high tide (J.M)

less obvious

"We have a safety meeting.
Attendance mandatory." John B called in a funny voice before mimicking the sound of static.

"I can't. My pop's got me on lockdown." Pope groaned.

"Come on, man."

"Your dad's a pussy. Over." JJ joked.

"Oh, I heard that, you little bastard." Heyward responded, causing Arlo to giggle at the exchange.

"We need your son." John B grinned.

"Yeah, and island rules. Day after a hurricane's a free day."

"Who made that up?"

"Uh... Pentagon, I think. We have security clearance." This made Arlo shake her head at the boys.

"I have a card."

"Think I'm stupid?" Heyward said.

"No sir, absolutely not." Arlo called back and JJ smiled at her

"I'll do it tomorrow. I promise. Tomorrow." Pope said trying to negotiate.

"You think-- No, no. Hell no. You doin' it right now."

"Get in the boat." John b whisper yelled

"Make a run for it." JJ joined.

"Boy, if you get in that boat-" Heyward was cut off by Pope hopping on the boat.

"How does that feel?" JJ taunted now.

"Go, go, go."

"Bring your ass back up here."

"I promise I'll do it tomorrow, Dad." Pope said making Arlo shake her head.

"Whoo!"

""You gonna clean shrimp, clean fish." Heyward yelled, obviously pissed.

"Love you, Pops." Pope grinned

"You'll clean your dirty-ass room!"

"We'll bring him back in one piece."

"Goodbye Heyward?" Arlo smiled and waved.

"And I don't like your friends!" Heyward added making Arlo frown, but only for a moment.

The boys talked amongst themselves as they headed towards Kiara's.

JJ smirked as he looked Arlo up and down. She didn't notice though, she was two busy admiring the abundance of fish that had been brought in by the storm.

"JJ, could you be less obvious about checking Arlo out." Pope said giving his friend a look.

"Yeah, stop or she won't hang out with us again." John b pitched in.

"On second thought, making it a little more obvious JJ." Pope said pointing to him.

"I don't see the problem with Arlo." John B shrugged.

"Are you kidding, two months ago you thought she was creepy. A week ago you were mad because you thought she knew about your dad's disappearance. Less than 24 hours ago we saw her burying something during and oncoming hurricane." Pope whisper yelled while making a panicked face.

Arlo had heard what Pope said and although she probably should have been sad or concerned she really wasn't. She would spend this day with them and never have to deal with them again.

"Just shut up Pope. Let the hot and mysterious girl be." JJ said, Arlo rolled her eyes.

As they picked up Kiara the group exchanged witty comments but Arlo simply smiled and waved to the girl.

"Hey Arlo." Kiara smiled before passing out beers.

JJ stood two feet away from Arlo and Kie plopped between the two, beside Pope, handing them all a beer.

Arlo gave the girl a thank you. She took slow sips as the group conversed.

And for a short while she enjoyed herself. They did a little swimming and the boys could barely keep their eyes off of her, which made Kiara laugh.

But then JJ stood beside Arlo at the front of the boat, downing a beer as Pope sped up.

All of the sudden the boat stopped and Arlo flew back and into the water. Somehow the girl had managed to hit her head on the boat.

Time slowed as Arlo was in the water. She could faintly hear something from above the surface. Suddenly JJ grabbed her arm pulled her up to the surface.

"Are you okay guys?" John B said.

"Pope is a fucking idiot." She groaned and JJ laughed.

Arlo was too busy shaking the water out of her ears to notice the group realizing there was about. But them jumping in and causing water to splash in her eyes was surely a wake-up call.

She dove under the water and tried to ignore the way her eyes stung. There was most definitely a boat.

The girl went the furthest down out of the group.

Just as she came above the surface she could hear JJ say, "That's a promo rig."

"Yeah. That's the boat I saw when I surfed the surge." John B spoke up as they all climbed back on the boat.

"Maybe it hit the jetty or something."

"You surfed the surge?" Kiara said dumbfounded

"Yeah."

"That's my boy. Pogue style." JJ said as he smirked proudly at John B.

"What the heck?" Kiara said clearly annoyed by her friends reckless decisions.

"Wait, wait. Do we know whose boat that is?"

"No, but we're about to find out." John B responded grabbing an anchor.

"Dude, it's too deep." JJ said to his friend.

"Oh, for the weak and feeble, JJ."


"Well, I'm not resuscitating you. I'm just making that clear up front." JJ crossed his arms for a moment.

"That's fine." John B responded with a small yet playful smile.

"John B." Kiara's voice was full of concern now.

"What?"

The girl gave him a small kiss on the cheek before a few more sentences were exchanged and John B dove into deep waters.

Although Arlo didn't know it's reasoning, the girl couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right...