𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐍𝐄𝐖, ʲʲ ᵐᵃʸᵇᵃⁿᵏ

xvi. fantasy or reality

SOMETHING NEW
Chapter Sixteen: Fantasy or Reality

"POPE, WE'RE NOT stealing the drone, we're borrowing it." John B told the boy again.

Ava watched as JJ rolled a joint, ready to smoke and get this done. "Humans are the only animal that can't tell fantasy from reality." Pope said, looking out the window with his arms crossed.

"Um, are we supposed to know what that means?" Ava asked. "Kinda sounds like when you're having a dream you know? But like you don't know it's a dream until you're awake."

Kie turned around to look back at the girl. "Are you already stoned?"

Ava clicked her tongue. "Nope."

"Did you come up with that?" John B questioned Pope.

"No, Albert Bernstein came up with that but it applies to this whole treasure hunting thing." Pope replied.

"Oh."

"So which is it?" Pope asked. "Fantasy or reality?"

JJ looked over at him. "Why are you so weird Pope?"

"It's fantasy, but possible reality." Kie shrugged sending a small smile toward John B.

"Reality." John B nodded.

JJ hummed in thought. "Virtual reality." He put the joint in his mouth, ready to light it when Pope took it from his lips and flicked it to the back of the van.

"Keep the signal clear." He told JJ.

"Surrealism." Ava said.

"What?"

"Not like the art term but, you know, belief in superior reality." Her friends all looked at her like she was crazy, except for JJ, he liked it when she would talk about things like this, it showed how smart she really was. "I mean sure, the Surrealist Manifesto was technically a movement for artists and writers who saw deeper meanings and worked with elements of reality of certain forms that were neglected associations of thought, for example seeing The Cut as Figure Eight. No one does that right? Why? Because that's fantasy, or as I said before superior reality." They had dumbfounded looks on their faces. "Wow, sorry for letting you know I have a brain."

JJ smiled as he admired her while she looked out the window.

___

They pulled up to the salvage yard Ava and Kie hopping out to go talk to whoever was working about a flat tire on their boat. John B turned and leaned out of the window. "Hey, don't worry, you guys got this." Ava smirked as Kie shook her head.

"It's not us that I'm worried about." She pointed to the back of the van were Pope and JJ were arguing. Kie grabbed Ava's arm before pulling her away. They walked up to the gate, Kie was waving. "Hello? Excuse me?" She called loudly.

A bald security guard made his way to the gate. "Can I help you ladies?" He asked.

"Hey." Ava greeted with a smile. "We got a flat, we were wondering if you could help us out with it?" She kept her tone light, her smile never faltering, the girl knew her way around conning people when need be.

"Yeah." The guard nodded with no hesitation before running back to his office to grab some tools to help the girls.

Ava high fived Kie who smirked. "Too easy."

"Way too easy." She laughed. The man returned with a air compressor, they walked him over the the HMS POUGE. "It's just back here." Ava pointed to the tire they had intentionally flattened.

"It must of been a slow leak or something." Kie suggested with a shrug.

The man nodded. "Probably just sitting in the yard too long?" The man guessed.

"Yeah." The girls agreed.

"Yeah, I got this." He began working on filling up the tire. Ava watched as the boys were making a run for it after getting through the gate before it closed.

After a minute Ava's fingers began to nervously tap against her leg. "Got it?" She asked the man who shook his head.

Another minute slowly passed when a dog started barking. "Do you hear that?" The man asked.

"Hear what?" Kie questioned.

"I don't hear anything."

"Oh, Tebow's got somethin'." The man stood looking out toward the yard.

Ava cussed under her breath. "It's probably just a raccoon or something." She quickly muttered, hoping it was good enough as the dog continued to bark. "Nothin'to worry about." Kie slowly made her way to the other side of the boat, the man was quick to notice. He stood up, compressor in hand as he followed her. "Hey, hey. Woah man, you might wanna leave her-"

Ava's words were completely ignored as the man caught Kie releasing air from the other tire. "What are you doing?"

Kie looked up, behind the man Ava mouthed 'Sorry.' Kie bit her lip. "Uh, this one looks a little low too." The barking continue, that's when the man started running. "Wait! Wait!" She shouted. "Oh shit, come on we gotta go."

"What? No, we can't leave the boys." Ava argued as Kie climbed into her car.

"Ava, come on, they'll be fine." She insisted, starting the engine.

Ava shook her head. "I can't, just go." Kie cussed, before nodding and driving away. Ava closed her eyes, running her hands through her hair as she waited. It took five minutes until JJ showed up. Ava ran over to him and hugged him. "I thought you got attacked by that dog, or got caught or something."

He laughed hugging her back. "Well I did get caught but I got out of it. Told Bobby I had to grab something for my dad, or he'd wail on me again. Believed it and let me go."

Ava pulled away looking up at JJ. "J-"

" huh-uh. No, don't do that." He brought his hand to her face, his thumb brushing over the faded bruise that was now a shade of yellow. "Come on, Ava. I don't want you of all people to pity me."

"No, J, I'm not pitying you. I just, I know you hate talking about that-"

"Come on." He grabbed her hand and pulled her down the road as they made their way to The Chateau to meet up with the rest of the crew.

___

A/N

softies amirite?