Good Days •Rafe Cameron•

The Tortoise and the Tortoise

The task was simple. Get to the church. Find the cross. Carry it into the van. Take it to Heyward. Get a ton of money. And live happily ever after.
But the tide had came in. And the Twinkie most likely wasn't making it until it was flushed out. But we couldn't wait. What if Limbrey and Rafe came back?
I love Rafe. But he wasn't a person you would particularly want to keep company with. He was malicious and selfish. And if he saw the Pogues. Or me with the Pogues he would go ballistic. And I didn't want to deal with that today.
So here we sat. Stuck in the water. No telling how or when we will get the truck out. "JJ you just had to some John B." I mumbled.
"Oh, so this is my fault!" JJ yelled. "No, I'm not saying it's your fault. But you knew the water was too high and you told him to go anyways!" I snap, crossing my arms over my chest.
"Guys, let's not fight." Kiara sighs. "Excuse me, but I really don't appreciate standing in three feet murky water right now." I say, quietly to myself.
"Maybe we can walk from here?" Pope says, changing the subject. "And what, leave the Twinkie?" John B, says, shaking his head. "The tides coming in."
"So then what are we supposed to do?" Sarah asked. "Not stay here." JJ says, stating the obvious.
"I can take my dad's truck." Kiara says. "Kie are you sure?" John B asked. "How much worse can it get, you know?" She sighs.
"They're already gonna be mad at us both. I mean, Be hasn't been home in nearly two weeks. They kicked me out, so..." She trails off.
"It's been two weeks because I'm mad at Aunt Anna for kicking you out." I sassed .
"Well, we need something to pull her out with. There's a winch at the Château. That's, like two miles." JJ explains.
"Yeah, that's a good idea." Sarah agrees. "Okay, if you're gonna do it, let's go, okay?" John B says. JJ and Kie begin to trudge through the water making their way back up onto dry land.
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"How long does it take to go two miles and back in a car?" Pope rants. "I feel like they're taking a minute. Should I go look for them? Should I go find them and bring them back?" He asked, looking towards the wooded area where JJ and Kiara disappeared into an hour ago.
"I don't know. Give me a sec." John B says. "Damn it! Every time! Why do we got to send JJ and Kiara, the slowest people on earth? Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! This is always happens to us. Like, we're always right there, and then it's bullshit."
I began to drown out Pope's ranting. Even though he was right. JJ and Kiara are the slowest people on earth.
Sarah and I sat on top of the Twinkie's roof, a sliding the dirty water below. I swugh my feet back and forth as I patiently waited for the sound of Mike's truck.
Sarah seemed distracted. She was staring at John B. Like she wanted to tell him something. He met her gaze but quickly pulled away as he pretended to mess with his bandana.
"Do you love John B?" I asked the girl. Sarah whips her head around. She blinked several times before answering. "Of course." She says. "Then why did you break up with him?" I push.
She shrugs her shoulders. "Because...it's complicated. I don't think I was ready. Ready to accept my dad's death. And be being with John B at the time was not a good idea." She explains.
"I mean, it's like you and Rafe. I assume you love him. Right?" She asked. I slowly nod.
"Yeah." My voice is low. "Yeah, I do." I say. "And you consider him your boyfriend?" She continues. "Sometimes." I answered. Sarah gives me a strange look. "Sometimes?" She questioned. "What's that supposed to mean?"
I ran my fingers through my curly hair, before letting out a frustrated sigh. "Okay, it's like this." I start. "Your brother is the most annoying, outrageous, pathetic, and craziest person I have ever met. He literally drives me insane. And half the time I don't even want to be around him. And then there's other times where he's the only one." I say.
"He stabbed you." Sarah says. I look into her eyes. She's worried. "Phoebe...we all worry about you. There's times where you'll go off with Rafe and I think to myself that this might be the last time I see you alive. He tried to drown me. He almost killed me. My own brother. And if Topper wasn't around; he would have succeeded. And if he doesn't care about hurting his own sister then imagine what he'll do to you." She says.
"It's heavy, I know." I say. I put my hand up to my necklace. The one where I put Rafe's ring onto a gold chain.
"Once this is all over, promise me that you'll go to therapy ,Lord knows we all need it." She said. "So you agree with John B?" I asked. "That I need to go back?" I say.
"We all do?" She says. "We've been wanting to tell you for a long time. John B shouldn't have blurted it out like that earlier. But he's right. So promise me, okay?" She asked.
I nod. "I promise."
"Okay, okay." Pope says, making his way over to the Twinkie. John B joins us, too. "So, here's something I think we can do. We can maybe find something to leverage the Twinkie, and you can drive it out." Pope explains.
"Let's do driftwood." John B says. "Yeah, driftwood will work." Pope agrees. The two boys begin to trudge through the water searching for driftwood.
Sarah and I stayed on top of the van. "Hey, Pope!" John B shouts. "Hey." He answers. "Hey, nothing smaller than three feet, all right. Big pieces." John B says. "Gotcha, yeah."
They continued to search for driftwood in the murky water. The water was so brown; you couldn't see what was underneath.
"John B!" Sarah suddenly called out, causing me to whip my head in the direction of the teen. But he wasn't there anymore. Pope ran over to the van. "What?" He asked, in panic.
"I don't see John B-." Sarah is suddenly cut off by John B's screaming. "Help!" He screams.
"Oh, my God!" I shout. Jumping into the water. Sarah follows. "Pope! Help." She exclaims. The blonde reaches into the van; grabbing a long knife.
The three of us make our way to our friend. "Hold on, John B!" Pope says. I trudge through the thick water, but quickly falter once I see the large gator wrapped around John B's body.
My eyes widen in shock. "Guys, it's a gator!" I scream, breaking out of my stupor.
The three of us rush over. The gator began to spin John B around. I didn't know much about animals, but what I have learned from animal planet, was that gators would roll over their prey right before going in for the kill. Hence the term: keel over and die.
Sarah raised her arm before stabbing the gator. She continues to stab the reptile several times.
I was scared, we all were. As Sarah stabbed the animal Pope and I grabbed John B by the shoulders trying to pull him from the gators grip.
The animals skin was hard and slimy. The gator grew tired as blood spilled from its body. He quickly lets go of John B, swimming away.
"You okay, man? Holy shit!" Pope shouts, pulling his friend in for a hug. Sarah takes my hand dragging me back from where the gator once was.
"Go!" Sarah demands. "Get to the Twinkie now!" Pope exclaims. The four of us hop on top of the roof. Pope helps John B first. Sarah and I quickly join the boys.
"JJ was right." I breathed. I was completely out of breath. My clothes were brown from the dirt and my body was soaking wet.
John B lifts his leg onto Sarah's lap. His jeans were torn, revealing a long bloody calf with a huge gash on the side of his leg.
"Jesus." I exclaims. "Sarah examines his wound. "Ow." John B winced as she moved his leg around. "All right, be careful. I'm pretty sure that'll get infected." Pope says .
"Yeah, you're lucky it didn't cut into muscle too much." Sarah says. "Lucky? I got bit by an alligator and my car is underwater. John breathed. His words were short as he laid down in pain.
"Do you have something to wrap it with, to stop the bleeding?" Sarah asked. John B reaches into us jacket pocket pulling out his dad's blue bandana. Sarah looks at the fabric sadly. She slowly takes the bandana in her hand examine the thin cloth.
"Oh, and speak of the fucking devil." Pope says. Exaggerating his words.
Mike's truck pulls up revealing JJ and Kie. The two of them hop out the truck. "Look who it is: the tortoise and the tortoise. Just a couple hours late. Where the hell were you guys?" Pope shouts at the two Pogues.
"Paternal complications." Kiara says, pointing to JJ. "Luke was at the Château." JJ explains. "Luke?" I questioned. "Your father, Luke? Isn't he in jail?" I asked.
"Oh, great! While you were having family time with your pops, John B got bit by a gator!" Pope snaps.
"Like, for real?" JJ says a little too excitedly. "That's not a good thing, JJ!" I sassed. "Does it look like we're joking?" Sarah says, pointing to John B's bloody leg.
"Okay, what the hell happened?" Kiara asked, scrunching up her face.
"WHAT HAPPENED? HE GOT BIT BY A GATOR!" The four of us yell at JJ and Kiara. "I don't know why I'm being yelled at. I put my ass on the line." Kiara argues.
"You're being yelled at because it was 20 minutes!" Pope shouts.
"I was bit by a gator!" John B repeats.
"I stabbed a gator!" Sarah exclaims.
"I had to pull John B from a fucking gators grip!" I screamed.
We all continued to argue with each other going back and forth with how much the last couple of hours sucked.
"SHUT UP!" JJ suddenly yells. The rest of us go silent. "Seriously, guys, I can't take it anymore, all right?" JJ says, looking at us sternly. "Everyone just cut it out for a second." He paused.
JJ leans against a tree running his fingers through his blond hair frustrated. "Look, I just helped my dad leave this island for good. Like, he's not ever coming back. He's straight up like the Spanish. Just "Bon Voyage." JJ says.
That's french, babe." I correct the Pogue. "Don't interrupt me, Phoebe!" JJ shouts. I pull my lips into a thin line; raising my hands up in surrender.
"All we got. And I know for a fact all I got is you guys, okay? You're it. And I've come too close to losing you, all of you. I mean, shit, like you almost drowned." JJ says, gesturing to Kie. "Pope, you were kidnapped. Sarah, you've been shot. Phoebe, you've nearly been stabbed to death. And John B, you were almost dinner for a freaking gator, bro. So, this blaming each other is some Kook-ass bullshit, all right? We don't do that, all right. We're Pogues. We don't do that. Sorry, that's was a lot right now." JJ breathes.
    The six of us are silent for a moment; taking in JJ's speech. Buts it's the silence is shortly outlived. John B, Sarah, Pope and I give the boy a round of applause.
     "Okay, JJ." I exclaim. "Give it to us straight." I complimented, clapping my hands together. "I've gotta be honest. That was the best freaking speech you have ever given." John B praised. "Also, you should think about, like, a Rosetta Stone, because your Spanish and French are flip-flopped." John B adds.
      "We should Bon Voyage out of here." Sarah smiles, pumping her fist up in the air.
    I jump down from the Twinkie into the water before quickly joining JJ and Kie on the dry land. "All right, let's get that winch onto the truck."