🍒  HALF HEARTED 🍒
PROLOGUE: Instances in Time

Lani Liu and JJ Maybank sort of – kind of – used to be friends.

Acquaintances, really.

Civil, maybe – whatever.

Very, very distant neighbors, if she's telling the truth.

Or, perhaps, they were just two people stuck on a boat three feet apart.

Like...seriously. She's so not kidding.

It happened a year or so ago, at approximately 3:34 PM. To set the scene (totally necessary, according to Lani), it was nearing ninety degrees outside as the sun moved from the high point of the sky towards the horizon. Lani remembers this vividly because she could feel her clothes sticking to her body and, though her hair was placed in these super cute bubble braids at the base of her ears, there were baby hairs matting to the sides of her face and sweat dripping down the back of her neck. She will state, for the record, that her makeup was set perfectly despite the weather. She had just bought a new setting spray — ask her all about it. She'll rant for hours. Seriously.

Anyway, it was hot outside. Her dad asked her to drive the boat to the shop (forgetting the fact that she absolutely cannot operate a boat and never has been able to) for some repairs. An old employee of theirs (long story — very, very long. It involves stealing and all that. You get the gist), Luke Maybank, basically offered up his son to help Lani get the boat to the shop. It's the least he can do, he had said. At least he'll be doing something productive for once.

So, yeah, super hot day and a broken boat. Perfect setting, right?

Absolutely not.

Long story short, it went sort of like this...

3:34 PM

"You know, you didn't have to come with me. I'm perfectly fine taking the boat to the shop myself."

"You don't even know how to drive a boat?"

"...I would've figured it out."

"Sure."

4:01 PM

"How much farther?"

"You're the one who wanted to take the scenic route! I'm not a fucking GPS!"

"I just thought you Pogues knew your way around these areas."

"Yes, I take my expensive boat that's about to break down around these areas quite often, Lani."

"Don't talk shit about my boat? She's fine."

4:49 PM

"She's so not fine! What the fuck did you do, JJ?"

"What did I – you're kidding?"

"You broke my fucking boat! Oh my god, my dad's gonna kill me –"

"What, he gonna take away your allowance or something? Favorite purse?"

"I don't have a favorite purse!"

5:34 PM

"This is useless. We're trapped."

"Do you have your phone?"

"...No. Do you?"

"Fuck...no, I don't."

"Shit."

6:49 PM

"I'm hungry."

"Oh, yeah, there's, like, an assortment of snacks downstairs. Feel free to go grab some –"

"Really?"

"No. We don't keep food on the boat."

"You're a horrible person, Lani."

"I know. It helps me sleep at night."

"What?"

8:01 PM

"Do you have any weed?"

"I always have weed. Do you have weed?"

"I never have weed."

"Oh."

8:03 PM

"Can I have some?"

"...I guess?"

8:32 PM

"Would you ever, like, die for another person?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like, for your friends...your family...Would you sacrifice yourself for them?"

"Of course."

"..."

"..."

"Not you, though. Totally wouldn't die for you."

"I wouldn't die for you either, JJ. Don't worry."

"Yeah, I wasn't worried."

9:26 PM

"I think I might be hungry, too."

"I'm sure you could go get some imaginary food from your imaginary snack cabinet downstairs."

"Fuck off?"

10:14 PM

"This isn't too bad, I guess."

"Aw, princess, are you starting to like me or something?"

"Not even close."

10:18 PM

"You're not too bad either."

"..."

11:26 PM

"I think I'm gonna go swimming. Pass the time or something."

"It's almost midnight, Lani."

"What, you don't like night swimming?"

"Not in the fucking ocean?"

"Your loss."

1:22 AM

"You know, JJ, it was kinda nice of you to volunteer to help me with the boat earlier."

"I didn't volunteer to do shit. You can thank my old man for this situation."

"I will never thank your old man for anything."

"Me either."

1:59 AM

"Maybe we should get some sleep."

"Probably, yeah."

"OK..."

"..."

"...Goodnight, JJ."

"...Goodnight, Lani."

2:45 AM

"JJ, are you awake?"

"No."

"Okay...wai—"

4:00 AM

"Lani...your snoring is keeping me awake."

"I don't fucking snore. Shut the fuck up. You're the one snoring."

"You sound like train."

"I do not –"

"Do too."

6:00 AM

"Oh my god, JJ!"

"Did you just hit me –?"

"There's a boat!"

"What? Where?"

"Over there! Look!"

"Oh my god, we're saved!"

One Year Later, 2:04 AM

That was when Lani thought maybe she could learn to like a Pogue — like JJ Maybank...but things are different now. Much different. She doesn't talk to JJ anymore, and she doesn't talk to Pogues anymore. Not unless she has to. JJ had thought that maybe — just maybe — Lani was going to be different than what others saw her as. Kook princess. Heir to a big law firm. Future lawyer. The perfect child. The perfect girl.

But her best friend is dead – "lost at sea" – and Lani now drowns herself in tequila every night with her toes sinking in the sand by the ocean, hoping to feel a heartbeat that's long gone.

"To Sarah," she mumbles when the sun sets. It's almost like her old friend actually responds sometimes.

To Lani, she imagines her saying back with a laugh so loud that Lani feels butterflies fluttering around.

But the butterflies die soon after, too, flying towards into the sunset and dropping into the ocean.

To be with Sarah.

AN: prologue yay!!! I had a lot of fun writing in this style so I hope you like it as well :)))

let me know what you think!!