The Least Favorite Cameron

Chapter 16

We lost the gold. We were so damn close too. If we had only gotten to Terrance's boat an hour or two sooner. Thankfully Cleo could at least get us to my dad's boat from the house and we could get away from the police officer who was shooting at us. Now John B. and I were heading toward home once again. Home, a foreign concept to me now. The place I once called home now had two murderers living inside.

"You okay?" John B. says to me, pulling me from my thoughts.

"Yeah, I just can't believe we're going back. It scares me. I can't lose you John B," I say as the tears well in my eyes and I turn my head away from them, embarrassed at my emotions.

"Hey, you could never lose me. We'll figure it all out, yeah I don't know how right now but I will," He says as he looks down at me, his dark brown eyes are given a slight twinkle from the moonlight and his curly brown hair blows in his face from the sea breeze. He's so damn handsome I think to myself.

"And besides, we're getting married. You're stuck with me," He adds and tries to give me a quick kiss but I let us sit there for a second in a small moment of bliss under the stars. It was just him and I for miles, under the stars and the moon, coasting through the water. It felt like a movie.

"What if we got married right now?" I say to him smirking as I break our kiss.

"Well Gracie, I don't think we'll be able to find a priest, unless you want a dolphin to marry us," He says giggling to himself.

"No I'm serious, I wanna be married to you. We don't need a priest, we have the stars and the moon and the sea. That's pretty magical to me and I think God would approve," I say and I can't hide the huge smile that appeared on my face. I just wanted to be tied to him forever, him and I against the world.

"Well then Grace Ann Cameron, would you do me the honor of marrying me right here, right now?" He asks as he gets down on one knee.

"I would, John Booker Routledge," I say as I stand up and pull him to his feet.

"Do you promise to love me in sickness and in health, for better or worse, for richer or poorer?" I ask him as I try to remember all the vows I'd seen people say in movies.

"I do," He replies.

"And do you promise to do the same?" He asks giggling.

"I do,"

"Well then I give you this sweaty piece of my father's bandana, as a token of my love," He says as he takes off his signature bandana and rips a piece off to tie around my neck.

"Perfect," I say to him as I cup his face with my hands and smile at him.

"Well then I think it's time I kiss my bride," He says and he kisses me for a long time. And then we just stand there holding each other. I never knew it was possible to love and care for someone as deeply as I did for John B. I quite literally would take a bullet for him.

The days are passing slowly and painstakingly. Thankfully my dad had panked a survival kit onboard so we had a water purifier and enough food rations for both of us but we were still hungry. The only thing in the medkit was ibuprofen which did nothing to help with the pain so I didn't even bother taking any. We've talked about everything two people could possibly talk about from deep conversations to basic trivia questions. I learned that his favorite movie is Point Break, the original not the remake, he doesn't really have a favorite show since he's not inside much. We'd been friends for years but sometimes little details of a person fall through the cracks of a busy life so even though we were hungry, sunburnt, and I had a bullet wound, we really cherished this time together. Not many people can say they spent five days on a boat with another person and nothing to distract them.

I was trying to take a nap on the small lightly cushioned bench when I saw it. Between the bars of the guard rail I could see land. I sat up and scanned my view, making sure I wasn't hallucinating.

"John B, look! Do you see it?" I yell even though we're only a few feet away from each other.

"I see it, it's Charleston! Good thing too, we're just about out of gas," He says as he taps the gauge on the monitor.

"We made it," I say feeling both relieved and scared at the same time. Being home means reuniting with the pogues, but it also means seeing my family. The only one's I longed for were Sarah and Wheezie, and a Rafe I recognized.

"The pogues are gonna lose their shit when we pull up to the chateau," John B. says with a laugh.

"I wonder what they're doing," I say as I think about my favorite people in the world.

***

The three pogues sat in Pope's truck as he drove them across the huge bridge leading to Charleston. The city that housed the person who could clear John B's name. The key to their freedom from Ward was just a few miles up ahead and they were anxious to get it. Pope, the forever cautious one had reservations about what they were doing and who they were meeting. The wheat symbol looking back at him as the envelope that arrived at the school hours ago, made him nervous. In his gut he had a bad feeling about the person who sent it. JJ and Kie pushed their worries aside because the reward was too large and stakes were too high to risk not going. Kiara longed for her partner in crime, the girl that knew every facet of her life, her every thought. Pope longed for their leader to come back so he didn't feel like he was in charge of JJ's antics anymore. JJ just wanted his brother back and he wanted the girl who could make him laugh endlessly back. They wanted their friends back, to have the gold and be free from all their worries.

"I wonder where John B. and Gracie are right now," JJ thought out loud.