RIVER | JJ MAYBANK

THIRTEEN

MENTAL POLAROIDS

"And then we were right outside like this." JJ reacted the events from earlier to Kie and Pope. "And all we hear is just, 'Bam. Bam. Bam!' Knocking paint off the wall, G. From the inside. Alright? And I'm just lookeking at them-" JJ quickly got distracted. "Wait, first off, look at this shit." JJ said as he ran his fingers through his hair, making the paint fall out.

"That's dandruff, disgusting." Kie said, scrunching up her face.

"Okay thank you." Pope said pushing away JJ.

"Look at all that. Alright? That's paint." JJ looked towards Kie and Pope. "At that point, I was just, like I'm waiting for death." JJ exaggerated.

"Oh, okay, so you saw the guys that shot as us right?" Pope questioned lifting his head to look at an agitated JJ.

"Yeah." JJ confirmed.

"Did you get a good description of them? What did they look like?" Pope questioned looking between the three.

"Anything?" Kie nodded. "Anything helpful?" She needed more than that.

"Anything we can bring to a police report maybe?" Pope asked as JJ paced around.

"Burly." JJ said. River furrowed her brows, trying not to chuckle.

"Burly?" Pope questioned.

"Yeah, you know, like—"  JJ attempted to explain.

"That's not very helpful." Kie said dismissively.

"Okay, well no, like the type of guy at my dad's garage. I mean, you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers." JJ ranted on.

"Yeah. Yes. No, we know." Kie nodded.

"I can tell you with full confidence, guys, these boys, these killers, they're square groupers." JJ said as he pulled out his e-cigarette and took a drag.

"They're square groupers, like narco square grouper? Like Pablo Escobar square grouper?" Pope said placing his head in his hand.

River glanced between the four, neither her or John B had said a word. She jumped up on the ledge of the banister and dangled her feet.

"Yeah man." JJ said taking another drag.

"You guys, not everything is a kingpin movie." Kie pointed out.

"Okay. So what does this square grouper look like? Specifically?" Pope continued to ask questions. River could tell that JJ was getting more and more stressed out.

"You weren't there bro!" JJ shouted, River jumped down from the ledge and went to stand beside JJ.

"And apparently you don't know what to look for!" Pope shouted back frustratedly.

"Dude, I wasn't taking little mental Polaroid's the entire time. Man I was under duress okay?" JJ snapped, River grabbed his hand and gave it a light squeeze. "But I can tell you..." JJ paused. "I can tell you by the way that Ms. Lana was screaming, that these guys are serious, serious hombres, man. It's a heavy vibe right now, okay? I'm not liking this very much."

"Okay why would they want the compass?" Kie questioned curiously.

"It's a piece of shit, you couldn't pawn it off for five Bucks if you wanted too." Pope added, River was quick to slap him on the head. "What the hell was that for?" He questioned rubbing his head. River rolled her eyes and looked to John B who was holding the compass in his hand. "No offence, John B. I know it's in your family—"