One Stupid Thing

2:6:58

The next morning, as the boys are waxing their surfboards, Kiara and I take a seat in some lawn chairs and listen to them bicker about the proper 'waxing technique.' Kiara strums lightly on her ukulele, tuning it to find the right key, and the sound of their chickens clucking can be heard in the background.

"That's a lot of wax on your board," Pope says to JJ. "Put too much wax, it's gonna be slippery."

"Are you telling me how to wax my board, Pope?" JJ replies shortly, leaning away from his board to look back at Pope.

"Nope. Just saying that's a lot of wax."

"No, no, no. You're telling me how to wax my board. Are you kidding me?"

"That's a colossal waste of wax."

"Guys, really?" Kiara interjects. She looks over at me and rolls her eyes. JJ glances up from his board and pauses.

"Did you hear that?" he asks.

"Hear what?" I reply. Just then, I hear the obnoxious sound of a car horn growing louder as it approaches. We all collectively hold our breath and peer around the corner of the shed to see who it could be. That's when the Twinkie comes into view with John B in the drivers seat.

"Are you serious?" Kiara exclaims, jumping up from her chair.

"Hold on. Am I dreaming right now?" JJ drops his wax and leads the way out to the front yard. Pope, Kie and I follow quickly behind.

"Guess who's out of the clink, boy!" John B yells excitedly as he skips over to us.

"No, freaking way, man!" Pope exclaims. Kiara let's out a joyful yell and is the first to hurry over to John B and embrace him. Pope isn't too far behind.

"Oh my God! I can't believe this!" I say, joining the group hug.

"My boy's out of the can!" JJ laughs, wrapping his arms around all of us.

"We missed you," Kiara says, muffled into John B'a shoulder.

"I missed you guys too."

"How'd you do it? You bust out?" JJ asks as we pull away from the hug.

"Uh, they dropped the charges," John B says, still in disbelief.

"They dropped the charges," Pope repeats, further adding to the reality of what John B just told us.

"Dude, that's phenomenal!" Kiara utters.

"You're telling me I did all that work for nothing?" JJ asks jokingly.

"Oh, the most elaborate escape plan of all time?" Pope teases.

"'Foolproof,'" Kiara quotes him, gesturing with air-quotes.

"Yeah, it was, actually."

"Mr. broke the wrong guy out of jail over here," I add in, smacking his arm playfully.

"Wait, where's Sarah?" John B asks us. None of us answer. He turns his gaze to me but I don't know what to tell him. "No, no, no. Where... where... where's Sarah?"

"She went to go meet Wheezie last night," I finally say. "She promised that it wouldn't take long but... we haven't seen her since." Two strong hands settle on my shoulders and when I look up, JJ is looking down at me. I reach up and lay my hand over his.

"I'm sure she's alright, bro. You know how Sarah is," he tells his friend.

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right."

We all head inside and as soon as John B steps through the front door he looks around at the Chateau with immense joy. You can tell that he missed home.