P4L, carpe diem (JJ Maybank)

057

I stood up.

"Yo, hold that thought," JJ said, following me towards my brother, who I stood right beside.

His eyes were tearing up as he looked at the tree. He was biting his lip to hide the quiver. He sighed, and sniffled his nose. "It's a cute art project," he added, his voice softly breaking. "Killed the tree, though."

I shut my eyes, letting out a chuckle.

"Probably. Yeah," JJ added, with a laugh. "Oops."

He continued. "It was Dylan's idea though."

I looked at him with a scoff. "Blaming me now, huh, Blondie?" I asked him, crossing my arms. He chuckled down at me, but I turned back around to my brother.

"I freaking missed you, man," JJ continued, embracing my brother into a hug.

...

We all made our way back towards the fire. We heard the Pogue engine start up and we all turned around.

"Oh! All right!" JJ shouted, as we saw Kie and Pope drive away on it.

"Have a good time!" Sarah shouted back with a giggle.

"There he goes. He jacked your boat, guys," JJ laughed, nudging my arm.

"Pope's poking on the Pogue," my brother said.

"Ow-OW!" Sarah and I yelped.

...

In the midst of our laughing, I began hearing something. "You should probably—" JJ began, but I cut him off.

"Wait, wait," I said, thinking I heard a car door slam shut.

"What, babe?" JJ asked me. I looked at our chicken coop since the slam came from there.

"What was that?" I looked at my brother. "Did you hear that?"

He nodded, and I turned my head right around again. "Yooooour chicken?" JJ asked me.

"I heard a car door," I muttered.

JJ began clucking like a chicken, so I used my hand to cover his mouth. I continued to look in that direction, beginning to hear scuffling towards up. "Up the tree, now," I demanded in a whisper.

...

We put out the fire and began scuffling our way up the tree.

We watched as two men came into view: Barry and Rafe. WITH guns.

Me and JJ were on the same branch. He held me tightly in front of him, rather to keep me from falling off or just to keep me close.

I looked at my brother, who was tearing up a bit. I was keeping myself from that point. Barry went inside the house, keeping his gun up and ready.

We all watched from up high. I looked at Sarah, who was scared too, mostly cause that was her brother.

Barry continued to yell at Rafe, "you find them?"

I shivered as soon as they said that. Who's them?

Dumbass, they're at YOUR house. Who'd you think?

Barry continued to throw stuff around from inside the Chateau. "Yo!" He shouted at Rafe, who was waddling around our yard.

"Anything?" Rafe asked him.

"No, ain't shit in there, bro," Barry answered.

"No? Nothing?"

"No, nothing, Rafe."

They were right under us, so close as if we fell down, we'd land on our asses right in front of them. "They were obviously just here based off the smoke!" Rake pointed at our smoldering fire.

"Yeah. Great observation, Boy Scout."

"They're not far, y'know?" Rafe shouted.

"Smokey the Bear, look at you!" Barry cheered, sarcastically.

"They gotta be around here somewhere."

"That little slut Dylan's lucky we didn't bring Tommy along. You know how pissed he's been since she beat his ass. Don't know why he covered for her, though," Barry sighed, and I looked at JJ, who was tensing up.

Yeah, it pissed me off. A lot. But it pissed JJ off more, who looked as if he was going to drop down and beat these asses. I shook my head at him, and looked at John, who was looking at me as if to make sure I was still there.

I looked back down. Rafe was staring at the tree grave, and scoffed. He turned around towards Barry, pointing his gun at the tree with the opposite arm.

"'P4L'," Barry scoffed.

"Well, shit," Rafe laughed.

"So, your sister's a Pogue for life, huh, Rafe? Now who would've thought?"

Rafe shook his head, beginning to hyperventilate and get more pissed than he already was. "SHIIIIT!"

"Woah—" Barry began to warn, as Rafe cocked the gun and began firing it at the tree. Barry ran at him, pulling his arm up and to stop him from firing. In the midst of Barry pulling up, Rafe shot up at us, which miraculously hit the part of tree which shielded me and JJ's face.

From the sound we backed away and shielded our entire faces with the tree. I held my breath to keep myself from hyperventilating.

"Hey, chill out, bro! Rafe!!" Barry shouted at him, as he finally stopped shooting the gun. "Chill your shit! Chill out!! You're gonna get our asses busted, dawg! Let's bounce. Let's go!" Barry demanded, as they both began running back to the truck.

I peaked my head out, examining the part of the tree the bullet was shot into. Thank God it wasn't hollow like my dad had thought.

We all got down from the tree and that night, we did anything but sleep. We were too nerve-racked.