I brush myself off, tying back my hair while John B and JJ formulate a plan out on the dock. I should probably go, check and see if Pope is alright. Check on Sarah, Kie and them.
I walk out to the dock their siting on. "Hey." I sigh, brushing myself off. "I'm gonna go, uh.. check on Pope. Just call me if you need me. K?" I smile.
JJ scrunches his brows. John B nods. "We'll let you know what plan we sorted."
I sigh, nodding. "Alright, see you." I look at JJ, he salutes me with a smile before I smile back and take my leave.
***
I get to the main parts of the island, all the stores and shit. I figured I should go into the Wreck and check on Kie, I haven't heard from her in a while.
I'm walking down a path, reliving last night. I don't think I'll ever get over the fact that we.. well nearly hooked up.
"Pass it, dude!" I hear a voice from in a small alleyway, I look over while walking by. Probably just young teens like I used to be, messing around.
My eyes widen when I realise it's Ren and some random guys and like 2 girls. And what they're passing is a joint.
I stop. "Ren?"
She looks over, her face dropping when she sees me. I haven't actually seen her since before I left the island for the Coastal Venture shit.
She exhales some smoke, shoving the joint into a boys chest before sprinting over to me and hugging me immediately.
I chuckle, hugging her back. "Hey, you little carbon copy of myself. Smoking weed now?"
She pulls back, her eyes a bit teary. "I mean, I knew you were back. But I didn't know where you were. It's too good to see you, Darl." Before pushing herself into me again.
I pout my bottom lip, rubbing her head. "I missed you too, Ren."
She suddenly shoves me. "But fuck you for leaving, again!" I can tell she's a bit zoned out from whatever's in the weed.
I sigh. "Yeah, that's my bad. It just came up. I didn't know we'd be stranded on an island, all right?"
She crosses her arms. "It was lonely without you, but don't worry. Bea kept me some company. She's been seeing this new guy though, and won't shut up about him."
I giggle. "Mhm, good to see her moving on from psycho Rafe."
She brings her finger to her lips, looking around. "Shh, I'm hanging out with Wheezie now, your lucky she's not home."
My eyes widen. "You're hanging round with Wheezie Cameron?"
"Yeah. She's cool. And she sometimes steals her brothers crack!" She whispers, I think she's a little drunk too. Because why the hell would she think I'd be happy to hear she's doing drugs?
I smack her in the side of the head in hopes it would knock some sense into her. "Lauren, no! You're not doing drugs."
She scoffs, holding her head. "As if you weren't at my age! Stop being such a hypocrite."
"I wasn't, we occasionally stole beers from my moms fridge and smoked some weed, but never ever did I do coke." I clarify, so rageful that she'd think it's cool to do cocaine. "Don't ever do it again, it fucks you."
She crosses her arms. "I don't do the white stuff, if that's what your talking about. I have nasal issues. But I tried molly like.. once. And I didn't ever again, alright?" She purses her lips together as I look at her, quite disappointed.
"Don't let me catch you doing it, promise me, Ren." I hold out my pinky.
"I'm too big for pinky swears." She stares at my hand.
"No one's too old for pinky swears." I tilt my head as she finally gives into it.
"Now, tone down on the weed. Don't want you ending up like I did." I sigh, brushing myself down.
Her jaw drops. "That's exactly my goal, don't you know?"
I chuckle a bit, looking away. "Well, I'll see you later. And tell Wheezie that I'll be letting Sarah know she's a cocaine addict."
"Darla! Don't. I swear if you do." She pleads.
I bring both arms up to shrug. "That depends if my eleven year old sister doesn't become an addict before 13!"
***
I open the doors of the wreck, walking in and seeing that it's relatively busy today. I see Kie stood at the counter, I walk up to her and lean beside.
"Hey." I huff, fixing my hair. "You said yesterday that you'd need help."
She looks over and smiles brightly. "Dude you don't know how good it is to see you, I've been isolated by my dad for like a day."
My eyebrows scrunch. "What?" I fully turn to her. "Why?"
"He is literally the worst, he's putting me on a Pogue ban." She crosses her arms, waiting on something.
I roll my eyes, chuckling a bit. "I'm sorry but your dad is so dramatic."
A woman appears, one of the workers, placing a box on the counter for Kie to take. She looks at me. "Are you helping?"
I look at Kie, then back at the woman with a smile. "Yep."
The woman places another box for me to take. I do so, but suddenly look over to see Kies shocked yet disappointed face.
"What?" I ask, lifting the box.
She looks to the side, then at me. "Just look over there."
I do, and to my surprise I see Topper and Sarah sitting at a table together. I wasn't expecting them to still be together since yesterday.
"Oh." Are my words as I follow Kie outside.
She shakes her head. "Dude, what? Why is she with Topper?"
I shrug. "I mean, I was with her yesterday when Topper found us stealing beer. She forced me into his boat, and I assumed after he dropped me off at Heyward's that he'd drop her off somewhere too. I guess she stayed with him." I explain as we walk down the dock to the loading boat.
"Bro, what? That's so messed up on John B." She remarks, shaking her head and looking up.
I nod, following after her. "I mean, they fought. But that doesn't give her the right to go off with Topper."
Kie nods rapidly. "It's fucked."
"Kie, Darl!" Sarah calls, walking down the dock.
We place the boxes in the boat, not really wanting an explanation.
"Guys, wait. Can we.. Topper and I were just getting breakfast." She desperately tries to get our attention.
"It's none of our business." Kie shakes her head, hand on hip as she sorts the equipment on the small boat.
"You should join, if you want to." She says, making me screw up my face.
"Mhm, let's fine dine with your ex." I nod, sarcastically.
She groans. "I know it looks..."
Suddenly Topper comes out, holding his hand up in the air. "Yo, Darl.. Kie."
"Yo, Top." I mock his tone.
"Yeah, hey dude." Kie does also.
"Darl, you know I had no where to go last night. You and Cleo were at Pope's. JJ I don't know where, John B and I have a thing." She whispers before Topper can reach us.
My arms are crossed, as my jaw clenches. "You could've left with me."
"He literally brought me to mase with a group of old friends. You know, like Elenor. Charlie." She says nodding.
I stare at her, smiling. "Oh, yeah. I love Charlie. Especially Elenor too." Then my face washes blank.
"Darl." She sighs, trying to get me to understand.
Topper appears behind her, holding up a fist. "What's up y'all! Random, right."
I stare at him, blinking.
"Look, we'll go. Don't want to impose." Kie looks at me and I nod. "We gotta set up for my parents party."
"You know what? Im gonna go too." Sarah holds up her finger, turning to Topper.
"Wait, what? Our food literally just came out." Topper shrugs, his arm pointing to the restaurant. "How are you gonna smother your hunger?"
I glance up at Kie while putting down the last box. The fuck did he just say about smothering who? Hell no.
"Topper, I'm going with Darl and Kie." She nods, fiddling with her fingers. Before she kisses him quickly on the cheek. "I'll call you, okay?"
I scrunch my eyebrows as I watch that happen, Kie shakes her head. Topper walks away while Sarah unties the rope.
"Sarah, what are you doing?" Kie asks as she looks down, not understanding her ways.
Sarah hesitates for a moment. "I don't know."
***
We're back at Kies, we stopped off with some deliveries and stocked them up in her back yard for her parents to go through. It's probably not the best idea for me to be at her house, as I am a full blown pogue. Blood and genes.
"Alright, Sarah. It's time to come clean." Kie slumps against the wall of her house as we sit on her long dock. She looks in Sarah's direction, as do I. "What happened?"
Sarah's face turns to mine, and she cocks an eyebrow. "Well, you know the start." Then turns to Kie. "Topper caught Darla and I slugging beer at the Tikki bar."
"Y'all weren't." Kie scoffs, sitting up with a hint of judgement.
"Yeah." I shrug, fixing my hair. "I was thirsty."
"Uh, Im not judging...." Kie looks away, smirking.
"I wouldn't blame you if you were." Sarah chuckles a little before inhaling a deep breath. "Then, Darl left me for Heywards."
I blink. "I didn't leave you, I figured he'd drop me off at Popes and then proceed to drop you off someplace else." I clarify, sitting up.
Sarah shakes her head before continuing. "Then, a couple of kids from mase showed up. I went to this beach party, Topper took me to this stupid lighthouse and.." She exhales.
"Topper and I hooked up." Her voice leaves with disappointment as Kie and I sit, blankly staring at the banisters with our heads leaned back against the wall.
"Do you hate me?" Sarah's voice was shakey when she broke the moment of silence and confusion.
"Hates the wrong word." Kie sighs, shaking her head as I nod after.
"I just .. wasn't expecting that." I follow up. She looks to her legs that lay out in front of her.
"Are.. you and John B over?" Kie sighs, we talked to her about this thing with him. And how she can never break his heart.
"No." She is quick to answer. "Well, I don't want to be. I love him, I was just angry.. and I do stupid things when I'm angry." She exhales, slumping some more against the wall behind her.
Kie nods, looking down. "I think we're all a little messed up, you." She starts, before looking over to me. "You, me." She sighs. "Everyone."
I look up, biting on my nails. "Hate to agree." I am referring to myself and JJ. I feel like that's the only thing I can think of right now, and since last night. God I don't think I'll ever erase it from my memory.
Mid thought, I hadn't realised that Kie and Sarah have been staring at me for a good while now. "What?" I ask.
"What're you thinking about?" Sarah asks me, tilting her head with a small smirk.
"Hum, sorry. I cant have a brain that thinks without it being about-"
"-JJ." They both finish.
I groan, slumping over even more.
"Tell us, please." Kie leans into me, making me turn away with a smile. "No."
"No?" Sarah yelps, sitting up. She grabs my face and turns it back towards them. I suck my lips in to cover my smile. "What's happening?"
"If you let me go I'll tell you." I say with a finishing huff as she lets go immediately. I sit up, cracking my back a little.
"Well, first of all, we kind of had an argument Heywards when you dropped me off," I start.
"About?" Kie asks.
"I said stupid stuff that's not true, I'm not getting into it. Anyway, he stormed off, Pope had gone by now. He was angry because- oh! Yeah. Rafe melted down the cross. So Heyward comes out and starts yelling about a missing gun.."
"Darla. Slow down." Kie grabs my leg as I stop my waffling. They both stare at me concerned.
"JJ came, he told us that Rafe melted down the cross, Pope got angry. Pope stormed off. I got worried as Pope never gets this angry, JJ said he has every right to. We had a disagreement, JJ stormed off. About half an hour later Heyward came out and asked us about his gun that was missing, Cleo and I assumed it was Pope that took it. So I searched at Tannyhill and Cleo searched at the Marina." I summarise the start of the story, they stare at me in awe at every bit of this story that just occurred last night.
I blink, waiting for a reaction. I decide to continue as they are in shell shock. "So then, I searched at Tannyhill. Pope was not there. I decided to go back to the Chateau. On my way back, I took the shortcut through JJ's front yard. I saw an eviction notice on his front door, so I ran over and looked at it. JJ came out, he asked me what I was doing there. I explained. We bickered a little more. I asked him if he loves me, he didn't answer. Causing me to storm off. Until, I turned back around because I wasn't finished, and.." I hesitate with the following sentence, they both sit up, confused and waiting upon the next part.
"We nearly hooked up." I purse my lips together.
There's a moment of deafening silence before Sarah squeals louder than the seagulls outside. "DARLA!"
"Nearly!" I chuckle as Kie pulls me in and ruffles my hair. "Nearly isn't I did!"
Kie lets go of me to pull me in for a hug, Sarah jumps into it too. I feel like this is too much of a celebration for a NEAR hookup.
"Details." Sarah pulls away as does Kie. They stare at me eagerly.
I shrug, my cheeks lightened up a bit.
"I can finally breathe again, after all these years of y'all avoiding love." Kiara holds her arms up, smiling greatly at the sky. "You're a step closer to teenage pregnancy!"
"Kiara Carerra, you disgusting woman." I gag, pushing her away from me as Sarah seems engrossed in her phone.
We look over in unison. "All good?" I ask.
She presses play on a voice message from wheezie, her sister. It states that she ran away, and is in the OBX. Wheezie wants Sarah to come meet her.
"You should go." Kie nods, grabbing her shoulder.
"Yeah I will.. I'll be at the party tonight, okay? I'll see you then." She kisses both me and Kie on the cheek before taking her leave.
As she leaves, Kie is now turned fully toward me. "All right, Darl. I have been friends with you since like 5 or 6. There's not a chance you're getting away with not giving me more details.
I roll my eyes. "All right."
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chapters are weirdly slow i've had no motivation tbh but i'm trying to get back into writing 😋😋😋