Breathless | JJ Maybank

8. THE LIGHTHOUSE

Outer Banks, the van
July 13th, 2020
12:59 am

After waking up to the sound of my phone ringing and reading the same usual name I tried so hard to ignore on the screen, I had gotten ready and waited for the Pogues to pick me up. Kiara had told me there was new in our treasure hunt and John B knew something about the Redfield thing he hadn't told them about yet. At first, I was a bit reluctant and hesitated to go with them, after what we had been through on the previous day, but as I said, giving up wasn't my philosophy. So I showered, put on some fresh clothes and ran to the van as the vehicle made its way in front of the gate of my mansion.

"I'm glad you came," Pope whispered in my ear and I smiled, sitting down as John B drove away from Figure-Eight.

"Of course I did," I smiled softly.

"I mean it's obvious right? a family heirloom! What better place to hide a message? He had to know it was gonna get back to me, right?" John B spoke up, waiting for our approval.

"Yeah it's possible," Pope shrugged. "It could also be possible that you're concocting wild theories to, you know, deal with your sad feels"

This made me sad but at the same time we couldn't deny this was a possibility and even though John B seemed to believe that it was his dad sending him messages, like a sort of treasure hunt, I didn't think it was that deep. But it was worth the risk, and it helped me occupying my mind with other things that Rafe trying to reach out to me every two seconds through the phone. I could have blocked his phone number but honestly, he would have just found another way to reach me, and another one, and another one, so I didn't want to waste my time. I just let him do whatever he wanted, even if it meant harassing me.

"Bro, you know how I process my sad feels," JJ began. "Dank nugs and the stickiest of ickies"

I giggled and as JJ threw me a dark look letting me know it wasn't the right time to laugh, I immediately stopped. Not only that I didn't want troubles but if it was about John B's feelings, I didn't want to hurt them more. So for once, I did what JJ wanted me to, which was to shut up. "I'm not concocting okay? My dad is trying to give me a message," John B argued.

"If it helps you believe, John B," Kiara told the brunette boy.

"Look, I don't need a therapy session okay?" John B snapped. "I'm not tripping  out"

"It's okay to trip," I tried to reassure him.

"Look my dad is missing okay? You don't know what it's like to have the closest person to you vanish, and have no idea what happened. Just wake up every morning wondering," John B told us, throwing us looks in the rearview mirror.

I felt bad because even though I had always just known it must have been hard loosing your father, I didn't know they were so close. Yes, JJ had told me a little about how complicated it had been, for all of them, but seeing John B opening up so much and being so fully convinced that his dad was still out there broke my heart. Not that I didn't believe in this, but it was a bit confusing and I doubted highly we, teenagers, could take care of this case ourselves if it turned out to be true. But I kept my doubts to myself. "Maybe he's laying low in French Polynesia and has no service so he can't text or call you," I shrugged trying to clean the air, as Kiara gave me a frank smile.

"Exactly. Or he could have been kidnapped, that's definitely a possibility," JJ added, as John B kept driving.

"Could be in a Soviet sub getting interrogated by the KGB somewhere," Pope voiced and it started to take a different turn.

JJ smirked. "Absolutely. Or Atlantis," he said.

Kiara obviously didn't find this last sentence funny but I hid my laugh and JJ noticed it so his smirk grew wider. I looked through the window not to blush (and I have this really annoying ability to blush for literally nothing) as our eyes connected. "What do you think your dad is trying to tell you?" I asked John B as the laugh subsided.