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chapter five / hidden taonga
"Boys are stupid," Sarah Cameron drawled, bathing in the sun dipped light on the top deck of the My Druthers, legs folded as she laid beside Ilyshah Tūrei who shaded half of her face with a cream fedora hat. Coconut scented oil slicked skin bronzing as the minutes passed them by.
Ilyshah hummed in agreement. "We should get married and not have to deal with them."
"That's the best idea you've ever come up with," A smile softly appeared on her lips, eyes fluttered closed, "where should our wedding be? 3, 2, 1—"
"Hawaii," The two girls called, jaws both dropped as Ilyshah's hat had knocked off from sitting up in shock.
Spencer Fishers played with the string of his board shorts, fingers moving upwards to peel the skin from a freshly turned sunburn on his elbow. "You realize I'm here too? And I'm a boy."
"Shame," Ilyshah sagely commented with a sigh, sitting back and returning the felt hat to her forehead, "you can be our flowerboy Fin."
It was almost comical, how days worked on the Outerbanks. One day, vibrations sounded off her chest from the soulful build up of a belly laugh. The next, salting the earth behind her after steeping in the medley of emotions that followed her fateful confrontation with JJ on the dock. Floating in her own lagoon of mercuriality.
All this time, Ilyshah Tūrei carefully curated an image of JJ Maybank in her mind. Tidal waves for eyes, dirt blonde mane and holes in his bush socks peeking out of his work boots. All feeding into a perfection imperfection that had her singing love songs in the mirrors reflection, wishing on every petal and blushing as high as the sunset. Until, he pulled out the gun and the facade came tumbling down bringing with it whatever feelings had been wedged between them.
The island teachings of all out tribal warfare reached its boiling point since then, with talks of retribution teased in the air by Lani and Sarah's ( frankly, stupid ) boyfriends—souring the summer dream with each simmering plot to get back at JJ Maybank. To say they were unhappy that Ilyshah saved him from getting fired was an understatement, and at this point it would have been a safer option. The territory of Figure Eight was full of land mines, any Pogue who stepped over the borderline spelled a death wish for themselves.
"I'm gonna get some water, you guys want any?" asked Sarah, brushing off her dress as they both gave her a silent thumbs up, still recovering from the night before.
Spencer broke the silence between them once Sarah left. "So you two are on a crusade against all mankind now?"
"Who said we only just started?"
"This is about JJ, isn't it? Because if you had told me earlier, I would've told you this is what he's li—"
"It's not about him and I'm not in the mood Spence," She lifted the hat back onto her crown, casting a shadow over him as she stood up. "I'm gonna help Sarah with the water."
