"Sorry, you're staying where?" Kie asked, while grabbing a plate out of the cabinet. We were at The Wreck, the restaurant which was owned by Kie's parents.
"Tannyhill," John B responded.
"So you're living with Sarah Cameron," I judgmentally stated.
"Okay, look, the only reason I'm living there is because her dad bailed me out, right? And it's way better than foster care, which, by the way, is where I was about to go if Ward didn't-"
"Hey, so like, you have a membership to the clubs now?" Pope interrupted John B.
"I don't know, Pope."
JJ and Pope kept mocking John B by asking if he got one of those golf carts, a sweater vest and a whole lot of other stuff.
"Look you promised," Kiara said.
"Yea, you said you weren't with her," I added.
"Look if you want to hang out with her that's fine, but I'm letting you know that I'm not doing anything with Sarah," Kie continued.
"Do you guys see her here?" John B asked. "No, right, okay. A little focus would be fantastic. We've got the map, right?"
We started studying the map again. I glared at John B and he shot me an apologetic smile.
When we figured out where we needed to go, we started driving around the island. We ended up at the Crain house. "Worst case scenario."
JJ started to tell us horror stories about Hollis Crain, the daughter of the owner of the house. We started looking around the house. We went into some basement, but didn't find anything.
"Know why we didn't find it?" Kie asked. "Bad karma."
"Oh god, here we go," John B sighed.
"You know we had a good thing going. And then you decide to rope in Barbie, and now the trail's gone dry. Coincidence? Probably not." Kie ranted.
"This is exactly why I didn't want to tell you about Sarah," John B looked irritated. "What the hell is the deal with you two?"
"Nothing," Kie was getting angrier.
"Nothing? Is it because I kissed you? Is that the problem?" John B had a smug smile on his face and he sounded condescending as he spoke to Kie. He might as well have been Rafe.
Clap.
Kie bitch clapped him. Pope and JJ both gasped: 'oh, shit.'
"Stop treating me like some girl that's obsessed with you, instead of your best friend, whose actually trying to look out for you."
You go Kie.
"And what about me, John B?" I interrupted. "I mean, let's finally be honest right? Don't you think your best friend deserves to know the truth?"
"Kaila, not here. Not now." John B had a stern look on his face.
"No, because you know, it's funny to me. You kiss me, then turn around and kiss Kiara. Then you come back to me, tell me that that was a mistake, kiss me again, multiple times, and now what? You just fell in love with Sarah Cameron all of a sudden? What, like I didn't mean anything?"
John B was silent and looked at JJ, trying to figure out what was going on inside my brother's head. If we weren't on a mission right now, I believe there's an actual chance JJ would've killed him.
"You did what to my sister?"
"Look, man, she's old enough to make those choices for herself, alright?" John B protested. "It just happened. It's over now. Don't worry."
I scoffed.
"What?" John B asked.
"Nothing, John B. Just glad to finally hear that you've decided that it's over." I responded. "They say never meet your idols, right? Guess the same thing applies for 'never kiss your childhood crush'. Just ruins shit forever."
At that point, Pope started slapping the shit out of himself. "These things are a fucking swarm."
"Dude, seriously. Tiny vampire bats, just leave me alone," JJ joined.
Pope dropped something and heard a splash. Water. We moved some planks, and there was a well. That's where the gold needed to be.
————————
That afternoon, we met at the Chateau. John B had brought Sarah.
"No effing way!" Kiara shouted. "You brought her here? So what, she's in on this now?"
"Look. All I care about, is her cut comes out of your share." JJ told John B.
"You know, I don't remember taking a vote." Kiara continued. "This is our thing. A Pogue thing."
"I gotta say, I'm just a tad uncomfortable with all of this," Pope said.
"Thank you!" Kie shouted.
"I'm a whole lot uncomfortable," I added.
"When are you not uncomfortable?" John B asked Pope, completely ignoring me.
"I dunno, I rode here on the back of JJ's bike pretty comfortably." Pope responded.
"It's true. Most relaxed I've ever seen him." JJ agreed. I laughed a little, but quickly shut up once I saw John B's annoyed face.
"You know, we were all pretty comfortable until you brought her," Kiara said to John B.
"Stop talking about me like I'm not here!" Sarah interrupted.
"Then leave," Kiara challenged her.
Sarah scoffed and turned to John B, "I told you."
"Told him what, exactly?" Kiara asked, clearly furious about the fact that Sarah was sitting across from her. "That you're a liar?"
"No, that you're a shit-talking bitch," Sarah responded. "When have I ever lied?" The girls continued bickering, until John B started yelling.
"Everybody shut up!" And so everyone did. "Kie, you are my best friend, right?" Kie nodded. "And Sarah, you're... you're my..."
"Say it," Sarah said.
"You're my girlfriend."
"Oh, that's new," Pope remarked.
"Girlfriend, huh," I scoffed.
"What was all that talk about just using her for information?" Kiara asked. "Get a map, cut her loose."
"You said you were using me?" Sarah asked.
"No."
"Yea, you did," we all said.
"Look, love just - walked in! Okay? I didn't expect it, it just, it kind of happened. And I'm not going to deny it." John B defended himself.
"I can't listen to this shit," I muttered, pushing myself up off the couch and walking out of the front porch.
Hurt washed over me. John B had brought me in close and then pushed me away so many times, but just last week he told me he couldn't escape his feelings for me. Now, suddenly, he was in a freaking relationship? With Sarah effing Cameron, of all people? Sarah, whom I disliked so so so much. Sarah, who now had a smug smile on her face as she hooked her arm in John B's.
No. No way I was going to just let this slide. I needed to get back at him - at them. And I knew just the way. How about getting reaaally close with one person they both despised. Someone who had been flirting with me anyway and would jump into bed with me the first chance he got. That was exactly it. I was going to sleep with no one less than Rafe Cameron.
I grabbed my bike and drove straight out to my favorite spot on the entire island, in the hopes that Rafe would be there as well. To my luck, he was. He seemed to be here quite often lately.
"Hi," I whispered. "I have the news of the year." I sat down on the rock beside him. A smile grew on his face as he noticed me sitting down next to him.
"Hey, angel. What is it?"
"I just came from John B's. Guess what? He's banging your sister. Not just banging her, no, he's in an actual relationship with her."
"Oh," Rafe said, looking unphased by this news. "Sucks."
"Wow, so helpful, Rafe."
"Well, excuse me for not wanting to think about your little heartbreak over that filthy Pogue, Kaila." Rafe snapped.
"God," I breathed at his outburst. "What's gotten into you?"
"I don't want to hear about him, alright?" Rafe said. "You're here with me now. So either go be here with me or leave."
His voice was demanding and usually I would've scoffed at his tone. As if he could decide for me what I was allowed to talk about and when to shut up. But I decided to take his advice and go be here with him. So I changed the subject to something silly and had a conversation with him. At some point, Rafe ran a hand through his greasy hair and I noticed a mark on his wrist.
"Rafe," I gasped, interrupting his sentence. "What is that." I grasped his hand and pulled it towards me, examining the burn. It looked awful; I didn't know a lot about burn wounds, but this for sure looked infected.
"Nothing," he tried pulling his hand back, but I refused to let go. I stroked my thumb over his palm and looked into his blue eyes.
"Tell me," I pleaded.
Rafe told me about how Barry had shown up to his house. He was supposed to sell drugs and get the money back to Barry, but he had failed. So Barry showed up at Tannyhill, pressed Rafe's wrist against a hot part of his bike that had been running for a while and drove off with the bike as collateral.
"So what did you do with the money?" I asked.
"I promised you I'd help pay for restoring Topper's boat. So that's what I did."
"Oh no, Rafe." I squeezed his hand softly. "I don't want you to get hurt over this. That was never what I wanted. Please look out for yourself."
Rafe cleared his throat and nodded, grabbing my thumb that was caressing his palm and fiddling with it.
"Rafe?" I asked, making him look up at me. "Promise me you'll be careful?" Rafe nodded again. He sighed and placed his head on my shoulder, staring out over the ocean.
"I don't deserve you," he whispered. I didn't respond, because he was absolutely right. He didn't deserve me. But for some reason, I wanted to be here for him anyway.