THE BEST PART OF LIVING ON AN ISLAND, Talia thought, was that it was flat, perfect for skateboarding. She could tell her mother she was going skating and be on the other side of the island in 20 minutes, which is what she did almost everyday. Not that her mother would care where she was going, but being secretive with her mother was fun. Her mother stopped caring what she did and who she did it with as long as she showed up to her all-important social events. It was her brother that she truly had to worry about. Ever since their dad left a year ago, Talia's brother Topper assumed the role of 'dad', which meant hating Talia's friends. Talia couldn't care less, she would rather have her brother disapprove of her friends than hang out with his crowd, known as the Kooks.
Talia approached the unfinished house, which was not far from her own. She was perspiring slightly from her ride, the humidity making her hair frizz slightly. She could spot John B, one of her best friends and de facto leader of the Pouges, on the roof with a beer in hand. She chuckled slightly at the typical John B move, doing reckless things that would somehow never actually lead to him getting hurt. Maybe his recklessness and living life on the edge is what attracted Talia to John B.
She didn't know when her feelings for John B began, but when they did, it was a lot. She had joined the Pouges with her best friend for life, Kiara, lovingly nicknamed Kie. They rejected their Kook lifestyle of the parties and trips to the country club to hang on the Cut, known as the wrong side of the tracks. She and Kie became close with a band of misfits, which included none other than John B Routledge, the fearless leader of the Pouges. He was obnoxious, loud, and got on Talia's nerves more than she would like to admit, but she couldn't help but love him. Every time she sees his dopey little smile and kind eyes, she falls even harder.
Talia climbed the unfinished exterior of the house to find the boys of her group, sitting around chatting, with Pope pointing a drill at John B.
"Evening, boys. Where's Kie?" She asked, taking a seat next to JJ on some scaffolding.
"Roaming the house, seeing what she can swipe. Care for a beverage?" JJ asked, handing Talia a beer and draping his arm over her legs. People outside of their friend group might think JJ and Talia were an item, but they don't know JJ. He is about as flirtatious as they come, which means putting the moves on any female around him. Talia knew this and didn't mind, she knew it would never go farther than friends with JJ.
"There gonna have Japanese toilets with towel warmers." Kie told the crew, walking out of the house and through the scaffolding, her brow furrowed in anger.
"Of course they would, why wouldn't they?" Pope asked, still pretending to shoot John B.
"This used to be a turtle habitat." Kie informed the group, glancing at the scenery around her.
"But who cares about the turtles, right?" Talia finished, causing Kie to look up at her and JJ, sending a smile as a greeting towards Talia.
"Thank god you're here, the testosterone was getting to be overwhelming." Kiara told her best friend, gesturing to the goons around her she called her friends.
"Well, I would have come earlier, but Mommy Dearest kept me hostage all day at tea with her country club friends." Talia informed the group. There was nothing more in this world that Talia hated than her mother's country club friends.
"You should hear the way these people talk, as if there are people not more than ten miles away barely able to make ends meet." She rolled her eyes, anger bubbling inside of her.
"Don't get upset, Tal, life is good right now on the other side of the tracks." John B informed the girl, balancing on one foot on the peak of roof.
"Amen." Kiara agreed, toasting a beer JJ had thrown to her.
"Can you please not kill yourself?" Talia asked John B, who was not far from where she was on the scaffolding. He sent a smile to her, his hair blowing in the wind as he pretended to lose balance, just for her sake. Talia chuckled and shook her head again, sipping her beer and trying to calm the butterflies in her stomach.
"Don't drop that beer, I'm not giving you another one." JJ told John B, and almost on cue, John B dropped the beer onto the newly built deck.
"Of course you did, like right after I told you not to." JJ scoffed, earning a groan from John B.
"Hey, security's here, let's wrap it up." Pope told his friends, who sprang into action. JJ shoved the beer in his cooler and tried to peek over the side of the house to see who ruined their fun. John B and Talia swung through the scaffolding and joined Kie and Pope, waiting for JJ to stop taunting Gary, a security guard who they had come to know after their many adventures to these types of developments.
"Wow, they're early today." Talia told her friends, who smiled with anticipation of the upcoming chase.
"Gary is that you? Good to see you, buddy!" JJ told the angry security guard as he jumped from the scaffolding, dragging his friends through the unfinished house. They wove through the bones of the beach house like blood coursing through veins, narrowly dodging Gary.
Pope and Talia were the last to hop the fence onto the road, John B's old, beat up van screeching to a halt just long enough for them to be let in before zooming down the road.
"Check out Gary, gunnin' for a raise." Pope said, and the group looked towards Gary running down the street, as if he could catch them. JJ told John B to slow down and hung out the side of the open van.
"You can do it! You're so close!" JJ encouraged Gary, holding out a beer to him as he ran down the road.
"Training for the next Olympics, Gar? Might want to work a little harder." Talia screamed to him, hanging out of the van behind JJ, who threw the beer at him. "They don't pay you enough, bro." JJ told him before Kiara pulled him and Talia into the van, smacking both of them on the arms and shaking her head, like a disappointed mother.
"Oh come on, that sort of initiative is just begging to be punished." JJ told Kie, as they all sat back into the van as the drove past the Kook houses into the Cut, the place where they feel most at home.
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After the Pogues had returned from their night of fun and adventure, they cracked open a few more beers and were sitting around John B's house, known as the Chateau. John B lived here by himself after his dad disappeared at sea nine months ago, just three months after Talia's own father had left her and her family for a younger woman on the mainland. John B and Talia grew closer in the fact their fathers were no longer around, it gave them something to bond over that the others didn't. They understood in each other in the way that the father figures in their lives had left as if they were never there in the first place.
The five friends drank, smoked, and laughed their way through the night, as they did most of the time. Talia pulled her phone out of her jean shorts, seeing how late it was.
"Alright y'all, it is time I bid you farewell, Kook duty calls." Talia told her friends, getting up from the couch in John B's screened in porch.
"What is it this time?" Pope asked, knowing that she would rather stay with them if she could than go home.
"Charity breakfast at the club." Talia droned, saluting to Pope as she collected her stuff as a farewell. She and Kiara did the handshake they had done since they were kids, which involved confusing hand movements they had concocted over the years. She blew JJ a kiss, and he 'caught' it, holding to his heart while smoke escaped from his mouth and nose. She turned to where was once John B was sitting to find it empty. She turned and found him by the door, the keys to his van dangling from his fingers, a slight smile on his face.
"No, John B, you don't have to do that, I'm just gonna walk home." She told him, trying to move past him to get out the door.
"On this side of the island at this time of the night? You're just asking to get murdered." He informed the girl. who rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.
"I'm not gonna win this one, am I?"
"No, not anytime soon, Tal." John B, towered over the girl, their bodies only inches apart. Talia ignored her heart racing and pushed past the boy and out the door.
"Fine, Johnny boy, but only if I can pick the tunes."
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"It looks so peaceful, doesn't it?" Talia asked the boy driving her home, looking out the side of the van as they crossed the bridge over the ocean, the dark waves crashing onto the hard sand.
"That's one way to look at it." John B answered the girl, stealing glances at her as the wind blew her hair wildly. Talia realized that the vast, open waters might be a touchy spot for the boy, as his father had been missing at sea for nine months now.
"How are you feeling, JB? With your dad and everything." She asked him softly as he sighed, his posture shifting uncomfortably.
"DCS is up my ass, threatening me with foster care on the main land. I've been trying to keep them away for as long as I can, but I think this hurricane will give me some time to stall." He explained to the girl, who gave him a sympathetic gaze as he continued to drive. Her heart hurt for the boy, not deserving everything that had happened to him.
"Everything will work out in the end, JB, you know that." She offered what little advice she could. Words always got muddled in her head when she was around John B. Without even doing anything, he could make her so flustered. She placed her hand on his shoulder, rubbing it comfortably. They sat in comfortable silence until John B rolled his van into the driveway of Talia's mansion.
"Next stop, Kooklandia, over." John B pretended to speak into a radio on his shoulder, making Talia laugh. Another thing that she loved about him was that he could make her laugh, no matter the time or circumstance. She swung open the door and ran around to the driver's side window, placing her arms on the car.
"Thank you for the ride, kind sir." Talia told John B, expecting a witty response only to see him glancing over her shoulder towards her house.
"Looks like the warden has us spotted." He referred to her brother, Topper, watching the two through the window, arms crossed and a scowl on his face. Talia glanced at him and rolled her eyes, turning back to John B.
"Who gives a damn. What would deepen the scowl on his face, though, was if you would watch me walk away." She smirked, which made John B chuckle and shake his head.
"Bye, Tal. See you when the storm passes." He told the girl as she began to walk away from his van.
"Bye Johnny boy, thanks again for the ride." She blew him a kiss and looked back, making sure he watching to piss her brother off.
Talia entered her disgustingly huge home, kicking off her shoes. She tried to spend the least amount of time here possible, due to her brother always having his junkie friends around.
"Where the hell have you been?" Topper asked his wayward sister, as she came in the door, trying to sneak up to her bedroom. His hair was disheveled, probably from how wasted he was. He was still dressed in his Vineyard Vines and Sperrys.
"Why the hell does it matter, Topper?" Talia asked her brother, making the way up the stairway to avoid this conversation.
"It matters because someone has to be the adult around here, Talia, and it's obviously not you." He said moving towards her until he was steps away from her. She could smell the alcohol on him from there.
"Ok, you can stop playing the dad card. No matter how hard you try, you can't control my life like Mom controls yours." Talia spat at her brother, causing him to scoff and roll his eyes. As long Talia showed up to her mother's social obligations, her mother could care less what her daughter did. Topper, however, was right under their mom's thumb.
"Well, at least I'm not hanging out with Pogues all day, doing God knows what in the Cut." He said, gesturing outside to where John B's van once sat. Now it was Talia's turn to roll her eyes.
"You can judge how I spend my time and who I spend it with when you lose the Vineyard Vines, Topper." She said finally as she continued to climb the stairs towards her room.
"When are you gonna realize that the life I live will be yours too eventually?" He shouted from downstairs, despite their mother sleeping. He was too drunk off scotch to care.
"Don't remind me." Talia whispered to herself, walking into her room and slamming the door.