𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐨𝐲

IX. The Office.

     

     JAKE NOW sits beside Pope, because John B and JJ had dragged him away from work, something about Lana Grubbs and once they gathered him, Kie and Pope together at the Chateau, JJ began telling them all that happened. "And then we were right outside like this. And all we hear is just bam! Bam! Bam! Knocking paint off the wall, G! From the inside. Alright? And I'm just looking at him, like-- wait, first off, look at this shit." JJ walks over to stand beside Jake, ruffling his hair.

"That's dandruff." Jake says right away, leaning away. "Disgusting." Kie grimaced and Pope pushes JJ away. "Okay, thank you." He says and JJ gestured to all the pieces of paint that was in his hair. "Look at all that. Alright? That's paint. And that point, I was just, like... I'm waiting for death." He says, looking at John B and Jake furrows his brows.

"Oh, okay, so you saw the guys that shot at us, right?" Pope asked, his hands over his forehead. "Yeah." JJ says. "Did you get a good description of them? What did they look like?" Jake asked him, looking over at him then John B. "Yeah, anything. Anything's helpful." Kie says, glancing at Jake then over at JJ.

"Anything we can bring to, like, a police report?" Pope asked him. "Yeah." Kie said as she glanced at John B then over at JJ who takes a moment. "Burly." The blond turns to his friends. "Burly?" Pope said as Jake scrunched up his face in confusion. "Yeah, you know, like..." JJ trailed off, pondering. "That's not very helpful." Kie says, putting her hand over her mouth. "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." He explained.

"Yeah. Yes. No, we know." Kie says as JJ carries on, "alright, well, so I can tell you with full confidence, these boys, these killers..." He pants, leaning against the brick wall. He takes drag from the juul he took out from his pocket, exhaling out just as quickly to continue, "they're square groupers." He looks at them.

"They're square groupers, like narco square grouper? Like Pablo Escobar square grouper?" Pope asked him and JJ nods. "Yeah, man." He says. "You guys, not everything is a kingpin movie." Kie said and Jake sighs. "Okay, so what does this square grouper look like? Specifically?" He said, looking up at JJ.

"Yeah, because apparently you don't know what to look for." Pope said, turning to the blond. "You weren't there, bro," JJ defends himself as the boy talks then stepped forwars. "Dude! I wasn't taking mental Polaroids the entire time. Man, I was under duress, okay?" He exclaimed and backed away. "Okay, JJ... relax." Jake sighs, looking at Pope who leaned back, crossing his arms. The blond took a deep breath and Jake waits for him, tilting his head.

"But I can tell you..." He took another deep breath and Jake nods, just waiting patiently. "I can tell you by the way that Ms. Lana was screaming... that these guys are serious, serious hombres, man." He says and Jake glanced over at John B who took out the compass. "It's a heavy vibe right now, okay? I'm not liking this very much." JJ says as the realization hit Jake so suddenly afterwards. How dangerous that these men were, all for that compass they found.

"Okay, why would they want the compass?" Kie asked them suddenly. "That thing's a piece of shit. You couldn't pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted to." Pope said and Jake looks at him, nudging his arm gently. The boy looks at John B, "no offense, John B. I know it's in your family--" "The office." John B turns to them, ignoring the insult or the apology afterwards.

"What?"

"My dad. My dad's office."

He walks past Kie, Pope and Jake. "He always kept the office locked because he was worried about his competitors stealing his Royal Merchant research." He says as he walks past JJ, approaching the front door and the other teens follow behind the boy.

"I mean, we used to laugh at him about it, like he was actually gonna find it. But now that he's gone, I've just kinda..." He stopped at the door as Jake appears by his side, Kie next to him and behind her are Pope and JJ. "I just left it as he kept it." He explains, glancing back at the two to his side then over at the other two. "Yeah, for when he gets back." Kie says making Jake look at her almost right away.

"Yeah." John B says as JJ and Pope share a look then look at Kie who sends them a look. They head into the office John B had just unlocked, looking around. "I've slept over here like 600 times, and I've never seen this door opened." Pope says as Jake also shares the same fascination, looking around.

John B brings over a corkboard. "Here, look." He says, pointing at a photo, "this is the original owner, right here." He pointed and they all stand around. "Okay. Robert Q. Routledge. 1880 to 1920. There's the lucky compass, right there." Kie said, smiling as she pointed at it, looking at John B next to her.

"Actually, um... he was shot after he bought it." John B explains, looking at her and her smile went away, glancing away. "Then the compass was shipped back to Henry." He pointed at the photo of a man on the front porch of a house. "Henry was killed in a crop-dusting accident when he had the compass." He explained. "After he died, the compass was given to Stephen. Stephen had the compass with him when he died in Vietnam." He said, pointing at a photo of an army man right below Henry.

"Let me guess, he died in action, right?" JJ said and Jake glanced up at him. "Sort of. Uh, a-actually, he was killed by a banana truck. In--in country." John B answers his question and Jake glanced over at him, confused.

"Anyways, after that, Stephen passed the compass down to him, my dad." He says, pointing at a photo of little John B, fishing with his dad. "Hmm. Sounds like there's a reoccurring theme here." JJ says, looking at John B. "Yeah, um, you have a death compass." Pope said, also looking at John B as Jake sighs. "No, I do not have a death compass." John B defends himself. "You have a death compass." Pope says again.

"Seriously, dude, get rid of it."

"Guys, stop."

"It's cursed and its made its way back to you."

A.N.
i like season 1 much more for some reason but yk, i fuck with season 2 as well i guess
and pls what kie says to jj when he ruffled his hair to show them the paint chips in his hair 😭 lmfao "that's dandruff"