"Listen, John B. I'm not doing this with Kiara," I argued. "I'm serious!"
"We need you in on this!" He said on the other end of the phone. "Sarah too!"
"If we're in, Kiara better be out,"
"I'm not letting Kie split,"
"Then we will," I shrugged.
"I'm not letting you and Sarah split either," He told me. "Can you guys just meet me at the Chateau tomorrow at like 3:00 and we can figure this out?"
"It's just gonna be us?" I asked.
"Yeah, just us,"
"Then yeah, we'll be there,"
"Alright, cool. See you tomorrow,"
"See ya, Booker," I said, hanging up the phone.
I texted Sarah, letting her know the plan, then went back to what I had been doing.
A few minutes passed before my door swung open, causing me to jump.
"I want you the hell out of this house right now!" My dad yelled. "Get your shit and leave!"
I stared at him unsure of how to reply.
Why was he telling me to leave?
"What?" I asked. "Did- did I do something?"
"I caught Rafe stealing from my safe. He said you told him to do it, because apparently you've been doing it for months, which explains where all of my missing things went!"
"Dad, listen-"
"No, I won't listen! I've dealt with shit like this from you two for too long!" He yelled. "Rafe's gone, and I want you gone too!"
"I didn't do anything!" I lied. "Rafe was pissed off at me, so he probably made up some dumbass story to get me in trouble too! I never touched anything in that safe, dad! I promise!"
I allowed my voice to break as I spoke to make my lie more believable.
"He lied because he was mad at you?" Ward asked.
I nodded, letting a tear roll down my cheek.
He scoffed. "Sounds like Rafe,"
He glared at me as I looked at him with pleading eyes, telling him that I didn't do it.
"One more strike and you're out of this house. Do you understand me?" He asked.
I nodded. "Yes, Sir,"
He silently turned around and left, closing the door behind him.
"Well, fuck you too, Rafe," I muttered to myself.
His dumbass got caught and figured he'd take me down with him. I wouldn't let that happen.
-
"Why exactly are we on a boat?" I asked John B.
When Sarah and I got to the Chateau he had taken us out on Heyward's boat without much of an explanation.
"And why exactly is he here?" I continued, pointing to JJ.
"Well, Cameron, I'm here to help y'all figure this out," JJ answered. "I'll be sort of a...neutral party,"
Sarah looked at John B unamused. "He's our neutral party?"
"Pope has a thing for Kie so he was our only option," John B replied, stopping the boat.
"Okay, so, why are we on Heyward's boat?" I asked again since the question wasn't answered before.
He stood up. "You'll just have to find that out,"
"Wait, what?"
The next thing I knew, John B was picking up Sarah as I felt JJ's arms wrap around my waist.
"What the fu- put me down, Maybank!" I yelled, thrashing around in his arms.
"Sorry, y'all have to work this out," He replied, kicking open some form of storage compartment.
He and John B gently placed Sarah and I down into the storage area, then quickly shut it.
"What the hell!?" I yelled, banging on the piece of wood above me.
"John B! JJ!" Sarah screamed.
The compartment quickly became extremely hot and cramped with the two of us inside. Not to mention how dark it was.
It was silent for a bit before the sound of muffled voices came from above us. I couldn't make out what they were saying, but it sounded like more people than just John B and JJ.
A thudding noise, that sounded like running, then followed.
"UGH! JOHN B!?" Sarah huffed. "LET US OUT!"
"BOOKER!? MAYBANK!?" I called.
The top of the compartment slid open, but it was neither John B nor JJ who was letting us out.
Kiara stood above us looking just as confused and frustrated as we were.
"What?!" Sarah exclaimed as we both scrambled out of the hot, dark, storage area.
The three of us ran to the edge of the boat to see John B and JJ swimming to Pope, who was on the HMS Pogue.
"What the fuck is this?!" I asked.
"Get your asses back here!" Kiara yelled.
John B shrugged. "We can't! Not until you guys work it out!"
"I will kill every single one of you!"
"You can't just leave!" Sarah said.
"There's food in the cabin and JJ rolled a blunt!" Pope yelled, giving a thumbs up.
"Hydroponic!" JJ chimed in.
"This is ridiculous," Sarah huffed, slipping off her shoes and unbuttoning her shorts.
"Well, I'd rather drown than stay here with y'all, so..." Kiara shrugged as she also began undressing.
"Fine, be my guest. Maybe you'll finally shut the hell up," Sarah muttered.
I knew those assholes weren't coming back, so I didn't even bother to take off my clothes like the two of them were.
Sarah began to step over the side of the boat, getting ready to jump in.
"You don't even know where you're going," Kiara said.
"I don't care," My sister spat.
"Sarah, you probably shouldn't-"
I was cut off by her jumping off the edge of the boat into the water.
"Okay then," I said.
"Wait!" Sarah screamed, swimming after the small boat speeding away from us. "John B, you asshole!"
"They're not coming back for you!" Kiara yelled.
I let out a frustrated sigh. "Seriously Sarah! Get back here!"
Kie rolled her eyes. "Great,"
Suddenly, a scream echoed through the air.
I snapped my head over to see Sarah, still in the water, but now clutching her side.
"What?" Kie asked.
"I got stung by a jellyfish!" She whimpered, "Shit!"
"Dramatic," Kiara said.
I chuckled. "Right?"
Sarah continued to whimper in pain as she climbed back onto the boat.
"You swam right into a man-o'-ward, I don't know what you thought was gonna happen," Kie said casually as my sister practically fell to the floor.
"For real," I agreed. "I mean, we told you not to,"
That was one thing Kiara was right on. Sarah was extremely dramatic.
My sister looked up at the two of us, annoyed. "Thanks for your help,"
"Not a problem, princess," I smirked.
Princess was the nickname Rafe and I would use to make fun of Sarah. In truth, I wasn't planning to use it anymore, but it just fit the situation too well.
"Hey, guys. You know what they say about curing jellyfish stings?" My sister asked.
Kiara shook her head. "No,"
"You have to pee on me,"
Kiara and I looked at each other in disgust.
"Sarah, what the hell?" I mumbled, shaking my head.
"Yeah, let's not do that..." Kiara said. "I've got a better idea,"
-
The three of us sat together before Kiara opened a small tackle box, pulling out the blunt and a lighter. "For the pain," She told Sarah.
She lit the blunt and took a few drags before holding it out to my sister.
As Sarah went to grab it, Kiara pulled away and brought it back up to her lips. "Actually," She said, taking another hit.
"Really?" Sarah huffed, ripping it out of her hand.
"Go easy," Kie advised. "It's JJ's cousin's cripple,"
Sarah took one hit and immediately began to violently cough.
"And, I'll be taking that," I chuckled, plucking the blunt from her hand.
I took a long drag as Sarah continued to have a coughing fit beside me.
We passed the blunt around until eventually finishing it, not really saying much to each other.
Kiara and I were fine considering both of us had smoked before, but Sarah was high out of her mind.
-
It was now dark, the three of us sitting on the deck, Sarah laughing over absolutely everything. I was annoyed, and I could tell Kie was too.
"Hey, guess what!" My sister giggled.
"Would you- Would you rather...Have nipples for eyes or eyes for nipples?" She stammered. "Imagine if you get really old and your nipples- your boobs get saggy, and your nipples, if they were your eyes...you could see if your shoes were untied,"
She, once again, began laughing but quickly stopped herself when she realized that Kie and I were not having it.
"Is this like your first time smoking or something?" Kiara huffed.
"No..." Sarah replied quietly.
"Yes, it is," I informed.
Kie nodded. "Thought so,"
"Hey, Kiara..." Sarah muttered.
"Oh, my God! Enough with the 'Hey Kiara' bullshit!" She snapped. "Why'd you do it?"
My sister looked at her confused. "Why did I do what?"
"We were best friends," Kiara said. "We stole beers from your dad's fridge, we watched movies together, we cried about boys...and the next thing I know, I'm watching your birthday party happen from Instagram,"
"It was one party..." My sister defended.
"You invited everybody except me," Kie countered. "And then you told everybody that I was the reason the party got busted,"
"Okay, well, who else would've called the cops?"
"You never asked, you just let the rumor go that I was a rat,"
"You were my best friend and then you ghosted me, and I don't even know why," Kiara said, her voice breaking. "I mean, really, what did I do?"
I guess Kiara did value the friendship she and Sarah had. She had a valid reason to be upset about what had happened.
I'd never heard both sides of the story before, so I never considered the fact that Kiara could've been hurting, which she, very obviously, was.
Though, that didn't change the fact that I was hurting from what she did to me.
"You liked me," My sister sighed, answering Kie's question.
Kiara furrowed her brows. "What?"
"When people get close to me, I feel trapped, and I bail, and then I blame them for it," Sarah explained. "I'm really sorry...and I miss you,"
Kie stayed silent as the both of them began to get teary-eyed.
"Do you think there's a chance that we could be okay again?" My sister asked.
Kie shrugged. "Honestly...I don't know,"
She nodded. "That's fair, I get it,"
She stood up and went to the cabin, leaving Kiara and I alone on the deck.
"So, why'd you do it?" I asked, my voice quiet.
She sighed, knowing exactly what I was talking about.
"After the incident with Sarah and I, I realized that I had been...basically ignoring John B the entire time I was friends with her," She muttered. "So, I went to the Chateau to surprise him since we hadn't seen each other for a while..."
"But, when I got there, I saw you guys hanging out together on the porch..."
"It felt like a slap in the face after everything that happened with Sarah. I know I shouldn't have blamed you, but I did..."
"I felt like you were stealing my best friend from me, and I hated it. So, I did everything I could to get you to stop hanging out with John B. Which, you eventually did..."
"It was never my intent to replace you or steal your friend, Kie," I assured. "John B and I just sort of became friends one day and our relationship grew from there,"
"We were like siblings, and you took that away from us!" I cried. "John B doesn't even know what you did, so he probably thinks that I just bailed!"
Neither of us could control our tears as we sat silently.
"I'm really, really sorry," She muttered. "It was a fucked up thing to do no matter the circumstances,"
"I should've talked to you instead of assuming you were purposely stealing him from me. Ruining your friendship wasn't the way to go..."
"I'm glad you were able to reconnect with him," She said. "I won't get between y'all this time,"
"I hope so," I said coldly.