STARFISHED OUT ON the pull out couch, jj woke to the sound of the rooster shouting at everyone to wake up. he groaned and turned over, not wanting the day to start properly. "yo jj, you been outside",,john b shouted at him. jj finched as his friend slapped his back, "i have polio bro, i cant walk",,the blonde lied. after adjusting his eyes to the light and yawning, he swung his legs to the edge of the bed.

jj's mind wanders to marie, he wondered where she went, where she stayed during the storm, if she had anyone with her, he knew that she would've been okay on her own anyway, it was marie after all. he rubs his head, trying to get the thoughts of the girl out of it, and sighs, finally getting the strength to stand up and walk to the porch. he stood there for a few minutes, watching his best friend try to pull a fallen tree off of the hms pogue and failing miserably, jj chuckled at the sight, eventually deciding to help john b tidy up the back yard.

"whatcha thinkin'?",,jj speaks up, seeing that john b was quiet, usually meaning that he's plotting something. "i'm thinking that storm surge pushed all the crabs out on the marsh maze",,john b explains while still attempting to yank the rogue tree branches off the boat. "all those drum are going to chase the crab",,he carries on with his work, a wide grin on his face.

"what about the dcs? wasn't that today?",,jj says, his arms propped up on the boat, not helping john b whatsoever. "wasn't marie supposed to be here today?",,john b internally laughed at his comeback and carried on with the manual work. jj removed his arms from the boat, "come on man, too soon",, jj says while jumping up, helping john b clear out the boat in hope he won't ask any more questions.

dolphins elegantly glide through the water as john b navigates the hms pogue through the debris filled water. jj looks around the dock, fences were caved in, boats were turned on their side, tree branches lay over everything. the usual boat journey to pick up pope and kie was unrecognisable. everything seemed off to jj. everything was out of place.

"good morning!",,john b shouted at somebody on the dock. that's the thing with the cut, everyone knows everyone, the pogues are just one big family, they are always looking out for each other.

"hi miss amy! you guys get through it?",,john b asked politely, making sure everyone was okay. john b and jj gave each other a knowing look, smirking as they did, "she totally looked at me",,jj laughed, the two boys have had a thing for miss amy ever since they went through that part of the docks for the first time, marie always used to make fun of them for their little crush, she was usually the one to play along and say that amy was looking.

"jj moves on quick, huh?",,john b joked, trying to get something out of jj, as though he was never told why they were both upset or what happened between them. john knew that they argued like an old married couple but it never escalated to this. it had been less than 24 hours and john b already missed marie.

"you never told me what happened between you and marie, weren't you about to ask her out?",,john b began digging deeper into jj, he never usually bothers with drama but this time it was intriguing. jj took a deep breath and sighed, looking down at his feet, "i don't wanna talk about it right now",,he mumbled.

john b took this as a sign to leave the situation alone. as he came towards the heyward dock, he saw pope helping his dad with the clean up when the two pulled up, "well look who we have here",,he shouts in a weird, poorly executed accent, gaining jj's attention. the blonde whoops as soon as he sees his other friend. john b put a hand over his mouth, as if it was a walkie talkie, "we have a safety meeting. attendance, mandatory",,he mimics a radio static, making jj giggle.

"i can't, my pop's got me on lockdown",,pope huffs, he loves his friends, he would do anything for the pogues but sometimes they really test his patience.

"we need your son",,john b shouts, "yeah, island rules, the day after a hurricane is a free day",,jj said sarcastically, looking at pope then hinting towards the boat. pope's eyes darted back and forth from his dad to the boat while jj and john b were chatting nonsense to heyward. "i'll clean up tomorrow, i promise",,pope looks over at his dad with pleading eyes, not wanting to miss out on whatever his friends were getting up to. "hell. no. you doing it right now",,heyward says in a strict tone as he puts his foot down. pope throws himself into the boat and convinces his dad he will do more chores.

"ohh, top of the mornin' to ya",,jj says to kie in an irish accent as she strides down the dock, carrying a cooler. "morning boys'','kie says, noticing the lack of marie's presence. "whatcha got? you got some juice boxes?",,pope asks, glancing down at the cooler. "you know, just some yoghurts and carrot sticks",,she says sarcastically, holding back a laugh.

"what about my kind of juice boxes",,jj asked, stretching his hand out to help the girl onto the boat, "yeah",,kie replied, a wide smile on her face.

the four got comfortable and enjoyed the boat ride. jj went straight to the cooler to grab a beer. john b was navigating while pope and kie were both relaxing and taking in the fresh air. kie couldn't help but feel awkward without marie. marie was always there to make dad jokes or to mock everything pope says. kie wanted to ask about what happened the night before and why marie left without talking to them. "so",,kie finally spoke up, looking around at the boys, "where's marie, its not like her to miss a boat day",,she wasn't necessarily asking jj, just the boys in general, assuming all of them knew. "its not like marie to miss any day with us",,pope mumbled under his breath and continued to read his book.

"don't know, don't care",,jj said blankly, staring out into the marsh, trying to avoid eye contact, especially with kie. pope put his book down, making sure to fold the corner so he didn't lose the page, now intrigued as to why jj is so worked up. jj eventually saw everyone's curious eyes on him so he gave in. "fine",,he says, sighing deeply, preparing to explain marie's absence.

"last night i told marie i loved her",,jj blurted all in one breath, gasps came from both kie and pope but they stayed quiet, allowing jj to continue. "i told her i loved her and she told me she loved me too",,he paused, trying to blink back tears, he didn't realise how heartbroken he was until now, "but only as friends",,he finished his sentence and looked down, "she friendzoned you?",,john b asked, quickly regretting it when he saw how hurt his best friend was, "i know it seems pathetic and it shouldn't be this big of a deal but i really fucking love her and it really fucking hurts knowing that it isnt mutual",,jj stops when he feels a hand rubbing his back, he looks up to see john b giving him a pitiful half - smile, "i told her i needed time alone so she just left, now i regret saying anything because i miss her already and i don't know when shes coming back",,jj sniffled and looked around to see three sympathetic faces, "its going to be okay, she'll come back eventually, i promise",,john b reassured jj and gave him a bro hug.

"uh, guys, not to ruin the moment but i think theres a boat down there",,pope says with uncertainty, all four of them look at each other with puzzled faced, "no way",,kie exclaimed while they all rushed to the edge of the boat. pope points and they all just about see a white boat under the water. "holy shit he's right lets go",,kie yelps with shock and swiftly gets down to her bikini. all of them, not so elegantly, cannonball into the water.

they all resurfaced after getting a good look at the sunken boat and climbed back onto their familiar boat. "yooo,THAT was a grady white, a new one of those s like, 500 G's easy",,jj says with all the excitement in his body, "that's the boat i saw when i surfed the surge",,john b says, still with shock on his face, "you surfed the surge?",,kie asked, concern obvious in her tone, "that's my boy, pogue style",,jj said proudly, walking over to high five john b. "wait, do we know whose boat that is?",,pope, being the smarter one in the group, actually asked a logical question. "no, but we are going to find out",,john b says as he lifts an anchor up, "dude its too deep",,jj states the obvious, "oh, for the week and feeble jj",,john b retorts, "well, im not resuscitating you, im just making that clear up front",,jj mumbles back. "diver down fool",,pope says, saluting john b, "diver down",,john b smiles and nods, "yeah he is",,jj shouts as he pushed john b into the water.

"i just don't understand why someone with a grady white would have a motel key, especially for this motel",,kie says to pope while they are sat on the boat. john b and jj decided they they were going to be the ones to search through the motel room and that pope and kie were going to be lookouts, pope was fine with the fact that hes only a lookout, he would probably have a panic attack if he was the one going through someones stuff.

pope looks around, anxious that him and his friends could get into trouble, "what is your biggest pet peeve?",,he turns around and asks kiara, making conversation to get his mind off the fact that hes literally an accomplice, "my biggest pet peeve",,kie repeats, moving her body so she's facing pope, "yeah",,pope nods, waiting for her answer. "easy, giving one percent to the environment",,she answers, still looking at pope, "whats wrong with that",,pope asks blatantly, kie stared at him, as if the answer was obvious, "we only have ome earth pope, we should be giving it a hundred percent, bare minimum",,kie explains, thats when pope hears a car pull up, "shit, cops",,he says nodding his head over to the car, "call them",,he whispers to kie, even though the cops are too far to hear him, "i can't, towers are down",,kie says as she makes her way off the boat and ducks behind a bush, pope panics and follows her, "if i lose my merit scholarship im going to kill someone",,he whispered casually.

the two cautiously make it to the side of the motel, just below the window, "do something",,kie whispered, pope looked around and picked up a pebble, "stand back",,he says as he weakly throws the pebble, the two watch as the pebble hits the wall, nowhere near the window they were trying to hit. kie glares at pope, holding in a laugh, "the fuck was that",,she chuckles, "didn't you ever play baseball?",,she follows up, even though it was quite obvious that he wasn't on any sport team. "i was on the math team",,pope says in defence, kie takes a step back and gives him another look, "the math team?",,she repeats sarcastically. kie picked up a pebble and threw it herself, the pebble hitting the window on the first try, she looked over at pope and giggled. they both look up at the window to see their two other friend, kie mouths that the cops are coming and pope frantically waved his hands and pointed to the balcony where the cops were.

once the four pogues were all safely back on the boat, kie erupts into a fit of laughter. "dude, whats so funny",,jj says with a confused tone, "pope was on the math team",,kie laughed out. "did you guys find anything",,pope ignored all the laughter and, yet again, asked a logical question, "did we find anything",,jj repeated as he faked a thinking face, "no, i don't think we did",,he says as he hold his hands up, a gun in one hand, a wad of cash in the other. pope's eyes went wide, they were glued onto the gun. he didn't want to be involved with any crime so he could keep his merit scholarship and now hes in a boat with someone who stole a gun from a potential crime scene. great.

"dude, what?",,kie shouts in astonishment, standing up with the rest of her friends, "why would you take that from a crime scene",,pope yells, the others are shocked, this is the first time they've heard pope raise his voice.

commotion is all that can be seen and heard on the dock. people chatting and gossiping behind their hands, trying to find out what happened. people in uniform pacing around, talking to their walkie talkies. cops getting as much information as they can and jotting it down in their tiny notebooks. a man getting carried away on a stretcher. a dead man. his wife, wailing with grief.

the pogues all looked on, sitting at the edge of the dock with peeler, a younger girl who knows almost everything that goes on in the cut. "who's that?",,john b asks the girl, not being able to take his eyes off the deceased man not too far from him, "that's scooter grubbs, he was out during the storm, check out this pic i got",,she shows them all the gruesome picture of the man, "dead body",,she says, carrying out the 'y', they all look at the picture, pope quickly turned away, he has a weak stomach. "do you know whats weirder?",,she says, they all stare at her, "somehow, that dirt bag copped a brand new grady white, everyone's out looking for it",,the pogues spin their heads around and look at each other knowingly, they all take off, very quickly, leaving peeler very confused.

pope paces around the porch, jj sat,very comfortably, in the armchair, flicking his lighter on and off, john b stood, leaning against the wooden frame and kie sat on the edge of the couch, watching pope be a nervous wreck. "okay, we didn't see anything, we don't know anything, we need to have total and complete amnesia",,pope says, finally sitting down on the couch and taking a much needed deep breath, "actually, pope's right, for once",,jj speaks up from the chair, they all look in his direction, "deny, deny, deny",,jj says, getting up from the chair, lighter still in hand. "guys, we can't keep that money, bad karma",,kie says as she holds her hands in the air, "ugh, not all of us can afford unlimited data plans, kiara",,jj says, not so sarcastically.

they all keep arguing about what to do and what not to do, what is right and what is wrong and they soon realise that they all have very different opinions and outlooks on life. voices were raised and eyes were rolled. no one knew what to do next, "all we have to do right now is fly under the radar, lay low, act normal",,jj says as if its going to be a walk in the park, "right, and how exactly do we do that?",,sarcasm seeping through pope's words. they all stopped and slowly looked and each other, knowing exactly whats going through the others mind, "kegger?",,kie suggested, shrugging her shoulders, jj replied with an excited laugh and finger guns. 

the hot afternoon sun beams down onto the beach scattered with hormonal teenagers. kie skipped towards the beach with a smile plastered on her face, pope happily strolled next to her, a bag of red solo cups in hand, jj and john b waddling behind, holding the beer keg between them. as the party begins, more people began flooding in, giggling, chatting and losing all their inhibitions.

john b looks around to see everyone enjoying themselves, thats when he sees them. the kooks. not just any kook. sarah cameron and topper thornton, figure eight royalty. "what is she doing here",,kie looks over at the couple in disgust, kie and sarah used to be best friends. inseparable. then one year they turned into enemies and they stopped talking. kie still hates her. jj turns when he hears kie, he loves a bit of kook drama. they all stand, staring at sarah cameron, two other figures appear. thats when jj sees her. and then him. together.

marie thomas and rafe cameron. their eyes went wide as they watched the two kiss, kie was in disbelief, as was john b. jj didn't know what to say.

"what. the. fuck." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐦𝐡 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐬!! -

i am very sorry this took so long to finish and i apologise that it doesn't make sense as this is a rafe book BUT i wanted to add it in to give an insight to what the characters think of marie. i promise you'll get more marie and rafe content in the next chapter.

i skipped a few scenes hoping the chapter wouldn't be too long but it ended up being over two thousand words. (oops.)

ive started reading actual books again and it got me back into writing, everyone say that you colleen hoover, so im excited to get onto the next few chapters and update my other books.

if you want quicker updates, or you want to know what im thinking of writing next, im going to try to be more active on insta!

ps, i finished 'it ends with us' yesterday and im still sobbing, give me book reccs so i can feel something again