❝ Life's only fun if you're a Pogue, Rafe ❞
❝ You're not a Pogue, you taste way too good ❞
𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗟𝗗
would have predicted
this summer to be full
of gunshots and blood,
since beers and surf
sounded like a great plan...
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Outer Banks, the Château July 15th, 2020 9:48pm
At the exact moment I arrived at John B's shack, a car parked near it, and Kiara and Pope both made their way out of the vehicle. They smiled as they saw me and Kiara opened her arms before rushing over to me to pull me in a hug. "Tessa! I'm so glad you're here, we tried to call you but you didn't respond!" she exclaimed.
I hugged her softly and we both heard Pope chuckling behind us. "Eh, don't worry I think she was in good company," he stated before pointing at my neck.
My cheeks reddened but thanks to the darkness they didn't notice it and so I just tilted my head to the side, nodding. Kiara groaned and we all laughed before making our way to the Chateau's yard. We remained silent in the alley, but when we caught a glimpse of colourful lights all over the trees, we looked at each other, confused. We weren't expecting John B to throw a party in his yard and it wasn't really a Routledge thing to do.
We soon perceived JJ, enjoying his time in a huge hot tub, and I gasped. We took place in front of him and a weird smile drew across his lips as he saw the three of us coming closer. He had sunglasses on his face even though it was completely dark and a bottle of champagne on his hand, with many glasses on the edge of the tub, for us, I assumed. "What did you do, JJ?" Pope asked, his voice cracking.
"I got a jet going straight in my butt right now," he stated, which made me giggle but Kiara threw me a dark gaze so it subsided soon and JJ grabbed a glass in which he poured champagne. "Y'all should get in immediately! You hear me? Salute!"
We remained quiet for a little while, still trying to process what was happening and why JJ Maybank had bought a hot tub when we knew how broke he was. I looked all over the place and met JJ's eyes, in which I read much pain, and I could tell something was up with him. "How much did it cost?" I asked.
"Hum, well with the generator, the petrol and express delivery.. Pretty much all of it yeah," JJ responded, chuckling proudly.
My heart skipped a beat since I knew how much money he owed my family and even with all the help I could try to get him, he would never make it to repay 30k. I felt guilty for it but I couldn't just ask my parents to give me money and not this amount, so I just had to watch him struggle and it hurt. JJ should have used the money for the restitution, to save him from the shit he was in, but since it didn't seem to be his priority, it comforted me in my idea that something else was up.
"You spent all the money in one day?" Pope questioned, taken aback.
"Yeah burned a whole right through my pocket," JJ justified. "But I mean, come on guys look at this! Finest in jet based massage that's what they told me. Can't a man have a little luxury in life?"
"JJ, are you okay?" I broke in, tears pecking my eyes.
He took off his sunglasses and I noticed he wasn't since his eyes were red and puffy probably from crying and he laughed a little. I could tell it wasn't a real laugh, and he wasn't a hundred percent honest with all of us. He nodded and locked his blue eyes in mine, raising the champagne glass in the air as he began speaking quite loudly, since the hot tub was noisy.
