"HOLY SHIT," SARAH MOANED AS THE GIRLS ATE WATERMELON WITH THEIR BARE HANDS. They had made it back to the Outer Banks, and they were supposed to bring back breakfast, but they figured they could eat first before all the boys took everything. Sarah had told them about how Rafe shot her and how her and John B got married.

Bree sat down on teh ground between her two friends, and her and Kie were sharing a watermelon because even though they were starving, they were pretty sure that neither of them were near as hungry as Sarah was. The Carrera girl questioned, "Okay, so you really got married?"

"It wasn't exactly legal, but...yeah," the Cameron girl answered, and three of them chuckled. "Am I crazy, or is there definitely something going on between you and Pope?"

"Oh, a hundred percent," the brunette girl answered for Kiara because she knew that her friend was going to deny it if she got the chance.

The raven-haired girl looked down at the ground as a smile crept onto her face, and she shrugged. "Maybe."

"That's not a no," the blonde girl pointed out with a smirk as she and Bree looked up at the girl sitting on the bench beside them.

"It's not a no," Kie responded, shaking her head, and that made all of them laugh loudly. When their laughter died down, she looked between the two girls below her. "Wait, Bree, Bree have you told Sarah?"

Sarah looked at them in confusion as the Callaway girl shook her head as an answer. Despite how vague her friend was, she knew what she was talking about. The blonde questioned, "Tell me what?" Bree took a deep breath before just blurting it out.

"My mom left," she informed her, scratching her face to giver hr something to do so that she did not seem too sad about it. They had bigger things to worry about than her being alone.

"What?" Sarah exclaimed, her eyes widening as she straightened up and turned to face her entire body toward her friend. "Oh, my God. I'm so sorry, B. Where are you staying?"

She thought about it for a second before answering, "Well, I was kind of staying at the Chateau, but now that John B's back, I should probably move out and find somewhere else."

"No way. I'll talk to him. I'm sure he'll be fine with you staying for as long as you want to. Also, we are married, so it's basically mine too," she assured her, waving her off.

The other girl smiled as her friend. "Thanks, Sarah."

After they came back with the watermelon, they all hopped back in the boat, and John B drove them to the Chateau. They could not really go into town because the police were looking for them, especially the accused murderer.

"You know, I gotta be honest. Not exactly looking forward to a check-in at home," Kie told them once they stepped onto the dock and leaned against the railings. "My parents probably already arranged my funeral."

"Yeah, I also predict unpleasantries at the Heyward household after I left the truck in Charleston," Pope agreed, and he was trying to remain as cool as possible.

Bree nodded slowly at that, thinking back to the times that she had seen Mr. Heyward yell at Pope for leaving the refrigerator door open. She wondered what the wrath would be like this time. "Yeah, they might be a little bit pissed about that."

"Just a little bit," he responded sarcastically.

"No one knows we're here, right? And you two aren't gonna get into any more trouble for showing up hours later," JJ pointed out, a smile making it's way onto his face as he looked between the two that were worried about their parents. "Am I right, or am I right?"

Pope shrugged, "I mean, you're not wrong."

"So that means we have hours to do whatever we want. Huh? A little Pogue fellowship. How does that sound?" the Maybank boy questioned excitedly, and the Cameron girl shook her head slowly at that.

John B nodded with a smile, and Bree could not help but grin too because it had been a while since she had actually had a good time. "Let the shit hit the fan tomorrow."

"The cops could be looking for us," Sarah reminded them, and Bree was surprised that she did not want to get out of her bloody clothing right away. She was taking it so well that they sometimes forgot that she had been shot by Rafe in the Bahamas. "It could be really stupid."

"Sarah Cameron, you've heard of my philosophy, right?" the blonde boy questioned, walking toward her.

All of the rest of the Pogues rolled their eyes at that while she shook her head in response. "No."

"Stupid things have good outcomes all the time," he informed her, and all of his friends except her mouthed it out with him with small smiles because they had heard him say it so many times. He turned around to face all of tehm as he began walking toward the land. "Who's with me? Let's get some beer!"

《✵》

THEY GOT THE BEER, AND NOW THEY WERE HAVING A PARTY. Bree, Pope, and JJ were playing around in the Cat's Ass while everyone laughed at them. The Callaway girl was just having the time of her life because she did not know the next time it would be like this.

"I never made good grades in school. When I get out, I act like a fool," Pope rapped out while the brunette girl beatboxed awfully to give him a beat. Sarah was giggling so much that she started hiccuping. "They say I come in the party and cause a commotion. I'm smooth. Yeah, call me lotion."

Bree was drinking and smoking joints, and she was just so happy. She had not felt that way for months. They were all together finally, and it was amazing.

Somehow, Pope and JJ ended up standing opposite each other on the grass, and they were both drunk and high as shit. They were taking turns pushing each other until one fell over. JJ laughed as he took his hit. Then, they seemed to abandon all rules, and they started wrestling. The blone boy yelled, "Ah! Good, good, good, good, good! Get on the leg! Oh!"

"With the single leg sweep," John B narrated as Pope lifted one of JJ's legs off the ground so that they both fell, Pope on top of JJ for just a second before celebrating because won. He looked up at the Heyward boy, surprised that he won despite how trashed the blonde boy on the ground was. "When did you start wrestling?"

"I don't know. I'm done. I'm out of here," the other boy informed them, and then, he just walked off into the darkness, stumbling as he went.

"Did you have too many beers?" the Maybank boy questioned in a weird accent as he plopped down next to Bree and threw his arm around her. He yelled to the Heyward boy, "You want a round two?"

The boy shouted back, "Yeah, I think I'll take my losses."

"Really?" Sarah exclaimed, and they all whipped around to see Kie getting out of her chair with her tank top in the hand as she followed Pope in whatever direction he went.

"Oh, yeah!" JJ laughed out as the girl beside him gasped at her friend in disbelief, a smile creeping onto her face. "Way to be discreet!"

The Routledge boy shook his head at the sight. "I leave, and this is what happens."

"Are you blaming me?" the blonde boy questioned in shock, and he put his hand to his chest like he was offended at that. Bree giggled next to him at him being blamed for Pope and Kie getting together.

"I'm blaming both of you," John B answered, causing the Callaway girl's jaw to drop in shock. She was supposed to help her friend with the boys she liked, not break them up. He looked down at his cup and stood up. "Uh-oh, your boy is out. Beer time."

The brunette girl looked to Sarah next since she could not yell at the boy who was behind her. "Woah, woah, woah, what did we do?"

"You guys are the one that died, okay? That was—" JJ defended before he was interrupted by a laughing Cameron girl.

"Literally one job, guys," she told them, shaking her head at them while she laughed like a disappointed mother after her kids did something immature. "No pogue-on-pogue macking! One job."

Bree furrowed her eyebrows, shaking her head because they definitely had more than one job. They had...well, she could not really remember at that moment because she was so drunk, but she was sure that there were more. "One job?"

"Who got you the Phantom? Huh? You ever think about that?" the Maybank boy brought up, and Bree nodded, pointing at him for giving a good reply. "You weren't there. I looked up—"

"No. No excuses. You're a Pogue. You should know this," she cut him off.

JJ stopped when he noticed his best friend staring at the tree. Bree saw it too, and she was confused for a second until she remembered the memoril that they carved and burned on it for him. The Maybank boy got up and said, "Wait. Yo, hold that thought." She nodded at him as he walked over to the Routledge boy.

"I'm really glad you're back," she told her blonde friend again, turning to her with a grin.

She nodded, mimicking her expression as she did so. "Me too."

"Woah!" the Callaway girl exclaimed when she noticed something moving in the water and realized it was the HMS Pogue. She squinted and saw that Kie and Pope were on it, and she gestured for everyone to look with her.

Sarah called to them, "Have a good time!"

"Oh! All right!" JJ yelled out before turning to John B with a mischievous grin. "There here he goes. He jacked your boat, dude."

"Pope's poking on the Pogue," the brunette boy said, and Bree laughed at the alliteration because it sounded funny. She fell off her seat when the Cameron girl yelped suggestively.

They started talking again, but after a second, John B held out his hand to shut them up. He was tense like he had just heard something. "Wait, wait, wait, wait. What was that?"

"Your chicken?" JJ questioned because his best friend was looking in the direction of the chicken coop, but Bree was pretty sure that he would not quiet them down to listen to the chicken unless he was a lot drunker than he actually was.

"I heard a car door," the Routledge boy informed them, shaking his head. The blonde boy started making chicken noises, so he just covered his mouth with his hand to shut him up. Bree scrambled to her feet, sobering up quickly. After a second, John B told them, "Shit! We need to hide. Let's go!"

They looked around, but there were no good places to hide. Bree questioned quietly, "Where?"

"Come on," he whispered back, and then he turned around and started scaling the tree. They all looked at each other hesitantly but followed his lead, all going to a different branch so that they could hide.

They watched the grund as none other than Rafe Cameron walked onto the land. He examined the fire, and that was when the Callaway girl saw the gun in his hand. He muttered something to himself that she could not here, but she assumed that it was not good.

"Yo!" he called to someone, and they heard glass breaking inside the house. They whipped their heads around to see Barry coming out of the house and walking toward the Cameron boy. "Anything?"

The drug dealer shook his head. "No, ain't shit in there, bro."

"They were obviously just here based on the smoke," the other male informed him, gesturing to the fire that must have been put out when they knocked over the very old water cooler.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great observation, Boy Scout," Barry told him sarcastically, rolling his eyes, and Bree looked over to JJ with fear in her eyes. He just sent her a reassuring nod, and she nodded back. "Smokey the Bear! Look at you, bro!"

"They gotta be around here somewhere," the brunette boy with the gun mumbled, and he looked around. That was when he noticed the carving on the tree.

The older man laughed when he saw it, and he read out. "'P4L.' Well, shit. So your sister's a Pogue for life, huh, Rafe? Now who would've thought?"

"Shit!" he yelled, and then he started firing. First it was into the carving, but then when Barry tried to grab his arm and stop him, the bullets flew up into the branches where the teenagers were hiding.

"Hey! Whoa! Hey, chill, bro! Rafe! Chill your shit! Chill out!" the drug dealer yelled at him, stopping him from shooting anymore and forcing him to look him in the eye. "You're gonna get our asses busted, dawg! Let's bounce. Let's bounce. Let's go!"

They ran, and both Bree and JJ checked the large branches in front of them for the bullet holes. Sure enough, they were there, and they both realized that if the wood had not been there, those bullets would be in their head.