Entanglement | jj maybank

tybee

We sail for well over twenty-four hours before we decide we need to head to shore. While we had both been awake for most of it, JJ had bore the brunt of driving because I just didn't have the knowledge he did about boating. We were exhausted and starving; in JJ's haste to skedaddle, he hadn't brought much food for us, so we had rationed what we did have.

JJ and I compare what we see on the navigation screen with the maps that were stowed away in the hold of the boat.

"If I'm reading this right, we're near Tybee Island," I say as I point to a spot on the map. "It's a tourist destination mostly, so there should be a place to dock this thing."

"Okay, that's Georgia, right?" he asks. I nod. "Okay. First official stop for the fugitive and his sidekick is Tybee Island."

I roll my eyes at his joke and look back at the navigation. While I understand GPS well enough, I was pretty clueless when it came to nautical navigation systems. JJ had been trying to teach me as we went along, but it was a lot to take in on top of the fact that I had just run away from home. I didn't regret what I had done, but it was weighing heavily on the mind as we continued to distance ourselves from Kildare Island.

We make it to Tybee Island in the early afternoon. Unsure of what to do with the boat, I pull out my phone and turn it on, hoping we're close enough to shore to get a signal so I can try to look up if there is a public port we can use to dock. My phone goes crazy as soon as it boots up. I have countless missed calls, voicemails, and texts from dad, John B, and our friends. I ignore them and start looking up information for us. To my surprise, I easily find a marina that we can use, so we put in the coordinates and head towards it. I turn my phone back off and look at JJ.

"Well, they officially know I'm missing," I say as I lay my phone on the dash.

"Do you regret leaving with me?" he asks as he steers the boat towards our destination.

"No," I answer honestly.

He gives me a small smile. "Good."

It's warmer here than it is back home, so by the time we dock, we've stripped off our sweatshirts to cool off. We gather our few belongings and JJ hangs the boat keys around his neck before we get off the boat.

We try to look unassuming as we set out on foot into the small tourist town. We decide the first thing we want to do is eat, so we head to the first casual looking restaurant we come upon and head inside. It's a small seafood shack reminiscent of the Wreck, and I instantly feel at home once we're taken to a table. The place is pretty busy, seeing as how it's lunch time, but service is quick, the food is good, the portions are large, and even though we have an obscene amount of cash on us, I'm thankful that the prices are pretty low.

After we finish at the restaurant, we decide to explore a bit and find a place to stay for the night. I'm worried that someone will question us for being so young and traveling alone, but JJ assures me it won't be a problem.

"All I have to do is lay down an extra bill or two above the asking price for a room and tell them to keep the change. It works every time," he says confidently.

"How many times have you done that?" I ask.

"Well, none," he says, "but I've seen it done in movies."

I roll my eyes. "So what you're saying is we should be prepared to sleep on the boat."

"No, it'll work, I promise," he assures me.

We walk around the island a bit, getting a feel for the place and checking everything out to waste some time. It's too early to be able to check into any hotel.