"STEALING DRONES MAKES YOU HUNGRY," KIE SAID. They were pulling up to the Wreck to get something to eat before it closed for the night and they threw all the leftover food out.
As they climbed out of the Twinkie, JJ groaned, rubbing his growling stomach. "What I wouldn't do to a beer and shrimp and grits right now."
"Oh, that sounds good," Bree agreed with an excited nod of her head. She was starving since she hadn't had anything to eat or drink since breakfast which was over twelve hours ago.
Pope nodded. "It would not be pretty." They walked into the restaurant, the two girls ahead of the boys.
"Hey, dad," the raven-haired girl greeted, walking up to her father who was behind the counter with a bunch of pitchers in front of him. "How'd we do?"
"Didn't turn it over once," he sighed before both of them met up at the spot where the bar opened to the rest of the restaurant to give his daughter a hug.
She shrugged, trying to comfort him as the three boys walked behind them and into the dining room. "It's probably just bad luck because of the storm."
"Yeah, I'll be sure to tell the banks that," he told her, and then he looked up at the Callaway girl like he had just noticed that she was there. "Hey, Bree."
"Hi, Mr. Carrera," she replied, waving. Then, she decided that this was a father-daughter moment, and she went to go stand with the boys.
They were hovering some people eating at one of the tables, staring at the food hungrily. JJ reached out to grab one of the fries like he was in a trance, but she slapped his hand away before anyone noticed what he was doing and gave him a scolding look. John B moaned, "So hungry."
Finally, after some convincing, Kie got her dad to give them the food he was going to throw out. She turned to them as they looked at her with hopeful faces. "Sit down."
They all smiled and rushed to the table. JJ exclaimed excitedly, "Oh, yes!"
Food had never tasted so good. The Carrera and the Callaway waited on the boys while stuffing their faces. John B threw a fry, and the Maybank caught it in his mouth. Kie walked over to them with a pitcher of water and hit JJ's feet off the table.
A song started playing on the radio, and Kie pointed a John B, gesturing for him to come dance with her. He looked surprised but got up anyway, spinning her around with a drink in one hand.
"Can I have this dance?" asked the Maybank boy, turning to Bree who was throwing away baskets from people that had just left. He held out his hand to her dramatically, like a gentlemen in a period piece.
She chuckled before grabbing his hand and saying in a posh British accent, "Why, of course you may."
He pulled her to him, his hands going to her waist as hers rested on her shoulders, and he led. They swayed to the music, laughing as they went along.
"Where's your boyfriend tonight?" the blonde asked after a moment of silence. His head leaned back a little bit so that he could look her in the eyes.
She shrugged, looking down at her feet with a frown and thinking back to the moment at the beach with her car. She had never really seen him like that, even though she had heard he got scary when he was angry. "He's at some stupid party."
"What's wrong?" he questioned when he noticed her upset expression. He had been joking, but it seemed like he brought up a touchy subject. "You guys get in a fight or something?"
"Kind of," she answered, and she lifted her head back up so that she was gazing up at him. She wasn't sure what to call her encounter with Rafe since they didn't really fight.
He raised his eyebrows curiously, hiding the gleeful feeling he got when he heard she was having conflict with her boyfriend. "Over what?"
"I think he's feeling a little neglected," she told him with a small smile, and her heart began to beat faster for some reason when his fingers started to play with the fabric of her shirt, his rough hands were brushing the skin off her waist where it had rode up a little bit.
"Oh, well, I have the perfect trick for that. We can head back to the bathroom, and I would be more than happy to show you." Bree laughed at that, and she felt her cheeks turn red. JJ couldn't help but grin at the sound. "You have a really nice smile."
Her giggling died down, and she glanced down at the ground before looking back up at him. "Thanks."
He didn't say anything. He just pulled her closer to him and kept dancing. His hands moved up and down her waist, clinging to her firmly but gently. She rested her head on his shoulder as they swayed to the beat of the song, all of her worries completely leaving her mind, and for the first time in a long time, she was genuinely happy.
When she got home that night and climbed into bed, she was absolutely exhausted. She was slowly drifting to sleep when there was a tapping at her window. She waved it off as nothing, but when it came again, louder this time, she grew curious. Groaning, she got up sleepily and made her way over to it. She pulled back the curtains and jumped when she saw a teary-eyed Sarah standing on her roof.
"Oh, my God," she muttered, quickly unlocking the window and opened it. "What's wrong? Come in."
The blonde girl climbed into the room before standing up straight to face her friend. Her voice was shaky when she said, "I'm sorry for waking you up. I just really needed someone to talk to that wasn't Wheezie."
"It's fine. What happened?" quizzed the Callaway girl, taking a step closer to her. She hadn't seen Sarah like this since her seventh grade boyfriend broke up with her. She wasn't the crying type.
Sarah took a deep breath before sobbing out, "Topper and I almost — we almost..."
"And? Did he force himself on you or something?" Bree questioned with an angry voice, understanding what the Cameron girl was trying to say.
"No, no." The blonde girl shook her head. "I thought I was ready, but I wasn't. And when I told him to stop, he got really mad."
The Callaway girl's mouth dropped when she heard that. She knew Topper was an asshole, but she never thought he would do anything like that to his own girlfriend. "Son of a bitch."
"It's my fault. I shouldn't have said I was ready when I wasn't," Sarah told her, running a hand through her hair as tears ran down her face.
"No, it wasn't. He shouldn't have gotten mad at you," Bree told her before pulling her into a hug. She led her over to the bed and sat down with her. "Come over here."
The Cameron girl lifted her head up as her friend wiped the tears from her face. "Can I stay here tonight?"
"Of course," the brunette girl replied, but then she thought about how Kie told her to meet them at the Chateau tomorrow. "I have to be up early tomorrow, though."
"Does this have anything to do with this boyfriend you've been sneaking around?" asked Sarah, catching Bree completely off guard.
The Callaway girl furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
"Don't worry. I won't tell Rafe," the blonde girl assured her friend, but when she noticed the girl's expression, she looked down. "You don't have a secret boyfriend, do you?"
"No, but I do have something to tell you. You just have to promise you won't get mad," Bree admitted, shaking her head at the other girl's words.
Sarah furrowed her eyebrows, a little concerned, but she agreed nonetheless. "I promise. Now, what did you do?"
"So, you know how I've been working a lot?" Sarah nodded. "I haven't actually been working. Well, I have sometimes, but usually when I say I'm a work, I'm with the Pogues."
"Like Kiara?" was all the blonde girl said in response. Her and Kie were best friends in ninth grade but enemies in the tenth grade because according to Sarah, Kie called the cops on her party. To be fair, Sarah invited everyone but her.
Bree winced. "Yeah, like her."
"Traitor!" Sarah exclaimed, and when her friend looked down, she sighed. "Just promise that you won't leave me for her."
"Promise."
《✵》
JOHN B TAPPED ON THE CAMERA IN THE WATER AND RUBBED HIS TEETH. They were at the Chateau, testing out the drone before they took it out to find the Royal Merchant. He and Kie were in the water while the other three were on the dock.
"What's this right there?" JJ asked, reaching out to press one of the many buttons on the computer-looking thing they were watching it on.
"Don't touch that," Pope told him, slapping his hand away before he could so any damage to the device. John B waved at them through the camera. Bree was about to wave back when she realized he couldn't see her. "I'm trying to work out this thing."
The blonde leaned over his friend to see what he was doing. "God bless geeks, Pope. Truly, man. What would we do without you to control the drones?"
"Yes, because that is the only reason we keep you around," the Callaway muttered sarcastically, and JJ stuck his tongue out at her.
The Heyward boy informed them, "Well, technically, It's not a drone. It's an ROV."
"Shut up. Shut up," the Maybank boy ordered with a shake of his head, and he and Bree leaned against one of the railings as their friends resurfaced. "It's too early for that right now."
"Hey, once we get footage of the wreck, we'll bring it to a lawyer in town and file a formal claim," the Routledge boy called to them from the water.
JJ sighed, looking over to Pope for answers. "It's such bullshit. Why do we have to do that?"
"Well, there is maritime salvage law," he responded, standing up from his seat and leaning beside Bree. "You can't just go to the ocean floor and scoop a bunch of stuff up."
"I know. I know. It's just lawyers aren't cheap, bro," the blonde boy pointed out.
Treading water as he did so, John B assured him. "Well, as soon as they see the footage, they'll work for a comp."
"How do you know all that?" Kie quizzed. It was a valid question since he definitely wasn't the smartest of all of them, and he had never had any interest in law before.
The brunette boy just shrugged before answering her. "'Cause my dad said it, like, a million times."
"Yeah, that's fair," the Carrera girl told him as she swam toward the ladder to get out of the mirky water. The Outer Banks was definitely not known for the clearness of its water, but, to be fair, they were in a marsh.
"This tether is, like, really long." Pope looked down at the cord below him that was curled up in a box. It filled the entire box and even overflowed a little bit. It practically sprung open when they opened it before. "In the wrong weather, this thing could get pushed around."
As Kie climbed the ladder, John B told him, "Then we'll go at dead calm."
"At slack tide?" Bree said.
Pope nodded at her while JJ walked to the perpendicular side of the dock, looking up at the sky. "So now, we just gotta wait around for the right weather. And today is not that day."
They all looked up to where the storm clouds were rolling in. Thunder rumbled loudly, signaling that they should probably get inside soon. So, they packed up the equipment and went inside for a game of cards.