Jackson Maybank was the light of Talia Routledge's life. Every day that the Maybank boy was in the Routledge girl's life was a day guaranteed to start with the sunrise and end with the sunset, no matter how awfully terrible the weather got, that sun...
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01 poguelandia
"I honestly would be happy to stay here forever." Talia muttered to JJ, looking at the crystal blue water surrounding the group. The pair were fashioning spears out of large sticks they'd found on the island. "Let's go catch some dinner, hey." The blonde boy muttered bumping his shoulder against hers. His sparkling blue eyes held a mischievous look to them. With a smile the girl got up, dusting sand off of her, he rose moments after, taking the girl's hand and leading her out to the ocean.
"All right remember; watch your shadow. They see that, they're gone." JJ informed the girl. "Okay, J, you've told me three times. I promise I'm listening." She called over to the blonde boy, a smile dancing across her face. "All right, here we go." The boy bent down into a sumo like stance. "Just like we practiced. Alright?" The boy reassured, Talia looking at him with love in her eyes. "I'm ready." She spoke softly, nodding as she looked him directly in the eyes. "Alright, let's go baby." He responded in the same soft tone as the pair slowly ventured out into the water, stalking slowly through so as not to create ripples everywhere they stepped which would in turn disturb the fish.
"Lia, to your left. It's a Skate. Slowly now." JJ commanded, the blonde girl seeing the shadow of the fast moving fish began stabbing at the water, with the hopes of spearing the fish. The first few stabs into the water, both went in and came out easily, indicating to the girl that she had in fact missed the fish. She stabbed once again, the spear this time harder to plunge into the sand, with a gasp, she lifted the now heavier spear. "JJ! I did it!" She squealed in excitement, the boy grasping her in his arms, a huge smile gracing his face. "That's my girl!" He celebrated with her.
The pair later walked back to where the group had set up camp, sitting around in a circle of comfortable silence. "Truth or dare?" Kie hummed, brows raised, the group all nodding and humming in agreement. "John B, your turn. Truth or dare?" Sarah shooting the question to Talia's brother. "All right, all right. Truth." The brunette boy responded to his girlfriend. "Truth? If you could do it all again. . . What would you do different?" Sarah asked the older Routledge. "Uh, get the gold out before Ward did." JJ answered almost immediately. "Maybe hide the cross a little better." Pope followed closely. "Not yell murderer at Ward, maybe." Kiara was next.
"Uh, steal a couple bottles of rum before we jumped off the boat." John B continued. "Yeah, why didn't you do that actually?" The blonde boy retaliated. "I don't know, maybe because I was in a fight to the death." John B bit back. Talia giggled at her brother's response. "I would look both ways before crossing the street." Cleo continued. "Lia, what about you?" Sarah asked the only other blonde girl in the group. "Um, I wouldn't have trusted so easily." She played with her fingers, memories of Rafe and how easily she had trusted him flooded her mind. A silence overtook the group after her answer, Cleo clearing her throat.
"Your turn chief." Cleo turned the group's attention to John B who turned to his left. "All right, Kie, truth or dare?" He asked the brunette next to him, placing his hat on her head. "If you could go home, to your parents' house, on Figure Eight this instant. . . Would you do it?" He questioned, the girl pursing her lips. "No chance." She responded. "JJ, truth or dare?" Kiara asked the blonde boy. "I mean, do you even need to ask?" He replied, throwing a rock down the sand, Kiara pointed to the cliff side to the group's right with her knife. "Big jump. Nobody's done it yet. Dare." She concluded. JJ moved to get up, Talia quickly following. "What're you doing?" He asked as the girl walked by his side.
"Coming with you, duh." She spoke matter-of-factly, a large smile spreading across the blonde boy's face at this. "That's my girl." He grasped onto her hand, leading her up through a tunnel of rocks to reach the top of the cliff. "He won't do it!" They heard Cleo call out, the blonde girl hiding a giggle in JJ's shoulder. "Oh I won't, huh?" The blonde boy over exaggerated motioning out to the cliff side. The group could be seen talking amongst themselves, Talia took a deep breath looking at the blonde next to her, JJ's eyes seeing the panic in hers immediately glossed over. "Lia, we are not doing this if you don't want to." Talia looked at him with hesitantly, then shook her head. "No, I want to."
"Baby, look at me." JJ grabbed the girl's attention. "You've got this, ready?" The pair turned, hands interlocked, prepared. "One." JJ began counting. "Two." Talia sucked in a breath. "Three." The pair said in unison as they took a running start, letting go of each other's hands in the air so as to not injure themselves. A gasp slipped out of the blonde girl's mouth as she was enveloped in a coolness from hitting the water below, kicking her legs to push her to the surface of the water she looked around only to have JJ already bringing her into his arms. "You did it my girl." He breathed into her ear. Talia squeezed him harder.
The group were surrounded by their friends hollering and whooping to congratulate the pair. John B made his way over to his sister, pulling her in for a hug. "I hate that you just did that." He muttered, shaking her hair and messing it up. "But proud of you." A grin spread across his face looking at his sister. "Love you JB." Talia smiled at her brother. "Love you Lia." He responded, pulling her in for a side hug. The pair assessed their new reality and their family chattering around them, they had never felt more full or content than in this particular moment.
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decided to bring back talia & jj's story for a third season after them being benched 🫶🏽
