ISSUES II outer banks

sandbar

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."

❥

"Good morning boys", Kie greets us holding a cooler in her eyes, "Good morning, cousin." "What do you have there?", Pope asks. „You know, just some jogurt and carrot sticks." "How about my kind of-", JJ starts but stops himself when Kie throws a can of beer at him. "You're an angel."

I move over to Kie to hug her and grab myself a beer to clink bottles with each of them. John B is driving the boat, Pope and Kie are talking about how his dad wouldn't let him leave. I notice JJ's glance on me so I return it questioningly. "It's hot, you should throw that top and shorts off." With that, his cheeky grin comes back which flatters me. "You mean to satisfy your needs?" I grin back jokingly.

"Hey, you two, would be nice if you stopped flirting around us!", John B interrupts us loudly so the other's heads turn to us. "JJ, I've told you to stop hitting on my cousin! You know the rules." "And again, you guys are literally kooks", JJ sighs heavily. He doesn't look like he would be interested in a discussion with Kie once again.

"Pogues."

"Kooks."

"Pogues."

"Okay, stop it", I interrupt the two of them and grab Kie to my side to talk her, "Kie, you act like I just moved here a few minutes ago. I know JJ, he's just flirting." "I know, it's just.. I feel responsible for you. It didn't quite help that mom and dad told me to not drag you into mischiefs with us."

I pull her into a tight hug. "You're not doing that. I'm old enough to decide what I want to do and all I want is to have fun with my friends. Fortunately, my best friends are a socialist, a smartass, a dumbass and a daredevil." I laugh about their descriptions and she joins me. "Sorry, Iz. I shouldn't freak out about JJ and you flirting. You would tell me if was more." She nods and hugs me again.

❥

"Are you two done now?", John B chuckles watching us. "Done", I reply, "But just to remind you, we're pogues. Get it in your dickheads." I can see that JJ would have loved to argue about that but I shut him up with a serious look.

"Guys, I'm going to do a party trick!", JJ yells excitedly, "Speed up, John B!" He goes to the front of the boat still holding the beer in his hand and puts it above his head so it goes into his mouth as soon as John B speed up the boat. My laugh was short as we suddenly crash. The crash makes me stumble back and fall against the back of the boat. I move my hand to my back which hurts and look around to see if the others are fine. But JJ isn't here anymore. I immediately stand up and hurry back to the front to see where he is.

"JJ, are you okay?", I shout nervously when his head comes out of the water. I ignore the look that the others give me. "I think my heels touched the back of my head." I chuckle, at least he didn't loose his humor. "Girls, are you okay?", John B looks at Kie and I and touches our shoulders caringly so we nod.

"Pope what did you do?" "Sandbar. The chanel changed." "No shit", JJ replies, "Oh hey, I saved the beer!" "Guys, I think there's a boat down there", Pope ignores JJ and looks down the water. "He's right, let's go!"

❥

"That's a Grady-White. I know one of those is like 500Gs easy", JJ says as we go back to the boat after diving for a moment. "Oh my god, that's the boat I saw. You know, when we were surfing yesterday!" "Wait, you were surfing during the storm?", Kie asks concerned. "After an hour of persuading Izzy we did", JJ jokes. "Kie, it's not a big deal", I shrug it off and hope that she stops worrying.

"Wait, do we know whose boat it is?", Pope interrupts us luckily. "No but we are about to find it out", John B says as he is getting the anchor back to the boat. "It's too deep." Before Pope, Kie or I can stop the boys from doing something stupid, JJ pushes John B into the water to dive down. Kie and I just shake our heads.

❥

"Oh my god, that took forever", Kie sighs as soon as John B comes back coughing. "Did you find any dead bodies?", Pope asks. "No, no dead bodies just a motel key", he answers and holds the key up. "A motel key?" "Guys, maybe we should report the wreck to the coast guard. Maybe we'll even get a finders fee", I suggest. Kie and Pope agree with me. "Yeah, and not work all summer. Thanks Agatha", JJ claps.

❥

The guys and I drive back to John B's house and jump into the van immediately to drive to the coast guard. It would be exciting if we got a finders fee. We could throw a party or visit the mainland or just hang out and have something better than old pizza and old bread. We have a lot of ideas what we could do with some money. But when we finally arrive at the coast guard, we had no chance.

"A ton of people here", I comment as we look around for someone we could talk to but no one seems to have time for us. "Yeah, probably because of the hurricane." "Well, that went well." "What now?", I ask John B as he was the one with ideas. "I know how we're going to find the guy who owns the boat", he replies with the key in his hand.