Tidal Wave. | obx szn 1

Compass.

Aurora walks away from Pope. He watches silently as John B helps her get on the boat.

His heart is wrenching. How didn't I notice? He keeps asking himself. He understood it now. Aurora doesn't sleep all the time because she's always tired, or because she wants to. She sleeps to escape. Sleeping allows Aurora to be away from her problems for hours on end, whether she knows it or not. Sleeping throughout the day means Aurora has to deal with her mother for only part of those dreadful 24 hours. Now it all makes sense.

"Pope, wanna help us out?" JJ calls out, interrupting Pope's thoughts.

"Yeah, sure."

Aurora and Pope don't say a word on the way out to the marsh.

༄

When they arrive in the marsh, Kiara checks the scuba tanks. They need enough air to make it down to the boat, look around, then come back up.

"You grabbed empty tanks?"

"I—"

"Okay, this one's a quarter full."

"That's enough for one of us," Aurora comments.

"Love this."

"Does anybody know how to dive?" Kiara asks.

Everyone shakes their heads.

"Kind of a kook thing," JJ says.

"I read about it," Pope comments.

"Oh, because that helps," JJ replies, "look, you put the thing in your mouth and breathe. How hard could it be?"

"That's what she said," Aurora mumbles, only loud enough for JJ to hear.

"Good one," he whispers back.

"If you come up too fast, nitrogen gets in your blood, and you get the bends." Pope explains, matter-of-factly.

"Bends, like, bends over?"

"The bends kill you."

"Right."

John B rolls his eyes, "I'll do it."

"Hmm, great idea."

"Since when can you dive?" Kiara argues.

"I'm gonna do some calculations real quick." Pope says, standing. He pulls out a piece of paper and a pen, mumbling math equations to himself.

"You need to make your safety spot at, about, 10 feet," Pope concludes.

Aurora watches as Kira tears off her shirt, revealing a swimsuit underneath.

"Hey, that's mine." Aurora whines, earning a smile from Kiara.

Kiara jumps into the water, confusing everyone else.

"What was that?"

"I don't know, but I liked it, a lot," JJ smiles, looking into the water. Aurora slaps his chest, with a don't-talk-about-my-girlfriend-like-that look on her face.