[ON HOLD] - Sweet Creature - [Outer Banks] - [JJ]

Get In Loser, We're Going To Steal

Song of the Chapter: This Must Be The Place by The Talking Heads

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Seagulls squawked from up above the Chateau's backyard shed, the heat surrounding the teenagers like a sauna. Remi laid with her head on Kiara's thigh, both girls sharing the small cushioned bench under the shade. Her legs hung over the arm of the bench, listening to the soft reverberation of the bongos Kiara played as she read a new book. Her mind was stuck in the dystopian society of Brave New World, her green eyes dancing over the words on the pages as her foot bobbed up and down in the air.

Pope sat on an adjacent chair, a book of his own in his hands. Away from the group, JJ leaned against a wobbly table, seeing how far he could throw rocks he had collected. The others were still a little apprehensive about JJ's actions at the party and rather than actually talk about it in a healthy way, they sat there, the uncomfortable thoughts swirling around them.

Stepping out from the inside of the shed, John B spoke up.

"Look, I'm callin' it off. Alright?" He glanced around at the group, his eyes finally landing on Remi for support to go on as she looked over her book. Kiara's bongo-playing stopped as they all listened to him. "Peterkin said that if I just stay out of the marsh, she'll help me with DCS." John B poked a fallen branch into the dirt.

"And you believed her?" JJ questioned, throwing a rock, the stone nearly landing in the marsh.

"Yes, I believe her, JJ." John B held his hands out in his defense.

"An actual cop, John B. You believed an actual cop?" JJ was dumbfounded.

"All I've gotta do is stay outta the marsh for a couple days, and she'll help me out." He explained, repeating what he had told Remi earlier. "And it doesn't help that your ass was the one shooting the gun." He tossed the stick aside.

"You know what I should've done, man? I should've let Topper drown your ass." JJ threw a rock. Remi's features screwed into a look of confoundment, the girl lifting her head from Kiara's leg and holding herself up with her elbows. Her finger stayed between the pages of her book, the cover closing slightly as she shifted.

"Topper was gonna drown me?" John B gave the kook boy the benefit of doubt.

"Sure looked like it." Truthfully, Remi did wonder just how long Topper would hold John B's head underwater. She wanted to believe people had good intentions, she really did, but the boy had always given her a bad feeling and she didn't know how far he'd go.

"Funny." John B nodded, not agreeing with JJ.

"Have you looked in the mirror?" JJ got off of the table, steeping over to the shed. He pointed to the nasty bruise on John B's cheekbone that extended to his black eye.

"Keep going. Come on. Give me some more." He egged the blonde on.

"They always win, don't they, man. Kooks versus pogues. They always, always win!" JJ smacked his hand on an old buoy line that hung between the beams of the shed, sending it swinging back and forth. Remi sat up fully, folding the corner of her page before tossing her book onto the small table in the middle of the makeshift seating area. The whole money laundering scheme she had planned and executed entered her mind. Remi sat there staring at her friend but in reality, her mind was drifting, the girl feeling like she wasn't really there.

"Look. It's okay!" Kie spoke up, surprised by the boy's outburst.

"No, it's not okay!" He spun back around, fed up with working for scraps and barely getting by. Remi bit down on her tongue, pulling herself back to the present. "It's not! They don't want us to go down into the marsh. That means there's something valuable down there, and you know it, man. I know you do." He focused his gaze on John B, the Routledge boy and Remi glancing at one another, knowing that they had spoken about this very thing earlier. This was one of the very rare times that JJ was right. JJ looked down to Pope, still sitting in the chair right in front of him. "And I know why you don't wanna go. You're the golden boy, and you've got way too much to risk. And you-" He turned to Kie. "I mean, you're already rich as fuck anyway. Why would you bother?" Remi rolled her eyes at the slight bitter tone in his voice as he faced her, crouching down in front of her. She stared back at him defiantly. "But you. I know your whole moral compass, 'treat people with kindness' mentality is getting in the way, but you need this money, okay? You need it for Mama Loretta and I know that you know it, too." Remi shifted her jaw to the side, pursing her lips in annoyance. He was right and her heart was sinking with the heavy weight of what she did two days before. Feeling as if she was bursting at the seams, Remi couldn't hold it in anymore.