𝐃𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝚬 𝐒𝚬𝐂𝐑𝚬𝐓, ʲᵒʰⁿ ᵇ ʳᵒᵘᵗˡᵉᵈᵍᵉ

iii. just keep lying

"it means the world to me, bri," john b stepped closer. his girlfriend brought him into a fierce hug. "you can help." briar squeaked in excitement. "but, if it gets dangerous, you're getting the hell outta dodge."

the mom-to-be nodded. "i can work with that."

the duo exited the druthers when sarah cameron popped out of nowhere. "oh! hey," sarah looked at the duo suspiciously. she hadn't seen her cousin since the night before. this was the first time sarah had seen the damage topper had done to her best friend. "are you stalking us? plotting your revenge?"

sarah only looked to john b when she spoke. sarah had always done the same thing every time the girls had fought. if briar was mad, sarah turned it around and got mad at briar. apparently, the cold shoulder briar was currently receiving, meant the same thing was happening again.

"yeah. why don't you just tell your daddy i blew the bilge on the druthers?" john b was lying again. briar held her breath, begging sarah didn't notice. "everything's good to go. just topping off these tanks."

briar followed john b down to the HMS pogue, where he deposited the bag of tanks.

"hey, are you okay?" sarah trailed after them. "'cause that eye of yours looks really gnarly. nice nose, bri."

"you know what?" briar and john b said in sync. the couple smiled wide at each other.

"you can tell topper he won the first round," john b said. "we'll get him next time."

"we as in, you and my cousin you knocked up? what, so there's just gonna be a reign of terror on this island now?" sarah deadpanned.  briar flipped her cousin off, offended.

"wars have been started for less, sarah cameron," john b said as he untied the boat. "and almost drowning me and nearly breaking my pregnant girlfriend's nose seems like a good reason."

"okay. can we drop the whole pogues versus kooks thing? it is really stupid," sarah said. briar looked at her cousin, confused. sarah had never opposed the war before.

"that's easy to say when you're not torn between the two," briar snapped.

"you're a kook, sarah cameron," john b added. "you just don't get it."

with that, john b helped briar onto the HMS pogue, and they were off. briar turned back to salute sarah, which she turned into flipping her off. she had to hide her chuckle when her cousin did the same thing.

🃏

"i still don't get why she's here," kie looked at briar who was sitting on the edge of the boat.

"we're a team, kie," john b smiled, slinging his arm around briar. "and besides, you two need to get along. little man's gonna need his aunt kiki and that doesn't work if you two hate each other."

"aunt kiki?" kie scoffed. "please, i would rather be aunt kiara than kiki."

"my mom's high school friend's name was kiki," briar remarked. "she turned out to be a stripper."

jj laughed real loud at that. "goddamn, where do i meet kiki? and who on earth was cece valentine associating herself with?"

"high school cece was wild," briar laughed. "the stories holly and i have heard could fill a library."