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Not long after Claire and her friends arrived at the Boneyard and set up, the beach started to fill with more tourists, other kids from the Cut and much to their dismay, the Kooks. Claire spent most of the afternoon by herself, partly because she still wasn't much of a party person, and also because her mind was going in circles after today. She figured the alcohol would help, but so far it wasn't doing anything except making it worse.
She also watched her friends with admiration and amusement; John B and JJ were feeding a line of tourists more beer, Pope was – unsuccessfully – hitting on a girl who looked bored out of her mind, and Kie was talking to some guys, probably about astronomy or the environment. It was one of Claire's favourite things about Kie – how she genuinely cared about all the environmental stuff that most people didn't.
"There's my favourite Australian." JJ's voice pulled Claire from her thoughts as he dropped down beside her.
She smiled halfheartedly. "That's me."
"You okay? You're missin' out on the fun."
Claire shrugged. "Just got a lot on my mind."
"Don't we all?" He chuckled. She stifled a laugh and took a swig of her beer.
"I didn't get a chance to thank you for getting me out of the water today."
"Yeah, well...I know how you still feel about it so it was no biggie."
"It felt exactly how the accident happened, you know. Minus the boat flipping over. But the impact, me going over the edge..." Claire trailed off, staring out at the ocean.
The waves crashed against one another and she closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as the salty smell of the water filled her nostrils. From a distance it was beautiful, peaceful and even calming. But being in the water felt like being locked in a cage.
Claustrophobic and suffocating.
"You don't have to talk about it if you're still not ready." JJ said.
Claire turned her head and gave him a small smile in response. They sat in a comfortable silence for a while, before JJ decided it was time to get the tourists even more wasted. As the sun set, and Claire had consumed a bit more alcohol, she ended up getting in a slightly heated discussion over Dylan O'Brien's roles with a girl named Jessica, both girls ranking them from best to worst.
Claire's argument would always be that 'American Assassin'was his best movie and 'Teen Wolf' was his best show. Jess agreed with her on 'Teen Wolf', but claimed his best movie was "the third maze runner movie." But as their conversation started to drift off onto another silly topic, Claire overheard JJ arguing by the keg with Sarah Cameron and her irritating boyfriend Topper.
"C'mon, is it not fancy enough for you?" JJ asked Sarah, referring to the beer he was offering her.
Claire apologised to Jess and slowly made her way over to the three, making eye contact with John B who was heading the same way.
