.

I decided to completely tune them out and just stared out the window as we passed the same landscaping I had seen more and dozens of times. I felt like I could just look at the landscaping for hours and never get bored. But of course, JJ's odd conversation topics got the best of me and I couldn't help but eavesdrop.