golden wings melt like blue slushies // JJ Maybank

-Three nights at the motel, under streetlights, in the city of palms-

"Hey, Pope. Can you go a little faster?" JJ asked with a smirk, picking up his beer and moving to the front of the boat.

"That's what she said!"

Pope sighed wearily at both comments, but sped up the boat. Icarus rolled her eyes, picking up her towel and moving out of the way. JJ winked at her, and she stuck her tongue out back at him.

"Here we go. I'm movin'." Pope said. JJ smiled, holding the open beer out in front of him confidently.  The breeze picked up as they sped through the muddy water quickly, reeds as loud as a cornfield. 

"Doesn't work. We've tried this like 6,000 times." John B complained.

"I got this! It's gonna work, thirds time the charm." JJ said cockily, an easy grin on his face. He stood right on the helm.  

Icarus raised her eyebrows and looked away, "Wouldn't say third, but go off, I guess."

"You're getting beer in my hair!"

"Oh my god."

Icarus wrinkled her nose and shifted away again, putting her towel over her shoulders to stop the beer flicking back at her. "Alright, you're done. Alright stop!" Pope called over Kiara's shrieks, fiddling with the controls.  

Icarus yelped, and then was silenced when she slammed into what felt like a slab of freezing concrete. 

Turns out it was the water.

Her body felt like it went through the five stages of grief as it adjusted to the cold, and then panic bubbled up her throat as she sunk deeper. 

She kicked desperately; eyes screwed shut so the muddy grains would get in them. When swimming didn't work, Icarus felt for the sleeve of material around her thigh, pulling it down like a sock so she could take off her prosthetic leg. Her hands shook. 

The last bubble of air in her lungs escaped, and Icarus couldn't see the light on top of the water anymore. Reeds touched her foot, but she didn't register the slimy feeling. Her thoughts became muddled. 

Then something grabbed her, and for a split second of terror, her mind went straight to that one scene in JAWS that had been ingrained in her mind at far too young of an age. Then she was being pulled upwards, and her head was out of the dark water. Icarus coughed, rubbing her eyes wearily, she looked up and saw JJ's panicked face.

She scrambled to the ladder, John B helping her up and over the side back into their boat. A towel went around her shoulders and JJ sat down next to her immediately, hands hovering over her like he wasn't sure what to do.                                                                                                                                                       

"Sorry Ig, the sandbar must have changed in the hurricane." Pope apologised, squinting at the murky water.

Pope went to say something else, but Kiara interrupted him, squatting down in front of Icarus with a frown. "Jesus Christ, are you okay? You could've drowned-"

"But she didn't." John B said, patting Kiara on the shoulder and then being knocked out of the way by a very happy very big dog. Captain leapt into Icarus's lap, licking at her face ecstatically. She threaded her fingers through his thick golden fur, trying to slow her breathing that had become erratic once there was oxygen.

"Guys, I think there's a boat down there." Pope called back to them, and JJ looked away from where he had been glaring at the dog again.                                                                                                                                                                         

"Shut up," John B huffed, unnecessarily putting another towel around Icarus's shoulders. She would dry in an instant in this hot weather though. 

The calm before the storm, if you will.

"No, no guys I'm serious!" Pope kept talking, getting more frantic as he went. He looked back at them, eyes wide. "There's like a boat down there, for real. There's a boat!"

"Shit he's right," Kie said after she'd hopped up to his side, running a hand through her curls and looking down. "Let's go!" 

She took off her shorts and yellow shirt, the boys following her. They jumped into the cold below, chattering about dead bodies and then silenced with a splash.

Icarus took off the extra towel, moving her leg and hoping it wouldn't rust and get squeaky. She hadn't been able to afford the waterproof one, despite the fact she literally lived on a boat. Captain thumped his tail against the side of the boat and flopped over her lap. 

She looked around the empty boat, "I guess I'll just stay here then?"

She heard dramatically loud gasping after only a minute and a half, and then JJs shocked voice. "You guys saw that right? That's a Grady White! A new one of those is like, five G's easily. That's a primo rig!"

"Yeah, yeah, that's the boat that I saw when I surfed the surge," John B continued the conversation as the four climbed onto the boat again. "Maybe it hit a jetty or something."

JJ pushed Captain out of the way and sat down next to Icarus, dripping water onto her once again. She shoved a towel in his face, earning a confused look, but he still wrapped his arm around her waist. She blinked a few times, and felt her body become wobbly. She wiped her sweaty hands on the towel. 

Captain snapped at JJ, baring his teeth until the boy shuffled away from Icarus. She felt a bit bad. John B dragged the boats anchor past, a determined smile on his face. Icarus had no idea what she had missed. 

"Only for the week and feeble."

"Yeah, well I'm not resuscitating you." JJ said stubbornly, standing up and following the stupid boy to the very front of the boat. He turned around at winked at Icarus in the least subtle way possible, "I'd save you though-"

"Diver down." John B saluted, holding the anchor to his chest like a bouquet.

JJ smirked at him, "Yeah he is," And then John B was in fact in the water. Pope smiled, and Kiara chuckled, sitting down next to Icarus and scratching the top of Captain's head, making a cooing face at the puppy.

"So, the dog likes her and not me?" JJ scoffed, pointing at the now content dog. Icarus just shrugged.

"I'm his favourite." Pope said smugly. 

He wasn't wrong. 

Icarus heard even more dramatic gasping and John B's head popped up. 

"Any dead bodies?" Pope asked hopefully. Icarus's eyes widened in fear, and Captain licked her cheek again, leaving what looked like the trail of a snail.                                                                                                                                                                                                                

"Looting potential?" JJ asked, a spark in his blue eyes. Icarus liked his eyes; they were like the blues in the sky just before sunset. Or like the slushies he loved so much, even though red was very obviously superior.

"No, no." John B dismissed, holding up a small silver object with a tag. "I found this motel key."

"Great. A salvaged motel key" JJ drawled, glaring at the key like it had personally let him down.

 Icarus looked up from the two-minute noodle sauce stain she had been picking at on her shorts. She'd have to scrub them a bit before she did a load of washing tomorrow. "We could report the wreck, maybe get a finder's fee?"

JJ looked up with excitement, "And not have to work all summer, Ig's, you're a genius!"

Icarus shrugged with a smirk, reaching for the discarded esky and pulling out an actual juice box. It was apple. "It's been said."