downgrade // jj maybank (obx)

i. twenty-nine - try

Violet Ranson

"You sure he got everything?" A disappointed Kie questions John B as he lies on the wooden floor. 

The group of Pogues sit at the end of the jetty, dejectedly reminiscing over the gold they never quite had. After receiving the news from John B that Ward had found a way to take it all from himself, they couldn't help but feel deflated for obvious reasons. Their one chance to get rich quick and get off the island... vanished. Never to be seen again.

"Every bar," John B groans, hating that he has to think about the gold he let slip away. "The whole enchilada."

Violet sits with her back against a solid wooden post, sitting on the floor with her legs outstretched in front of her. She fiddles with the net from the fishing set to her right, beyond bored out of her brain from the lack of conversation occurring on the pier. She understood that the group were disappointed in their defeat, but she couldn't help but feel that a particular blond's mood was down for other reasons than their lack of wealth. 

John B grips his black cast with his spare arm, wincing hard as he pulls it off slowly. Violet squints her eyes, grimacing with him as he pops it off like a frigid bracelet.

"It's not like I expected a happy ending or some shit," He says as he tosses the plaster across the ground. The dirty cast rolls across the floor in front of Violet, just an arm's length away for her to kick it into the still water. Of course, with Kie sitting and watching, she wouldn't do that. She wouldn't do that - period. Though for some reason, the thought did cross her mind...

"John B-" Kie sits up straight, about to berate him for removing the thing that's keeping his arm straight.

"What Kie?" He says, visibly annoyed. "It's a hairline fracture. Who cares?"

"You should care. Your arms gonna be messed up for life," Kie states. She dangles her legs above the wooden platform, sitting on the railing that encloses the small creaking space. 

JJ sits facing away from the group against the far wooden post. He smokes in silence, puffing out the contaminated air towards nothingness, not taking any interest in the conversation at hand. Violet hasn't been able to draw her eyes away from him since seating herself on the ground. Things were awkward enough as they were the previous night; with JJ locking himself in John B's room as soon as they returned to the Chateau. He hasn't said a word to her since their argument on the pier... and it was slowly eating her up inside.

"It's fine. See?" John B says, holding up his fractured arm for everyone to take a look at.

JJ looks over his shoulder, curious as to what the fuss is about. As he looks at John B, his curiosity furthers itself and takes a subtle glance toward Violet. Like she has this entire time - she stares right at JJ with her saddened blue eyes, waiting for him to say his first word of the day. She doesn't even mind if it's not to her; just any sign that he's still the same old JJ that she's grown to care for. 

Though no words exit his mouth as he turns his body and sits back the same way he has all afternoon. Violet sighs wholeheartedly, resting her head against the wood behind her with a thump;+ internally kicking herself for everything she said the night before.

"What's up with you, J?" John B asks in a tired voice, having been aware of his best friend's silence as well. "You haven't said a word this whole time."

"Yeah," Kie scoffs. "Are you sick or something?"

JJ shakes his head, holding the cigarette in front of his eyes with the tips of his fingers. He blows out the foul air in a sudden huff, looking out onto the horizon in an attempt to calm himself.