"So this is what we're doing huh? We're just sailing out. We're just gonna forget about John B?" JJ was the only one speaking, his voice carrying through all of their heads. None of them ideally had wanted to leave John B, but they didn't really have much of a choice. "We never should have left him. We're turning right back around."
"No! We're all gonna get caught. What type of plan is that?" Cleo was the first to argue back, everyone else just watching. June sat with her body slumped forwards, her elbows on her knees as she looked up at them.
"It's a plan to stick together, Cleo."
"Then we are dead together." Cleo shouted back at him, JJ biting the inside of his lip as he tried to grapple with what they had done.
"Just sit down JJ." June said from her spot, the boys head shaking as Kie spoke next.
"She's right. We had to leave, or we'd all be zip-tied in the back of a pickup."
"Yeah I don't think Singh would have taken so kindly to the two of us after we escaped. He wouldn't need every single one of us." June said, trying not to imagine the horrid things he would do to the people on the boat if he caught all of them.
"We did the right thing." Kie backed June up, the March girl nodding along to her words. JJ sighed, his eyes closing and his head shaking as he weighed his options, the boy deciding to walk over to his girlfriend and take a seat beside her. The second he sat down she pulled his head to her shoulder rubbing the side of his hair as he tried to let the comfort of being in her arms soothe him.
It was only a few more moments before a phone rang, everyone looking at it with questioning looks. JJ lifted his head from Junes shoulder, standing and speaking.
"Who's that?"
"It's Portis." Kie said, looking down at the phone with furrowed eyebrows.
"Portis? That's John B. That's definitely John B. Hold on." JJ ran over, pulling the phone from her hand and answering it. "Yo dude! Is this you?"
They struggled with the phone for a few moments, June sighing as they put it on speaker but still couldn't hear him.
"We're in the middle of the ocean. It's not gonna—it's not gonna work." She mumbled, leaning back and crossing her arms over her chest.
"Kildare, when?" The phone disconnected itself, Junes heart jumping as she processed the words Sarah had said. Kildare. Home. "John B! No,no,no. John B!"
They stood now, June trying to hide how ecstatic she was at the possibility of being able to see her family again.
"Kildare. What the hell?" Sarah asked in a confused voice, wondering why John B would want them to leave him.
"You guys think he found his father?" Cleo asked, leaning back in her seat that she had taken beside June.
"He's been missing for almost a year." Pope said, and June couldn't even recall life a year ago. She knew he had been missing for a good while though.
"Sarah,what do you think? Should we go back?" Kie asked, Sarah staring out at the water and trying to make the decision.
"Sarah—we're sitting ducks right now so we need to make a decision. Are we turning back around , or are we gonna keep going? Sarah come on!" JJ pushed, his hands on the boat wheel as he looked at her. She took a moment too long, JJ getting frustrated and yelling again. "Sarah, we need to make a decision!"
