𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡, obx

05 ... barbecue sauce , orange toothpaste and surfing

they all pulled up to the wreck, climbing out of the twinkie one after another. john b cut the radio, hopping out of the car.

"stealing drones makes you hungry," kiara declared, closing the rusty door of the van behind her. jj followed after her, "what i would do to a beer and shrimp and gritz right now."

"would not be pretty."

the group walked up the ramp into the building, sliding round the tables to find themselves one. they stood at the edge of the room, awkwardly waving at kiara's dad as he glanced over. mr. carrera was nice to nalani but according to jj and john b, he hated pogues so maybe that is why he was nice to her.

"sit down." kiara looked over at her friends, who all exhaled with relif when she said that. they sat down at one of the tables, waiting as kiaras dad brung over the fries.

"barbecue sauce!" nalani snatches the bottle of sauce from the middle of the table, pouring it all over her fries.

oscar gasps, slapping her hand away. "lani! we were meant to share those and you've put barbecue sauce all over them!"

"looks like you're gonna have to learn to love it then." she sticks her tounge out at him, giggling happily.

kiara and john b got up from the tables, dancing along to the rhythm of the music. nalani raised her eyebrows up, laughing at the two of them. oscar used his eyes to point at pope, making nalani advert her gaze up to him. he was staring directly at the two of them dancing, his face full of sadness.

she thought that he could've been jealous of the two of them, but she wasn't so sure. john b and kiara didn't like eachother. she knew that because of the rule that jj always talked about, 'no pogue on pogue macking,' but kiara wasn't technically a pogue. and also, john b and kiara were just friends. they loved eachother in the way that nalani in oscar loved eachother, which was nothing people needed to be jealous about.

"i wish i had a mint chocolate milkshake right now." nalani sighed, dipping her barbecue sauce covered fry in more sauce, before shoving it into her mouth. "shame that they stop doing them at eight o'clock cos they need to clean the machines."

"mint chocolate?" jj furrows his eyebrows, scoffing loudly, trying to draw his eyes away from john b and kiara. "might as well just drink toothpaste."

"oh, you definitely use fruit flavoured toothpaste like a weirdo." she said with a judging tone, nodding her head up and down, "like orange or something."

"he does, that's true." oscar added, using the side of the bowl to try and wipe some of the sauce off of his fry.

"no!" jj hits his brother on the head, "don't expose me like that. besides, we use the same toothpaste."

"yeah, against my will!"

-

nalani slowly walked through her silent house, stepping from panel to panel in the hallway to avoid the floor creaking loudly. she passed wheezie's room, hearing a murmuring of voices coming from it. she pressed her ear up against the door and tried to listen to what they were saying, but she couldn't make it out exactly.

the one thing she was sure of, though, is that it was sarah in there. her stomach started to feel funny, like if she was about to throw up. she didn't know why whenever she saw them talking that it would make her feel like this, it just did.

she rose from where she was sat and headed down the opposite way of the hall to her bedroom, knocking gently on the brass door. "rafe? rafe, can i come in? it's nala." the door slowly creaked open, revealing a drunken rafe on the bed.

"hey, nala." he slurred, inviting her onto the bed after she closed the door. "what's up?"

"not much." she shrugged, leaning onto his shoulder. he looked down at her, waiting for her to continue her sentence, "can i ask you something?"

"mhm."

"why do you think we aren't dads favourite?" nalani glances up at him, her face full of sorrow.

rafe chuckled drunkenly, shrugging his shoulders. "i think...we remind him of mom too much. too badass."

nalani laughed with him, smiling at him at the mention of their mom. "i always thought it was because we realised how much of a dick he is while sarah and wheeze don't."

"it doesn't matter if we are dads favourite," rafe wraps his arms around his little sister, giving her the biggest hug in the world. "you're my favourite."

-

"let's go!" oscar screamed as him, nalani, jj and pope ran into the ocean, heading towards kiara and john b.

they all began to surf together but nalani didn't really know how to surf. she was too young to learn when her mom was around and ward never tried because he didn't want to. rafe would teach her if she asked him to but he was always too high, she didn't trust him being in the water, let alone having control over her out there.

"hey, nales!" john b calls out, "why you just sat there like a lemon?"

"i can't surf." nalani shouts over the sound of the waves, cupping her mouth with her hands.

"c'mere, let me teach you!" he paddles over to her, helping her up on her board. "put your feet apart and hold your arms out and try to balance."

she did as he instructed, trying to balance herself on the board. she fell back a couple of times and slammed against the water, but eventually she found her pace. it took them hours and hours until she finally worked up the courage to do a big wave.

"i'll do that one." she exahled, kicking the water out of her wave until she reached the spot she was meant to be in.

oscar shook his head, "lani! that's gonna be huge and it's dark, you will die!"

she felt the water fall under her feet, so she took a deep breath in and stood up. her eyes were slammed shut but all she could hear around her were loud voices, but to her, she couldn't tell if they were cheering or screaming. when she opened her eyes, she saw all the pogues with bright smiles. that was when she realised she had done it.

john b ran down the shore, picking her up and swinging her around. "you did it, you didn't even fall off!"

"i fell off many of-"

"no, we are being happy here." he ruffled her hair, making him swat his hand away.

-

"you really think it's out there?" pope questioned, swinging back and forth in the hammock. "like, no bullshit?"

"my father thought it was." john b said calmly.

"but do you?"

"after hearing his voice on that tape..." he paused, taking a deep breath in. "i think i do. only one way to find out."

"like, we're gonna find it, y'know?" kiara said, almost in disbelief. "even jj believes."

"oh my god, jj, do you really believe?" oscar mocked, looking up from his hammock to face his brother.

"yeah, totally." jj nodded, "wait, are we talking about four mil?'

"four hundred mil." they all said in unison.

"jinx! double padlock, can't talk till i say your name three times." nalani shot up, nearly falling out of the hammock while doing so. "haha, now you all have to shut up."

"nobody is doing that." oscar shook his head, smiling at his best friend's annoyed face. jj scoffs, "i'm gonna dream about shipwrecks. goodnight, bird!"

vada's vows ...

surprise chapter bc it's officially been one month since i posted this book , and i cannot FATHOM the amount of love it's gotten already. i am literally so grateful because i've never had a book get this much attention. i cannot thank any of u enough!!

i didn't proof read or edit this chapter bc i wanted to get it out quickly but pls tell me if there's any mistakes, wld be appreciated!! but pls be nice :( i tried to make this chapter happy so i hope it is!!

tysm for reading <3