𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐲

ninety-two: Surf Trip.

AFTER SHE closed it up, Kie stayed seated where she was as Kai plops down beside where JJ is. "Hi." He whispers and the blond boy just stared straight ahead. "This feels wrong. I should be out there with them." He said and Kai just grabs his hand, interlocking their fingers. "I like it when you're safe... especially here with me." He said, gently rubbing the back JJ's hand with his thumb.

JJ looks at him, "you know I'm a good fighter." He says and Kai quickly nods. "Yeah... but they were right. It was risky." He says and JJ sighs, looking away. "I hate when I'm wrong." He says and Kai chuckles, putting his chin onto JJ's shoulder. "It's who you are... and I love who you are." He says and JJ begins to smile wide.

The two sat there like that for a while, just holding hands and JJ had his head on Kai's shoulder, his eyes closed. "I've been thinking." JJ said suddenly, looking up at Kai, wiping away his sweat off his face. "When all this is over, and we're just rolling in the dough, I'm gonna get a new board. I'm gonna deck it out, and I'm gonna go on a surf trip. And I want you there with me." He looks at Kai in the eyes.

"Yeah? Where?" Kai smiled softly. "I don't know where, but, like, the world's calling. I don't know... Name a place." He looks at Kai. "Uh... Australia." Kai shrugs and JJ looks at him. "Then after Australia, South America or South Africa." He says and Kai smiles slightly. "One of the south places." JJ looked away.

His face is red and he's obviously blushing off embarrassment. "Then Micronesia maybe, and then... just ride." He says, looking at Kai. "Wherever the wave takes you, you know?" He says and Kai just nods softly. "That sounds amazing, JJ... Surf trip." He says, looking at his boyfriend who glanced up.

"Ripping jungle break all day long. Bamboo hut, cooking a fish on a fire, and after that, you go back out and just hit the waves again." He's smiling and Kai smiles wider. "And I wanna do it all with you..." JJ looks at him in the eyes and Kai leans in, pressing their lips together. "I love you..." He says, pulling back. "I love you more." JJ whispers, smiling back.

"You guys sure know how to make me feel like a third wheel." Kie said, standing in front of them with her arms on the items behind her. "Sorry, Kie." Kai chuckled softly and looked at her. "Anyways, I was eavesdropping and you guys have a really nice surf trip planned, I'd love to join... anything beats boarding school." She says and Kai's brows furrow.

"Boarding school?" He says and Kie sighs. "My parents are threatening to send me to boarding school." She shrugs. "Hey. Hey. Open it." Pope's whispers catch their attention and Kai got up quickly as Kie went to open it. Pope is the first to come in as Kai holds the grate. "I thought Rafe got you guys for sure." Kie says with a worried to w. "No, we're chill." Pope says, climbing in and after him, John B climbed in next. "Alright, okay let's put the grate back on."

"No, wait. Hold it."

"What? No. Put it back."

But then a girl comes peeking in, "Jesus Christ! I kill you, John B!" She exclaims, her Carribean accent very clear, as she climbs in. "Who is this?" Kie asked worriedly, looking at Pope and Kai then at John B. "Just relax. Just relax, okay? I told you I had a surprise, right?" John B says making Kie look at him. "Who is she? What's going on?" She asked him next. "Hey, hey, hey, Kie, relax. Relax. Remember I told you about the girl we met in the Bahamas that saved us?" John B grabbed onto her arms.

"Uh... Cleo, yeah?"

"Cleo." John B looks up at the girl. "She's gonna help us. Alright?" He says as Kie looks up at her. "Next time, ask me." Cleo says in a hoarse voice and Kai's brows raise slightly.

"You seriously didn't grab nothing, not one single gun?" JJ asked when John B and Pope were explaining what happened when they left. "We tr... we tried, okay? I got attacked." John B explains to him. "This is why I should've gone with." JJ sounded angry making Kai look at him. "Shh. Relax." He whispered.

"Let me get this straight. You four, with no weapons, decided you were gonna hijack this tramp steamer on your own? Do you have any idea who these people are? Eberhimi, if he catch you, he's gonna kill you. Dead. Cut off your fingers." Cleo tells them.

"Okay. What about waiting until we get to port?" Kie asked, looking at the others. "At least then, if something goes wrong, we have a place to run." She explains. "No. No, we can't do that." Pope said suddenly. "Why not?" Kai looked at the boy beside Kie. "Because I've run the scenario over 1,000 times in my head, and our best chances are on this ship. There's 15 crew members and six of us." He raised his hands. "Exactly." Kie looked down at the boy.

"Three-to-one odds." He said, his three fingers going down to one. "Best it's gonna get. If we wait till we get there, they're gonna trap us." He says and Kai sighs. He had a point. "We have no chance." Kie says right away.

"No, Kie, there's something else. Ward's alive." John B looks at them. "He's alive, and he's on this boat." He glanced over at Kai and JJ. "What?" Kie says right away, her face scrunched up. "Yeah." John B nods.

"You gotta be kidding me."

"Are you serious?" Pope says quietly. "It was all a setup, blowing up the boat, the confession to Shoupe. Think about it. That was to clear Rafe's name. And he does what? Goes to the Druthers. And what's on the Druthers?" John B asked and Kai scoffs. "Scuba gear..." He said quietly. "Bingo." John B looks at him.

"So, Ward's alive, huh? And he has the gold and the cross." JJ got down, standing behind Kai. "And Sarah." He says, looking at John B, putting his arm around Kai. "Thanks for rubbing that in." Kie says and Kai sighs, looking around. "So, he's just gonna get away with it again, huh? Same shit he did with the gold..." He said, glancing at Pope then John B.

"Not happening." JJ looks at Kai, shaking his head. "We're not watching this movie again, right, Pope?" JJ looked at Pope next. "You said we need the win. And with her," the blond pointed to Cleo, "we're going to the bridge, and we're gonna take it right now." He says.

"You with me?"

"Let's do it." John B looks at JJ. "I'm with you, and I wanna be the one to take that bridge." Pope says and JJ looks at him. "That's what I'm talking about." He takes his arm away from Kai to bro hug him as Cleo chuckles.

"He's gonna take the bridge?"

"Yeah."

"He couldn't even take me." Cleo said and Kai chuckled, looking at Pope. "Okay, first of all, I was going easy on you." He's quick to defend himself. "Seriously?" JJ asked Pope, glancing at Cleo. "Hey, I went easy on you." Cleo corrected as Kie suddenly shushes them.

"Relax, all of you."

"If you're really with us, if we use that knife, we can go up into the bridge, hold it up against the captain's neck, then we go on the intercom and make him tell the rest of the crew to meet up in the forward hull. Once they're in the same place, bam, we lock them in there, and we take back what's ours." JJ tells them, looking at Cleo. "I like it. It could work." Pope says.

"Are you with us, then?"

"No," Cleo says before looking at John B. "This is stupid." She says. "Alright, let's open these things up!" A man outside shouted. "They're checking the containers." Kie says. "Uh-oh." Pope whispers as Cleo opens the grate. "What are you doing?" Kie asked but the girl merely shushed them, leaving.

"Macias!"

"She's gonna tell them! Shit!"

"Hold up! This one's clear, sir." After that, Kai let out a small sigh of relief. "Okay, she's on our side. That's good." Pope said as he looks at them. "Pope, you're up, we'll wait for your signal, okay?" JJ whispered as Pope opens the crate, passing it to JJ who then puts it back on after the boy got out of the container.

AUTHORS NOTE
i can kind of see pope and cleo, but it's so out of nowhere just to throw us off kie and pope and to make us not ship them 😕