Denial || An OBX Story

Chapter Fifteen

None of the Pogues had anything to say to each other, they all sat around the living room in silence. Maddie was in John B's room, laid out on his bed on top of the covers. She barely even looked at anyone since they'd gotten back inside, even when Pope and Kiara tried to check on her. She wasn't scared or upset, she was angry. So angry over the fact that she wasn't able to defend her friends from men who were trying to kill them and the guilt was eating at her.

"Yo, let's go." John B barges into the room. Maddie wanted to release some of her anger on him, but in all fairness it was his room. John B held out his hand for Maddie to help her onto her feet. "Look, it's all good. Nothings going to happen to us."

Maddie shakes her head no, giving him a quick look in the eye. "I'm not scared." She doesn't give him even a second to respond before she pushes past him and leaves the bedroom. "Where the hell are we going?" She asks, the Pogues were ready to leave, but they were all waiting on her.

"John B's concocting." Pope deadpans, making Maddie quickly turn around to look at John B.

"Right..." Maddie mumbles after Pope. She rolled her eyes and when John B tried to defend himself but she interrupted him. "Whatever, let's go."

Maddie led the way out the door, not even looking back at any of her friends who were staring. She tried to pull the Twinkie door open, but it didn't budge. So she pulled again, and when it didn't move, she heard Kiara's voice.

"It's locked, genius." She smiles. Kie prepared for a rough response, knowing that Maddie was in a bad mood from earlier.

Thankfully, John B finally walks out the door and shuts it behind him, tossing Madeline the keys. "You're gonna need these, Mads."

But, she doesn't even have the keys in her hand for a second before she pelts them back at John B's chest. "I'm not driving."

Maddie sees as JJ starts to approach her, the sun peeking through the leaves on the trees and onto his tan face. The smirk he was wearing told her that he was going to do something stupid. "Taser." JJ snickers as he pokes her in the side, making Maddie fold over. He quickly ran away from her, climbing inside the van and taking his seat.

Maddie runs her hands through her hair before pulling the door back and looking at Pope. "I'm gonna kill him, Pope."

Pope just smiled and followed her into the back of the van. She sat across from JJ and kicked his knee only so hard that it would make his reflexes jump. He clutched it, acting as if he'd been shot.

They drove for a bit. None of the Pogues had been to the lighthouse recently, so they were a bit confused as to why John B would be so confident that it was the place his dad wanted them to go.

"I mean, it's obvious, right?" John B asks as they drive up a dirt road surrounded by woods. He was still looking for someone to be as sure of his answer as he was. "A family heirloom. What better place to hide a message? He had to know it was gonna get back to me, right?"

Pope, Maddie, and JJ all look at each other with the same look. None of them really knew what to think about the whole situation. Kiara answered, "Yeah, it's possible."

Pope shakes his head and goes to finally speak for himself as he looks at the compass in his hands. "It could also be possible that you're concocting wild theories to help, you know, deal with your sad feels."

"Pope?" John B's frustration started to show. He clearly wasn't very happy with the fact that his friends weren't believing what he was telling them.

JJ looks around the van, "Bro, you know how I process my sad feels." He turns back around and looks directly at Maddie. "Dank nugs and the stickiest of ickies, that's how I do it."