Breathless | JJ Maybank

5. DIVER DOWN

Outer Banks, the marsh
July 11th, 2020
4:57pm

"Guys this is empty. You took empty tanks," Kiara spoke up after a quick gear check. "This one's a quarter full. Good enough for one of us"

I bit the inside of my cheek, feeling bad that I didn't get to come with him so we could check the tanks together. I mean, maybe I could have helped, and even if I didn't, at least the blame wouldn't be fully on him. Plus, it would have avoided me a conversation with my ex, but that was not the subject at all and I didn't want to think about him. We all stayed quiet for a few instants, analysing the situation which, by the way, looked quite tangled when we didn't even get started.

Being in the closed marsh looking for anything that would help us learning more about what was fully prohibited was quite exciting in a way, and had me forgetting about anything else so I wasn't going to complain. And if I didn't want to be in trouble, I could have stayed on that beach alone. "Maybe we can leave and come back with other tanks?" I offered.

"Genius plan Golfing girl, so what? We just let the cops have all the evidences, before we do?" JJ asked, taken aback by my offer.

"I mean, is that not what police is here for?" I laughed.

JJ got closer to me and placed an hand on my shoulder, which would have been extremely hot in another context. All eyes were on us so I wasn't about to yield and please him. "People like you trust cops, I mean, why would you not? They protect your people, but not us okay? I don't fucking trust them. None of them. So get your fucking ass out of that boat if you're gonna be a traitor already," he threatened, his hoarse voice making it to my eardrums even though he wasn't talking very loudly.

"It's pretty ironic from someo-" I began.

"Alright, so does anyone know how to dive?" Kiara asked, cutting our argument off before it could go deeper.

We all stayed quiet once again, JJ throwing me a dark gaze I ignored. I felt his eyes on me for a few more seconds but I didn't give him the satisfaction of knowing his attitude worked on me. Why was he so mean to me just because I was born on the other side of the island? I mean, growing up, I never ever cared about this whole war and honestly I never understood why we had to hate each other. When I was born a Kook, my opinion on Pogues was neutral and my parents never really forced me to hate them. They just liked me with Kooks better because they were rich and they could see me marrying a wealthy man. How awful.

"I read about it," Pope responded.

"Great! Pope read about it so someone's gonna die!" Kiara ironically reassured everyone.

"You put the thing in your mouth and you breathe, how hard can it be?" JJ asked, which was too dumb to be pointed out.

Even without knowing anything about scuba diving, everyone here (besides JJ apparently) knew it wasn't only about breathing and swimming. "If you come up too fast, nitrogen gets into your blood and you get the bends," Pope warned his blonde friend calmly.

JJ all of sudden weirdly arched his back, lifting his ass in the hair as he held on to the boat's helm. "Bend like - bend over?" he inquired very seriously.

I looked away not to burst out in laugh, but he saw that I wanted to laugh and I wasn't sure whether it amused him or vexed him. I tried to act back normal not to be too disrespectful even if he deserved it (I just had had a proper education that had taught me how to be respectful) and I noticed on the others faces that they didn't find it as amusing as I had.

"The bends kill you," Pope added, which was necessary.

To what I knew and had seen so far, Pope was the brain of the operation, a sort of Sheldon Cooper (but more fun) mixed with Sherlock Holmes (but way more modern). If Pope feared what would happen, then maybe it was just not a good idea. And I wasn't just thinking this because I was scared, since I wasn't, but I simply didn't want any death to happen so stupidly and maybe for nothing, since we had no idea at all what was in that boat. And if there was even something or if Scooter was a normal guy and the cash they had found in his motel room was just the money he had saved.