BABYDOLL // JJ Outer Banks

thirteen

"we changed our minds. you can keep the dog," john b said as hannah and jj rejoined their friends on the porch without the dog.

"i was going to anyway, johnny b; i just left pogie in the bus because he was tired." hannah smiled, taking a seat on the couch beside kie who was sending her an apologetic look. "don't worry about me, guys. i know you're just trying to do what's best for me."

"anyways," jj said, launching into a re-enactment of he and john b's morning adventure. "-and we were right outside like this," he demonstrated, pressing himself down, pretending to hide. "and all we hear is just 'bam! bam! bam!' knocking paint off the wall from inside, alright? and i'm just looking at him like— wait, first off, look at this shit!" jj turned to hannah, pope, and kie and began shaking his head, causing tiny flecks of white paint to land on the teens' laps.

kie's face turned sour. "that's dandruff, disgusting."

"yeah, get away from me," hannah wiped her palms on her exposed thighs to sweep the paint onto the floor.

"okay, thank you," pope said, pushing jj's head away.

jj pointed to the white paint chips. "look at all that! alright? that's paint! at that point, i was just, like, i'm waiting for death!"

"same," hannah joked, earning her a small smack from kie.

pope pretended not to hear her. "okay, so you saw the guys that shot at us, right?"

"yeah," jj nodded.

"did you get a good description of them? what did they look like? anything we can bring to a police report, maybe?"

jj paused momentarily, wracking his brain for anything he could remember. "burly."

"oh god," hannah rubbed her temples.

pope looked at jj, trying to tell if he was serious. "burly?"

"yeah, you know like-"

"i know what burly means!"

"not very helpful," kie groaned.

"okay, well, no, like the type of guys at my dad's garage," jj explained. "i mean, you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers."

hannah shivered at the image.

"yeah, we know," kie said.

jj leaned his back on the edge of the door frame. "i can tell you with full confidence that these boys, these killers," jj ripped his juul, "they're square groupers."

hannah grabbed the juul and took a hit before leaning on jj's chest as pope spoke. "they're square groupers, like, narco square groupers? like, pablo escobar square groupers?"

jj nodded, blowing smoke from his lips and resting his chin on hannah's shoulder. "yeah, man."

kie rolled her eyes in disbelief. "not everything's a kingpin movie."

"what does a square grouper even look like? specifically," pope asked.

"burly," hannah laughed.

jj shook his head, drawing small circles on hannah's waist to calm himself down. "you weren't there, bro."

"well, you don't know what to look for!"

"dude, i wasn't taking little mental polaroids the whole time, okay? i was under duress!" hannah snorted. "but i can tell you by how ms. lana was screaming; these guys are serious, serious hombres, man."

"okay, well, why would they want the compass?" kie asked.

pope was equally confused. "yeah, it's a piece of shit. you couldn't pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted to. no offense, jb, i know it's in your family-"