𝐌𝐈𝐃𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 | 𝐉𝐉 [edited]

005

Riley had slipped out of the house early the next morning in order to avoid her sister, who she thought might actually want to kill her, and her mother, who she thought might actually want to ground her.

She made her way to the Cameron's, not even bothering to go inside the house as she knew Sarah had been sleeping in the 'My Druthers,' their family boat, since it was the only place with air conditioning. Somehow, even in their full kookiness, they still hadn't managed to get the backup generators working yet.

She and Sarah had been friends for about a year now. When the twins first enrolled in Kildare academy Riley had stayed close to Topper and her sister became friends with Sarah. The two girls became inseparable, and Riley had always kept her distance. That was until she had been invited to Sarah's birthday party last year and Kiara didn't.

She'd look back on that party and say it was the start of her current, beloved friend group.

Kiara would look back on that night and say that was when she had decided she'd hate her sister, and Sarah Cameron, forever.

On the boat, Riley climbed to the top level to find Sarah fast asleep on the couch. She picked up a pillow and threw it at the girl's face. Sarah groaned and rubbed at her eyes. "Wheezie?"

"Riley," she clarified, sitting in the small empty corner of the couch that Sarah's body hadn't reached.

"What's up?" Sarah asked, her voice hoarse from hours of sleep. The girl took a minute to stretch out, not avoiding kicking her feet into Riley's legs and then pushing her body up to sit.

"Shit went down last night," Riley said, looking down at her hands as she twisted the rings on her fingers, an anxious habit she had adopted some years ago and never gotten rid of.

"Yeah, I know that was  crazy. I mean JJ pulling a gun on Topper and-"

"No," Riley interrupted. "I mean shit went down after that shit went down."

"What?"

"Between me and Kiara." She paused for a moment, biting her lip, deciding whether or not she wanted to expose her biggest secret for the second time in less than 24 hours. "Listen I gotta tell you something before you hear it from someone else. It's about-"

Just then the girls heard some movement in the lower deck, causing them to snap their attention toward the noise and away from the conversation. "My family wouldn't be up at this hour," Sarah said.

"Should we..." Riley began to ask.

"Let's check," Sarah suggested and both the girls hurried off the couch and down the stairs leading to the lower deck. "Oh," the girl scoffed, "hey."

John B, with two large duffle bags slung over his shoulders, was clearly trying to tiptoe across the deck and to his boat which he had tied to the side of the Druthers. Noticing both the girls he threw his head back with a sigh, tightly screwing his eyes shut and clenching his jaw.

"Are you stalking us? Plotting your revenge?" Sarah asked mockingly.

"Yeah. Why don't you just tell your daddy I blew the bilge on the Druthers?" He brushed past the girls, continuing to walk towards his boat. "Everything's good to go. Just toppin' off these tanks."

The girls exchanged skeptical glances before following the boy where he began to load the bags onto his boat.

"Hey, you okay?" Riley teased, looking at Sarah with a smile as to continue her questioning.

"Yeah that eye of yours looks really gnarly," she said.

"You know what," John B said, glancing between the two of them. "You can tell Topper he won the first round. I'll get him the next time."

"Right, so now war breaks out, is that it?" Riley said.

"A reign of terror on this island?" Sarah added.

"Wars have been started for less," John B shrugged, hopping onto his boat and moving towards the rope that he'd tied to the Druthers.

"Right," Riley rolled her eyes. "Can we ever drop this whole Pogues versus Kooks thing?"

"What, so you and your sister can finally get along?"

"Oh fuck you John B," Riley scoffed.

John B turned around at that moment to face the girl, his eyes suddenly lit up and a smile played on his lips as if he had just thought of the most brilliant idea. "Fuck me?" John B said, a laugh escaping his mouth. "Or... fuck JJ?"

Riley froze at his words. How naive she had been to think Kiara might actually want to keep the information she used against her a secret. Clearly, there were no secrets amongst Pogue's... except for this one for the past three months. Now it seemed like it was game for anyone to use against one another.

Riley narrowed her eyes at the boy who was still stupidly smiling at her. She knew he could tell how much she had loathed hearing those words.

"JJ?" Sarah said cluelessly before turning to face the girl. "What is he talking about?" Riley closed her eyes and tried to take a deep breath, realizing that this entire interaction was going to be relayed back to the rest of the Pogues.

"Oh," John B said, letting out another chuckle. "Oh, this is great." He continued to laugh, untying the boat from the Druthers.

"This rivalry is just so stupid," Sarah said, ignoring the conversation she was clearly missing information about.

John B let a mocking laugh escape from his lips before leaning in toward Sarah's face with a smile playing on his lips. "It's easy to say that when you're a Kook."The girls watched as John B pulled away from the dock, the smirk still on his face as if he'd made some sort of point. "I'll give JJ your warmest regards!" He yelled out to Riley.

Sarah and her exchanged glances once again before both holding up a salute and then their middle fingers, a hand motion they'd recently adopted and found to be hilarious.

"What was he talking about?" Sarah turned to Riley. "What happened with JJ?"

"You're really not gonna like what I have to say," Riley groaned. "Especially after that interaction with that douchebag."