Shattered- Outer Banks Fanfic [JJ MAYBANK]

xix

"Pope!" 

"Tana JJ can't know" Pope stressed as he shoved his cap onto his head covering his cut; forgetting about the bandaid. He looked over at the girl who had dry blood crisping up on her arm and he spared a glance at her pinkie that was now black and blue and grimaced. Montana was still running off adrenaline and hadn't had a chance to focus on the pain. She pulled a hoodie out of her bag and slipped it on before the blonde entered the boat. She grabbed the last cold juice box from her cooler and sat down at the back of the boat pulling her knees to her chest. 

Sitting alone at the back of the boat gave Montana a chance to take a look at her finger which she was almost positive was broken. She had to bite her lip to stop the agonising scream from coming out when she tried to wiggle it and decided to just hold the juice box to it and look out at the water. 

"Dude, you are not going to believe what just happened to me, man!" she saw the blonde bounding down the dock with a skip in his step and didn't want his happy mood to be tarnished but knew when he found out his best friend was hurt it would be gone in an instant. "Whoo! That was the best 100 bucks I've ever made! When I say count me in on all these grocery deliveries, Pope, I mean it." As soon as his feet hit the floor of the boat Pope had started it up and they were moving. "What's up with you? Did you guys have a fight?" he noticed the solemn atmosphere between the two; Pope in the cabin and Montana not saying a word just clutching a juice box to her chest, weird he thought. "Bro you good?" Pope hadn't said a word since he hopped on the boat, not even looking at him and it kind of hurt his feelings. The blonde looked over his friend trying to determine what his problem was when he noticed a bit of red peeking out from beneath his cap. 

"Yo, what happened to your face, dude?" he pulled the boy's cap up and saw the gash that had thankfully stopped bleeding and had clearly been cleaned. "Jesus!" Pope just shrugged him off, pulling his hat back down. The blonde glanced back at the girl who was wearing a hoodie, she wasn't wearing that before. "What happened?" It was clear Montana had cleaned him up and though she didn't look great he couldn't see any real damage, not that he was looking. 

"Rafe and Topper jumped me." He let out as the blonde ran an angry hand through his hair looking back at the girl sitting on her own at the back of the boat as anger grew inside him; did she let this happen? "They said no Pogues on their side of the island." 

"Where was she when this happened?" he spat with venom in his tone using his hand to gesture to the girl, "Just enjoyed the show?" He was about to storm to the back of the boat when Pope gripped his wrist and looked at him for the first time. 

"Don't," he ordered, and the blonde hadn't heard the kind of sternness in his voice before and immediately spun to look back at him only now noticing the tear stains on the boy's cheeks and his anger faltered. "Tana took a few hits as well" he added lowly; upset he still hadn't had a chance to comfort the girl. The blonde looked back at the girl with an expression Pope couldn't read muttering 'I thought she was friends with them'. 

"Hey Pope, can you drop meat Kie's dock?" Montana's voice cracked at the mention of her best friend who she really needed a hug from. She loved Pope so much but he had his friend and she didn't want to feel even more judgment from the one person who hated her. Both boys turned around to see the girl packing up her bag; only using one hand, she pulled the last two bottles out of her cooler and made her way to the cabin handing one to each of them. 

"Are you sure Tana?" Pope wanted her to stay with them, it was his fault she got hurt, they would never intentionally hurt her and if he had just done the delivery alone she would be scratch free. The least he thought he could do was offer her some help cleaning her up, plus if his dad found out his favourite employee was hurt and Pope let her go all hell would break loose. She just nodded as she began shuffling through her pockets and stepping into the cabin.