June March awoke to the sound of excited yelling, the girl being pulled out of a dream that she couldn't remember. She took a moment to open her eyes until she realized it was Kiara cheering JJ on, the girl quickly sitting up. She got up, her bones and muscles aching as she walked barefoot through the sand. It was decently early in the morning, the girl approaching Kie with a mess of bed hair and a sleepy smile.
"Morning. What are we yelling about?" Kie had a wide smile on her face that not even June could wipe off, the girl gesturing towards that June was missing. Her eyes followed her hand and she saw it, a flag. Poguelandia.
"What do you think baby?!" JJ shouted when he saw her, the girl immediately sending him a thumbs up. It was too early for her to yell.
"Hell yeah." June said, one eye squinted as she turned to walk back towards her bed. She was sore from the night before when John B had thrown her into the water, and she was tired from a restless night that had only attributed about a singular hour to letting her sleep. She couldn't stop thinking about that fucking cake. A symbol of what she could've had compared to what she did have.
"Oh no. No, no you're not going back to bed. Get the hell off your lazy ass." June groaned as she heard Tyler's voice, the boy walking up to her and shaking his head at her. He looked like a scolding mother the way he was tapping his foot and had his hands on his hips and she couldn't help but chuckle a little, sitting on the edge of her little cot and giving him a questioning look.
"What do you want?"
"You promised me yesterday that you would go look for rocks with me. New ones...for the spears." June cursed herself as she realized she had in fact said that the day before, her head dropping as she realized she was not going to get anymore sleep. She looked up at him defeated, holding her hand out for him to help her up. He smiled smugly, pulling her up and then letting go of her hand. He started walking off and she groaned but followed, her side sore as she caught up with him. Kie watched them as they walked off and away from the beach and she looked up at JJ, realizing this was her opportunity for some alone time.
June and Tyler talked about stupid shit for the entirety of their walk, the boy continuing to mention different foods he wished he was eating right now. Her stomach grumbled and he made fun of her, the two of them stopping at a stream and looking down at the ground. Tyler gave her a goofy smile, pointing towards the rocks.
"Rock."
"I see that." She said in a mildly annoyed voice, his amused smile only widening. She bent down, grabbing a few rocks and trying to find a good one for a spear head. JJ had broken the last one on one of the spears, Tyler had made the spears, he was fairly upset about the broken one when it happened. Tyler fished around in the rocks for a few minutes, looking up at June every few seconds. She still made his heart pound, more so now than she used to now that they had spent consistent amounts of time together. But he could respect the fact that she was with JJ, and he would not do anything to impose, not like Kie had been. Cleo and Tyler had history, the girl secretly liked to gossip, so sometimes when they were out doing something together Cleo would inform him on thing she didn't know were going on. One of them being Kie trying to get something started with Sarah and June over a game of Never Have I Ever. Once Cleo told him that it was the most obvious thing he had ever seen. Kies infatuation, JJs entertainment of it.
"So if you could be anywhere in the world right now where would you be? And don't say here...I know that's not true." Tyler broke the silence, June crouched down a few feet from him. She didn't argue with his comment, instead pursing her lips and furrowing her eyebrows, looking deep in thought as she stared blankly into space. She smiled and then spoke, Tyler's full attention on her.
"One summer my parents took me and Adam to Hawaii. Now that is an island I'd like to be stuck on. Sipping Piña Coladas." She picked up a rock, looking over it and then scrunching up her nose. "What about you? And don't say here."
"Trust me I won't." Tyler laughed a little but then got serious, his eyebrows furrowing slightly as he looked down at the ground, not wanting her to see the vulnerable look on his face. "Probably Florida."
"Like Disneyworld or somewhere specific?" She asked, thinking the answer was strange. He shook his head, looking up at her with a softened look that she usually didn't see on him. She realized he was about to tell her something personal, the girl turning her full undivided attention to him so that he felt heard and her curiosity was fed.
"Somewhere specific. My hometown. That's where my mom is." Tyler said, his lips tightening to a straight line as he felt emotion pull at him. He blinked a few times and then looked up at her, a look of understanding on her face. She had avoided saying home because she didn't want to be a downer, but that was the first place she had thought of. She smiled at him, the boy speaking again. "She's probably worried sick. But she's been worried for years now."
"How'd you end up on a ship then? What was the method for that?"
"My mom got a new boyfriend and I hated him, thought running away would make them break up but I just kept running...never made it back home." Her heart ached for him and she furrowed her eyebrows together, wanting to know more.
"And how long ago was that?" She asked, Tyler sighing as he grabbed a rock and stood up.
"4 years ago." She could see the regret in his face, the hurt in his eyes and she wanted for him to be able to go home, to see his mom and live normal again. She wanted that badly for him. They settled into a silence and June wished for a way to get out of her again, a miracle...the island was Pogue paradise but they couldn't sit back and let the world go to shit around them. They had to get back in the game. Her thoughts were interrupted by Tyler speaking again his tone changing as he looked up at her. "Listen June...I know I don't know like the whole story between you and that Rafe guy but I've been wondering for awhile now...why was he trying to kill you?"
June sighed, her eyes closing as she thought about Rafe. Tyler wanted to take it back when he saw the look on her face but he couldn't, and the intrusiveness had gotten the better of him. She thought back to his hands around her neck, the genuine realization that she was going to actually die. And at the hands of someone she used to trust.
"It's a long story really but short version is that me and him used to date. He's psychotic and he's a killer and I turned him down because he's convinced himself that he's in love with me and so he tried to kill me." Tyler looked shocked, thinking that her sorry sounded like something straight out of a movie. He didn't offer commentary, instead dwelling on the fact that Rafe was so in love with her that he was going to kill her because of it. In a deeply dark and twisted way he could see the romance in it, the Shakespearean dramatics of it, you had to be in a bad place to act so terribly out of love.
"You just got that effect on people huh?" He said, looking down at the ground and chuckling as he said it. Junes breath stopped for a moment when he said it and then she closed her eyes for a second, holding out the rock she had picked up. He looked at the rock and then her, a guilty smile on his lips as he realized what he had said.
"This one looks good enough. We should head back."
