LOVEBOMB, Rafe Cameron

04. discovery.

❝ I've been the archer
I've been the prey
Who could ever leave me, darling?
But who could stay? ❞
-ᵀʰᵉ ᴬʳᶜʰᵉʳ ⁻ ᵀᵃʸˡᵒʳ ˢʷⁱᶠᵗ

04.  𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲.

The heat was oppressive that day, so most people on Figure Eight and The Cut found themselves conserving their energy by restricting their movements. Outside, little summer dress, tank tops and shorts were all you could see as soon as you stepped a foot outside.

    On the way back from Figure Eight, Blair stayed quiet during the entire ride. She was ashamed of wishing she had been given more time to talk with Sarah about Rafe— not only about Rafe, actually— just to catch up about the things she had missed since she decided cut contact with her former friends.

And now she was sitting on the pilot seat of John B's boat, lost in her thoughts. She kept Zoe sat on her lap as she was playing with a small stuffed toy. The young woman had ended up calling her job to say she and her daughter were sick and what they had was probably contagious, she felt bad about it but she had this need to know what was going on down the marsh.

And she was about to get the closure she wanted. With the five teenagers settled in it, the boat was stopped in the middle of the marsh while Kiara checked the scuba tanks.

  "Empty." The girl said, defeated, as she unscrewed the regulator. She grabbed another tank. Stood it up. Clanked. Put the regulator on. "Empty. These are all empty. You took empty tanks."

John B, who sat near her, passed a hand through his hair and sighed. "Well, I—"

Two tanks in a row, Kiara took a third one. Screwed the regulator on once again and the air gauge bounced. "This is a quarter full. That's enough for one of us."

  "I love it when a plan comes together." Pope said with sarcasm.

  "Wonderful, isn't it?" Blair joined him. "Does one of you at least know how to dive?"

Silence. They all stared at each other.

"Nobody?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Kind of a kook sport." JJ shrugged, looking up at the Routledge girl from where he was sitting. "You used to be one of them so if you have any diving notions it's time to confess."

  "Well— I read about it." Pope commented.

  "Great. Pope read about it." The blonde boy acted as if he was applauding. "Someone's going to die."

     "Well at least someone has a bit of knowledge about it. Can you say the same, JJ?" Blair tilted her head.

    "You know— I really love it when you constantly attack me for no reason, Blair." The Maybank boy joked as he nodded his head.

     "Good to know." She grinned.

And as the two teenagers were taunting each other, John B interrupted them, his eyebrows lowered. "You stick the thing in your mouth and breathe. How hard could it be?"

"That's what she said." JJ mumbled.

  "If you come up too fast nitrogen gets in your blood and you get the bends." Pope explained, ignoring his friend's joke.

JJ bent over, holding the metal pole in front of him. "That doesn't seem so bad."

"The bends kill you." He added with a serious expression.