CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

THROUGH THE DARK — ONE DIRECTION
You tell me that you're hurt and you're in pain
And I can see your head is held in shame
But I just wanna see you smile again

LATER IN THE day, the group of Pogues found themselves sitting on John B's porch waiting for him to return so they could start making a plan. Kie was pacing back and forth, Pope was sitting on a stool next to JJ, and Stella was sitting on JJ's lap, fiddling with the ring around her neck.

"Where is he?" Kie complained, her voice laced with impatience.

Stella looked up with the intent to calm her down, but her eyes landed on something behind her.

On the other side of the patio's screen, John B was talking to Sarah Cameron as she walked her bike to the house.

Stella's face dropped and she got up from JJ's lap. "You've got to be kidding me."

The other three looked up to see what she was staring at and instantly knew that the next twenty minutes of their lives were not going to be easy.

"No." Kie shook her head in disbelief before turning to join Stella's side. "No, this is not happening."

There was a heavy silence as John B opened the screen door and ushered Sarah in. The tension was thick as the Kook princess sat down on the couch next to John B.

Kie was the first to break the silence. "No effing way!" she boomed glaring at John B. "You brought her here? So what? She's in on this now?"

John B looked over to Pope and JJ for help.

"I dunno." Pope shrugged.

JJ took a quick glance over at Stella, not liking that Sarah's presence was making her uncomfortable, and let out a small sigh. He knew that he'd have to approach the situation as both Stella and John B's friend and not just as Stella's boyfriend. "Look," he said, pointing a finger at his honorary brother, "all I care about is her cut comes out of your share."

"She's not getting a share at all," Stella snapped, glaring at John B and Sarah. "She's not in on this."

"You know, I don't remember taking a vote." Kie tilted her head at John B. Her voice got louder the more words she spoke. "This is our thing. A Pogue thing."

"I gotta say," Pope spoke up, raising a finger in the air, "I'm just a tad uncomfortable with all of this."

"Thank you!" Stella and Kie shouted in unison.

John B gave him an incredulous look. "When are you not uncomfortable?"

"I dunno. I rode here on the back of JJ's bike pretty comfortably."

"It's true." JJ nodded. "Most relaxed I've ever seen him."

John B turned his head, his forehead creased. "That's cute, guys," he said with bitter sarcasm.

"You know we were all extremely comfortable until you brought her." Kie turned to stare at Sarah with narrowed eyes.

Sarah rolled her eyes, clearly not wanting to take any shit from the two girls in front of her. "Stop talking about me like I'm not here," she snapped.

Kie didn't wait a second before responding, "then leave."

"No one wants you here anyways, princess," Stella added. Her tone was sharp and she was ready to fight. "Out of all of us, your presence is the least necessary."

"I told you," Sarah scoffed, turning her head to John B.

Stella's eyebrows furrowed before raising to give John B a look that said, 'Really? Talking about us behind our backs now?' Though, she said nothing and crossed her arms as Kie spoke.

"Told him what, exactly?" Kie's head tilted and she leaned to the side so her face was at the same level as Sarah's. "That you're a liar?"

"Or a traitor?" Stella added.

"No, that you're both shit-talking bitches," Sarah retaliated, her eyes darting between the two girls in front of her. "When have I lied?"

Stella's jaw clenched as she tried to resist the urge to walk over and punch the girl across her face. "Oh, do you want a list? Because I can happily provide one."

Off to the side, JJ and Pope were placing bets. "My money's on our girls," JJ whispered to Pope who just nodded in agreement.

Kie jumped into the argument right after the last word left Stella's mouth and soon, the three girls were yelling over each other. Just as Stella started making her way over to Sarah with the intention to yank her off the couch by her hair, John B shouted for everyone to shut up.

"Kie, Stel, you're my best friends, right?" John B asked as he pointed at them. His head turned to look at Sarah. "And Sarah, you're... you're my..."

Sarah was staring at him with soft eyes. "Say it," she whispered with a small smile.

"You're my girlfriend."

Stella looked away with furrowed brows before taking a few steps to the side to collect her thoughts. She couldn't understand how their relationship came to be in such a short amount of time.

John B's adoring expression faded as Kie spoke up. "She's your girlfriend now?" she scoffed. "What was all that talk about you were just using her for information? Get a map, cut her loose."

Sarah's head snapped to John B's. "You said you were using me?" she asked in betrayal.

He shook his head before letting it fall against his hand. "No."

"Yeah, you did," Pope said.

JJ nodded his head. "You said those things."

Stella smirked at Sarah's frowning face. "Look at that," she mused. "You're both liars. You two deserve each other."

"Look, love just walked in, okay?" John B looked to his friends with a pleading stare. "I didn't expect it. It just—it kind of happened. And I'm not gonna deny it. Right?"

"Love just walked in," Stella repeated with a laugh, shaking her head at him. "God, you are so full of shit. Do you even hear yourself right now?"

Kie shook her head, looking to the side before looking back at him. "Look, cut the bullshit, John B," she sneered. "If she's in, I'm out."

"So am I," Stella added, pursing her lips and moving to stand beside Kie.

John B shook his head. He couldn't choose between his best friends and Sarah. He couldn't. Not when Stella and Kie were the only family he had left, and definitely not when Sarah made him feel something other than grief for the first time in nine months. "I'm not doing this—"

"You are gonna decide," Kie pressed.

"I can't!"

"Can't or won't?" Stella snapped with a raised brow. "It's years of friendship against a girl you started talking to, what? Four days ago? This shouldn't be hard."

Kie leaned against the porch bannister and gave him a hard look. "I'm very interested, actually. Us or her?"

"Both." He shrugged.

There was silence between John B and Kie, while JJ let out a long whistle. "Went for the Hail Mary," he said quietly to Pope.

Kie turned and wiped her nose as she pushed the screen door open. Her footsteps faded, leaving the remaining five in silence.

"It'll be cool, right?" Sarah said as she looked over at John B.

Stella tore her eyes away from Kie's retreating figure and turned back to the couch in front of her. She stared at Sarah with a threatening glare, making the Kook feel very small all of a sudden. "You should go," Stella ordered in the coldest tone the boys have ever heard. "And if you know what's good for you, you'll leave before I have to make you."

Stella's eyes moved to John B and she stared with a hard gaze filled with betrayal and hurt. He expected her to say something—they all did. Stella always had something to say no matter what the circumstance was. So when she turned on her heel and followed after Kie without a word, John B knew he messed up.

STELLA LAID IN the HMS Pogue while Kie sat at the end of John B's dock, the only noise being the occasional sniffle or sigh falling from one of their lips.

"He's not going to pick us, is he?" Kie whispered, staring at the water in front of her. Her tone conveyed that she had already decided on an answer.

Stella shrugged as she watched the clouds move by. "I don't know," she confessed, "but you saw how he looked at her."

John B looked at Sarah the same way JJ looked at her or how Pope looked at Kie. Whatever John B felt was real and it made Stella feel an abundance of guilt for putting him in a situation where he had to pick between two forms of happiness.

The sound of footsteps coming down the dock caused Stella to turn her head away from the sky. She kept her eyes closed for as long as possible and ignored the rocking of the boat as someone boarded it.

She felt someone stand beside her, their shadow covering the skin exposed by her crop top, and she reluctantly opened one eye to see who it was. When she saw JJ standing over her, dangling the keys of the Pogue over her face, she let out a sigh.

"How're you doing, Sunbaby?'

"Take a guess."

JJ shook his head and leaned down to kiss her forehead before starting the boat.

Stella didn't move from her position as they pulled away from the dock, and she folded her arms, resting them on her forehead.

JJ stopped the boat in the middle of the marsh. He didn't say anything as Stella sat up and stared at the sunset. He didn't need to say anything. He knew that when Stella was upset, all she really wanted was for someone to be there for her. If she needed someone to listen to her, he would listen. If she needed comforting words, he would provide them. Whatever Stella needed, he would try his best to be.

After dropping the anchor overboard, he sat beside Stella with his legs and shoulders touching hers. A frown worked it's way onto his face when he saw her red nose and puffy eyes.

After a few moments of silence, Stella spoke up.

"We were best friends."

Her eyes remained on the sun setting over the water.

"We used to have sleepovers every weekend and stay up late talking about boys, and we would play pranks on Rafe, and steal drinks from our parents, and climb onto the roof to look at the stars... It was so refreshing having girl friends after being friends with you guys for so long, y'know?"

Her head dropped onto JJ's shoulder and frowned at what came next.

"And then Sarah dropped us. No warning, no reason. We went from being best friends one second to strangers the next. It was like we never even happened."

JJ moved he could wrap an arm around Stella's shoulder. "We can't do this without you and Kie." His voice was comforting, engulfing her like a large blanket.

"It's not that I don't want to help," Stella said in mild frustration. "We told him Sarah was bad news. He said nothing was going on between them, then suddenly she's his girlfriend?" She shook her head as her frustration subsided. "It's just... I felt like shit. I don't understand how we went from sharing beds like little kids and telling each other secrets to never speaking at all. She made it seem like losing me was no big deal, like our friendship meant nothing—like I meant nothing."

Stella didn't like admitting she felt weak. She took pride in her emotional resilience and if she were talking to anyone else, she would deny that she felt any worthlessness at all. But this was JJ, he was her person.

Hearing that Stella felt this way brought a frown to JJ's face. Over the course of their friendship, he had been sitting front row watching as Stella flourished into the confident girl she was.

He could remember when Stella stopped hanging out with Sarah. She wasn't herself for days, always plastering a smile on her face to avoid questions about the Kook she had grown close to. Whenever she was faced with questions, she'd laugh them off with some poorly constructed remark and dismissive wave. It took a lot of work from all of them to cheer her back up and even more work on her end to heal from the situation.

"And John B knew. He might not have known the details but he knew enough. He knew how much it hurt." She let out a shaky sigh at the war going on in her mind. "But I can tell that she makes him happy, and all I want for him is to be happy. He deserves it after the shit year he's had. It just sucks that it's her because being around her brings all of the bad memories back and I don't like feeling like that."

JJ looked down at Stella with a firm, but loving gaze. With the hand closest to her chest, he picked up the ring hanging from her neck and played with it in front of her face for her to see. "John B's an idiot who discovered love for the first time, just give him time," he stated. His tone turned into one much more serious. "And don't ever think you're anything less than what you are. You're everything and more, Stella-Anne."

Stella managed to muster a small smile before tears fell from her eyes.

"Oh, no." JJ's voice went up an octave. "Why are you crying?"

Stella rested her head on him and wiped her tears away. Her hands wandered to her neck and she fiddled with her necklace. "Thank you for listening," she said, her voice quiet, just above a whisper.

JJ nodded. "Of course, Stel."

THE NEXT MORNING, Stella was woken up by loud knocking at her balcony door. Without looking to see who it was, she waved the person into her room and went back to sleep.

Beside her, Kie lifted her head, instantly groaning when she saw it was Pope. "We're trying to sleep," she said, throwing her pillow at him before burying her head under the covers.

After the events of the day before, the two girls decided to have a sleepover thinking that it would distract them from the drama regarding John B and Sarah Cameron. It worked until Pope started speaking, telling them that the boys had gotten stuck in the marsh and needed their help.

The girls got dressed with begrudged frowns and met Pope at the Marx's dock.

"I don't get why you need us," Stella said as he pulled away from her house. Usually, JJ was the one they went to when they had engine troubles, so she found it odd that there was a problem while he was around. "JJ's a great mechanic, he should have it handled."

Minutes later, Heyward's boat came into view. Pope brought the HMS Pogue close enough for them to climb onto the bigger boat and watched as Kie extended a hand for Stella to take. "JJ and John B are in the helm."

"Can't you guys do anything without us?" Kie questioned, pulling Stella up.

Stella peered into the helm of the boat and saw two shirtless boys hunching over the engine. "Evidently not," she muttered before following after Kie.

"What happened?" Kie asked the boys. She walked into the helm and placed a hand on her hip.

JJ looked up at them, loosely waving a screwdriver around. "Uh, the alternator's, uh, not alternating anymore."

Stella's eyes narrowed instantly. He was lying to them.

JJ saw her troubled expression and stood up to make his way over to her, handing Kie the screwdriver while he passed by. Swiping his tongue across his lower lip, he pulled Stella closer to him by the belt loops on her shorts. "How're you doing, Sunbaby?"

"I'm good, J," she replied, still trying to figure out what he was hiding. "But what's really going on—"

He cut her off by placing his lips on hers, knowing that she knew him well enough to work out their plan based on his behaviour alone.

"Uh, it's not charged," John B stated, looking up at the two girls.

Kie raised an eyebrow. She was still upset with him from the night before, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to help.

With a sigh, she scratched head. "Did you check the plugs?" she asked, moving further into the cabin.

JJ pulled away from his girlfriend and shook his head. "No, you should check them."

John B then stood up and squeezed past Kie, handing Stella his flashlight as he moved outside to give them more room.

"You guys are useless," Kie muttered, beckoning Stella over to shine a light on the open engine.

"Sorry about that," JJ said, removing his hands from Stella's hips. She shot him a playful glare, then moved further into the cabin to help. Before she got too far, JJ took her wrist, spun her around, and planted a kiss on her cheek. "Don't be too mad at me, 'kay?"

"It's just boat troubles, why would I be..." Realization struck her like a lightning bolt and her gaze hardened. Giving JJ 'the look', she asked, "Is it bad?"

"What is?" He asked innocently.

"Whatever you did," she clarified. "Is it bad? Because you literally just got arrested."

"I didn't do anything!"

Stella shook her head at him. "You're lying about something."

"No, I'm not."

There was a pause of silence as she studied him. "You're a shitty liar."

"I am not!" JJ gasped. "I'm an amazing liar!"

"Amazing liars don't have to kiss their girlfriend to distract them from their lie."

"I just wanted to kiss you!" JJ exclaimed with an incredulous expression. "You look cute!"

"I always look cute!"

"Hm, I don't know about that—Ow!" He rubbed the arm Stella smacked, even though it didn't hurt. "You need some manners."

Kie rolled her eyes at their bickering. "Stel, some light please?"

With a final warning stare and JJ's cheeky grin, Stella turned away from the blond and joined her best friends' side.

"Uh..." Kie started, inspecting the engine, "is this a joke? There are no plugs, like, at all."

"Sayonara!"

There was a loud splash and the two girls' heads snapped up to look at each other.

"Shit," they chorused before jumping up to run out of the helm. When they got to the back of the boat, the boys were already swimming to the Pogue about thirty feet away.

"John B!"

The two girls halted, recognizing the voice, and shared a look of dread.

"John B, let me out!"

Stella groaned into her hands and shook her head. "Out of all their plans, this one has to be the worst one yet."

Kie crouched down and pushed open the storage to reveal Sarah Cameron.

When Sarah's eyes landed on the two girls, her face twisted onto one of disbelief and anger and she climbed out of the hole. "What the hell?"

The three girls ran to the edge of the boat and saw the two boys laughing as they climbed onto the Pogue.

"Are you serious?" Sarah shouted.

"Are you joking?" Kie yelled.

Stella's hands rested on her hips. "Get your asses back here right now!"

"We can't," John B called out, sitting on the back of the boat. "Not till you three figure it out!"

"I will kill every single one of you!"

"Y-You can't just leave!"

"JJ, I won't let you touch me for a week!"

At Stella's threat, JJ turned to his friends in panic. "Guys, we need to go back."

John B and Pope both shot him a look before the former smacked him over the head.

"Come on, man. Take one for the team. It's for the greater good," Pope scolded before turning to face the girls. "There's food in the cabin and JJ rolled a blunt."

JJ gave the girls two thumbs up. "Hydroponic!"

Sarah shook her head before kicking her shoes off. "This is ridiculous," she muttered to herself.

"Well, I would rather drown than stay here with you, so..." Kie started unbuttoning her shorts and kicked them to the side.

"Fine, be my guest. Maybe you'll finally shut the hell up."

Stella sat on the edge of the boat and crossed her arms. She knew that if JJ was willing to leave her after the threat she just called out, then there was no way that the boys were coming back before the next morning. There was no point in trying to swim out to them.

Stella watched with a raised eyebrow as Sarah pulled her shirt off and got ready to jump into the water. "You don't know where you're going," she said with an unimpressed look.

"I don't care, Star," Sarah huffed stubbornly.

"You should," Stella sang, ignoring the use of her old nickname. "But just so you know, I'm not helping you if you get hurt."

Sarah shot her a glare before getting ready to jump overboard. "Good luck with the oyster beds."

Stella and Kie shared an annoyed look. Neither could believe that they fell for the boys' trick and were less than happy to be stuck spending the night with Sarah.

Stella pushed off from where she sat and moved to stand next to Kie, crossing her arms over her chest. "She's swimming towards a man-o'-war."

Kie raised an eyebrow. "Yep."

"Wait!" Sarah shouted, waving for the boys to come back. "John B, you asshole!"

Stella rolled her eyes at Sarah. "If they're not coming back for us, they're certainly not coming back for you."

The boys just sent them an exaggerated wave of their hands and shouts of encouragement.

"Love you, guys!" JJ shouted. "Take care of my girl, Kie! Bye!"

Stella flipped them off as their boat got smaller in the distance.

Moments later, Sarah let out a shrill scream. "I got stung by a jellyfish! Shit!"

"Dramatic," Kie muttered to Stella.

Stella let out a sigh and turned away, mumbling something about finding backup plugs and the blunt JJ rolled. When she came back, Sarah was sobbing on the floor of the boat.

Stella turned to Kie and shook her head. "They took the back up plugs with them. Looks like we're stuck here."

Kie let out a huff of annoyance and Sarah called out to them.

"Hey, so you know what they say... about curing jellyfish stings?" She looked up at Stella and Kie with a pained expression. "You have to pee on me."

"Yeah, that's definitely not happening." Stella shook her head before waving the blunt around. "Got this, it's for the pain."

Sarah watched as Stella brought the blunt to her lips and lit the end, inhaling deeply as the smoke traveled down her throat. "I thought you said you weren't going to help me."

"Hm?" Stella looked down at her through the smoke cloud and passed the stick to Kie. "Oh, no, the blunt is for us and the pain of being stuck here with you."

Kie chuckled at her reply and watched as Stella returned to helm in search of the first aid kit. Despite her saying she wasn't going to, she knew the girl would never leave someone to suffer when she had the capacity to help, even if that person was a Cameron.

Stella returned just as Kie was about to hand the blunt over to Sarah. As she sat next to her, Kie quickly took it back and inhaled again.

"Really?" Sarah growled as Kie took three more drags. She snatched the blunt from Kie's fingers and took one long inhale. She started coughing and Stella took it back from her.

She placed it in her mouth as she opened the first aid kit and instructed Sarah to stay still. Smoke flowed from her mouth as she started to clean the sting and she glanced up at the whimpering girl in front of her. "This is going to be very long night."

THE SUN HAD past its peak and fallen behind the horizon. All of the snacks provided to them had been eaten and the blunt JJ rolled had been smoked down to the filter.

The three girls sat outside with nothing but a lamp between them, the warm glow reflecting off their skin reminding them of the times they'd roast marshmallows in Sarah's backyard.

She and Stella were definitely the highest on the boat, much to Kiara's dismay. For the past hour or two, Sarah had been asking them pointless questions that no one really cared for. It was just to pass the time, but Kie rolled her eyes at every single one of them. The only question she found bearable was one about Stella and JJ's relationship.

Stella held up the necklace she was wearing and rested her head against Kie's shoulder. "Then he gave me his ring, kinda like a promise ring, see?"

"I see," Kie observed with a soft smile. She saw the couple everyday and it was clear how good they were for each other. They balanced each other out and she was glad they were happy.

Sarah let out a sigh and the two girls looked over to her. "I want what you and JJ have," she breathed, her mind still fuzzy from the joint.

Without thinking, Stella opened her mouth. "You could, but you cheat on all your boyfriends."

Kie's eyes widened and she had to stop a laugh from escaping her lips.

"Mean," Sarah grumbled, picking at her shorts.

Stella frowned at the girl, feeling bad about the words she accidentally let slip out. She didn't mean for it to come out like she was shaming her. "Sorry," she said meekly, failing to see the way Kie glanced at her with a questionable look.

The tense and awkward atmosphere shifted when Sarah opened her mouth to ask them another meaningless question. Stella shot it down quickly and silence blanketed them. The peaceful quiet was cut short when Sarah opened her mouth again.

"Hey, guess what?" Sarah started.

Kie and Stella shared an annoyed look as Sarah went on and on about if she'd rather have nipples for eyes or eye for nipples. She chuckled before looking over to the other girls for their input.

"Is this like your first time smoking or something?" Kie queried.

"No," Sarah replied quietly. A moment later she spoke up again, "Hey, guys?"

"Oh, my god," Kie groaned before snapping her head to Sarah. "Enough of the 'hey, guys' bullshit! Why'd you do it?"

A deep line emerged from in between Sarah's brows. "Why did I do what?"

"You know exactly what she's talking about," Stella said slowly, trying hard to focus despite her cloudy mind. Her voice was low but there was an edge to her tone. "We were best friends."

Kie sat up straighter causing Stella to move. "We stole beers from your dad's fridge," she began, "we watched movies together, we cried about boys—"

"Shared clothes," Stella added. "I still want my dress back, by the way."

"And the next thing we know, we're watching your birthday party happen from Instagram."

"It was one party," the Kook defended.

Stella's head lulled to the side to glance at her and she suddenly wished JJ had left two joints for them to smoke. "You invited everyone but us. People you didn't talk to, even people you didn't like. Everybody was there but us."

"And then you told everybody we were the reason that the party got busted," Kie added.

Sarah crossed her arms, feeling really ganged up against. "Okay, well, who else would've called the cops?"

"You never asked if we did or not," Stella said as she straightened up. "You just let the rumour go. People call us rats and snitches for months."

"You were my best friend," Kie emphasized.

Stella raised her eyebrows and turned her head to the side. "Ouch," she whispered. She knew Kie spent more time with Sarah than she did back in the day—the boys liked to call it Kie's Kook Year because she stopping hanging out with them completely while Stella decided to split her time between the two groups—but hearing Kie call someone other than her her best friend struck a chord.

Kie heard her and placed a hand on her knee, squeezing it for reassurance before turning back to Sarah. "You ghosted us and we don't even know why. I mean, really, what did we do?"

Sarah sighed. "You liked me," she admitted.

"What?" The two girls questioned in unison.

Sarah looked away, almost as if she was ashamed of what she was about to say. "When people get close to me, I feel trapped," she explained. "And... I bail. And then I blame them for it." She looked over to them with a sad gaze. "I'm really sorry, and I miss you both so much."

The sincerity in her tone was overwhelming, because if Sarah were being honest, she thought about the two Pogues every day. Kie and Stella were the truest friends she had ever had and one of her biggest regrets was pushing them away. 

Hope twinkled in her eyes as the three teens stared at each other. "Do you think there's a chance that we could be okay again?"

"Honestly..." Kie trailed off. "I don't know."

Stella's mind went back to the conversation she had with JJ the day before. "What you did..." she started, lifting her head, "It hurt a lot, Sarah."

The three girls didn't say anything else to each other until they decided to go to sleep. It only took Stella fifteen minutes to decide that she wasn't tired, causing her to sit up from where she laid next to Kie and lean against the edge of the boat. She stared at the moon and traced over the constellations she found in the sky.

Even though the night hadn't gone well and they spent the majority of it bickering, Stella missed having Sarah around. She was a good friend despite their messy ending and she knew that good friends were hard to come by. Maybe forgiveness wouldn't be so bad.

"Hey, Sarah," Kie called gently.

Her eyes locked with Stella's for a brief moment and the girl instantly knew where the conversation was headed.

Sarah turned her head to see both girls looking at her.

"Promise me that you won't bail on John B. He's not just... some other guy. And he really, really likes you."

"I won't."

"Promise us," Stella requested.

"I promise."

Kie sighed and turned over on her side. Her eyes were open and her gaze met Stella's once again.

Stella sent her a small nod and the corners of her lips twitched.

Kie returned her nod with one of her own and turned back to Sarah. "Also," she continued, "We're sorry we called the cops."

"Yeah, not our finest hour," Stella added with a small smile.

There was a brief silence before giggles left Sarah's lips. "I knew it. I knew it, you bitches!"

Soon enough all three of the girls were laughing.

"You should've invited us."

"So you called the cops?"

"Yes!"

THE NEXT MORNING, the girls were woken up by the rising sun. After reconciling their differences, they spent the rest of the night filling each other in on what had happened in their lives during the other's absence. It took a bit of honesty and understanding, but by the time they fell asleep, it was like they never fought in the first place. It was nice to catch up and if Stella was being honest, she really, really missed Sarah.

"Uh-oh!" someone shouted from a distance. The girls turned from where they sat on the edge of the boat and saw the HMS Pogue quickly approaching. "You forget your keys or something?"

"You need a tow?" John B asked, looking very smug after catching the girls sitting next to each other looking civil.

Kie glanced at the two girls with an unimpressed expression. "Don't give them the satisfaction of thinking this worked."

"Absolutely not," Sarah agreed.

Stella nodded. "We'd never hear the end of it."

"Sunbaby! How you doing?"

Stella turned at the sound of her boyfriend's voice as the Pogue pulled up beside Heyward's boat. She tried her best not to smile at his goofy grin and outstretched arms.

John B kicked his feet up and placed his hands behind his head. "You gotta admit it was funny," he smirked, looking up at them.

"John B," Stella greeted curtly as gave each boy a once over. "Mastermind, huh?"

John B gave a loose shrug and a half smile. "You and Pope aren't the only smart ones of the group. I'm always plannin'."

"Some patriarchal bullshit," Kie retorted with the roll of her eyes.

Sarah crossed her arms and nodded her head. "Yeah, that sucked."

The boys glanced at each other, noticing that they didn't disagree on something for once, and victorious smiles started to make their way onto their faces.

JJ tossed Stella a rope and cocked a smug eyebrow at her. "You still love us though, right?" He hoped she said yes and would forgive him for helping John B lock her on the boat. Her threat of them not being intimate for a week made him want to turn the boat around the second the words left her mouth and he prayed that she didn't actually mean it.

"That's debatable," Stella said. She handed the rope to Kie and took JJ's waiting hand to steady herself as she jumped onto the Pogue.

JJ frowned and used their entwined hands to pull her into his arms. "Stella," he whined, looking down at her with a pout.

"JJ," she returned in a sly tone. Her finger hooked around one of the belt loops on his shorts and she tugged him closer. She could tell he was struggling to push away any dirty thoughts that came to mind for the sake of everyone else on the boat. When he tensed up, she smirked and pushed him away. "I'm a woman of my word, J."

The blond erupted in a groan, causing the others to laugh.

John B looked over to Sarah and tilted his head to the side. "Hey, you still hate me?"

"A little," she answered. "We're gonna get you back when you least expect it."

Kie nodded her head. "Watch your back, boys."

"Mhm," Stella hummed, placing a hand on her hip.

Pope looked up at the two girls on his father's boat. "I welcome that challenge. So, did you guys, you know..."

"Reconcile our differences?" Kie finished for him.

"Not even close." Stella shook her head and discreetly sent the two girls a wink.

Sarah's head tilted to the side. "But we're... willing to work together."

"For the greater good, of course," Stella added with a curt nod.

A victorious smile made its way onto John B's face and he hit the steering wheel. "You know what? That's a victory."

Pope raised a hand for JJ to take. "Wiggedy-wiggedy-wiggedy!"

"Know why?" The blond asked with a smirk. He pulled his wiggling fingers away from Pope and placed his arm around Stella's shoulders.

"Don't—"

"Hydroponic."

"—say that."

Stella rolled her eyes playfully at the boys before turning to the girls on top of Heyward's boat. "Alright, get in the boat," she said, gesturing with her finger. "Let's go get rich."

RAE SPEAKS !
this used to be three shorter chapters but i decided to make it one longer one because i was in a silly goofy mood :)

the girls after finding out they'd have to spend the night together: