Stranded Love

The Story Of The Start

DAY TWENTY-FOUR

The waves wash up the shore and squawking birds fly overhead as Kiara lies on the sand with her hands behind her head. She watches the white clouds float across the neverending sky, her mind at ease with the world's current serenity. She's able to take a step back and just soak in a moment of no craziness. For once she doesn't need to think about survival.

The island has tested the Pogues in many many ways. It's been a gift of incredible proportions but they've still had to survive. The hard reality is that not every hunt is JJ or Kiara successful. They always make sure to spear a fish at least once a day no matter how long it takes, but some mornings they're without the protein and just eat the berries that Kiara has collected. Sometimes the catches are small and are barely a mouthful for each Pogue. Recently they've been going to bed with hungrier stomachs.

Those are the cons of island life. But there are many pros.

The extraordinary freedom has Kiara on cloud-nine. It's something she's sought for years but her parents always kept some form of lock on her. But now the chains have been thrown off and she can run free to her heart's content. She could only imagine their faces if they saw her falling from that tree whilst trying to get honey or her puking her guts out and being unconscious for around 24 hours.

But what would make them explode is if they found out that she likes JJ on a romantic level. A born-Kook having feelings for a Cut-born Pogue. They would absolutely blow their shit, not that their astronomically wrong opinions on him would ever affect her. They don't know the golden-hearted boy like she does and how he is crucified for the wrong reasons. They just see his father in JJ's eyes and associate the name 'Maybank' with a thief and a liar; nothing good and definitely nothing good that their daughter should be hanging around.

A disease is what they view him as. But to her he's a drug that she can't get enough of, and it's not a bad thing. The sky and the earth – you can't have one without the other.

It's ironic, though, that her dad was a Pogue and her mum a Kook. You'd think that they'd be more accepting of her feelings for JJ but she just knows that they wouldn't be. They would target him and berate him and say that he brainwashed her. They'd force him into a corner and point out all the reasons he isn't good for her which would just worsen his already damaged state of mind. Everything that she'd be trying to convince JJ otherwise of, her parents would be justifying how JJ views himself: that he's not good enough, that he's no better than his dad, that he's ruining Kiara's life.

None of which are fucking true. Fuck his father. Fuck him for getting such thoughts into JJ's head. And fuck her parents for validating it.

But she doesn't have to worry about any of that. Who knows if she'll ever go back to the Outer Banks. Whatever happens, her feelings are her own and no matter what her parents think of JJ won't change how she cares and feels about the Maybank boy.

Kiara sighs heartily and sinks into the sand further. Thinking about JJ is making her fall into a reminiscent state of mind. She can't help but recall the first time she interacted with him, and all the other Pogues for that matter.

The girl closes her eyes and allows herself to be taken back.

Kiara's 11th birthday was only a few days ago and her parents bought her one of the highest quality surfboards on the island. Although they weren't too pleased with their daughter wanting a surfboard over, say, a cute dress or a nice necklace, Anna and Mike Carrera wanted their little girl to be happy. And she was. The look on Kiara's face when Mike walked into The Wreck with a new surfboard whilst she was eating her birthday dinner made it all worth it. Besides, he remembers how special it was when he scraped up enough money to buy his first surfboard years ago.