EMERY AND JOHN B WERE RUNNING TO THE FERRY.

"no, no, no!" john b shouted in protest as the ticket handler walked away from his booth.

"i will give you five hundred dollars right now to let us on this boat." emery deadpanned, the man shaking his head at her.

"you two aren't the only ones trying to get off the island." he spat, john b raking his hands through his hair while emery sighed heavily behind him.

"they usually always take the money, weird." she muttered, john b looking around, his eyes falling on the cargo ship not far away.

"okay, i have a better idea, come on." he said quickly to emery, grabbing the girl by the hand and pulling her towards the ship.

"what, do you know these guys or something?" she asked, looking around at the men in yellow raincoats surrounding her, unsure of the situation john b was about to get them in.

"just wait here, okay? these are my people." john b assured, letting go of emery's arm and walking towards the man who was dressed like the captain of the ship.

"hey, excuse me, captain?" john b asked the man. "look, me and my sister really need to get on this boat. can we hop on?" he pleaded, the captain shaking his head.

"no." he replied simply.

"just- just help a brother out." john b tried.

"no." the captain repeated. "can't do it."

"thanks for nothing." john b told him bitterly, walking back to emery looking slightly embarrassed, the girl leaning against the pole next to her and looking at him with an unimpressed smile on her face.

"so what's the status on your people?" emery asked mockingly, john b stuttering on his words.

"um... so..." the brunette struggled to find his words. "they're booked."

"oh are they really?" emery asked sarcastically. "your people are too busy for you?"

"you got a better idea, ems?" john b asked annoyedly, emery looking around before a stack of yellow rain coats and propane tanks caught her eye.

"believe it or not, i do." she replied, pulling john b over to the side and tugging one of the raincoats on, john b doing the same as they both grabbed a propane tank.

"this way, come on." emery muttered, pushing her hair back so it wasn't a giveaway of who she was, she and john b both setting their tanks down right outside the ship. john b grabbed the melville girl by the arm, pulling her inside the ship and down into the engine room.

"we're about to push off, we have to go to the engine room!" someone yelled from above them, john b pulling emery down a hallway and shutting the door behind him.

"shush." john b told emery who started to open her mouth once the door was shut, john b walking over to her slowly. a sudden lurch of the boat sent emery falling onto john b, the girl falling into his chest with a small gasp, looking up at him as she slowly pulled away.

"we're moving." she said happily, john b high-fiving her as she tugged her raincoat off.

thirty minutes later, they realized they had made the worst decision possible.

the two were both slumped against the wall, john b on the floor and emery sitting on a crate. john b tugged his shirt off and tossed it onto the floor, and emery had removed her t-shirt that eas covering her bikini, the girl sighing heavily.

"i've had the luxury of air conditioning my entire life, so maybe i'm being dramatic, but i've never been hotter than i am right now." she breathed, sweat pouring down her face as john b nodded next to her, the routledge boy in. similar state.

"same here." he breathed.

"do you wanna like... i dunno... play a game?" emery asked, john b wrinkling his eyebrows and shaking his head.

"no, emery. i don't want to play a game." john b replied confusedly.

"unfortunately for you i don't care what you want." emery deadpanned. "mara and i play this game called bitch where you have to list off crazy things you've done and if the other person's done it they have to get a letter written on their forehead with eyeliner until they have the word bitch written on their forehead."

"did you just suggest i play bitch with you?" john b asked in disbelief.

"you are my bitch, it felt fitting."

"where do you plan on getting eyeliner?" john b asked, trying to find any way around this, but emery grabbed her shoulder bag off the ground.

"i'm a teenage girl, john b, i carry eyeliner everywhere." she said as she unzipped the bag, pulling a tube of liquid eyeliner out.

"can we do the back of the hand? we're about to go to a college to look at a dead man's diary, id rather not have profanity written across my face." john b asked emery, who shrugged.

"i thought that was the fun of the whole thing, but if you want to be lame, that's fine."

"you're so annoying." john b mumbled.

"but you love me." emery replied with a small smile, john b glancing over at her and smirking.

"yes, ma'am."

MARA GOT TO JJ AND POPE RIGHT AFTER THE KOOKS.

"what the hell are you guys doing?" she asked.

"does she not know?" topper asked jj. "why don't you tell your girlfriend what you did, huh?" topper asked.

"take one more step, i'll rip that prepubescent face off." jj muttered. "and don't talk about her." he added, his voice dropping.

"oh yeah, or what? you gonna sink another boat?" rafe asked.

"hey, how's your nose?" mara snapped at the cameron boy, ainsley rounding the corner on the other side of the screen.

"your psychotic bitch of a friend isn't here to take the fall for you." she said tauntingly to mara. "what a shame, i was really looking forward to beating the shit out of her."

"because history's proven you can do that?" mara asked she and ainsley stepping away from the boys, who were only getting more heated by the minute. "hate to break it to you, but rafe isn't as innocent as you think."

"rafe didn't do anything wrong, emery's just insane." ainsley defended her boyfriend, mara raising her eyebrows and turning to rafe.

"you haven't told ainsley what you did to emery? y'know, when she was fourteen and couldn't stick up for herself? i recall you were, what, seventeen, eighteen when you almost killed her?" mara taunted to the cameron boy, ainsley's face dropping noticeably.

pope took the opportunity of everyone being distracted to punch topper, kelce grabbing the boy as jj stepped forward, the three of them beginning to brawl each other.

"you're lying." ainsley spat. "rafe wouldn't hurt emery."

"her wrist is bruised from where he grabbed her at the country club!" mara shouted. "he has and will hurt emery or you if you don't get your head out of your ass."

"no, i don't believe you." ainsley spat.

"then go ahead, but don't come crying back to us when rafe gets upset you stepped on the wrong spot of the carpet.

ainsley launched herself at mara, attempting to pull her hair while also hitting her face. mara was stronger, rolling her body over and flinging ainsley off of her, standing up and pushing her hair back while breathing heavily.

"you're one to call emery psychotic, look at you!" she shouted, turning to the boys to see kelce had jj in a chokehold. "oh, shit."

mara ran over jumping onto kelce's back, attempting to wrestle the boy off of jj, when kiara rounded the corner, jj's bag in her hand.

suddenly, the movie screen in front of the teens was lit on fire, the majority of the screen disappearing in a matter of seconds. kelce immediately let go of jj as topper let go of pope, rafe helping ainsley up as the kooks retreated.

"are you okay?" mara asked jj, cupping his face and examining his split lip and already bruising cheek and eye.

"mar, i'll be fine." jj assured, grabbing her hand gently and pulling it back down from his face.

"i'll clean you up at the chateau." she muttered, and after making sure pope could get a ride home from kiara, she and jj were going down the gravel roads to the chateau.

"i'm sorry." jj said out of nowhere, the car ride having been completely silent before that, mara wrinkling her eyebrows.

"for what?" she asked as she turned into the driveway of the chateau.

"for not telling you what happened with rafe and topper." jj explained. "i didn't sink the boat, pope did. only because rafe and topper beat the shit out of him on the golf course."

"how did i not hear about this?" mara asked.

"pope made me swear not to tell anyone, i guess topper had security cameras or something because he knew it was us who did it, but if the cops find out it was pope he'll lose his scholarship."

"so what, topper goes to the cops with the footage, how do you plan on keeping pope out of jail?"

"better me than pope." jj muttered from next to mara, who parked her car as the two of them climbed out of the car. jj tried to go to the guest room immediately, but mara grabbed his wrist, pulling him into the bathroom where he reluctantly sat on the counter.

"it'll get-"

"infected, i know." jj replied annoyedly, but smiling nonetheless. mara reached into the cabinet below the sink and pulled out a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a bag of cotton balls, making jj audibly groan.

"you are such a baby." the stevens dragged out, soaking the cotton ball and pressing it to jj's split lip, the boy inhaling sharply and gripping mara's hand tightly out of instinct, the girl apologizing repeatedly as she used the alcohol to wipe the dried blood off his chin.

"how was your fight with ainsley?" jj asked, still holding mara's hand tightly as she wiped the alcohol at the other various cuts on jj's face.

"she was honestly pretty pathetic, i don't know where she comes off calling emery a psycho bitch when she's the one dating rafe cameron." the girl expressed, tossing the cotton ball into the trash can and wetting a washcloth she pulled out of the drawer to wipe jj's face with.

"she's a little delusional." jj said with a smile, mara shrugging.

"it doesn't help that she's delusional about her delusion." she added, careful to not put too much pressure on the fresh bruises on jj's face, the boy still squeezing her hand when he was in pain.

"i'm sorry i got you involved." jj mumbled, mara stopping what she was doing to gently grab the maybank boy's chin, pulling his face down to look at her.

"you did not get me involved." mara explained. "i saw you and pope in trouble, so i helped. it's called being a good friend."

"if any of them had touched you, i would've killed them." jj assured her, mara tossing the washcloth to the side and putting her palms of her hands on either side of jj's body, leaning forward towards him as she looked up at him.

"my keeper will be glad to know i'm well taken care of." mara joked, jj laughing at the thought of mrs. stevens being happy with anything her daughter did, she seemed to find a problem with everything mara did with the pogues, mostly because she was doing it with the pogues.

jj's head fell onto mara's shoulder as he climbed off the counter, jj still holding the girl's hand tightly. they went to the guest room, jj laying down, still in his cargo shorts, but it wasn't the first time he had been too lazy to take them off.

"you gonna stay?" he asked tiredly, mara looking at him confusedly.

"yeah, i'll be in the living room." she replied, but jj shook his head, finally releasing mara's hand only to wrap his arm around her waist.

"no." he mumbled tiredly. "stay here."

mara smiled softly, nodding.

"okay, j."

kens speaks 🪐

all the coupleness

harringtonssss you're welcome.