𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡, obx

17 ... a good broken record

please don't be a ghost reader, ur comments are the best part of the entire chapter!! thank you <3

nalani walked into the maybank living room after taking a shower, wearing oscar's sweatpants and one of jj's tshirts. she flopped onto the couch next to oscar, stretching her legs out and resting them on top of his lap.

as much as she preferred being with oscar than at home, it made nalani's stomach churn every time she stepped foot inside oscar's house. it was one of the nicest houses on the cut, which wasn't a particularly high bar, but the thing that made her unsettled was knowing what went on inside the walls.

the hurt, the sobs and the trauma. it stained the walls like cigarette smoke, slowly dimming them from the nicest shade of white to a disgusting, rotten yellow colour. it made her sick that good people, not including luke, lived like that. the thought of her best friends having to come back to his face every single day and be cursed to do it until they couldn't anymore made her stomach hurt.

there were people out there who had killed and still lived in wealth. they got to go on everyday and live their lives in luxury while people, who didn't deserve it, lived in horror.

"won't your dad care that you're not at home...two days in a row?" oscar asked, looking over at nalani.

she smiled softly, giggling slightly. "funniest thing you've said ever, actually."

"yeah, realised that after i said it." he nodded, pursing his lips into a thin line. "did drowning feel like flying?"

nalani furrowed her eyebrows, tilting her head to the side slightly. "no...no, it felt like drowning, osc. why would it feel like flying?" she began to laugh, her belly starting to hurt.

"i saw someone on youtube say it felt like flying!" he bickered back, sitting up and hitting her shin gently.

"okay, blondie." she stopped laughing, catching her breath. "no- wait- how do you even believe that?"

"youtube." he shrugged his shoulders. she began to giggle again, so he pushed her legs off of him and stood up. "you're mean, i'm going to bed."

nalani huffed, slumping down in the couch as he walked into the bedroom. as she laid there in the dark, cold living room of the maybank house, she thought about him. how nice he was being, how he held her hand like he never wanted to let go.

it made her stomach twist and churn but in a good way, a way that made her want to do it all over again, even if it meant nearly drowning.

"oh god." she whispered under her breath, her smile quickly fading from her face.

-

"oscar, if you don't tell me what the hell is going on right now-" nalani rushed, trying to keep up with oscar as they frantically walked to meet jj. he had called her during class, getting her detention for a week, but saying it was an emergency and she needed to leave straight away. "are you just skipping biology again?"

"pope got some freaky letter saying he needs to be in charleston by eight pm so some weird guy, related to the captain of the royal merchant, so they can give us some information to get john b back home." oscar spilled out quickly, his words tumbling over each other as he rushed.

nalani's mouth hung open slightly, trying to process what he had just told her. "okay, a lot to unpack there. why pope? i get he's the smartest out of all of us, but if i was going to write a creepy letter like that, i'd send it to jj."

they turned the corner to the place where the ferry set off, spotting jj stood at the entrance waiting for them. he quickly ushered them onto the boat, scolding them for how long they took to get there.