Denial || An OBX Story

Chapter Thirteen

The ride home was very quiet. It was easy to tell that John B was embarrassed about his breakdown in the house. Surely, he felt bad as well. He had just yelled at a terrified woman who'd just previously been broken in on and possibly hurt.

The three quietly entered the house. Pope and Kie smiled and greeted them from where they were sitting. They'd gotten to the chateau as quickly as possible after Maddie texted them to be there before they arrived.

After everyone settled Maddie addressed what had happened. John B was pretty quiet, only making small comments when a detail was missed or even slightly over dramatized.

Throughout the explanation, JJ started to get riled up. He took matters into his own hands. "And then we were right outside like this." He presses he back to the fireplace and puts his head down for a second. "And then all we just hear is, bam, bam, bam!" He yells. "Knocking paint off the wall, G! From the inside."

"JJ. JJ." Maddie mumbles. She drops her head in her hands before looking back up again. She pulls JJ's hat off of her head and runs her fingers through her hair before putting it on once again. She leans back in the red recliner she was sitting in, looking up at John B and then at JJ again.

"What, Maddie? You know it's true. You were there." He questions her, as if she was the one acting slightly delusional. "And I'm just looking at him, like... Wait, first off, look at this shit." He scurries over to Kiara, leaning over and ruffling his hair, making it puff up. "Look at it." Small white flakes fell from his head, making the whole group cringe in honest disappointment.

"That's dandruff" Kiara mumbles, sending a look towards Pope who tells him that it's enough.

"Look at all that. All right? That's paint. At that point, I was just, like... I'm waiting for death." He insists. He wanted the whole group to believe him. What he was saying was true, but he was overdramatizing every word that came from his mouth.

"Okay, so you saw the guys that were shooting at us, right?" Pope asks, earning a reassuring 'yes' from JJ. "Did you get a good description of them? What did they look like?"

"Anything."

JJ looked more stressed as the group asked him for more details, making Maddie and John B to just stare at him with their eyebrows furrowed. "Burly." He finally comes up with.

Maddie just smiled, leaning back with a silent laugh.

"That's not very helpful." Kiara admits with her lips drawn into a line. She knew JJ didn't have an answer, but still felt disappointed when he came up empty handed.

JJ sighs. "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."

"Yes. Yes, no we know."

JJ was getting impatient, and upset that his friends couldn't get a conclusion from his bland description. "I can tell you with full confidence, these boys, these killers... they're square groupers." He speaks again, taking a hit and blowing the smoke into the air of the chateau.

"They're square groupers, like narco square grouper? Like Pablo Escobar square grouper?" Pope kept asking questions. Apparently not coming to the conclusion that JJ had very little idea about what he was actually saying.

Maddie runs her hand down her face. "Just when I thought this conversation couldn't get any dumber."

"Guys, not everything is a Kingpin movie." Kiara adds, sharing a judgy look with Maddie.

"You were there too Maddie, I don't see you helping us out very much." JJ argues back at Maddie, ignoring the quick comment that Kie had made.

"What does this square grouper look like? Specifically?"

"You weren't there." JJ whines,

Pope and JJ start to raise their voices. John B stared at them with a blank expression. "Apparently, you don't know what to look for."

I wasn't taking little mental Polaroids the entire time, man. I was under duress, okay?" JJ finally lets out. He ran out of breath by the end of the sentence. "But I can tell you... I can tell you by the way
that Ms. Lana was screaming... that these guys are serious, serious hombres, man. It's a heavy vibe right now, okay? I'm not liking this very much."

John B moves from where he was leaning on the floor wall. "Okay, why would they want the compass?" Kiara questions.

"The thing is a piece of shit." Pope says quickly, making Maddie look it him while she presses her lips. "You couldn't pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted to. No offense John B, I know it's like in your fami..."

"The office." John B interrupts him. JJ exhales another mouthful of smoke as his head snaps towards John B. "My dad. My dad's office. He always kept his office locked because he was worried about his competitors stealing his Royal Merchant research." He speeds past everyone, into the hallway. Maddie nods her head as she stands up quickly to follow him. "We used to laugh at him all the time about like he was gonna find it. But, now that he's gone..."

He stopped. He froze and looked at the door. Maddie stood to his left and placed a hand on the small of his back.

"I just left it. As he kept it."