Paradise Bound- an outerbanks fanfic

Episode 2

Muffled voices come from inside the boat and I stop and listen to see who Sarah is talking to and then John B comes out of the boat, looking confused. I raise an eyebrow at him.

"What's up, John B? That's a nice boo-boo eye you got going on there," I say, pointing to the bruise surrounding his eye. 

"Oh hey, Rain. I was just uhh.. dropping off tanks. Scuba tanks. Air tanks? And this?" he says, gesturing to his eye. "Yeah, barely even feel it. Topper isn't even that strong so... So yeah, I'm leaving now though," He says, walking backwards while looking at me, an obvious guilty look in his eyes.

I laugh outloud, "Wait, I'm sorry, are you doing the walk of shame right now, John B?"

"Walk of shame?" He says, trying to figure out what I mean. "Oh! The walk of shame! No! No, heh no. Uh no. Honestly, I was just dropping off tanks."

"Relax, John B. I'm just fucking with you," I say and I could see the relief in his eyes.

"Ha, that was funny," He says awkwardly and points down the dock, towards his boat. "I'm just gonna.. okay." He says and walks away.

"Oh hey, John B, tell blondie I say hi," I say, squinting at him, bringing a hand up to block the sun from my eyes. 

"JJ? Yeah, sure, I'll tell him,"

I shake my head and laugh at his nervousness and head inside the boat. 

"Rain! What are you doing here?" Sarah says, sitting up quickly.

"Literally where else would I be? I'm supposed to be up your ass 24/7, remember? Glued to the hip?" I say, plopping down on the couch she's sitting on. 

"True, true," she says, leaning her head on my lap.

"So, I saw John B outside on the dock," I tell her and she opens her eyes to look at me. Her blonde hair is sprawled out on my legs. I pick up a strand and rub it in my fingers, giving her a knowing look.

"Yeah, he uh, poached our scuba tanks and was just dropping them back off? I don't know why, I didn't ask,"

"Wait, he stole your tanks?" I say, standing up. She grumbles at the sudden movement and glares at me.

"Yeah, I don't care though. I mean, I'm sure he had an okay reason," she says with a shrug.

"What would be so important that he is willing to steal from his boss?" I ask, crossing my arms. Thinking back to the fight on the beach, I heard Pope yell something about needing to lay low and ruining everything, so John B stealing the tanks just adds more suspicion to their little group. 

"I didn't feel like questioning," she says, shrugging again.

"You're oddly calm," I say, cocking an eyebrow at her. "I assumed you would be at least a little annoyed."

"Who cares right? It didn't hurt us, so whatever. Him using a little bit of oxygen won't kill anyone," she says, laying back down and draping an arm over her eyes.

"Yeah, I suppose," typically she would be annoyed. The weird thing is, if Topper "borrowed" the scuba tanks, she would lose her shit. It would be grounds for a breakup or at least a major fight. But with John B, she doesn't care at all. 

"Oh, my dad wants us to help clean up the yard a little bit, so we gotta head down. Rafe and Topper are out at the golf club or whatever, but they'll be back soon. Just fair warning," Sarah tells me, sympathetically. 

"Yeah, that's fine. Gotta face my boyfriend at some point. Same to you, you know," I tell her sternly.

"Don't lecture me right now," she groans, "I need at least two shots of espresso before you do."