𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐒𝐀𝐃𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒, 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬

THIRTY-FIVE| better late than never

THE Pogues were currently crowded around Heyward's truck, upon the ferry which would get them out of the OBX and towards the mainland. 

JJ is sitting atop the roof of the cab, legs dangling down into the cargo area of the vehicle as he rolls a joint for himself. Eden sits across from him in the truck bed, cross legged, with Kiara and Pope on either side of her—the Carrera perched within the inside of the edge, back facing the ocean while the Heyward stands on the outside of his dad's car, leaning against it with the envelope in his grasp.

"My parents are so paranoid of me being a Pogue like it's the worst thing that could ever happen." Kiara retells the events of what went down when she asked her parents about Charleston—as Isla and Tom had, Anna and Mike had been quick to say no. The family had argued, before Anna admitted to wanting to send Kie off to a boarding school, (Eden's surprised her mother hasn't thought of that one yet).

JJ tries to be reassuring, "Hey, I heard they got good weed at boarding school, though."

"I'm not going to boarding school." the Carrera says bluntly, the wind blowing her curls behind her. "They're going to have to kidnap me, tie me up, and throw me in a van." 

"Well, I say....." JJ's words were muffled by the joint between his lips. He takes a small inhale of the joint and hops off of the truck cab, joint in between his fingers. He offers it out to the girl sitting in the truck bed, Eden taking it with ease. "....we just crumble some herb right now."

"Amen, to that." Eden praises before taking a drag from the joint herself. JJ smiles and lowers himself into the truck bed as well, now sitting across from the Bexley. 

Ignoring the joint being passed around by his friends, Pope looks towards the Carrera girl, "Hey, Kie, have you tried to hit John B. back on that number yet?"

Kiara sighs, "Like, twenty million times."

JJ fixes his hat upon his head while commenting, "That's quite a few times."

"Some random lady at a hotel keeps answering."

Eden shrugged, "He probably stole the phone from that woman, texted us, and gave it back to her. I won't be surprised if we don't hear from him for a while." The Bexley takes another inhale of the joint, tilting her head back as smoke fell from her lips.  She hands the weed to Kiara.

"Well, until we hear from him again, we gotta try and clear his name." the Heyward states. He holds up the letter, "Right now, this letter's our best bet."

"Right. Stay on task." the Maybank confirms, nodding his head. "That's why I love ya, Pope." 

Kiara stands up and walks over to where Pope was leaning against the truck, joint outstretched in her hand as she made eye contact with him, "What Pope are you gonna be today?"

Pope stares at the joint in her hand for a moment before pursing his lips—he's pushing back any sort of desire for the weed and putting the letter and Limbrey first. He shakes his head in denial at Kiara, "I'm good. I'm gonna try to focus."

"Good Pope." Kiara turns back to face her other friends with a slightly annoyed expression.  She takes a seat next to JJ and mutters, "Boring Pope."

"Someone has to stay clean for the benefit of the group." Eden lightly pats Pope on the shoulder—there was no reason for Kiara to call him boring for not wanting to take the joint; whatever high the Heyward had gone through after the runway events was clearly a one time ordeal.  Now he was back to his regular clean, serious and smart self.