CRUEL SUMMER ~ Rafe Cameron

𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞

[...]

"That's not gold." I say disappointed when Kie hands us some sort of envelope. "Holy shit." John B responds looking at it, "This is from my dad."
"Code red. Code red. Square groupers! Square groupers!" JJ says when a car drives near us. "It's the guys who robbed your house." JJ adds when we run away to hide. "Turn your light off, man!" Pope yells at John B. "Do you think it's them?" Kie asks. "Homie's got a gun." I tell them. "Screw this." Kie says while we start to run away.

"Kids are gettin' weirder every year." One of the maintainers who were behind us says.

We arrived at John B's house. While John B opens the envelope, JJ gags because he ate bread that has literal molds on it. John B opens the envelope and pulls out a kind of map, "Holy shit." "Oh. X marks the spot." I say pointing at the map. "Wait, there's something else in here." John B adds. "What's that?" JJ asks. "It's a tape recorder, dumbass." I respond. It had a message from big John on it for John B.

Later that evening we were by the water. "How much was it again?" JJ asks. "Five hundred mil." John B answers. "All right, let's talk the split. Now, before we say 'evenly', may I remind you that I'm the only one that can properly defend us from those groupers who were after us." JJ continues pulling up the gun.

"You haven't trained. You've done zero training." Pope tells him. "—YouTube, bro! That's atleast a five percent bump right there." JJ says. "You haven't—" Pope tries to say but JJ interrupts him again, "Any objections? Didn't think so." He says but we all clearly raise our hands.

"I didn't hear any, so..." He says shrugging his shoulders. "What are you gonna do with your 100 mil, Pope?" Kie asks him. "Pay for college in advance. And also textbooks. Those are expensive." He answers.

"What about you, Mads and Kie?" JJ asks us. "Yeah, what do socialists do when they're rich?" Pope adds. We chuckle, "I just wanna make a double album. About OBX, the Pogues." Kie responds. They all turn to me right now. "Oh— Uhm.. I'll buy myself my own big ass boat, you know where we could spend time on with each other." I say.

"That's what I mean, people who are already rich, don't need anything else." JJ responds and I just roll my eyes. "I know what I'll do." JJ continues, "I'm gonna get a big ass house on Figure Eight and go full Kook." "You're gonna go full Kook?" I raise my eyebrows. "Yep. Gonna get a marble statue of myself, and then I'm gonna get a koi pond." "I'm never visiting." Kie laughs.

"What are you gonna do JB?" Pope asks him and we all turn to him. "To going full Kooks." He answers. We laugh, "To going full Kook!" We all say and toast.

Next morning. Us Kooks were sent to pick up trash at the beach. So me, Topper and Sarah hop on Topper's boat to leave. "I hate that mom made us do this." I sigh. "Oh, come on Mads. It's not gonna end you." Topper says.

On the way we pass my friends. "Hi, guys." I say when I see them. Kie gives me a questioning look and I just shrug my shoulders. "I'll see you guys later." I tell them as they sail by us. "You don't have to act like you don't see us, bitch." Kie yells at Sarah.

We arrive at the beach and put our gloves on, "You should've heard how John B talked to me. That kid's got a mouth on him!" Sarah says. "He thought you ratted him out, Sarah." I tell her. "Well, he showed his true colors, Sarah." Topper adds and I look at him. "He was so rude." Sarah continues and at this point I was done talking about this so I walk away from them.