season two ; episode ten { Coastal Venture }
chapter eighty-one
JJ DIDN'T LET GO OF BROOKLYN UNTIL THEY REACHED SOME PLACE SAFE. He had his arms cuddled around her, her head in his chest and her knees pulled up to face to try and warm herself up. JJ refused to let go of her now and it was sweet but Brooklyn could hardly feel her own body.
Her breathing started to slow down and she did warm up eventually despite her clothes still being wet. The pain meds JJ had given her had eased her mind and she felt less in pain which was good... all until it started to ache again.
"You seem to be looking better," John B says, brushing her hair away from her face. "Feel better?"
"Yeah, I'm okay," she says softly. "Just exhausted."
"We'll find land soon, okay?" he tells her.
"Wait," Kiara says, rising to her feet. "Is that land?" She points over in the direction of an island that was right up ahead.
"Yeah," John B says, turning the boat ever so slightly so they could head over to it. "Come on."
When they reached land, JJ helped the girl out of the boat and onto the island where Kiara and Cleo helped her over to the grass to take a seat and relax.
The island looked quite nice. It had beautiful waves, a sandy beach, rocks and trees that hung low but stood tall. Brooklyn had sat herself against a tree next to Sarah and Kiara with her head resting upon Sarah's shoulder.
They watched the boys heave the boat onto the island. "Good job, guys!"
"Brooklyn, you all right there?" John B asked, seeing she was starting to fall to sleep on Sarah's arm.
"Hmm. Still a little dizzy," she admits, eyes opening and closing as she focuses on breathing.
"Does anybody know where we're at?" JJ asks.
"Deserted beach. Unknown island," Pope says, stepping over to the group.
"Al right, I'll take that as a no."
The boys sat themselves down. It must've felt nice to finally not be on their feet. Sarah wrapped her arm around Brooklyn's shoulders and peered down to see she was falling in and out of sleep.
Sarah glanced over at Kiara and then back down at Brooklyn. Her breathing is slow but her head is pounding and every time she opens her eyes, the world seems to be spinning. She has Sarah rubbing her arm soothingly which only makes her more sleepy and Kiara rubs her back slowly.
"Plan A, huh, Pope? That went well."
"This is the lowest we can go," Pope says. "We literally have nothing else to lose. The cross, gone."
"The gold, gone," Sarah says. Pope falls back against the grass in annoyance at this whole situation.
"Seriously, if we had a nickel for every time we got beat up, I'd say we're at a dollar fifty," JJ says.
"That's more than I got on me." That's more than anyone had on them.
"It somehow doesn't make me feel better."
"Yeah, you're right," John B says, looking up from the grass to his friends. "But, I mean, we've... We've had some good stuff happen, right?"
"Name something," Pope says, not feeling enlightened in the slightest.
"Um... Uh, the boiler room," he says, but no one understands what he means. "What? If the boiler didn't explode, I wouldn't have gotten away from Rafe. I couldn't have gotten the Zodiac and gotten us out of here."
"That wasn't luck," Cleo tells him. "That thing was gonna blow the second I stopped feeding it."
"Stealing my thunder, Cleo."
"Sorry."
"Um... Okay, Pope," He turns his head to Pope and says, "you're related to Denmark Tanny. That's crazy."
"And I lost all his inheritance," Pope says.
"Okay, this isn't a fun game," Brooklyn says loud enough for them to hear.
"You know what?" John B rose to his feet. "Guys, this is it. This is the Pogue life. We are in the Caribbean. It's our own little slice of paradise. With my best friends, with my family." The group all looked up at John B with a smile on their face. "I don't know. I wouldn't wanna do it with anyone else. Look, and while you guys were complaining about every little thing... JJ?"
"Hmm?"
"I was looking at those burly lefts," he says, pointing a finger over at the waves.
"There's some slabs out there," JJ says, turning to John B with a smile.
"Just a few." He stepped away from JJ and looked down at Kiara. "Kie, see that? I know you wanna get out. Brooke? Come on."
"No boards," the girls say.
"Well, we can bodysurf till we make some boards."
"Lame."
"Pope? Come on, man."
"They do look pretty tasty," he says, looking out at the water.
"Oh, yes, they do."
"There's nobody around. We could squat here for a bit. Kind of belongs to us now, huh?" He rises to his feet and steps beside John B.
"You got a point."
"Seven way split?" Pope and John B share the Pogue handshake.
"Poguelandia," JJ says in a posh accent. "I claim thee Poguelandia. I like the ring of it. I'm gonna make a flag. It's gonna have a chicken on it. With a coconut bra, smoking a J..." The girls laughed just thinking about it. "...in Crocs."
"I could use a J," Kiara says.
"Can we vote?" Sarah asks, still laughing.
"Shall we get to work?" Pope asks John B.
"Let's get to work. Let's start working on provisions," John B says, giving the boy a fist bump. "Set up shop."
JJ steps over to his Brooklyn and says, "Till death do us part?"
She takes his hand and he pulls her up off the ground. "Till death do us part."
Pope holds a hand out to Cleo to pull her up, John B helps you Sarah and Brooklyn pulls up Kiara with the the arm that didn't feel like it was falling off. She wraps her good arm around Kiara while her aching hand holds JJ's. "To going full Pogue."
"What is a Pogue, anyway?" Cleo asks. "What is the handshake you do?" Pope steps back with Cleo to show her the handshake.
"Going full Pogue. Okay, I think I— We should tell them," he says into Brooklyn's ear once Kiara has stepped away to Sarah. "Think about it? We're on a deserted island with just our family. We could just do it right here."
The thought of just doing it here in front of the family seemed perfect. It seemed like nothing could go wrong. She looks up at JJ and says, "How about we do it tonight? Do the real marriage thing."
"Yeah, that sounds perfect," he says, leaning down to kiss her lips.
That night, they went ahead with their plan and decided to tell the guys all about it. They told them over the fire pit and the smell of fish. Brooklyn wasn't sure what to even say or how to even word it. Would everyone be mad? Would everyone think it was stupid idea or would everyone be happy for them and make them feel loved?
"Hey, guys," JJ says to the group, looking over at Brooklyn who was nodding her head in approval. When they all turn to face them, he says, "Me and Brooke have something to tell you."
Brooklyn takes JJ's hand in hers and looks from him to her friends. "I proposed... to JJ... when you guys left us alone in the canister and I—"
"You proposed?" John B asks, trying not to laugh.
"Yeah."
"Too scared to do it, J?"
"What? No, I wouldn't totally proposed I— I just wasn't sure—"
"Okay!" Brooklyn slaps her other hand over his. "We wanted to tell you guys so we could just do it right now in front of you all. Our family."
"You wanna do the whole wedding thing? Like right now?" Pope asks, looking up from the fire.
"Yeah," JJ says, looking over at her. "It sounds crazy but we want this. We wanna do it now even if it's not legal because..." he squeezed her hand. "it feels pretty real to us."
John B looked around at his friends who were shrugging their shoulders and nodding their heads. "I don't see why not?"
"You guys doing vows and shit?" Kiara asks, rising to her feet.
"Uh, I think so?"
"You guys don't have rings," Sarah says.
Brooklyn reaches her hand up to JJ's neck where he still wore the necklace she gave him. He was also looking at the necklace he had given her, their promise necklaces to each other. Turns out they did keep their promise. "We don't need them," Brooklyn says, placing a hand over his necklace.
"We don't need them," he repeats.
"Are we doing this thing or what?" John B asks, slapping his palms against Brooklyn and JJ's shoulders.
"Wait," Brooklyn pauses. "Do you approve?"
He looks in between the two and says, "Yeah. I guess I do," he laughs. "I love you both. I'm happy you two ended up together in the end." He looks towards Brooklyn and says, "Dad would want to be here right now. He'd be so proud of you."
Brooklyn smiles and reaches to kiss John B's cheek. "You're an incredible brother, John, I'm very lucky to have you. I love you."
The group all switched seats to sit on one side of the firepit while Brooklyn and JJ stood on the other side. They insisted that Pope be the officiator guy just because he had been a true supporter of their relationship since day one. And besides, they couldn't imagine having any other guy up at the front with them.
Pope cleared his throat and looked in between the two. "Okay, this is the craziest idea either of you have had in a long time," he admits but he continues on, "But I can't think of two people more perfect for each other than you two. You've both been through so much and you've always had each other's backs and it's what makes you guys such a great couple. I love both of you and I have no idea how to do this kind of stuff but I'll continue..."
"Can we object?" John B asks.
"Shut up!"
"There will be no objecting," Pope says. He looks over at JJ and finally asks, "JJ, do you take Brooklyn to be your wife to love and cherish from this day forward in sickness or in health, for better or for worse until death parts you."
"I do," he says, smiling over at the girl he would give anything to for the rest of his life.
"And Brooklyn," Pope turns his attention to Brooklyn and says, "Do you take JJ to be your husband to love and cherish from this day forward in sickness or in health, for better or for worse until death parts you."
Before she could say the words he had been dying to hear, John B speaks up and yells, "I object!"
"I'm gonna kill you, dude," JJ says.
Brooklyn turns back to JJ and says, "I do."
"Well... I think now I pronounce you guys? Do I?" Everyone nodded at the boy who just played along and smiled. "I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride," he says, stepping back and away from them to join the others.
The group cheered as JJ took one step forward, pulled Brooklyn in to him by her waist and pushed his lips upon hers. He kissed her passionately and brought her down to the ground, hooking one hand around her thigh as he held her there for a second to stare into her eyes. "I love you," he says.
"I love you," she leans back in and kisses him again as he brings her back to her feet.
"Do you guys have anything to say to each other?"
"You see, Brooklyn already said everything to me in the container so... I guess I'll say what I wanna say," JJ takes both her hands again and prepares himself for what he's about to say. "While I was holding onto you in that water, all I could think about was what I would say when you wake up, what I would say at our wedding and I don't remember most of it but I'll try," he laughs, seeing her also laugh too. "Brooklyn, I really love you. I think I fell for you when we were thirteen and we snuck out of class to go and smoke weed in the lighthouse. You kissed me, remember? You were so high that the kiss was probably the worst thing ever but that's when I realised that I wanted to be with you. I was always scared to do anything about it because... well, you have a brother that has threatened me multiple times,"
He looks over at John B who is smiling away to himself. "I'll still kick your ass," he says.
"No you won't."
"Brooklyn," JJ squeezes her hand. "When I think about you, I think about us going on a surf trip all around the world, visiting all these different places that you wanna see. We'll go to Spain, South Africa, France, England, Italy and anywhere else you want to go..." he watches how her face changes every time he says something, he sees tears filling in her eyes. "We'll go everywhere. Just me and you. One day when we finally get that cross or that gold, we'll have the perfect wedding, the perfect house where we'll raise our troublemaker kids and teach them not to smoke weed and do drugs, okay?" She nods, reaching her hand up to wipe the tears away. "There's no one else I'd rather spend my life with and when I thought I'd lost you, I was begging for some guy just to shoot me so I could be with you because I couldn't loose you, I wouldn't cope..." he takes a breath and finally says, "I love you forever."
"Our wedding sucked," Sarah cried, wiping the tears that had fallen down her face. "That was so sweet."
"What? Our wedding was nice!" John B says, wrapping his arm around Sarah as tears of happiness and joy fell from her eyes. "But I guess congratulations."
"Congrats, guys!" Pope cheered. "I love you both."
"Congratulations. Glad I could witness this," Cleo says, cheering them on as they kissed again.
"Congrats. I love you guys," Kiara says quietly but Brooklyn smiled at hearing her words. She so badly wanted Kiara's approval, so badly wanted her to feel loved and welcome into all of this because of course, Brooklyn would always love Kiara.
"Congratulations, guys," Sarah says, still crying. Brooklyn couldn't help but laugh through her own tears of joy at the girl. "I really am happy, I swear. Even John B is crying."
"I'm not," he says, trying to sniffle away his lies. "Just got something in my eye..."
"Sure you do, brother," JJ says. "It's fine to cry."
"I'm happy for you both," he says, jabbing a finger over to JJ. "If you hurt her I'll kill you. Dead."
"John B!" Sarah yanks the boy back down to his seat before he killed JJ already. "Leave him alone."
And over all the laughing and the small talk between her friends, Brooklyn reaches up and pushes her lips to JJ's once again. When she pulls back from him, she says, "I love you forever."
𝐓𝐁𝐇𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐒
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— i guess this is the end from me
for a long time...?
— hope you liked the extra long
chapter i wrote for y'all
— i'll now be busy with college and
won't have a lot of time to write but
i love this story and i love all the
people who have read it and have
enjoyed it as much as me
— if there is a season 3 then i will
be back but if i have time i will write
one of two chapters after this one
to show them on the island but...
this is the end!
— thank you for loving season 2 as
much as i did
— brooklyn & jj will hopefully make
a return in season 3
i'm gonna miss them very much...
— but they got married! they are happy
and nothing will ruin that just yet!!
— THANK YOU SO MUCH!!