what now? | outerbanks

• nineteen •

/PRESENT DAY/
Cleo

    "Good morning, baby," Pope says to me as I groggily open my eyes, the sunlight instantly making me shut them again.
    "Too early," I whine, rolling over to face the wall, still in the boy's warm embrace.
    "Nuh-uh. We said we would open shop; we gotta get up and out." The boy flings the covers off of us, and I wince at the cold air on my legs. We're nearing the end of our first full week of the shop, and everything is going perfectly. Perfect enough for us Pogues, at least.
    "Fine," I say, getting out of bed and putting on yesterday's pants. As I grab a tank top from the drawer I had taken over in Pope's tidy room, he opens his phone and makes a humming sound.
    "Hm. Might want to bring a jacket for the boat ride over; might be a little chilly." It's late September, nearing the opening of October, and the air is getting much crisper. We clean ourselves enough to go to work and leave on the new HMS Pogue, leaving with sweet farewells to Mr. and Mrs. Heyward.

    "Cleo!" I hear a sweet voice I only know as Sarah's exclaim as we pull nearer to the dock. She bounds down the creaky wooden planks and helps Pope tie off the boat, securing it with a tight pull of the rope. "I missed you!" Her sugary demeanor is refreshing, and I accept her embrace into a hug, one that lasts a little longer than usual.
    "I was only gone a day," I tell the girl, remembering all the work I helped Heyward with yesterday.
    "Yeah, and for a whole day, there were more boys than girls. Yuck, it was totally no fun!" She twirls her hair around one finger as she walks back to the shop, leading me there as well. "We just got a new shipment of tomato seeds, so I woke up early to plant them. I set up shop for you guys since I was already up. Oh, and there's a pot of coffee upstairs!" She calls as she disappears into her and John B.'s room, the door closing with a slam. She returns a few minutes later, having changed from her too-big pajamas into short jean shorts and a bikini top: her typical uniform.
    "Sarah, it's almost October; you might-" Pope tries to speak, but the blond cuts him off with the raise of her hand. She finishes her sentence.
    "Might get cold?" She finishes with the raise of her eyebrows. She turns around and rummages in one of many cardboard boxes. Her words are patchy as she struggles with the contents of the box, "I thought you would say that, smarty-pants, so..."
    She finally gets what she was trying to find in the box, and turns around quickly to face us, her face lit with amusement. "I got us these! 100 in supply, first come, first serve." Sarah holds up a sweatshirt with our store logo on it. It's navy blue, and the words are white and slightly weathered for a more vintage look. It's sort of wrinkled from being in the box.
    "No way! Surf shop merch?!" I match the girl's excitement as I walk over to feel the item, Pope not far behind me.
    "Sarah, this is sick!" He says, his voice cracking a little in excitement.
    "I know! They just came in last night. I'm gonna start getting them hung up on hangers to put in the front racks," she speaks, following her words into a back room we keep extra supplies in. "If you want, you can turn the open light on a little early. John B. said JJ should be back soon with some fish and bait."
    "How 'bout a pot-a gumbo today, eh? Bring in all the hungry bogies?" I ask for confirmation. We don't make big meals like this every day for sale, but every now and then I take the extra time for the extra profit.
    John B. rattles out of their room and ruffles his messy hair. "Sounds good to me," he says, walking over to Sarah and kissing her on the lips.
    "No PDA at work!" Pope calls over to them, and John B. breaks his kiss with Sarah to retort the insult.
    "Yeah, sure. It's always no macking until you're the one getting macked on, wrench-dick."
    "He's got a point, pipe," I say to the boy, kissing him lightly on the lips before I start gathering ingredients for the time-consuming soup.
    It's a recipe I know well, one that Terrance taught me overseas while on the way to multiple job sites. Of course, it's a lot more difficult to make on a boat like that with such limited supplies, but here? Here, I go all out. Every seasoning you could imagine, all of the add-ins of your dreams, ensuring good and everything right. There is nothing better than a pot of my gumbo.

It's been almost an hour and two customers since we've opened for the day, and JJ is finally back with his load of fish and bait. He walks in, announcing himself, "I'm home!" He calls, throwing his many sacks into the new ice cooler. Now he can fit much more than before.
"Hey, man." Pope walks over to the salty blonde and gives him a firm hand shake, complete with a loving pat on the back. I've never seen two friends so brotherly, and their relationship warms my heart.
Sarah comes down the stairs and into the main room upon hearing the boy arrive, asking breathlessly as she struggles to get the back onto her right earring, "Do you know where Kie is?"
"No clue," the boy mumbles, not bothering to meet either of our eyes. I look over to the girl, and we share a confused look at the newly apparent tension.
"You haven't talked to her? I know she went to spend a couple of days with her parents, but she should definitely be back by now; she doesn't like them that much." I laugh as I talk, trying to ease the sudden tension.
"Said I don't know. I don't." The boy slams a brick of ice into the cooler, covering the fresh fish.
"What is this? What's going on?" She asks him shamelessly. I'm wondering the same thing, but I don't feel in the right spot to confront him like that. Sarah, on the other hand, is fearless and will say anything to him, feeling open in their blood-like relationship.
"Nothing, Sarah. Nothing's going on." He looks at the girl, and I notice red in his eyes. I can tell she notices it too. The strange coloring is accompanied by a certain huskiness in his voice, one that we all know well.
"JJ, are you high? It's, like, eight in the morning." She throws her hands to her sides as she walks past the boy angrily and grabs a pair of keys. "Screw this, I'm gonna go find her."
"Don't look too hard!" He calls after her, and I roll my eyes at his plain rudeness.
Pope leaves my side at the cash register and walks towards JJ, pulling him up the stairs of the building, already scolding him before they make it anywhere.
"You're coming with me. You need a real talking to."
I can't make out any other words, but I can tell Pope is not happy with the boy, and I don't blame him. Not that JJ is the friendliest person at all times, but acting like this towards Kie, towards his girl, is totally out of character.
"What's that all about?" John B. asks, returning from helping a young girl fill her dad's boat up with gas.
"I don't know; something weird's going on. JJ won't talk about Kie, and she still hasn't come back from her parents'. Seems like they got into a pretty big tussle, them."