riptide- outer banks

106 | the search

〰⋅〰⋅〰

Kiara Carrera and Logan Cameron were never supposed to be friends. Cut from the same cloth, both wanting to be something more than the life they'd been told to live, but not seemingly able to shake their roots. They'd lived with the same ache, the same feeling of never being enough. The fear of disappointing their parents simply by being who they were. Never really fitting in, a foot in both worlds, they were the same. That had bonded them.

Despite being the least obvious friendship to come out of Poguelandia and everything that had happened since the summer it'd all began, they made sense. Kie saw through the constructed version of Logan that the world expected of him. And Logan saw through the pain she tried so hard to hide— the loneliness, the frustration, and the hurt caused by always being misunderstood. In some way, they loved each other. In the midst of his feelings for Kori, in the midst of her parents losing all trust in her, they'd been there for one another. And they continued to show up for each other. Every single day.

Logan paused what he was doing to wipe a bead of sweat from off his forehead. Then he was smiling. It was small, but here he was, weeding with a smile on his face. "Do you ever think about how weird it is?"

Kie glanced up at him.

"That you and me are friends?"

At that, she smiled, a soft chuckle sounding from her lips. "All the time. I mean, you're a Cameron. And back then, that meant war. I hated your family because of what Sarah had done. She made everyone think I was this crazy kook that lost her mind." She paused, brow raising at him. "I mean, before Poguelandia, we'd hardly held a conversation. And now you're—"

She shrugged.

"You're one of my favorite people."

Logan smiled, genuine and warm. "Hey, right back at ya. You were the first out of the group to accept me." He paused, decidedly bringing his spade back to the spot of earth he'd been working with. "I think that that island changed everything. I mean, it stripped all of us down. No names, no status, no expectations. There was room to just...be."

Kiara nodded. "It's kind of funny. Pope, John B, JJ— they've always been my best friends. But there's always been something. A weird energy, a vibe— call it what you want. I just feel like I've never had a guy best friend where there isn't any of that. And there isn't with you. You're just...you...and I didn't realize before, but that's what I was missing. Someone I could talk to about anything who I know would show up and just listen." She paused. "Also, thanks for defending me...with Rafe."

One side of his mouth curled up as his gaze shifted back down to the dirt. "We have survived a shipwreck, a plane crash, your cooking—"

"Hey!" She exclaimed, not hesitating to chuck a weed at him.

Logan wasn't able to dodge fast enough, letting out a laugh as it hit his neck and fell to the ground. "Look, I'm just saying, if we made it through all that crazy shit, I think we could get through anything. And that you can't get rid of me."

Kie exhaled, head tilting. "Well, shit."

"Oh, whatever. Like you'd want to."

She laughed, head beginning to shake as she returned to the task at hand. Just as her fingertips grazed the weed she'd spotted, the sound of footsteps on rickety wood echoed softly through the air. Both of them lifted their heads, turning in the direction of the dock to see JJ and Kori coming towards them.

Standing, the two of them could immediately see that something was wrong. That the two Maybanks hadn't just 'run an errand.' If they had, they wouldn't look like they'd just lost everything. They wouldn't look like they'd just had something precious taken from them.