𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒, 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴

𝐱𝐥. somewhere in the haze

“Please, I’m not gonna overreact.”

“Well… I saw JJ and Kie on the deck earlier.” Pope started. Red already knew where this was going, her breath hitched. “They didn’t do anything… but I guess it looked like they were about to? I don’t know, It just seemed… weird.”

Red nodded in understanding, standing by her word that she wouldn’t overreact. Not to Pope, at least. “Ok… thanks for telling me, man. I really appreciate it.” Red thanked, trying to cover up the confusion and hurt. She felt Pope pull her into his side for a hug, to which she lay her head on his shoulder. “I mean, I’m sure there’s a perfectly good reason for it, right? We probably just saw it wrong.”

Although Pope knew that he didn’t see anything wrong, he didn’t want Red to worry any more than she already was. “Yeah.” He responded, cutting the topic off there. 

After a few long hours of negotiating and catching up amongst the pogues, they eventually decided that they were hungry. Had they been in the OBX, a perfectly fine Mcdonald's would do the trick, but they were still in Barbados, and sending Cleo and Pope out to steal from a corner store would have to keep them satisfied until they got back home.

While Pope and Cleo were gone, Red almost brought up what Pope told her to JJ, but he just seemed so happy and content. He was happy to have her back, and everything was perfect. She didn’t want to ruin that. So she just sucked it up, put on her big girl pants, and told herself Pope saw it wrong, and she was the one JJ loved. That was all she knew.

Once the two were back with fruits, mangos, and other goods they’d stolen, the pogues seemed to split into groups. Sarah offered to take Red on a little night walk, to which she hesitantly agreed. She didn’t want to leave JJ and Kie on the boat by themselves after what Pope had told her, but Red had to trust that JJ wouldn’t pull anything. It just wasn’t who he was.

“Ok, ok, so let me get this straight. Singh kidnapped you and trapped you in a room… with my brother.” Sarah asked, half chuckling at everything Red had told her.

“That’s not even the worst part.” Red thought she owed Sarah the knowledge that Rafe had kissed her, but she definitely wasn’t ready to tell JJ. “But, you can’t tell JJ, he’d totally flip.”

“When do we ever tell JJ anything?”

Red leaned in a little closer to Sarah’s ear as they continued walking. “Rafe- he was having a little ‘episode’ and I was trying to help him and… he kissed me.” Sarah immediately looked at Red, shocked by his behavior. Red exchanged the same confused look as her, though Red seemed more concerned. “Can you imagine? Me? With him? Never. It’s just like- ‘Red Cameron. Reding Lucille Cameron’ doesn’t even have a ring to it.”

“Yeah, the only benefit we’d get out of that is that you’d finally be my legal sister,” Sarah replied, sipping on the bottled water Pope had gotten. “Wait- you didn’t kiss back, did you?”

She couldn’t let her know. Red had felt so stupid after she kissed back, and it was eating her alive. She tried not to blame herself, but she wasn’t in a good spot mentally and didn’t process. She scoffed up a lie, “Are you crazy? Of course not.”

“Good,” Sarah spoke, relieved. She nudged Red playfully. “Because between you and me, I like Red Maybank a lot better. Reding Lucille Maybank.”

Red rolled her eyes, playfully giggling at Sarah. “Shut up, Sarah Elizabeth Routledge.” She was then immediately reminded of something she’d forgotten but still mattered and was equally concerning. The name Singh had called her. “But… Singh actually did call me something.”