Beautiful summer

sixteen

"meeting you will never be my regret, tolerating the ways you hurt me always will be" ~j.b.

Skylar sat on her bed staring down at her wooden board full of Polaroid pictures from all her years on the island. Pictures of her, Sarah, Topper, Rafe and Kelce. The group who when they were drunk acted half normal for a second.

They'd sit in Skylar's front room laughing about their parents, planning holidays, planning their futures that didn't involve what their parents wanted and for half a second they felt free, they felt alive and happy, like they were real human beings.

But then the hangover came. The day after the previous night, they were all back to normal. They were back in the same old bubble wrap letting their parents control their every single movement.

Everyone said the Kooks were bad news, horrible people, snobby rich people. But just like the Pogues maybe they had their reasons for the way they acted. They had good hearts deep down even if some of them ever refused to show that.

They'd been bullied and controlled by their parents for so long they'd put up a defence wall. They refused to let anyone see the real them because they were afraid to see the real them themselves. But just like you always hear. One can only take so much before they eventually crack.

A knock on Skylar's room door shocked her out her trance bringing her back down to reality. "Go away" she yelled huffing when she noticed the door handle move down, revealing Sarah Cameron with an apologetic look on her face.

"Tequila" she questioned holding up the glass bottle she must of stolen from somewhere, Skylar's face lighting up. "You're forgiven" she laughed wrestling the girl down into the bed with a tight hug.

"What about me" Topper questioned holding his arms out revealing a white shirt stained red in most places, his sleeves rolled. Hannah, Rafe and Kelce followed in after all of them diving onto the girls bed and joining the hug between the two girls.

Skylar snuck through the group getting her secret stash of joints, shot glasses and beer cans from the top of her cupboard cheering as she showed them to the group. "Balcony" Hannah asked knowing that was the main place the group would go for drinks on a night.

Mainly because if someone came into Skylar's room they'd just she'd gone out but another reason being that the Outerbanks had the most perfect sun sets to watch from heights. "Of course" The Conley girl smiled slinging an arm round her shoulder walking out to the balcony shutting the blinds behind her and then the doors.

"Never have I ever drinking version" Sarah smirked drumming her hands on the floor as everyone was poured a shot of tequila. "Mmm okay. Never have I ever gone skinny dipping" Hannah smirked looking over at Sarah and Skylar who instantly shot back the drink shaking their heads to get rid of the bitter taste.

"Never have I ever kissed more than one person in 24 hours" Topper took his turn in asking everyone but him and Sarah taking a shot. "I'm going to be drunk by the fourth question at this rate" Skylar gulped pouring herself the third shot glass of the night before passing it on.

"Never have I ever stolen anything." The Conley girl smirked watching as Topper, Kelce and Rafe all took their turns in drinking the tequila. "I think it's time to light these up" Skylar held the pack of joints up in front of the group while reaching in her pocket for a lighter.

Topper pulled his phone out putting some music on while she handed out joints lighting them up. "Oh fuck I needed this" she smiled taking a long hit of it, Hannah and Rafe sharing one between themselves.

"Should we give you guys a room" Kelce sniggered when they started to snog each others faces off. "That would be good" Hannah responded sarcastically sending him a wink as he shook his head at the two new love birds.

"So Sky, just us two left. What do you say" he chuckled walking towards the girl who pushed his head away from hers. "No immediate pass" he started to pout, flipping of Sarah and Topper who started to laugh at his failed attempt to get with the girl.

***********

The group of Kooks groaned as they stirred awake on Skylar's balcony, shot glasses, bottles, cans, joints and anything else you could think of thrown everywhere across the ground. "Fuck me" Skylar groaned rubbing her eyes awake pushing Kelce's hand off her waist.

"Happily" he muttered but she quickly shoved his head away, gagging at his third attempt of the week. He thought because Rafe had moved on from his obsession with the girl she was open for the taking but she really didn't have any interest in the poor boy.

"You just gotta give up at this point Kelce" Topper sniggered lifting himself up with his elbows to look at the pair who were sat on decking watching the sun rise around them.

Watching the sun rise was always a magical experience for the group of Kooks because although they had the worst hangovers in the world they'd stare of at it until it disappeared wondering what else more could be out there for themselves to explore.

"It's so peaceful" Hannah smiled moving to sit on Rafe's knee his arms snaking around her waist as she placed her head in the crook of his neck. Skylar blew the fumes of her cigarette from her mouth as she stared off noticing the HMS Pogue boat in the distance her eyes widening, while her body jolted up a little.

"What's wrong with you" Sarah exclaimed noticing the girls sudden action staring at her suspiciously. "Fine clearly just smoked too many" she laughed putting it out aggressively in the ash tray as she tried not to appear bothered or curious as to what they were doing out so early in the morning.

She wondered if Kie had gone back to the Chateau after the dinner party and told them everything about what happened. She realised maybe she'd been a bit of a shitty person because she didn't go back with the girl, she was going to though, until everyone came up to see her with apologies and alcohol.

She knew doing this would put her right back in square one with the pogues, all of them failing to trust her. "Holy shit, is that Beckett Conley" Topper laughed standing up and squinting his eyes slightly to see Skylar's brother stood at the deck where the HMS boat was making out with none other than Kiara Carrera.

"What" Skylar put a dent in her brows shooting up from her chair, shoving Topper out the way harshly so she could get a better view. "Is he insane" Kelce sniggered, finding it hard to believe the Conley boy was with a Pogue out of all the girls he could've had.

"Clearly" Skylar muttered confused as to why her brother had most likely spent the night with her or the pogues and he nor Kiara had bothered to tell her anything. She always thought her and Beckett were close, she told him about every guy she liked and he usually told her about every girl who liked him but this time appeared different. She didn't like it.

"Well you gotta save him Sky" Hannah spoke up putting a supportive although not so supportive arm around the girls waist bringing her in for some sort of hug. "What" the brunette girl shook her head confused as to what Hannah was talking about when she said save him.

"The pogues, they're fucking mental S if you don't get him out of whatever he it is that's he's in, he'll turn into one of them" she shuddered acting as if the group of teenagers Beckett was hanging around with were some sort of serial killers.