protect you / jiara ff

-1-

JJ's POV

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It's been a week since John B and Sarah disappeared. My best friend. Gone just like that. I still want to punch Shoupe. It was all his fault. And the stupid SBI Agent's. Because of them my best friend is gone. They say that they're dead, but I'll only believe that when I see bodies. All I've been doing for the past week is hanging out at John B's house and smoking weed. I can't go back home and face my dad, not after everything that has happened between us over the last few weeks. And I definitely can't be sober right now. 

"Here you go", Kie says and hands me a sandwich. She's been providing us all with food from the The Wreck, since we were neither in the mood to work, nor would anybody want us working for them right now. I take another hit of my juul before taking the sandwich out of her hand and starting to unwrap it. "Thanks", I mumble and take a bite. "Do you have a shift tomorrow?", I ask her. "Yeah. My dad needs all the help he can get right now. I have to be there at 8. I'll probably be back around 4", she answers. Since the power has been back on and the ferries are allowed to drive again, there's been a lot of tourists. Kie's dad gave her a week to process everything, that week was over now. When she told us that her dad wanted her to work again after only a week, I wanted to beat him up. But I get it, with the tourists coming back, he needs her help. Also, someone should at least work for the food we're eating, if we're already not paying for it. I would be ready to do Kie's work in the blink of an eye if that meant that she didn't have to work and would get more time to process everything, but I don't think her dad necessarily wants me there. He never understood why Kie is hanging out with us. I can't blame him. He wants to protect her. I once promised him that I would always keep her safe. That we all would. But in this past week I realized that I can't. I may be able to protect her if she ever gets attacked, but I can't protect her from the pain she is feeling right now. Losing not only John B, one of her closest friends for years, but also Sarah, who was her best friend for a year, and now that they finally made up it felt like their friendship never broke. Against my expectations, I actually missed Sarah as well. We may not have been best friends, but she made John B happy. And she was pretty chill if you got to know her.

"When did Pope say he was coming?", Kie asks. "I think he wanted to be here for dinner", I say. I turn my head and look at the clock that is hanging above the kitchen door. 4.30pm. "He's probably gonna be here in about 2 hours", I add. Kie sighs. "Wanna go swimming?", she asks. I look at her. "Really?", I ask, wondering why she would think I actually want to get up and move. "Oh come ooon", she says before jumping down from the window sill we are sitting on. She turns around and looks at me: "We've only been sitting around for a week straight. My whole body is crying out to me to finally move more than a few steps to the fridge and back". She reaches out for my hand, waiting for me to finally give in. I sigh before jumping down as well and taking her hand. She drags me down to the jetty where the HMS Pogue is sitting in the water. It hasn't been used in quite some time. I jump in and take Kie's hand to help her in. I start the motor and we drive a bit before settling in a place. I let down the anchor before sitting down next to Kie on the front of the boat. 

We both look out at the ocean, in our thoughts. I can't help but look over at Kie. The one thing that hasn't changed in the past weeks is that she is beautiful. Sometimes in this past week this was the one thing I could rely on to not change. It may sound strange, but I needed something. Some kind of anchor, something that I knew wouldn't change, so I could stay sane. And since every aspect of my life besides that did a full 180 and my life completely turned around, this was something that was able to keep me grounded for some reason. Kie was generally a big help this past week. I may not want to admit it, but of course I'm going fucking insane. I just lost my best friend. And on top of that I have about a hundred other problems that are still waiting to be dealt with. Facing my dad, my restitution (yes I know I'm a dumbass for spending that money on the cats ass and a disco ball), not having work, not knowing if the kooks are actually gonna leave us alone now, the list goes on and on.

"You okay?", Kie asks me, which gets me out of my thoughts and makes me realize that I've been staring at her this whole time. "Uhh yeah! Sorry, was just lost in my thoughts", I answer quickly, hoping she believes me that I wasn't just staring at her. "I could tell", she says, smiling lightly. We sit there for a while and Kie goes for a quick swim, until the sun starts going down. "We should probably head back, Pope is gonna be here soon", I say, getting up and fetching the anchor before driving the boat back to John B's house.

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Hey everybody, I know this chapter is kinda boring and I'm so sorry, I promise it gets better, I just needed some kind of introduction :)