𝐒𝐎𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐒; outer banks

CHAPTER THREE

"Oh, really?" Atticus replied sarcastically as his face scrunched up into a teasing expression, causing a laugh to bubble up Renna's throat. She climbed up the jet-ski with ease before looking down at one of her knuckles. It was covered in blood.

"That looks gnarly, dude," John B observed from the boat with a nod in her direction, catching Atticus' attention from the water.

"Shit, Ren. What happened? You said you were okay." He started to swim over to the floating, pink vehicle with the girl on top of it, worry flickering within his emerald irises as he swam. She spun around to press her back against the handles, shaking her stinging hand beside her to try and relieve the pain.

"I am. It's nothing, Atticus, don't worry," she tried, but he wasn't having any of it. He clambered back onto the jet-ski, his knees softly colliding with hers, as he held out his two pale hands.

"Show me." He gently pulled her fingers towards him, taking in the red scratches that lathered her bloody knuckle.

"It's fine, barely even bleeding. See," she pushed before pulling her hand away from his and squeezing it into a tight ball. She sent him a reassuring smile, meeting his deadpan expression with her light one before he let out a sigh. They couldn't continue their conversation - however - because of Pope's newfound obstacle. They hadn't really hit a sandbar.

"Guys, I think there's a boat down there," he interrupted the group from their mumbles of complaints or their one on one conversations. A collection of disbelieving statements were shared as Renna, Atticus and John B sent each other worried yet confused glances. "No, no, guys. I'm serious. There's like a boat down there, for real."

"Holy shit, he's right. Let's go," Kiara muttered after her and John B had peered into the water beside Pope with sparks of interest. The girl turned towards the back of the boat, hurriedly gesturing to the two Pogues on the jet-ski to make their way into the murky water. It wasn't long before the dark-haired girl had disappeared into the water herself.

Atticus looked back at Renna with a grin, playfully saluting her before spinning in his seat and diving off the back of the small vehicle. "What the hell," Renna muttered to herself as she glanced around the seemingly empty area before following suit herself. They swam down to the bottom, collectively sharing gazes from under the marsh water as they surveyed the sunken boat. It wasn't long before they ran out of breath, the Pogues quickly swimming back up to the surface to get their needed oxygen.

"You guys saw that, right?" JJ gasped excitedly after the group had broken the surface.

"Yeah," Pope agreed as he gasped for air. Atticus and Renna looked at each other with huge grins before expanding their sight and laughing along with the rest of their friends.

"That's a Grady-White. A new one of those is like five-hundred G's, easy," JJ commented as they began swimming to the boat, all but the two who'd travelled on the flamboyant jet-ski.

"Then what's it doing out here?" Atticus asked with a mixture of concern and confusion, Renna gulping before averting her gaze from the worried boy to the boat floating just before them.

"That's the question," Pope agreed with a point and a nod in the boy's direction.

"That's the boat I saw when I surfed the surge. Maybe it hit the jetty or something?" John B suggested as he wiped his eyes clean of the dirty water.