𝟎𝟎𝟏.                                𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠

here comes the sun        ────        the beatles

☀︎ 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐥𝐲𝐧'𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐯

𝖨 𝖫𝖮𝖵𝖤 𝖳𝖮 𝖣𝖱𝖠𝖶． 𝖨 𝖫𝖮𝖵𝖤 𝖳𝖮 𝖯𝖠𝖨𝖭𝖳．

It was a skill I picked up when I was a kid when I found that watercolours were ridiculously fun── especially when you know how to use them. Painting and drawing is my escape. I use it as a way to relax, to focus solely on myself and my art. My fingers numb, ink coats my knuckles, and my eyes start to dry as I stare down at the sketchbook in front of me.

The sketchbook I use for my art was gifted to me for my sixteenth birthday by Kiara. I couldn't afford fancy art supplies or a real book to draw in── only having drawn in my school books and on tables growing up. I've nearly filled every page in this book, and I've nearly used up all my art supplies, but I don't stop drawing.

I keep moving my pencil across the page, moving my thumb across the line to smudge it. I bring my bottom lip in between my teeth── something I do when I'm trying to focus── and I move my pencil in a circular motion, moving my fingers across the page once again.

When I draw or paint, I feel like I'm being transformed into the artwork. Right now, I'm attempting to draw the sun during a storm── something I saw a couple hours ago when the storm started to settle, and the sun started to shine. I instantly felt creative, and after I skulked back into my bedroom── intent on sleeping── I pulled out my sketchbook and began to draw.

It's now the early hours of the morning, and there's a knock on my door. I lift my head, finding that John B is leaning against the doorframe. "Morning, B. You're..." He hums. "...awake."

B is a nickname that only my brother gets to use on me. Like Sunshine is JJ's, B is John B's name for me. Everyone else in my life calls me Brooke which I find to be far better than Brooklyn.

"I haven't slept," I reply, dragging my thumb across my page, smudging the line I just scribbled down. "Where were you last night?"

When I walked back into the Chateau after watching the storm, I realised that John B wasn't inside. JJ passed out on the sofa, and I moved back to my bedroom, waiting for him to arrive, but I guess I didn't hear him come in. I was distracted, obviously in a world of my own art.

"Surfing the surge with Pope," he answers, and my jaw pops, my eyes widening. "Don't give me that look. I'm alive, aren't I?"

"You could've been seriously hurt, John B."

"I'm fine, B. Now come on, I need help clearing the boat."

John B leaves my bedroom, and I close my sketchbook, frustrated that he went out in that horrendous storm. Yes, I know I was outside during the storm, but he was caught up in the thrashing waves where he easily could've been killed.

It's no surprise that I am protective of my brother. It doesn't matter that he's two minutes older, or that he's the stronger, stricter twin, I'm still extremely protective over him, especially when he does stupid, stupid things like surf the surge. I always admire his wild behaviour, but I still worry about him constantly.

Reluctantly, I get out of bed. Even after not sleeping, I still feel very, very awake and very wired. Besides, I don't sleep that much anyway. Part of the reason I stay awake most nights is so if my father does come back, I'll be ready for his arrival. However, that has not happened. Another reason I stay awake is because I just can't be bothered to sleep. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I would just rather stay awake, doing anything but sleeping.

I move to the mirror in my room. It's cracked, and it has been for four years. When I was twelve, JJ and I were throwing around a stupid football we stole from some boys in our class, and it hit my mirror, smashed on the floor, and my dad had to pull shards of glass out of my foot for the next hour. While the mirror remains smashed, I can still see myself in it, so I don't bother getting a new one. Besides, it's not like I can afford one.

I place my fingers to my face, my skin feeling dry. My hair isn't clean or brushed, so I firstly grab the nearest hairbrush, dragging the brush through my hair to rid the knots. I grab a hairband, and I pull my hair back into a ponytail, finding it to be my go-to hairstyle nowadays.

I bend down, retrieving a pair of shorts and a t-shirt from my bedroom floor. Once dressed in something a little more acceptable, I brush my teeth quickly, splash water on my face, and push my feet into the only pair of shoes I've got── my trusty, battered black Converses.

I move out of the bathroom, moving to the kitchen where John B stands. I rub my eyes, and I stretch my arms out. "Why didn't you sleep?" John B pushes a glass of water into my hand, but I don't drink it. Our water isn't exactly... healthy.

"I was drawing," I answer.

"You need to get some sleep. You're starting to look..." He tilts his head, eyes focused on me, and my mouth gapes.

"Like what?"

He clears his throat. "Like..." he drawls. "...you need to sleep."

I give him a pointed look. "Right."

It's no secret that my brother knows me better than anybody else. He can see that I don't sleep. He can see the bags under my eyes that I try to cover. He sees when I shut my eyes during the day when I think nobody is watching. He's observant of me, he always has been, and because he promised Dad he'd always keep me safe, he constantly watches me with a close, careful eye.

He knows me pretty damn well, but I also know him better than anyone else.

John B grabs himself a beer from the fridge, and I step away, flicking the light switch only to find that it's not brightening the room── not that it really does anyway. "No power. Great."

"That's what a storm does, B."

"Not to Figure Eight," I utter, my stomach churning uncomfortably── something it always does when I talk about Figure Eight and the Kooks. "They've got those damn generators."

John B steps away, moving outside. He passes JJ who I find to be passed out on the sofa. He always sleeps over, always sleeping on the sofa. The Chateau is basically his home because his deadbeat dad is a bastard, and JJ hates to go back home to him.

I stand over him, grinning. "Morning." I smack the back of his head lightly.

He groans, pressing his face into the pillow. He pushes the hair away from his face and glances up at me, a smile tugging at his lips. "Morning, Sunshine," he mumbles, and I crouch down beside him. "How'd you sleep?"

"Fantastic," I deadpan, lying through my teeth because I did not sleep. "You coming outside?" I look out the window to see my brother is standing in the HMS Pogue── our boat. He's trying to throw away all the wreckage and storm garbage that was washed up onto the boat.

"I have polio. I can't walk." He presses his face into the pillow again, groaning loudly.

I lean in close, hitting his arm playfully. "If you get up, I'll flash you," I whisper, my tone teasing, and his eyes blink open suddenly, his eyes focused on me.

He shoots up, and I stand up. "I'm up." I laugh, crossing my arms over my chest. He knows damn well that I won't flash him. "Come on, Sunshine. Stick to your end of the deal."

"No."

JJ frowns. "Just one?" I shake my head. "Half of one?" A laugh bubbles out of me, and I shake my head again. "Under boob?"

"No!" I smack his arm, and he reaches out, hands tugging on my ponytail. This is something he did when we were kids, and apparently he hasn't grown up. He still pulls on my hair, just like he did when I wore pigtails in school. "JJ!"

"I like when you have your hair like this."

Well, I'm just going to ignore what that comment does to me.

I pull my head to the side, retrieving my hair from his grasp. I turn around, flicking my ponytail over my shoulder. "Come outside, pig."

"Hey, Sunshine?" I peer over my shoulder, my hand on the door handle. "Nice legs."

I roll my eyes, my face a very obvious shade of red as I turn away, rushing out of the room before he catches onto my fluster, and teases me about it.

The relationship between JJ and I has always been flirty and casual, but we are strictly best friends. Our relationship is solely platonic── even when he first kissed me when I was thirteen. Neither of us have ever crossed over that line from platonic to romance as there has always been a rule in our crew and that rule is... No Pogue-on-Pogue macking── how silly, right?

I step outside to join my brother who chucks a tree branch in my general direction. "Agatha really did some work," I say as I walk down the steps, moving towards John B.

"B, nice of you to finally join me."

"Yeah, yeah."

I begrudgingly follow after him, climbing into the HMS Pogue. I begin to help John B throw out the branches and broken pieces of glass that have wound up in the boat. My brother kicks at the rocks and dirt under his feet, and I step out of the boat to clear the land surrounding the boat so we can safely move the boat into the water.

"Agatha did some work, huh?" JJ says, mimicking my exact words.

"Yeah, she did," John B replies, glimpsing over at JJ who leans against the porch fence with a beer in his hand.

JJ walks over to us, choosing not to help us as we continue to clear out the boat and the land around it. He doesn't really like to help. "What you two thinkin'?"

"I'm thinkin' that storm surge pushed all the crabs out on the marsh maze. All those drum are gonna chase the crab." I throw a branch over in his direction which he only just catches.

"What about DCS? Wasn't that today?"

"They're not gettin' on a ferry," I respond, pleased because DCS won't be bothering us today. 

"Come on, think about it." John B looks from me to JJ. He raises the branch that I previously threw at him, exaggerating his point. "It's God tellin' us to fish."

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𝖳𝖧𝖤 𝖬𝖠𝖱𝖲𝖧 𝖧𝖠𝖲 𝖠𝖫𝖶𝖠𝖸𝖲 𝖡𝖤𝖤𝖭 𝖡𝖤𝖠𝖴𝖳𝖨𝖥𝖴𝖫 𝖳𝖮 𝖬𝖤. Even after a storm, it's the most beautiful thing in the world to me, and several drawings in my sketchbook are inspired by the marsh.

Our boat glides flawlessly across the rocky waves of the water, and the sun is shining brilliantly against my face, highlighting every freckle, every indent and every smile on my tired face.

I pull my t-shirt over my head, and my eyes flick over to a certain blond who seems to be staring a little too hard. I pull my bottom lip between my teeth, and I grin, staring at him with doe eyes. "Dude, stop staring at my sister." John B smacks JJ's arm, forcing him to look away from me.

I look down at JJ, and my face reddens── which is a totally normal reaction for me whenever I'm around him. Slowly, my eyes still on his, I unbutton my shorts, and the material slides down my legs quickly, pool at my feet. JJ doesn't take his eyes off me, staring in complete fascination as I take a step towards him. I look over my shoulder, seeing that John B is looking to the docks, waving a kind hand towards the neighbours. If he were to look in this direction for even a second, I think JJ would be pushed off the boat.

I drop down to JJ's level, sitting on the bow of the boat. I kick into the water, swaying them gently to the calming crash of the water. "N-New bikini?" JJ asks, his voice hoarse which he clears quickly, but a grin catches my lips nonetheless.

I scoff, shaking my head. "Yeah, like I can afford a new one."

"Well, it, um..." His eyes skim, dropping just below my collarbone── his eyes obviously not admiring the colour, but instead something else. "They're──" He shakes his head, and a laugh crawls out of my throat. "I-It's nice."

"Thanks." His eyes quickly snap up, gazing at my amused face, and he turns away, something of a smile on his own lips.

He looks to the docks that we pass, his eyes catching onto a familiar face. "Hi, Miss Amy! You guys get through it?" I lift my hand, waving politely to the woman who is currently hosing down her dock, ridding it of any storm garbage.

She waves back, shouting, "Still here."

JJ looks back to me, a shit-eating grin on his face. "She totally looked at me." He nudges me to hear my take on it, and I roll my eyes. Two seconds ago, he was staring at me like he wanted me right here, right now, and now he's asking if another woman looked at him.

Which she did not, by the way, but I don't say that. "I saw it," I respond, sarcasm in my tone.

John B guides the boat to a very familiar dock── the dock that belongs to the Heyward's. Pope, one of my best friends and the smartest person I've ever known, stands on the dock, hosing it down likely per his father's request.

"Well, look who we have here."

Pope Heyward is the sweetest guy I know. He's kind, selfless, and just a damn good friend. There's been many instances when he's been my shoulder to cry on, when he's been my go-to guy to talk to, and when he's just been my guy── my bestie, my ride-or-die. There's nothing romantic about the relationship we have, and if I'm being entirely honest, it's not because he isn't attractive── he is── it's just that I've always seen him as my best friend, nothing more. One day, some girl is going to come in and find herself extremely lucky, and I'll be right here, cheering him on.

He deserves the whole world, and if anyone messes with him, I go a little berserk.

I'd never tell this to anyone else, but Pope might be my favourite out of everyone in our group. We're not supposed to have "favourites", but nobody but me and you── the readers── will know that Pope Heyward is my favourite.

Isn't he everybody's favourite?

Anyway, Pope is currently being on lockdown by his father── the legendary man that everybody knows and loves. Heyward── Pope's father, who to this day, I don't know the first name of── is the reason Pope is who he is. He's a wonderful father, a kind friend, and a wholesome guy. In a way, he's acted like a father to each of us at some point in our lives.

"Your dad's a pussy. Over." I smack JJ's arm.

Heyward steps over, jabbing a finger in JJ's direction. "Oh, I heard that, you little bastard." A smile touches my lips, amused.

I wave to the man. "Hi, Heyward."

He shifts his eyes from JJ to me, and they immediately soften because, let's be honest, I'm Heyward's favourite by a landslide. "Hi, Brooklyn. You still hanging out with these guys?"

I shrug, pouting. "I got no choice, sir."

JJ rears his head back, obviously offended, and I smile innocently.

"We need your son."

JJ and Heyward bicker, and Pope stops hosing down the dock, looking from his father to us. It's very obvious that he wants to make a run for the boat, but he also doesn't want to tip off his father. He turns to his father, eyes pleading. "I'll do it tomorrow. I promise." Heyward shakes his head. "Tomorrow."

"You think── No, no. Hell no. You doin' it right now." As suspected, he won't let his son get away with not helping out on the day after a big storm, but Pope also isn't one to back down.

Pope looks back to us. "Get in the boat," John B and JJ whisper, taunting him, their heads tilting towards the boat.

Pope looks over at me, turns back to his father, and the hose drops from his hands. Before his father can catch onto what he's doing, Pope is rushing to get onto the boat. He jumps on, stumbling as he lands next to me, and I catch his arm. His father looks beyond pissed, but I'm just glad Pope is on the boat.

John B is pulling away from the dock quickly before Heyward pulls his son back onto the deck. "I promise I'll do it tomorrow, Dad," Pope tells him, but Heyward doesn't look too hopeful.

JJ high-fives Pope, and because I am proud of his little act of rebellion, I clap my hand over his too. "When you get back here, you gonna clean shrimp, clean fish," Heyward yells, hands exaggerating his point. "You'll clean your dirty-ass room!"

I grin. "I'm sorry!" I yell, waving a goodbye to Heyward, hoping he won't dislike me for my choice of friends.

"We'll bring him back in one piece. I promise."

"And I don't like your friends!" That blow hurt more than I expected, and I gasp dramatically, hand over my heart as John B continues to steer the boat in the direction of our next stop.

I look to Pope, a frown touching my lips. "He doesn't like me?"

"He obviously wasn't referring to you."

My frown upturns into a smile. "Good."

Five minutes later, Pope is steering the boat towards our next stop── Kiara's house.

There's something you guys should know── something I haven't really admitted to many people, but it's very obvious. While I may be in love with the blond boy next to me── the one that's smacking his hands against his chest to create some sort of song── I also have a small, and I mean a teeny-tiny crush on Kiara. It's nothing serious, just a small attraction towards her. I'd never act on it, and I'm not even sure if the feeling is mutual, but I'd like to believe that it could be... maybe.

However, I am still annoyingly head-over-heels in love with the idiot alongside me.

Anyway, we pull up outside Kiara's house, and I find that she's holding a cooler that is most likely filled with beers── JJ's favourite juice. "Oh, top o' the mornin' to ya."

It's blatantly obvious that I am not the only one that is attracted to Kiara. Every boy in our group has made it perfectly clear that they have a thing for her, but because of the damn rule── No Pogue-on-Pogue macking── nobody acts upon any kind of feeling.

It's a stupid rule, in my opinion.

Kiara and I became friends a few years ago, and up until recently when she and Sarah Cameron── who we will discuss later── fell out, Kiara and I became much closer. Before her, I was only ever friends with boys── one of those boys being my brother── so it's always nice to be friends with Kiara. She's lovely, easy to talk to, and she doesn't take shit from anyone which is one of the many reasons why I'm so in awe of her. She's not afraid to stand up for what she believes in, and I admire that massively.

Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent. Let's get back to the story.

Kiara is now on the boat, and everybody is drinking the beers that Kiara brought with her. I continue to kick my feet in the water, and JJ now falls down to sit beside me.

He's removed his shirt and I can't stop my eyes from wandering. My eyes have a mind of their own, I swear. There's no denying it. JJ is hot, and the thing is... he knows he is. Toned, tanned, and absolutely gorgeous is how I'd describe him. I have this insane urge to reach out and trace my fingers down his chest, all the way down to the V──

"B." That damn voice. I clear my throat, peering over my shoulder to find my brother is watching me with a stern, unamused expression.

It's very obvious that John B does not want his sister and best friend together, but he doesn't need to call me out every time my eyes decide to look at JJ── it's no big deal.

I love my brother, I do, but why does he always have to be there when I harmlessly stare and gawk at my best friend.

"You've got a bit of drool right──" JJ reaches his hand out, and I smack it away, glaring at him. He laughs, his body shaking. He laughs with his whole body, I love that he does.

Two minutes later, JJ stands up, holding his beer. He wants to show us a party trick. He's done it before, and he's never been successful, but we decide to entertain his "party trick" if you can even call it one.

Pope speeds up the boat as per JJ's request, and I immediately move away, knowing full well that he'll get beer all over me if I don't move. JJ stands at the bow of the boat, holding his beer up high, hanging it over his open mouth.

As the boat speeds up, the liquid from the beer bottle begins to trickle and into JJ's mouth. "You're getting beer all over me!" Kiara moves from her seat, moving to sit beside me as JJ gets beer everywhere.

"Okay, that's enough!"

Pope begins to slow down the boat, but instead of it slowly, it comes to a sudden halt. The motor rattles loud enough for the whole island to hear, and I'm flung forward on account of the boat stalling. My head hits somebody else's, and I fall back. JJ is thrown off the front of the boat, his body hitting the water with a loud splash.

I lift my head, finding it clashed with Kiara's. God, that was painful.

"You okay, JJ?" JJ's head raises above the water.

"I think my heels touched the back of my head."

My eyes blink open, the pain in the side of my head throbbing, and I look up to see John B is holding his hand out to pull me up and off the ground.

I stand up, legs wobbling, and I wince loudly as I reach for Kiara's hand to help her up. When she's standing, we take a seat, rubbing away the throbbing in our heads, but it doesn't seem to subside.

"Pope, what the hell happened?"

"Sandbar. Channel changed."

"Yeah. No shit." JJ begins to swim back over to the boat. "Saved the beer, though." He raises his arm above the water to reveal the beer bottle that's likely filled with more saltwater instead of beer.

"Congrats, JJ."

Pope moves past us to look over the bow of the boat. When he looks down into the water where JJ is kicking about, his eyes squint and he looks confused, and if I was in any kind of state, I'd ask him what's wrong.

Instead, he seems to read my mind and answer either way. "Guys, I think there's a boat down there."

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𝖯𝖮𝖯𝖤 𝖨𝖲 𝖱𝖨𝖦𝖧𝖳． 𝖳𝖧𝖤𝖱𝖤 𝖨𝖲 𝖠 𝖡𝖮𝖠𝖳 𝖴𝖭𝖣𝖤𝖱 𝖳𝖧𝖤 𝖶𝖠𝖳𝖤𝖱. And because we're nosey bitches, we decide to jump into the water and investigate the sunken boat beneath the water.

Jumping into the water like this, careless and excited, reminds me of when I was a child. Whenever Dad would take the boat out, John B and I would jump into the water and swim around. We often challenged each other to see who could keep their head underwater the longest── he annoyingly always won.

I like the water. I like swimming. It's fun, it always has been to me.

I sink down to the boat, and my fingers reach out, touching the sunken boat. I won't lie, this is extremely cool. It's not everyday you see a sunken boat, not in the Outer Banks anyway. People are always careful, especially with such a beautiful boat like this one.

My eyes begin to sting as I stare at the boat for a long moment. We circle the boat, checking to see if we can find anything worth looting, but we don't. Instead, we each use the boat to push back up, and I kick myself upwards, swimming back to the surface.

We swim back to our boat, laughing in disbelief. There's a freaking boat under the water, and if I'm not mistaken, it's a very expensive boat. "That's a Grady-White. A new one of those is like five hundred Gs, easy," JJ informs, so I was correct. That boat is expensive.

JJ reaches the boat before me, and he reaches his hand down to take mine. I gratefully take his, allowing him to pull me up and out of the water. I squeeze his hand, my eyes peering up at him. "Thanks."

"That's the boat I saw when I surfed the surge. Maybe it hit the jetty or something."

I look to John B, a pang of concern rising in my chest. Despite knowing that he surfed the surge with Pope the night before, his reckless behaviour still bothers me. One of these days, he may end up dead due to his adventurous activities, and I'd hate to see that happen.

"That's my boy. Pogue style." JJ laughs, stepping away from me to slap his hand against John B's.

"Wait, wait. Do we know whose boat that is?" Pope asks, looking back down at the water.

I haven't got a clue who that boat belongs to.

John B bends down and opens up the hold of the boat to pull out an anchor which only means one thing── He wants to go back down into the water and check out that boat again. "No, but we're about to find out," John B says, holding the anchor close to his chest.

JJ looks down into the water. "Dude, it's too deep." I peer over, trying to measure the depth, but it's pretty much impossible to stained. I am certain though that John B will struggle to stay down there for too long.

"Oh, for the weak and feeble, JJ."

"Well, I'm not resuscitating you. I'm just making that clear up front."

"That's fine."

"John B." Kiara's tone is laced in warning. She's worried, and while I know I should be concerned, I do think John B will be fine. He does stupid things, but he always comes back up── just like now. He's going to be absolutely fine.

Besides, no one can argue with him once he sets his mind to something, not even me. "Diver down, fool." I reach my hand up to salute him.

He looks from me to JJ, saluting. "Diver down."

"Yeah, he is." JJ pushes John B backwards, and he sinks under the water easily due to the anchor clutched to his chest.

I bend down, peering down into the water to see if I can see the silhouette of my brother moving in the water. When we were kids, he could always hold his breath for the longest, so I just hope he inhaled a long breath before JJ shoved him in. I'll kill JJ if my brother doesn't make it out of this water alive.

Minutes seem to pass. Hours seem to pass── not literally── but I'm growing more anxious by the second as I wait for my brother's head to appear above the water. "Should we go get him?" Pope asks, looking amongst us as we stare at the water.

Before any of us can respond to that, a ripple of water appears along with John B's head. I exhale a breath, relieved that he's back above the water and he's alive, and it's not his unconscious body floating back up.

"Any dead bodies?" Pope asks, a little too intrigued to know. Pope's a little bit of a weirdo too, I forgot to mention that.

"Looting potential?" JJ asks. Obviously.

"No. No." John B coughs, shaking his head. "I found this motel key," he declares, lifting his hand up from the water to reveal a motel key with a yellow keychain.

"A key," Pope repeats, obviously disappointed.

"Yes, a key, Pope," John B repeats.

JJ pulls the anchor up as John B pulls himself back onto the boat. "Great! We salvaged a motel key," he says, not a hint of excitement in his tone.

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❀ soph speaks

hello,, chapters r much longer now than they were before as i've just combined chapters

also the "nice legs" comment was inspired by one of my favourite book couple:
aoife molloy & joey lynch

hope you enjoyed!!